8: Chapter 8 Don't pry, didn't I tell you that?

When Pu Huai walked into the discussion hall, the sky had already grown mostly dark.

No candles were lit inside the hall, but the luminous stones embedded in the four walls illuminated the entire grand hall brightly. The light was cold and white, resembling a layer of thin frost spread across the floor.

Seven people sat cross-legged on both sides of the long table. Sect Master Shen Du sat at the head, his hair and beard grey-white. He wore a somewhat old cyan robe loosely, with his sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing two sections of lean yet stout-jointed wrists.

He was flipping through the roster for today's evaluation, and when he turned to a certain page, his fingers paused.

Six Elders sat separately on both sides.

Elder Liu sat in the third position on the left, eyes closed, breathing evenly and deeply. The remaining few held teacups and conversed in low voices, but upon hearing Pu Huai's footsteps, their voices faded.

"Elder Pu has worked hard." Sect Master Shen Du raised his head, "How was today's evaluation? Were there any talents?"

Pu Huai performed a bow and took his seat at the end of the long table. The light fell on his face, illuminating his eyes with exceptional stillness.

"Five people got full marks in Realm, and three people got full marks in actual combat."

"Three?" Elder Zhao, sitting on the right, put down his teacup, "That child from the Wen Family counts as one, who are the other two?"

"Tu Ziguan, the fifth of the Tu Family, at the Seventh Pulse.

However, this child is suspected of taking shortcuts, so some points were temporarily withheld."

Elder Zhao acknowledged this with a hum and asked no further.

Wen Yushu was Wen Heng's grandson with an Eighth Pulse foundation, so getting full marks was expected by everyone. For Tu Ziguan at the Seventh Pulse to achieve full marks in actual combat could be considered an unexpected pleasant surprise; after all, every year there were always a few Disciples who performed exceptionally well in combat.

"Who is the other one with full marks in actual combat?" Sect Master Shen Du asked.

Pu Huai paused for half a breath.

"Xie Feng."

Elder Liu's eyelids twitched, but he did not open them.

"Xie Feng?" Elder Zhao frowned, "The one from Xie Tianxiong's family? The one who has opened only one pulse?"

"It is him."

"What is his Realm?"

"First Realm, First Layer."

"First Realm, First Layer, and full marks in actual combat?" Elder Zhao's voice rose by half an inch, "Elder Pu, could you be growing senile?"

Pu Huai did not reply, merely looking at Elder Zhao with a quiet gaze, devoid of any superfluous things.

Elder Zhao felt somewhat uncomfortable under that gaze, turned his face away, and took a sip from his teacup: "With the cultivation of the First Realm, First Layer, he can't even touch the threshold of protective spells. How can he get full marks? Even if he had a stroke of luck a month ago in Cangyun City and scared away a low-tier anomaly, that only proves there is something bizarre about him, not that his actual combat can—"

"Elder Zhao." Sect Master Shen Du spoke.

Elder Zhao immediately fell silent.

Sect Master Shen Du reached out, and Pu Huai's roster immediately flew into his hand. He flipped to the page concerning Xie Feng and looked at it for a moment.

Pu Huai's evaluation consisted of only four characters, written in upright strokes and clear at a glance.

He is capable of great responsibilities.

Sect Master Shen Du closed the booklet.

"Pu Huai has managed the evaluations in the outer sect for twenty years without a single error." He looked at Elder Zhao, "Are you doubting Pu Huai, or are you doubting my discretion in employing people over these past twenty years?"

Elder Zhao's expression changed slightly, and he lowered his head: "I dare not."

He knew he had overstepped. Questioning Pu Huai was one thing, but it should not have come from his own mouth; this was disrespectful to the Sect Master.

Sect Master Shen Du's gaze swept across the faces of the remaining Elders one by one.

"Since none of you have any objections, today's evaluation is thus settled." Sect Master Shen Du stood up, "Let us dismiss."

The Elders rose one after another, the rustling sounds of clothing rubbing together echoing through the spacious grand hall. Pu Huai stood up, performed a bow toward Sect Master Shen Du, and turned to walk out of the hall.

From beginning to end, Elder Liu did not utter a sound.

He sat in his chair, watching Pu Huai's back vanish into the twilight outside the hall doors. The light of the luminous stones fell upon his grey-white brow bones, pooling a small patch of shadow in his eye sockets.

