Hey guys, here's your ninth chapter of the week! Book 16, Chapter 23 - The Return. Enjoy the read! This chapter was sponsored by anonymous and Marvin B. Two more chapters left to go for Book 16!

So funny but true story - You might've noticed that in lots of these Chinese Wuxia/Xianxia novels, a big deal is made out of the question of 'generations' and 'seniority'. You might think this is exaggerated, and I thought it was as well...then I saw something first hand. So one of my uncles actually is a martial arts instructor with seniority in the martial arts circle...

The other day, there was a big party with lots of martial arts instructors. At this party, Master Alpha was chatting with Master Beta, and referred to Master Beta as 'big brother'. Master Beta was really upset by that, because he felt that by seniority, he was on a higher level, which meant Master Alpha was disrespecting him by calling him 'brother' instead of 'martial uncle'...and so he sent his disciple, Student Beta, over to toast Master Alpha by addressing HIM as 'brother'.

Master Alpha immediately got upset and told Student Beta, "Hey, I call your master 'brother'; you should address me as 'martial uncle'!" At this point, Master Beta got reaaally upset and walked over and boomed, "No, I address your TEACHER as 'brother', so it's right for my disciple to address YOU as 'brother'!"

This argument proceeded to go on for several minutes, until finally Student Beta ran over to my uncle (who has a lot of seniority and is acknowledged by both Master Alpha and Beta) and said, "You tell me, how should I address Master Alpha?" My uncle paused for a bit...then said, "Brother." Since he had the highest seniority of everyone present, Master Alpha was forced to accept this ruling.

Here's the kicker. Just to rub it in...a few minutes later, Master Beta once more sent Student Beta to toast Master Alpha with wine and address him as 'brother' a second time. HAH!!!