Guo Xiaorou was still stunned by what had happened, so stunned she didn't even realize she'd already been expelled from the secret realm.
She was back on the stone platform, the same one she'd stepped onto days ago. The slab was etched with fading formation lines that glimmered faintly when they caught the sun.
"What happened to you?"
A familiar voice cut through the haze.
Guo Xiaorou blinked hard and looked up.
Elder Wei Shuang stood as straight as a spear. Her robes were a deep, muted blue trimmed with pale silver embroidery, simple at first glance, but every stitch carried refinement and authority. A plain jade clasp pinned her hair, and the only ornament on her person was a thin ring at her finger that looked unremarkable until the light struck it and the air subtly stiffened. Her face was calm in the way of someone who had endured too many storms.
Her master had arrived without fanfare, as if she'd always been standing there.
Guo Xiaorou jolted like a startled cat and tried to stand, only to wobble and nearly fall. Wei Shuang caught her with one hand as if she weighed nothing. The grip was firm but not harsh, a steadying support more than restraint.
Wei Shuang's gaze moved over her in a single sweep.
Mud clung to Guo Xiaorou from head to toe, dulled into dusty streaks along her sleeves and hem, but the shoe-print on her cheek was newer, a wet smear pressed into the grime like an insult.
Wei Shuang's expression didn't change much, but the temperature in her eyes dropped, and the space around them seemed to tighten.
"Who did this?"
Three words. Flat. Controlled.
Hearing them, everything Guo Xiaorou had been forcing down finally burst. She clung to her master and cried, words tumbling out between sobs as she recounted everything. The team-up. The Qi-Sink Clayfruit. The toad. The betrayal. The purple-haired rogue.
Wei Shuang listened without interrupting, her face unreadable. Only her thumb moved, slow and rhythmic against Guo Xiaorou's shoulder, as if counting breaths.
When Guo Xiaorou finished, Wei Shuang let out a quiet sigh.
This was exactly why she'd sent Guo Xiaorou into this secret realm.
The girl had been protected too well. If that continued, she would be ruined the first time the world stopped being gentle.
Guo Xiaorou realized too late that she'd soaked a patch of her master's sleeve with snout and tears. She flushed, mortified, but still didn't let go. Her arms tightened, small and desperate, as if her master might vanish the moment she loosened her grip.
Wei Shuang patted her head once. The touch was cool, almost clinical.
Warmth spread through Guo Xiaorou's body, steady and soothing. The ache behind her eyes dulled, her breathing smoothing out as if someone had pressed a palm to her back and reminded her how to breathe properly. The filth on her clothes and skin vanished in an instant, as if rinsed away by invisible water. Even the mark on her face faded like it had never been there, leaving her skin smooth again.
Guo Xiaorou didn't notice her master's restraint in what she did and didn't say, but the truth was simple: with the protections Wei Shuang had placed on her, and the hidden safeguards sewn into her clothing by her senior sisters, meant nothing in that realm would have been able to truly hurt her.
But Wei Shuang wasn't going to tell her that. The fear, the helplessness, the betrayal, those were lessons Guo Xiaorou needed to feel in her bones.
"Master… those people need to be taught a harsh lesson! But the purple-haired one…" She hesitated, lips tightening. "Just beat her. Don't go any further than that."
That surprised Wei Shuang more than she showed. The anger in Guo Xiaorou's voice when she spoke of the purple-haired rogue sounded fiercer than when she described the cultivators who had betrayed her, yet she spoke out for them?
Wei Shuang's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Why spare her?"
Guo Xiaorou hadn't expected the question. She stammered, wiped her face, then forced herself to steady her breathing. She straightened a little, like she was trying to remember she was a sect disciple and not some sobbing child on the ground.
"At first, I thought she felt familiar. But I didn't know why." Her ears turned red. "Only when… I looked up at her, That I remembered. She's the same person who tried to stop me from getting scammed by a vendor a few days ago. One who claimed the spirit beasts in the secret realm were no stronger than Qi Foundation."
Her voice grew quieter, the anger thinning into something that sounded uncomfortably like guilt.
"I don't think she meant to hurt me at first. I was just… furious, and scared. After I nearly died because of those other rogue cultivators, my heart was still burning, and when I saw her in front of me… I threw it at her."
Even saying it out loud made her chest feel tight, like she was admitting weakness.
"As you wish." Wei Shuang replied calmly before she stopped patting her head.
With a flick of her fingers, the silver thread tightened and rewound itself, looping neatly around Guo Xiaorou's sword guard before settling against the hilt in perfect order.
Her belt rose from the ground and cinched around her waist as if it had never been removed, the pouches settling with a soft tap against her hip. A heartbeat later, the sword lifted and slid into the sheath at her side with a clean, satisfying click.
Wei Shuang's eyes briefly checked the belt. Aside from the the stuff Guo Xiaorou had mentioned, nothing else seemed missing.
Good. At least that rogue hadn't been foolish enough to steal from her disciple.
"As for the others, they won't be difficult to find." Her words were calm. But the meaning beneath them was not.
Then she looked down at Guo Xiaorou. The warmth in her eyes was subtle, the kind most people never saw, like a lamp kept behind a screen.
"How long are you going to cling to me? Although only a few days had passed, your senior sisters have been worried sick about you. We should head back."
Guo Xiaorou nodded quickly and finally let go.
Only then did she notice what she'd ignored before. Dozens of people were scattered around the platform. Some looked pale and hollow-eyed. Some heavily injured while others seem to be missing entire limbs. Those who couldn't stand were being carried away by attendants on stretchers made of woven bamboo.
Bursts of light kept flashing as more entrants were expelled, each arrival followed by a moment of chaos before the sect's order swallowed it again.
Strangely, none of them seemed to notice Guo Xiaorou or her master.
Wei Shuang then lifted her without warning.
Guo Xiaorou squeaked, then immediately wrapped her arms around her Wei Shuang's neck out of habit, face burning with embarrassment at her reflex. She could feel her master's Qi supporting her like a platform, solid and unwavering.
They rose into the air.
Wind should have torn at her hair and made her eyes sting, but it didn't. And Wei Shuang's voice reached her clearly, unshaken by their speed.
"Guo Xiaorou, since you failed your trial, I will assign you a new one." Wei Shuang's eyes cooled. A bruised dignity was still dignity. Let Guo Xiaorou earn it back with her own hands.
Guo Xiaorou stiffened.
Wei Shuang added, calm as ever, "Of course, after you've rested and recovered."
Instead of the tantrum she expected, Guo Xiaorou only swallowed and said, "Understood, Master."
Wei Shuang's eyebrow lifted slightly, and took it as growth.
What she didn't know was that Guo Xiaorou did want to complain. She had nearly died, been betrayed, been humiliated, and now her master was already speaking of sending her out again?
But Guo Xiaorou didn't say any of it.
She wasn't stupid. She understood why Wei Shuang was suddenly like this. Her master wanted her to rely on herself, not hide behind her senior sisters forever.
And more than that…
Guo Xiaorou herself wanted to grow.
Not to be coddled.
Not to be protected.
She wanted to be someone who could stand with them, not someone they had to shield.