"Elder Liu." Sect Master Shen Du's voice came from behind, "Is there something else?"

Elder Liu stood up and cupped his hands: "This old man is going to find Pu Huai to catch up on old times."

Sect Master Shen Du glanced at him and said nothing more.

Elder Liu caught up with Pu Huai on the mountain path behind the Scripture Depository.

The twilight spread down from the cliff faces, and the mist seeping from the cracks in the stones flowed along the ground, wrapping around their ankles in wispy threads. Pu Huai was not walking fast, his dusty grey figure flickering in and out of view within the mist.

"Elder Pu." Elder Liu called out from behind.

Pu Huai stopped and turned around. The mist flowed around his sides, slicing that face into numerous fragments, leaving only his pair of eyes intact.

"Elder Liu." He acknowledged.

Elder Liu walked up to him with his hands behind his back, wearing his habitual amiable expression, but the smile only floated on the surface of his skin and did not seep anywhere else.

"This old man is looking for Elder Pu to ask about that child, Xie Feng."

"It is written clearly in the booklet."

"What is written in the booklet is the result." Elder Liu's smile did not shift at all, "What this old man wants to ask is the reason."

Pu Huai looked at him without taking up the conversation.

"With the cultivation of the First Realm, First Layer, if he strikes with a palm, I fear the halo wouldn't move a single bit." Elder Liu slowly said, "Based on this old man's understanding of Elder Pu, that palm strike couldn't even be considered passing, let alone full marks."

The mountain wind poured in between the two cliff walls, tearing open a gap in the mist. Moonlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating half of Pu Huai's face.

"What reason does Elder Liu think it should be?"

The smile on Elder Liu's face diminished by a fraction; he could hear that Pu Huai was beating around the bush.

"That is precisely what this old man wishes to be enlightened on."

Pu Huai did not answer. He stood in place as the mist surged over him once more, gradually creeping past his knees, crossing his waist, and rising above his chest. The cold light of the luminous stones from the direction of the discussion hall shone from afar, condensing into two needle-tip-sized bright spots within his pupils.

Then he blinked.

"That child," Pu Huai said, his voice not high, as if stating an irrelevant matter, "has something on him."

The smile on Elder Liu's face vanished completely.

"What thing?"

Pu Huai did not answer. He looked at Elder Liu, his gaze resembling a mirror.

Then a layer of goosebumps suddenly erupted across Elder Liu's back.

He had lived for seventy years, seen quite a few things, and killed quite a few things. His cultivation of the Sixth Realm, Eighth Layer gave him the confidence to remain calm in any situation.

If Xie Feng were here, upon seeing this, he would say without hesitation:

"Pass an inspiration check."

Yet at this moment, Elder Liu stood on the mountain path behind the outer sect, facing an outer sect Elder whose cultivation was far inferior to his own, while his spine grew cold in waves.

He suddenly felt that there was no problem whatsoever with Pu Huai giving Xie Feng full marks.

Not a single point's worth of problem.

He had chased after him precisely to ask for the truth, yet those doubts had been swept away by the mountain wind like mist, cleanly and completely, not leaving a trace.

Elder Liu stood in place, his lips moving.

"...It is nothing." He heard his own voice say.

Pu Huai acknowledged with a hum, turned, and continued walking deeper into the mountain path. His grey-white robe hem swayed twice in the mist before disappearing from sight.

Elder Liu stood in place as the mountain wind poured into his cuffs, the chill creeping upward against his skin. Moonlight leaked down from the gaps in the clouds once more, shining upon his grey-white facial hair, upon the dense spots on the back of his hands, and upon the mountain path.

There was only the shadow of a single person on the mountain path.

He lowered his head and looked at that shadow for a long time.

Then he turned and walked back.

His pace and posture were steady, everything so steady.

Only when passing the corner of the Scripture Depository did he pause for a step. Embedded in the outer wall of the Scripture Depository was a Bagua bronze mirror, rumored to have been carved personally by the founding Ancestral Master, capable of revealing everything that ought not to exist.

When Elder Liu passed the bronze mirror, he inadvertently glanced at the mirror's surface.

Inside the mirror, his gaze was identical to Pu Huai's.

Quiet.

Empty.

It was like something, from an extremely, extremely distant place, borrowing a pair of human eyes to take a look outward.

Just for an instant.

Elder Liu blinked.

Yet the person in the mirror did not blink.