The obvious display of familial affection was almost blinding. Xie Yi was beaming and nuzzling his head against the man’s cheek, while the tall beast was laughing and ruffling through his hair.
When he looked at the rest of the group, his face fell to nonchalant, then returned back to being kind when it met Xu Yan.
“Greetings to all of you. My name is Wu; you can consider me Xie Yi’s older brother. I’m here on Grandmaster Li’s behalf. You could call me your safety net in cases of trouble that is too much for you to deal with.”
His voice was even and calm. With that in addition to his strong, overpowering aura, he looked very reliable.
Mingtian’s human form was more feral and aggressive than that of a cultivator. It held a certain interest to a lot of women, especially since he still looked like a young man.
Men like Mingtian, who did not hesitate to show their affections, were sure to spoil their wife and were well sought after. If only he wasn’t a beast and already married, the girls would have considered him.
Xu Yan looked at him with unhidden curiosity. That was the man who came along to make sure that Xie Yi wouldn’t get dragged off by someone.
“Kid, you still have to walk on your own”, Mingtian chuckled lowly, and Xie Yi let go of him. “Xiao Yan, I won’t be walking around with you all. Watch over him, too, okay?”
“Me?”, Xu Yan asked, pointing at himself in surprise. He was Xiao Yan?
Xie Yi walked over to him, standing right at his side.
Xu Yan was a bit flabbergasted that his friend’s older brother was so amicable to him, but he took his words seriously. “Yes.”
Mingtian smiled at his confusion. What a joke; he acted as Xu Yan’s pillow and let himself be cuddled and carried around by him. Why would he suddenly act distant when he was in a humanoid form?
Nan looked quite annoyed at the fact that some ‘lowly’ beast looked better than him, no matter how strong. Not even a bit, but a lot. All things considered, Nan himself was a very good-looking man, but he could not win against Mingtian.
Sensing the jealousy, Mingtian did not want to make things complicated. “Why are we still standing here? We should go.”
Truth be told, the sentries had been warily staring at him ever since he appeared. They could tell he wasn’t human and was strong, so his appearance was highly suspicious.
Now that he was talking to the young cultivators, their suspicious gazes were drilling holes into the back of his head.
As they all approached, the sentried gripped their weapons tighter. Mingtian raised one hand in greeting and pulled out the jade with his other.
On purpose, he went to another sentry and let the group manage things on their own.
Sheng Mu bowed first and the rest followed obediently. “Greetings. We are from the Virtuous Sect, I believe you have been informed of our visit?”
The sentry checked their identification bracelets and the letter they had brought along, then quietly conversed with his colleague to make sure the info they had matched. Only when they were sure did their stern faces turn kinder. “Welcome. We will lead you to the entrance hall.”
“Much obliged.”
“I will wait outside. I can show you around later”, Nan declared, looking pretty much only at Xie Yi as he said so and not even mentioning the rest of his group.
Sheng Wu glanced at him and stifled an irritated humpf. They followed the sentry into the hall.
Thankfully, most sects had a similar way of building their entrance areas, so they didn’t find it hard to orient themselves.
The teacher that greeted them was of the sixth level and looked like a rather weak and scholarly man - probably a medic that stayed inside the sect.
“Welcome”, he greeted. “Come inside. How was the journey?”
“Thank you very much for having us”, Sheng Mu responded, taking a seat in the room. “Everything went well. We were also quite lucky with the weather.”
Xie Yi sat closest to the door, his shoulders pulled up a bit once the man closed it behind him. He hid his wary gaze behind a lowered head.
“Xu Yan, the package”, Sheng Mu quietly said and Xu Yan nodded, pulling the small package out of his storage ring. The medic’s eyes brightened.
“You have my gratitude for delivering it. I will write you a letter in response. We would be glad to invite you to stay a few days and rest, if you wish?”
“That would be very kind. We intended on taken a few days to hunt and explore the area, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Of course, of course! You are already acquainted with Zhi Nan? He can tell you a bit about the area. You can also visit the city, it should only be about an hour away at your speed.”
Uwaaah. So many flowery words.
Xie Yi wrinkled his eyebrows in distaste. The whole conversation could have been shortened by half, at least!
“We have a special dorm for visitors. How would you like your rooms to be divided? Of course, the girls will get one, but how about the rest of you? Will one suffice?”, the medic asked carefully. It was often the case that disciples preferred staying directly together when in a foreign sect.
Xie Yi’s finger twitched.
Xu Yan answered before Sheng Mu could. “Two rooms would be very kind.”
God beware he made Xie Yi sleep in a room with the other guys. The boy would probably go to sleep outside in the forest.
