Chapter 13: Wow, Another Ugly Man
She was not expecting to hear about her old sect, HaiShen Yu, that fast, but then again, she met two old acquaintances right after she came back.
Yu Xuelan had already mentally prepared herself for Yu Yang to spring up out of nowhere, but to think she would hear about Yu Mingling first was unexpected.
Yu Mingling was Yu Xuelan's cousin and Yu Yang's second daughter. In the past, Yu Xuelan knew that Yu Mingling was never fond of her, but she still attempted to break the ice between them for the sake of their relationship.
Yes, that's right. Everything was for the sake of maintaining a good relationship. Not in the eyes of Yu Xuelan's herself, but to others.
"Yu Mingling's confidant is throwing a riot because we told him we didn't have enough raw spirit stones that they demanded!" The elder exclaimed in disbelief.
Wu Zhitian stared at the man indifferently, not surprised by the elder's words at all.
"He's threatening to attack the temple if we didn't give them a thousand raw spirit stones."
Yu Xuelan stayed silent as she grabbed her cup and sipped on her tea, trying to listen to the amusing conversation, but after her mind entirely processed what the elder had said, she choked on her tea.
What in the world did Yu Mingling need that many stones for? Was HaiShen Yu thinking of building an entire armoury that was the size of three villages? Was her dear cousin trying to carve a statue as tall as an entire mountain?
Wu Zhitian sighed and stood up, "Where are they?"
"In the White Room." The elder said and bowed in Yu Xuelan's direction, "Sorry for having to interrupt your meal, Lady Lin."
Yu Xuelan waved both her palms in denial, "No, no, it's alright."
Wu Zhitian turned around and lowered his head in apology, "I'll be back."
The two walked off and headed towards the main area of the temple while Yu Xuelan sat there as she watched their backs slowly disappear into the distance.
She closed her eyes and listened attentively to her surroundings, making sure she could not hear the footsteps of the two. It had always been a habit for her to close her eyes and carefully listen to the surrounding footsteps. Maybe even memorising some.
She lifted her eyes lids and stood up from her seat.
----
Yu Xuelan walked out of the back garden and into the hallways, but the moment she walked out, the view that was in front of her instantly took her breath away and replaced it with the intense pounding of her heart.
Her body froze in confusion, unsure of what to absorb in first. Since she had only been in the bedroom and the back garden where the pavilion was, she had not seen the situation of the front residence.
Large, blue flags were displayed throughout the temple, and on those flags, the emblem had a whale hugging a pearl, forming an overall circular shape that resembled the Ying and Yang symbol.
This symbol was the emblem of HaiShen Yu.
Everything added up together as she remembered her uncle's actions. However, she was more guilt-ridden towards the people of ShenMing Wu than feeling bitter towards her own sect.
Towards her own sect... Her own sect? No. It wasn't her sect anymore. Could she even consider herself to be a part of HaiShen Yu?
"Yu Yang... How far do you need to go to reach where you want to be?" she mumbled to herself.
Yu Xuelan continued walking straight down the hallway, trying to avoid looking at the familiar flags that only brought upon a swell of heated emotions. Her eyes gradually filled themselves with darkness the more she thought about her uncle.
Before she could completely indulge herself in those loathsome thoughts. She saw a familiar boy peeping through the White Room. It was the thirteen-year-old cultivator that talked back to Long Wen fearlessly, Wu Ming.
A loud voice yelled from the room that the young boy was peeping in as it echoed past the hallways. Yu Xuelan carefully listened to the hoarse voice and knew immediately who it was.
Liu Bu. A human trafficker who was also supposedly Yu Mingling's confidant.
"Oi, oi, oi. Are you telling me I came all the way here only to have you guys tell me you have nothing?! Bullshit! Do you think the Second Young Madam's orders are a joke?!" a man yelled with a large and evil smile as he flapped his bamboo hand fan, covering his lower face.
The bodyguard beside him unsheathed his sword that was drenched in poison, pointing it to the elder, who sat still and calm.
Each prominent sect specialized in cultivating a certain element, along with the other basic requirements. For instance, the people from HaiShen Yu based their cultivation around the raw Qi of the water element and were extremely skilled in anything related to liquid substances such as poisons and medicinal treatments.
When she was still in HaiShen Yu, cultivating poison was prohibited, along with learning martial arts that led to any sort of brutality since Yu Xuelan's father disliked violence.
The cultivator, who was as tall as Wu Zhitian, stood beside the elder as he bit his chapped lips and clenched his fists in anger and humiliation.
----
Wu Zhitian entered the room through the back entrance and examined the yelling man.
