"We... we don't know."
There was fear in their eyes as they all looked down at the ground, none of them dared to look up at him. There was a short pause before he spoke.
"Who am I? Tell me?" he asked them.
The guards shared a look before raising their heads in front of him.
"You are the young master of the Chen Clan, Chen Bao", one of them answered.
Within a second of that response, something whipped from the air and cracked as one of the guards was hit. Revealing the three-sectional staff, the young man practically smashed their head. There was no hesitation and no remorse in his eyes.
Even the attendant couldn't stop herself from yelping in shock and fear.
As for the rest of the guards, all of them immediately looked back at the ground, sweating and trembling as they glanced at the fate of their comrade.
"If I am the young master, why should I not know the business of my people? Are you saying that I do not care for them?'
One of them quickly spoke out, stammering as they did.
"N-no of course not! We'll find out immediately! Please have mercy on us, young master!"
There was silence once more but no one wanted to look up, all of them trembled in fear. It was only when they heard chuckling that they stopped and looked up, finding Chen Bao smiling at them.
"Ahahaha, what are you all begging for? As I said before, I care for my people. Now go bring him to the clan's doctor and then conduct your investigation. I expect you all to come back with something to report."
He pointed down at the beaten guard without even looking at him.
The others could only look surprised before looking down at their comrade.
"I- uh- yes, young master! We'll return with results!"
Moving as quickly as they could, the guards grabbed the beaten guard's limbs and lifted him up before running off. There was a low groan from him.
They weren't dead but they weren't far from it either.
As the guards left, Chen Bao turned around and looked at the attendant. She immediately looked down, holding her hands up for his handkerchief.
"Leave, I'd like to be alone now."
She felt it drop into her hands and bowed before leaving as quickly as she could.
By himself, he looked around the courtyard before going back to the clan halls.
"Huai Lang is gone? Strange, of them all, he's usually the most eager to come and kiss my boot.I wonder what could've happened."
Walking through the hallways, a man's voice whispered into his ears.
"Would you like us to look into it?" he asked.
Despite the suddenness, Chen Bao didn't seem bothered in the slightest. Rather, it was as if he had been expecting that voice.
"Please, senior. I doubt those guards of mine are going to be any use except as entertainment", he replied.
"Ehehehe, you're right. I'll see what my men can find out."
After that, the voice was no more and the young master soon returned to his private quarters. He looked at his hands quietly, closing and opening them before taking out the three-sectional staff of his.
"I still have a long way to go", he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and a woman spoke out to him.
"Young master, your father wants to see you."
Looking at his weapon, he put them away before standing up and opening the door. There was another attendant right in front of him, lowering her head and stepping aside.
"Please."
He looked at her before making his way up to the second floor of the mansion. Walking towards the back of it, Chen Bao stood in front of a pair of closed doors. Stopping right there, he stared at it in silence, perhaps hesitation even. It was quiet and throught that, he could hear the scratching of a pen.
Raising his hand, he knocked on the doors before speaking.
"Father, you wanted to see me?" he asked.
The scratching stopped as there was a small tap as the pen was put down. Chen Bao heard a quiet sigh before his father spoke.
"Come in."
Chen Bao quietly breathed before entering, looking straight ahead as he walked forward and stood in front of him.
His father was seated behind his desk, a large beautiful piece made from oak wood that had been stained with a golden finish. It wasn't overbearing or gaudy but more elegant. Heseated on a chair that resembled more like a throne.
As for the man himself, he looked up at Chen Bao, holding his hands together and resting his chin on them. He was someone of large stature, dwarfing the boy. Wearing a set of yellow robes like his son, the only difference was the bull embroidered on his sleeves.
His gaze was sharp coupled with fierce eyebrows whilst his hair was neatly put into a bun, adorned with a single hairpin. And as they looked at each other, there was silence between them before he said something.
"I hear that the case with the Evil Cultivator has been settled?" he asked.
'Yes, father, the City Lord has clos-"
"And yet you haven't gained any achievements from that. You just had it taken away from you by an unknown expert."
Chen Bao was quiet for a moment but he nodded.
"Yes, father. None of us were able to do so."
"I don't care about the others, I care about you. You haven't done anything to make yourself stand out from the whelps of the other three clans. How are you going to get yourself into a sect? And how long are you going to stay at the Mortal Realm? That boy from the Jin Clan has already reached the Spirit Realm and you're only at the eighth level. You need to train harder, how much more resources am I going to have to spend on you until I see a result?"
It was just one thing after another as his father seemed to have an endless number of things to say. Chen Bao did nothing but stand there and endure it. Although he didn't let it show, each word that his father uttered seemed to prick at him like a needle.
After all, his own father just kept on pointing out each and every one of his inadequacies.
But there was an end to it.
"Hah, whatever, my throat is parched from talking to you. I didn't just call you here for such meaningless chatter. I have something for you to do", he said.
Chen Bao just looked at him.
"What is it?" he asked.
Moving his hands, his father took a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to him.
"One of the stores came across silver taels from a caravan that never came. I already have some people investigating it", he said to him.
"Then what do you want me to do?"
His father raised an eyebrow.
"I want you to join them in their investigations. You can see this as a chance to make some sort of achievement. Do not tell those three whelps about this, you are to act on it without their help."
Chen Bao looked at the paper and took it from his father's hands. He glanced at it before looking at him and lowering his head.
"Thank you, father."
"That's it, now leave me. There's still quite a bit of work for me to do."
After that, his father no longer spared any attention towards him, going back to the documents and writing away.
The young master of the Chen Clan turned around and left, closing the doors behind him quietly. The paper in his hands had been slightly crumpled as his hand curled into a tight fist. Chen Bao was silent, breathing very slowly as he descended down the mansion and back to his quarters.
He plopped down on his chair, staring off into the empty space before looking at the piece of paper in his hands.
"The Five-Tailed Crane? That place?" he read, "Someone purchased a manual there and used silver taels carrying our mark. What was the manual?"
The paper was still pretty crumpled up despite him trying to fix it. It was a short report and there wasn't much to go off of.
"Hm, the Five-Tailed Crane, I don't have anything else to do anyway."
While he set off to do the task that his father gave him, the culprit in question was outside of the city, busy figuring out her own path.
Leaning against a tree, Xue Lan crossed her legs and closed her eyes, taking the time to look inwardly at her own body.
Leaving aside the matters of the Dao, she focused more on her cultivation instead. Soon enough, she opened her eyes, looking forward at the afternoon skies. And she sighed before taking out the Compendium of Cultivation.
"Mm, the book was right, circulating my energy and letting it nourish my meridians will let it recover. I... do feel better though, what should I do now?"