(Brendan POV)
This was rather embarrassing.
After that Tekiteh fellow got yelled at by a half soaked and fully pissed off girl, Mark covered her with his own robes and guided her away, telling us that he would bring her to somewhere she could clean herself.
He returned some time later alone to inform us that he would be leaving to get another set of clothes for her to change into so we could just carry on with the exploration if we wanted to.
The twins quickly left to explore on their own while Tekiteh also left after looking around a bit more.
I ended up staying in the garden to wait for Sylphy since her predicament was partially my fault, so the least I could do was apologize to her and Mark for the inconvenience.
Mark turned out to be quite the perceptive one too, apparently already knowing where Sylphy could bathe and clean herself even though it was his first time here. He must have taken note of everything we have seen so far, unlike me who was too busy admiring everything to even start comprehending what their practical uses were.
I had thought he might be another troublemaker since he had just plucked that peach so nonchalantly, but he must have noticed something that told him it was ok to do that too.
It seems like my own personal abilities are still lacking.
I reminisced back to the times when my family was still a struggling merchant inside Jin city.
I was the second son with one elder brother, a younger sister and two younger brothers.
My elder brother was drafted into the city's Knight Academy to serve in the army when I was just a young boy. Since then, I have not seen hide nor hair of him for the following fifteen years.
As for me, I was discovered to have the potential of a Practitioner when I came of age. My parents scrounged up whatever they could to send me to a Minor Sect to learn the Practitioner ways in spite of my protests.
Despite being merchants, our trading business was not going well.
Almost every business within the capital was monopolised by the powerful Xi Family and small time merchants like my parents struggled to even make a transaction profitable.
But ever since my parents got into contact with a group of people they never revealed the identities of, we suddenly had a huge windfall and became richer beyond our wildest dreams.
We moved out of our tiny house and into a giant mansion complete with servants. The food on the table was no longer rotten and the clothes we wore were no longer ripped and torn.
Even then, my mother never failed to remind me and my younger siblings to never forget to be humble and remember our days of poverty, citing that all that we had could be taken away at a moment's notice.
I was not the smartest person in the world, but even I could tell that our situation was less than simple.
Any group that could slingshot my poverty-stricken family into riches cannot have done it through normal means.
But seeing how we now have a proper roof over our heads and my younger siblings no longer needing to starve, I stayed silent about it and just nodded along.
My younger siblings started helping out the business and I was given the choice of continuing my Cultivation or returning to work with my parents.
I knew this was a dog eat dog world and power was the only thing you can rely on.
So I chose to stay and sought for the epitome of power.
Master Lin himself.
If I could learn under him, I can ensure that even if the group that helped my family prosper turn their backs on us, I can still protect them with my own power.
So I buried myself in my cultivation, training as hard as I could until even Master Lin might find me worthy of his time.
I learned everything that I could and studied up on everything related to being a Cultivator, I even branched myself out to various other subjects just for the possibility of impressing him.
And now, I made it through the first hurdle of entering Heaven Sect.
I can only hope that my performance here will draw Master Lin's attention and he will accept me as a disciple of his own.
Just as I was wondering what I could do to make Master Lin notice me, Tekiteh had returned with an anxious expression on his face.
"Hey! Hey inc-- Er… Frendan! You got to come see this! You won't believe it!"
I raised an eyebrow at him, "What? See what? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Hurry! Just come! You can't miss this! It's that Master Ween!"
I leapt to my feet, "You mean Master Lin?"
"Lin? I thought… Er… Yeah! It's Master Lin! He's like… Teaching one of his disciples right now! You guys like him right?"
Master Lin is here? This could be my chance to get closer to him!
But… This all sounds a bit too suspicious. Didn't he not even know who Master Lin was? How did he know what he looked like? And why is he suddenly so nice to me?
He could see the suspicion on my face and let out a sigh while rolling his eyes, "Look, I heard them call out his name. And I figured I was kind of an ass since we came here and we were all going to be classmates so it's not good for me to start on a bad foot with everyone. I'm sorry for what I did ok? Thought you might appreciate me being nice but this is what I get?"
I stared right at him, "Where?"
He took a step back before beckoning me to follow him.
Tekiteh led me out of the garden to a single one storey building facing away from the garden. It was small and looked rather hidden, I'm not even sure how he even found this place to begin with.
I took one look at it before turning to him, "You sure Master Lin is teaching his disciples in such a small building in some secluded corner of the Sect?"
He shrugged, "Hey, I don't know what this Master Ting's line of thought is like. Do you?"
Well he has a point. Master Lin might be teaching here so he can be undisturbed while still surrounded by nature's tranquility.
"So?" I prodded. "What gave it away that he's here?"
He gave me a smug smile before pointing towards a window that was slightly ajar.
"Go ahead inc… Verandah. I'm not really interested in this Master Xin guy but consider this my apology to you and we're even now."
He dusted himself before walking off, whistling a tune as he did so.
I looked back at the window and gulped. This is my chance.
If I can show Master Lin my dedication and knowledge, he might just choose to teach me himself. Even if he rejects me now, I would have at least made an impression on him and I can try again when I get better so there's no loss for me.
The main goal for me is to get Master Lin to notice me!
I stalked to the window, slowly peering into it.
But what I saw was the naked visage of Sylphy in the midst of changing her clothes.
"HEY! THERE'S A PERVERT HERE!"
The yell shocked both me and Sylphy, causing both our eyes to meet.
Her shock quickly turned into rage as she threw one of the buckets in the room at me.
The bucket hit me right in the middle of the head and the last thing I heard before I blacked out was her shout of anger.
"Die, you pervert!"
I'm so screwed.