Jinde landed on the deck of the white feathered boat and sighed. Behind him, the storm was calming down. In that case, it should have worked, right? He shook his head and went back to his seat next to Hua Min. "Alliance Head Hua, it seems the worst part is over. We should hurry and get back."
Hua Min looked at Jinde with a complicated expression. This man had actually managed to solve such a situation. It wasn't strange considering that he was married to Grandmaster Leng but it made him wonder why he would flee the Yun Zou Sect. Shouldn't somebody this strong be able to deal with whoever dared to make trouble for him? Well, that wasn't anything for him to worry about.
He nodded and then imbued his spiritual energy into the artifact again, making it once again drift toward the Yun Zou Sect. When they arrived at the sect gates, the situation on the training grounds hadn't been solved yet. On the contrary, further trouble was brewing.
The disciples of the Yang Huo Sect had started to make a fuss until the Grandelder hurried over with Nian Hong Fan to take a look at Elder Gongxi's injuries. As for the result … Well, the Elder had expended all of his spiritual energy to hold off the onslaught of Qiu Ling's attack, damaging his spirit veins in the process. The rest of his body wasn't doing much better: Not counting the cuts to his skin, he had several broken bones and inner injuries. It was nothing that a few pills couldn't heal but considering that they had originally wanted to have a friendly competition between the disciples, it wasn't a good result.
The Grandelder glanced at the Sect Master but Yuchi Bing Xia could only smile wryly. What was he supposed to say? Elder Gongxi had agreed to that duel but these kinds of wounds shouldn't have happened. Since it had happened in front of all the other sects he should probably let the Grandelder heal him but on the other hand, this fight had started because Elder Gongxi had tried to drag Qiu Ling's fiance into a fight. If he had him healed now that he had lost, wouldn't that send the wrong signal? Never mind what the other sects would make out of that, wouldn't Qiu Ling be furious? After all, he obviously cherished that boy and wouldn't stand for it if others dared to threaten him.
Ah, this really wasn't easy.
Yuchi Bing Xia looked from the Grandelder and Elder Gongxi over to where Qiu ling was still hugging his fiance. Well, the Yang Huo Sect would make trouble anyway now that one of their people had been injured. Whether they raged a bit more or a bit less, they would get brazen anyway. So why should he accommodate them?
Yuchi Bing Xia got up and gave what he hoped to be a compassionate smile. "Aiya, these disciples, it seems that Elder Gongxi has suffered quite a bit in that fight. Are you able to use your sect's artifact to fly back or would you like one of our disciples to escort you? It wouldn't be too much trouble for us so you don't have to hold back just to be polite."
The disciples stared at him, trembling with anger. The Yun Zou Sect's disciple had injured their Elder and their Sect Master still dared to behave like this?! Unfortunately, they didn't have the backing of an Elder anymore and they were of the younger generation. They couldn't lose their temper at Yuchi Bing Xia.
One of the disciples finally got up from the ground and cupped his fists in Yuchi Bing Xia's direction. "Thank you for your generous offer, Sect Master Yuchi. We'll be able to take him back on our own."
"Mn, that's good then." Yuchi Bing Xia nodded like a good-natured person. He knew that these disciples would go and tattle to the Yang Huo Sect's Sect Master but they should just try to make trouble. Everyone had heard Elder Gongxi agree to the fight and after this show of strength, many of them likely wouldn't dare to speak out against them anyway. Mn, it would be great if Yu Jin could come out of closed-door cultivation before they left. If he had managed to make a breakthrough, it'd certainly shock these guys silly!
He really wanted to laugh but he had to control himself and continue to look on with a pitying gaze as if he truly cared about Elder Gongxi. He couldn't let people say his Yun Zou Sect was inhumane.
Yuchi Bing Xia nodded and then motioned at Wu Min Huan. "Min Huan, why don't you help them to a place where they can set off? The training grounds might not be a good place for that."
"Yes, Master." Wu Min Huan happily bowed and rushed over to them, leading them away.
Yuchi Bing Xia heaved a sigh of relief. Well, the first one had been taken care of, now he only needed to take care of the other sects and then they could finally return to their everyday life. Or, well, at least they could return to taking care of their own matters. There was still the problem with Elder Geng's disciple, after all, and they still needed to restructure the sect. That would take a lot of time.
Yuchi Bing Xia straightened up and cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the other sects' delegations again. After this had happened, it shouldn't be too hard to drive them off. Just when he wanted to start speaking, a voice interrupted him.
"Sect Master Yuchi."
The one who stepped forward was Liu Cheng and his expression said that what he wanted to say wasn't anything Yuchi Bing Xia would like to hear.
The Sect Master gulped and gave a weak smile. Considering where Liu Cheng came from, he could already imagine what this would be about but he certainly didn't want to hear that. After all, he had already seen at the Gathering of Practitioners how strongly Qiu Ling reacted to being called a demon and after what had just happened, they certainly couldn't let another blunder happen.