Kael spent the next morning at the orphanage. His payment from Merchant Guo was more than
enough to hire carpenters to repair the door and windows, but Kael was there himself,
hammering nails and clearing debris alongside the matron. His Vow was to protect the home,
and to him, that meant rebuilding what was broken. The children, no longer terrified, watched
him with a shy, silent awe.
He was hammering a new plank into the doorframe when a shadow fell over him.
"You're a fool."
He didn't have to look. Lin Yue stood there, her fine blue-and-white robes looking utterly out of
place in the slum. She had no veil, and her cold beauty made the few passers-by stop, stare,
and then hurry on, sensing the dangerous, high-cultivation aura she exuded.
"I have work to do, Lady Lin," Kael said, not stopping his work.
"You used nearly all your reward money on this... hovel," she stated. "You fight for those who
cannot pay you. You refuse a fortune. And you have a power you shouldn't have."
She stepped closer, her eyes fixed on his hands. "I have not slept. I replayed the fight with Zhu
in my mind a thousand times. You did not just endure. You parried. You anticipated. You used
his own force against him. Your technique was flawless, yet... empty. No Qi. No spiritual art. No
'Dao'."
She looked up, her gaze meeting his, and for the first time, her eyes held no arrogance. No pity.
Just a raw, burning, almost desperate need to know.
"What are you?" she asked, her voice quiet.
"I'm a man with a hammer," Kael replied, turning back to the nail.
Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Her grip was like a steel trap, infused with a chilling Qi.
"Do not mock me. I am a prodigy of the Sky-Veil Sect. I am a Foundation-Establishment
cultivator at nineteen. I understand power. But I do not understand you. And it... it infuriates me."
Kael stopped hammering. He looked at her hand on his wrist, then back at her face. He could
feel his [Iron Will] pushing back against the cold, invasive Qi.
"And what do you want from me?" he asked.
"Teach me," she said.
The request was so absurd Kael almost laughed. "Teach you? Lady Lin, you can fly. You can
freeze monsters. You are, by every measure in this world, a goddess among mortals. I am a
cripple who gets hit for a living. What could I possibly teach you?"
"You can teach me that," she hissed, her eyes intense. "Teach me how you stopped Zhu's palm.
Teach me how you broke those men. Teach me the art you hide."
"It's not an art," Kael said, his voice laced with a sudden, weary frustration. He pulled his wrist
free, and she, surprised by his simple, physical strength, let him.
"I made a promise," he said, turning back to his work. "I found the will to keep it. The power...
the power just came. That's all. There is no 'art.' There is no 'secret.' There is only the Vow."
Lin Yue stared at him, her mind, so used to complex theories and ancient manuals, trying to
process the sheer, impossible simplicity of his answer. He was either a profound liar or... he was telling the truth. And the truth was a new, terrifying continent of power she had never known
existed.
She watched him hammer the last nail. He tested the door, gave the matron a nod, and
gathered his tools.
"If you will not teach me," Lin Yue said, her voice hardening, "I will learn by watching."
Kael sighed. "It's a free city."
He walked away, his back straight, his toolbox in hand. Lin Yue did not follow. She just watched
him go, her mind ablaze with a thousand new questions. He wasn't a puzzle; he was an
impossibility. And she, a woman who had mastered everything she'd ever tried, would solve
him.