"Look! Headteacher Jin is here!"

Each disciple turned to see Jin Caihe stand by the door, they saw him look straight at the other two disciples that stood at facing each other.

"Headteacher Jin, a fight was about to breakout when you were not here!"

"Yes, headteacher Jin! It was those two!"

"That is true! It was Jin Tieguai and Jin Xiangu! Young master Jin had to step in or they would have been at it by now!"

The headteacher turned to send a cool look at the rest of the cla.s.s, without so much as telling them a thing, they could tell that he didn't want to hear a word from any of them.

"Jin Dongbin, Jin Xiangu and Jin Tieguai I want you all to kneel right there!"

Jin Caihe pointed at a spot that was a couple of feet from where the raised platform upon which his desk stood. He then turned to the rest of the cla.s.s.

"I want you all to be seated! Anyone that is still remaining on their feet after, will be punished along with this three!"

They did as told and went to kneel where the headteacher instructed them to, while the whole cla.s.s looked on at the three being punished by their headteacher. The other twelve disciples hurried to their seats, for fear that Jin Caihe would ask them to kneel on the hard floor.

Moving from where he stood, Jin Caihe walked to his desk and took a seat on the ha.s.sock, facing the three that knelt in front of him.

"I'll start by asking Jin Dongbin to tell me what happened."

Jin Tieguai did not have the gut to look at his teacher, the junior disciple feeling ashamed for being caught in a wrongful act.

The young master of the GuBaiJin sect, kept his head lowered in a show of humility.

"Headteacher Jin, it was I who started it, Jin Xiangu spoke of your intended marriage, but said certain things which I can't say because it will be taint your ears. I'm the one at fault for allowing him to speak careless without making any effort to stop him. Please, allow me to be punished in his place!"

Where he knelt, the young master managed to prostrate to his headteacher, who looked not in the least moved at what he saw. The act that Jin Dongbin was putting was clearly not going to work, since Jin Caihe already knew the type of person he was, a pretender to the core!

"Thank you, young master Jin."

Jin Dongbin still had his head lowered, therefore he could not see that his performance held no effect to his teacher.

"Jin Xiangu, it is now your turn to tell me what took place."

The disciple that was called, began looking nervously at young master Jin, but saw the other had his eyes lowered. Jin Caihe did not say a word, as he waited for the other disciple to say his version of the story.

"It is according to what young master Jin said, I spoke carelessly about your marriage to the fox princess. Jin Tieguai corrected me, but I took offense at his words. I was prideful and I ask that headteacher Jin forgive my foolishness!"

To make it more dramatic, Jin Xiangu squeezed out a few drops of tears from his eyes, wringing his fingers as though he was in despair and needed the headteacher to be more merciful.

Jin Tieguai almost rolled his eyes from what he saw, "What a thick faced bootlicker!"

The thought stayed right there in the mind of Jin Tieguai, as he waited to be called by the headteacher.

"I've heard what you said, I'll now ask that Jin Tieguai explain to us what happened."

Before then, the troublemaker of the sect had his face turned the other way to avoid looking at those of Jin Caihe, but when he heard the headteacher call him to describe what led to the fallout, that was when he had no other choice but to look at him.

"Ah!"

The sound unconsciously escaped out of Jin Caihe, as a sizzling sensation went straight to his belly and heart almost at the same time. Jin Tieguai was not unaffected, he looked dazed, as though he was in a trance.

"I think there is something wrong with headteacher Jin!"

Jin Xiangu had to nudge Jin Dongbin to look at the two that were staring at each other.

"What did Jin Tieguai do to make headteacher Jin look so alarmed?!"

Young master Jin kept looking at the his headteacher and Jin Tieguai not knowing of what to make of their eerie silence.

Underneath his desk, Jin Caihe tightened his hand, to bring his erratic emotion under control. Their eyes widened as they kept looking at each other, for quite a while until a voice called out.

"Headteacher Jin?!"

It was the young master that broke the spell that trapped Jin Caihe and Jin Tieguai, causing the two to sharply look away from the other. The junior disciple could feel his nose starting to flare from the forbidden emotion that was slowing rearing its head when faced with the source of his crippling devotion.

"Sorry...but where are we?"

Jin Caihe asked not because he was confused about where he was, but wanted to know what they were doing before he was pulled into the world only share by him and Jin Tieguai.

"Headteacher Jin, you were asking Jin Tieguai to tell his version of what led to him fighting in cla.s.s."

Jin Dongbin subtly indicated that the other disciple was the one that disrupted the cla.s.s when their headteacher was away.

"Yes..Jin Tieguai."

The disciple that was called, swallowed deeply with both hand clenched by his side.

