It had been about an hour since I locked myself in the room.
Only then did I finally come out.
Not only was I tired, but I had some things to think about.
After roughly finishing my thoughts, I came out to find Weixuela outside.
She was sitting quietly on the veranda, so I sat down next to her.
"What are you doing... Why are you like this?"
When I tried to start a conversation, Weixuela's expression was far from normal.
Her eyes were slightly swollen, as if she had been crying, and her face looked rather gloomy.
"Is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong..."
"Your face doesn't look like nothing's wrong."
"..."
Even with her slightly drooping eyes, her face looked sad when she was expressionless.
With her lips slightly downturned, she looked like someone who had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Weixuela hesitated and then quietly spoke to me.
"...I had an argument with Grandpa."
"...With Weyuanya?"
With Jian Zun and Weixuela? It was unexpected.
Jian Zun seemed like the type who would say, "Oh, my beautiful granddaughter!" no matter what Weixuela did, but to scold her so much that she cried was surprising.
'Aside from when she secretly followed me to Sichuan, I've hardly ever seen her get scolded.'
For her to be this upset after being scolded...
What could have happened?
I asked as calmly as I could.
"Are you okay?"
"...I'm fine."
She doesn't look fine at all.
Weixuela looked at me with a sad face.
She clearly wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn't.
Weixuela quietly got up.
She said she had something to do for Hongwa.
"Master."
"Hmm...?"
"I'll work hard."
"Huh? Okay... Work hard."
I don't know what it is, but I encouraged her since she said she would work hard.
With that, Weixuela ran off.
What did she mean by working hard?
Was it about working hard for Hongwa?
Whatever it was, her sad face was worrying, so I decided to buy her some sweets later.
I stepped out of the dormitory.
The shallow pain was still lingering, but I decided to move around to think.
I wandered around the mountains of Huashan, which I had become somewhat familiar with recently.
I first went to the training ground but found no one there.
...
I found him.
Fortunately, it didn't take long to spot someone climbing a cliff in the distance.
"Master!"
At my call, Yingfeng, who was climbing the cliff, looked at me.
Yingfeng jumped down without hesitation and approached me.
"Jiang Xiaoxia."
'His expression isn't good either.'
Looking at Yingfeng slowly approaching, his face and overall state didn't look good.
Yingfeng, who usually looked far from exhausted even after training all day, was drenched in sweat even though it wasn't even noon.
This meant he had been training much more intensely.
As if to prove this, the sandbags on his legs and arms were much heavier than usual.
"What's the matter?"
At my question, Yingfeng smiled bitterly.
The expressions of Huashan Sect disciples I met after waking up were mostly like this.
I usually wouldn't want to get involved and would pretend not to notice, but this time I suppressed my feelings and asked again.
"I wanted to ask Meihua Xian, but her expression was too gloomy, so I didn't."
"..."
"If it's something I shouldn't know, I won't ask further."
If it was something significant enough to delay the Zehua Hall, it must be a big deal.
Given the state of the sect leader and the disciples, it must be something bad.
Yingfeng pondered for a while and then spoke cautiously.
"...Do you remember when I mentioned that sect disciples were going missing?"
"Yes, I remember."
"...A few days ago, we found those who had gone missing."
'So it was... as I suspected.'
The most likely scenario turned out to be true.
Did they finally succeed in the search?
Even when Meihua Swordsmen took turns searching, they couldn't find them, so how did they succeed now?
The discovery was fortunate, but his reaction suggested it wasn't a happy ending.