This time, Mei Chao Bing wasn’t too shocked by what she said. “To be honest, my original thought was that he might’ve somehow acquired the black warrior’s ability early on and used that to find us.”

Blue butterfly started to nod but then shook her head. “You make it sound like something he did consciously, like something that might have been done as part of his treason of the sect. But I think that you’re wrong there.

“This kind of talent, people are usually born with it. And it is fate or maybe just coincidence what comes of it. Most of us don’t know about them until we have already developed them quite a bit.

“I think that your Master might’ve had one as well. The Teng Yong Sect’s practice was likely suitable to develop it, so the longer he was there, the more progress he made. As for what that ability is, it might not necessarily be visions like the black warrior has them. If you think about it, you will also realize this.

“No ability is exactly the same. And even if he has visions, it might very well be that they work differently. The fact he took in a bunch of disciples that turned out to be incredible cultivators should give you a hint: His ability is likely related to people.”

Mei Chao Bing slowly gave a nod, his thoughts already racing. In fact, it was a bit laughable that his Master of all people would have an ability that was related to others. He had always been so cold, so … distant. It just didn’t seem to fit him.

Blue butterfly took another sip of wine and raised a brow at him. “What are you thinking?”

Mei Chao Bing sighed, wondering if he should really say this. “My Master wasn’t necessarily a good person. I … I can hardly believe that he would have an ability related to others. It just … it seems odd to me.”

Blue butterfly shrugged. “I’m not saying that it is definitely the case. In fact, I could be completely wrong. But you should also consider the other option: Maybe the way he was as your Master wasn’t his original personality but something that developed because of his ability.”

Mei Chao Bing stared at her and suddenly, he felt that it made sense. In fact, he should’ve thought of this himself after everything she had said. She had started to feel detached from others in the world itself because of her ability to travel in dreams, then his Master who was connected to people by his ability might also pull away from them as a result. Yes, thinking of it like this, it made sense.

“Do you think there would be any way to find out?”

Blue butterfly shook her head. “Not one that I could think of. These abilities … they are something that grows inside of us. As long as we don’t talk about it, nobody would know. Even this here, if I wanted to, I could disguise it as a normal dream. You might feel … weird about it but dreams are like that, aren’t they?

“In the same vein, I know that your Teng Yong Sect’s black warrior originally wanted to change the future when he started to realize his ability. I believe that this might even have been how we met in the first place. He was the one who connected us. He was the one who came to us when our abilities started to develop because he had seen it happen before it actually did.”

Mei Chao Bing did not know much about the story behind the four guardians. Hearing blue butterfly say this now, he couldn’t help but be curious. “Back then, what happened?” From the words alone, it seemed that there had been something major going on. That kind of thing, it was best to find out more. They might be able to learn something from that for their current situation.

Blue butterfly fell silent for a while. Her gaze seemed lost as if she was remembering the past.

Mei Chao Bing had no idea how long it had been since then. The story of the four guardians, it wasn’t taught in detail in the four sects, probably because they were worried somebody would make use of this knowledge for something nefarious like his Master had gotten up to. In fact, this knowledge was hidden so well, you could count yourself lucky if even your own sect’s guardian was brought up with more than just a couple of words.

Right now, he couldn’t help but feel that this was a shortcoming of the sects. If they honored their history more, then maybe they wouldn’t be in the current situation. Yes, maybe in all of this, there was a lesson to be learned somewhere.

If there was more time, he would’ve liked to use his stay at the Teng Yong Sect to take a look at whatever remnants of information were left over from the long-forgotten past of their sects. Regarding these abilities, surely, the current four guardians shouldn’t be the first ones that had achieved them. In that case, there might be more information to be found in earlier stages of time that might prove helpful when returning to the border region.

Just when he pondered if it might be feasible to get some information at least, blue butterfly sighed. She changed her posture and leaned forward, propping her elbows up on her knees while staring straight at the two of them. “This story, I’m not sure if you actually want to hear it. While it has a good ending, the path until there wasn’t a straight one or one without losses. Hearing it while you are in this kind of situation, I’m not sure if it will help you or if it won’t make you despair.”