Everyone turned toward the voice.
Kanzaki walked in from outside, flicking his wrist. Over a dozen jars of Plum Blossom Wine appeared on the table in an instant.
"Drink as much as you like. This wine won't dull your senses or interfere with tomorrow's duties."
"Wow! Lord Kanzaki is so generous!" Baiheng's eyes lit up as she raised both hands in celebration.
The others reacted as well, their expressions shifting with surprise and warmth—everyone except Jingliu. Kanzaki's Plum Blossom Wine was legendary among them. Its mellow flavor never grew tiresome, and they often found excuses to gather at Qingxin Residence after battles. The hot springs were secondary; the real draw was the wine.
Kanzaki left the jars and withdrew, giving the Five Swift Warriors in the Cloud their space.
Jingliu's slender brows drew together almost imperceptibly. A flicker of confusion passed through her eyes, followed by a deeper, quieter unease.
Her master was acting strangely tonight.
The wine was smooth and relaxing, the kind that encouraged people to drink without restraint. Combined with the fact that it left the mind clear, the four of them drank freely, yet the dozen jars still proved difficult to finish.
As the night deepened, the others gradually took their leave. They could all see that something weighed on Jingliu's mind, but no one pressed her. In times like these, everyone carried their own burdens.
Jingliu did not see them off. After clearing the empty jars, she followed the familiar scent to Kanzaki's private courtyard.
The ornamental plum blossoms had long since withered. Dry branches swayed in the night wind, stark against the moonlight.
She stood behind him, her gaze complicated, her voice low and steady despite the emotion beneath it.
"Master. You once said that if I brought back Hoolay's head and proved myself to you, then… Hoolay is now imprisoned in the Shackling Prison, paying for his crimes."
She looked at his broad back, not like a disciple seeking praise, but like someone who had staked everything on a single outcome.
"Do I finally have the right to hear your answer?"
Kanzaki turned.
The woman before him was no longer the naive girl from years ago. Sharpness and resolve had replaced that earlier innocence.
After a long silence, he nodded slowly.
"You have done well."
Light flashed in Jingliu's eyes. She stared at his lips, waiting.
"In both military merit and swordsmanship, you have long since surpassed your teacher. Over these years you caught up to me and then moved ahead. You no longer need to follow in my footsteps."
His words were sincere. He had watched her growth with genuine acknowledgment.
Jingliu's breathing quickened. The longing that had built over a thousand years finally broke through.
"Then, Master… will you admit it now?"
She stepped closer, almost pressing against him. Her voice trembled with quiet desperation.
"Admit that you see your disciple as a woman. That you have come to love her. That you feel desire for her."
Kanzaki's gaze flickered, but his expression remained calm.
"Those feelings have never existed. There is nothing to admit."
Jingliu's smile froze.
"…You're lying."
He said nothing.
Her voice rose, edged with pain.
"If you truly feel nothing when you are conscious, then I will believe you!"
Before he could respond, she rose on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Her lips were soft but insistent, her tongue pushing past his in a frantic attempt to draw out any reaction, any proof that he felt something.
Kanzaki's pupils narrowed.
For a brief moment, the desire he had buried for so long surged forward at the scent and warmth of her. His body reacted before reason could stop it.
He couldn't.
He couldn't.
With sudden force he pushed her away.
"…Jingliu. You are being presumptuous."
The rebuke was sharp, but it carried an unmistakable tremor of disarray.
Unlike the Xueyi sisters, Kanzaki had long known the truth. At some point, without realizing when, he had fallen in love with this disciple of his.
But he was a monster. He could not answer that feeling. He truly could not.
Jingliu stumbled back two steps, her eyes red, her face twisted with hurt and disbelief.
"Why?!"
Her voice cracked.
"What did I do wrong, Master? Why won't you admit how you feel about me? Tell me! Why can you accept others but not me? I can change! I'll do anything for you—even die for you!"
"Enough."
Kanzaki's eyes turned cold, all remaining warmth extinguished.
"From now on, you have graduated."
The world seemed to stop.
Jingliu stared at him, her mind blank except for those words repeating in her head.
"What… did you just say?"
"I said you have graduated," he repeated, voice flat. "From this moment forward, you are no longer my disciple."
"No… No!!"
Her scream was raw, almost broken.
"Master, why are you so cruel?! I won't leave! I won't graduate! Even if I die, I'll still be your disciple!"
She lunged forward and clung to his waist with desperate strength, arms locked so tightly it felt as though she would never let go.
Kanzaki's brows furrowed. He tried to pry her arms loose, but when that failed he channeled his breath and forcibly broke her hold, flinging her away with a sharp motion.
The movement was too violent.
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
Both of them froze.
Their eyes dropped to the ground.
The Silver Moon Jade Pendant that had hung from Kanzaki's sleeve for years—the one Jingliu had personally polished and given him before her first campaign—lay in pieces on the cold stone floor.
The night air turned heavy.
Jingliu stared at the fragments, her expression emptying by the second. It was as if she were watching her own heart break apart on the ground.
Kanzaki was the first to speak, his voice colder than the wind.
"I warned you before. If you crossed this line again, we would become strangers. Right now the Yuque faces imminent danger. Billions of lives hang in the balance."
His tone grew harder.
"As the Cloud Knight Sword Master, to let yourself be consumed by personal feelings and act with such reckless impropriety—what kind of conduct is this?"
He turned his back to her.
"Put those thoughts away. Leave immediately. Rest and prepare for tomorrow's reinforcement."
Jingliu did not move.
She remained kneeling where she had fallen, staring at the shattered jade. The light in her eyes dimmed until only a dark, stagnant emptiness remained.
Everything was gone.
A thousand years of obsession, a thousand years of devotion, had earned her only a single sentence of dismissal and a floor covered in irreparable fragments.
Time passed in silence.
Kanzaki felt the pity and pain in his chest grow almost unbearable. He was about to speak when Jingliu slowly lowered herself into a formal kowtow.
No words. No farewell.
When the ritual was complete, she rose and walked away like a puppet, her steps hollow and mechanical.
At the very last moment, she still turned her head to look back at him.
His back remained as distant and unyielding as ever.
A bitter, broken smile touched her lips. Tears traced burning paths down her cheeks.
The moonlight stretched her shadow long and lonely across the ground.
Since you don't want me, Master… then I will bury this heart, and this life, on the battlefield.
For the rest of my days I will hunt the Abundance in your name. I will repay the 1,079 years of guidance you gave me—until the very end.