27 Taking on a Disciple

Meanwhile, as Lien Hua and her two friends arrived home, something else important was happening on the other side of the sect.

In fact, after Shi Yueh had left the classroom after talking to Lien Hua, he had not gone to his home, but had gone towards the highest mountain of the sect, where many imposing buildings could be seen above it. However, Shi Yueh was currently heading towards the centre of this mountain, where some smaller buildings were erected.

At the moment Shi Yueh found himself inside one of these buildings built entirely of rare materials and was talking to a person in a private room isolated from the outside world.

"Sigh... so your time has come too right Shi Yueh?"

"Don't make it look like something bad Ying Zhuang."

The person who had spoken first and was arguing with Shi Yueh, was a fairly tall man, about 1.8 meters in height. He had long crimson hair left to the wind without any adornment and was wearing a uniform with red and black colours intertwined like flames. Above his uniform's large gold embroidered lotus, another small 3-petalled gold lotus was there.

"Shi Yueh, I also had this experience and I have to say that it depends on the person; you can't just take people at random."

With a little grimace of contempt at the thought of what had happened to him in the past, Ying Zhuang distorted his face a little, which was adorned with two obsidian-black phoenix-shaped eyes, sword-shaped eyebrows and a slightly oval face, giving him a slightly feminine appearance, but in the meantime his slightly red lips were constantly swearing.

"Besides, don't make me remember that bastard. If I see him around again, I'll at least punch him in that fucking smug face of his and make his damn head explode."

Shi Yueh, seeing that his friend was constantly firing insults and swearing, laughed a little in embarrassment, but he had come to talk to him about serious things so he stopped him.

"OK, but she's not so bad. She's got an outstanding talent like mine for cultivation, maybe even better. The girl has a quiet and diligent character and above all she's determined. What more do you want?"

"Okay Shi Yueh, but are you sure? As soon as you do this, you can't go back. If you want to accept as a personal disciple someone who hasn't even cultivated for a week, there are also risks."

Shi Yueh was very sure; otherwise he wouldn't have come here at this time to consult with Ying Zhuang.

"Yes, I'm sure, and I don't know why. It's like Ming said all those years ago, she's the one, Ying Zhuang..."

As soon as he heard the name Ming, it was as if a curtain of smoke had descended over the mood of both men present. If before, Shi Yueh and Ying Zhuang were conversing quietly and happily, now their conversation was much more depressed and suffocating.

"Ah... Ming? *Sigh*... If it's as she said back then, this girl will definitely be the one, but how did she figure it out so many years ago? How many years has it been Shi Yueh?..."

During the time that Ying Zhuang was talking, the one who was most distressed was Shi Yueh. He looked towards his dear old friend with somewhat clouded eyes and replied in a somewhat choked voice, "10 years... it's been 10 long years and every day seems to get longer and longer without her..."

"Don't worry Shi Yueh, she's strong and I know nothing will happen to her..."

Although he wanted to reassure Shi Yueh, it was more like he wanted to reassure himself. It had been 10 years since their Junior Sister had disappeared and had not been heard from again; they were both worried sick since they were so close with her. But as the years passed, and seeing that nothing was being resolved, their hopes were slowly starting to wane.

"*Sigh*... However, things may be looking better for you Shi Yueh. You finally found a disciple worthy of your tutelage. I think Ming would be proud of you at least..."

"I hope so. One thing I have noticed though is that she has a similar part of her eyes to her, but I think it's more of a coincidence. After all there are countless humans on this continent and surely there can be coincidences."

With a final sigh from both men of the same rank, Shi Yueh got up from the armchair where he was sitting and looked towards Ying Zhuang, who also noticed his friend get up and with a smile bade his friend farewell.

"I have to go now Ying, but I promise I'll do my best to look for Ming again. In the end you know, you really cared about her..."

Ying Zhuang, seeing how it had been so obvious in the past evidently, was first shocked and looked towards Shi Yueh, but later calmly replied, "Yeah... so you noticed it too, but I don't know what to do anymore."

