He must be an elder of the Yang sect.
A man in his sixties accompanied the two disciples they had met that morning. They called him master but he looked rather unusual.
To be more precise, he did not have the usual appearance of someone from the Jilin Yang sect, whose disciples used to wear finely embroidered clothes and always had their hair in order.
He was the exact opposite. No shiny clothes, long and tangled hair, and he didn't even carry a sword. A long robe covered him from head to toe and a cloak also hid his face.
Together with them, another group of five or six disciples made their way through the remains, lighting palm torches that illuminated almost half of the room.
Shi ZhenXian squinted to try to see better. The elder raised his arms to lower his hood.
Shi ZhenXian immediately noticed that the man's hands had something strange.
He looked at Lin JingYu, less than a step away from him, who seemed to have noticed it too. The space was narrow but they could fit in comfortably enough. But one breath too many and their bodies would be a little too compressed against each other. Shi ZhenXian didn't pay attention to these things, but Lin JingYu was already sweating coldly.
"How could this happen, you are a bunch of incompetents" growled the master.
The disciples could only lower their heads, guilty.
"If you had stayed here to control him and do your job, he wouldn't have reached this level of ferocity." He shouted more forcefully than before. His voice had something peculiar, as if he was having difficulty pronouncing some syllables.
"Master, please don't raise your voice." It was still the senior disciple from that morning who spoke.
The Master remembered where he was and composed himself. The other disciples all around were sweating coldly for fear that with those screams the beast would wake up.
"If it's asleep it will be easier to take wipe out." The older disciple continued in a low voice.
If they erased all the evidence, they would never pay for the death of all those people.
These were Shi ZhenXian's first thoughts.
"Now I'll take care of it. At my age I still have to do these ridicule things..." he muttered the last words to himself.
He slightly rolled up his sleeves and it was then that Shi ZhenXian could finally see that those hands could not belong to a man.
"I'm going." Shi ZhenXian said to Lin JingYu.
"What? No, forget it!" he replied in a low voice instead.
"I'll pretend I just arrived. You stay put!"
It was useless to reply, the tsoist was already carrying out his plan.
Taking advantage of the fact that they had all approached the creature and were focused on it, he slunk aside with a light step and arrived at the corridor that served as the entrance to the room.
"Ah! Is there anyone here?" Shi ZhenXian asked, pretending not to know where he was.
"Who's there?" all the disciples quickly drew their swords, while their master retreated and hid behind them.
"Ah, relax, there is no need to stand at attention for this humble taoist."
"Are you Shi ZhenXian? From Mount Qiyun, Shi ZhenXian?"
The senior disciple of that morning immediately stepped forward and cupped his hands and bowed slightly.
"Shi ZhenXian Qianbei. What is she doing here?"
"Ah, Wu Muyang is you! We haven't seen each other in ages, how are you doing?"
Shi ZhenXian tried to test the waters a bit.
"We're not complaining. How have been doing?" Wu Muyang replied, free of all sincerity, but out of pure courtesy.
"Good, good…" His answer was followed by an awkward silence.
Since the topic didn't seem avoidable and the other party didn't seem to want to have a chat, he had no choice but to get straight to the point.
"I heard rumors about a beast terrorizing the village and I stopped by to check it out. That field of bones caught my attention and by pure chance I noticed this cave."
"If I may ask, do you know anything in regard?"
"The situation is under control, Shi ZhenXian Qianbei shouldn't bother himself. We were just dealing with it now."
"Ah, so there really is something!" Shi ZhenXian exclaimed enthusiastically.
Wu Muyang did not look happy at all. He was clenching his knuckles on his sword.
"Ah! But the beast is right over there!" Shi ZhenXian said in a low voice, pretending to be surprised.
"Is it no problem to talk here, aren't we disturbing it?" he repeated in a whisper.
"There shouldn't be any problem, but Qianbei, I advise you to get out of here. We have enough strength to take care of it. We don't want to bother you with such an insignificant little problem."
"Insignificant? From the surroundings I can tell that the beast must have devoured quite a few people, and the scene right outside suggests that it must be quite ferocious. Are a few young disciples like you really capable of taking care of it?" this time his attitude changed one hundred and eighty degrees.
"I didn't know the young cultivators of the Jilin Yang sect were so formidable. If that's the case, my disciples still have a long way to go."
"Perhaps the master doesn't know it, but they are all excellent disciples of our sect. Furthermore, this problem arose within the limits of our territories, so it is our duty to handle these unpleasant situations." Wu Muyang continued to repeat the same thing, twisting his sentences and clenching his teeth. He must have thought that Shi ZhenXian had truly arrived at the worst possible moment.
"Of course, of course… I would never want to interfere in your affairs. But as the most experienced, I cannot leave young cultivators to their own devices. Let me just take a look, so that you won't run into too many risks."
Wu Muyang clenched his hands into fists, "We thank you for your concern." as he stepped aside to let him pass.
It was risky, but appearances, especially with the other sects, always had to be maintained.
Shi ZhenXian approached and pretended to look a little at the beast. He then returned to them.
"My young cultivators, I believe that this is too heavy a task for you. That doesn't seem to be a beast born as such. It seems more like the effects of some curse. With all due respect, but I believe that in your sect they have made some error of judgment in sending you here."
He pretended to think, while he wandered around calmly.
The disciples could only send confused looks to Wu Muyang, who had no way to respond or understand what to do.
"Yours is a practically impossible job."
"Unless your master takes care of it." Shi ZhenXian concluded.
The disciples were all stunned. Their master was powerful enough to hide his presence. The more inexperienced disciples almost trembled thinking about how powerful this taoist must be to unmask their elder.
"Forgive me, Brother Shi ZhenXian." The hooded master was forced to emerge from the darkness, having been unmasked.
"I didn't mean to disrespect you, but this old man didn't feel presentable to meet such an illustrious young master."
"Don't say that, I completely understand. In fact, forgive my irreverence, I wouldn't have dared to ask you first either. I was just worried about the safety of these disciples of yours." Shi ZhenXian replied, showing genuine concern.
Still hidden in that hole, Lin JingYu had observed the entire scene.
"Shi ZhenXian, you are too kind. I will personally take care of the beast, you don't have to worry about it. We of the Jilin Yang Sect have incredible disciples, but we wouldn't be so presumptuous as to entrust them with such a task."
AH!? That's what you have been doing up until now!
The master continued, "I wouldn't want to cause you any further trouble, the situation will soon be chaotic, I wouldn't want our problems to fall on outsiders. So if you want to sit outside the den, you would be doing our reputation a favor."
Think of something… I can't leave them here, what should I dooo!
"No trouble. On the contrary… em"
"It's been a long time since I saw the new disciples of your sect, are they new recruits? They all seem… in great shape… em"
Lin JingYu hadn't taken his gaze off Shi ZhenXian even for a moment. He had to think of something, being careful not to be discovered.
At that moment he saw Shi ZhenXian's eyes searching for him in the darkness. How could he help him?
He silently came out of his hiding place concealing his presence, and keeping close to the wall he arrived near the beast.
Shi ZhenXian noticed his movements, he started to sweat coldly but he couldn't think of another solution.
"There's not much air circulation in this den ha ha…" He said while fanning himself with one hand.
As Wu Muyang looked at him in puzzlement with a trained eyebrow, a sudden cry echoed throughout the room.
Everyone immediately turned to the source of the noise, at the back of the room.
"THE BEAST HAS AWAKENED!" were the first screams they heard.