Chapter 370 - Spring Mist and a Warning

Chapter 370: Chapter 370 - Spring Mist and a Warning

Lu Canghai stopped when he saw the notebook, the open packages, and the cup in Su Bai’s hand.

His gaze lingered on the cup for a moment before rising to his disciple’s face.

Su Bai set it down and brought out the tea he had bought specifically for his master.

The packages had barely touched the table before Lu Canghai’s expression brightened.

He picked up the nearest one, loosened the wrapping, and brought it close enough to smell the leaves.

"You really did have time to buy tea! This is from Jadeleaf City."

"Master recognized it quickly."

"I have bought enough of it to know the smell." Lu Canghai examined the label, then reached for the package beside it. "Did you find their Spring Mist Tea?"

Su Bai pulled it from the stack and began preparing a pot. He left the Soul-Steeping Teacup beside his notebook and brewed his master’s serving in ordinary ware.

Lu Canghai took out his own cup and settled across from him, his attention fixed on the pot with a patience he had rarely shown while waiting for Su Bai to explain where he had been.

When the tea was ready, Su Bai poured for him. His master took a slow drink and leaned back in his seat. They enjoyed their tea for a little while as sunlight reached the stone table, and Su Bai saw some of the strain leave Lu Canghai’s face.

It returned when his master put his cup down.

"Old Li intends to send people out. The visits to the comprehension walls will have to wait while we arrange the expedition."

Su Bai thought of the disciples he had seen on the new terrace. The sect had gone to considerable effort to prepare for those visits. Even so, the walls would still be there when the arrangements could resume. There was no such assurance for the settlements on Ning Shuang’s map.

"What about the factions already expecting to send disciples?"

"Old Li will speak to them. If they are willing to look into demonic movements in their own regions, he can offer them more time at the walls once the visits begin."

Su Bai considered the proposal.

Ning Shuang had drawn the places her own group had surveyed, all within the parts of the Eastern Region where she had received assignments. Even there, she could only account for the work she had seen.

Other factions would know which roads had grown unusually busy in their territories and which settlements had begun attracting attention. They could check far more ground than Radiant Sky Sect could cover alone.

"If they find the same preparations elsewhere, we will have a better idea of how far this reaches," he said.

"That is what Old Li hopes. We can start with the places on your map while they look closer to home."

Su Bai nodded.

He had suspected that the movements might extend across the continent, though he wanted to see what those inquiries turned up before putting that suspicion into anyone else’s hands.

He also remembered promising to ask about more time for Qiao Wen and the others. Their elders would likely hear about the change in arrangements before he had the chance to speak to the Sect Master himself.

Lu Canghai picked up his cup again but did not drink. "There is something else you should know. Yesterday, your Junior Sister Liu Meng has returned to her kingdom."

Su Bai looked up. "Why?"

"Old Qin told me the Liu Family Auction House received a warning. Demonic cultivators have been gathering in the kingdom, and their movements were suspicious enough that someone thought the Liu family should know. Liu Meng went back after she heard."

Su Bai’s fingers tightened around his cup.

Liu Meng had left yesterday, while he was still on his way back. If the gatherings were part of the same operation Ning Shuang had described, the danger he had come home to report might already have reached her kingdom.

"We are taught to let go of our mortal ties as our cultivation deepens," Lu Canghai said. "But if demonic cultivators have set their sights on a mortal kingdom, the people there have little means of protecting themselves. We cannot leave them to manage it on their own."

Su Bai recalled what Qiao Wen and the others had said about the Tang Clan.

Among the reports their elders had passed on were accounts of demonic spies operating within a mortal kingdom. No one had been able to prove who removed them, and there was no reason yet to assume they had spoken of Liu Meng’s home.

Still, he wondered how someone had learned enough about the gatherings to warn the auction house.

"Master, do you know who sent the warning?"

Lu Canghai paused with his cup halfway to his lips. When he set it back on the table without answering, Su Bai studied his face for a moment.

"Was it the Tang Clan?"

"You heard something about them while you were away, then."

"I heard they have taken assignments involving mortal kingdoms."

"There have been reports," Lu Canghai said. "Few can say who carried out those assignments. The Tang Clan rarely involves itself in matters beyond the work it takes on. But if one of its people came across trouble and chose to warn the Liu family, I would take that warning seriously."

His master’s hesitation gave Su Bai reason to take the possibility seriously. The careful answer gave him very little else.

He thought of Tang Ziyan again and wondered whether she might have seen more of these movements.

"Master, about the Tang Clan—"

Lu Canghai shook his head gently. "We can visit them when there is time. You can ask them what you want to know then."

He drew his cup a little closer, though his attention had already moved elsewhere.

"Go help your junior sister first. What Old Qin described is close enough to your report that I think we should treat it as part of the same trouble until we learn otherwise. Liu Meng knows her home and has people she can speak to there. If the demonic cultivators are preparing something on the scale you suspect, she will need help dealing with it."

Su Bai had already intended to go. He could reach the kingdom quickly on his sword, but searching it would take longer.

If they found people stationed near several settlements, someone would need to watch those places while the others learned what the demonic cultivators were doing.

He would have a better chance of reaching Liu Meng in time if he arrived with people he could trust to work beside her.

"Can I take a few people with me?"

Lu Canghai finished his tea and stood. "Leave that to me. Get ready to depart, and I will tell you who can go."

Su Bai nodded.

Once his master had gone, he closed the notebook on the morning’s experiments and put the Soul-Steeping Teacup away. The leaves would keep, and he had written enough to pick up where he had left off whenever he came home again.

He cleared a space on the table and began sorting through what he would need for Liu Meng’s kingdom.

He hoped the warning had reached her before the demonic cultivators realized anyone was watching them.

There was still time to find out what they were doing, provided they reached her before those people decided they were ready.