"Don't worry, we'll find her even if we have to search all over this continent."

So with this promise, Shi Yueh looked towards his friend and smiled, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from the private room. When he was once again alone, Ying Zhang's countenance fell and he threaded his fingers together as he sat in his chair, staring blankly like a broken doll toward the wall in front of him, ruminating through many dark thoughts.

Meanwhile at Lien Hua's house, she and her friends had placed the sparkling stones on the table and were currently preparing something to eat.

"Eh, Lien Hua, what are we going to do in today's training?"

Lien Hua, who was currently putting ingredients on top of the kitchen counter to prepare them before cooking, turned to Lin Yue, who had called out to her.

"Today we will mainly train with that move that Sect Elder Wang explained to us yesterday and then some basic exercises. What do you think?"

"You mean that palm exercise? Wow, I can't wait to continue until I complete it all!"

As soon as Chen Huang heard that they were also training with the martial technique that Sect Elder Wang had taught him, he couldn't wait to start training. In fact as soon as he saw that all the cutlery was missing on the table, he gingerly began to prepare it with stratospheric speed, finishing it off in a matter of seconds.

Lin Yue, the quieter one, had already sat down at the table and gracefully looked over at Chen Huang, who was excited about a simple exercise, and jokingly criticised him, "Wow, you get so excited over a simple exercise. What are you a kid?"

"W-what Lin Yue? That's not true! I am not a child!"

Seeing that he didn't get the joke, Lin Yue simply turned to Lien Hua with a bored face. Lien Hua, seeing Lin Yue's face, could only smile at her and started to put the food she had just cooked on the table.

"Here's today's house dish: steamed dumplings with white rice on the side. Enjoy."

As soon as Lien Hua put the dish on the table, she didn't even have time to sit down before more than half of the food had already disappeared. Shocked, she looked around between her two friends and already noticed Chen Huang with several things on his plate and also Lin Yue, the noble and cold one, had filled her plate and was eating with gusto.

Lien Hua also started to eat with a smile and between laughter and irrelevant talk, they finished everything and put all the dirty dishes in the kitchen.

Seeing that her two friends were getting up, Lien Hua also got up and started walking towards the French window with Lin Yue and Chen Huang walking behind her.

As soon as they set foot outside the house, everyone was assailed by a smell of pure nature that made them take a deep breath and with a sigh of bliss they descended the small steps in front of them.

Lin Yue and Chen Huang were shocked at what was in front of them. That small garden that until a few days ago was normal had now become much more lively and certainly much more crowded. The tree had grown, and with it all the plants around it, created a small greenhouse that hid what was going on inside from the people outside.

So the two of them stood next to Lien Hua who had positioned herself under the tree that had grown significantly since they had come and could not help but open their mouths.

"How much has your garden grown?"

"Yeah, it's really grown up a lot!"

Lien Hua realised that they had not been here for a couple of days and simply replied with a small apology. "I don't know, I just got a little behind and overwatered it, I guess?"

Not buying her excuse at all, however, both Lin Yue and Chen Huang did not get to the bottom of the situation and simply looked at Lien Hua, who had already begun to strike a training pose.

"Well now we are going to start with the Ocean Wave Palm technique. Since, even if we managed to perform it once, surely like it has been for me, it probably wasn't enough for either of you, so we will continue what we started yesterday. So now, follow my movements."

Lien Hua then began to repeat the exercise that Wang Tao had taught her the previous day: the Ocean Wave Palm. She first got into the horse position, put her palms facing outwards in front of her chest, and began to concentrate, letting out a small strand of spiritual energy which she didn't let out completely, and simply pushed out her palms, creating only a faint wave that quickly dissipated.

"Well, now that I've re-demonstrated that, we're going to do it again together, okay?"

""All right!""

So, getting back into the technique position and seeing that her friends both were following her, Lien Hua began training with Lin Yue and Chen Huang until all three ran out of too much spiritual energy to continue training the technique.