After talking to Yue Dongmei, Yun Ling slowly walked outside to find Yun Xia.

He had decided to go to the Thousand Mountain Valley to meet Yun Xia's mother. Aside from meeting Yun Xia's mother, he was supposed to go there with the top ten of the Golden Dragon Election as per the order of the emperor.

Since he already told his daughter that he would no longer go, he wanted to get her permission to leave so he could meet her mother. Hopefully, Yun Xia would agree and not give him a hard time since he was going to meet her mother after all. Wouldn't that make her happy instead?

Yun Ling felt really bad just thinking that he would have to leave his daughter again but he really wanted to meet Yun Xia's mother once again and have her answer all the questions he had that Yue Dongmei couldn't tell him.

"Ah, Big Bro. What are you doing here?" his younger brother, Yun Feng, asked in surprise upon seeing him come towards them.

His surprise was understandable since Yun Ling rarely went out of the room ever since the monks began treating Yue Dongmei.

"I'm here to speak with Xiaxia," Yun Ling said as he observed Yun Feng for a few seconds.

It would seem that before he had come there, Yun Feng had been meditating. That made Yun Ling pleased since his younger brother wasn't slacking off even while he wasn't observing him. He was actually learning some meditation techniques from the monks like what he had advised him.

"Where are the others?" Yun Ling asked. He couldn't find Snow Fang and the children anywhere.

Yun Feng pointed towards where the children had gone and said, "They are out there observing the monks in their training with Snow Fang. They went there just minutes ago."

Yun Ling frowned at that. He didn't want the children associating with the other monks because there were quite a lot of monks in the Great Buddhist Monastery who were up to no good. All the monks that they had met beforehand like Tathagata, Monk Wang Yang and the three monks who helped cure Yue Dongmei's spirit were all good monks so they hadn't really encountered a bad monk yet.

He also couldn't blame the children for going out to see the monks' training since he hadn't forbidden them from doing so. The same went for Yun Feng. He couldn't scold his little brother because he didn't give him instructions about that.

"Alright... you go and continue your meditation. I'll get the children myself," Yun Ling said before heading off towards the direction that Yun Feng had pointed at.

It didn't take long for Yun Ling to arrive at the monks' public training ground where Snow Fang and the children were. The reason Yun Ling called it the training ground was because each prominent monk had their own personal training ground.

As for the public training ground, it was a huge open area where most monks who didn't have their own personal training grounds gathered. They would either train, meditate, exchange pointers, or debate with the other monks in there.

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Since there were many monks gathered there, it was a place filled with different types of characters.

Yun Ling's eyes traveled around the area for a few seconds before landing on the familiar figure of Snow Fang and the children. Just as he was about to come over to them, five bald monks around his age approached them.

"If I heard right from the others, these beasts and children were brought over here by that bastard Yun Ling, right?" a monk with a roguish face said.

"Yeah... our boss heard it from Monk Wang Yang. That guy warned our boss not to mess around with these brats because they were under Yun Ling."

"Hah, who does Monk Wang Yang think he is? Did he think that just because he is Tathagata's disciple that he could order us around? Heh, my great-grandfather is a Sacred King himself... if he has Tathagata then I have my great-grandfather."

"Hey, watch your mouth. You might not be scared of him but don't forget that we are in the Great Buddhist Monastery... this is not our territory."

"Haah, I wanna go home. I don't want to stay in this stinking monastery any longer."

"Hey, kid. Where's Yun Ling? I have some score to settle with him," the monk with the roguish face said as he pointed towards Yun Xia.

Yun Xia recoiled back because of the scary adult in front of him. Snow Fang immediately went to her rescue and got in front of her, covering her from the monks' line of sight.

Seeing that Snow Fang was now in front of her, Yun Xia let out a sigh of relief.

"Grrrrrr!" Snow Fang growled out as he glared at the monks.

"Huh? This beast is looking at me in such a funny way. Do you think I'm scared of you? If I was alone, I might be. But there are five of us here. You might be a lesser beast but you don't stand a chance against the five of us," he said. Then, he glanced at his companions. "Let's teach this lesser beast a lesson."

"Hoh... let's kill and eat it. It's just a lesser beast anyway."

"Haha as monks, we aren't allowed to eat meat but hey... it's not like Tathagata is here to chide us."

"It's been a while since I've last eaten meat. Being a monk sucks. I don't know why anyone would want to become one in the first place."

"GRRRRRRR!" Snow Fang finally bared his fangs as he listened to the words of the humans in front of him. They were the type of humans he disliked the most. He had almost forgotten how a lot of humans acted towards the lesser beasts because of how well Yun Ling and the Yun Clan treated him and his son.

Behind Snow Fang, Yun Xia let out a frown as well as the rest of the children. The Lion King Cub who was with them also growled out, sensing the hostility of the humans towards his father. Yun Xia had nearly forgotten the fear she felt for the monks as she got upset at them for Snow Fang's sake.

"Stop it! Snow Fang is our friend!" Yun Xia yelled out as she courageously stood in front of Snow Fang.

The rest of the children followed her lead.

Snow Fang's eyes widened at the sight of the weak, tiny children trying to protect him. There was no way that the children could really protect him but he appreciated their efforts nonetheless. That gave him even more reason to not let any harm fall upon them for such humans were quite rare in the world.

"Hah, kid! You don't know anything so just stand aside and shut up!" the monk with the roguish face said as he raised his hand at Yun Xia.

Yun Xia closed her eyes when she saw that the monk was going to slap her.

Just as Snow Fang was about to pounce on the monk, he heard a familiar cold voice.

"Courting death!"

"Ehh?"

The monk halted his movements and looked at where the voice had come from.

SLAP!

Before he could even see who it was, he felt a sharp, painful sensation on his right cheek as he was sent flying right across the training ground, interrupting all the monks who were seriously training in there.

The rest of the roguish monk's companion couldn't help but shiver upon seeing the cold, emotionless gaze of the newcomer in front of them.

"Y-Yun Ling... it's been a while," one of them said fearfully.

Without saying another word...

SLAP!

Yun Ling slapped him hard in the cheek, almost twisting his neck from the force he had unleashed.