Yueshi and Yuan Yue were at the counter, settling a few, small matters. The sect had an easy way of finding how many beasts they had killed while doing the mission – a lie detection array.
As long as it was activated, anyone at the Body Refinement Realm would be unable to lie.
This was the most direct, and also the easiest way to find out if the disciples complete their missions, and also check the number of beasts killed, items delivered, and so on.
Thanks to that, they only needed a single person to step forth, and Yuan Yue ended being the one doing it.
Just as Yueshi was observing the process of confirming the mission completion, he felt something. His heart seemed to leap out of his chest, and he felt an intense urge to turn around; when he tried to ignore it, his heart grew anxious for some unexplainable motive.
Giving in, he turned to face his back.
At that moment, the entire world quieted down and other people completely disappeared from his vision. It was as if his eyes, his mind, his heart, and his soul could perceive no one else other than the person standing at the entrance of the pavilion.
His throat parched and his lips dried as he, for a moment, did not know what to say.
However, as she approached with small, but fast steps, his heart finally calmed down. Then, looking in her brown eyes that reflected the joy of reunion, he spoke the only appropriate words.
"I am back." His voice quivered a bit. However, she paid no attention to that.
"Welcome home." Her answer was short, yet brought him a sweet, refreshing feeling.
As they smiled toward each other, Yueshi relaxed completely.
After all the exploration and life-endangering situations, he had been a bit tense - feeling unsafe. However, almost by instinct, his body relaxed seeing her bright eyes and he understood it once more…
No matter if it was in that old, tattered house of theirs…
Or if it was here in the bustling Star Sea Sect and their mansion.
Honestly, it could even be in the streets, with the sky as their ceiling.
As long as she was there, that place would be his home.
[…]
Maybe because she knew of his feelings, Yuan Yue decided to give the two some space, leaving first.
If she said she was not jealous, then it would be a lie; but, she knew that there was nothing much she could do to change his feelings.
After all, if he was such a fickle person, then she would not love him as much as she did. Yueshi was like a stubborn mule, and such a trait was something she really liked in him.
That aside, as they made their way toward their residence in the sect, the siblings were in silence.
They did not speak any more words and only appreciated each other's presence. Even standing a few centimeters apart, they could feel the other's warmth, and that was enough for them.
Xuehua did not say how lonely she had felt, or how much worried she had been. And she also did not say that she had cried herself to sleep, afraid that he would not come back to her.
All the worry and loneliness were simply left behind when she felt his presence so close - her heartwarming and finding peace, finally.
She had not noticed until now how overly dependent she was of his presence. However, in a lot of ways, this was also understandable.
A myriad of explanations could be given to her feelings right now, though she did not bother thinking about them.
Like that, brother and sister walked through the crowd of disciples coming and going. However, they spared none a glance, as if they were in their own little world.
And while it was just a short journey there, the two enjoyed their time as they chatted - slowly creeping toward their gathering place.
Unfortunately for Yueshi, he would soon be getting a headache.
— - -
In the meeting room, Yueshi had a frown on his face as the others explained to him what had happened over the past month.
There had been problems appearing here and there, however, the only one they could not solve was the one with the Alchemy Shop.
However, as they presented him Xuehua's idea, his frown disappeared as he smiled instead.
Her opinion was on point – increasing the rank of their association would result in matters between the two sides being settled, for now.
Yueshi had a proud smile on his lips as he lifted his hand, its palm facing Xuehua. It was as if her idea was his own with how smug he looked. However, instead of hitting his palm, Xuehua merely looked at him with uncertainty.
For a moment, he wondered if, in this world, they did not know what high-fives were… but that probably was not it.
The problem laid in the fact that Xuehua was too innocent and inexperienced, socially speaking. There was no way for her to know what a high-five was when she never did it or had anyone with whom to do it.
Shaking his head, Yueshi scratched the back of his neck. After making a mental note to teach her a few things later, he looked toward the others.
"We will go on with Xuehua's idea." His words did not bring any surprise. But what followed was enough to shake everyone. "We will send a letter of challenge to the Heavens Will Association."
As he ended speaking with a calm tone, the silence that descended in the room was so great one would be able to hear a pin drop.
They had expected him to accept Xuehua's idea; they just did not expect him to aim his spear directly at the demon king.
Obviously, Yueshi knew they were not convinced.
"This is the best time for us to strike. The top members are preparing themselves for the inner disciple examination." This was the main motive behind his choice – the strongest members would not spare any time to participate. "Moreover, despite the fact we are a new association, we are by far not weak."
If anyone heard the latter half of his phrase they would laugh at him.
They had just arrived in the sect two or so months ago, what did they know? Most would mock him with such words. However, though they were not exactly wrong, they were far from being right.
In the first place, Yueshi and Yuan Yue were at the fourth stage already. Moreover, he was closer and closer in breaking through in his spear arts, while Yuan Yue had just reached the first realm, increasing her combat power by a whole lot.
They also had Ling Tian Tian. This training maniac had long surpassed her former self from the entrance examination, and even Yueshi was not sure of how much she had grown in the meantime.
What he knew, though, was that, with the benefits she acquired from that wish from back then, she had got stronger by leaps and bounds.
The others were a bit more lacking in their advancement speed, but none of them was weak.
Baiyun was also in the first realm of martial arts and his strength had surely grown too since he entered it. The Qing twins… it was hard to say. If the two fought together, Yueshi was sure they could be a great deal of trouble to anyone in the room.
Xiao Yao was obviously not considered, as he was not a combatant. Jiang Yao and Bei Lao were the most lacking, unfortunately. However, it was not as if they were at the bottom of the outer disciples.
