Unexpected Guest

***

(MC POV)

"You what!?!" My wife yelled at me as I sat on a sofa.

"I, um… you know I suddenly realize now why that was a bad idea."

"Of course it was! Why would you tell her that?! If you were going to get her one of those just ask me to go. There's no reason you should go at all!"

"You're right, I'll just stay here. Could you tell her that I won't be able to join her since I have work to do?" Looking upon my desk I saw a small stack of papers which I've yet to sort through.

"Yes I can do that. I feel like you've been a little less rational whenever you come in contact with her."

"I-is that so?"

"Yes! I noticed it almost as soon as you brought her back."

'It might have something to do with that red jade. If she has already used it several times then surely the device should shatter soon. It won't last forever after all, sooner rather than later it will break.'

"Perhaps I just need more rest to clear my mind."

"I hope so…"

*Knock* *Knock*

At this time the sound of someone at the door appeared. Almost like an escape was presented to me I immediately opened it and saw my fifth disciple, Liao Rong, standing there.

"What's the matter Rong?"

With a curt bow she informed me of some unexpected news, "Master, Eldest Senior Brother has returned with news about 4th Senior Brother."

'There's finally news about that traitor after so many years? This is quite shocking, back then I looked everywhere for him and yet there seemed to be no trace.'

"Oh? Bring me to him."

"Right away! Please, follow me Master."

"One moment, Ying'er I hope that tomorrow that you and Jinzi could become friends when you return. You can use my meeting with my first disciple as the reason why I couldn't attend. I don't know when this matter will be resolved."

"Oh ok, I'll see you tonight darling!"

"See you, Ying'er!"

Exiting the room I felt relief at the situation I left. When I thought back to the shopping trip I told Jinzi about, I felt a tinge of embarrassment.

'I'll let her deal with it tomorrow. Hopefully it all turns out well, but it shouldn't be too terrible right? At the very least I'm hoping that nothing changes and at most I hope they get along quite well with each other.'

"Master, Eldest Senior Brother should be currently catching up with both 3rd Senior Brother and 8th Junior Brother."

"That's good, did you have a word with him?"

"I only greeted him before I immediately came to inform you."

"Ah, I see."

Once we exited the Grand Hall I wasted no time in flying and headed to my disciple's quarters. They doubled as the Core Elder's lodgings since the only Core Elders I even had were my disciples.

I arrived at the entrance of the quarters and there stood a tall wooden gate. It wasn't something grand, but it has stood the test of time. Without even needing to take any steps in I could see buildings scattered all over the place. This was one of the first places I helped build when I started discipleships, after all my disciples need somewhere to stay right?

Each disciple wanted a slightly differing style in their accommodations. Some being a little bigger and others smaller, some wanting more decorations and others wanting a more minimalist design. Each one of the 10 homes were visible from where I stood and each one held a charm of their own.

In the very center of all the homes was a large amount of flattened land and a slightly raised platform which I used in the past to gather them together. Currently atop the middle of the platform 3 figures stood around chatting with one another.

A man stood tightly grasping onto his spear without coverings for his scarred chest, another had his robes opened extremely loosely which seemed like it would fall off him at any moment, and the final man had his back turned to me, yet I could easily discern his spiky hair. Of course they were all my disciples, else they wouldn't be here.

Once I stepped past the gate my third and eighth spotted my presence. The third man soon noticed the attention of the two he was with changed and he turned around.

From his outfit to his hair my first disciple looked like her would be the main character of a cultivation novel. In fact all of my disciples gave off such feelings in a way or another, but my first still tops them all. That is at least when it comes to generic heroes. The only unorthodox thing he has going for him is the fact that his weapon of choice was a saber and not a sword, clearly indicated by the weapon by his waist.

Landing on the platform all 3 of them immediately greeted me by cupping their hands.

"Master!"

"(8th) Gang, (3rd) Jiahao, and (1st) Xuefei. Rong has told me that you found a trace of Ming(4th)?"

"Yes! I found a few of his traces not too far away from where we are currently, only 20 Li(Chinese mile equivalent 500 meters each) south of here. I saw him with my own eyes! It doesn't matter how long it's been since we saw each other, the moment I laid eyes on him I knew it was him and he knew it was me. We had a small battle, but after only 10 moves were exchanged he ran away. His escape technique was extraordinary and unfortunately I couldn't catch him. Luckily, I decided to visit Master today or we might not have found this clue about Fourth Junior Brother."

