Panting, Bai Xingxue stumbled up to Hui. He braced himself on his knees, then stood, wiping his mouth. “Are… are we… back in time?”

Hui nodded. “The meeting’s about to start.”

Li Weiqi ran up after Bai Xingxue, barely sweating or panting. He bowed and cupped his hands to Hui. “Disciple ran ten laps, to ensure I remembered!”

Eh? Well… it’s good to overachieve, I suppose. He nodded silently at Li Weiqi, not sure what to say.

Li Weiqi’s eyes shone brighter. He nodded back.

Uh… did he take that as encouragement? Whatever works, I guess.

A few other cultivators at the third or fourth realm stood under a pavilion ahead of them. The wind blew gently, stirring their hair and robes, giving it the appearance of a meeting of immortals. As if blown by the wind, Hui drifted over to them, the two children flanking him.

One of the male cultivators nodded at him. “Lao Gongren. Why did you bring those two?”

“They need special attention,” Hui said flatly, not bothering to explain himself. What are they going to do? They can’t openly protest about me bringing the children here in front of all the other cultivators, given the high status of their mothers.

The man shifted, uncomfortable, then nodded. “Ah… well, now that we’re all here… as I’m sure you’ve all been informed, there are signs of infiltration about the lower peaks. Multiple skins have been found… we might be facing multiple cultivators.” He reached into his storage pouch and drew out a few other flattened bodies.

Hui peered over at them. Ah… yes. Some of those are wilted lotus bodies, and some are snake skins. I’ve really been careless, haven’t I?

“There’s two different types. There must be at least two invaders,” one of the female cultivators deduced.

Huh? Eh? Can’t one cultivator use multiple disguise techniques? Unreasonable, utterly unreasonable! Don’t go multiplying the number of people I have to ‘catch!’

Ah, though… I suppose it would be nice to leave the Lower Peaks on high alert for a while. Even if Fei Guren of the Eight Tiers Palace is a fifth-realm cultivator, higher than all these cultivators, even the instructors who come from the Upper Peaks, if they’re looking for infiltrators, they’re more likely to sense her when she comes to attack! It takes it from 0.0001% to 0.1%, but it’s better than nothing!

Hmm, actually… I wonder if I can use this situation to train the Lower Peaks cultivators to look for Fei Guren in ways that might actually catch her? Hui’s eyes glittered. Ooh… I like that idea!

But, uh… I don’t know much about Fei Guren’s stealth techniques. Hmm… guess that’s next on the docket. For now… let’s focus on what’s in front of us. Namely, learning everything they picked up on from this meeting!

Hui drew out the skin the earlier female cultivator had shown him, setting it down beside the other skins. “Isn’t it possible that it’s one cultivator using multiple techniques, or a cultivator with clones?”

At the word clones, the children exchanged a glance.

“Conversely,” a scholarly cultivator said, pushing his glasses up his nose, “Each skin could belong to a different demonic cultivator. I’m saying Starbound Sect could have been infiltrated by an entire squad!”

An entire squad? Damn! I’m turning into a bunch of people! This is getting out of hand!

Er, well, I already turned into a bunch of people. I’m just one person now, though!

“An entire squad…”

“How many? There’s at least four skins…”

“Four?”

“Four at least. Five, six, who knows?”

“But how did they get in? Where are they hiding?”

The scholarly male cultivator snorted and adjusted his glasses again. Sweeping his gaze across the gathered cultivators, he leaned in and said, “Isn’t it obvious? They’re hiding within our ranks! They could even be here, at this meeting!”

Hui put on a shocked face as all the other cultivators gasped and looked around, startled. Haha… yep, could be. Certainly could be. It’s possible, anyways. Who knows?

A tug at his sleeve. Hui turned.

Bai Xingxue stood on her tiptoes, then gestured him down to listen to her.

Hui knelt, lowering his ear.

She glanced around hesitantly. “Can they hear us?”

Hui waved his hand, setting up one of his old soundproof barriers. “Now they can’t. Go ahead.”

“Er, er, Li Weiqi and I… we might be… we might have killed one of those—those infiltrators!” Bai Xingxue confessed, twisting her hands nervously.

Li Weiqi’s eyes widened. “Bai Xingxue!”

Bai Xingxue looked up at Hui, biting her lip, waiting for judgement. She swallowed. “S…so?”

Hui hesitated, then smiled. I don’t want to encourage them to kill, but I don’t want to long-term traumatize them, either. “Bai Xingxue, Li Weiqi. If the infiltrators could be killed by a cultivator as low-level as the two of you, we would be able to detect them with a simple qi sweep. If you killed one… what you defeated was almost certainly a clone, just coming to sneak around and look at things. Besides, do these skins look like bodies?”

Bai Xingxue peeked over at the forms. She shook her head.

“Exactly. You’ve done nothing wrong. Even if you attacked an infiltrator, you helped the sect,” Hui said firmly.

Bai Xingxue nodded back. Beside her, Li Weiqi quietly let out a breath.

“Ah… though in the future, if an infiltrator approaches you, run away at top speed and find a stronger cultivator!” Hui said, nodding.

“Mother always tells me that,” Bai Xingxue said, in a ‘heard it a thousand times but never listened once’ voice.

Li Weiqi scoffed.

Hui pursed his lips. Troublesome brats.

He waved his hand again, dismissing the barrier, and straightened, adjusting his collars. The rest of the group stared at him.

“Eh?” Hui asked, startled.

“If Martial Brother Lao Gongren would like to join us…?” the scholarly male cultivator said snootily.

“Apologies, apologies. Ah, what is Elder Brother’s name?” Hui asked.

The scholarly cultivator’s eyes widened, then narrowed. Looking down his nose at Hui, he said, “Tao Ming.”

“Tao Ming. First and foremost, I am an instructor. Am I meant to disregard my disciples? Is it not our greatest duty to instruct the next generation?” Hui replied, tucking his hands behind his back and adopting his own scholarly airs, letting the wind flow through his hair.

Tao Ming scowled. “Naturally, but are we not having a discussion right now?”

“Hmph. If the children cannot follow along, then we must be overcomplicating things,” Hui returned haughtily. He stepped forward. “Perhaps it is not a wholesale invasion. Perhaps it is a lone cultivator plaguing us, a trickster who has a small and precise goal that we have not yet discovered. I think the first thing we should do is enhance the barrier and open our eyes, not theorize about potential squads of invaders. Even if there are squads invading us, is it not most efficient to first locate them, not stand around and talk?”

A few of the other cultivators nodded at one another. The female cultivator who’d been leading the discussion earlier stepped forward as well. “What Martial Brother says is indeed reasonable. I’ll organize the search parties.”

“Hmph!” Tao Ming turned on his heel and stormed off.

Looking after him, Hui shook his head. Leaning down to the children, he murmured, “All talk and no work.”

Tao Ming stiffened. His step jolted for a moment, and then he tossed his hair and hurried off.

Bai Xingxue looked up at him. “Can’t he hear you…?”

Hui grinned at her and winked.