Yuchi Bing Xia sighed and went over, sitting down next to Yu Jin and leaning against the trunk of the plum tree as well. He looked at the door and pondered. He had often seen Yu Jin sit like this. It was as if — apart from painting — this was what he most often did. It made him wonder just what it was with this place that Yu Jin liked. Did he feel calmer here? Did it remind him of his previous Master?

He couldn’t figure it out and he didn’t feel like asking right now. More important than that …

He took out the notes he had made and then turned to look at his disciple. "Yu Jin?"

Yu Jin opened his eyes and looked over. He didn’t say anything in response and didn’t ask anything either. Just as usual.

Yuchi Bing Xia almost wanted to try and elicit something when he remembered the Grandmaster’s words. He cleared his throat and then handed the notes over. "I thought about what you said before and went to talk things through with Grandmaster Zhangsun. This is the preliminary plan for the mission. Why don’t you take a look? I’d be interested to hear what you think about it." He gave a smile, still inwardly hoping that Yu Jin would say a bit more when he gave his opinion but he reminded himself not to expect too much. This wasn’t Min Huan, after all.

Yu Jin nodded and then leafed through the documents. After a while, he nodded. Then, he handed the papers back wordlessly.

Yuchi Bing Xia couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. This wasn’t quite how he had expected this to play out. But most likely, Yu Jin was just agreeing that it might be doable this way? He put the notes away but didn’t leave yet. "As you’ve seen, I’ve already chosen the inner sect disciples I think would be a good fit. I don’t know the people from the outer sect though. I think it would be good for them to be experienced or at least have a slightly higher cultivation base already. That would lessen the burden on the inner sect disciples.

"I still think that we should give opportunities to the disciples with less optimistic prospects though. Sometimes, one chance is all they need to carve out a better future for themselves."

Yu Jin nodded again. "I agree."

"You’ve spent a bit of time there, haven’t you? Can you think of anybody who might be a good choice?" He wondered if Yu Jin would suggest that Qiguan Cheng Da. If they really were friends, he wouldn’t mind giving that youth a chance.

Yu Jin furrowed his brows. "I don’t know many people there. Maybe … it would be best to let them choose by themselves?"

Yuchi Bing Xia raised his brows in response. "Let them choose by themselves? How? And why would you think so?"

"Master has made sure that the talents and weaknesses of the inner sect disciples are well distributed. That lowers the risk somewhat but it still can’t be denied that this mission will be difficult. Not everybody might be up to that. Not even if their cultivation base is higher or their experience vaster. If one of them gets scared they might abandon the others in a panic or make a bad decision.

"There is also the problem that a person with a higher cultivation base might overestimate their abilities, especially because they were chosen for this mission. They might want to prove that that decision was right and thus take risks that would be unnecessary.

"Both of these situations would put everyone else into danger and maybe even lose lives. This is not what we are trying to achieve. So not creating a situation where they are chosen to participate and at the same time forced to do so might help with that. There might even be additional benefits.

"For example, a person with a lower cultivation base might be more cautious since they know that they wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves. Since going would be their own decision, they would also try not to implicate the others since that would reflect more badly on them. After all, the fact that they overestimated their own strength would be displayed by then."

"Huh." Yuchi Bing Xia watched his disciple explain in amazement. He could hardly believe that Yu Jin had only been a wandering cultivator. Was it that he had gained so much experience while traveling outside with his previous Master that he could analyze everything so calmly? But how come he was also able to understand people so well? Most wandering practitioners were traveling alone or at most as two people. Anyway, his disciple was very gifted at this as well. It really made him start to wonder just what Yu Jin wasn’t good at.

Yu Jin looked at his Master, raising his brows. "Master disagrees?"

"No. I think that … you thought that out very well. How about I put you in charge of organizing things in the outer sect? You’ll be part of the mission anyway so you can already get familiar with the outer sect disciples that will accompany you."

"I see. Mn, I’ll do that then."

"Very well. You can ask anyone for help that you need. If there are other things you need … just come and ask me."

Yu Jin nodded again but stayed silent this time.

Yuchi Bing Xia wasn’t worried anymore though. Today, his little disciple had said the most since the day he took him in. Grandmaster Zhangsun had really been right. This was just his personality. He wouldn’t say anything if there was nothing to say but if he had an opinion and felt that it was important, then he could also say a lot. Also, he was able to think things through calmly so it seemed he wouldn’t need to worry about him getting tricked. Ah, this really was reassuring.

With that thought, Yuchi Bing Xia bid his farewell and left Yu Jin to his new task. He was looking forward to seeing how it would turn out.