Liang Fei took another sip, needing to mask his silence. He’d expected to be called but not so soon. To be honest, he had no idea what was going on. Words that had meanings but were meaningless to him were tossed about so casually, he had trouble following. Divine beasts? Monster cores? He’d just dropped into this world less than an hour ago, give him some time to pick up the lingo, will ya!?

Still, he was now faced with the issue of speaking so he had to say something. As such, he had to think this through. Divine beasts were probably monsters and considering they mentioned an invasion, they were probably attacking people. Putting everything together, he figured it was perhaps cultivators who hunted down monsters, probably with whatever powers cultivators had. He briefly wondered why the Masters were unwilling to go but perhaps it was like asking the manager of a store or a department head to deal with a minor clerical error. It made sense to pass this off to a lower rank employee.

Actually, thinking of things in terms of employees made it a lot easier to follow. So there was a problem that was big enough for the head of a department to be notified but not big enough to require their involvement. The heads (masters) want to send a lower rank manager (disciples?) to handle it but worry it might be more than they can handle. The lack of information on the problem is the main issue then.

“Have we sent anyone to determine what we’re dealing with?” He asked, looking up from his tea. Silence met his inquiry. “Well?”

“Oh! Uh, not yet.” One man replied. His GT list told him his name was Yin Mu. “We just got notified this morning about a recent attack. There was no description other than it being a divine beast.”

“Why did you assume is was a low tier one, then?”

“Only low tier beasts reside near towns.” He explained, looking annoyed to have to explain this. “Most of the higher tier beasts reside deeper in the forest and they rarely venture out that far.”

“But they do venture out sometimes, right?” He guessed, gazing over the edge of his cup at the man. He started to sweat a little.

“Well…”

“Not to mention our lack of clear information makes it impossible to determine what we’re dealing with so even if it is a low tier beast, we won’t know until we send someone.” He stated coldly, turning his gaze to the man and woman so insistent on sending disciples “And if it isn’t, those who die will be dead because of you.”

No one spoke for a while, everyone’s gaze falling on the sect leader who watched impassively. No one had expected Liang Fei, a man known to curry favor and act sly, to so bluntly speak the thoughts they were thinking. How brazen! How noble!!

On the other side, Liang Fei briefly wondered if he perhaps said too much. He really wished for the meeting to just end so he can go and learn more about this world before he paints himself into a corner. Just as he contemplated how to get out of this, Master Zi Shuren spoke.

“I agree with Master Shao.” He sighed, amused by the looks on the other masters faces. They truly weren’t expecting Liang Fei to be so blunt. His interest in the man growing, he turned his formerly cold gaze on the man in question. “I’ll send someone to check it out and determine what we are dealing with. Master Shao, have you any suggestions?” He asked, wanting the man to look at him again.

Everyone remained silent, feeling as if something was happening between the two but unsure what that ‘thing ‘ was. Liang Fei, however, was trying to think of a proper reply and missed the hints being sent his way.

“I would never be so arrogant as to propose anyone.” He replied, hoping that’d be enough. “I will go along with whatever Sect Leader proposes.”

“I see. Then I suppose that concludes our meeting.” He replied, still staring at Liang Fei. The man himself didn’t notice the undue attention and instead rose to leave with the others. Before Zi Shuren could speak again, Liang Fei was gone, moving swiftly out the door. Years of having classes one after the other had him out the door faster than most of the other cultivators, making them misunderstand his actions.

The sect leaders ‘opponent’ ran away.

***

Liang Fei was tired. His day felt like it had been hours despite it only being 2 or so. As such, he chose to retreat to his (the originals) room and seclude himself for a while so he can learn about the world. Turns out there was a thing called Seclusion he could do.

When Xinyi had mentioned it, he was shocked and relieved to hear about it. Going into seclusion would give him the time to get to know his environment and get himself acclimated to his new body. His movements were still a bit stiff and mostly relied on muscle memory to get by. There was the issue of his cultivation but he figured he could deal with that when it came.

Following the path that he and Xinyi had walked before, he passed by a small training ground. A handful of disciples were sparing with one another, fierce and true in their form. He watched them, fascinated by the sight. He could barely keep up with their movements though something told him they were moving remarkably slow.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted blue-black hair. It was the cute one from before, though he hadn’t gotten his name. The little one was sparing with someone but not doing so well. His strikes hit only air and after a brief bout, he was knocked to the ground.

He wiped his face, careful to keep his hair over his face when he spotted Liang Fei. They shared a look before the little one glared at him and turned away, resuming his match. Liang Fei sighed, still confused as to why he was so disliked.

He gave the group one last look before turning away, missing the golden gaze that fell on his back as he walked away.