As Rex was guided to the closed space, he worked over his current plans, and came to a conclusion that he had to make a few quick changes, to ensure no foul play could be done. His teleport runes were operational, and he had placed a few in the Xian-Wu city as well as a sneaky one in the Lunar sects hall where he had the discussion with their leadership. Now he had to set up the remaining few contingencies here, since he is not planning to drage the new firls with him in the trial, so there was a need for a quick action.
"I will rest for the night near the entrance, and enter tommorow. I hope that the council of sects will be aware of your strong desire to end the war by the time I return." he spoke as they neared the destination.
"Y-yes, of course, we will do our utmost to end teh war as soon as possible." responded the sect master.
Soem twenty minutes later they had reached a large marble structure, where Rex was brought to a room with a large and luxurious bed.
"I hope your exelency is satisfied with the room for your rest." the sect master asked a bit nervous, worried to enrage the man at the moment. There were no trully top tier bedrooms in this building, and the one they were in was indeed one of the best ones.
"It will do. Come find me in the morning." was all Rex said, and the leaders of the sect left as soon as the girls were shown the nearby kitchen and other neccesary rooms. Once they were all back, Rex deployed multiple barriers to ensure nothing happening inside could be seen. then he turned to the girls.
"Now then, since you will be waiting here for me to claim the sealed space, I expect some fould play to possibly be performed, so, as will all women I aquire through conquest and such, some slight security measures have to be taken. Do not worry, I already consider you mine, so expect your lives to be better than most royalities could hope for once we are back in my base city." With that said he quickly branded them all, eliciting another round of shocked gasps once the girls came out of the trance the branding put them in.
"Master!" They all politely bowed to Rex once they regained some composure. Now they realized just how lucky they were that Rex had decided on the slaughter of few, not many, since he could probably do what he had warned teh elders with- total anihilation of their sect. Rex then withdrew a few killos of earth grade meat and placed it on a platter.
"Go and prepeare this for our dinner/ breakfast. You will be joining me. Hopefully kitchen has some spices to make it better." The girls then quickly got to work and in less than an gour, a rather simple but quite good meal was eaten, and as Rex had said innitially, the new maids of his had to join him. There were no complaints from the girls, since they got to eat like the emperor. After their meal Rex instructed the girls on their mission during their wait for his return and the general rules he expected them to follow, and after that they had a few hours of sleep untill the break of dawn, when the sect master and the remaining living elders came to fulfill their end of the bargain and hope that with it done, the monster would leave them alone. Rex previous display of might had left the sects upper leadership scared and traumatised, so they were quite docile right now.
"Good morning your exelency. I hope you had a good rest." the sect master greeted him with somewhat forced smile. The man was hoping for all of this to end as soon as possible, and the fact that he had to sacrifice hsi beautifull granddaughter to ensure the survival of the sect did sting him, but it was a sacrifice any of the elders would take willingly. They all had multipple children and even more grandchildren and so, the loss of one girl would not harm them in any meaningfull way.
"Hmm, lest get on with it then. I am sure we all want this ordeal over with as soon as possible." Rex responded, causing a few uncomfortable elders to akwardly chuckle, trying to pass his words as a well timed joke and fail misserably.
"Yes, of course. Please follow us." the sect master spoke once again and in less than five minutes they had reached an audience hall of sorts with a pedestal in the middle of it. On the pedestal was placed a small locket of sorts. The locked itself seemed to be made of some sort of a magical metal, and it shimmered in a different light every once in a while. It was hung on an intricate black metal delicate chain.
"The sealed space is anchored to the amulet currently since it has no owner for the time being. From the records of our sect, once someone passes the trial they can claim the sealed realm as their own, and then it would be anchored to them for as long as they live. Unfortunately, there have not been a single person who had sucseeded in passing the trials ever since we aquired the artifact some thousand years ago. And those that fail it, can never remember what was it that was tested, since it seems as if the memories of the trials themselves are taken. We will evoke the portal in just a few moments. Once your exelency has crossed to the other side please follow the paved road. Soon after you should reach a pagoda of sorts. Vivian will be there meditating. Hand her this scroll, and she will be aware of her duty to serve your exelency." sect leader spoke and handed Rex a scroll of sorts. "Afterwards she will explain the way to innitiate the trial."
