The Sect Leader’s Belief

Chapter 8: The Sect Leader's Belief

The sun had not yet risen, but the Azure Wind Sect was already awake.

By the time Ye Xian reached the inner halls, the air was thick with tension. Disciples whispered in hushed voices. Elder Zhao Rong spoke in clipped tones. Even the sect's guards stood more alert than usual.

They had discovered the truth.

An assassination attempt had been made on Shen Liwei.

And now, everyone wanted to know who was responsible.

Ye Xian kept her steps measured as she moved through the corridors. She had already cleaned her wound and changed her robes, masking any sign of her fight with Mu Rongyin. But one mistake—**one wrong answer, one hesitation—**could still unravel everything.

For now, she had to play her role. A physician. An outsider. A woman with no reason to be involved.

Except someone wasn't going to let her stay in the shadows.

Because she had been summoned.

Again.

---

Inside the Hall of Discipline

The doors closed behind her with a heavy finality.

The chamber was large but empty except for one man.

Shen Liwei.

He sat behind a long wooden table, his posture composed, his hands resting lightly on the surface. But there was something different this time.

The patience from their last meeting was gone.

He wasn't just watching her now. He was studying her. Calculating.

A warrior sharpening his blade before the killing strike.

Ye Xian placed a hand on her heart and lowered her gaze slightly. Acknowledgment—but not submission.

"You wished to see me, Sect Leader?" she said smoothly.

A beat of silence.

Then—

"Yes."

He gestured to the seat across from him. "Sit."

A test.

She knew what this was. A way to control the conversation. To make it seem like he was offering her something—when in reality, he was demanding something from her.

She stepped forward, her movements unhurried, and took the seat across from him.

Silence stretched between them.

Then, Shen Liwei finally spoke.

"You were near my quarters last night."

A statement, not a question. He was forcing her to explain herself.

Ye Xian didn't blink. "I was."

"Why?"

"I heard movement," she said, tilting her head slightly. "The halls were too quiet. It felt unnatural."

Another silence.

Then—a small flicker in his eyes.

He's measuring my words.

If she said too much, he would find a hole in her story. If she said too little, he would know she was hiding something.

Ye Xian kept her voice calm. "I didn't see the assassin, only the signs of their escape. When I arrived, the fight was already over."

Shen Liwei studied her for a long moment.

Then—

"Strange, isn't it?"

Ye Xian raised a brow. "What is?"

"That an outsider—a healer—was the first to react to an assassination attempt on the sect leader."

A trap. A challenge.

Ye Xian exhaled softly. "Perhaps I was simply awake at the right time."

Shen Liwei's fingers tapped lightly against the table. A small, rhythmic sound. Like a warrior testing the balance of his blade before a duel.

"Perhaps," he said, voice unreadable. "Or perhaps fate placed you there."

Ye Xian's gaze didn't waver.

"Do you believe in fate, Sect Leader?"

Shen Liwei didn't hesitate.

"Yes."

The word was spoken with certainty, as if it were an undeniable truth.

Ye Xian tilted her head slightly. "And what does fate say about me?"

Shen Liwei leaned forward slightly, the candlelight flickering against his sharp features.

"That you are not here by accident."

A pause.

Then, he said something that made her pulse slow.

"I believe everything leads to where it is meant to be."

His voice was calm, but the meaning behind it was anything but.

It was a warning. A statement of absolute belief.

Ye Xian inhaled evenly. So he believed in it, too.

But not in the way she did.

Not in the way she had been taught.

"You think fate is a chain," she murmured. "Something no one can escape."

Shen Liwei's lips curved slightly. Not a smile, but something colder.

"Fate is a river," he said. "You can fight against it. You can delay it. But in the end, it will carry you where you are meant to go."

Ye Xian met his gaze evenly. "And if I choose to change its course?"

A pause.

Then—Shen Liwei's voice dropped lower.

"You won't."

A challenge.

A certainty.

A war between belief and control.

And Ye Xian knew, in that moment, that this man—her target, her enemy, the one she had been sent to kill—

Was someone she could never truly predict.

Or escape.

---

Shadows Moving in the Dark

By the time Ye Xian left the hall, the tension in her chest hadn't faded.

Shen Liwei was growing impatient.

If she didn't shift the focus away from herself soon, she would become his next target.

But that wasn't the worst part.

The real problem was Mu Rongyin.

Because somewhere in Jianghu, someone had paid an assassin who knew her past to kill Shen Liwei.

And if she didn't uncover who had truly sent her, then it wouldn't just be Shen Liwei's life at risk.

It would be hers.

---

End of Chapter 8