Tang Ze's eyes widened- he was not sure why Xu Feng was saying stuff like this!

Tang Ze had assumed that Xu Feng wanted to confess his love to Tang Ru- but no, it sounded like when Xu Feng said ‘confess his feelings’ he had meant that in the negative sense!

"I always thought that your tiny nose made you look like a pig! Out of all the women I've met in my life - I had the lowest opinion of you!" Xu Feng continued.

Tang Ru's eyes flared, her tranquil expression gone and her eyebrows now knitted in fury.

"I still remember how on the day we first met, you ended up spilling what you were drinking on top of me - and that was after I had just washed my sect uniform! And rather than apologizing, you made it out to be my fault instead, well guess what-" Xu Feng then let out a stream of expletives that would make a sailor blush, in addition to several sentences that implied that Tang Ru and her family by extension had intimate relationships with a wide assortment of animals.

Was this why Xu Feng couldn't pass on to the next life?

Because he just had to tell this girl how much he hated her?

No - that wasn’t it!

“Well, that’s all I wanted to say, good luck Brother Tang Ze,” Xu Feng said to Tang Ze telepathically before laughing wholeheartedly.

It was only then that Tang Ze realized that he had been played.

Unfortunately, there was very little that Tang Ze could do to fix the situation before Tang Ru raised her fist and then started to furiously pummel him without mercy.

Tang Ze was stronger than he had been before, but not as strong as a Qi Refinement cultivator like Tang Ru yet, not without wearing his actual costume.

This Supernatural Sam getup didn't give anything in the way of physical defense. He had not yet absorbed enough of the earlier costume's power to make much of a difference in this kind of fight, and so, this was less of a ‘fight’ and more of a one-sided beating.

"Help! Guards! Save me!" Tang Ze shouted out.

Why was he the one who had to call for the guards in this situation?!

“Ahahahaha, that’s what you get for trying to replace me you idiot!” Xu Feng said to him telepathically. “You are far too naive, Junior Brother Tang Ze. But, I will still fulfill my end of the bargain. There is a secret place where you can…”

Tang Ze didn’t fully catch what he was going to say next as he was too busy trying to avoid Tang Ru’s fists.

Later that morning, Tang Ze nursed his numerous bruises with a sorry expression on his face.

After Tang Ze had been caught by the guards, and after they had dragged Tang Ru off of him, Tang Ze was in big trouble.

Not just him though, his entire squad had been punished for what he had done by being forced to clean up one of the biggest courtyards all by themselves. Tang Ze was still a probationary Initiate and as such, it was expected that the rest of his squad would show him the ropes and keep him in line. If he committed a huge mistake like this, the others would also be punished.

Additionally, despite being banned by the Geneva Convention back on Earth, collective punishment was common not only in the sects, but in the Raswatian Empire as a whole. As a more extreme example, the worst offenders against the State would have nine generations of their family executed, whether the others were also guilty or not did not matter.

In a world where relations, both familial and otherwise, were extremely important it was a very effective way of keeping people in line.

"I'm so sorry guys,” Tang Ze finally said after fifteen minutes of awkward silence. He had done all that work last afternoon so that they wouldn't get into trouble for the escaped ghost - and they hadn't, not for the vase.

However, they were all getting punished now for something that was entirely Tang Ze’s fault.

The other squad members had all thrown him angry looks while the prefect was shouting at them. Zhang Long, as Squad Leader, ended up taking most of the heat during this time, furiously apologizing for ‘their’ actions to the prefect, even though there was only Tang Ze to blame.

To their credit, Tang Ze recalled, the others had not thrown him under the bus by trying to emphasize that it was all his doing and they had no involvement with what had gone on - even though that was the truth. They all just bowed their heads, apologized, and accepted their punishment.

Which made Tang Ze feel all the more guilty about it all.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Tang Ze knew they were furious at him, he just hadn’t known where and how to start apologizing.

Yin Tiang shot him a look and said, "What I don't get is why - why didn't you invite us with you?"

"Eh?" Tang Ze asked.

"Yin Tiang and I have been planning a way to break in for months, but those were all dumb plans," Chen Yu said. "And then you went ahead and broke into that place without us? What gives, man?"

Most of the Initiates were in their early or late twenties, and being busy with sect duties and the like didn’t leave much time or money for trying to meet up with women. Few of them were like Zhang Long who already had someone outside the sect. Although one would think that they would be above such things as trying to break into the women’s side, but they were at the Qi Condensation stage after all.

No matter how much their teachers told them that they had to give up on their worldly desires to find enlightenment, it wasn’t as if such teachings were going to trump basic human biology for most of the Initiates.

Especially at their level when they had just started out on their cultivation journeys.

It would be a different matter entirely if they were at a higher level, like Golden Core, and had had several decades to hone their minds and senses - but as they were right now, they were little better than hormonally-fueled college frat kids.

