[ luckily, years of training means xie lian isn't even rattled when jiang cheng takes off like that. this guy's got a lot of spiritual energy, and to wield this thing so well means he must be very strong indeed. he's totally unrattled, but absolutely impressed, and once they're moving, he squats down to properly examine the sword. ]

Hello, Sandu. [ it's probably a little weird to greet it by name but you know, that's just how xie lian rolls. he examines the hilt from where he's settled, and the craftsmanship of the metal... wow.... you're cool, jiang cheng...

speaking of being a cactus, xie lian feels like he may have just hit a pricker. "four great sects"? he has literally never heard of them.

he reckons if jiang cheng fucking yeets him off of this sword he can catch himself just fine. even without ruoye, he could probably do a backflip and land on the train or something. though he should probably stay out of trouble, so it's time to cover for himself. ] Eheh... [ shit ] Well, I've been more or less traveling around alone for the past... well, for a while. A... [ friend?!?! what do you even call """nan feng""" (who xie lian knows is in fact his former bodyguard pulling an Aggressive Tsundere on him but that's besides the point) ] Mm, a colleague of mine said that it was like I lived under a rock.

[ it's a good excuse for a daozhang, since they tend to be sort of weird anyway. ] Would you tell me more about it?