About the matter with Black Poison Hag, Zhou Zishu did not say anything else outside of punishing him with an extra shichen of practice every day after knowing about the details. Zhang Chengling had acted rashly, but it had also allowed Zhou Zishu to witness his potential--even after experiencing all these ordeals, so numerous and so cruel, he still retained his purest heart. He never concealed his cowardice, but when the time called for bravery, he would never disappoint.

Zhou Zishu had always felt that if a boy didn't have a few scars on him, he was a piece of useless trash tucked under someone's wing, one that would never learn how to fly even if he reached adulthood peacefully and successfully.

Zhang Chengling did his own reflection too--he could not keep relying on shifu. Shifu was teaching him many things the way one would force feed a duck, and he had inscribed them into his memory by any means necessary. But there were many areas he did not understand, and still could not even with shifu breaking it down into fine pieces for him. He needed to train through practical experience.

Now that shifu's injury was at its most critical juncture, Zhang Chengling felt that he shouldn't stay by shifu's side, clueless and confused. He should leave for the world beyond, and do something for him.

As he started to daydream, the moves he was executing descended into turmoil.

Wen Kexing spotted it from afar, but did not say anything. He was in turmoil himself--only a thirty-percent confidence of success. In his life, he had faced countless life-or-death situations; each time, surviving with thirty-percent confidence was already a very decent performance. But…it was A-Xu.

Wen Kexing only came back to his senses when Cao Weining called out to him. Cao Weining was looking cautiously at him, waiting for him to speak. Gu Xiang had said that she was raised by this man. A sudden sense of fearful respect, as though he was facing the father-in-law, rose within Cao Weining, and he smiled ingratiatingly, "Wen-xiong summoned me out here because…"

Wen Kexing looked at him. It was as if he suddenly did not know where to start; after a long while, he finally began, “I...when I was ten or so years old, a half-grown child myself, I took A-Xiang in. I knew her father and mother--they had died, and she was too young then, still swaddled in blankets. Her mother had hidden her somewhere; their enemies had not noticed her, and she managed to escape with her life.”

Cao Weining didn’t even dare to make a single noise, listening on with an expression near pious.

Wen Kexing continued, “She’s actually not my maidservant...although we address each other like master and servant, I have never treated that lass as an outsider--she is like my own little sister.”