(MC POV)
"Welcome back Master Lin," Sophia greeted me the moment I stepped into my courtyard.
Huh, feels like forever since I've been back here again.
"I'm back," I replied to her easily.
"Would you like a bath first? Or maybe something to eat? Or maybe... Do you want me--"
Lian Li cleared her throat loudly behind me, interrupting Sophia.
Sophia merely glanced at her direction before turning back to me.
Odd, did they have some kind of disagreement while I wasn't here or something?
"Or do you want me to give the report of what happened here while you were away?" Sophia repeated, finishing what she wanted to say before she was interrupted.
I could sense Lian Li pouting behind me for some reason, maybe they really did have a disagreement?
"Hmm... Let my disciples go for their baths first, camping outdoors isn't exactly the most hygienic of places after all. In the meantime, I can listen to your report."
Lian Li puffed her cheeks at me, "Master... We've told you many times already... First baths should always go to you..."
I patted her head, "Well, why don't you all wait for me there then? I'll join you girls in a bit after I'm done."
Those words were enough for them to immediately rush towards the baths, making me promise to join them as soon as I possibly could.
"Right, so what news do you have for me, Sophia?"
"Mmm... Everything was quiet for the first few weeks, but there were a few visitors who came by the last few days."
Last few days? That means when we were busy with the aftermath of the Dong capital's destruction.
Elaria had left a few of her people to facilitate the construction of the new city with most of the Practitioners from Heaven Sect as her helpers since our new home would be there too.
I'm not sure what she plans to build there but she assured me that we would be able to move Heaven Sect in maybe a few months to half a year.
Don't these building projects usually take years?
Well, a lot of things can happen in that time so let's just leave that aside for now.
I raised an eyebrow at Sophia, "Visitors? What did they want?"
She gestured to the servants' building, "They wouldn't say. Quite the professionals they were, I have to praise them for that."
Professionals? What is she talking about? They're just visitors right?
Not catching on to my confusion, Sophia led the way towards the servants' building, giving me no choice but to follow behind her.
Instead of going into the building like I thought she would, she circled round the back, moving past the rows of firewood that blocked the back of the building from being seen.
"Master... Be careful..." Xun Guan warned me, her body tightening up around me to solidify into a sort of armour.
"Relax, Sophia wouldn't harm me," I assured her, following the former demon lord to the back of the building.
There, Sophia was standing still waiting for me to appear.
I almost asked her why she brought me here until I saw several men tied up to stakes stuck into the ground behind her.
All of them were obviously tortured quite badly, maybe even worse than what my fake body had to go through back at the Dong's Prison Fortress.
The only hope that they were alive was dashed when I realised all of their throats had been slit.
"Master..." Xun Guan whispered.
I ignored her and gestured to the dead bodies instead, "What is this?"
"The visitors, Master," Sophia explained.
"The visi... What the hell happened to them?"
"Hmm... Water torture, lashings, electrocution, burning, freezing--"
I held up my hand, "I don't mean what you did to them, I meant why are they even subjected to torture in the first place?"
She pointed at three of them who seemed to have been tortured the most, "These three barged into Master's Sect with their weapons drawn, demanding that we hand over what they called the 'Miracle Cure' they thought we had. We tried reasoning with them but they got violent, so I beat them and tortured them."
Ah... I don't even need to guess... They're probably people from the country of Mei. These people really work fast.
Sophia moved her finger to another group of three men, "These three were really, really annoying. They kept demanding us to hand over the same 'Miracle Cure' for 'the greater good of humanity'. They even barged into Master's courtyard in an attempt to ransack the place to find it. Of course such a thing could not be allowed."
Yeah... These three must have came from the country of Han then...
Sophia then pointed to the last three people who were the most well-dressed of the bunch, "Then those three kept trying to use money to buy the 'Miracle Cure' from us. When we told them we don't know what it was, they brought some hired thugs to try and attack us for it. The stupid thing was that those thugs immediately ran off once they knew they were supposed to mess with Master's Sect. They then started throwing money at us so I rounded them up as well."
Those three are definitely from the country of Sun.
Seriously though, they managed to find out who I was and even came all the way here to try and get the healing pill from me in such a short time?
Either they're really determined or really desperate.
"Ok, I get it. They aren't the good kind of visitors, but did you have to torture them like that?
She blinked at me, "Master... We don't even have this Miracle Cure that they kept trying to get from us. It's obvious that someone is trying to mess with us. Thus I elected to try and pry information out of these hoodlums."
Ah... That's right. She doesn't know that they are referring to my healing pill.
"So what did you manage to find out?" I asked.
Sophia bowed her head, "My apologies Master... But despite my best efforts, they were trained enough to not reveal where they came from. But I did find out that they had no idea what this Miracle Cure is supposed to look like so it's obvious they were just messing with us."
Makes sense, they didn't have a good look on the pill itself. So that means they have to look for me to find the pill.
"Right... So don't you think killing these people would bring more trouble for us in the future?"
Sophia tilted her head slightly, "I don't believe a group of people who are looking for something that we don't have would leave us alone even if we tell them nicely. We need to send them the message that we won't tolerate such things so that they won't come back again."
Yeah... I highly doubt that would work though.
Oh well, what's done is done, I just hope that what Sophia said turns out to be true and those three countries give up after this.
Welp, guess it's time for my bath with my cute disciples, that's way more important now~
