030

Owl flew back to the house. There was a small garden attached to every dormitory. At first, he planned to bury his loot over there but then, he changed his mind. He decided to bury it in a different dormitory's garden. He searched for one that was close and where the disciples had left the house. Using his spiritual energy to sense the surroundings wasn't difficult. Considering that most of the disciples around here were the young ones from the latest batches, they didn't have the kind of cultivation or abilities to hide themselves if he wanted to sense them.

He found a house with no one inside and flew into their garden. Then, he proceeded to dig a meter deep and dropped his spatial rings in there. He made sure to fill the hole and gave it his best to hide the fact that anything ever happened. Only once he was satisfied did he leave to find Jung-Su again.

He found him in the serene garden, a scenic place of the pavilion. It was built to give the disciples an area of relaxation. There were a few small trees, no taller than a meter in height and many flowers of different colors all over the place. Due to a special array built under the field, they were in constant bloom, making this garden the location for disciples to relax and enjoy themselves as pairs…

Owl circled around once until he found Jung-Su. Sun-Mi and him were sitting in the grass surrounded by patches of randomly colored flowers. They discussed merrily, unaware of the danger they were in. He landed gently next to Jung-Su and proceeded to sprawl himself on the grass. He wanted to take a rest too. It was tiring to do all this.

Jung-Su and Sun-Mi chuckled at the bird sprawled all over the place in the grass and resumed their chatting. Sun-Mi didn't know much about Owl's real identity and Jung-Su believed that Owl would talk to him if he needed something. Since Owl said nothing, he did not either. As such, the both of them ignored the spiritual beast lazing about next to them and continued to discuss worthless things. This was a form of happiness in its own way.

Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way for long. Less than a dozen or so minutes after Owl landed, a bunch of people appeared in front of them. There were four men and one woman, four elders and one gate guard. The guard bowed to the elders as he said: "Those are the children, my lords"

The four elders looked at the two and the spiritual beast next to them. It seemed unlikely that they were the perpetrators but they certainly could be the witnesses.

As the kids saw the elders, they hurried to their feet and greeted them humbly. The elders nodded. At least, those were decently educated disciples. If they had remained on the ground, they might have not been nice later on with their interrogations. Still, they needed to make sure they had the right people first.

The third elder asked them with a smile on his face: "Greetings disciples, we were told you two had gone outside the sect today, is that true?"

Only Owl who had slightly open one of his eyes noticed that the elder's smile was fake. This guy was definitely not someone gentle. Well, people who walked the path of cultivation were never sinless anyways.

As for the two kids, they looked at each other before they nodded to the elder. Seeing that, the elder asked them to follow along. Obviously, he also recognized them as the two kids they saw hugging on the way to the forest. He only asked them to see their reactions. If they tried to hide it, they would no longer be treated as disciples but as suspects. Since they were honest, they would be treated with honesty as well.

As the kids were starting to follow the elders, the gate guard was sent away to go back to his post. Owl flew next to Jung-Su and walked next to him. It didn't escape the elder's sights who recognized the foot prints and linked them to those from the forest. The way they looked at Jung-Su changed. They had many questions to ask the two kids.

…

They reached a hall not long later and the elders took the kids inside. It was a hall usually reserved to elders but they decided to conduct the investigation here. There was only one reason in that it was closer and neater. They brought the two kids into separate rooms. Owl followed after Jung-Su. As the elders saw it happen, the second elder asked Jung-Su about it.

Owl hurriedly told Jung-Su what to say and he repeated the words: "That's because our link is still new, I have to stay close to him to build our connection"

The elders nodded. It was something plausible and, in truth, they didn't mind. This spiritual beast wasn't a threat to any of them. They could feel that it was at the fourth stage of spiritual accumulation. While it wasn't bad for a disciple to have such a partner as a tamed beast, it wasn't exceptional either. Of course, they weren't aware that Owl was hiding his cultivation base. There were techniques to do so and he knew them from his previous life. Of course, he was weaker than those elders so, if they truly tried to probe him, they would discover he was faking it. His hiding technique was relatively good but his cultivation was too low compared to them. It could trick them if they sensed things from a distance half-heartedly, not if they seriously wished to find out. He placed a bet on their carelessness, and he won it.

From their point of view, it was not important. They didn't think a disciple like this one, weak and meek, could tame a strong spiritual beast. They wouldn't even be able to dream of the truth as the truth was more incomprehensible than reality. Who could guess the true identity of Owl? And so, for now, he was safe.

Two elders went with Sun-Mi and two stayed with Jung-Su. In the room, aside from a table and chairs, there was nothing. It was quite the empty room. On one side of the room, there were the two elders, third and fourth. On the other side, there was Jung-Su and Owl, one fidgeting anxiously and the other owl-like.

The two elders looked at the owl that was up on the chair then at each other. They shrugged and decided to get on with it. The fourth elder stated: "We have concluded that you were there during a slaughter that took place in the forest next to the sect. Quite a few young disciples, your brothers and sisters, died gruesome deaths over there. Please, tell us what happened"

Jung-su wasn't sure what to say and sweat started dripping down his back. Of course, he never considered those fuckers as brothers and sisters and couldn't care less that they died gruesomely. What scared him was that he was responsible for it. He was ready to say it all, give up and accept the punishment…However, Owl spoke to him first: "You will repeat my words and we will get out of there free"

He turned around to the spiritual beast which didn't escape the two elders. They wondered what was going on but refrained from asking. They wanted to observe what the youth would do. Was he a threat? A victim? A witness?

Owl spoke and Jung-Su repeated: "Those guys have been bullying us, the weaker cultivators, for months now. I worked hard for the sect, doing many missions, only to have my pills forcefully taken away by them. They were no family of mine"

The tow elders were chocked by the sentences Jung-Su said. They expected something along those lines but hearing it from the mouth of a young kid that seemed on the verge of crying was a harder blow. Being aware and being confronted with things were two different matters. For a disciple to be unable to consider the other disciples as his family, as it should be, it meant that things have gone very bad. Much more than they thought. They would certainly need to report this to the Senior Elder… But first, they had to uncover the truth behind those deaths.

The fourth elder smiled slightly as he spoke: "Disciple, it is the shame of this elder to have let such things happen under my nose for so long. I swear that we will report this to a Senior Elder. However, can you tell us more about what happened in the forest?"

Jung-Su spoke the words whispered to him by Owl: "They forcefully took me there to kill me, that's what"

Owl's plan was to completely change the way those elders saw the incident first. Then, he would divert their attention enough to build a believable story.