"What was that energy?" Purple Ash, who was Cultivating in his room, said, feeling a sudden energy wave from his new guests' room.
SWOOSH!
With incredible speed, he appeared in front of their room and knocked. When no sound came out, he knocked again. After waiting for a minute with no response, he held the doors handle to open it when,
"Sect Master?" Hesroth voiced seeing him. "What are you doing?"
He knew it was disrespectful, but the Sect Master considered him a friend, and he did the same when they were alone.
"I felt a weird energy originate from their room and came to check," he explained, not minding the rudeness Hesroth showed. "I knocked several times, but no answer came, so I was going to open the door."
After he said that, Purple Ash opened the handle. Although others couldn't enter the room as the one who built it, he easily did without breaking anything.
When the door opened, Hesroth and Purple Ashs' eyes contracted. The latter quickly approached the two and made sure they were alive despite their haggard and creepy look.
"Sect Master their eyes are bleeding."
"I can see that!" Purple Ash screamed nervously. He took out two pills from his space ring and shoved them in the two's mouths, which stopped the bleeding eyes after melting.
"They should be fine now," he said, calming down. "Damn it! What happened here? It's the first time and maybe the last one our Sect discovered people like them and even their personalities are to my liking, what if something happened to them?!"
"Sect Master, calm down," Hesroth said, holding his shoulder. "They are fine now."
As soon as Hesroth said that, a change started happening to the two. Weird energies enveloped them in half grey-half black cocoon as if they were pupas entering metamorphosis.
"Did you have to say it?" Purple Ash glared at his friend, annoyed.
Hesroth immediately regretted what he said, 'me and my big mouth. What if I jinxed them, and now this happened.'
"Wait a second," Hesroth said after observing the energy cocoons. "I feel Masters' energies in both of these cocoons. I have felt it before, so I can tell these are their own energies!"
"What?" Purple Ash seemed confused. "They have their own energies? Why didn't I know that or feel it?"
"They had been practicing on hiding the energies, and after a while, I stopped feeling them," Hesroth explained before continuing, "as for why you didn't know… well, they asked me not to tell you. They didn't know you or trust you and made me swear an oath not to tell unless they showed the energies."
"I see," Purple Ash went into deep thought. "Then they should be alright. Let's leave them to rest. We will see them when they wake up."
After he said that, Purple Ash took Hesroth and left the room. He was about to return to his room when he remembered that Hesroth seemed to be coming to meet him.
"Do you need something?"
As if he just remembered, Hesroth replied, "actually, Freya found time in her schedule and wanted to have a meeting with Masters and us."
"Did you know that calling them Masters all the time is uncomfortable?" Purple Ash suddenly said, "I have a good grasp of their personality and I could tell. That Xue Mo fellow tried to hide it or discard it, but I could feel an air of royalty in him while Miss Yao seemed to not care at all about that stuff, yet she also seemed uncomfortable. You are calling them Master this and Master that it must annoy them to no end all the time. Find another more comfortable way to call them."
Hesroth thought about it and nodded, "sure. Now let's go. Although Freya can't meet Ma-'them' now, she still found some time to come, so let's discuss the plans we made. Declan and the other two had already started their surveillance."
"Hoh, you seem more at ease when you talk like this. Stop acting all respectful and shit. We are friends. You can talk like this more often. Let's go back like we used to before I became the Sect Master."
"Haah, fine," Hesroth sighed, raising his hands in the air as if he gave up. "Let's go quickly. You know her temper when she has to wait."
Purple Ash held Hesroth with one arm and ran as if his life depended on it. When Hesroth mentioned Freya's temper, he scurried to her position. 'I hope she hasn't got irritated yet!'
Within the conference room in Purple Ash's home sat a beautiful woman. Her black hair shined like the sky, but the scowl adorning her face showed her mood. "Where are they?" she asked, tapping the table with her finger.
SWOOSH!
"Took you long enough!" she complained at the two newcomers. "What took you so long?"
She looked around and saw no trace of the important guests, making her raise her brow, "where are the Divine and Abyssal Ones?"
"That," Purple Ash started, "there was a situation and cannot come today."
"Are they okay?" she asked with slight worry. She got up from her seat and turned towards Hesroth, "let's go check on them!"
'Why can't she be like this with us?' Hesroth and Purple Ash unanimously thought, seeing the way she acted.
"No need," Hesroth stopped her. "Everything is under control now. They just need to rest."
Relieved, Freya flopped back on her seat before eying the two with the same expression as before, "and why were you two late?" She tapped her finger again, glancing at the two.
"We were helping them," Hesroth quickly replied, seeing her in a bad mood.
"Let me explain what happened," Purple Ash said, seeing her satisfied but not entirely with their answers.
Like that, Hesroth and Purple Ash interchangeably explained the situation and how they dealt with it. They finished saying that Xue Mo and Lu Yao would be alright with them needing rest.
"I understand now," Freya commented before relaxing. "You two did a good job for once."
The two old friends looked at each other and smiled helplessly. "Can't you treat us like that too?" Hesroth mumbled, not knowing that Freya heard him.
"Isn't it enough that I respect you sometimes? I even call him Master," she pointed at Purple Ash, "and call you Elder Hesroth. Be satisfied with what you have, Hesroth!"
"Yes, Ma'am," the middle-aged ordinary-looking snake replied, saluting.
"Hey, that's unfair!" Purple Ash said, pointing his finger at her. "You only call me Master to make the others think you are young and my Disciple. That's cheating, just because you look young since you cultivated faster. We are still your friends and fellow disciples!"
"Bah," she spat, looking disgusted. "But Master liked me more. Aren't you just a Sect master with brute strength? I am the real one who does all the work. You lazy dragon that only knows to Cultivate!!"
Purple Ash looked sideways, avoiding her glare. Everything she said was right, and he couldn't refute though he wanted to say, 'still my brute strength is what's stopping us from getting invaded,' but he knows that it will only irk her more, so he shut up.
"Let's start the meeting," Freya said, straightening her posture into a proper one. "You two will inform the Divine and Abyssal ones later!"
Hesroth and Purple Ash shut up and sat down, starting a meeting to decide their next steps in purging the spies.