"Ling'er, I do not want you to disguise yourself when we go back"
Wu Long said to her as they were walking in the garden.
The group of disciples from the Yin Yang Unity Palace who were out for getting experience was going to return to the city soon, and they were only waiting for them as they traveled around the empire the whole time Ye Ling, Wu Long, and Hua Ziyan were here.
"...I see. I do not want to disguise myself in front of you either... but my family is..."
"Let's talk to them, if our sect master is as fearsome as she seemed, they will not be able to refuse it, you just have to be more forceful with them"
Wu Long persuaded her.
He originally just took a position of a spectator, but he was gradually more and more frustrated by her passive attitude towards this family.
"Haa~ uncle will not be happy"
"Who cares if he is happy? Why do you listen to them anyways, you left the family a long time ago..."
"They might not be the kindest people, but they still took care of me after my parents passed away"
She said with some melancholy, as there really was not that much familial love between them, but she still held a debt of gratitude to them for raising her for those years before her master showed up.
"Hmm, I do not know what this debt feels like to you, but it should not shackle you as your life is your own. Ling'er, if you want to repay them, do so. But do it in a way that does not hinder you from living freely"
He said, stopping and looking deep into her eyes.
There was kindness and care in his eyes, that seemed to melt her troubles away.
This was something stemming from her natural personality. She cared deeply about debts and gratitude, as well as the relationships she had with people around her.
She also had a compassionate heart. And in the cultivation world, it could be said that she was too kind. Though it was this trait of kindness that once saved a certain young man in the distant past.
After some more time of persuasion, she finally decided that she really should do something to repay their debt at some point, but she could not continue living restricted by this debt.
When she announced to her family that she will not be disguising herself from now on, it of course caused a ruckus, but in the end, there was nothing they could do.
Previously their control over her relied entirely on her feelings of gratitude and debt, and not on something they held or did.
On the next day, after he was done with all of the farewells, they left the Ye Family Manor in the same group as they arrived, and went to an inn on the outskirts of the city, where they met the rest of the people from the Yin Yang Unity Palace who became flabbergasted when they saw that the couple's cultivation base rose incredibly high for such a short period of time and that Wu Long was already at the 7th level of the Qi Gathering Realm, despite only being in the 9th level of Body Transformation Realm when they last saw him.
Though it was possible to see that his aura was a bit unstable since he broke through the realms too fast in too short of an amount of time for his constitution.
But the most astonishing was Ye Ling's appearance and the revelation that elder Liu Li whom everyone knew was simply a disguise.
Meanwhile, Zheng Huang looked at Hua Ziyan who now had eyes only for Wu Long with bitter eyes. He was still dissatisfied with the overall situation, let alone making progress, he never really even interacted with Hua Ziyan on this trip and it looked like it would be the same on their way back too. But there was nothing he could do.
His father would be greatly disappointed in him, and quite possibly, even with his talents, his priority among the children will fall. But he was certain of one thing, Wu Long now had an enemy in the face of Grand Elder Zheng. This alone was a small consolation for him.
---
When they traveled from the capital, as Wu Long expected, they soon met very generous people not far from the city.
However, to his regret, the generous person he was expecting, who looked the most generous of them all, Guo Dinshan did not show up himself, he just sent his trusted men.
Wu Long as usual gave them their chance of choosing to turn back and go wherever they came from, and after they predictably chose wrong, gratefully accepted their donations, borrowing Hua Ziyan's sword.
This time he even got a nice bonus in the shape of a Guandao spear. It was a high-level 4th-tier Mortal-grade treasure weapon, a tier higher than his previous sword.
He decided to properly thank Guo Dinshan when they met next for sending him such a nice thing through the hands of his right-hand man.
---
As they passed through the Autumn Storm Mountain Pass about two weeks later, a group of people clad in black tight clothing with thin swords on their backs arrived in the Imperial Capital at night.
Most of them wore metal demon face masks, but there were two figures who were a little different from the rest.
They were two young women with only the lower half of their faces covered in a silver mask resembling the lower half of a demonic face. Their clothes were also different from the rest, who were more or less uniform, a bit more revealed, and showed skin in some places, along with some sensual forms not being covered up by tightening the clothes too strongly.
From the revealed upper halves of their faces, it was possible to see that they had identical facial features and identical red eyes. But even with only that upper part, it could be seen that they were exceptional beauties.
The only thing that made them look completely apart from their natural appearance was that one of them had midnight black hair, while the other's hair was snow white.
As for telling them apart aside from that, they had different styles of clothing and they also wore their swords on opposite shoulders from each other. Both of them were in the Foundation Building Realm.
They arrived at a secluded mansion using special concealment techniques to go through the city unnoticed and went inside as the guards who looked like any small noble family's people bowed to them with great respect when they showed up.
Once inside, as they went deeper they started to meet people in the same clothes as them who all were getting on their knees with cupped hands as they passed them and after arriving in a cellar under one of the buildings, came through to a large underground space.
In one of the underground halls they were escorted to, they were greeted by an elderly man in plain black robes, who was, impressively, a Core Formation Realm expert, as well as three people in clothes similar to everyone in the masks, who were also in the Foundation Building Realm. There were 9 people behind them in the Revolving Qi Realm, but they stood irregularly, and if the space they occupied was calculated as a spot, there were exactly three missing people.
"Branch Leader of the Azure Eagle Empire Branch, Qian Sung greets Prime Demon Hong Ye, Prime Demon Hong Yue"
Despite being higher than them in the realm, the elderly man greeted the twins with a deep bow filled with reverence as the people behind him all got on their knees and repeated the words 'Greeting the Prime Demons' in unison.
"It has been more than two weeks since we were dispatched, have you learned anything while we were on our way?"
The black-haired twin who was called Hong Ye by the elder asked in a haughty and slightly impatient voice, not reacting to the greeting and going straight to the main reason for their visit.
"My apologies, this subordinate is incompetent... We have no way to know how we lost five mission squads and one silver squad as they were supposed to be out of the Imperial Capital returning from a mission at the time they were lost"
He said, bowing again with an expression of vexation on his face.
"Branch Leader Qian, do not think that the headquarters did not notice that members of your branch have been taking unsanctioned missions on the side these recent years. It was merely more or less tolerated since it was infrequent and never had any consequences...until now"
The white-haired twin called Hong Yue said in a strict and cold voice, as she looked at the elderly man with a chilling gaze.
The elderly man gulped, as Hong Ye's eyes slightly narrowed at him, as it looked like she was slightly smiling under the mask.
"Regardless, we will be staying in this branch until our investigation is done. Ye'er, you will have to travel to the destination of their mission and investigate there"
"Eh? Sister-..."
"No objections"
"Haa~, why do they have to send us on such meddlesome tasks, they could've sent someone whose job is internal investigations..."
Hong Ye deeply sighed with some slight annoyance.
"Quit quibbling, the elders must have made this decision in preparation for us to take on more responsibilities"
"Alright, alright please spare me the lecture. I am going~"
Hong Ye turned around as her black hair twirled in the air, and with a step disappeared into black smoke.
This was Bahshi Ghost Step that Wu Long previously used, but a lot more advanced as her cultivation base allowed her to use it more effectively.
As soon as she disappeared, half of the people who traveled here with them scrambled to keep up as they were left behind.
"Haa~ when is she going to start taking her duties more seriously~"
Hong Yue shook her head and went to command the other half of the people they came here with to investigate.