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It all happened too fast. With a smug laugh, the disciple got on his flying sword and disappeared into the distance before any of us was able to stop him. "I\'ll find him," I gritted my teeth and readied my own sword, burning with anger and guilt.

"Wait." To my surprise, Peng Yao stopped me. "Didn\'t you want to know what that artifact was?"

I looked at her in confusion. This wasn\'t the time for irrelevant information. "Is knowing it going to help me get it back?" I asked.

"No, but it might convince you that it\'s not worth it." Peng Yao gave me a mysterious smile. "There is a type of rock that we grind into powder to use in talisman drawing. It\'s one of the best materials when it comes to the strength of spiritual power it can evoke, but getting in contact with it is harmful to your body if you don\'t take precautions. In a way, it\'s like a poison, only that the effect is slower and barely noticeable until it\'s too late, and there\'s no antidote for it. That artifact is a rare form of this rock, purer and more powerful than any I\'ve seen before."

Xie Lun and I gaped at her. The first thing that came to my mind was to cleanse my hands. "Why would anyone include artifacts like this as prizes?" I mumbled.

"It might not be a prize after all …" Xie Lun said. "It\'s possible that those demons had simply been keeping it for their own sake."

"Either way, it\'s unfortunate that the masters are watching us and will probably tell those Mount Tai disciples about it soon," Peng Yao said pitifully. "Otherwise, it would\'ve been a good lesson for them to learn."

I shuddered at the viciousness in her comment, though I suppose those disciples didn\'t deserve much better. At least the news made me feel a bit less terrible about the loss resulting from my carelessness.

~ ~

We decided to stay in one of the houses inside the village that night. Illusions as they were, the walls were just as sturdy, and the beds felt just as comfortable. Xie Lun offered to go gather some berries for dinner, and Peng Yao followed him to help, leaving Wen Shiyin and I to prepare the wood for a fire in the yard.

"I can do this myself," I nudged Wen Shiyin. "Why don\'t you go with them?" I didn\'t want to see her let Peng Yao get all the chances to be with Xie Lun alone.

Wen Shiyin understood my intention and smiled. "I\'m not that thick-skinned," she said and started stacking up a pile of dry branches.

I glanced at the two figures walking further into the woods and shook my head. Bai Ye was right about Wen Shiyin not being persistent enough for this. "Senior Xie had told me a little about … what happened between the two of you," I ventured. "I know this is none of my business … but I actually think he meant it when he said he wanted to dedicate his life to the path of swords. It doesn\'t imply that he doesn\'t like you."

Wen Shiyin halted for a moment in her work. "Does it make a difference?" she smiled again, this time a little feebly. "If he had already made up his mind, it\'ll only make things embarrassing for both of us if I keep bothering him."

"But he likes you as a friend, and you know he cares about you. Earlier, when you lured away those beasts from the tree hole, he was watching out quite closely for you." I knew I was probably being too nosy, but I wanted to help them, and that thought had been on my mind for a while. "Sometimes it just takes time for people to realize how they feel … If you give them a chance, things might change."

Wen Shiyin added more wood to the fire pit. "Have you ever loved someone that doesn\'t share the same feelings towards you?" she asked softly.

I almost said no instinctively—I trusted Bai Ye\'s feelings for me, and I knew he cared about me just as much as I did him, if not more—but then I remembered all the earlier years when I had to keep myself in the shadows and hide everything from him. "M-Maybe," I replied honestly, "I … didn\'t know about how he felt at first."

Wen Shiyin looked at me. "You were still young then, I assume. It\'s not that difficult to tell if someone is truly in love with you. The way he talks to you, the way he looks into your eyes … As long as he\'s an honest person, those emotions are hard to hide." She shook her head. "Xie Lun sees me as a friend, the same way he has always seen me since we were children. I know it better than anyone else."

Those words stirred something in me. The way he talks to you and looks into your eyes … I searched my memory carefully for it. Bai Ye had always been nothing but caring to me. When I was younger, all I saw in his eyes was encouragement and protectiveness, but something in that look never changed over time. His eyes always glittered when he saw me, his voice always soft, his tone always warm and endearing. Could I have missed something else in it that I didn\'t fully understand yet back then?

Had we been in love with each other for much longer than either of us realized?

"I see you\'ve found out how he feels for you by now," Wen Shiyin said, interrupting my musings. "I can tell from that smile on your face," she chuckled. "I envy you … Not everyone has the fortune to be loved back."

She got up from where we squatted in front of the fire pit and went to pick up more branches.. It turned out that I was the one left pondering her words instead.