When it came to that period of time, Mei Chao Bing didn’t know much about it. In fact, there were only two points that came to mind: One, the person who founded the sect had actually been a woman, something that wasn’t common at that time. Second, her name had been Lai Ming.

He didn’t know how she had compared to her compatriots or what her life had been like before she founded the sect. In fact, he didn’t even know what the Teng Yong Sect of those days had looked like. That knowledge had already been lost or at the very least, it had never been taught to them as the disciples of the sect.

Well, come to think of it, maybe he was also a special case. After all, he had been taught by a Master who wasn’t loyal to the sect. Naturally, he wouldn’t want him to learn too much about it. Otherwise, he might start to identify more with the sect and have a harder time leaving.

Mei Chao Bing scoffed and then didn’t bother to think about it further. Anyway, whatever information he could find was good. As for this first scroll, it was actually one written by Lai Ming herself. It detailed the place where she erected the first building of the sect and why she had chosen this place for the sect.

He read over the latter part twice, not sure if he understood. She was talking about some kind of disaster but she didn’t give details. Was it a natural disaster? Did it have to do with cultivators? He couldn’t tell. He also couldn’t say whether she had had an ability. It might be the case though.

He furrowed his brows and read the rest of the scroll but he still couldn’t find any further information that would be useful. Giving a hum, Mei Chao Bing simply turned to the scroll next to him, reading that one instead. Somewhere in these documents had to be hints as to what had really happened back then. As long as he found enough of them, he could piece the story together.

His guess was about right. He continued going to the scrolls close to him and indeed managed to uncover some parts of the history of their sect that he had never heard about.

Unfortunately, part of some scrolls wasn’t readable any longer, and even in what was, many details were missing. For example, he still didn’t know what kind of disaster Lai Ming had been talking about in the first scroll. Back then, it had probably been so familiar to people that they all understood as soon as the word ‘disaster’ fell and so they didn’t bother explaining anything to the ones coming after them.

At the very least, he had managed to get the gist though: Lai Ming and three other people had founded the four great righteous sects in response to that disaster. They had been meant to protect the common people from harm not just by the strength of each individual cultivator they taught in these sects but also as a whole.

Mei Chao Bing stared at the sentence mentioning the latter for a long time. As a whole … was this just a poetic way of saying that the sects were supposed to work together even though they were separate entities? Or could it be that there was more to this?

The northern gate, the eastern gate, the southern gate, and the western gate … he had always taken those names as merely descriptors of where the sects were located. But what if there was more to it? What if — as unlikely as it may seem — they had indeed been seen as gates back in the day?

Mei Chao Bing rubbed his face, suddenly feeling tired. He felt like he had found something but there were more questions than answers contained in these scrolls. If the sects were indeed gates, then where did they lead? What did they connect? He couldn’t think of anything at all!

He lowered his hands and looked at the other scrolls around him, at a loss. This hall was below the earth so he couldn’t tell how much time had passed exactly. He was sure that he had been here for hours though. Reading the other scrolls … it was out of the question.

He cursed under his breath but finally still turned around and left the hall. He at least had to find out how late it was. Then, he could decide whether there would still be enough time to look at anything else.

Mei Chao Bing’s luck that day wasn’t good. When he came out of the building where the archive was located, it was already early evening. He would only have enough time to check on Yan Hong Min’s matters and then he’d have to return to the border region.

He shook his head with a sigh and then went to Yan Hong Min’s place first but he couldn’t find him. Looking around and seeing the state his study was in, he had probably packed up what he needed and then gone to oversee the other disciples working while he finished up the tasks at the side. Thinking of this, he went to the Sect Master’s place instead.

As soon as he arrived, a disciple waiting next to the door cupped his fists. “Senior martial brother Mei, I’m supposed to bring you over to the Sect Master as soon as you came back.”

Mei Chao Bing wanted to nod but then paused, taking a second look at the disciple in front of him. “Junior martial brother Ao?”

Ao Jing nodded. “Yeah. I … I’m sorry about before.”

Mei Chao Bing raised his brows, still reeling from the shock of being treated politely by this person. In the end, he shook his head though. “It’s alright. Honestly, I think junior martial brother Yang wasn’t a good influence on you. Without him, I don’t think it would have turned out like that.”

Ao Jing could only smile wryly. He didn’t think he deserved to have somebody make excuses for him but this just went to show that Mei Chao Bing was a much better person than they had ever given him credit for. It would have been great if they could have realized earlier and taken the right steps. Maybe then, Di Huan Bo would still be around now.