One year later, several dozen li from the mountain range where Xiao Yu's cave abode lay within the Falling Cloud Sect.
Four cultivators in different-colored robes flew slowly along, discussing something.
Two of them were the Falling Cloud Sect's Nascent Soul cultivators, Cheng Tiankun and Lü Luo. Cheng Tiankun was speaking cautiously to a burly man in black:
"Fellow Daoist Yi, our Junior Brother Xiao truly isn't in the sect at present. Junior Brother Lü has already visited his cave abode. Junior Brother Xiao left the sect a month ago without telling us where he was going. Please come back another time with Fellow Daoist Zhiyang, or stay with us for a few days. Junior Brother Xiao might return any day now."
"Indeed. If you two have any business with Junior Brother Xiao, my senior brother and I can pass along your message," Lü Luo added.
"We'll only know whether he's here after we've looked!" the burly man in black said forcefully. His features were rather savage, his gaze vicious. As he spoke, a powerful, suffocating aura radiated from his body.
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Cheng, Fellow Daoist Lü. We won't do anything to Fellow Daoist Xiao. When we visited the Giant Sword Sect half a month ago, Fellow Daoist Tuo told us that Fellow Daoist Xiao had already returned to your Falling Cloud Sect. There's no harm in taking a look at his cave abode. That would set everyone's minds at ease, wouldn't it?" the other visitor said with a genial smile as they flew.
He wore a purple Daoist robe and carried a longsword on his back. He looked to be in his forties, with lustrous, fair skin, regular features, and a refined appearance that immediately inspired goodwill. Though his words meant the same thing as the burly