Liu Bu flinched back in shock, whispering to his bodyguard, "Oi, oi, oi. The report said that the Sect Master would not be home!" He panicked, still covering his lower face with his fan.
"He must've come home early," the bodyguard replied.
"You dumbass! Of course, I can see that! Are you looking down on me?" He raged and stepped on the bodyguard's foot before glancing back at the two women who peeped from the door at the back of the room.
"Hah. Whatever. Let me ask you, Sect Master Wu. What are you going to do? You know I can't return empty-handed," Liu Bu smirked and raised his eyebrows.
Upon seeing Wu Zhitian, the confidant's speech had suddenly become a tad less ill-mannered but still extremely ill-mannered.
"Sect Master Wu, he said he won't accept anything less than a thousand raw spirit stones even though we offered to give six hundred and four hundred stones later," a senior informed.
Wu Ming clicked his tongue as he perked through the front door gap, muttering. "He's always coming and going as he pleases!"
"That perverted man has definitely grown uglier," Yu Xuelan whispered as she also peeped through the door, causing the boy to yelp in surprise at the sudden voice.
He realized it was the girl that Wu Zhitian had taken back a few days ago and regained his composure.
"Lin-shijie! You shouldn't be here!"
Yu Xuelan pouted in disappointment. "But I'm also a disciple here. I have the right to know what's going on with my master!"
"Wow! As expected of Master Wu's dutiful personal disciple. Wait no! That's not what's important!" He jolted and immediately peeked into the room again.
"So what exactly is going on? Why is the ugly man, I mean confidant, so angry?" Yu Xuelan asked as she also joined Wu Ming back into peeking.
"You mustn't know, since you have just arrived here. This disciple shall explain to you. That fan man is always coming here to collect spirit stones because of an agreement our sect made with HaiShen Yu. Normally we have enough, but he has demanded one thousand! How can a temple have that many spirit stones!" Wu Ming whispered in disbelief.
"What's the agreement?"
"The second daughter of HaiShen Yu's Sect Master threatened to destroy the entire Feather Temple and build their own if we didn't cooperate!"
Wu Ming gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he tried to stop his voice from shaking but continued, "Master Wu rejected this agreement at first because the people of the Feather Temple said they would rather become an enemy to HaiShen Yu than have the temple become their property, but I heard that the Second Madam threatened Master Wu about the condition of someone body."
"Someone's body?" Yu Xuelan whispered.
"Yeah, we don't know who it is or if it's true, but the Master seemed really taken aback by it. The temple was really against the contract before since so many senior disciples were harmed because of their attack, but after they saw Sect Master Wu hesitating from the threat, we forced him to sign the contract because we didn't want our master to ignore his own feelings for us, useless disciples...!"
He continued, "But yeah, every time that bastard comes here, everyone just fumes in anger. How can they barge into our home like this?! They've already taken other minor and major sect's residences. What more do they need?!"
----
"Oi, oi, oi. Have you forgotten our deal, Sect Master Wu?" Liu Bu exclaimed.
He blasted a beam with his fan through the left walls, forcing the entire room to shake and the wall to collapse. The girls in the back room flinched in fear before anger spread across their faces.
"How did you like that? I would say it's pretty impressive!" He laughed hysterically and spread out his arms as if basking in glory.
The fan he held was a spiritual weapon that HaiShen Yu was manufacturing in the dark. These weapons did not require the beholder to merge their spiritual power with the core of the weapon, as the weapons were already supplied with spiritual energy that could easily be manipulated, even if the user was not a cultivator.
Though this was only a small project by HaiShen Yu.
Liu Bu glanced over to the young maidens of ShenMing Wu. Seeing them shake in fright made him laugh maniacally. He walked closer to the two women, who kept their eyes on the ground. However, he was stopped by the tall cultivator and clicked his tongue.
"Feng Yi, always getting in my way," he scoffed and strolled back.
"Maybe instead of giving a thousand spirit stones, how about give me all the most beautiful women here?" He laughed in joy but instantly changed into a gloomy mood, "But Second Madam Yu would get angry."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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xbemoo Summary
HaiShen Yu: Water-based cultivation methods
Yu Xuelan (Daughter of the late Sect Master)
Yu Yang (Current Sect Master + Yu Xuelan's uncle)
Yu Mingling (Second Young Madam + Yu Xuelan's cousin)
Zheng Long: Earth-based cultivation methods
Long Wen (Daughter of the Sect Master + Yu Xuelan's childhood friend)
Long Rei (inner disciple)
ShenMing Wu: Wind-based cultivation methods
Wu Zhitian (Sect Master)
Wu Ming (inner disciple)
Shu (Mentioned in Book II)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone