~~~

Loathsome though it is to admit it, violence has become a commonality in his life.

Perhaps Khong Hu should not judge himself harshly for it. After all, violence is a commonality in every cultivator’s life. People wiser than he have said so, so it must be true. Nonetheless, Khong Hu must question why it is so. Why must tribulation be placed on such a high altar when isolation is just as capable of producing results? Are the wisest of sages not the ones who seclude themselves from the world so they may seek Eternity in solitude?

Look at the Endlessly Raging Valley’s Wandering Wind. She is the wind, and the wind goes where it pleases. A member of the Endlessly Raging Valley in name and little else. They can no more command her than a farmer can command the rain or the storm. It is not through the affairs of the Sect that she seeks enlightenment.

They are beneath her.

Patriarch Feng is another example. One far closer to Khong Hu than the Wandering Wind will ever be. Even as the feud between his sons viciously escalates, Patriarch Feng Zhang remains perfectly content in isolation. What do the affairs of the Eternal Flame Clan matter when one has left the Human Realms of cultivation and stepped into the Divine? Clearly, the Eternal Flame Clan can not offer him any tribulation that surpasses solitude. And who’d dare try to prove him otherwise?

Who’d dare disturb the Patriarch’s peace?

Who’d dare interrupt the Patriarch’s cultivation?

Truly, solitude is the privilege of the mighty. Khong Hu can feel nothing but admiration for those who are free to enjoy it. Even the Elders of the Eternal Flame Clan, powerful as they are, cannot fully remove themselves from the vicissitudes of life. Unlike Patriarch Feng, they cannot afford to take their attention away from the simmering tensions within the sect. Rather, the Elders are forced to judge which matters require their attention and which can be safely delegated.

Khong Hu has often wondered if that is why high-level cultivators have so many people beneath them. Is their purpose to be nothing more than a barrier against the mundane in the way one steps into a house to protect himself from the elements? Are they ultimately no different from a wall of mud?

If so, he is grateful.

After all, how could disciples like him ever distinguish themselves if that was not the case?

It is unlikely someone as great as Elder Xue would have called upon his services otherwise.

The brawl in the Sparring Hall forced the Internal Force to reveal what the wise and venerable Elder Xue already suspected. Someone had managed to find a way to shut down the bracelets.

It is now Khong Hu’s job to discover how it was done.

He’s hardly the only one who has been assigned to this duty. Perish the thought. Cases where an Elder entrusts an important task to a mere Inner Disciple are fairly rare. Khong Hu is just one of the many disciples with some skill in aura reading whom Elder Xue chose. It is precisely for that reason that Khong Hu fully intends to distinguish himself here. Already he has an advantage over the other disciples chosen.

He is in the Medical Pavilion as opposed to the Sparring Hall.

It is already well into the night. Not many people are present, and the few who are look at Khong Hu weirdly as he paces around the lobby with no clear goal in sight. That is fine. Khong Hu is fully aware of how odd he must look to them. Regardless, he does not hurry to explain himself. Khong Hu neither needs nor cares for their approval or opinion.

He only cares for the job Elder Xue has given him.

The art of aura reading is one that requires peace and tranquility. The actions of cultivators are like footprints in the sand. The stronger the cultivator, the deeper the footprint. The more time passes, the more likely it is for it to be erased. If there are too many energies, it is no different from dozens of people moving about. One footprint stepping over the other until all that is left is a misshapen mess.

Khong Hu had taken one look at the Sparring Pavillion and walked away.

Too much fighting was done there. Too many techniques with too many emotions behind them. It muddied everything up. Maybe some people can sift through all those energies, but Khong Hu is not one of them.

Khong Hu is also not one of those who were present in the Sparring Hall when the brawl began. Those people are no doubt reviewing their memories through talismans and meditation to see the room as it was when the bracelets had been disabled.

Khong Hu rather doubts they will find anything valuable through the use of those methods. None of them were expecting the bracelets to malfunction. They were not paying attention when the event happened. Afterward, they were too busy fighting. It is unlikely their memories will offer any new insights.

Similarly, there is little point in Khong Hu reviewing his memories even though he was in the Medical Pavilion when Qing Jin threatened the Internal Force.

Qing Jin…

The name alone is enough to make Khong Hu frown.

To this day, he cannot make up his mind about Qing Jin. Though young, Qing Jin is undeniably brilliant in his fields of expertise. He’ll reveal astonishing insights about medicine and alchemy during casual conversations as though they were common knowledge. There are times when Khong Hu believes he has found a kindred spirit in the younger disciple. His aura is among the most peaceful ones Khong Hu has ever seen. A lake so tranquil it is like the surface of a mirror.

Then there are times when Khong Hu can see nothing in him but violence wrapped around his body like a cloak.

But he digresses.

Khong Hu is not dimwitted enough to miss what truly happened there. Qing Jin had feared the Internal Force would shut down the bracelets and start a brawl right inside the Medical Pavilion. That is why his reaction had been so extreme.

However, is it just fear that compelled him to act, or had Qing Jin sensed something?

Certainly, had Qing Jin detected something important, he’d have gone to Elder Xue right away. Though clearly not free of carnal lusts, as evidenced by the many hours he spends with the woman from the Lu Clan, Qing Jin is too responsible not to prioritize the Internal Force over a woman. Thus, Khong Hu can conclude that Qing Jin did not sense anything.

Or rather, Qing Jin believes he did not sense anything of importance. His reaction was merely instinct compelling him to act. Yet, what is instinct if not the subconscious reacting to details the conscious mind is too busy to pay attention to?

The lobby of the Medical Pavilion is a far quieter place than the Sparring Hall. No one spends every moment of the day fighting here. Many people pass by. That much is true, but the energies in the Medical Pavilion are less… violent.

Khong Hu would like to say the energy here is passive, but that would be a woeful mischaracterization. Words are ultimately a poor way to convey the workings of the energies cultivators wield. Still, the fundamental truth remains. There is far less interference in the Medical Pavilion.

Furthermore, the Qi of those who work in the Medical Pavilion is already known to Khong Hu. It is not beyond his power to filter their energies and leave behind only the ones belonging to those whose presence here is not common.

The patients and the members from the Internal Force.

Khong Hu sorts through various energies in the lobby, looking for any that have the properties required to shut down the bracelets. He has been doing this for over three hours, yet the result remains the same. There is nothing to find in the Medical Pavilion.

Could his theory have been wrong?

Khong Hu's lips thin. His steps come to an abrupt halt as the thought worms its way into his mind.

Common sense dictates the bracelets were disturbed somehow. However, if the means of doing so were as simple as a direct application of Qi, wouldn't an imprint have been left on the bracelets? Someone as great as Elder Xue would not have overlooked that. Yes, if things had been accomplished through a method like that, Elder Xue would have detected it already. There'd be no need to assign this task to anyone else.

A step back is required.

In the first place, what does he know about the workings of the bracelets?

It only takes a moment for the information to flow through his brain. Giving new disciples a tour of the compound is a job Khong Hu often takes. Though they are rarely interested in knowing anything beyond the reach of their fists, Khong Hu always prepared himself for potential questions.

The bracelets work in tandem with the barrier around the Eternal Flame Clan. It is not as if there is a book with all the rules inside of them. Rather, that information is keyed into the barrier. The bracelets act as an extension of the barrier, allowing it to accurately monitor individual disciples and the infractions committed around them. That is why the bracelets do not detect infractions when a disciple is outside the Eternal Flame Clan's barrier.

Is that what he should be investigating then? Did Elder Dang somehow give the disciples a way to create a blind spot in the barrier?

Khong Hu inhales sharply and steps out of the lobby. Two jumps take him to the top of the Medical Pavilion. He looks up, but it is not the starry sky that captures his attention. Rather, he focuses on the barrier that surrounds the entirety of the compound. Invisible to normal eyes, but Khong Hu can feel how Qi flows and creates a dome over them all.

It is intact.

There are no holes or weak spots to be seen. No signs of brute force tampering. However, that does not mean his thinking is necessarily wrong.

The bracelets had not recorded infractions, but that wasn’t the only problem.

The bracelets had shut down.

There is meaning in that. Even if one is outside the compound, the bracelets should still work, if in a limited capacity. They possess many small features most disciples never bother with.

In summary, the barriers could not possibly have been shut down because everyone would have felt that. Similarly, simply creating a blind spot within the barrier wouldn’t have caused the bracelets to completely shut down as they did during the fight in the Sparring Pavilion.

Then… perhaps… could it be the barrier that was making the bracelets shut down then?

A thought strikes Khong Hu like lightning.

Yes!

That’s it!

But… If that is the case, then that’d mean Elder Dang had given the Internal Force the means of altering the barrier… No. Elder Dang, no matter how furious, would not give such a large group of disciples the means of altering the barrier to that extent. Khong Hu has seen the caliber of disciples Elder Dang has allowed into the Internal Force. Strong, yes. But largely blunt instruments. It is rather doubtful more than a handful among them is truly in Elder Dang’s confidence.

In other words, they are not the ones altering the barrier.

They are just notifying when it should be altered, which means what he should have been looking at from the start is…

There!

Something raw engulfs his chest. The elation of a puzzle one piece away from being solved. There is nothing Khong Hu wants more than to immediately rush to the Apothecary and let Elder Xue know about this.

That would be foolish, however.

Cultivators have to be smarter than that.

Sighing, Khong Hu hops down and enters the Medical Pavilion once more. He’ll wait until the morning to make the journey, preferably with at least six other disciples to help him in the event of an attack. Potentially relevant as his theory is, he needs to be alive to deliver the information.

In the meantime, there is probably a book he can read.

And tea.

One can never forget the tea.

~~~