Chapter 405: The Courtyard (1/2)

Alex cocked his head in confusion towards the last sentence that the Second Elder had just said. ”One… of us? I don't understand, elder,” he said.

”Sigh… After the beast invasion in the capital, when it was time to return, everyone was fine, except you. So, they spent a day searching for you before Sect Leader Wen asked the rest of the group to return back to Scarlet city with haste.”

”During that time, we found information, through a letter left behind that Wan Li had decided to go find the bandits that killed his parents. So, he is now gone from the sect as well.”

”He did not leave behind any information whatsoever as which direction he went to, or when he left. He might have even changed his face, so we don't really know where he is gone too. A few elders are gone… but it's hard to track down an alchemist when he really wants to stay hidden,” the second elder said.

”I see…” Alex said. His eyes drifted away as he thought about how Wan Li must've felt when he learned about his parent's death. The hurt, the pain, the anger, the sorrow— he had kept them all deep inside him, never letting it show.

'He must've been thinking about revenge for a very long time,' Alex thought. He was about to think of something else when the Second Elder spoke.

”I'm leaving now. It's good to know that you are alive and well, Junior Yu. I will let the rest of the elders know about it,” the Second Elder said.

”Ah, right. I was on my way to the elder's hall to notify everyone when these children called you, and you called me,” The Grand Elder said as if he had forgotten to do something.

He then turned to Alex and said, ”You don't have to worry about anything else, child. Its night time, and you must be tired. Go and rest. The rest will take care of your master for now.”

The Grand Elder and the Second Elders turned around to leave.

”Grandmaster, wait,” Alex said.

”What is it, child?” he asked.

”Do you perhaps know why Master went to the forbidden fields?” he asked. That was a question that was in his mind for a while now.

Grand Elder thought for a while and said, ”You know… I don't think she ever gave us any reason to go there. The elders all learned about what happened in the Forbidden Fields and rescued the disciples from there.”

”After that, once your master said there was something she needed to check there, the elders just followed her. However, just an hour or two after going there, she fell sick and had to be rushed here, at which point her sickness just got worse,” the Grand Elder said.

”I see. I will ask the master directly if she had any reasons then. Good Night Grand Elder, Second Elder,” Alex said as he bowed a little towards them.

”Go, child. Rest,” The Grand Elder said and left with the Second elder in tow.

Alex didn't move for a while however and instead thought, 'Master must've been worried about the development in the  Forbidden Fields, so she went to check it. But the yang energy there got her ill, so she probably found nothing,' Alex thought.

'Sigh, whatever. I will think about this stuff later,' he thought and went to his home he hadn't visited in over a month.

He walked in and saw that the lanterns had already turned on for the night. He took one off and walked into the courtyard.

He placed it on the ground and took off the covering to see the flame on its own, along with the metal plate at the bottom.

”I really did remember correctly. I can't tell what metal this is, but this is the same one I drew on,” Alex thought. He placed the covering back on the lantern and got up.

”Aaah,” he said as he stretched. He really hadn't stretch this good in a while.

”Might as well take a bath now,” He thought and took off his clothes as he jumped into the pool. The cold water washed away all the dirt and waste his body had accumulated naturally in the last month.

Without asking, he called Pearl out as well. Pearl for one hated being in the water. Every time he was called out, he got really flustered as if he was going to die anytime soon.

However, from the emotion that was transferred along to Alex, he only hated the water and found it no threat.

This time too, he started to splash around and didn't want to stay in there at all.

”Hate! Hate!” the message got sent into Alex's head as Pearl used his spiritual sense to talk. He soon swam properly without splashing around and made his way out of the water.

”You're going nowhere,” Alex said as he caught Pearl once again. Pearl tried to get out of his grip, but Alex's strength when he combined his body and Qi was too much for Pearl to handle.

Pearl had to stay there in agony as Alex washed him carefully; Pearl had been out in the dirt for too long and had trained with him every day, so he really needed this bath.

Once he was done cleaning himself and Pearl, he walked out of the pond and let Pearl do whatever he wanted. The first thing Pearl did when he was let go was snarled back at Alex.

Alex found this quite amusing and thought nothing more. He quickly dried himself off and helped dry off Pearl too. After that, Pearl was no longer angry with him.

Alex wore the other core disciple robe of his and started cultivating. He got Pearl to cultivate as well and soon he was dual cultivating.

As he fell into a trance, once again like every other time, he fell asleep.

Around 6 in the morning, he woke back up. He looked at the time and thought that he had quite a few times to go before he had to go to eat breakfast and get ready for his classes.

So, he decided to go check on his master.

When he reached there, he only saw 3 girls there, the rest including Fan Ruogang and Zhou Mei had gone back to their houses in the Core Mountain.

The 3 remaining girls were still taking care of her, but it didn't seem like they had to do anything in particular. They could've left for the night and it wouldn't have mattered a bit.