Out in the wilderness, during that same morning, a young man was scaling a sheer cliff with a large boulder tied to his back.


    Halfway to the top, as the end still remained far out of his reach, he began to slow until he had stalled entirely.


    "Master," He pleaded. "I can''t climb any higher than this..."


    Down below, as she leaned against the cliff, a golden haired woman turned her head up.


    "If you try to go down with that rock on your back, you''ll fall." She said.


    "I''m serious, I can''t go any higher! And it''s so slippery after the rain!" Bai Guo groaned as he hugged the rocky surface with his body. "If I fall, you''ll catch me, right, master?!"


    The woman''s golden eyes glinted with cunning. "Is that why you''re half-assing this? Because you think I''m going to catch you if you drop?"


    "I''m not half-assing it! I''m at the end of my rope here...!" Bai Guo shouted.


    He felt a sudden gust of wind as something white flickered by his eye. As he lifted his eyes up to the top of the cliff, he caught just a glimpse of a woman''s sandaled ankle beneath a fluttering white robe.


    She twirled around and sat by the very precipice, staring down at him with her golden eyes. Resting her chin on her hand, she spoke with utter boredom. "See, how can I catch you now? So put your back into it."


    Bai Guo pressed his forehead against the cliff in frustration, before a sudden realization struck him. "Sir Shen is still down there, he''ll catch me if I fall! Right, sir Shen?!"


    As he called out, he was greeted only by his own echo.


    "I told Cui Shen to take a hike so I can train my disciple in private."


    Bai Guo pressed his face back into the cliff and yelled, his voice muffled by stone.


    "Hurry up. I want to get to a town soon." The Golden Witch stared at her nails.


    After Bai Guo took some time to vent, he upturned his head with newfound determination and continued the agonizing ascent.


    Eventually, he reached the precipice, and crawled onto solid ground. He seemed content to keep his face in the dirt as the boulder pressed into his back. "Get it off me please." His muffled voice came out again.


    Although he never got the chance to see it for himself, the Golden Witch undid the knots on the weight with a small, proud smile on her face.


    With the rock gone, Bai Guo rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. "Master... How come in these past few months, you''ve had me do nothing but run, swim, climb, and lift weights? When do I get to learn some real martial arts?"


    "Your body isn''t strong enough yet. You''ve hardly trained at all before you met me, so there''s a lot to catch up on. And on the road, we have to improvise."


    "I trained almost every day back home!" Bai Guo protested. "And besides, I''ve never seen you do a single physical exercise yourself, master! Clearly there''s more to it than that. Like that internal energy thing you talk about from time to time!"


    "I don''t know what you were doing back home, but it certainly doesn''t pass for training. As for me, I''m long past the need for physical exercise." The Golden Witch turned away her golden eyes, and brushed a hand through her long hair.


    "And all those old fart masters, none of them look like they exercise either..." Bai Guo continued to grumble.


    The woman''s face wrinkled with annoyance. She stared at her own hair for a time, seemingly unable to think of a response. "Physical fitness and internal energy go hand in hand. For a novice like you, someone who can''t even make full use of their muscles, dabbling with the meridians would just be a waste of time."


    "But how does that work? I just don''t understand..." Bai Guo stared into the cloudy sky, basking in the cool wind. As the disciple relaxed, the master''s frustration was mounting. She simply couldn''t figure out a way to explain.


    After a while, she stood up and dusted herself off. "Let''s climb down and find a town."


    Bai Guo pressed the back of his head into the earth and groaned.


    The young man''s master quickly alleviated his concerns. "Forget about the rock. You can climb down without it." Instantly, the disciple''s face lit up with relief, and he carried on with the task.


    "I''d like to sleep in a house today." The Golden Witch stepped over the edge. She plummeted down to the bottom instantly, and yet landed as softly as a blade of grass drifting in the wind, soundlessly, gently, as though she had merely taken a step over flat ground.


    Bai Guo, startled at first by her master''s sudden attempted suicide, stared in wonder at the unbelievable outcome. "Physical fitness can''t do that..." He grumbled some more as he began his descent. He made swift work of the cliff this time around, but the young man could hardly force himself to take pride in it when faced with the capabilities of his eccentric master.


    They reunited with Cui Shen, whose black attire seemed to meld into the shade of the tree he was resting under even as his sickly pale face practically glowed against the morning sunlight.


    A short walk brought them before a large settlement, a town called Jiuqin.


    "Look, Bai Guo, you won''t have to wash my clothes today! Aren''t you happy?" The Golden Witch exclaimed, smiling.


    Bai Guo went beet red. "Could you please not speak about that matter in public? It''s bad enough that you make me do it, but please don''t go around letting other people know, master!"


