An old man in a crimson robe stood respectfully behind another old man, who had fiery red hair and wore plain linen, and reported on the situation. A scroll lay in his hand. The old man in linen wore a smile that never left his face, and it seemed genuine, not that of a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"Valley Master, that is how it happened. Your subordinate would not dare conceal anything."
The man in the crimson robe was Elder Chihuo, who had returned from Tianhuang City. The man he addressed so respectfully as Valley Master was, of course, the current Valley Master of Burning Flame Valley, Tang Zhen.
Tang Zhen took the scroll from Elder Chihuo's hand. "Hm. Your actions this time were rash, but you did resolve the matter. It balances out, so I will not punish you. From now on you need not concern yourself with the affairs of Tianhuang City, and you should not. If there is nothing else, you may withdraw."
The intelligence Elder Chihuo had reported naturally included the relationship between Xiao Tian and Liu Qing, and he had roughly guessed Tang Zhen's intentions. In that case it was better to do him a favor. A mere medium-sized city was of no importance.
Elder Chihuo breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, Valley Master. Your subordinate takes his leave."
He bowed respectfully and hurried away.
After he had gone, Tang Zhen opened the scroll and looked at the man and woman pictured in it. His attention fell mainly on the woman. When he had heard Elder Chihuo mention her name earlier, he had already made a guess. Now, seeing the scroll, though the woman wore a veil, Tang Zhen recognized her from his past impressions. As the leader of Burning Flame Valley, he had naturally met the three giants of the Pill Tower, though he had met Xuan Yi only two or three times. Her bearing and the look in her eyes confirmed her identity.
"I never expected the esteemed President Xuan Yi to appear in Tianhuang City. According to Elder Chihuo, it all started because of the man beside her, and their relationship seems very close. They even have two little girls with them."
Tang Zhen narrowed his eyes and muttered. Then, as if he had stumbled on some great secret, his eyes went wide. "Could those two little girls be the children of President Xuan Yi and that man, Xiao Tian?"
The gossip was a little too momentous. Tang Zhen cut off the thought at once. Such things could not be speculated about casually. If it leaked and turned out to be false, Burning Flame Valley would face disaster. One could offend anyone but an Alchemist.
He thought of Xuan Yi's standing as an Alchemist, and then of his daughter's health, and sighed deeply. If she were to act, she could easily solve the problem that troubled him. But he also knew he could not afford to ask her. Even asking an old fellow of the Pill Tower who was a high-grade Grade 7 or an early Grade 8 Alchemist would demand an extremely high price. For Xuan Yi, one of the three great Presidents of the Pill Tower and a peak Grade 8 Alchemist, the price would be astronomical. And even if one could pay for the refining of a high-grade Grade 7 pill, whether anyone was willing to refine a pill of that rank was another matter entirely.
"Alas... time is running out." Tang Zhen sighed softly. Even now he had not gathered the medicinal ingredients he needed, chiefly because they were too obscure.
"Father, why are you sighing here?" a slightly questioning female voice called from afar.
A woman in a red dress was approaching Tang Zhen with a light, quiet tread. A dark red long whip hung at her slender waist. Her features were striking, and a hint of heroism lay between her delicate willow-leaf brows, which matched her attire and made her look valiant and spirited.
"Nothing, only thinking about some things." Tang Zhen looked at her with eyes full of fatherly love. "Huo'er, why did you come here?"
He knew very well that his daughter, whenever she had nothing to do, loved to supervise and spar with the other disciples. She was Tang Zhen's only daughter, Tang Huo'er, the acknowledged senior sister of the whole of Burning Flame Valley, and also the famous "Spicy Pepper" of the Valley.
"Father, I heard there was trouble in Tianhuang City this time, and a disciple even died." Tang Huo'er looked at her father with burning eyes, a flicker of fire passing through them.
"Don't worry about it. It has already been handled," Tang Zhen said softly.
Hearing him, Tang Huo'er put her hands on her hips at once. "How can I not worry? I'm their senior sister!"
Tang Zhen briefly explained what the people who had gone there had done and said, then looked at her. "Having heard all this, do you still want to 'avenge' him?"
Hearing it, Tang Huo'er's face, which had been full of anger, remained full of anger, but its target had changed. She ground her teeth, her fists clenching with a creak, her whole body trembling with fury. "So there are such scoundrels in the Valley. It seems they haven't done little in the past. Good, very good! They've all hidden themselves perfectly."
With that she turned and left, forgetting even to take leave of her father, and strode down the mountain with a furious aura.
Tang Zhen watched his straightforward, expressive, passionate daughter and could not help shaking his head. But he had no intention of changing her. Was it not a father's duty to let her keep her genuine nature? Moreover, though his daughter was headstrong, she was not unreasonable, and she was clear-headed about important matters. She was no brainless heir.
In his heart, though, he silently mourned for the Valley's disciples. Huo'er in this mood was a ticking time bomb, and even he, her father, had to avoid her wrath for the time being.
Two days later, a silver halo appeared before the four travelers. It was the exit of the spatial wormhole. Xiao Tian poured Dou Qi into the energy source, and the spatial ship turned into a silver streak, whooshed into the halo, and vanished.
On a stone platform a hundred meters high, space twisted, and four figures, two large and two small, slowly emerged. They were Xiao Tian, Xuan Yi, and the two girls.
Xuan Yi's spatial ship was a Grade 8 vessel, faster and safer than those of lower grades, so the journey to the end of the wormhole had taken only a little over two days.
Xuan Yi held the girls in her arms. Their eyes were wide as they looked curiously at everything around them. "Mother Xuan Yi, is this the Pill Region?"
Xuan Yi's relationship with Xiao Tian was already clear. In this time it had warmed considerably, and besides being completely honest with each other, they now understood every side of one another fully.