Shortly, all the disciples were dismissed. Mei followed her friends as they streamed out of the hall. Whispers and chatter echoed through the hallways as the disciples discussed amidst each other.

"I feel kind of bad for him, to be honest." Liu Qiang was the first to speak. "Maybe he went a bit far and didn't think it through, but he just wanted to help."

"Hmph. Most likely, he just wanted to show off how so-called virtuous he was," Yingyi said. "Sure, such a sight can be upsetting, but I don't think most people would lose control in a fit of rage over that."

Liu Qiang shrugged. "I suppose you'd have to be a little messed in the head to kill with so little hesitation..."

"So, what does our residential saint think, huh?" Yingyi poked Xiuying with his shoulder lightly with a mischievous grin.

Mei wanted to hear what Xiuying thought as well.

"Eh??" Xiuying stepped out of her stupor. "Honestly, I'm not sure what to say... it's a lot to process."

"It was very irresponsible of him to charge in without a thought, and him killing without hesitation... it's quite extreme for someone that young..." she continued. "But I was thinking of what I would have done if I had seen just that. It's not easy to be rational when-"

Xiuying suddenly jolted.

"Ah! Not that I'm saying he's in the wrong, I'm not taking sides on this! With stuff like this, it's um, not easy to determine what's really right or wrong! I think it's more of a... half-half deal? Half right, half wrong... um... uh..."

In a fluster, she waved her hands around while stammering.

Huh. For some reason, Mei thought she'd have been more opposed.

She felt like Yingyi was really making light of the matter.

"Very insightful words from Mrs Saint." Yingyi laughed. "Hey, brick wall, share your thoughts on this as well."

What.

"Hey! Even if she doesn't really talk, that's rude!" Xiuying berated.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Urgh...

"I mean," Mei started. "Xiuying already said all there is to say about it, didn't she? What am I supposed to add?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She nudged Wang Wei.

"Eh? Um, same," he said, looking at her with a slightly peeved look.

"Oh yeah, the Buddhist sect!" Liu Qiang suddenly said. "Do you think they'll shave our heads and force us to meditate or something? And eat only vegetarian food?"

"They probably wouldn't force us to shave. We're only visiting to learn from them after all." Xiuying said.

The friends continued to chatter for the next hour, before bidding farewell to prepare for tomorrow's trip. Mei wanted to poke her nose and eavesdrop on what Li Jie would discuss regarding Yu Hang, but thought the better of it.

----------------------------------------

"How do you think the old man would have handled it?" Li Jie said.

Beside him, Qiao Shun stood.

With the announcement over, and the offending disciples dealt with just moments ago, the hall was now empty once more, save for the two of them. Even the spirits had left, in a show of respect.

"Why do you ask?"

"No real reason."

"You've been with the sect master before the sect was established. If anything, you probably know him better than any of us." Qiao Shun said. "You've probably seen him handle similar occurrences as well in the past."

Li Jie sighed, his eyes full of melancholy.

"Sometimes, getting an outside perspective is nice."

"He'd probably let him off with just a stern lecture." Qiao Shun shook his head. "That old man was way too lenient."

Li Jie let out a dry laugh.

"Perhaps... perhaps..."

"To send Yu Hang to the Calm Water sect's sutra hall... you have an interesting way of handling things."

"In my eyes, the alternative was tossing him out. We don't need such dangerous disciples in our sect."

...

The two of them were silent for a good minute.

"Speaking of which, how has the investigation with Yang Ning and Hong Ling gone?" Li Jie changed the topic.

"They have yet to be located."

"Oh?" Li Jie raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps it's because you've only assigned a single disciple to investigate?"

Qiao Shun recoiled. This guy... Truly, it was as Li Xuan said. The spirits were the eyes and ears of the sect. There was no privacy with them around.

"Han Yun is a very capable disciple, that's for sure. But even he cannot handle two tasks of this magnitude alone."

Qiao Shun remained silent.

"I won't ask why you decided to entrust him with both alone, but that won't stand. Tomorrow, we will send more spirits to investigate."

"Hong Ling has managed to break free of the sect's jade restrains. There's no telling if we might lose more spirits if he decides to set them free as well. And as for Yang Ning... I felt Han Yun is best suited for the case."

"I didn't think of that, regarding the former." Li Jie stroked his chin. "As for Yang Ning, we send out the spirits regardless. Any complications can wait until we locate him."

Qiao Shun nodded silently.

"Tell me of any leads Han Yun has found in his investigations."

"Han Yun said he couldn't find a single trace of Hong Ling, but he did have some clues as to Yang Ning's whereabouts."

"Oh?"

"Just two days ago, he went to Yang Ning's hometown. His father said he had seen Yang Ning the night before, and they parted ways soon after. So Han Yun checked on his favourite brewery, and the bartender confirmed that night, Yang Ning had been drinking excessively."

"For a youth to drink his problems away in this manner..." Li Jie shook his head. "Carry on."

"The strange thing was, even after he asked the frequent patrons of the bar, no one could remember witnessing Yang Ning leave." Qiao Shun said. "This was despite the fact that he was getting a lot of attention from the ridiculous amount of alcohol he was ordering."

Li Jie suddenly looked serious.

"Memory altering? That is a certain sign of demonic magic."

"It's hard to say for sure."

"That doesn't matter. We shall send an elder to personally investigate then."