The Daily Life of a Disciple

Chapter 5

It was rare but this time there was trouble and I wasn't the one who started it, rather, it had been seventh shixiong. Seventh had brought over a spirit animal on one of his missions, the legendary nine-tailed fox, and insisted on keeping it as a pet although the sect rule forbids any outside animal spirit from coming in. So now not only did seventh shixiong break the sacred sect rules, he had lost the animal too. Thus my role this time is to be the hero to this distressed shixiong and find the fox and in return, he promised to pay me the appropriate sum. Ahhh lured in by the gold again.

It was the brink of winter, one of the coldest winters yet. I draped myself with fur coat linings for warmth and sneaked my way into the sect's library's upper floor to retrieve a tracking artefact that only shizun, Jin, second and probably and fifth shixiong (and now secretly I) knew the exact location too.

I used to play a lot up here when I was newly appointed as a disciple of the Red Hills. Playing tricks while hiding in the dark on the shixiongs so often that they now believe it was hunted by vengeful spirits so now it was seldom visited by the younger disciples of the sect. I grabbed a golden sphere-shaped globe from the deepest bookshelf and moved out with quick strides.

I spent an entire three days outside. It was tiring, it was cold, and there were a lot of people fledging in the bustling marketplace asking me if I wanted to buy a ticket to see the beauties at the flower houses in the district, but I finally managed to capture the mischievous nine-tailed fox on the loose and had placed him conveniently in the space bag I brought along (another magic artefact I stole from another time).

I was already late, I hadn't expected to spend this much time outside and made my way back to the sect in haste. I expected to see two gatekeepers in armours at the entrance, but there were none and I grew vigilant. Throughout the years, the gatekeepers had never abandoned post come hail or storm they were like immovable Mt Tai. My stride became a full print and my heart grew heavy. Something is wrong.

I ran to shizun's place first and saw that there were no other disciples waiting on shizun by his door either. This wasn't right. Shizun was supposed to be in seclusion right now, now more than ever the placement of several disciples to guard him was only right and crucial. A cultivator who's undergoing seclusion to advance in rank was at his most vulnerable. The disciples won't dare take this lightly. I burst through every door I can find in the estate. "Shizun!"

I keep yelling for shizun over and over till my voice cracked, but there was no sight of shizun or any of the other shixiongs. My heart palpitated and my intestines shrank.

Suddenly I saw a burst of flame erupting to the sky burning the unfortunate clouds in its way coming from the back of the mountains and I took off running as fast as my feet can manage.

The entire Red Hills disciples were gathered there but so was an army of what seemed like humans with horns and canines for teeth, but the most distinctive features were their eyes, and all of them were geared up in their battles uniforms. I saw second shixiong first and hollered out to him. "Second shixiong!"

Second was momentarily confused as to who had called out to him from the snow caked woods and was even more confused when he saw the dishevelled me standing on the summit of the mountain. "Nineteenth shidi! What are you doing here?"

What does he mean what am I doing here, was I not supposed to be here? Second shixiong climbed up the hill and held my shoulders. "You can speak?" I raised a quizzical brow. The demon clan and the disciples of the sect were already locked in an intense battle down the hill, from here I heard the sounds of weapons clashing, bows releasing arrows in unison, and swords piercing through flesh.