Implicated

It was early in the morning, the day after the battle between Hao Ren and both Elder Wu and Wu Chen. Hao Ren was still sleeping comfortably in his bed, unaware of the fact that the sect was currently in chaos due to the fact that some precious pills had been stolen.

The pills were kept in the pills room and they were protected by array formations set by the elder, yet they were still stolen the previous night. The elder who concocts pills for the sect is also an array master, he specially made use of arrays to ensure that the high grade pills in the room are safe.

When Hao Ren woke up, he noticed Xiao lying by the side of the room sleeping. He looked at him for some time, before he got up. After washing, he thought of visiting Elder Li again as he will be leaving soon.

When Hao Ren was going out, Xiao opened his eyes and looked at him. When Hao Ren noticed him, "Do you want to come with me?" Hao Ren asked Xiao while looking at him. Xiao shook his head in rejection to Hao Ren's question, he then looked out, before moving positions in the room to a more secretive place.

Hao Ren was slightly taken aback by Xiao's behavior but didn't think much of it. He left his courtyard and headed towards Elder Li's place. While walking, he noticed the sect disciples looked really busy and couldn't help but feel curious about what was going on.

On reaching Elder Li's place, Hao Ren couldn't help but ask him what was going on in the sect as he does not think that his battle with Elder Wu would put the sect in its current unsettled state.

"Elder Qi said some special pills were stolen last night and now they are looking for the culprit" Elder Li said in reply to Hao Ren's question

"Elder Qi?" Hao Ren said with a questioning gaze

"Oh!, you must not be familiar with him. He is the resident alchemist in the sect and also a tier 2 array master, he rarely gets involved with the sect issues and is very reclusive as he does a lot of research" Elder Li patiently explained to Hao Ren. Before, Elder Li greatly admired Hao Ren's talent and that was why he had a good relationship with him as he was an admirer of talents. But currently, Hao Ren has already surpassed him, although he is still a stage above Hao Ren, it wouldn't be long before he completely surpasses him.

Hao Ren isn't really familiar with a lot of sect elders and only knew Elder Li. He was only able to get familiar with both Elder Wu and Elder Yun because of their conflicts. He knew there was an elder who makes pills for the sect but he has never seen him.

"So how do they know who they are searching for?" Hao Ren couldn't help but ask, one has to have big guts to come to the Silver Lining sect and steal in this region as the sect was the strongest of the region

"Its actually not a who but what" Elder Li said with a mysterious smile

"Huh" Hao Ren raised a brow, puzzled by Elder Li's response

"According to the disciples guarding the pill room, they saw a wolf sneaking into the pill room" Elder Li added on seeing Hao Ren's curious expression

"A wolf, how can a wolf steal pills from the sect?"Hao Ren couldn't help but ask in a surprised tone

"It quite surprising, but when Elder Qi went to the pill room and checked, he noticed 4 high grade pills were gone and the arrays protecting them were also broken. When he asked the disciples guarding the room about it, they said the only thing they saw close to the room was a little grey wolf" When Elder Li said this, doubt was quite visible in his voice as he too didn't believe a wolf could break the restrictions of the array set by a tier 2 array master without making loud noises.

The moment the little grey wolf was mentioned by Elder Li, Hao Ren's face twitched a little as he knew it was definitely Xiao that did it. He immediately tried to hide his reaction but Elder Li quickly noticed it and he couldn't help but have second thoughts about what was happening. 'Why would he have such a reaction after hearing that a wolf did it, or could it be true?. No, I've never heard of beasts who can break arrays' Elder Li thought before quickly denying that possibility.

'Hopefully no one in the sect has seen me with that little guy, how can he do this. If I'm implicated, he'll get it from me' Hao Ren was feeling resentful when he thought of the consequences of what Xiao did.

"Ren, do you by any chance know about this incident?" Elder Li questioned to clear up his doubts as Hao Ren's behaviour is somewhat suspicious

"Nope, definitely not. I don't know about it. And besides, I don't even have a wolf" Hao Ren immediately denied having any involvement in the stealing of the pills and also of knowing any grey wolf.

"Okay"

Elder Li have heard the complete story about Hao Ren's fight with Wu Chen, so he knew that a wolf helped Hao Ren then. But he couldn't imagine something that big entering the sect without being noticed by a lot of people and what the disciples said was a little grey wolf. So he was somewhat doubtful about the whole situation's involvement with Hao Ren.

........

Hao Ren stayed at Elder Li's place for some time before leaving under the suspicious gaze of Elder Li. After Hao Ren left, he immediately went over to his courtyard to look for Xiao.

"Come out little guy, I know you're here" Hao Ren shouted on entering the room. When Xiao heard his voice, he immediately came out from where he was hiding. "Why did you steal from the sect" Hao Ren questioned.

Xiao looked at Hao Ren with his big eyes and made some whimpering noises, although Xiao couldn't speak, Hao Ren had no issues understanding him as they have been together for some time and also had a unique connection with each other.

"Sigh, forget it. Do whatever you want, but know I won't always be able to bail you out. And also try not to cause any problems for me" Hao Ren looked at Xiao and couldn't continue scolding him. "So, did you get me any thing?" Hao Ren asked with a smile while also thinking. 'This guy definitely got some good stuffs, he should have left some for me'

Xiao shook his head and immediately dashed into his hiding spot as if Hao Ren wanted to steal from him.

"Bastard, you didn't even leave one pill for me" Hao Ren said while gritting his teeth

.......

In the sect, the disciples were still busy searching for clues about the grey wolf. Hao Ren completely forgot about being seen by the disciples guarding the sect gate when he returned, when the disciples heard of the wolf, they immediately remembered Hao Ren and told other disciples about it. This information quickly spread in the entire sect.

"No wonder he had such reactions when he found out about what was going on. But seems like he wasn't aware of the wolf stealing the pills" Elder Li said with a wry smile on his face. He had suspected Hao Ren, but wasn't too sure about it. Elder Qi has a temper but is also reasonable, that was why the disciples guarding the pill room weren't punished immediately.

When Elder Qi heard of the news of Hao Ren being seen together with a wolf that fits the description of what the disciples said, he immediately went over to the sect leader so he could summon Hao Ren over. Although he is not as strong as Hao Ren, he has quite a high status in the sect and isn't easily offended by anyone.