Chu Cheng continued to walk absent-mindedly, not having noticed them since his back was to them.

“That’s strange. He shouldn’t be out here.” Murong Yingyue ignored him, striding past him.

“Yingyue! You know better than I do that he would never come out during April!” Yun Siye grabbed her arm.

She frowned. It was true that he would avoid going out in April. Their master, Chu Cheng, was known for two things: his spacial martial arts and his superstitious nature!

He believed in prophecies and karma. He even dyed his hair red and wore the bright red clothes every day. But it still wasn't what made him strange, even in this engineered wuxia world where eccentrics and weirdos were a dime a dozen.

Chu Cheng was also deeply afraid of the number four. In fact, his fear of it was so intense, that on the fourth month of the year, April, he would refuse to take a single step out of his house. The same went for any day that was on the fourth. The man even directly skipped naming Murong Yingyue his fourth disciple and instead stubbornly insisted that she be called Fifth Junior Sister!

It was actually the cause of his fame. When he reached the end of the third realm of cultivation, he had stayed there, refusing to advance until he had comprehended enough spacial laws to directly skip through to the fifth realm.

Although it wasn't the first time he had stayed at the end of a third level to rank up to the fifth, it was the incident that propelled him to godly-fame levels.

Chu Cheng was called an absolute madman after that, and many deeply feared his potential and power.

“That’s true...” She muttered. Master also refused to call her out by her full name since it had four syllables, and so insisted that everyone called each other by their seniority. Her Second Senior Brother nodded along.

“It’s even the fourth of April today. You tell me, would he ever dare step foot out of his house?”

“But who else would willingly wear such a disgusting shade of red?” She fired back.

They both looked meaningfully at each other. A stare-off later, they came to a mutual decision.

The person was probably Master, but he most likely had an extremely important matter. If he was an enemy, he wouldn’t be dumb enough to stroll around during the fourth of April. No one would believe them if they claimed to be Chu Cheng then.

They couldn’t be sure, so they continued to observe him. Yun Siye cast an illusion formation on the both of them, and they crept closer to the kitchens.

Chu Cheng was still walking on autopilot, mindlessly going into the kitchen and walking to a cabinet to search for his favorite “lucky” cup.

“Shit!” Siye cursed. Yingyue glared harshly at him. “I weaved a sound muting formation into the illusion. Don’t worry about the sound. But just earlier, I was going to prank Master a bit by messing with his cup. But then you came and startled me into dropping it. He might get a heart attack if he sees it broken.” He explained.

“Are you blaming me?” Yingyue poked him hard.

“Ow! No, I’m just trying to say that he could just keel over and pass out. Why are you so touchy today?”

“You’d be touchy too if someone sealed off your cultivation and had to run through a forest and jump off a cliff!”

“You did what? No, nevermind, tell me later. We need to keep an eye on Master for now.” They continued to observe Chu Cheng as he looked desperately for his cup.

Chu Cheng’s expression was almost comical when he saw the broken pieces of the cup underneath the cabinet.

“No...” He murmured. “No! It’s broken into four pieces!” His breath started to quicken and his face turned pale with fear.

“Dammit, Second Senior Brother, you should’ve at least broken them into more pieces!”

“Are you telling me I should’ve broken it further? I had no time to check on it!”

Yingyue rushed over to her master’s side, patting his back as he dropped down helplessly on his knees, staring in despair at the cup pieces. She lifted his head up to look at her, away from the broken cup. She discreetly used her spiritual power to create a crack running through one of the shards of porcelain.

“Master, look again, there aren’t four pieces, there are five!” She turned his head towards the pieces, and emphasized her point by taking her hand and picking up the piece she damaged, letting it fall apart into two. "It was just stuck together."

“Yes, yes, five pieces. Master was too hasty. Five is a good number. I have five fingers on each hand.” He muttered, deep in thought. Yingyue straightened herself back up and gave an accusing glare to her Second Senior Brother.

