After this story the disciples who listened all suddenly found that they had a new way of seeing things. This new state of mind made them work even more, making the nearby peak masters very happy and this, of course this included the sect master. And conveniently Li Wei's status rose in there minds, although to the sect master his opinion of Li Wei was already very high.
The only things that disciples were able to talk about the next few days was their senior brothers story and his words. Later on the disciples learned from another senior disciple who had seen the arrival of Li Wei, that the villain in the story might have been themed after Li Wei.
This caused many of the disciples to remember their senior brothers anguish when he told them of the villains massacred village and the lost and lonely feeling he had after entering the sect.
It made them feel like drowning in regret for not approaching him before this. Many were even more devoted to him after they heard this news.
The disciples all simultaneously agreed that they must protect their senior brother from hurting his heart again and that they must always support him and help him stay happy.
They also began to have a deep hated for bandits even more than they had for evil spirt summoners or demonic cultivators. So much so that bandits had become their number one unanimously decided enemy.
The deep hatred that the disciples suddenly had for bandits shocked their masters, but after realizing that this was because of their senior brother they calmed down again, after all the sect disciples all loved their senior brother to a odd extent. If Li Wei were to hear this he'd say that it was like a fan who met there favorite idol, they would listen to anything and would always watch over him.
If the bandits did something to him they would hate them 10 fold more than they hated anything else. It was this that caused many disciples who were taking quest to pay special attention to anything regarding bandits. It was this that made the disciples even more vigilant causing some passing disciples to find the village where the male lead lived in, except it was several days earlier than in the novel.
The days that Li Wei spent in closed door cultivation had been too long and even though he had finished very early, it was still to slow and the male leads village was looted and burned. But he had already decided not to interfere especially if it was with the person who caused his downfall.
But he was still surprised when while passing the sect gates he ran into a group of 7 disciples bringing a little boy back. The boy was covered in grim and smelled like ash. There were streaks of tears on his face and he was biting his lip as if to hold in his tears,giving him a very pitiful feeling. It made the people who saw him want to hug him and make him happy.
When Li Wei saw them he frowned and asked why the boy was dirty and why they brought him back to the sect. The disciples were in awe that senior brother was talking to them and immediately rushed over themselves to tell him what happened.
When Li Wei saw the disciples rushing over themselves to talk to him he started to laugh. His laughter was similar to his voice, smooth like a stream and full of life. The disciples all stoped jumping around and smiled at Li Wei, they thoughts on how this senior disciple was simply the best.
After Li Wei finished laughing he asked again about the boy who they had brought back. As the disciples explained how they found his spiritual roots were lightning roots Li Wei smiled, but when the disciples mentioned how they found the boy in a village that had been burned down by bandits Li Wei's smile froze on his face. Remembering the date and how it matched the hero's timeline his mind was sent into chaos.
His body stiffened unconsciously and his eyes froze over, his relaxed aura immediately becoming incredibly strung up the warmth in his eyes disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with. He unconsciously went into a attack mode, leaking some of his power.
Li Wei knew that the protagonist would come to the sect eventually but he never thought it would have been this soon, it seemed that the novel was progressing faster that he realized.
The disciples immediately noticed the change and they thought of the time before the past 5 years, the years where their senior brother was always in closed door cultivation and always had a cold face never allowing in any warmth, and was completely merciless on the battlefield even at such a young age.
The disciples and the boy all froze, their body unable to move a single step,unmasked terror and regret in their eyes. Immediately Li Wei realized he had unconsciously released his aura.
'It must have been a subconscious action in order to prevent the protagonist from stepping into the sect.'
He thought to himself.
He drew his aura back into his body only seconds after he released it. It almost made the disciples and the boy think it had been their imagination, but the terror and cold air that had surrounded them still remained, goosebumps covering their skin.
Li Wei forced his body to relax, in truth he was terrified of death, with how his past life ended so horribly he would sometimes still wake up in cold sweat searching for some unseen threat. He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes he turned his attention to the boy and his eyes turned even more frigid before relaxing,
"Make sure to take care of him, don't let him become lonely."
Li Wei spoke theses things thinking that if the protagonist was always busy that he wouldn't have time to pay attention to him. Turning he walked in the direction of the sect leaders building, intent on telling the sect master that he was going into closed door cultivation. The less interaction with the protagonist the better.
Meanwhile the poor disciples were almost crying,
"Oh nooooooo! What have we done!!!!! We ruined it!! What if senior brother goes into closed doors cultivation?! Will we never see his beautiful face or hear his lovely voice? What if he stops telling stories?!"
The poor boy was still confused, tugging on one of the disciples cloths he asked in a soft voice,
"Senior brother.. Does that other senior not like me?.."
His voice trembled as he said this. The child didn't want the beautiful man to dislike him.
Immediately the disciples attention was on him. One of them hurriedly comforted him,not wanting this new Deciple to form a bad opinion of there sects treasured senior brother,
"No!No! He simply has some very bad memories of bandits, when he asked us to look after you it was from his own experience, his village was massacred in front of his eyes and when the sect master found him and brought him back..but..well no one ever properly looked after him so he grew up very lonely."
Another spoke up,
"We all love our senior brother, he is very powerful but he never really allows anyone in, but we all know that he values our sect and us disciples very much."
Another disciple joined in,
"And he is a very good story teller, his spiritual root is a illusion root that allows him to use illusions, and he uses theses illusions to creat illusions in the air while he tells us all story's..."
The disciples voice slowly died out suddenly the disciples all began to mope, one said,
"We probably made him mad, whenever he gets mad, truly mad, he becomes very frightening like a demon! I still remember when he tortured those 5 men who broke into the treasure room and committed murders outside the Sect..."
The disciples began to walk the male lead to the sect entrance area still speaking praise for the senior brother,
" Oh! Oh! Don't worry about his temper, he is very laid back to the point that it can be considered as lazy, but he get very serious when he goes through a break through stage."
When they reached the desk they were all smiling and laughing about different things that Li Wei had done. Suddenly one of the disciples overheard their Discussion and immediately jumped in, soon the whole room was chattering happily about Li Wei.
The little boy suddenly spoke up,
"Umm but just now senior brother seemed very cold, like ice..he did not seem happy at all..."
As soon as the boy said this all eyes fixed on him. One of the disciples who brought him in said,
"Ahhhh! What he said is true! Poor us! Senior brother might go into closed door cultivation because of us!"
The disciple looked around the room and spoke very seriously his face clouded with sorrow,
"We rescued this poor child from the ash's of a village burned down by bandits and brought him back after finding his good spiritual roots, but we slipped up in our excitement after senior brothers beautiful laugh and spoke of the bandits! Senior brother got very sad and angry! Then he headed in the direction of sect masters pavilion, most definitely to alert the sect master that he was going into closed door cultivation!"
All of a sudden disciples faces fell and they looked like they were in misery. They all looked down at the dirty child until one spoke out,
"We must take good care of this child and of the other children who lost their families to horrible bandits, we must prevent them from going through what senior brother had to go through!"
"Perhaps this will help senior brother feel better!"
another chimed in.
With this in mind the quickly settled the dirty child and went out to spread the news. Specifically warning other to be cautious when using the word 'bandit' around Li Wei.