(Chuyan POV)
Looking at master who had a pained look on his face, I felt angry.
Not at that old man called Pan or at the dark sect, but rather at myself, for being weak and not having the ability to help master at all.
Looking at the walking dryads in front of me and seeing how master looked pained filled me with rage.
I looked at Pan, who was also looking at the scene with his mouth wide open. Master had freed him to lead the way since he had changed the path leading to the village.
"No, this was not part of the plan! I swear! We just wanted to trap them and cause some panic and grab the attention of the kingdom and its practitioners," Pan yelled, looking at master. "I can turn them back, I promise, as long as they have not tasted human flesh yet!"
Pan quickly manifested a staff and spread his arms wide open, or rather arm, since his other arm was still healing and the attack from LInda had caused the healing process to continue slower than before.
"Reverse!"
He screamed as vines spread throughout the whole forest, enveloping the two hundred or so dryads. after some minutes, the vine-like cocoon around the dryads opened up to show the villagers all in their birthday suits, but the number was very few; about fifty of them came back out as humans, while the rest were still dryads.
"I... I," Pan looked at master who throughout the entire time had been quiet and just stared at what was happening.
"It's not your fault," He finally spoke, looking at Pan. "You were tricked by the dark sect."
That was all he said as he went back to the carriage.
It was only me and Pan that were left, as Linda and Lynda were sleeping in the carriage.
"How many siblings do you have?" I asked, looking at him.
"Seven, including me, eight." He answered in a voice devoid of emotion.
"Are you able to contact them?"
He just shook his head. "No."
His body started shivering as he held his staff tighter than before.
"They might be dead too," I said bluntly.
"Yes, I know."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"I... I will fix my mess. I am sure that the messenger would give the information of how to make dryads to his superiors, and that would cause a catastrophe. I am sure they don't know about our stone form after death, but in case they do and try to revive us, I have to stop it."
That was all he said as he looked at me with his grey-colored eyes. He walked to the dryads and waved his hands as they followed him to master knows where.
This made me realize that I needed to get stronger so that I could protect master from seeing this scene again. He is too pure for this world; even when he killed those dark sect men before, you could see the pain in his eyes.
I will create an organization that will only live to protect master from the filth of this world.
But first, I need to get stronger, and I need willing people.
Looking at the villagers in front of me, I had a plan as I walked towards them, taking a sack of gold coins from my storage ring that master gave me as my allowance.
"Do you want to take master for saving you?" I asked them.
To which they all nodded, bowing to me.
This brought a smile to my face
...
We were back on the road again, and hopefully there would be no more surprises. master had gotten over what had happened in Humin and Guming village as he played with Linda and Lynda in the carriage.
We were about a day away from the sect, and I had to say that this month was very fulfilling and annoying, with many ups and downs.
Who would have thought that a simple trip to attend an auction would lead to such an adventure?
I had not only increased my elemental mastery of fire, earth, water, and air to novice, making me a Novice practitioner, but my knowledge about the practitioner world was also increased. My wood elemental mastery had actually reached proficiency due to the high concentration of wood elemental energy during the trip.
Master also taught me a lot of techniques with the elements that I had increased to novice and also some wood techniques.
I also felt that we were forgetting something, but I just could not place my finger on it.
Well, since I have forgotten it, maybe it was not really important.
We finally got to the sect, and things seemed normal here. It's like they had not received any information about the things that happened with the villages surrounding Tang city.
That disciple that acted as our driver bid us farewell and literally ran away, not even bothering to collect the money that master wanted to give him. Looking at Linda and Lynda who were looking at masters' courtyard, I could not help giving out a laugh as they were still wearing masters' robes making them look like they were flying when they ran in.
"Oh, you're back." Mother came out when she heard the ruckus and welcomed us.
"Oh, Grandma!" Linda yelled as she ran to her mother, who looked shocked at first but quickly reacted as she bent down to hug her.
Lynda followed behind timidly as she bowed to mother. "Grandma"
"Hoho, what a shy little girl," She said picking them up and carrying them in both arms. Even though she is old, she is still a practitioner who has had her body physique increased by the elemental energy, so carrying these two girls was a piece of cake.
Master had drawn a portrait of mother and showed the girls so that they wouldn't mistakenly call her a disciple. Also, over the past few days, the girls had grown and now looked like ten-year-old girls, and their speech was now much more fluent than before.
"These are my adopted daughters," Master said as he went close to mother.
"Greetings, mom" I said, bowing down to her. She looked at me again with that look and smile that I did not like and responded.
"Oh, my other granddaughter is here too."
This old woman.
Now I am angry again.