“Very well.” The medic nodded with a smile. “Why don’t you go get a meal and wash up? You may roam about as you please - with the common restrictions, of course - so enjoy your time here.”
He took out seven wooden signs. Used to it, everyone held out their bracelets for them to link. Now they were officially guests.
As they walked out, following an attendant, they conversed quietly.
“I want to take a day to rest”, Xiao Lu declared.
“Same for me”, QingQing quietly agreed. Both girls wanted to take the day and only look around the sect a bit.
“Shall we go hunt?”, Sheng Mu asked his two companions, who nodded.
Xu Yan, meanwhile, gave the full decision to Xie Yi with a raised eyebrow.
“I’d like to take a look at the city”, he thoughtfully said.
“Then we will do that. Wu will… probably be around?”
“He is.” Xie Yi blinked nonchalantly. Mingtian had already gone through everything as well and was nearby.
“I guess we will all split up for today”, Xu Yan mused. “But first we should look at our rooms and actually get a meal.”
The attendant had planned to lead them all the way, but Nan stopped him outside. “I’ll bring them to the dorm”, he offered.
The attendant knew enough to listen without questioning and left with a bow.
Zhi Nan patted Xie Yi’s shoulder and showed them the way. “The dorms are right next to where I am living, as well. We actually have enough rooms for every one of you.”
“It’s fine, we are staying in groups”, Xu Yan answered for Xie Yi.
“Are you worried?”, Zhi Nan laughed. “No need to do that. It’s safe here.”
Chen Hu made a sharp hissing sound with his tongue. “Tch.”
Zhi Nan was goading them into staying in separate rooms. With how well everything was isolated through arrays and the like, you wouldn’t notice someone wandering around.
Xie Yi, somewhat understanding his goal, reached out to grasp Xu Yan’s sleeve.
“It’s fine. Xiao Yi and I are used to rooming. He will probably feel weird suddenly staying in a room on his own.” Want to think of Xiao Yi as a cute timid bunny? Alright, I can do that, too.
The cultivator’s face twitched unhappily.
It wasn’t hard for him to seduce fellow disciples on a normal basis. Most girls were after him anyway.
Usually he didn’t go after male disciples, but this one was especially cute. He knew that type. If you acted like having fun together was normal, you could chip away their defences easily enough. Be kind and supportive.
But this was very annoying; he had a protective friend.
Cant wait for Zhi Nan to crash and burn.
Thanks for the chapter!
Quality over quantity in everything.
Agreed!
How do we go from 1.4k viewers in the previous chapter to 2k this chapter. Does scribblehub not count people who don't have an account??
I imagine it might be people who click on random chapters of stories to check it out (I do that)
That, or revisited chapters maybe
I signed up an account just to comment.
I'm so happy to have found this site and was able to read this gem of a story. I think it's one of the best stories about cultivation that I've read so far. I love how in depth your characters are. Their emotions felt so real and it's like they had come to life. I've been reading chinese cultivation novels and its feels different to your story. Some main characters of these novels felt flat and it's as if they exist just to keep the story going. Some novels dont involve a lot of character emotions to these stories and the things they continue to do are fallen into stereotypes as the story keeps on going. I don't feel that any of you're characters fall into those stereotypes.
Dont get me wrong though. I'm really into cultivation novels and I love reading them. Of course not all of those novels fall into my description and there's a lot that's really good. But its just what I notice from a lot of novels I had read. Its just that I really appreciate your style of writing (if I should call that) and its the kind I was looking for in cultivation stories. It makes me love cultivation stories even more. I had many laughs and crying moments from your novel. It was that good.
Looking forward for more updates from you!
Awww thanks
I think I place a lot of focus on characters and their development, more so than on other things in this story so I'm glad it's working out.
hoho can't wait for 'brother nan' to do something stupid and then finaly realize - he didn't lock xie yi in a room with him, he locked himself in a room with xie yi :3
this guy just makes you feel the urge to punch him
Wuuuh... I'm catching up...
So, it's only two updates a week for now then? And any further chapters, sponsered chapters are locked? But the story will still be updated 2 times a week? It's kinda sad about the sponsered chapters being locked. I don't have a kofi or anything like that (no money), so either way I'm simply just waiting for regular updated chapters
.
Loved the chapter. Thank you❤?
For a while, yes. Once I'm done writing the complicated part, it'll be back to normal :)
@Owl Ah, mm. Ok. I look forward to them?
Thank you for the chapter! No need to worry about the less frequent releases, you do more chapters a week than most of the other authors I read anyway. You'll still be releasing more than most.
XY a protective friend.