Path of the Sect Leader-Chapter 48: The Beauty, Again

“You are…?”
The girl in pale yellow tilted her3 head, eyes wide and blank.
Qi Xiu felt something sour splash against his ribs. *Of course she forgot me.* He forced an awkward laugh and cupped his hands.
“Half a year ago, Senior personally escorted my Chu Qin Sect to Black River. Thanks to your grace, we have taken root. This junior dared not forget that debt for a single day. Today I come only to thank you in person.”
He offered a roll of flawless crimson fox pelt with both hands. Nothing expensive; just something pretty a girl might like.
Chu Zhuangyuan’s eyes lit up like sunrise on snow. She snatched it with a delighted squeal and immediately draped it around her neck, spinning to see how it fell.
“Scarf? Collar? Little cape?” She giggled, cheeks flushed. “What do you think?”
The pure fire-red against her snow-pale skin turned the fresh, natural beauty into something dangerously gorgeous. Qi Xiu’s heart stuttered; he looked away as if staring at the sun.
“It… suits Senior perfectly,” he managed, tongue thick.
Chu Zhuangyuan burst out laughing at his flustered face and pointed to a chair. “Sit, sit. Black River is impossibly far. You didn’t fly all this way just to say thank you, right?”
Straight to business; Qi Xiu was grateful. He perched on half the seat and laid out the whole sorry tale: Chu Youmin’s people treating Black River like their private hunting park, declaring anything that grew there belonged to them by right.
When he finished, Chu Zhuangyuan’s usual smile was gone. Delicate brows knitted.
“This… Chu Youmin is technically my elder by mortal reckoning. I cannot reprimand him directly.”
Qi Xiu’s heart sank to his boots. He rose, bowing. “Then this junior was presumptuous. Forgive the disturbance.”
“But,” she cut in brightly, “I can take you to my martial uncle; Elder Chu Duo. He oversees all immigrant affairs. He’ll fix it.”
Golden Core!
Qi Xiu nearly dropped his teacup. A single word from a Golden Core could end this nightmare forever.
“Wouldn’t that be… too much trouble for an Elder?” he asked, pretending reluctance while joy exploded inside.
Chu Zhuangyuan was already walking. “Not at all! Come!”
They crossed half the city on foot; no flying inside Southern Chu City; until they reached a solemn black hall guarded by a female Foundation Establishment cultivator who waved them through with familiar ease.
Inside, a hawk-faced man in tall hat and dark robes sat in meditation. Cruel, narrow eyes, hooked nose; the kind of face that enjoyed saying no.
Chu Zhuangyuan made Qi Xiu wait, stepped forward, and sweetly recounted everything.
The man opened his eyes. A mountain fell on Qi Xiu’s shoulders. His knees buckled; soul screaming to kneel and worship. Just as suddenly the pressure vanished, leaving him trembling, held upright by an invisible hand.
Golden Core pressure; casual as breathing.
The Elder listened, then snorted; cold, cutting, utterly unafraid of Qi Xiu hearing.
“Chu Youmin can’t get along with Beast Taming Sect, can’t get along with Qi Yun remnants, and now he picks fights with a bunch of Qi Refining trash? What exactly is he trying to prove?”
Trash.
The word landed clean between Qi Xiu’s eyes. He kept his face blank; what else could he do? In front of a Golden Core, he was exactly that.
Chu Zhuangyuan pouted. “Martial uncle!”
“Fine.” A jade slip appeared between the Elder’s fingers and flicked toward Qi Xiu like a thrown dagger. “Take this to Chu Youmin. He’ll know what to do.”
A casual sleeve flick, and both visitors were outside the hall before they could blink.
“Stupid martial uncle, mean martial uncle,” Chu Zhuangyuan muttered, kicking at nothing. Then she turned, all business again.
“You cannot read the slip. Deliver it sealed. Once he reads it, your problem ends. My promise from half a year ago is now fulfilled; we are even. From today on, do not come looking for me again. Official business goes through Elder Chu Duo’s attending disciples.”
She said it lightly, like returning a borrowed comb.
Qi Xiu felt the words strike a hundred times harder than being called trash.
Mission accomplished. Problem solved. And somehow he had never felt more wretched.
He bowed, voice hollow. “This junior obeys.”
No mood left to sight-see. He trudged to the Beast Taming Sect depot, boarded the next east-bound cargo ray, and sat among the crates like a man attending his own funeral.
Three days of cold wind later, the ray crossed Black River again.
Qi Xiu stared down at the black scar far below and felt nothing; not even the grand market dream that had sparkled on the journey west.
Just ash in his mouth, and the lingering scent of crimson fox fur that did not belong to him.