As soon as Bai Guo stepped inside, he found the Golden Witch rushing down the stairs to meet him. The eyes of every patron had been instantly drawn towards the woman who had to lean under every doorway.


    And of course, towards the young man she was running up to.


    "I see it went well." She exclaimed, beaming with a smile. "Not that I ever had any doubts. You should tell me all about it."


    Though Bai Guo wanted to do nothing more, the attention they were drawing embarrassed him greatly.


    "Can''t we speak somewhere private?" He pleaded, his voice barely louder than a whisper.


    The Golden Witch, utterly ignorant of his plights, twirled around and led him upstairs. Bai Guo glanced around the inn and found it to be of surprisingly good quality, inhabited by wealthy clientele.


    "Master, this place doesn''t look cheap. How are you affording your stay here?" He asked.


    "It turns out that the man who owns this place is a friend of mine. Though we''ve never met." The Golden Witch explained. Her voice grew lively; she seemed excited to tell this story. "Apparently, I helped his cousin out of a financial pinch some time ago by spending gold at his store. Now his business is booming. This cousin spoke of me in his letters, and the proprietor recognized me from the descriptions."


    "That''s an incredible coincidence." Bai Guo was greatly surprised by this tale, and even somewhat suspicious at the convenience of it all. But a part of him couldn''t deny that it seemed possible, or even inevitable, for her acclaim to spread around. If anything, the strange part was that it had taken this long to feel the effects of her fame. "Who was this cousin that you helped? What store was this?"


    "The owner told me his name, but it''s not like I go around asking shopkeepers for introductions. It didn''t narrow it down for me."


    They soon came across a middle-aged man with a drooping moustache. He bowed to the Golden Witch. "Ah, miss Timely Rain! I see you have company. Shall I arrange a room for the young gentleman?"


    "Certainly." Her quick agreement alarmed the young man behind her.


    "That won''t be necessary, actually...!" Bai Guo mustered up a protest. "Miss ''Timely Rain'', could we please discuss this first?"


    Though confused by his reluctance, she waved the proprietor away and the two entered her room. They sat down at a table lavished with fruits and pastries. Bai Guo stared at the snacks with envy. When the Golden Witch gestured towards them, the young man shook his head and spoke.


    "First of all, master, how did you get here? Don''t you need special permission to enter the sect?"


    The woman presented a metallic round token, the word "Wen" engraved on it. Bai Guo figured that it was the family name of some other master of the sect, much like Tan Huan''s token in his own possession.


    "How did you get that?" He asked.


    "You''re going to nag again if I tell you." She put the token away.


    Bai Guo predicted that it would be something he would find controversial. He sighed. "I guess whatever''s been done is done. At least you won''t get in trouble for being here... right?"


    "My disciple is such a worrywart. Relax." She tossed a date fruit into her mouth and continued as she chewed. "There''s no way I''d miss out on my disciple''s very first battles."


    Bai Guo reluctantly smiled, moving on. "Why did that man back there call you miss Timely Rain? Well, actually, I think I can guess. It''s because you rescued his cousin''s business with your brazen disregard for money, like blessed rain in the midst of a drought. He''s probably not even the only person you have helped out in this exact fashion."


    Miss Timely Rain smiled and closed her golden eyes, as if relishing in her new title. A sudden thought interrupted her reverie.


    "Why didn''t you agree to stay here?" She asked.


    "Master..." Bai Guo began with another sigh. "Did you forget why we decided to separate in the first place? If the Kunlun Sect finds out about our relationship, they''ll kick me out of the tournament."


    It seemed that the issue had finally dawned upon her. She popped another date, chewing on it tensely. "You approached me." She turned the accusation back around.


    Bai Guo smiled again, defeated. "Well, since I''m here, we might as well make the most of it, right?"


    He narrated the events of the trials and handed over his evaluation. His master chuckled as she began to read, until suddenly her eyebrows shot up and her amusement faded.


    "Why did you get such a low grade on swords? Perhaps you didn''t show them your First Step?"


    Bai Guo rubbed the back of his neck. "I did show it. But I got the impression that they were looking for versatility too."


    The Golden Witch scoffed. With a slight flick of her fingers along the edges of the paper, the evaluation neatly rolled back up into a scroll. She tossed it up into the air, and it drew a long arc before gently falling into her disciple''s hands.


    "I take it you don''t agree with their grading criteria, master..." Bai Guo hid the offending document away into his clothes.


    "You know my views on this." The Golden Witch sipped her tea with a bitter expression. "Besides, trying to quantify martial arts with numbers is meaningless to begin with."


    A dour silence descended upon the room.


    "Well, in that case, master, how would you go about vetting your potential disciples?" Bai Guo asked, hoping to dispel some of his master''s agitation.


    Her golden eyes stared up towards the ceiling, suddenly deep in thought. "I don''t think I would choose based on their skills. Character is far more important."


    "But what if, hypothetically speaking, you already had a list of candidates you found acceptable, and had to choose just one based on their skills?" Bai Guo pressed on.


    The Golden Witch answered after a pause. "When it comes to martial arts, the most important thing is the level of one''s cultivation and their proficiency at controlling their internal energy."


    "How would you go about measuring that, master?" Bai Guo promptly realized the flaw in his own question. "...Assuming you couldn''t tell just by looking at someone..."