“Master,” she said. “Can you tell me if-”

“Yes! That’s right! Master needs to tell you something.” Chu Cheng exclaimed. “At 9 am, you must take your Third Sister out of seclusion. Not earlier, not later! Right now only three of us are out here, but soon, there will be a fourth arriving and we need your fellow disciple to make it five people.”

“What? But Third Junior Sister is planning on making a breakthrough. We can’t disturb her!” Yun Siye felt uneasy. Just who was coming? They were important enough to make Master force himself out on the unluckiest day of the year.

“I’m doing this all for your own good! If there’s four of us, that person will most definitely do something today! We can only minimize the chance of him taking action by having five of us here. That person wanted to meet all of you, but that would mean there would be four of you if I didn’t come!”

“Who is this person?” Yingyue impatiently asked.

“Who can it be but your unreasonable First Senior Brother?”

“What?” Siye’s face froze. “Why is he back?”

“How should I know? He’s always been like this, even when he was a child. He chose this day on purpose to curse me! Dammed brat...” Chu Cheng turned around and began looking for his second luckiest cup.

“Hey wait! Just who is this First Senior Brother?” Murong Yingyue yelled helplessly. She had never seen this First Senior Brother of her’s before, okay? When she had been picked up by Master to be his disciple, that person had been gone for five years already, and he hadn’t come back since.

It was too late. Her master was too engrossed in finding his cup, and her Second Senior Brother had run off as soon as her master had finished responding to his question.

“Fuck!” She stomped her foot in frustration. Her master paused his search, eyeing her unhappily.

“Don’t curse. That’s bad karma.”

“Argh! Just tell me, who is this First Senior Brother of mine?”

“His name is- No, he’s here already! I told him to come at 9, it’s only 8:30!” In an instant, Chu Cheng teleported her, Yun Siye, and her Third Senior Sister to the entrance of their grounds.

“Master!” A beautiful young woman called out. She had short black hair and tanned skin, with bright blue eyes. She also had a very well developed chest... Very.

It was her Third Senior Sister, Lu Fei. She was sitting on the ground, legs still crossed in a meditation position. Lu Fei picked herself off from the ground, and her eyes lit up when she saw Murong Yingyue.

“Yueyue, how have you been? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” She hugged Yingyue tightly, but due to a height difference, Murong Yingyue was suffocated by her boobs.

Ahh! Third Senior Sister, don’t drown me in your chest!

“Feifei, I missed you too,” Yingyue said sincerely. Murong Yingyue really liked this Third Senior Sister of hers. She had no death flags and had a very ordinary past. Furthermore, she wasn’t a stereotypical “naive innocent flower” or a “scheming white lotus.”

Don’t be fooled by her Third Senior Sister’s looks. Although she looked very innocent and naive, she was thick-skinned to an extreme! She would also be brutally honest and straightforward. If she didn’t like someone, she would tell them directly! If she liked someone, she would be very generous with them.

Lu Fei also liked to unabashedly chase after males and females alike. If she saw an attractive person, she would shamelessly try to seduce them. Of course, she would quickly get tired of them, leaving a trail of broken hearts in her wake.

It’s really refreshing to be with a non-essential character to the plotline.

“Do you know what Master summoned us all here for?” Lu Fei asked Murong Yingyue.

“That’s right, didn’t you meet our First Senior Brother before? We’re all here because he came to visit. What is he like?” Yingyue questioned.

“What? He’s visiting?” Lu Fei went rigid. What is with you people and freezing up whenever he’s mentioned? It can’t be that he’s some kind of tyrant, right? How bad can he be, okay? He can’t be worse than a brainlessly in love main male lead.

“Quiet!” Chu Cheng hissed. “All of you, just keep your mouths shut! Siye, Lu Fei, Don’t forget what he’s like.” He gave a pointed stare at her fellow disciples.

As soon as he finished talking, a figure appeared in the distance. The person wore a featureless white mask and green robes that trailed behind them as they flew. Long white hair fluttered behind in his wake. Yingyue’s cheek twitched. What is it with green robed people? Why are there so many people in green today? Don’t tell me that tomorrow some people in green hats will drop by to visit!

