8 Chapter 8

"Are you sure that the box has been stolen?" a man asked, a hand supporting his forehead. Another man nodded his head grimly.

"Yes, I am sure. An inventory of the treasury was conducted, and two spirit weapons along with the box were missing. Some low-level spirit stones were gone as well," the man relayed. The man rubbed his hand across his eyes, sighing.

"If I may ask sir, exactly what is that box for? Is it important?" the man asked tentatively. The man stood up from his desk, a scoff escaping his lips.

"Is it important?" the man walked in front of placed his hand on the other man's shoulder, squeezing hard.

"That box is the key to the protection of the sect. If the sect leader hears about this, this sect will go straight to chaos," the man explained. The other man paled, cringing away from the harsh grip on his shoulder.

"Did you try to locate it?" the man asked.

"Y-Yes, but we still couldn't locate it," the other man stuttered. The man let go and leaned against his desk, crossing his arms.

"Increase your efforts to find it, but don't make it so obvious. We don't want the sect members to panic," the man ordered.

"Right away, Sect Elder Tang," the man bowed and rushed out, shutting the door behind him. Sect Elder Tang leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

"What a crappy situation,"

~~

Ye slowly opened his eyes, his body no longer feeling so freezing. He looked down and saw that Zhou had snuggled into his arms, his chest rising and falling peacefully. Ye smiled and watched Zhou silently, taking note of every detail of his face.

Ye gently shook Zhou, guilty that he had to wake him up. Zhou slowly opened his eyes, blinking slowly like a cat.

"Er gege, you're awake?" Zhou sleepily asked. Ye nodded and sat up, swinging his legs over to stand up.

"Knock, knock, can I come in?" a muffled voice asked from the other side of the door.

"Come in!" Zhou called, also sitting up. The door opened and in stepped Brother Gong holding a box.

"Hey, I think that giving you 4 hours of rest time is enough, right?" Brother Gong asked, handing the box to Zhou. Zhou took it, examining the box.

"What's this?" Zhou asked. Brother Gong shrugged.

"I don't know, I swiped it from the treasury room," Brother Gong said passively. Ye turned to him, eyes wide.

"You stole from the treasury room? No, wait, you know where the treasury room is?" Ye asked, astonished. Brother Gong laughed at the confused look on Ye's face.

"I'm a smart thief, stealing is my passion," Brother Gong said.

"That's a concerning passion," Ye muttered, taking the box from Zhou.

"Er gege! That's mine!" Zhou whined, pouting and trying to reach for the box. Ye held it above his head, keeping Zhou away with his other hand.

"This box is powerful, you don't know what's in it," Ye scolded. Zhou huffed and tried to jump to grab it.

"And you do?" Zhou argued back.

"Save your time and effort. I'm not giving it back to you," Ye said, placing the box on top of a high surface.

"Gong, can't you tell er gege to give it back to me? You gave it to me," Zhou asked, turning to Brother Gong. Brother Gong raised his hands, shaking his head.

"I'm not about to get in the middle of this," Brother Gong said.

"Let's go to the training grounds. I want to practice spar with you," Ye said. Brother Gong nodded, opening the door.

"You're probably going to beat me, but sure," Brother Gong said. They all left the room, walking towards the training grounds.

"Ye, how strong are you?" Brother Gong asked.

"Human early-stage rank 6," Ye responded. Brother Gong stared at Ye.

"You're that strong already?" Brother Gong asked. Ye nodded, kicking a stone on the ground.

"My Dantian is big, so it took longer than I would like," Ye added. Brother Gong didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

'Took too long? It's only been 5 years and you're nearly Ghost rank. I've been cultivating for the same time and I'm barely Human late-stage rank 2,'

"Gong, you promised you will tell me about the middle realm," Zhou bugged.

"I never promised," Brother Gong said. Zhou pouted.

"You know what I mean," Zhou said.

"Well, the middle realm is pretty amazing. It's nothing like here, and it's so much bigger. I heard that they have different sects for specific training,"

"What does that mean?" Zhou asked.

"Some cultivators are known as 'elemental cultivators.' They have a natural aptitude for certain elements likes water, fire, wood, metal, et cetera,"

"Are elemental cultivators stronger than normal cultivators?"

"Not necessarily, but when they are around their element, they can get more spirit from it. It kinda works like how you change your benefactor's spirit from passive to active,"

"Passive to active?"

"Geez, I'm just going to teach you everything you missed. For example, Brother Mo is an elemental cultivator. His aptitude is for fire. Passively, his attacks and him, in general, will burn like fire. Actively is like the attack he made on you. It makes it more apparent and brings out the benefactor's full potential,"

"Gong An, 4th Young Master of the Gong family, the God of The Way of the Teacher, Cetia, smiles upon you for your attitude in teaching without expecting anything in return," a voice resounded. A fine spirit shot from heaven to Brother Gong's Dantian, Brother Gong, going into a daze.

"What just happened?" Zhou asked, shading his eyes to look at the sky.

"Gong just got the blessing of a benefactor," Ye explained, keeping Brother Gong from falling. Brother Gong came out of his daze, looking up at the sky.

