Taoist Master

Her Identity

The rapturous applause continued even over the music that suddenly began to play which only added to the festive atmosphere which had her feet tapping in time to the rhythm. The excitement was high for the winner and her name which was only a few minutes away, but still, the fanfare was in full swing already. Through the curtain, she could see sparkles of light, so she took that to mean the fairy dancers were now in the air and weaving their magic while someone out there had taken to singing an old ditty which the rest were slowly joining in with.

Listening behind his own curtain, Mo Yuans eyes had closed to await the judges return and had any of them sneaked a peak, they would have thought the man sitting bolt upright with his eyes closed, was asleep because he looked far too calm and at peace rather than nervous which they all assumed him to be.

In fact, there was one Taoist master in the audience who was quietly pondering on both of their answers even though the hall was now in full swing around him. Sitting in the back corner, Master Ci Hang quietly shook his head with a chuckle. He already knew Mo Yuan was the man behind the curtain because he would know his voice anywhere not to mention the mans superior knowledge and the ability to convey it to perfection. He had never beaten him in a debate so it was no surprise to see him sitting there in the final.

Only his mind was on the young woman. From her energy, he felt she was perhaps far older than her voice suggested and that was because it didn't matter how well read someone was, unless they had life experience behind them, they would never be able to go up against a man like Mo Yuan and be this close to beating him unless they had known failure, triumph, hope and fear. It was the only way one could possibly understand the underlying lessons in that final quote. And the louder the crowd became having lost themselves to the excitement, the more he began to laugh along with them. Whether she won or lost, it didn't matter, because he knew full well that Mo Yuan would drag her out of the cave she'd been hiding in and eat her alive.

No one, not even himself had ever come this close to matching him in a subject that even he considered Mo Yuan the Grand Master of, so whoever she was, he knew, she would never be able to go back to the silence and anonymity now, Mo Yuan would never allow such a mind as hers, to remain hidden, he would absolutely force her to his mountain to continue the debate. He was that way inclined.

Though if Mo Yuan was thinking the same thing, it didn't show even though internally, his heart was pounding in his chest. The urgency to know her name was becoming insufferable the longer the judges took and the louder the crowd became. It always went this way, after all, this competition was the greatest debate of the year and whoever won would be not only take Grand Master as their title, they would be become the guest of honour at every banquet and ball for the rest of their lives, because that is what the title would give them.

He knew this personally, even though he rarely attended any of them, but for a young woman, the title would launch her onto the world stage, and if she wasn't yet married, then proposals would arrive within days, it was that big a deal. Though he really was quietly hoping that she wasn't married and not because he was considering it, but because a husband would no doubt place restrictions on her movements and he planned to utilise that mind of hers whether she won or lost, she was that worthy.

Now straightening his back, the smile from before returned with the abrupt halt to the noise which was almost deafening. The music stilled halfway through a lengthy refrain, the fairy dancers quickly fell to the sides of the hall, and the crowd excitedly rushed to take their seats as the judges returned looking stern faced and giving nothing away.

Hearing their chairs scraping against the floor, Bai Qian rose to her feet along with Mo Yuan. The moment had arrived and one of them would lose their curtain first, so quietly checking her gown and hair, she then looked up at the seamless edge of the blue material which would give way should she be the winner. It was magically held in place by one of the judges who would release the spell to bring it down when the time came and as the hall fell into a deathly silence, she inadvertently found herself edging closer to her rivals side of the curtain. The fear, the suspense, the long drawn out wait was twisting her belly so tightly, that she began to feel sick.