"We managed to escape," answered one of the pupils. "The sects were combing the mountain looking for any escaped pupils, but we knew Xuanyan Mountain better than they did and hid until they left."
Liu Xiaochen looked at the pupils before him. "Are there others?"
"There are five more people besides us who are currently in Xuanyan Sect. It was our turn to stand guard today," Another young man said. "There might still be others who escaped and went elsewhere. We came back because we didn't have anywhere else to go; Xuanyan Sect is our home."
"We were contemplating what to do, but we heard that Senior Brother had won the Hero Assembly. We believed that you would return to Xuanyan Sect, so we decided to wait for you," A third pupil spoke up.
"We apologize for shooting arrows at you earlier, Senior Brother," the last pupil said sheepishly. "We didn't know it was you. We thought it was people from the other sects."
