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“Nice disguise,” I said. “Was that all it took to get rid of Silver Light’s girls?”

She tossed the wig onto the table. “They were more of the disguise, to be honest.”

I raised a brow at that one, but Hin Wu didn’t elaborate. She ordered an expensive bottle of plum wine instead and poured me a cup before filling her own.

“To your victory,” she said raising her cup in salute.

I toasted with her and then downed the sweet, yet fiery liquid. The tavern was mostly empty, with just a few patrons sat near the bar. A lone zither player performed a sad toon from the corner opposite us, which seemed to fit the mood perfectly. I didn’t know what Hin Wu was up to, but whatever it was, I doubted it would be good.

For me anyway.

“What did you mean by, ‘they’ were the disguise?” I asked eventually, after helping myself to another cup of wine.

“It presented me ample reason not to kill you,” Hin Wu said with a smile. “The disguise was for Master Lo Feng.”

Now that was an interesting twist on things.

“So, you’re saying you could have shaken them and attacked me at any time?”

“Indeed.” Hin Wu grinned at me from across the table, eyeing me like I was something she’d perhaps like to eat. “It was also helpful that Master Lo Feng has been preoccupied with other matters. He views you more of a loose end that needs to be cut, not an enemy that needs to be crushed.”

“Well thank the heavens for that, huh?” I said, pouring another drink. “So, I suppose I should owe you some form of gratitude for your grace then?”

She chuckled. “At the very least I’d say.”

I sipped my drink, slowly studying her. Hin Wu was a powerful woman, and beautiful as well—slightly aged yet refined, not unlike the plum wine we both now enjoyed. To say she was stunning would be an understatement and perhaps even more so without her douli covering her features. The fact that she hadn’t brought the weapon also spoke volumes, as did the lemonade coursing from her soul.

This woman desired me, but to what end I still wasn’t quite sure.

“So what is this proposition of yours, Hin Wu?” I said, cutting to the chase. “You clearly don’t want to kill me, so what is it you want?”

She grinned again. “I haven’t been exactly subtle with my praise of you, Brother Chun. And mark my words, my praise is hard earned.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“When I first fought you, I took you for a sniveling runt scratching for power. But now I see you are so much more than that. Beyond even your martial prowess, you possess a resolve that I still can’t quite ascertain. What drives you, Iron Bull? I’m curious.”

It was a good question and one I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer.

Not to her anyway.

“To follow my path, wherever it may lead,” I said honestly.

She smiled. “Perhaps your path may have led you to me then.”

Beneath the table I felt her foot caress the inner part of my thigh, making her intentions clear. My body couldn’t help but react to it, but I forced it down with a cold mask of [Indifference].

Still, this wasn’t Xi Xha—some older lady looking for a good time with a hot young stud.

There was something more to this that she craved.

And I had to know what.

“Meaning?” I said, gently pushing her foot aside as I changed positions crossing my legs.

An inkling of anger sparked within her at the snub, but then she smiled again, perhaps taking the gesture as me being coy. “Lo Feng is old and blinded by revenge for the death of his idiot nephew. He will never see the true value in you. Even your match tonight was proof that you possess potential to take our clan to the next level.”

So that was it. Still looking for me to join the ranks.

No thanks.

“I already told you,” I said. “I have no interest in joining you and Lo Feng.”

“Then simply join me,” she said. “Forget about Lo Feng.”

I raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Return with me to Twi Li province,” she said. “Together we could start a new sect afresh. My province has no sect leader, but with my help, you could become so.”

“What?”

“Unlike the Silver Leafs, the Fire Birds are a patriarchal clan,” she said. “I have no means to become sect leader, but I’ve measured your skill. The two of us could most certainly kill Lo Feng so that you could usurp his position.”

Holy shit, this woman was far more dangerous than I thought.

“You want to team up to kill Lo Feng?”

“It will be a clean internal sect matter,” she said. “No muddying of the waters with rival sects as you did before. You have no need to anyway. You are strong enough to stand on your own now, especially with me by your side.”

This was even worse than I first imagined.

“So all of this is because you want me to become the new leader of the Fire Bird Clan?”

She reached across the table and stroked my forearm with her thumb. “I wish for you to become far more than that. To me anyway.”

I couldn’t help the warmth that spread through my chest and loins as she continued to caress my arm. The woman was practically throwing herself at me, sensually too, but there had to be way more to this than just sex.

“You’re talking about marriage.”

She smiled with affirmation, her crimson eyes flashing with ambition and desire. “I’m forbidden to become a sect leader, but a sect leader’s wife is the next best position. I would guide you in all things, of course. In fact, I would take care of most sect matters. You need only sit upon the throne and look pretty, as it were.”

I chuckled inwardly at the irony of it all. Here I was, lamenting about how I could reconcile Fia’s family with my own to marry her, and here Hin Wu comes along with a marriage proposal that would only involve me killing a guy I would probably need to kill eventually anyway.

But sit there and look pretty? Conspire to murder? Betray Fia?

She obviously didn’t know who the hell she was dealing with.

Or cared.

Just another cultivator scheming to increase her position in life by any means possible.

To hell with all that.

I’xol’ukz worshipers or not, the Fire Birds were all evil shits in my book and this crap proved it. Besides all that, I had a royal lady who actually loved me to marry. No way was I trading that for some shameless jezebel who wanted to turn me into her puppet-leader-boy-toy.

I placed my hand on top of Hin Wu’s and then firmly removed it from my forearm. “Sorry, lady, but I just don’t roll that way.”