The person landed. Now that she could see more clearly, “they” were clearly a male. Murong Yingyue looked at her Third Senior Sister. Lu Fei was shivering, flinching slightly with every step the newcomer took.

Holy crap, is this guy super ugly or something? He’s even making Feifei scared!

She turned her gaze back to her First Senior Brother. He was wearing a mask, so she couldn’t tell what his face looked like. Although Yingyue couldn’t see his face, judging by the proportions of the parts of his head she could see, he was good-looking.

Perhaps a terrible disfigurement? Fuck, doesn’t this mean he’s a possible “Stepping Stone Boss” type? Makes everyone fear him, is most likely very powerful, and even has the scar, which is from a past battle with some famous heroic figure that he killed and then it's revealed that he is very corrupted and starts to make trouble for the main character time and time again and then the main character miraculously manages to kill him and everyone related to him since he can’t “have future problems from them” and then is catapulted into fame?

What the hell, that was really specific! Whatever, I don’t want to be killed by a crappy OP main character. I guess it’s actually a good thing I met this First Senior Brother of mine before he ends up attracting the main character here and gives all of us a death sentence. This way, I'll be able to plan ahead.

Deep in her thoughts, she didn’t notice as her master and other fellow disciples had backed off, away from her First Senior Brother. She felt someone step directly in front of her. Whoa, don’t break my personal bubble!

She quickly took a couple steps back. Yingyue searched for her other companions, only to see that Chu Cheng had teleported away, Yun Siye had disappeared - probably through the use of a formation - and Lu Fei was flying away on her sword.

“Hey! Why have all of you left?” Murong Yingyue shouted. She made to move towards her Third Senior Sister, but a hand landed on her shoulder, trapping her and stopping her from moving.

“Little Fifth Junior Sister, let’s get to know each other.” A voice purred next to her ear, lips barely touching her earlobes. Yingyue gave a violent shudder. Realization dawned on her. This First Senior Brother of hers was probably some twisted pervert, and she had been left as a sacrifice!

She screamed her lungs out to the disappearing figure of her Third Senior Sister.

“LU FEI! I HOPE YOU ENJOY HELL, BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY PLACE A COLD BITCH LIKE YOU WILL STAY WARM!” You despicable traitor! How dare you!

“You shouldn’t cuss. It’s unladylike.” The pervert was speaking again.

“Unladylike? I’ll tell you right now, if you dare do anything to me, I will really show you unladylike! I will take a rock and smash your ba-”

“Shhh... It’s okay, I understand if you’re into that, but we need to take this relationship slowly.” A hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodthisisnothappeningthereisapervertsomeonepleasesavemeanyonepleasejusthelpme.

The pervert chuckled.

“Goddess, don’t be so afraid. Don’t you remember me? Or at least remember my biceps?”

Bonus:

Chu Cheng: That was really close. I was almost introduced in the fourth chapter.

Yun Siye: Hey, Master. Your first appearance was in the fourth chapter.

Chu Cheng: (?_?)

Yun Siye: So you have been introduced in the fourth chapter.

Chu Cheng: Wh-what?

Murong Yingyue: There, there Master. Calm down. Second Senior Brother wasn't here for it, but you were actually first mentioned in Chapter Three.

Chu Cheng: Really? Good, good. Three is a good number. A triangle has three sides. A triangle is the strongest shape.

Yun Siye: When was he mentioned?

Murong Yingyue: In the thoughts of that creepy motherfucker. The one that was chasing me. Hey, why are the both of you so pale?

Yun Siye: Fifth Junior Sister, I forgot something at home. Bye!

Chu Cheng: Yingyue, I need to go rearrange my lucky coins. I need to ward off the evil spirits.

Di Jinming who was standing behind her and smiling like the creep he is: Hello there, my dear Fifth Junior Sister.

Murong Yingyue: Ahhh! Someone save me!