"Chen, Li, please follow me inside." Jian Ye said as she led Jian Chen and Jian Li into the main hall.
The two of them followed Jian Ye to a grand hall. The hall seemed to be made of white marble, and was illuminated by torches. In the center of the hall, two huge stone pillars supported the entire roof of the hall. Under the pillars, were twenty stone statues of a swordsman performing all of his moves in different stances. Jian Chen and Jian Li stared at the statues in awe. They had to be made by a master sculptor, they thought to themselves.
Jian Chen walked closer up to the statues.
"This is amazing!" Jian Chen said as he stared at the statues. "These statues are..." Jian Ye was interrupted by a man's voice.
"The statues depict the legendary swordmaster, Yun Tian, and were carved by the legendary swordmaster himself. The statues represent the ultimate master of the Art of the True Sword." A man seemingly appeared out of thin air somewhere inbetween the hall pillars.
Jian Chen and Jian Li were taken aback by his sudden appearance as they thought they were all alone, but Jian Ye seemed to not be surprised. She calmly walked towards the center of the hall.
They followed Jian Ye to the center of the grand hall, where they saw a man standing with his back towards the three of them, facing the hallway on the other end.
The man turned around, revealing a handsome face. He had deep red hair and wore battle armor made of dragon scales, along with a blood red cloak.
He stared at Jian Chen and Jian Li. "Honorary Elder? Why are you here?" He asked, clearly annoyed by their appearance.
"I came to bring Jian Chen and Jian Li here." The man glared at Jian Ye as she calmly replied.
"Jian? I see. Then, please come and follow me." The man said softly, as if he was trying to mask his annoyance. Jian Ye nodded and walked into the hall with the man. Jian Chen and Jian Li followed the man into the hall.
The hallway was lit with torches and decorated with the paintings of countless sword battles, along with portraits of swordmasters. Just looking at them made Jian Li feel like her blood was boiling.
"I see that you think the True Sword Sect is a place you can just exit and enter whenever you want to, Ye? " Meng Liang asked.
"I am a honorary elder of this sect, Chen is my second brother and Li is my youngest sister. I am bringing them now because I want to." Jian Ye began to sound irritated.
"Second brother? Really? You even brought your little sister here?" Meng Liang said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You have seen their swordsmanship, have you not? Do you really think they would do well here?", Meng Liang turned to look at Jian Chen and Jian Li.
"Meng Liang, what are you implying?" Jian Ye said.
"I am only implying that the True Sword Sect only welcomes the best of the best. Jian Chen and Jian Li aren't even close to being the worst rookies in the sect. They probably wouldn't even be able to pass the entrance exam." Meng Liang said.
At that point, Jian Ye began to look even more annoyed.
"Don't worry. I will vouch for them. In the sect, I will vouch for what is fair.", Jian Ye said.
"Meng Liang, where did you learn to be so narrow-minded? Isn't my eldest sister a Honorary Elder for a reason?" Jian Chen said, his eyes turning cold.
"I am not narrow-minded, boy. I only say what is the truth." Meng Liang said calmly.
"I don't believe you." Jian Chen said, his icy eyes staring into Meng Liang's.
"What do you mean? You don't think I'm telling the truth?" Meng Liang stared at Jian Chen intently.
Jian Chen began to feel slightly pressured as he stared back at Meng Liang.
"Chen, Li, let's go." Jian Ye said.
"Fine, leave. But I'll keep an eye on the two of you." Meng Liang said.
"Meng Liang, you..." Jian Chen was going to respond, but Meng Liang had already left. Jian Li turned to Jian Chen.
"Chen, what was that about?" Jian Li asked slightly amused. She rarely saw her elder brother lose his cool.
"Chen, Li, come with me. Let's talk in private. Luckily enough, we haven't passed by anyone else.", Jian Ye sighed. Jian Li and Jian Chen followed Jian Ye into a side room in the hallway."Ye..." Jian Chen hesitated for a moment.
"I'm saying this because I obviously care about you two. Meng Liang and I don't exactly get along. He's a very cruel person. Don't let him get to you. You can just forget about having anything to do with him." Jian Ye said.
"I know you are both still new to things. But you must understand that not everyone in the True Sword Sect are like the Meng Liangs of the world. There are plenty of people in our sect who believe that the rule book can be balanced out. Meng Liang, as far as I know, has always been like this." Jian Ye said.
"Then what about the other elders?" Jian Li asked.
"The other elders are, for the most part, the same as the Meng Liangs of the world. But there are also some who, like me, believe that there should be some flexibility with the rules." Jian Ye said.
"What do you mean? Meng Liang's one of the sect's elders. He should at least be somewhat reasonable if a Honorary Elder personally vouches for her disciples." Jian Chen said.
"So, you're saying you talked back to the Sect Leader without even knowing he was the Sect Leader? I don't even know how you forgot his name in the first place." Jian Ye calmly replied, as if what she had just said was nothing of importance. But, Jian Chen looked as if he was slowly losing his mind hearing that.
Jian Li just mentally facepalmed in response seeing as she forgot his name as well. She could have sworn Jian Ye told it to them a while back, but she never told them that she could speak to the Sect Leader as if they were equals. It threw both of them off.
"Don't worry even if Meng Liang is the Sect Leader, he has just been that for a couple of years and he was going to find problems with us because of me, no matter what would've happened." Jian Ye took a brief pause and patted Jian Chen on the back as he began to calm down.
"Now, you might wonder why you just can't go do the entrance exam, like anyone else, to convince him that you truly are worthy of entering. First of all, it's more convenient as you already have proven to me that both of you are capable enough to enter the sect on your own and it could be rigged by Meng Liang. You're only here to improve your own abilities, there's no need for competing with others." Jian Ye continued.
"Secondly, the other elders would realize how serious I am about you two, seeing as I am willing to go against the Sect Leader's wishes and force disciples through the back door. They wouldn't dare make things more difficult than they need to be." Jian Ye explained.
"And lastly, if any elder ever dares to publicly make things unreasonably difficult for you, I'll make sure to make an example of them to ward off my enemies, even if Meng Liang himself decides to make himself one of them.", Jian Ye's last sentence made Jian Li and Jian Chen feel like a bucket of cold water was poured on them as she grinded her teeth.
The facial expression Jian Ye was making, resembled the one Jian Li had seen on her when the willow tree incident happened.
What had Meng Liang done to make her so angry?