    The woman pursed her lips. The answer came to her fairly quickly. She picked up a pair of chopsticks and presented one to her disciple. "Try to break this."


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    He made the attempt while his master still held it by one end between her thumb and forefinger, her grip as secure as a steel vice. Try as he might, the young man simply couldn''t do anything to the utensils. Even when he began to work at it with his entire body, he couldn''t shift them by so much as a single degree. The Golden Witch observed his efforts with a smirk, letting him keep at it until he finally gave up.


    "This is ridiculous..." The young man grumbled in disbelief.


    "Try now." She offered again. When his successive attempts had still failed, she frowned. "Try harder! This should be just right for you."


    When Bai Guo redoubled his efforts, the stick had finally snapped.


    "It''s as simple as that." The Golden Witch declared.


    Bai Guo was left scratching his head. "What exactly did you glean from that, master...?"


    "I channeled some of my internal energy into it and had you compete against that with your own. By gradually increasing or decreasing the amount, I can gauge your skills."


    "But I wasn''t ''channeling'' anything, master." Bai Guo remained confused. "I don''t know how to do that at all."


    "Whether you realized it or not, you were doing it." The Golden Witch rested her chin on her knuckles as she curiously inspected some of the fruits. "The internal energy you''ve cultivated so far is now part of your body. You will draw on those reserves when you need them."


    Bai Guo pondered her words in silence. His thinking ceased when his master presented him with a berry.


    "What''s this one called? Do you know?" She asked.


    "That''s a mulberry." He responded.


    "Ah. ''The blue sea turned into mulberry fields.'' So that''s what they look like." She mused as she tossed it into her mouth.


    Bai Guo smirked. "Do you enjoy poetry, master?"


    "No." So curt was her answer that Bai Guo''s hopeful smile had disappeared before she even got to see it.


    A peculiar thought had suddenly crossed the young man''s mind. "How did she not know what a mulberry looks like? They grow everywhere."


    But he cast it aside and swerved the conversation back towards her master''s primary interests. "So you wouldn''t check their skills with weapons at all, master?"


    "No. Fundamentally, a martial arts technique is just a particular way of channeling your internal energy."


    "I see. So it would reveal the same information as the chopstick test. But master, in this case, the disciples will be fighting against each other, maybe even to the death. So shouldn''t it be necessary to establish that they have basic competency with weapons?"


    The woman''s face scrunched up with mild annoyance. "You asked me how I would decide on a disciple. Don''t add more conditions to your hypothetical. If I wanted to pick out a disciple, I wouldn''t make them fight each other to the death. Obviously! Isn''t that counterproductive? Anything can happen during a battle, and the best candidate could get maimed or perish by poor luck alone. They went through the trouble of putting you all through these trials, and yet still haven''t figured out the best candidate? What was even the point then?"


    Bai Guo found himself to be in agreement. "Even the Wuyi Sect, despite being what it was, didn''t pitch its recruits against each other in death matches... Maybe there''s more to this than just picking out the right disciple."


    The Golden Witch shrugged.


    "Speaking of which, master, does it not bother you that the matches will be conducted with live steel?" Bai Guo asked.


    "Is that not normal for these kinds of events?"


    "Of course not. I''ve never heard of such a barbaric affair."


    The woman shrugged. "It makes no difference to me. But I did suspect that it might be something that you would take issue with, disciple."


    "I do. To be frank with you, master, I considered dropping out when I first found out."


    "So why haven''t you?"


    "Well..." He was flatfooted by her question. As he stared at her tall figure, he struggled to muster the words. "I thought it would displease you..."


    "It certainly would!" She exclaimed with a grin. "I want to witness the results of my hard work. But you know, if you joined battle with a half-hearted attitude, you really could end up dead. Just drop out if you don''t want to fight."


    Bai Guo remained uncertain. "They said it''s possible for the fights to end without anyone getting hurt, but I wonder just how realistic such an ending would be..."


    "With the tools you have at your disposal, you should be able to end your fights any way you desire." The Golden Witch assured. "I would be very surprised to see someone capable of putting up a fight against the current you."


    Though uplifted by her praise, the disciple remained ill at ease. He had simply found her words difficult to believe. She didn''t even know about the danger he had gleamed from some of his foes. And he was unwilling to argue on this point because all he had to go off of were the numbers he saw on a scroll, and the Golden Witch had already expressed her strong distaste for the sect''s attempt to numerically quantify their skills.


    But her brazen confidence was infectious. Bai Guo exhaled sharply. "I won''t drop out."


    "Good. I cannot wait." The woman shimmered with glee.


    Bai Guo emphasized that they should not meet again until the event was over, and that she should keep a low profile, but as he left, he wondered just how much of his advice would be adhered to.


    On the morning of the first day of the competition, the eight man bracket of the first tournament had been announced. The Kunlun Sect''s disciples had plastered posters all over the sect.


    As Bai Guo read the announcement on the wall of the boarding house, his heart thumped with anxiety. "Chun De and Yang Yongliang. Mao Xiang and Xie Heng. Zhu Da and Tian Zian... Bai Guo and Shao Luli!"


    "You''re so unlucky, brother Guo!" Chun De gloated beside him. "You''re dead last! You''ll have to wait all day for your match!"


    Bai Guo threw his head back in frustration. But the order in which he fought was the last thing on his mind. "My very first match is against that wretched girl!"


    ...