For the second time, Can Bik and Zeng Baak-hap clapped their hands to Gaam Juk Jing's mouth, although they both glared at Gou Hei Lok. The young woman, her eyes soft and wide, smiled back at them.

“Miss Gou, are you trying to pick a fight?”

“Not at all. It's an honest question. Why don't you let Juk Jing answer?”

“Don't call him so familiarly,” Zeng Baak-hap admonished. “Gaam si hing has no need to prove himself to you.”

“So long as Cousin Zing likes him, it's fine, is it? Zeng si ze, are you really so naïve?”

“Are you?” Gaam Juk Jing asked, flicking the girls' hands away with a single finger.

“Excuse me?”

“You're excused.”

Gou Hei Lok frowned slightly. “I meant, please explain what you mean. Are you saying I'm naïve?”

“Whatever you like.”

“You've actually got a really horrible personality, don't you?”

“Did you mistake me for a mirror?”

Zeng Baak-hap smothered a laugh behind her sleeve and used her other to cover Can Bik's expression.

Gou Hei Lok sighed and shook her head pityingly. “A sharp tongue, huh? That's still not enough.”

“Don't talk about Gaam si hing as if you know him,” Can Bik warned, pulling Zeng Baak-hap's hand away. “You think you understand him from a single look and a few words, do you think you're some kind of Ascended being? That's an awfully high opinion to have of yourself.”

“Oh, so I take it that you don't care about your family's contract to supply us with crops?” Gou Hei Lok remarked airily. With a sly smile, she turned to follow the rest of her family, who had begun trailing after the patriarch and Gou Zing.

“You-!” Can Bik looked ready to burn Gou Hei Lok alive, but a hand grasped hers.

“Are you saying you have the power to break highly important trade agreement,” Zeng Baak-hap said softly, “one that involves significant amounts of money and goods, simply because of a small disagreement? When you are not of the direct lineage? And when the people you argued with are good friends of the eldest son of the Gou Family?”

The muscles under Gou Hei Lok's eyes went taut, and she turned away without responding.

Can Bik was shaking. “How did you respond so quickly and cleverly to her, Zeng si ze? I'm so angry, I couldn't even speak.”

“Don't get me wrong, I'm very angry too. But in a situation like this, the one who gets the most angry loses.” She squeezed Can Bik's hand. “Are you okay, Gaam si hing?”

“Didn't itch or scratch.”

“Do you ever get bothered by anything?” Can Bik asked curiously. “No, wait, I've seen Gou si hing can get under your skin sometimes. He's the only one, huh?”

“We're getting left behind,” Gaam Juk Jing commented, carefully leading Grandmother Gou. She was evidently quite deaf, as she had not made any reactions during the argument.

Gou Zing and his grandfather walked slowly too, occasionally turning to look at the group behind them. The attitude with which they did it, however, could not be any more different; Grandfather Gou's gaze was full of mistrust and concern, his grandson's bright and warm. They all somehow ended up in an audience box that the Gou Family had purchased for the tournament, although they caught a look from Gou Hei Lok when it was clear that there were not enough seats for everyone.

Gaam Juk Jing helped Grandmother Gou into a chair and then stood beside her without the slightest change of expression on his face. Gou Zing insisted that one of his junior sisters take his chair. Zeng Baak-hap offered it to Can Bik, who tried to offer it back.

“Bik si mui, please sit...” Zeng Baak-hap's cheeks became a little pink. “If you really insist, I could just sit on your lap, but-”

Can Bik sat, with a comically nervous attempt at looking calm. “P-Please sit, Zeng si ze! What are you laughing at, Gou Zing?”

“Nothing, nothing...”

“Then...” Zeng Baak-hap sat demurely on Can Bik's lap. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“Circulate your hei,” Gaam Juk Jing murmured in Gou Zing's ear.

“Is that how you always manage to keep a poker face? Using your internal energy to control your laughter?”

Gaam Juk Jing smirked but didn't answer.

The tournament wasn't of any particular interest to the four disciples. Gaam Juk Jing closed his eyes and apparently fell asleep standing up, and Gou Zing, Zeng Baak-hap and Can Bik simply kept talking to each other despite the annoyed looks from the Gou Family. Gou Zing finally started paying attention when one of his cousins took to the arena to battle. The cousin won, but Can Bik was unimpressed. “He isn't as strong as Gou si hing, or as fast as Gaam si hing. And definitely not as smart as Zeng si ze.”

“What are you saying about my cousin?” Gou Hei Lok demanded, turning in her chair.

“I think everything Can si mui said was valid,” Gou Zing said with a smile. “But I think she's forgotten our various circumstances.”

With this, Gou Hei Lok couldn't say anymore, and had to turn back to watching, dissatisfied. Gaam Juk Jing continued to sleep.

When the battle finally ended for the day, the whole group left the box to search for a place to eat. Wandering through the busy streets of Juk-hoi, the topic on everyone's lips was the tournament. Gaam Juk Jing patiently held Grandmother Gou's hand, yawning. Her husband's face seemed to have developed a permanent twitch whenever he looked at the young man.

Gou Hei Lok tugged at her grandfather's sleeve. “Gung Gung...”

“Yes, Siu Lok?”

“About that guy with Laai Laai-”

Whatever she had been about to say was never to be said. In an instant, the streets were filled with screams and the splintering of wood, and humans were running in all directions, pursued by a pack of howling demons.

