Four years later, in the outer sect's Dharma Transmission Hall.
Today was once again the outer sect's quarterly day of instruction and inquiry. Under sect rules, the Outer Sect Elders had to take turns expounding the scriptures and explaining cultivation methods to the outer disciples, or teaching them an immortal art or two.
Thus, more than a hundred outer disciples had gathered early in the normally deserted Dharma Transmission Hall.
Some sat upright on cushions, their minds focused and their breathing calm;
Others held books in their hands, engrossed in the texts;
Still others spoke in lowered voices.
"Hey, do you think Elder Xiang will come today?"
In a corner, a young disciple with a pointed face and hollow cheeks nudged the fellow disciple beside him with his elbow and asked quietly.
"Come? Come for what?" The other disciple scoffed. "You joined late, so you don't know what Elder Xiang is like.
"I've been in the outer sect for five years, and I've only seen him once, from a distance, at True Person Water Moon's Core Formation Ceremony."
Another disciple beside them took up the conversation, counting on his fingers. "I haven't seen him even once.
"I joined three years ago and haven't missed a single instruction day. I kept a private record: Elder Qi came four times, and he asked Senior Sister Wei Lan of the Mist-Joining Branch to substitute for him twice.
"All the remaining sessions should have been Elder Xiang's, but he either takes leave or sends his attendant to give us some vague generalities and call it a day. It really is..."
Before he finished, the light at the hall entrance dimmed.
A graceful young girl in a water-blue robe walked in, carrying a bamboo tube about a foot long.
It was Fang Mengling.
Four years