    "I still don''t get what the big deal is..." She replied.


    "It''s just inappropriate!" Bai Guo hissed. "And let''s leave it at that!"


    "If it really bothers you so much, I could stop making you do it..."


    "Then what would I do as your disciple? What would be my contributions? You don''t charge me with any other tasks! I''d just be an ungrateful, unfilial little freeloader!"


    "Well then." She stared directly at him. "Aren''t you happy that we''re staying in a town tonight?" She repeated herself with a straight face, but it quickly gave way to another smile.


    "Yes..." Bai Guo turned away from her and stubbornly shuffled his tired feet into the city.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    As they wandered through the busy city streets in search of lodgings, the Golden Witch had abruptly stopped, the tip of her nose darting towards the sky. "Do you smell that?" She asked, sniffing at the air repeatedly.


    Her two compatriots exchanged confused glances. The woman took a sudden turn in a different direction, and after following her for a time, Cui Shen spoke up. "Now I do."


    His ordinarily gloomy expression turned even graver.


    They walked upon a street that had seemingly been bathed in blood, littered with curious bystanders who kept a healthy distance. Even Bai Guo''s nose was now assailed by the metallic odor.


    In his shock, Bai Guo blurted out, "Did someone slaughter a cow in here? Maybe it''s someone''s idea of a prank?" He then clarified, "I see a lot of footprints, but recently a cart rode up to only one edge of the pool there, so maybe there was only one carcass to pick up."


    Cui Shen said, "Maybe there were several bodies close together."


    Bai Guo argued back. "The bloodstain goes out pretty far, and the mud doesn''t look like any bodies have been dragged through it."


    Cui Shen seemed to agree, and grew silent.


    As Bai Guo turned to his master, he found her golden eyes wide, staring in something resembling wonder. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head, and correctly surmised that his idle chatter fell on deaf ears. She noticed him staring, and, after a moment, snapped out of it.


    "What if a martial art did this?" She asked, and had done so almost innocuously. But Bai Guo did not buy her forced nonchalance for even a second.


    "You mean to a single man?" It took everything the young man had to not shudder at her suggestion. The thought of her being right, and the thought that the person capable of using such a martial art was currently in the same city as them filled him with dread.


    But he also saw a rare opportunity to prove himself. He turned to Cui Shen. "Sir Shen, how about we ask the locals about what happened here?"


    "I don''t see the point." Cui Shen hadn''t been intrigued much at all. "Even if it was a fight between martial artists, it''s no concern of ours."


    "On the contrary, sir Shen, I think it''s prudent that we keep an eye on the local affairs, so that we best know how to avoid trouble." As he spoke, Bai Guo glanced twice in the direction of his master.


    Cui Shen seemed to catch on to the meaning of his gesture. "I''ll accompany you."


    It did not take them long to learn that the remains of a man had been moved to a nearby cart, its grisly contents draped over by a dirty sheet. According to the townspeople, the grave keeper was supposed to ferry it away, but had wandered off for one reason or another.


    The three of them cast aside the cover and peered within. Immediately, Bai Guo''s face turned a shade of green, as what awaited them in the cart was not so much a corpse, but a bundle of skin, some limbs and a head. He turned away and gripped his knees. As curious onlookers peeked into the now uncovered cart, they, too, reacted with regret.


    "Well, it''s definitely a martial art..." Bai Guo mumbled in a strange voice as he fought the urge to empty his stomach. "Nothing else is going to do that to a man."


    The other two were like steel. Cui Shen strained to hide his disgust, and had done so perfectly, with iron-clad resolve; the Golden Witch struggled to hide her fascination, and had done a stellar job of it as well.


    "Where are his organs?" The woman asked, her eyes of amber scanning the pool of blood and turning up nothing.


    They heard Bai Guo''s strained voice behind them. "There were lots of people stomping around in the mud here recently, so why''s there only one corpse? This much blood couldn''t have come from just one man, right?"


    After a break, Bai Guo continued to question the people. He found them either unknowing or uncooperative, until he entered a tea house directly in front of the scene, and spoke with old Gen.


    "Oh yes, I saw it all. Let me tell you, young man, nothing good can come out of sticking your nose into this affair. Decent folk like you would do well to keep as far enough away as you-" The old man had suddenly found himself flabbergasted as he watched a golden haired woman step into his establishment, so tall that she had almost bumped her head on the upper end of the doorway.


    It took a few moments for Old Gen to come out of his daze. He had, for some reason, suddenly changed his tune. "...A powerful martial artist came through here and got in trouble with a local gang. I knew little Yan since he was just a little boy playing around in the neighborhood, and sure, he may have grown up to be a good-for-nothing criminal, but to die in such a gruesome way, my heart still weeps for him... At least the others got away..."


