The couple hurriedly looked around with excitent clearly showing on their wrinkled faces as they looked around them before their eyes narrowed to two figures walking slowly outside the window being held by the hands of so youth who looked to be in his late teens.
Their excitent quickly turned to frowns then worry the longer their eyes fell on the two figures and they couldn't help but turn to Yang Qing with eyes that seed to ask,
"What happened to them? Why are they like that? Is that really them?"
Yang Qing's only response was a smile followed by him sampling the dishes on the table and encouraging the couple to try so, who did not, as their eyes were glued to the stairs that led to their floor.
"They're okay.." Yang Qing softly added as he chewed on a star lobster.
He could see the anxiety and worry growing in the couple with every millisecond that passed by. Yang Qing's words did little to alleviate the worry. They had seen what they had seen, and that was the farthest thing from okay.
Refusing to blink or even move their eyes from the staircase, the object of their attention appeared, and their pupils couldn't help but tremble as they saw the two figures finally appear, slowly by slowly revealing their entire bodies.
Wang Huiyin who looked to be at the edge of her seat hurriedly lept up as she ran over to the two figures almost tripping over Wang Siyi's chair, who wasn't far behind as he too stood up and headed in the sa direction as his wife.
"Yi'er! Liqin! Is that you?!" worriedly asked Wang Huiyin as she appeared like a phantom at the stairs directly in front of the two figures.
"Yi'er..Liqin.." Wang Siyi gently called out with worry and uncertainty when he saw the lack of reaction from the two figures who seed to be in a daze.
He and his wife knelt beside the two figures as Wang Huiyin asked,
"What happened to them?"
Her tone was rife with worry, anxiety, and a little bit of anger.
The youth who had been holding the hands of the two figures smiled politely as he gently unclasped the two hands from his and motioned for the couple to bring out their hands to take over.
Wang Huiyin held the other hand of the figure on the left, while Wang Siyi held the hand of the figure on the right.
"Forgive my wife's tone, but please can you tell us what happened to them?" asked Wang Siyi adopting a more polite tone with the smiling teen who had a cultivation base that was in the early stage of the core formation realm wearing the sa orange and black robes as the two figures.
"They survived the baptism and I'm honored to call them my brother and sister.." said the youth still wearing the sa polite smile.
The couple wore bewildered expressions at the response but they were too preoccupied with worry to spare the answer much thought. Out of worry, the couple wanted to carry the two figures only to be stopped by the youth who said,
"Let them walk on their own two feet, they can.."
Just as Wang Huiyin was about to let out a retort, Yang Qing who suddenly arrived where they were, spoke,
"He is right, just walk with them .."
"Zou Yi, Zou Liqin, congratulations, you did well.." added Yang Qing with a gratified smile as his gaze fell on the two figures who looked to be walking husks. One look at them and one would think they were seeing calcified corpses. The two were nothing but bones with their skins hanging on their bones.
Before, when he t them in Purple City, while they looked slightly emaciated from not eating the nutritional amount and quality required by bronze-stage cultivators, their bodies still looked sowhat sturdier and healthier than a mortal's, but now, they looked like even a slight breeze would topple them over, with their robes hanging loosely over their bodies.
Their skins looked dry and slightly cracked, with their mouths heavily perched like that of soone severely dehydrated and malnourished. They had sunken cheeks, and one could see the ribs of their chests showing from within their robes which seed to be heavy for their twig-like limbs. Their bodies kept spasming, as their eyes darted all around the room almost as if in anticipation that sothing would jump at them.
However, despite how broken their bodies seed to be, there was a strength within them, a strength that had been lacking when he t them, or when they took their test and when they finished it. The skins, though parched, dry, and cracked, would glitter slightly with a golden hue, evidence that their bodies were in the gold body stage.
Such a body hid a strength that was capable of shattering elephant-sized boulders into dust, punching through iron or steel as if it were made of rotten wood, skin so tough that natural fires and lightning strikes would leave it unblemished. The spiritual qi in the surrounding area was constantly flowing into their bodies like a river flowing into a sea.
Yang Qing could feel the fruits of all that they had endured during the past few months as there was a sharpness to them that wasn't there before.
The couple who had been too startled and worried at first to notice the changes, had changes in their expressions as they felt the transformation of the siblings and the power stored within their thin fras. They couldn't help but look at each other with surprise on their face before they turned their gazes to Yang Qing and the teen youth next to him.
As seasoned figures, they knew how difficult it was to achieve a gold body much less in under four months. When the siblings left, they had been in the bronze stage, but only three months later they were already in the gold body. They could count on two hands the number of cultivators they knew who had reached the gold body but none that reached it in such a short period. The results shown by the siblings completely overturned what they knew.
Today was the day they truly caught a glimpse of how powerful the Order truly was.
Yang Qing turned to the youth as he said,
"You must be Mu Gao, thanks for bringing them.."
"I'm honored to have been the one to bring them, Judge Yang Qing, just as another senior helped back then when I was in their position, and I didn't mind the rit points offered.."the teen answered with sheepish smile.
"How much did the instructor offer?" Yang Qing curiously asked.
"Four.." answered Mu Gao with a bit of awkwardness.
"Figures as much. They've always been the stingy sort.."
"That they are.." answered Mu Gao as both smiled wryly.
Yang Qing fished out a wine jar from his storage ring which he handed to Mu Gao.
"For your troubles and also as a gift for your coming graduation. You can share it with the rest.."
"Thanks, and Instructor Huo said they have three days, after that they would have to go back and complete their reconditioning before they can co back again. They'll be given two weeks then.."
"I'll tell them.." Yang Qing said as his gaze fell on the couple that were walking the siblings like they were newborn deer.
He exchanged a few more words with Mu Gao before they parted, and he joined the couple in the slow walk.
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