As for Xuehua… it was hard to say.
Yueshi could never fathom his sister, for some motive. But he was sure that she was not any weaker than Baiyun, and chances were she was quite stronger than him.
Not only was her talent good, but her natural disposition was perfectly suitable for cultivation and certain techniques.
Taking all that into account, Yueshi decided to strike the Heavens Will association while they had the chance.
That way, they could not only spread the name of their association and show others they were not to be trifled it, but they could also get a taste of revenge – and remind them that the matters of the forest had not been forgotten.
At his words, everyone seemed to become agitated. They were all proud, and the humiliation from back them also burned bright in their minds.
Had the time to ask for repayment finally came?
"You are wrong." Seeing their twinkling eyes, Yueshi threw a bucket of cold water in their just lit flames. "This is not the time for repayment, but just the prelude to it." His grin was quite evil, and his laughter sounded almost diabolical.
However, the others only stood dazed for a moment, before also breaking into fiendish grins and evil laughter.
Tens of years from this day, a certain myth would still be frequently spoken about by the disciples.
It was about a certain sunny day when thousands upon thousands of disciples felt a chill spread through their bodies, their hairs standing on end because of unknown reasons.
Those disciples commented that, on that strange evening, it was as if an ancient ghost had awoken. Its two empty eye sockets, with two blue ghost-fires inside, gazed them right in eyes – its fiendish expression and raucous laughter echoing like thunder between the heavens and earth.
It was the most frightening experience they ever had. Well, almost.
— - -
Gao Xiongli was seated behind a desk, going through a few papers.
As one of Heavens Will's high-ranking members, and someone that was still lacking too much to pass the inner disciple examination, he had been chosen to deal with administrative work.
Suddenly, one of the association members knocked on the door. After being given permission, the person entered the room and delivered him a scroll, before waiting in standby.
He felt a bit annoyed with the ever-pilling up work and decided to just take care of this seemingly unimportant scroll as soon as possible.
Without a care, he unrolled it, a soft clanking sound echoing as the lower side hit the table.
After he stared at the contents of the old scroll, his eyes opened wide in disbelief. He felt that he had to be sleeping right now because the content was just too hard to accept as reality.
"We, from the Soaring Dragon Association, hereby challenge the Heavens' Will association for a friendly match in the name of exchanging pointers." The first line was written in red, contrasting with the rest of the content, written in black. "We'd also like to propose some bets, to be further discussed once this challenge has been accepted."
Following, there was some lip service, with only certain words highlighted in red.
"We understand that the Heavens' Will is extremely busy, but we are sure that it will not turn its tail and flee like a coward, nor will it use some excuse to avoid fighting as it is not one to be afraid.
Nonetheless, if the oh-so-great Heavens' Will Association still refuses this challenge, we from the Soaring Dragon Association would like to express our condolences to the Sect for nurturing such a weak-willed and dog-blooded bunch of spineless bastards."
The highlighted words were clearly there to anger and mock them, and they worked as they were intended. Gao Xiongli's expression was brutal as he looked toward the messenger standing next to him.
"Bring me our strongest third stage disciples and all the fourth stage disciples that are not going to participate in the examination this time." His voice was ice-cold as he spoke. Then, he hesitated for a moment. "Also tell brother Yang about this, and ask him to come to see me."
The young man complied before running outside, and after activating a footwork technique he soon disappeared from Xiongli's view.
Throwing the scroll to the side, Xiongli reclined against his chair comfortably.
"I was already getting tired of just working, anyway." He was inclined to accept it, just to teach those brats a lesson and relieve some stress.
He rested for a while and after some time had passed, he heard the steps of a few as they approached the office that belonged to him.
Not long after, a group of twenty or so young men and women walked through the door, a vicious-looking youth leading them.
If Yueshi was here, he would have recognized this young man – he was none other than the one that led the ambush in the forest last time. His name was Yang Chengfei, and he was the 'brother Yang' Xiongli mentioned before.
Seeing him, the bulky Xiongli immediately rose from his seat and greeted him respectfully.
Yang Chengfei was a close friend of the association leader in the outer court, and his status was quite special; other than that, he was also going to participate in the inner disciple examination, and his chances weren't that bad.
"Brother Yang, I guess you have already been informed of the motive for me to call you here?" Xiongli spoke respectfully.
Even if the other side failed the examination, he would still be above him.
Chengfei nodded. "Yes, but you must forget about it. While they are clearly not putting us in their eyes, we do not have the time right now." They had many other matters to take care of, and a lot of them were more important than this.
"Senior brothers…" Just as Xiongli was going to argue, a mosquito-like voice was heard.
The two immediately turned toward the speaker, the one sent by Xiongli to fetch the others. Gulping, the young man spoke, "I think it is too late to not accept."
At his words, both of them frowned with a dubious expression.
"Similar scrolls are being passed all around and hang all over the outer court. Every outer disciple should have read a copy of it by now." With all his courage, the young man spoke while trembling.
At his words, Chengfei frowned hard. If it was like that, could they still refuse?
If they did so their fame and name would be sullied, and many would point fingers at them and say that they did not even dare to accept the challenge of an upstart association.
'I was thinking of letting you breathe for a while, but since you dare to confront us…' His eyes growing sharper, Chengfei looked toward the bulky figure to his side. "You settle what must be settled with them, and I will lead you all when the day comes. We must end this before the examination."
Speaking until here, he immediately turned around and left.
Xiongli was not displeased, however; instead, he felt some sort of relief seeing the young man leave.
At the same time, he was thinking that the dogs from the Soaring Dragon Association did not know what sort of beast they had angered.
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