I said the words with a mixture of [Indifference] and [Struggler’s Resolve] and the results within Hin Wu’s soul were nothing short of spectacular. There was a flash of pain like a grenade going off and then slowly all the lemonade within her soured, turning into resentment and hate.

“You dare to reject me?”

It sounded more a statement than a question and her crimson eyes flared.

“I’m sorry, but my path lies elsewhere. I told you I have no interest in the Fire Birds. Or you.”

The last bit caused another pain grenade to go off.

Clearly this woman wasn’t used to being rejected.

She folded her arms across her chest as she leaned back in her chair. “Is that so…” She paused for a while studying me and then slowly a smile crept upon her lips, but there was nothing mirthful about it. “I see. It all makes sense now.”

I shrugged my shoulders with [Indifference] as I downed another cup of her wine. “What does?”

“Only a fool would reject the offer I made to you,” she said. She then sipped her wine slowly as she glared at me, her anger seething. “Which means you must already have a better offer available. Perhaps with that Silver Leaf woman.”

It was my turn to blink with shock at her sudden intuition and she grinned in victory as my unabashed reaction confirmed it.

“I knew it,” she said, her confidence returning. “That animosity between you and Lady Silver Light is but a disguise of your own, isn’t it? For the both of you.”

My heart began to pound, true fear now.

She let out a cackle, slipping into control once again. “And here Lo Feng and I both thought that you had only used her to kill Hong Feng. That she had turned on you when she figured it all out. But you two are still together, aren’t you?”

I struggled to mask any reaction on my face with [Indifference]. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

But inwardly I felt the door inside my spirit start to close.

Shit, this woman wasn’t just formidable, she was smart as hell too.

Hin Wu leered at me. “Imagine the scandal. A royal lady of the Silver Leaf Clan allowing herself to be deflowered by a Fire Bird? The Warden herself would likely execute her publicly for such an offence.”

I couldn’t stop the fear that crept up inside of me, a fear not born of myself, but the love for someone else. I felt impotent to do anything about it. Turning it into rage would only confirm Hin Wu’s suspicions in full.

“Believe what you want,” I said, casually sipping the wine. “I have no love for that bitch, any more than I do you.”

The door closed a little more.

“We shall see,” Hin Wu said as she stood from the table. “I’ll perhaps have a chat with the Lady Silver Light myself. It’d be interesting to hear her thoughts on the matter.”

Damn bitch! I thought, but I quelled my reaction with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Feel free.”

Hin Wu glanced down at the table. “You can keep the wig. Silver Light may need it as a disguise of her own depending on how our chat goes. The warden is a ruthless one. She spares no quarter. Even for her own family. In fact, perhaps I should go see her first.”

She stood there waiting for another reaction, but she wasn’t getting one, even if my heart was already pounding like a damn jackhammer.

Shit…

“Enjoy the wine,” she said and then finally she left, leaving me alone with my thoughts in the back of the tavern.

* * *

I sat there for nearly an hour slowly finishing the bottle as I digested what the heck just happened. Hin Wu was far more calculating than I realized and my next move would have to be well played to stop her from exposing Fia or whatever the hell she was planning to do.

Interrogate Fia maybe? Make claims to the Warden? Who knew?

One thing was for certain though.

I had to get to Fia to warn her about all this.

Through the window of the tavern, I gazed up at the golden pagoda in the night sky. If only I could get there right now to warn her, but that wasn’t realistic. I’d have to hope and pray that Hin Wu didn’t do anything before I got a chance to meet with Fia in the morning.

I’d have to somehow wait patiently until then.

But besides what Hin Wu might do, there was the problem of Hin Wu herself.

She had nothing holding her back now.

All this time I thought it was Fia’s extended presence that was protecting me, but in truth it was Hin Wu’s growing interest in me that had saved my skin all these months.

But that was all over now.

She’d shot her shot and I’d shot her down.

And hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned.

Especially one as powerful as Hin Wu.

* * *

I headed back to the square and just like after my Iron Bracket win, Yu Li had arranged a small party to celebrate my first Gold Bracket victory. I had to force myself to smile, laugh and act normal; but deep in my gut, anxiety was eating me alive.

“Are you alright, brother?”

It was Gui Zu who had asked, coming to find me after I had stolen myself away to the edge of the square to distance myself from the crowd. The genuine concern on his face was readable, his brows creased with worry as he took a seat next to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied and Gui Zu saw through it right away.

“Something bad happen at the match?”

More like after, I wanted to say, but I simply shook my head instead.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?”

I looked at Gui Zu and felt the door close a little more. How could I tell him about Fia right now? None of my people had a clue I was sleeping with the enemy, so to speak, and it soured my spirit to think I was having daydreams of Fia joining my family when I hadn’t even told my family about her yet.

Not that I doubted that they would eventually accept her through their support for me, but bringing her up in the middle of a crisis probably wasn’t the best form of introduction. The Struggler within grew a little more hardened as I prepared to shoulder the burden alone.

“I appreciate that, Gui Zu,” I said. “When the time is right, I’ll tell you everything, I promise. I just need to ponder this one out on my own for a little while.”

Gui Zu slapped me on the back as he stood. “Okay then, brother, I trust you. I’m here if you need.”

“Thanks, man.”

As he walked away to leave me in solitude, I peered up again at the giant pagoda in the sky. The night couldn’t pass quickly enough. I needed to get ahead of Hin Wu and whatever plot she was weaving now.

First thing in the morning, I had to see Fia.