The second the two children left his line of sight, Hui sat up, resisting the urge to laugh. These children… I even deliberately gave myself a pulse, but that clumsy child was too panicked to find it. Ah… trying to pull a scam like that? How cheeky, how adorable! They’re truly my children.

But… if they’re running roughshod like this over the other disciples, they’re well on their way to becoming Young Masters with inflated opinions of their own self-worth. At this rate, Fei Guren will face no resistance whatsoever if she comes to kidnap them. I need to impress upon them the importance of diligent cultivation.

Hmm… let’s observe them for a little while longer. With children this unruly, something like gentle guidance may not be sufficient. Let’s see how they interact with the teachers down at the bottom of the mountain.

So thinking, Hui set off. He raised a hand to change his disguise, but held back at the last second. I don’t want to weigh on their consciences long-term. It’s better if they see that I’m not truly dead. Although they may be brats, I don’t want to cause them any heart-demons, or worse, cause them a qi deviation!

He looked at the Go tile in his palm, then closed his hand around it. Carefully, he tucked it in his robe. I’ll take this as a gift from my son.

The training grounds spread around him. Young disciples practiced basic cultivation, from martial forms, sword forms, and basic magical techniques to the foundations of qi circulation and meditation. Hui scanned the crowd, but neither of his troublesome children appeared amidst the earnest practitioners. It’s easy to pick the white-haired Bai Xingxue out of the crowd, so I’m sure they aren’t—

Wait, hold up! Bai Xue’s hair turns black when they’re male. Could it be…? He scanned the cultivators again.

A dirty-faced boy sat amidst the meditating disciples, his face familiar, though his somewhat rapidly-pulled-on robes were spotless, and not patched. Next to him, Li Weiqi sat, still sweating a little bit from the earlier exertion.

Hui chuckled under his breath. There’re my sons. He strode past them, pretending not to notice.

Bai Xingxue peeked an eye open, then stared with wide eyes. He pulled Li Weiqi’s sleeve. Li Weiqi shook his grip off, but Bai Xingxue pulled again, insistent. At last, Li Weiqi peeked at Hui.

His eyes widened. He pointed at Hui. “Ah! You—”

An instructor swiftly smacked Li Weiqi on the back of the head. “You finally come to practice, and immediately start shouting and distracting the other disciples? Just because you have a little talent, don’t get a big head!”

“Ow!” Li Weiqi scowled. Even so, he stared at Hui, his eyes slowly narrowing. His lips silently formed the word, you…

Hui smirked slightly. He opened his hand and created a black fan from death qi, using it to hide his smirk. Ah. That’s the energy I want. That desire to become stronger! Only with that, will you be strong enough to have a chance to run for your life and go get someone who can fight off Fei Guren when she shows up!

It’s not like I’m hoping for my children, at Qi Gathering, would be able to fight off a fifth realm cultivator from the Eastern Alliance. No, no. I’m just hoping to give them the skills to flee or attract enough attention while she’s trying to capture them so that someone else can show up and help them! Li Xiang, Bai Xue, even Song Wei or Tang Fei or Fang Hua and the ghouls, anyone! I’ve got plenty of allies, especially… er, especially among that demonic undead clan or the previously-enemy All-Heavens Sect! Come to think of it, I don’t have many allies among Starbound Sect or the righteous sects in the area. There’s Sis Mei and Xixing, but they’re too low-realm to stand up to Fei Guren.

The instructor caught sight of Hui and hurried over. He grabbed Hui’s wrist. “Lao Gongren! Where were you? We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed with this new crop of disciples, and what do you do but wander off and vanish for two weeks! Especially with these two troublemakers… I can’t believe the Sect Master hasn’t thrown them out! It’s just because the one is his beloved son’s disciple’s son that he’s showing so much favor…”

Eh… huh? Wait… Lao Gongren? That’s a name I haven’t heard in ages.

Wait! I did put on a face a vaguely remembered… was it Lao Gongren’s? The face of the man who brought me to the sect? Where’s he gone for the last two weeks? I remember him being the diligent type of disciple… I think.

And hold on, wait, I need a moment to unwind this chain. Son’s…disciple’s… son? So wait, Sect Master Lan’s son… that is, no, that’s right, Lan Taijian was Li Xiang’s master. So Li Xiang is the disciple of Sect Master Lan’s son, and Li Weiqi is her son.

Yes, okay. I’ve figured it out. After all, Sect Master Lan always showed Li Xiang favor, whether because she was the idol of the clan, or because he felt guilt toward the original Li Xiang, whose soul was swapped with a sword spirit by his disciple Yunxu… so it makes sense that he would show some favor to Li Xiang’s son. Not to my son, but who knows? Maybe Li Xiang never told him the father. Or maybe his care for Li Xiang overrode his hatred for me? One way or another, it seems like Li Weiqi isn’t in too much danger, staying in Starbound Sect. At least, not from the Sect itself!

Ah, Yunxu. That’s another name I haven’t thought of in a long time. I wonder if he’d be startled to find out that I’m fifth realm now?

Well, no. I’m dead. So… I’m really not sure exactly what he would think about that.

Hui waved his hand, dismissing his unruly thoughts. “Elder Brother, I believe you’ve made a mistake—”

“A mistake? Lao Gongren, were you always the kind of person to make excuses like this? Go on, go on. You can watch this row—goodness knows those two need one entire instructor to watch them full time—and I’ll watch the rest of them.” With that, the instructor marched off, leaving Hui alone with the rear row of disciples.