"You said it was 20 Li south of here?"

"Yes! Fourth Junior Brother hasn't been seen in so long, yet when he appears he arrives at Master's sect. Master, I think that Fourth Junior Brother might be plotting something against you. I already searched the area where I found him, but I came up empty handed. I was just speaking to my Junior Brothers about the matter and to ask for their opinion."

'He came to the mountain range huh? Has he set something up already or is he planning to? It could easily be noted that he could have just been scouting the area out, but what purpose does he have in coming back here in the first place? Is he here for something?..Or someone? Does he want to settle that fight between me and him in the past?'

"Let's search his house again, perhaps there's something we missed before."

Floating up a bit I flew over to one of the buildings scattered about and following behind me were the 4 disciples. The exterior appearance was quite tame as it looked just like a small two story stone building without any distinguishing features. Opening the door, the inside was opened up to the outside world once more. I can't really remember the last time we opened this building, but ever since then we never touched it again.

There seemed to be a thin layer of dust covering everything within.

Coating myself in a layer of Qi to repel any dust that came near me I walked in. When we searched his house last time we didn't wreck any part of it, only moving things around and replacing them when we found nothing.

My disciples who came in immediately after spread out to earnestly try and find any possible clues for why their Fourth Brother would return here. Rong immediately started looking though bookshelves, Gang lifted things around to see if anything was around, Xuefei looked around under and between areas for any kind of secret, and Jiahao just scanned the room to see if there was anything obvious to look at.

While they looked around the first floor I made my way up to the second. Up here was a bed with a table and chair nearby. The bed's frame was entirely solid so there couldn't have been anything hidden underneath it. There was a dresser up here as well and when I opened it nothing unexpected came out. There was clothing inside and removing the clothing only revealed the bottom of the drawer. Even when I completely removed all the drawers off the dresser nothing out of the ordinary appeared.

My fourth disciple, Feng Ming, wasn't really anything special at least when compared to everyone else. Each disciple had certain characteristics which stood out about them from the rest, my 8th for example seemed like a cultivation and battle maniac while 3rd over here seemed entirely set on trying to use the least amount of effort one could, in other words he was lazy. But Feng Ming didn't seem to possess any of those characteristics, his normality stood out in this group of people.

It wasn't really a bad thing though. But once he attacked me and left me severely wound I began to think and wonder a bit as to whether he really was just 'normal' or not. Perhaps he was hiding his trait all along and that was why we couldn't find anything different about him.

When I walked down my disciples were all just about finished with their searches as well.

"Master, we found nothing."

"I didn't either."

Exiting the building I deactivated the thin Qi layer around my body and took a look at the sky. The sun was starting to set as the orange light was disappearing over the horizon. It was getting late and I needed to return to my wife.

"Disciples."

"Yes, Master!" They all said in unison.

"It's getting late. I'm going to go to bed and I'll resume this tomorrow. In the morning take me to the site where you found your Fourth Brother."

"Farewell Master!"

I heard them behind me as I started to fly away. There wasn't any urgency in this situation. The moment that 4th used an escape technique to leave there wasn't much chance to catch him, especially since 1st was alone against him. If he did do something along the outskirts of the mountain range then we should be able to find some clues. Even if we didn't go now, if he created something such as an array outside it shouldn't disperse by itself. If he did anything like setting up an array outside then there should still be something to find out there.

When I made it to the top of my mountain it was almost like a repeat of the sunset when I brought Jinzi here. This time I didn't stare too intently at it since I had a matter to attend to.

Through the front door and up the stairs I opened the door to our bedroom.

In the bed Ying'er sat with a book in her hand. There with a candle she had by the side as lighting she read until she noticed me.

"Husband! You're back!" Delicately closing the book she placed it on her nightstand nearby.

"Of course I'm back!"

"Come here! Sit" She pulled up the blanket on my side of the bed and patted the spot.

Taking up her offer she instantly recovered me in it with a small whoosh.

"What were you talking about with them over there?"

"It was about my fourth disciple, the one who betrayed me. Apparently my first disciple met him south of here. The fact he was here was suspicious in its own right since it had been so long since any of us had last seen any trace of him. In fact that's actually what we'll be doing tomorrow. We're going to check out the surrounding area in which my first saw him appear. He said that they had an exchange with not even ten moves before he fled."

"That sounds like a lot of work. Work which will cost you a lot of time. Goodnight~"

"Goodnight."

Proceeding which she tightly hugged onto me as we fell sleep.