Gaam Juk Jing instantly leapt to the safety of a rooftop, Grandmother Gou tightly by his side. Gou Zing drew his sword and smashed it down on a demon's spear, splintering the weapon with ease. He kicked the creature back, sending them tumbling heels over head, then turned and brought his gim down on another demon's shield, shattering that too. A third demon, muttering to itself, was gathering a dark aura; he flung a paper talisman at it, cutting short whatever curse it was trying to cast.

Can Bik stood in front of Zeng Baak-hap, a brilliant light springing from her fingers and shooting towards demons that came towards them. Her aim wasn't completely accurate, but she was getting more proficient as she went. Zeng Baak-hap began organising people to build barricades, and shepherding children into buildings.

Gaam Juk Jing stood by Grandmother Gou, Lou Fu Ngaan held loosely beside him. Every now and then there would be a flash, and it would seem as though blood had spontaneously appeared on the shining blade. A demon would drop dead a metre away.

Gou Zing battered away demons, rushing along the streets to deal with those chasing after unarmed humans. He knocked over a demon with a beak like a squid's and long, curved claws. Its eyes were almost completely white, with pinpricks for pupils, yet the desperation in its expression was clear. He drove the point of his sword into its forehead and it died instantly.

He felt exhausted. Not physically, he could swing his sword a thousand times more. The gold flecks in his eyes shivered as he sought Gaam Juk Jing between the melee of fighting figures. Gaam Juk Jing made a gesture with his chin.

Come here.

Gou Zing knocked aside two demons, allowing the humans they were attacking to kill them, and reached Gaam Juk Jing's side.

“Those talismans. What do they do?”

“Puts the demons into a stupor, a trance. Makes it easier for someone with a slow attribute like Earth to deal with them.”

“How many left?”

“Around ten.”

“Can they be reused?”

“Only if they're used briefly.”

“Give them to me.”

Gou Zing extracted the sheaf of yellow papers from within his robes and handed them over without question.

“Stay with Laai Laai.”

The old woman plucked at Gou Zing's sleeve anxiously. She was completely unharmed, but obviously frightened. Her grandson squeezed her hand. “It's going to be okay.”

Gaam Juk Jing leapt from the roof. Like quicksilver, he flowed between the fighters, pressing paper talismans to the demons' foreheads with one finger. A second later, Lou Fu Ngaan sang out, dispatching them, and the talisman was retrieved.

He did his work with ruthless efficiency. In less than a minute, a score of demons lay dead. Every one of them had a dreamy, distant expression on their face. A single slash from Lou Fu Ngan was all it had taken. Only a few remained, and they were quickly killed by the cultivators who had gathered for the tournament. The whole situation ended so rapidly, that everyone somehow felt embarrassed by their panic only moments earlier.

Gaam Juk Jing, surrounded by dead bodies, flicked Lou Fu Ngaan clean, and sheathed the blade. His silvery eyes found Can Bik, bloodied but unhurt, Zeng Baak-hap, pale with worry, and Gou Zing, firm and grim before his grandmother. Faster than a breath, he gathered up the talismans and brought them back to Gou Zing.

Gou Zing felt like he should say something, but he wasn't sure what. 'Are you alright?' 'You're not hurt, are you?' Everything that might usually be said was meaningless. Of course Juk Jing was alright, unhurt, unswayed.

Gaam Juk Jing waved his hand in front of Gou Zing's face.

“Zing?”

“Huh?”

“Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?”

Gou Zing blinked. A sudden urge to laugh wildly began to bubble up inside him. With so many eyes watching, he had to fight to stay in control.

“I'm... I'm alright. I'm not hurt... Thanks, Juk Jing.”

People were slowly beginning to emerge from behind furniture and doors where they had taken refuge. Their eyes took in the young man with the silver eyes and the jade-hilted sword at his waist.

“He's called Juk Jing?”

“Jade...”

“Jade Exorcist...”

“The Jade Exorcist...”

The name spread through the crowd like a vein of silver. Grandfather Gou, reaching his grandson and wife, opened his mouth to protest, but the look on his grandson's face stalled him. Gou Zing looked lost.

Grandfather Gou coughed and bowed slightly. “Thank you for protecting my wife, Master Gaam Juk-” He raised his head in time to see the silver sparks of Gaam Juk Jing's eyes before the young man let his eyelids drop again.

“... Gaam Juk Jing. Gaam... I see.” This time, the old cultivator bowed deeply. “This old man greets a great master. Jade Exorcist, please accept my humblest thanks for looking after the person most dear to me.”

“'Gaam'? Like the Lord of the West, the Divine Gaam Bing?”

“Surely not. But that speed... the sharpness of the blade...”

Gou Zing and Can Bik converged on Gaam Juk Jing.

“Is this really okay?” Can Bik asked anxiously, hopping up beside Gaam Juk Jing. “Gaam si hing, I thought you hated annoying things. Isn't this...?”

“Juk Jing,” Gou Zing murmured. “This... I... You don't have to...” He felt light fingers briefly squeeze his.

Gaam Juk Jing bowed in returned to the patriarch of the Gou Family. Then his silvery eyes wandered through the murmuring crowd below until they found Gou Hei Lok. His gaze bored into her like an iron drill and she quickly dropped her gaze.

Gaam Juk Jing tilted his head. “We should get going.”