On the Central Peak, a grim atmosphere settled over the central meeting room of Lanyue Sect¹Means Blue Moon, literally. Six seats were arranged around a long rectangular table like they were convening for a meeting.

Several disciples stood behind the chairs against the wall of the room, keeping silent as they sensed that the atmosphere was unusually tense. In the first place, the Peak Masters rarely gathered for such a united meeting, unless... something big had happened.

Several disciples, all wearing the same trademark light blue robes of Lanyue Sect, swallowed nervously, afraid of puncturing the unsettling solemnity of the central meeting room. 

Five of the six seats were filled by serious Peak Masters, but one particular chair, carved of aged rosewood and spiritual jade, was empty.

For a while, there was only silence as everyone's eyes were inexplicably drawn to the only empty chair in the room. The chair had delicate craftsmanship, clearly made much more intricately than the other chairs.

At last, there was a sigh that punctuated the heavy silence.

The man who sighed was the one who sat at the heading seat of the long table. Glancing at one of the blue-robed disciples nearby, he raised a hand, lightly gesturing to the jade teacups in front of him before lowering his hand.

Getting the signal, the disciples immediately bowed and retreated in a neat row out of the central meeting room, leaving only the one pointed out by the man to head to a neighbouring room before returning with a pot of steaming spiritual tea. 

"Thank you, Disciple Jiang. We Peak Masters will take it from here."

Setting down the jade pot, the disciple similarly bowed silently and immediately left, shutting the wooden doors behind him.

The man sitting at the heading seat of the long table looked worried, flicking his white horsetail whisk²A taoist instrument made of fine horsehair to the side. An incorporeal force suddenly burst forth, forming a vaguely shimmering shield that surrounded the central meeting room before quickly fading to transparency.

With the ability to form such a strong and disguised barrier quickly, this man was clearly anything but mediocre, especially since he owned the seat at the head of the long table.

At last, after making sure the barrier was secure enough, the man spoke grimly, addressing the most important issue at hand.

"Where has Pill Elder Le gone?"

"Replying to Sect Master Song," An upright lady brimming with a warrior's spirit stood up, saluting with her palm on her fist. "It was first reported that a large cloud of white smoke emerged from the windows before Pill Elder Le was seen leaving his Pill Refining room in a hurry by some outer sect disciples cleaning his Sky Pill Peak."

"Sit down, Sword Peak Master Yue," The Sect Master, Song Kui sighed again. "You know we don't uphold too many formalities here, it makes us seem distant." 

"Yes, Sect Master." Yue Linxia sat back down, head bowed in thought.

"Well, does anyone know why Pill Elder Le left Sky Pill Peak?" Ren Leihan frowned, leaning forward on the table. "He rarely even steps foot out of his pill refining room, and today he left his courtyard for the first time in ten months, three weeks and five days. Something big may have happened." 

"Indeed - that is quite concerning, Talisman Master Ren." Song Kui agreed while lightly pushing the empty porcelain teacup on the table further away from him. He was not in the mood for tea despite having a whole pot of spiritual tea prepared by a disciple previously.

Ren Leihan leaned back in his seat and pulled out a few talismans from his qiankun³An article modified (magically or not) to hold more items sleeve. He flicked at the edges with a trace of spiritual energy at his fingertips, setting them alight with a quiet roar of blue flames before the talisman was magically restored from the ashes they became. The miraculous process repeated itself repeatedly while the Talisman Master frowned at the toy in his hand in what seemed to be vague annoyance and frustration.

"If something so big happened, why didn't he tell us?" Whispered Yue Linxia, who followed Ren Leihan’s posture and leaned back in her seat, adjusting the silver scabbard buckled at her waist. 

Everyone collectively sighed this time.

"You know how he is, Peak Master Yue." In light green daoist robes, another man around the table, Lu Kangwen, propped his right elbow against the table, his face leaning into his palm. This man sat on the most poorly-made chair around the table, a jagged wooden stool that was obviously hewn roughly into shape. Clearly, the craftsman of this low-effort piece had neither the time nor patience to put any more effort into it.

Even more strangely, quite unlike the usual clean and polished appearance of most cultivators, this man looked untidy and practically emanated an air of lethargy. His pale green robes were also stained with odd splashes of colour - some brown, some green, some even pink. However, no one berated or even noticed it; everyone seemed to be used to this person's idiosyncrasies.

"Always keeping to himself... the doors of his Pill Refining room are never open for more than two incense stick's⁴Around 10 minutes, since 1 incense stick takes about 5 minutes to burn worth of time every year. Even when those doors are open, it's the general disciples cleaning the place; the man himself never steps out of those doors." Lu Kangwen paused, raising his right elbow off the table before switching to his left arm. He seemed to feel tired from being in the same position.

"Moreover, during his extremely rare visits to me, he never speaks more than three words… he just hands me a slip of paper requesting various herbs from my gardens."

Lu Kangwen stopped and yawned.

"He hardly opens his mouth, to the point that I wonder if he even remembers how to speak…" His eyes drooped with every word he got out, like he might fall asleep at any time.

"Tired again, Peak Master Lu?" Song Kui asked gently.

"Of course, this emergency meeting interrupted my 4th day of sleep… After we get Pill Elder Le back, I'm going back to sleep for another 7 days… had to watch the moonflowers Pill Elder Le requested on his last visit, they’re almost ready…" The mumbled words slowly trailed off.

Then, there was a thud of an unguarded forehead hitting the table, followed by soft snores - Lu Kangwen had fallen asleep. However, everyone else seemed surprisingly used to it and did not even question or discuss it, merely moving back to the main topic at hand.

