(MC POV)

It was close to dinner time before I returned to my courtyard with two very satisfied foxes clinging on my shoulders.

Sophia was there to greet me at the entrance, as though she knew I would be there.

"Welcome back, Master Lin. Do you require dinner, a bath? Or perhaps… I should get one of your disciples here to receive Master?"

"I don't even want to ask what the last option meant," I sighed.

She blinked, "I thought Master Lin might want to meet with any of your disciples first?"

"No, I'm good. I'll go see how my disciples are doing on my own."

She bowed her head, "Understood. I shall make preparations for dinner. With the exception of Master Brendan, all of your disciples are in the courtyard."

With those words she left for the kitchen and left me to my own devices.

"The Demon Lord sure is interesting," Akari remarked, her tongue darting out to lick my cheek.

Shiori nuzzled closer to my other cheek, "Mmm… I admit, I had thought her to be a little more… Unhinged. How did you tame her, Divine One?"

I shrugged, "It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you two when we have time."

"Oooh~ So mysterious~ Do you think she has a crush on Master?" Akari giggled.

I ignored her question as Shiori smacked her sister with her tail again, making my own way towards my courtyard to see what my disciples are up to.

To say that I was greeted with an interesting sight would be an understatement.

As Sophia had said, everyone was there except for Brendan and Liehui.

Elaria was with Cai Hong in the pavilion while Joanne watched over them from the side.

Joanne seemed to be standing really close to Cai Hong as though afraid that Cai Hong would suddenly disappear for some reason. I guess she's taking a role quite seriously?

What's interesting was the fact that Cai Hong seemed to be playing Chinese Chess with Elaria and even seemed to be winning. I definitely did not teach my little dragon on how to play it before, did Elaria teach her?

The look of concentration on Elaria's face showed that she wasn't going easy on her either and Cai Hong looked really relaxed and was even giggling.

Could Cai Hong be a hidden chess genius?

Oh what am I talking about, Cai Hong is already a genius, that cute little thing.

Manami and Elizabeth were right beside them, the fox youkai fully immersed in showing her servant how to brew tea.

It was clear Elizabeth was doing her best to learn from how she imitated Manami's actions as best as she could.

Behind them, Lian Li and Keqing looked as though they were locked in mortal combat.

If I didn't know that there was a protection inscription set up there, I would have thought they were really trying to kill each other with the Techniques they were throwing out against each other.

I'm already seeing spirit swords and lightning rods embedded all over the courtyard, making it look like some kind of war zone even as my inscription repaired the damage.

Even Kiyomi and Marie's spar looked quite intense on the other end of the courtyard. The white fox youkai was tossing ice spears, blizzards and snowstorms all around her while Marie kept blinking from side to side, avoiding all the Techniques that were thrown at her.

Was Marie some kind of evasion expert?

Oh, I almost missed it, but Eris and Lydia were locked in a sword dance near the corner too.

I say sword dance but the two of them were also clashing their blades together like they were possessed. The clang of metal against metal were still audible even with the Lightning and Ice exploding around the courtyard, showing that neither were pulling any punches in their spar.

And then there's Diao Chan who is…

Is she spanking Zhiyang? She is, isn't she? Well… I guess there must be a good reason for that, so I'll pretend I didn't see that.

Only Brendan was missing from the scene, but the smoke that was coming out from the alchemy room's window clued me in on his whereabouts.

"Divine One's disciples are all very hard workers," Shiori commented, nodding her cute little head.

"Hmmm? Are you interested in participating too?" I asked with a grin.

"Ehehe~ That would be an honour for us to be taught by you, Master!" Akari giggled, suddenly excited.

This time, her sister agreed with her, "If Divine One sees us worthy of your personal instruction, we would be greatly honored."

"Hmmm… Though I'm not sure what I can actually teach you, but it should be an interesting experience. I'll see what I can do."

"Yayy~~" Akari cheered, nuzzling my cheek.

This could be my opportunity to learn more about monsters and their biology too, since I'm not exactly familiar with most of them and I've definitely not had this intimate of a contact with foxes with hundreds of tails before.

I made my way towards the pavilion, Cai Hong stiffening up and sniffing the air as soon as I stepped into the courtyard.

Her head swivelled in my direction, her face brightening up upon seeing me.

"Papa! Papa!!" Little Cai Hong leapt off her chair and ran up to me, hugging my waist.

I patted her head before lifting her up and carrying her back to the pavilion, the rest of the girls having stopped what they were doing the moment they knew I was there.

"Welcome back, Master."

"Welcome back, Onii-sensei!"

The girls greeted me in unison.

"Umu, I'm back. I see all of you are working hard. That's good, that's good."

"Hearing Master's praise honors us," Lian Li declared with a bow.

I patted her head, "Well don't work yourselves too hard. Do it in moderation ok? I know my protection inscription is there, but exhaustion is not something that can be healed by it."

"We will keep that in mind, Master."

I nodded before turning to the servants, "I believe Sophia is preparing dinner, you girls can go help her after you are done here."

All of them bowed or curtsied before obeying me, leaving just my disciples and I in the courtyard.

Only after they were gone did I turn back to my girls, "Right, we have a bit of time before dinner is done. I'd like to hear the progress all of you have so far? It's nothing formal, I just want to hear if you girls have any problems or just something that you might want advice on. Could someone get Brendan as well?"

"Ara, ara? I shall prepare the tea then~" Manami chuckled, moving back to the pavilion with the rest of us following behind.

Diao Chan had volunteered to go call our alchemist over, not sure why she did that since Manami could have just used her telepathy but what do I know?

I noticed a few grimaces when I mentioned that I would be listening to their progress, it can't be that bad now, can it?

Well, no matter what, I'm still proud of them for working this hard, so I have no intention of scolding any of them.

Definitely have to remember to give them all headpats once this session is over though, they deserved it.

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