"Ah, no guys, you don't get it - it isn't like that," Tang Ze tried to explain. "I wasn't going over there for any... lecherous reasons, it was all for a noble cause believe me-"

Tang Ze tried to explain what had happened, but none of them believed him.

"You're telling me that you wanted to help Xu Feng confess to Tang Ru?” Yin Tiang snorted. “He hated Tang Ru. Just goes to show you that you clearly didn’t meet him since you don’t know the first thing about him. And hey, if you liked Tang Ru and wanted to confess your feelings to her, you can just say that - we won’t judge you for it. And I get it, Tang Ru rejected you and humiliated you, and that must hurt, but that doesn’t mean you need to make some story up how it was the ghost of Xu Feng compelling you all along to cover that up."

"Xu Feng always used to cuss out Tang Ru when he was with us,” Chen Yu said. “Never could say any of that to her face though."

"Yeah! Well why didn't you guys tell me that earlier?" Tang Ze asked. If he had known that it hadn't been a love confession and something else entirely, he never would have agreed to go on this whole excursion in the first place.

Xu Feng had technically not lied to Tang Ze - but he had tricked him nonetheless by omitting crucial information. Xu Feng clearly resented Tang Ze’s presence in the group, and so had come up with this plan.

By doing so, Xu Feng had killed two birds with one stone. He had gotten to tell Tang Ru just how much he hated her, and had left Tang Ze to face the consequences!

"Why would that matter? He's dead," Zhang Long said.

Tang Ze sighed. Xu Feng's spirit had moved on, meaning Tang Ze had no evidence anymore. And even if he wanted revenge against Xu Feng, there was nothing more that Tang Ze could do to him because of the same.

No one in his squad believe him no matter how much he insisted that was all the truth.

All throughout while the four kept cleaning, people were watching them from the shadows, muttering to each other. They didn’t approach the group for a while, until finally, one of the other Initiates approached them.

"Is it true that you all... went over and broke into the women's side?" he asked.

There were about twenty people in total looking at the four of them - some of them had haughty expressions while others looked angry, but all of them seemed to want to know what happened.

"Not really, well, to start off with things, it wasn't their fault-" Tang Ze began to speak, trying to explain that this was all his fault and that the others hadn’t been involved at all; but Yin Tiang put a finger to his lips before he could finish.

"Let me answer - indeed, you are all correct! We snuck into the women's side - all four of us!" Yin Tiang said proudly.

Eh?

Why was he trying to take the blame for Tang Ze's actions? Tang Ze couldn't wrap his head around it at all.

"Of course," Chen Yu continued, "however, while we all broke in, it was all my plan!"

"Don't flatter yourself, it was I who thought of it!" Yin Tiang countered.

The two of them were fighting - not for taking up the blame for the incident, Tang Ze realized, but for taking credit for it instead!

After all, many of the male Initiates wanted to do what Tang Ze had done.

The women's section was kind of like a 'forbidden sacred realm' for the males - the others just didn't have the courage or means to replicate Tang Ze’s infiltration!

"Heh," Chen Yu said. "All of you, I know - were planning on going to the women's side, weren't you? Or at least, you all dreamed of it. But none of you had the stones to do it!"

"Indeed," Yin Tiang said proudly. "We're the only real men here since we were the only ones who had the courage to walk into the lioness’s den! Y'all are nothing more bunch of eunuchs!"

"This Yin Tiang - calling us a bunch of eunuchs, he's going too far!"

"But it's true that I wanted to see what was there though..."

"Yeah, but we would get beaten to a pulp if we were caught..." Thinking this, none of them had tried - and yet these four were apparently brave enough to do so regardless of the consequences?

"And to think we were making fun of Brother Tang Ze for being unable to cultivate - he does have guts though!"

'Wait- the others were making fun of me for that?'- Tang Ze thought. Maybe they did it behind his back - because no one had ever said something like that to his face.

Perhaps they feared falling victim to [Monkey Stealing Peaches] that much?

There was grumbling from the other Initiates, but most had awe and wonder in their eyes.

"But... what did you guys see when you were over there?" one of them asked.

"Did you happen to sneak into the women's bathhouse?"

'What kind of degenerates do these guys take us for?'- that was what Tang Ze was thinking at the moment.

"Ah, we would love to tell you all the... juicy details...," Zhang Long interjected, "but we have a courtyard to clean up, and it's going to take up so much time on our own..."

Before the sentence had even left his mouth, the other Initiates had already started helping them clean up.

With so many people working - this task that would've kept the four of them busy till midnight was done in a matter of a few hours!

As for what they told the other Initiates regarding what the four of them had apparently seen that was so tantalizing - well, the answer was easy- they just made it all up!

It wasn't like the others could discredit or disprove what they were saying.

The only person who could do that was Tang Ze, and he wasn't about to open up his mouth!

It seemed that in a strange way, their reputation had increased among the male Initiates rather than decreasing!