"Head...teacher Jin. I don't know what came over me, but I couldn't stand the way Jin Xiangu, Jin Xinze was talking bad about you. Young master Jin allowed them to continue saying terrible things and did nothing to stop them! Jin Xinze is over there! He should be kneeling with the rest of us! Why is it just young master Jin, Jin Xiangu and I that have to be the only ones punished!"

Jin Tieguai fought back tears as he felt the injustice of seeing an evildoer not caught and punished for his wrongdoings.

"Is it true that Jin Xinze was involved?"

Jin Caihe asked, not because he didn't hear the other disciple when he was speaking terrible things about him, but because he wanted to know if the other two would give their friend up to be punished along with them.

Jin Xiangu bit his lips, he didn't want to out Jin Xinze since the young master made no reference about him. Therefore, he chose to keep quiet and let Jin Dongbin answer to their headteacher.

Jin Dingbin tightly held his hands together, "I can't let Jin Tieguai implicate the rest. I'll have to tell headteacher Jin that it was just Jin Xiangu and I that was involved! Who would he believe between I and Jin Tieguai?!"

Confident that the headteacher would take his word for it, the young master of the GuBaijin sect began speaking.

"Headteacher Jin, there is no one else apart from us three."

Choosing to keep it simple so that his words would sound convincing, the young master watched from underneath his eyelids to see if Jin Caihe would fall for his lies. Unknown to him, Jin Caihe already knew everything, since he was standing outside the cla.s.sroom listening to the conversation between the group of youths that followed Jin Dongbin around.

The headteacher calmly looked at him, choosing not to expose his lies in front of everyone.

"One of this days, you will fall for your own lies and be exposed by them!"

It sounded almost like a curse, the words that ran through the mind of the headteacher as he looked at young master Jin.

"Today is a day of celebration for Sect Leader Jin. I will not spoil it by asking the three of you to do frog jumps covering the whole ground a hundred times!"

"A hundred times?!"

Jin Xiangu looked about read to faint when he heard the number of times that they would have to cover the sect grounds doing the backbreaking and very humiliating hopping from their feet, almost likened to asking a person to move fast with just one leg.

"If a hundred times is too small how about two hundred times?!"

Jin Caihe's expression did not change when he suggested increasing the number of times the youths would be jumping round the sect grounds in their not so light robes.

"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

Neither of them could hold back from rejecting their headteacher's words to have their frog hopping increased.

"All of you, stand up, turn around and tell your cla.s.smates that you are sorry for disrupting the cla.s.s! You have all acted in a way that shames the name of the GuBaiJin sect!"

One by one, they each stood and faced all twelve disciples, bowing as they said, "We are sorry for fighting in cla.s.s!"

They remained that way with their heads bowed, until the headteacher spoke, "Now turn around and apologize to me."

This time, the voice that spoke was softer and held a trace of warmth in them.

"Headteacher Jin, Please forgive us! We are so sorry!"

Jin Caihe looked at the junior disciples that had their head facing downward from repenting of their wrongfulness.

"Aya! Don't you think that it is too much?!"

Whenever the f.u.xi had something to say, it would use part of its aura to s.h.i.+eld Jin Caihe from being overheard by others.

"I'm going easy on them!"

"You mean to say that you are going easy on Jin Tieguai."

The creature was in its "sleeping" position where it was coiled in the form of a ball. It's brilliant green eyes were closed, as though to say "don't bother me" which was in contrast to the tone that it was using to speak to Jin Caihe.

"It's not because of him!"

"Keep on fooling yourself, but that young master Jin is a cunning one. The people he has around him are not any better."

The magical beast spoke as though making reference to a mundane thing, rather than a serious matter.

"I'll take care of it, I already know the type of person that he is, I'll keep closer eye on him."

"How would you be able to do that? Is it from the fox clan?"

Jin Caihe had briefly forgotten about moving away from the GuBaijin sect to live with the granddaughter of the Fox King.

"For now, until when I leave, I'll do the best that I can!"

"Good for you, such confidence, but how long would that last?"

As the two kept conversing, Jin Tieguai felt a tingling sensation, it felt similar to the one he experienced a few days ago when he was at the DianShu, the lodging of Jin Caihe. All of a sudden he could hear a hissing voice that resembled that of a snake and those of his headteacher. The junior disciple found it strange that he could hear Jin Caihe and turned to see if the others noticed the same thing, but their heads remained bowed. This made Jin Tieguai realize that he was the only one that heard the strange voice talking to his teacher.

What he didn't know was that the Falcon beast had slowly eroded the barrier that the f.u.xi erected to keep others away from the private conversation he was having with Jin Caihe. The sly beast had not counted on the magical beast inside of Jin Tieguai to easily infiltrate its barrier without the other knowing.

"The future may not be in my hands, but I will continue to fulfil my duty for as long as I can, while at the GuBaiJin sect."

"Do as you please."

That was the magical beast's letting Jin Caihe know that it was not going to interfere with life choices.