Be Gentle, Immortal Master

The master smiled at us brightly, as if utterly unaware of the strange looks from the crowd. "Such an honor to have you here," he ignored the disciple and said to Bai Ye. "It's been years since someone from Mount Hua visited our fair! Can I help you find anything? Is the Gatekeeper here as well?"

Bai Ye, on the other hand, only met the warm greetings with a cold glance. "I was here with my daoist companion to find a spiritual pet." He took my hand, nodding slightly towards the master. "This is Wang Lue from the Hall of Dragons and Phoenixes," he said to me softly before turning back. "Though I have to say that our interest has been interrupted in the worst way. This is your disciple?" He gestured at the earlier man.

Wang Lue greeted me with an even brighter smile. Then he looked around, finally acknowledging the existence of the crowd surrounding us. "What happened here?" he asked. "Did my disciple's mount attack you by accident?"

"Your disciple's mount?" Bai Ye huffed. "Can he really claim they are his if they were stolen in the first place?"

The crowd buzzed again, and the expression on Wang Lue's face froze for a moment. "Master!" the disciple exclaimed hastily. "I did no such thing! You were there when—"

He suddenly stopped as Wang Lue gave him a hard glare. "Where are your manners?" Wang Lue chided. "Have I not taught you it's rude to interrupt conversations between masters?"

The disciple snapped his mouth shut. I studied the two of them a bit curiously. Although disciples at Mount Hua were taught the same, we were rarely scolded in public for speaking up against a master in situations like this. The rules at the Hall of Dragons and Phoenixes seemed even more strict than Mount Hua's. How could a disciple trained in such an environment be so blatant as to capture a guardian beast behind their master's back?

"There must've been some misunderstanding," Wang Lue smiled at Bai Ye and me. "I was there when my disciple brought the cubs back. They weren't bonded with anyone else at the time. What makes you think that they were stolen? From whom?"

"From their home in the Misty Mountains," Bai Ye replied. "Bixies are guardian beasts, you should know that better than everyone else. As much as the bixie cubs loved my daoist companion, we never thought of taking them away from where they belonged. Yet your disciple captured them, forcing them to become mounts and bond with people against their will. Does that not count as stealing?"

Wang Lue's eyes narrowed for a moment. But only for a moment, and that smile was quickly back on his face. "I'm afraid you really are mistaken, my friends. The cubs weren't forced in any way. They've shown profound attachment to my disciple since the day they were brought back. We knew guardian beasts belonged in the wild, and we had thought of returning them to their home back then, but they wouldn't leave my disciple's side … So after careful consideration, I permitted him to keep them."

The words had barely left his mouth when the bixies hissed again, this time so aggressively that the crowd gasped. A few people stepped back, afraid to be caught in a ferocious beast's path.

I stroke their manes, softly coaxing them to calm down. "If they were so attached to your disciple," I said, "then why are they acting like this right now?"

Wang Lue shrugged. "Beasts have emotions too. Just because one fights with his family doesn't mean he isn't part of it anymore, right?"

I didn't believe a word that either of these two people said—the beasts' reactions couldn't be more obvious, and the mother wouldn't have lied to me about her stolen children for no reason. But was this master simply helping his disciple to cover up what he had done? Or was he fooled by the disciple's actions as well?

"Besides," Wang Lue added, "there are too many people here today, and wild animals are sensitive to new scents. A lot of things could have triggered them to act unnaturally … And the same reason must have drawn them towards you as well."

The crowd hummed once more at his words. "Is he saying that the woman isn't the owner either?" someone whispered. "The beasts were only drawn to her because of some other reasons?"

"Who knows … How can we tell who's telling the truth?"

"I want to trust that good-looking one … He said the beasts are from the Misty Mountains? Sounds like he and his daoist companion did know them in the past …"

Wang Lue must've heard the same whispers, as he continued, "Of course, I'm not trying to suggest that anyone is not speaking the truth. It's all a misunderstanding, as I said." He turned towards Bai Ye. "After all, what's in it for me to shield my disciple if he had truly wronged? Our sect is strict on our rules, and I wouldn't have let it slide so easily if I knew he was at fault."

Again, the bixies hissed at the last syllable of his words. I gritted my teeth as well. At this point, I'd be a fool to not realize that this master knew all about the truth, and he was only trying to hide it for his disciple. But why?

Suddenly, the disciple's earlier sentence that was interrupted jumped back into my head: "You were there when—"

A thought flashed through my mind, and realization dawned on me. "You are shielding him for your own sake," I blurted, staring at Wang Lue. "You didn't just see the cubs on that day when your disciple took them back to the sect. You were there … at the Misty Mountains yourself." Subconsciously, I blocked the bixies from him with my back. "It was both of you who captured the cubs and took them away from their home, and one of them is your own mount!"

Behind me, two sorrowful growls told me that I was right.