The News Part 1

After a good laugh, I asked, "Did you change the location of the female disciples' training?" Hahaha.

"Yeah, I thought with that goose's temperament, he'd come back here again for sure. And, as you can see, he brought Ye Chen with him!" Hahaha.

"I sense trouble for Ye Chen's reputation, hahaha."

We laughed and headed back towards the house. We needed to meet these intruders, hahaha.

***

When we returned to the house, several disciples were waiting for us, and Ye Chen and the goose were tied up.

It was a surreal scene. After we assured the disciples that we would handle the situation, they left to continue their training.

I sat and look at Ye Chen that rubbed his ribs, which were sore from the beating, and glared at the goose, who sat there with gloomy face. Lin Qing and I took seats opposite them, observing the pair.

"Did you come here for business or to peep on our disciples?" I asked.

He blushed and cleared his throat before saying, "It's all a misunderstanding. We were just going for a swim, and then this happened," looking away.

"Alright, let's get serious. I came with news about Li Meiying and the elder who kidnapped her back then" he said with a serious tone.

"Maybe we should call Li Meiying?" I suggested, looking at Lin Qing.

She nodded and closed her eyes, then nodded again and brought out a pre-prepared tea set, pouring herbal drink for everyone.

Within a minute, Li Meiying joined us, greeted everyone, and sat down next to us.

"So, about the elder, his name is Blue Mist Elder, as you already know, and he leads the mountain in the inner circle, which is common knowledge. Among the less-known news, lately, he's been acting very angry. It seems that interrupting his ritual seriously damaged his health. He has become significantly weaker and is covered in wounds.

Apparently, disrupting him like that wasn't an easy feat, and the result is that we injured him. It's quite possible that doing so saved our lives.

I'm actually surprised that we managed to escape.

He's been telling everyone that Li Meiying betrayed the sect, stole something important from him, and is a demon worshipper. Zhang Feng supports him and claims they caught her in the middle of a demon summoning ritual, but they disrupted it. In the chaos, she escaped. My elder, who has some influence, tried to protect me, but I was still interrogated about her whereabouts. I told them that you woke up and ran away from me. So, the official version is that I found you unconscious and carried you out, and that's it" he explained.

Li Meiying visibly deflated upon hearing that her reputation had been undermined. She realized that if someone recognized her, they could do anything to her without consequences, as she was now a wanted person. She was currently a persona non grata.

Turning to Li Meiying, I said, "Well, for now, nothing is stopping you from continuing to develop here. But in the future, if you want to keep progressing, you'll need to come up with something. It's quite possible that we might be able to help you with that."

"So, from the news, it turns out that he openly controls the flow of money that the Inner Circle has from the Outer Circle, and he doesn't particularly hide it. All the local circles pay him a percentage of their income, and he's entrusted with storing valuable items, such as those before an auction or when something needs to be preserved because he's quite strong and well-known. Despite being injured, judging by his behavior, he's recovering. Nevertheless, he's still as grim and malicious as ever."

"Furthermore, from what I've gathered, all the groups in the Outer Circle are looking for you, Li Meiying. Upon learning the details, they've put a substantial bounty on you, in the range of several million sect points and a personal favor from the Blue Mist Elder. It's quite possible they'll send some spies here because they might have seen me flying here, and I was seen with Li Meiying. So, be cautious and, ideally, figure out a way to disguise yourself" Ye Chen explained, spreading his hands.

"More news: in about two months, there will be an auction, and in four months, there will be selections for a recently discovered hidden realm. I'm almost certain that some spots will be auctioned off. Do you wanna come?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine here," I immediately declined.

Ye Chen then turned to Lin Qing and, with a mischievous smile, said:

"What about you, beautiful? Do you have a desire to try and enter the hidden realm with me? Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"Oh, come on, how can you say that?" she replied, feigning innocence. Then she continued "But I can ask our disciples what brought you here today. I'm sure they'll be more to your taste."

Ye Chen's expression changed as if he'd eaten a fly.

"Well, I knew that asking was almost certainly futile" he mumbled under his breath.

By this time, the goose had perked up and started inspecting everything around.

"Where's Elder Mei?" the goose asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

"She flew off on business. She'll be back later" I replied, watching the goose with a slight squint, realizing that it was up to something.

When the goose spread its wings and cheerfully remarked

"Oh well, I wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked today, but I guess fate doesn't want her to hear my compliment!" and headed toward our newly planted strawberries that had recently bloomed.

Seeing this, Ye Chen was about to stop the goose when Lin Qing raised her hand and said,

"Why should we stop this curious creature, let him go on?" She smiled sweetly.

For some reason, at the sight of her smile, both Ye Chen and I felt a strange tingling sensation in some places where we shouldn't.

After about five seconds, the goose let out a wild shriek, flapped its wings frantically, and made a commotion.

"Where the fuck are these little fagots coming from! What the fuck! Holy shit! Fucking bees!"

The goose screamed wildly as it darted past us, fleeing from a small swarm of bees, some of which guarded the new plantation more fiercely than their own queen. Apparently, they really liked our new planting.

By the way, we had extracted about 300 grams of Celestium from that mine that i discovered earlier, we grind it and buried it under a portion of the plantation. We wanted to see how the mineral would affect the berries. So far, it had resulted in slightly larger plant growth and the fanatical devotion of the bees to this area. They only allowed us near it, and even then, bees always hovered nearby, watching to ensure we didn't damage the plants.

Wild screeches echoed not far away, indicating that the bees had finally caught up with the goose. After a couple of minutes, the bees returned to the strawberry patch and disappeared somewhere.

We stared at the spot where the goose had fled with interest, waiting to see what had happened. After a minute, the goose waddled back to us with several swollen areas where it had been stung, some of them on its neck, which gave it a comically absurd appearance.

"Hilarious!" Lin Qing exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Haha, that's magnificent! you should try it again some time later, ahahahah"

"ha ha ha so funny" the goose replied with sarcasm "Why the fuck your bees so wild, you need to burn them! I can help!"

"No thank you, we are happy with them!" i replied