Muring Yue paused, noticing Tian Lei's typical reaction. She turned her head and narrowed her eyes at him. "Wait… do you even know what Dual Cultivation really means?"
Tian Lei scratched his head, trying to remember. "A cultivation technique where two people train together… that's what it sounds like, at least."
Muring Yue's eyes grew sharper. "So, you really don't know?" she asked, a teasing smirk in her tone.
Tian Lei hesitated. "I mean… isn't it about training together?"
"Dual Cultivation is what happens on your first wedding night," she said with a mischievous grin.
Tian Lei froze in place. "Wait—how is that cultivation?"
Muring Yue leaned in a bit, lowering her voice. "It's about using Yin and Yang energy together—mixing them in harmony. Your Yang energy with someone's Yin energy… and a few other things," she said with a wink.
Tian Lei blinked, taking it in. A light blush showed up on his face. "So… it's not just about the act, but it actually helps with cultivation?"
"Exactly," she nodded, her tone softening. "It's more than physical—it's about a spiritual bond. But if you don't want to know more, that's up to you."
Tian Lei gave a casual shrug. "Not like I'm into that type of cultivation right now anyway."
Before long, Yuyan and Tian Lei arrived at the nearby village. They asked the locals about the other disciples who came with them.
"They said you two were taken by bandits and went back to the sect to get reinforcements," the village chief said, clearly uneasy.
Yuyan and Tian Lei both scoffed at the lie. Sharing a glance, they mounted their horses and left the village behind. The chief watched them ride away toward the sect.
By midday, they reached the Heavenly Sword Sect again—ready to confront the people who betrayed them.
Mei Lian, Zhang Wei, and Lin Yue—
These three had betrayed Tian Lei and Yuyan, acting under someone's secret orders from the inner sect. They lied in their reports, claiming Tian Lei and Yuyan were dead, trying to label them as failures or make everyone forget about them.
Though there was one more in thier team, Chen Hao, unlike them he was directly beheaded, so he wasn't saved with them.
As Tian Lei and Yuyan neared the sect gates, more disciples began to gather. One senior disciple pointed at them in shock. "Stop! Identify yourselves!" he said.
Tian Lei and Yuyan got off their horses and handed over their sect ID passes at the gate.
The gatekeeper stared at the passes and froze. "What? These are legit?" he muttered, comparing the documents to the people standing before him.
Another disciple stepped closer, confused. "Weren't these two supposed to be dead?"
"They must be fakes," a third whispered. "Or someone forged their IDs."
"No," the first said, his face pale. "The seals are real. Everything checks out."
A crowd began to form, whispers filling the air.
"But they were declared dead!" someone said. "Taken by bandits and vanished!"
Just then, an elder arrived, drawn by the noise. His face was serious as he stepped through the gathering disciples. "What's going on here?"
One of the younger disciples stepped up nervously. "Elder… it's Tian Lei and Yuyan. They've returned. Alive."
The elder narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two. "Weren't you two reported dead? The other three who were with you said you were killed by bandits!"
Yuyan walked forward. Her face was calm, but her eyes burned with quiet anger. "Elder, they betrayed us. They left us to die and worked with the bandits. We survived after falling off a cliff and recovered in a nearby village. While there, we even broke through to the peak of Body Forging Realm—and we killed those bandits ourselves."
She even took out the frozen heads of the bandit leaders as evidence.
The elder's expression turned stiff as he took in her words and stared at the icy severed heads. After a long silence, he gave a firm nod. "Guards," he called, "get the Discipline Hall here right away. Arrest Mei Ling, Zhang Wei, and Lin Yue. You two, come with me."
Tian Lei and Yuyan followed him into the sect's inner area, where the Discipline Hall was located.
Meanwhile, in a quiet courtyard of the sect, the three traitors were quietly cultivating, unaware of the storm coming their way. Then, members of the Discipline Hall arrived and surrounded them. Before they could react, they were restrained and dragged away in front of watching senior and outer disciples.
Whispers spread quickly through the sect.
"They betrayed their own teammates?"
"Falsely reporting deaths? That's a serious offense!"
The gossip buzzed louder and louder as the news of their arrest and Tian Lei's return spread like wildfire.
Soon, inside the solemn Discipline Court, dozens of elders and senior disciples gathered. The atmosphere was heavy. The Sect Master sat at the top seat, flanked by inner sect elders. Tian Lei and Yuyan stood calmly to one side. Mei Ling, Zhang Wei, and Lin Yue knelt on the floor, hands bound by powerful sealing talismans.
The Sect Master's eyes were like drawn swords. "You three are charged with abandoning fellow disciples during a mission, submitting false death reports, and colluding with bandits. How do you respond?"
Mei Ling spoke first, panic in her voice. "Sect Master, this is a misunderstanding! We were attacked, and we really believed they were dead. We only ran to survive!"
Zhang Wei quickly chimed in, "Yes! We barely made it back! We just reported what we thought was true!"
Yuyan stepped forward. Her voice was icy and steady. "That's a lie. You had time to run, but you also took our mission scrolls and ID tokens. You knew we were still alive. You just left us to die—so you could take the credit or avoid being blamed for failure."
Tian Lei then stepped forward, his voice calm but firm. "They didn't just abandon us. They stabbed us in the back—literally. While we were still breathing. They even said they were acting on orders from someone in the inner sect."
The Sect Master's face turned grim.
He looked down at the three traitors, his voice like a thunderclap. "Never in the history of our Heavenly Sword Sect—one of the top sects in the Five Heavenly Regions—have we seen such shameful behavior."