    Bai Guo asked, "Did the gentleman in question introduce himself?"


    "Oh yes. His name was Tao Geming."


    Cui Shen''s languid eyes flew wide open. "Tao Geming? The Invincible Blood Sea? He''s real?"


    The old man nodded. "Certainly. He introduced himself to me by his given name, and then one of the gangsters referred to him by that title when they fought."


    The Golden Witch and Bai Guo both stared at Cui Shen. Evidently, neither the man''s given name nor his sobriquet told them anything.


    Cui Shen began to explain. "I''ve heard stories about a villain who goes around the world killing and stealing as he pleases. He is called Invincible because it is said that he has never once been injured, and they call him the Blood Sea..." He turned back to the crimson street. "...because that is all he leaves in his wake."


    Old Gen shuddered. The Golden Witch asked of the old proprietor, "Perhaps you witnessed the technique he used to cause all of that?"


    "I don''t know. I truly don''t." The man replied. "I saw no weapon. Little Yan struck Tao Geming on the head, and then, suddenly, little Yan just... He just..." Old Gen shook his head over and over.


    The Golden Witch, realizing that nothing useful would be gleaned from this conversation, turned away. Bai Guo asked about Tao Geming''s whereabouts, but the old man had little to say in that regard.


    Bai Guo then questioned the man on Tao Geming''s appearance, but old Gen hemmed and hawed until the young man had had enough, and ultimately, the only descriptors of worth he had managed to extract out of the proprietor was the color of the man''s tunic and the miniscule length of his hair.


    As they were about to leave, old Gen called out to them. "You masters are not with the Royal School, are you?"


    The three stopped, and Bai Guo asked, "The Royal School?"


    "The Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School. I can see you are not from around these parts, so I must insist on my previous advice - for you to stay out of this matter. The Royal School is looking into this matter as well, because, this Tao Geming, he uttered a great taboo..."


    The Golden Witch lifted a brow. "What did he say?"


    "Oh I dare not repeat it aloud, and I''m sure you''ll find no one else that will. But it is something that the king does not abide by, and his Royal School will no doubt be seeking retribution for the things that were said. When it comes to dealing with the Royal School, it is of the essence to stay out of their way. They keep the peace, but they... well... Just remember this old man''s advice, okay? I wish good luck to the lady and her attendants." Old Gen bowed.


    Bai Guo hastily returned the bow before they parted ways.


    As they once again stared at the mayhem outside, the young disciple pondered aloud. "I wonder why the old man was so taciturn when it came to the details of his appearance. I didn''t get the impression that he didn''t get a good look at Tao Geming, and, not to be rude, but he seemed quite sharp for his age..."


    Cui Shen closed his eyes as he spoke. "Now that I think about it, I''ve never heard a description of the man either. Maybe in the same way that certain people are unforgettable after a single glance, others can be uniquely nondescript."


    "Or maybe the old man is scared." Bai Guo supposed.


    "Scared of what exactly?" Cui Shen glanced at him. "He already shared far more information than he was obliged to."


    "Maybe there''s no good way to describe the man without it coming off as an insult. Like, for example, if he''s really ugly. And if word spreads that the old man called him that, he might come back..."


    Cui Shen pondered his words in silence.


    "It doesn''t really matter." The Golden Witch suddenly spoke up, her eyes still peeled to the pool of blood. "I''ve been thinking how I might go about achieving something like this myself, and while I have a few ideas, they all involve..." Her speech trailed off; her neck began to slowly tilt, her mouth slightly agape. "...Perhaps..." She mumbled. A few moments later, she seemed to catch herself lolling off and regained her wits. "Well, it would require a great deal of mastery over internal energy. So if we come anywhere near the man, I would sense him instantly."


    Bai Guo found no joy in those news. With an awkward chuckle, he said. "One of these days you should teach me how to sense internal energy just like you do, master." So that I can do the opposite of what you do and avoid all these murderous psychopaths, he thought.


    The woman''s brows furrowed, still only half-present mentally in the conversation. "I can''t teach you that any more than I can teach a deaf man to hear. Even my father couldn''t do it."


    Cui Shen''s interest was piqued by the sudden change of topic. "So it was not something that you were taught, and from the way you describe it, neither was it something that you had to learn on your own? It was just something you could do?"


    "...Hm? Right, like smelling with your eyes or seeing with your nose." She muttered, jumbling up her words.


    Cui Shen sighed. "Bai Guo, would you be so kind as to pry your master away so that we may set about securing our accommodations for the night?"


    Bai Guo carefully approached. "Master..."


    The Golden Witch waved her long sleeve. "I''m going, I''m going..."


    She had gotten dragged away.


    ...