873 Trial
Alex flew down with the woman, constantly on his edge to make sure she didn’t land some sneak attack on him while he had his guard down.
As he got lower towards the ground, his spiritual sense that was now out finally saw the sect for what it was.
A city.
“So it really is a city,” Alex said absentmindedly.
“This is the Frozen Hearts sect. You need at least this much to accommodate all the disciples and elders of the sect,” the woman said. “Also, pull back your spiritual sense before you offend someone you shouldn’t offend.”
“My apologies,” Alex said and quickly pulled his spiritual sense until it was about 50 meters in radius.
“Pull it back further,” she said.
The woman’s spiritual sense landed on his face. “What’s wrong with your eyes?” she asked.
“I can’t see at the moment,” he said, not explaining any further. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?”
“Me?” she repeated. “You can call me Gan Murong. I’m the leader of the group of elders responsible for security.”
Alex felt weird watching the woman speak. Her voice spoke with a jovial tone from time to time, but her face never revealed a single expression that would point to her having fun in this conversation.
They continued flying, and Alex was stunned at this moment. “Just how big is the sect?” he asked.
“You can tell just by… right, it’s about 10 kilometers in all directions. Although, that’s just our building,” she said.
’10 kilometers in all directions?’ Alex was surprised to hear just how big the sect itself was.
“Here we are,” she said and landed somewhere. Alex landed behind her and suddenly saw 20 different spears point at him from out of nowhere.
He was ready to attack, but the spears stopped a few meters away from him.
“Come,” the woman said.
Alex carefully walked and the spears followed. The spears were held by True Emperor realm cultivators, and it looked like they were all guards too.
There were so many strong cultivators that guarded the sect. How many more would there be in the other parts of the sect?
Alex continued walking and found that he was being taken along some rather narrow hallway.
“Is this the way to the elders?” he asked, worried that it might not be.
“No, this is not,” the woman said. “It will take time to gather the elders. Until then, you will be imprisoned.”
“What? That’s…”
“Do you have any problem with that?” the woman asked.
Alex grumbled for a bit. “No,” he said. This was better than just getting attacked or even fighting back.
He was then taken to a rather wide room and pushed in. “You will remain here until it takes time for me to gather the elders. Once they are gathered, you will be called,” she said.
Alex nodded and turned around to go sit on the bed.
“Wait,” the woman said.
Alex turned around, curious as to what she might need.
The woman extended her hands and said, “hand over your storage bags.”
“What?” Alex was taken aback. “No, it’s mine.”
“I can not let a prisoner remain in a prison with all of his treasures. You must part with it until the day of the trial. If you are innocent, we will return the storage bags back to you,” she said.
“What if you steal things from here?” Alex said.
“Steal? Hah! We are the Frozen Heart sect. What need do we have to steal from someone that is not even a Saint yet? Do you believe our sect to be so petty?” she asked.
Alex frowned and thought for a moment. After careful consideration, he took all of the storage bags he had and handed them over. “I trust you to keep your words.”
“If you are innocent, you have nothing to worry about,” she said and walked away, closing the door behind her.
Alex tried to peek outside with his spiritual sense, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the door. There was a formation blocking his spiritual sense to just this room.
He touched the ring on his hand and was glad that at least the items that were important to him were on him.
He looked around the room, but it was a simple room with frost building all over the walls.
With nothing else to do, Alex sat crosslegged and started cultivating.
Time passed slowly, and he was lost in them. While the elders were let know about him, he continued cultivating day after day.
And nearly a week later, the door to the room finally opened again.
A young woman walked in. Her face was cold, and her cultivation base was at the peak of the True Emperor realm.
Alex had to admit that this girl was beautiful. Certainly one of the most beautiful women he had seen in a long time.
Which made him wonder if that was their reason for sending her. Were they trying to lure him with a beautiful face?
“You are called to your trial. Please follow me,” she said.
Alex stood up and followed. However, every step of the way, he stayed on guard, making sure to never let a single thing go past him without him noticing him.
The dark and gloomy walls of the sect made it look anything but alive. Alex couldn’t even see any lanterns in the room, which only made him wonder if there were some other sources of light in the hallway they were walking through.
If not, were they walking through the darkness? Sure a cultivator could see quite easily with even the least bit of light, but not having any didn’t seem like something an ancient sect like this one would do.
Finally, the girl led him to what he could only imagine as a massive room. He spread his spiritual sense and it wasn’t until it was about 50 meters wide that he finally reached the ceiling.
‘So it isn’t an open room,’ he thought. As he walked forward, he noticed multiple sources of aura all around him and his spiritual sense saw them as well.
Most of these were middle-aged or elderly women. Not a single one of these were men at all.
9 of them sat around on tall chairs and looked down at him.
“Kneel!” one of the voices ordered, but Alex didn’t move.
The girl that brought him here hit his leg from behind to make him buckle, but all she did was hurt her own leg.
“I would like to remain standing if you will allow me, elders,” Alex said to the 9 figures.
“Bold,” one of the women said and scoffed a bit.
“Fine, remain standing,” the woman at the center said. She put forth her hand and something flew off of it. His storage bags.
“You may have them back,” she said.
“Thank you, senior,” Alex said and started looking for what was missing.
“Don’t bother. We don’t steal from juniors,” the woman said.
Alex nodded and stopped. Not because he believed them, but rather because he didn’t want to offend them.
“Murong, bring it,” the old woman shouted, while the other 8 waited for her to keep speaking.
The guard leader, Gu Murong, that had brought Alex here came from the side along with something.
She held a box in her hand and when she arrived in front of Alex, she opened the box and showed a pill inside.
“Do you recognize that pill?” the old woman asked.
Alex sensed it and nodded. “It’s a Truth Seeking pill,” he said, feeling a little amused at how many times this pill was being used recently.
“Good,” the old woman said. “Now eat it.”
Alex took a deep breath and grabbed the pill before eating it. As it entered his body, instantly, his body devoured it and nothing remained.
The old woman waited for a while before speaking again.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“I am Yu Ming, senior,” Alex said truthfully.
“And what sect do you come from?” she asked.
“I belong to no sect,” Alex said.
“No sect, huh? What are your intentions in entering our sect grounds?” she asked.
“I had no intentions of entering your sect grounds. I mistook the sect for a city I could stop by to rest,” he said.
“No intention you say,” the old woman spoke curiously. Despite Alex’s confession, she still didn’t trust him at all. After all, there were many ways to hide one’s memories even from themselves until a certain time arrived.
“If you have no intention towards our sect, as you speak, why do you hide your face from us?” she asked.
“My eyes are wounded, so I wear this mask to keep it from bothering others from seeing the medicine I have to put on behind these,” he said.
“Really? Take it off,” she said. “I want to see if your face is anything recognizable.”
Alex hesitated for a bit, nodded, and slowly pulled it off. His face was fair, and nothing was wrong, but his eyes were black, almost all of them covered in a dark crust of the dried paste.
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” the old woman asked.
“Enemy attack, senior,” he said. “Someone poisoned my eyes, and I now need to use the paste to heal myself.”
“Hmm,” the old woman thought to herself for a while. “Murong tells me you know two Dao, is that true?”
Alex hesitated for a bit, but since they already knew, there was no reason to hide it. “Yes.”