Familiar Faces

Mei Chao Bing looked at the three of them, trying to remember who they were. That Gongsun that the Elder had mentioned should be Gongsun Chen. Back when his own Master had still been part of the Teng Yong Sect, this guy had just recently joined the inner sect. He had been one of the many talents that joined that year and had managed to find himself a good Master. By now, he should have been able to secure a good position in the sect.

As for the other two … One of them was a girl that seemed even slightly younger than Yun Bei Fen and probably hadn't even reached twenty years of age and the other was a young man that seemed to be his own age but that he couldn't remember.

Yun Bei Fen also looked at the three of them and apparently, he had more luck in recognizing them than Mei Chao Bing. "Senior martial sister Kui! Are you also on this mission? I didn't see you before!"

The girl smiled and couldn't help but inch closer and rub Yun Bei Fen's head. "You, ah! What were you doing taking so long to come here? Everyone was worried when we heard that you went missing! We were even saying we should send at least one team to search for you instead of trying to find out what was going on with these demonic practitioners."

Yun Bei Fen scrunched up his face. "Isn't that all that stupid Yang Wu Huang's fault? Had he told you that I was with senior martial brother Mei, then nobody would have needed to worry about me." He turned back to Mei Chao Bing and rubbed his cheek against his chest.

Mei Chao Bing couldn't help but smile and rubbed his little bunny's back. "Alright, don't think about it any longer. We're here now and everybody knows you're alright. Isn't that the most important?"

Yun Bei Fen still felt miffed but he finally nodded. His senior martial brother Mei was right. And he was obviously the bigger person since he was able to let go of what that Yang Wu Huang had done so fast. He should take him as a good example and try to be just as forgiving as he was!

Yun Bei Fen looked up at Mei Chao Bing with sparkling eyes, making the other two men feel uncomfortable. Kui Min only smiled. Now that she thought about it, hadn't this boy run about the whole Teng Yong Sect when he was young, always asking this and that about Mei Chao Bing?

It seemed this story was even simpler than it had seemed from what was said before. This was simply a case of childhood sweethearts! It really made her wonder how anyone had been able to believe the nonsense that had been spread since yesterday.

Kui Min couldn't help but look in the other direction. Well, alright, maybe she had also believed those rumors for a moment. Ah, but who could fault her? It had really sounded so convincing! And she hadn't seen either Yun Bei Fen or Mei Chao Bing in the last few years. It was hard to say how they had developed and what might've happened to them on the journey here. It certainly had seemed suspicious that they had taken so long.

Well, now that she knew what was up, she felt that it wasn't hard to explain at all. Hadn't these two just taken their sweet time to get to the town because they wanted to spend some time together all alone? Ah, being in love had to be so great …

Yun Bei Fen had no idea what she was thinking and instead curiously looked at the other two disciples. Even though he had spent a lot of his time in closed-door cultivation in the past few years, he had still known a lot of people before that. As for these two … He felt like he remembered them but he didn't know them very well.

One of them seemed to be friends with the person that often stayed over at his third senior martial brother's house? He also had a really similar name. Something with Lei …

Gongsun Chen finally cleared his throat and nodded at the two of them. "I'm Gongsun Chen, Elder Lang's disciple. These two Yuan Lei and Kui Min. Both of them are under Elder Gao."

Mei Chao Bing nodded, appreciating that Gongsun Chen took the time to introduce everyone. He cupped his fists and nodded at the other two as well before glancing at Yun Bei Fen. It seemed his little bunny was also happy with this group.

Gongsun Chen looked from one person to the other with a complicated gaze before he motioned at the edge of the town. "I'd suggest we leave then. What do you think?" He looked at Mei Chao Bing, wondering if he would reject the idea.

Mei Chao Bing gave a smile. He could imagine what was going through Gongsun Chen's head right now. Well, he wouldn't have to worry about that. "Naturally, Fen'er and I will do as you say."

Gongsun Chen heaved a sigh of relief. So Mei Chao Bing didn't want to be put in the position of the group's leader. Well, that was good. Even though it seemed that the rumors hadn't been true, he wasn't quite sure if they would be able to trust him as much as they needed to on this mission. And to be honest, he also didn't want to have to give that position to anybody else. He had led the other two for the past two weeks. Why should he let somebody else do that now and reap the benefits if they managed to make contributions? He had also worked hard!

Mei Chao Bing turned to Yun Bei Fen and took his hand. "Your level isn't very high. Stay close to me so I can protect you if we meet any demonic practitioners. Otherwise, just let listen to your senior martial brother Gongsun."

Yun Bei Fen nodded eagerly. "Mn, don't worry about it. I'll do exactly as you say."

Mei Chao Bing rubbed his cheek. "That's good."

Gongsun Chen nodded and then led the other four out of the town, rushing into the territory the demonic practitioners were occupying.