A few of the disciples subtly peeked at him, not as deep in their meditation as their peaceful expressions would have had him believe. Li Weiqi and Bai Xingxue, on the other hand, openly stared at Hui. Li Weiqi shook his head repeatedly, unable to believe his eyes.

Ah, I guess that was too much of a shock for them. I’ll go gently let them know what happened. Hui strode over, his robes billowing on the breeze. Waving the fan lightly in the way Bai Xue would, he looked down over the top of the fan at them. “El… Junior Brothers, although I played along this time, in the future, you shouldn’t harass mysterious men on the road. You never know when you’re going to stumble onto a hidden expert.”

Li Weiqi crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “So what? Who’s brave enough to touch me? My mother is one of—no. The strongest cultivator in the Southern Sect Conference! Anyone who dares to harm me is courting death!”

Eh? Li Xiang was talented, but was she that talented? Strong enough to overcome Fen Long and Chen Wuya? Strong enough to suppress Han Qin?

No, no. He’s a child, after all. His mother is strong, but he doesn’t know how high the heavens are. There are heavens beyond heavens, and experts beyond experts. Li Xiang is strong, doubtlessly so, but there’s no way she’s that strong.

“There are madmen who would attack before thinking, long before your mother could arrive to save you,” Hui warned him.

Li Weiqi waved his hand. “Here, in Starbound Sect? I doubt it!”

The other instructor shook his head at Hui, raising a hand to slash at his throat.

Stop talking, huh? So this is a conversation they’ve had a great many times before. Li Weiqi is set in his ways. Hui tapped his fan thoughtfully against his palm. Hmm. It seems I will have to use an alternate method to get these two rascals to face reality, and actually train so that they can run to safety when Fei Guren shows up! At this rate, they’d stand their ground and show her rude gestures, only for her to snatch them away long before Li Xiang could show up!

As powerful as Li Xiang is, she could be a… what, sixth, seventh realm cultivator at best? That’s powerful, but not omnipotent. Wherever she is, it isn’t possible to teleport to her child’s side at any moment.

I’d worry about her ignoring Bai Xingxue, but knowing Li Xiang’s straightforward righteousness, she’d never even consider it. The only threat is that she might prioritize her son over Bai Xingxue, if she could only save one of the two, but in that situation, I don’t think anyone would blame her for picking her son over Bai Xue’s.

Bai Xue… I wonder what they’re up to. If their child isn’t in the Bai Clan… well, isn’t there a specific cultivation method the Bai Clan cultivators have to learn? So why is Bai Xingxue here? Cultivation techniques aren’t hot-swappable. You have to learn a technique form the basics all the way to the top!

He quietly regarded Bai Xingxue with his mental energy, sweeping his perception over Bai Xingxue’s nascent cultivation. Bai Xingxue looked up at Hui, tilting his head in confusion.

…ah, I see. Bai Xingxue might be here, alongside Li Weiqi, but he’s practicing the Bai Clan’s technique. Is the Bai Clan so free that they’d reveal their technique to the world—well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, does it? Even if someone else knows the Bai Clan’s technique, they’d need to have the Bai Clan’s bloodline’s unique yin-yang disposition in order to properly practice it.

Still, there’s no one here to give them pointers? Is that okay?

Bai Xingxue squirmed under Hui’s gaze. He kneaded his robes and stared at his feet, embarrassed. “Er, I… M, Mother is the Young Master of the Bai Clan, you know?”

“But where are they? Are they physically close?” Hui prodded. I haven’t seen them yet. It might be better to ask them to adjust the children’s attitude… and if nothing else, I ought to warn them. But I don’t have much time, and I don’t know where they are, so there isn’t anything I can do right now.

Li Weiqi scowled. Bai Xingxue scratched the back of his head.

Ah. So they don’t know either. Actually, no one has mentioned Li Xiang or Bai Xue’s location to me since I arrived. Are they in secluded training, or something?

At last, Li Weiqi said, “My mother is off managing the Southern Sect Conference in All Heavens Sect, but there’s a teleportation formation between our sects.”

“Mother is in secluded cultivation… again,” Bai Xingxue muttered.

Bai Xue? Secluded cultivation? Did they hit some kind of roadblock? They aren’t the type to randomly close up for fun… I’ll have to check in on that, Hui thought, frowning.

A second later, he waved his hand. Thoughts for later. “It’s no good to always rely on your mothers to protect you. In the future, don’t you want to protect your mothers?” Hui admonished them, clicking his tongue. That’s right. It’s this small cultivator’s job to rely on your mothers, alright? You can protect yourselves!

I mean, ahem, a man should grow up strong and stand on his own! Don’t rely on other people!

“How can we? They’re so much more powerful than us. We can’t possibly catch up,” Li Weiqi complained.

Hui shook his head. “It’s possible to hit fifth realm in ten years. Even if they seem impossibly high above you now, if you cultivate diligently, you lay the groundwork to overcome them later.”

“Eh, whatever,” Li Weiqi said, knitting his hands behind his head. He leaned back, half-closing his eyes.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Hui raised a single brow. As I thought. Traditional education isn’t the way to reach these brats! I’ll have to do something else to scare them into action.

Scare them into action… hmmm. Hui smiled, hiding it behind his fan. He wafted it slowly, thinking to himself. And the best way to do that… well, don’t they say that powerful cultivators emerge in times of danger? These children of mine act fierce with their mothers’ names to rely on, but once I impress upon them that they cannot always count on their mothers to save them… perhaps they’ll straighten up a bit!