That night, when all was quiet, Ivy He heard a steady knocking at her window. Her heart fluttered with nerves as she hurried to open it—only to see Quinn Shepherd climbing in with a grin. “Sister Ivy, I made sure no one was around before sneaking in.”
Ivy’s heart thudded wildly as she watched her lover by candlelight—the more she looked, the more her mind wandered and her nerves tangled.
And so, the two of them spent the entire night discussing formations.
At dawn the next day, before the sun had risen, Quinn quietly slipped out the window again. Supposedly, this was Western Lands custom: in a walking marriage, the man must not meet the woman’s family.
Quinn hadn’t even reached the ground floor before running into several early-rising women. They quickly turned away, pretending not to see him. Only after he’d walked some distance did low giggles drift out behind him.
Late in the morning, Ivy led a reluctant crowd to see Quinn off from Sword River Valley. She said, “House Hale alone isn’t enough to deal with True Heaven Palace. Cult Master, you go meet the Poison Mistress; I’ll meet with the other Western clan leaders so we can plan together.”
Quinn took his leave and departed.
Ivy watched him go, feeling a faint sense of loss.
Nearby, a girl giggled and whispered, “So, did you and Brother-in-law Quinn get together last night? Some people saw him climbing in your window, and others saw him coming down from upstairs early this morning.”
Ivy, bleary-eyed and barely awake, snapped, “Get together? We talked formations all night.”
A few other girls crowded over, chattering and giggling: “Formations? That’s just an excuse, isn’t it? With such a long night, you two must’ve been snuggled up like a pair of mandarin ducks or fluttering butterflies!”
Ivy ground her teeth, making a faint, threatening noise.
The girls jumped in surprise. “You really did talk formations with Brother-in-law all night?”
Ivy sighed helplessly. “He was so enthusiastic—what could I do, use force? What would that say about House Hale? If I really tried, we’d probably tear Junwood City apart! So I just talked formations with him all night. To be fair, his knowledge and insight are remarkable. We got so lost in exploring formation‑dao, we forgot about romance entirely. Only now do I regret it—maybe we should’ve had a little fun first, then talked formations afterward.”
The girls exchanged stunned looks. A lone man and woman in a room, and they really just talked formations all night? "He’s a beast… no, worse than a beast!"
“Then why did you send Brother-in-law Quinn to find that little fox, the Poison Mistress?”
One girl plucked up her courage and asked, “What if Mina Frost isn’t as reserved as you, and snatches Brother-in-law away?”
Ivy sneered. “Unless Mina uses force, no one can take advantage of him. Ever since she lost to him in a fight, she’s been obsessed, her heart all aflutter. She always wants to compete with me—if she found out I lost, she’d never let me hear the end of it. So why not let her fail once too, and shut her up?”
The girls were full of admiration. “Sister Ivy, you’re brilliant!”
Meanwhile, Quinn rode with Kira Bear on Bruno’s back, heading toward Thunder Mountain City where Mina Frost was based.