Color drained from his face. "You are not," he said firmly. "Leave this to Mount Hua. Teng Yuan is perfectly capable of handling it without our help."
He rarely talked to me like this, with a tone so commanding that left no room for argument. I winced, though not from his attitude. I knew this was his way to hide the uncertainty and fear deep inside him. "And how is he going to handle it?" I countered. "How do we know what approach he's going to take? With which spells? Our enemy is a sword spirit of Twin Stars, after all. How do we know whatever he does won't affect the swords in some irreversible way, or worse … affect me by accident?"