When Li Ping'an and Old Ox returned to Chaolong Temple, they had three more people following them.
They were the young Daoist and the boy and girl they had met at the foot of the mountain.
"Sir, you're back."
Pang Jun greeted him warmly, then shifted his gaze to the young Daoist behind him.
"And who is this?"
Before Li Ping'an could answer, the young Daoist spoke first.
"Merely a wandering Daoist. Might I stay at your esteemed temple?"
"Of course you're welcome," Pang Jun said with a smile. Chaolong Temple usually had no visitors and was terribly quiet.
A Daoist passing through now was a rare occurrence indeed.
Pang Jun asked Wen Ruohai to prepare a few more dishes, then went to have Xuan Ruo ready two rooms.
But after searching for quite some time, he still could not find Xuan Ruo.
"Where has that girl run off to?"
Li Ping'an thought Xuan Ruo was probably in the privy at that moment.
Although the boy and girl were very dissatisfied with the rooms at Chaolong Temple, they said little out of consideration for the fact that their martial uncle had cultivated here as a child.
Pang Jun entertained the young Daoist warmly, showing him around Chaolong Temple.
If more fellow members of the Daoist Lineage could learn of Chaolong Temple, that would naturally be a good thing for it.
"Don't judge Chaolong Temple by how it looks now. It used to be a great temple renowned far and wide.
"But it gradually declined. At its height, more than thirty Daoists cultivated here."
The young Daoist feigned curiosity. "Did some misfortune befall it?"
"It wasn't really a misfortune. Many of the Daoists simply left.
"Some couldn't endure the hardships of austere cultivation and went down the mountain to immerse themselves