"That's one flashy way to give your blessing," Brother Gong said.

"Do benefactors normally have such a fancy entrance?"

"No, you're not supposed to reveal who your benefactors are, not even to your own family unless the benefactor is attached to your family or sect" Ye replied.

"Attached?" Zhou asked.

"It means the benefactor appreciates a family and swears to give their blessing to everybody in the family who is either born into, married into, or joined the family," Brother Gong explained.

"Doesn't that involve a lot of problems? What about distant family members? What about the family of the person that married into the family, do their family get the benefactors' blessing?" Zhou asked. Brother Gong scrunched his nose.

"Please, stop asking. That's too much stuff to talk about and overlook into,"

"The God of The Way of the Teacher, Cetia, frowns upon your unwillingness to answer a question,"

"Oh, screw off," Brother Gong shouted into the air. A flash of lightning hit the ground, singing of a piece of his hair. Brother Gong paled as he looked next to him, the lightning current continuing on the ground.

"Okay, maybe cursing a benefactor was not such a great idea," Brother Gong said, trying to keep the tremble from his voice.

"Maybe?" Ye asked, stepping into the training ground. Brother Gong scowled and followed Ye. He reached into his robe pockets and pulled out a handful of spirit stones, handing them to Zhou.

"Use these to cultivate while we spar," Brother Gong said. Zhou nodded and counted the spirit stones.

'7 low-level spirit stones. I wonder if he stole these too,' Zhou thought. He walked away from the sparring area and sat down in lotus position, dropping the spirit stones in front of him. He closed his eyes and absorbed the Qi from the spirit stones, circulating it through his meridians. Brother Gong nodded in satisfaction, turning to Ye and swinging his arms, warming up.

"Do you want to have a normal spar or use our spirit?" Brother Gong asked.

"Doesn't matter to me," Ye replied, stretching his arm across his torso.

"Guess we'll have a normal spar then," Brother Gong said, cracking his neck. Ye shook out his arms, facing Brother Gong.

"I'll win either way," Ye said. Brother Gong rolled his eyes and ran at Ye, sending out a punch. Ye easily deflected it, sending a punch himself.

"How did you and Zhou meet?" Brother Gong asked, exchanging blows with Ye. Ye effortlessly blocked them, exchanging a punch or two of his own.

"I moved to his village when we were young. He was my next-door neighbor," Ye replied, sending a sidekick to Brother Gong's chest. Brother Gong blocked it, flinching at the harsh impact of Ye's foot.

"Why did you move to his village?" Brother Gong asked, trying to hook his foot around the back of Ye's knee.

"Family," Ye responded, grabbing Brother Gong's foot and pulling him down to the floor. Brother Gong rolled over, barely avoiding Ye's fist.

"What about you, how did you meet Brother Mo?" Ye asked, cringing as Brother Gong kicked him in the stomach.

"My parents and his parents are business partners, nothing special," Brother Gong said airily. Ye took a shot at Brother Gong's liver, Brother Gong stepping back as the room spun under his feet.

"If it's nothing special, then why are you dating him?" Ye asked. Brother Gong stiffened, throwing out another punch, ignoring the pain from his liver.

"Why would you think me and him are dating?" Brother Gong asked, his voice tense.

"I've seen you two around the sect," Ye replied. Brother Gong's eye twitched as he remembered that he and Brother Mo would walk around the sect, holding hands when they thought they were alone.

"Do you have a problem with it?" Brother Gong asked, ice in his voice. Ye didn't respond, kicking Brother Gong with a downward round kick. Brother Gong went down, holding his shoulder in pain. Ye turned Brother Gong around, pinning him to the ground with his hands behind his back.

"You lose," Ye said, getting up. Brother Gong rolled over and sat up, staring at Ye.

"Do you have a problem with it?" Brother Gong asked again. Ye looked at him, blinking. Silence and tension fell over them.

"Why would I have a problem with it?" Ye asked. Brother Gong's eyes widened in surprise.

"Love who you love, right? Who you date isn't my business," Ye said, offering a hand to Brother Gong. Brother Gong took it hesitantly, turning his head away as his eye burned with tears.

"Are you okay?" Ye asked, trying to look at Brother Gong's face. Brother Gong held up a hand, his throat closing.

"I'm fine, it's just, so unexpected," Brother Gong said, elation spilling into his chest.

"What was unexpected?" Ye asked. Brother Gong turned to him, his eyes shiny with tears. He sniffled, rubbing the back of his hand against his eyes.

"It's just, you're the first person to accept us for who we are. My parents know, but they don't support it, they just don't say anything about it," Brother Gong said, a huge grin on his face.

"You're still a person, you just like the same sex. That's fine with me since you're not hurting anyone," Ye replied, handing Brother Gong a handkerchief from his robe pockets. Brother Gong took it gratefully and wiped away his tears, taking in steady breaths to calm himself down.

"Please don't tell anyone," Brother Gong requested.

"Of course. I'm not qualified to tell your secrets," Ye replied. Brother Gong smiled, feeling both happy and relieved.