Song Kui hesitated as he glanced over at the last man donned in full white robes to his left, Liu Xing, who had been silent up till now. He had been staring unblinkingly at the jade teacups in front of him, almost like he was wondering why his cup had no tea in it.

"Esteemed Divination Elder Liu."

Liu Xing finally turned over and blinked slowly. His owlish, unfocused gaze was almost uncomfortable even to the powerful Sect Master. “Yes, Sect Master Song Kui?”

Liu Xing had always addressed others with their title followed by their full name, which was not the most comfortable thing to hear. However, he had never changed (and was likely to never change this habit of his) so one had no choice but could only get used to it.

“We may require your⁵A polite form of the word You, used to address respected individuals assistance in seeking the whereabouts of our youngest Elder this time. This humble Sect Master is asking if the venerable you will be able to lend a hand this time around?” Song Kui raised the horsetail whisk in a standard Jianghu⁶Literally meaning “rivers and lakes”, it indicates a society with heroes and martial arts salute, similar to the one Yue Linxia had previously saluted him with. 

If any other cultivator was to somehow bypass the barrier the Sect Master set up and enter this meeting room, they would definitely think something was very strange about this small and ‘unremarkable’ sect. 

A mere sect elder had the Sect Master himself paying respects, addressing himself as a ‘humble’ Sect Master. Just where in Jianghu would you ever see such a scene? In just the next seat over, Lu Kangwen in messy green robes was still out cold, a small trickle of drool already pooling on the table around his slightly opened mouth.

Ren Leihan in orange robes was still frowning at the talisman that repeatedly went up in flames and miraculously reformed itself in his hands. Yue Linxia, the only female cultivator in the room, had taken to polishing her shining silver sword on the table with a pale pink handkerchief, probably due to stress. There was also a set of cold jade cups with no tea while the steaming teapot sat untouched in the centre of the table. 

The entire situation seemed rather absurd.

However, it was only going to get even more absurd from here, because-

“Sect Master Song Kui, you will not need my help. Pill Elder Le Lingyan is coming here.” Liu Xing spoke suddenly, his voice like a sigh in the wind.

“What?” Song Kui met Liu Xing’s abnormally large and pure black irises in shock. “Where-?”

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Taptap. Taptap. 

A cultivator’s senses were naturally very sharp. Immediately, those in the central meeting room on the Central Peak of Lanyue Sect heard what sounded like two sets of footsteps approaching the place they were at. Oddly enough, according to the sound of the footsteps, the person walking ahead evidently had a brisk, steady gait, while the person behind seemed to stumble once in a while, like they somehow had difficulty walking normally, or keeping up with the person ahead.

At once, everyone - with the exception of Lu Kangwen who was still exploring his dreamscape, and the unmoving Divination Elder Liu - stood up quickly. Yue Linxia sheathed her sword with a crisp sound while Song Kui hurriedly dispelled the barrier with a wave of his sleeve, taking the lead to push open the set of wooden doors of the meeting hall.

As the sunlight streamed into the previously shut room, Song Kui, Yue Linxia and Ren Leihan stood at the entrance and impatiently raised their eyes.

The footfalls drew closer. As soon as the two people turned the corner, they would come into the full view of the three Peak Masters who were waiting at the door.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Taptap. Tap. Taptap.

A blue sleeve made its appearance as a familiar man turned the corner. Who else was it but Le Lingyan?

“Pill Eld-!” Yue Linxia’s eyes brightened as she prepared to shout. However, the second man who followed after and turned the corner… was also Le Lingyan?? 

The air seemed to freeze as Yue Linxia’s unfinished yell was swallowed back into her throat. In a daze, they could only speechlessly watch as the two replicas of the person they had been looking for walk calmly towards them.

The second Le Lingyan with shorter hair stumbled once or twice, helped up by the first one every time. It was an extremely weird sight.

Eventually, the pair came to a stop before the three.

“P-Pill Elder Le...?” Yue Linxia squeezed out again as she raised her hand and pointed between both men in confused hesitation.

Song Kui was still shocked into silence, while Ren Leihan directly had his mouth still widely agape in silent disbelief.

Characteristic of Le Lingyan(s?), both did not take the initiative to speak. Instead, two pairs of identical peach blossom eyes blinked in sync, meeting the astounded gazes of three Peak Masters.

“You…” The Sect Master took a deep breath before opening his mouth, but was interrupted by the stunned Ren Leihan. The talismans he had in his tight grip immediately lit up and got reduced to dust in a burst of agitated flames.

“A long-lost twin?!?”

– ❀ –

[1] Lanyue: Means Blue Moon, literally 

[2] Horsetail whisk: A taoist instrument made of fine horsehair

[3] Qiankun sleeve/pouch: An article modified (magically or not) to hold more items 

[4]  Incense stick's worth of time: Around 5 minutes

[5] You(r): A polite form of the word You, used to address respected individuals

[6] Jianghu: Literally meaning “rivers and lakes”, it indicates a society with heroes and martial arts

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✉ Author's corner: ✉

*Self-initiated round of applause*

I'M BACK! I finally convinced myself to come back! 

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! There are a ton of new characters today. ~(･ัω･ั~)

Also, Happy (Belated) New Year, guys! (´⊙ω⊙`)

I'll add to the Character glossary and update these as I go along~ maybe I'll add some irrelevant tidbits about them in the glossary too. _(:3」∠)＿

Don't forget to comment your thoughts! ( ꈍᴗꈍ)