With that said, sect leader and five elders took place around the platform in predetermined places, and started an incantation of sorts. A few minutes later, in front of the pedestal a green swirling portal appeared, and the sect leader gestured towards the portal
"The path forward is open. Please hurry, it closes in a few minutes. If you wish to leave just return to the place where you will emerge, teh portal on th eother side is alwasy open and would open on this side again when you desire to leave the place."
"Good." Rex nodded, then ordered his five new maids to wait for him here and entered the portal. a few minutes later, the portal closed as mentioned, and the sect leader sighed, and notably relaxed. So did the others, and one of them asked, totaly ignoring the five maids in the room
"What if he manages to actually clear the trials? It would be a great loss if he takes away the sealed realm."
"Come now, there is no need to worry. No one has managed to pull it off untill now, and from the ancient journal we found with the necklace, it is quite obvious that one has to be a mage of sorts to even hope for a chance of success. You all saw him hight yesterday. He is a fighter, not a mage. We just have to wait for his failiure, and once he returns, all we have to do is escort him away. Now, hurry and inform the sect councill about the need to end the war. We will have to cancel all plans and seclude ourselves for a few decades to recover from his blunder. Kitsunes have a much stronger connections than we innitially asumed" sect leader calmed the nervous elders, then looked at the five maids and asked
"What did you learn about your new master?" The maids blushe a little, then the eldest of them spoke in a light voice
"He has boundless energy, and we will be branded once he returns to his home town. He has such a connection with an unreasonably powerfull blood mage." That was what the maids where told to disclose. It was necesarry to ensure that no stupid plots would be hatched where they try and order the girls do some stupid shit. Sure, Rex could have ordered them to keep quiet, then agree to whatever scheme they hatch, then shred them for said sheme, but he was no Einstein, and he did not like to plot and scheme. The information caused the elders to gasp, and sink in another round of quick discussion, where they discarded any and all prepared plans to get back at the man, since it would not be feasible with such connections. No they would only be shooting themselves in the foot by going with their innitial plans.
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"Serve him well." spoke the sect master "Hopefully he will treat you all well. And once you reach his home city, send us a letter, so we know where to turn, if we are in need of his services." They had very quickly changed their future plans regarding their unlucky encounter. Now they had changed the script by hundred and eighty degrees, and would use this as a chance to establish a friendship with the man. Who knows, they might get something even better out of this debaucle after all.
Unavare of the thoughts and plans of the sects leadership, Rex stepped through the portal and looked at his surroundings. He was standing in a building of similar white marbe as the building he just left. He spend a few dozen minutes exploring the building and when he found nothing of interest, he left the place. Stepping outside the building the first thing he noticed was the vastly more mana rich air that was here. While not near the levels of mana saturation in the air like the deep floors, it was notably better than outside here.
He looked at the forset surrounding him. It was in all shades of vibrant green colours, something sparckling here and there from time to time. He enjoyed the peacefull scenario for a moment then, as instructed, he took the paved path that supposedly leads to his new harem girl and the place where the trial would be held. And indeed, soone he reached a small shrine where a girl was sitting and meditating. Whne he was no more that ten meters away from the girl, she stirred awake from her meditation, stood up and turned towards him, displaying her beautifull face and ample bossom.
A small frown appeared on her face as she looked at the unfamiliar figure.
"Who are you? And how did you get here?" she asked, her hand already firmly held the the staff that was near her just a moment ago, mana slowly circulating. She was prepearing a few spells, if the unknown man decided to try something funny. There had been such fools in the past, and she had dealt with them all in a rather cruel fashion. It was the only way a girl could protect herself in this harsh word of theirs.
"Here, a scroll from your grandfather." Rex spoke and tossed the scroll to the girl who swiftly catched it, and relaxed just a tiny bit. The scroll was indeed sealed by her grandfather- the sect master of the Tyrant Dragon sect, so she broke the seal and read through it. Rex could see how her expression changed from one of mistrust and variness towards the stranger to one of shock and disbelief as she read through it.
"Impossible. Just what are you?" She asked in shock. She was flabergasted. Her grandfather, who doted on her quite a lot, had just traded her for the survival of the sect. And it seemed that this lone man was responsible for the possible end of it. He had already killed half of the elders last night when he arrived and challenged them all, since he needed to end the war with the Kitsunes as a contracted mercenary.
"Spin around" Rex spoke to the beauty whirling his finger indicating his desire, and the girl, still a bit confused and shocked did as asked, unknowingly showing off her body to her new master.
"Good, you are well worth sparing them." Rex added as he approache teh girl, now standing couple meters from her.
"Your grandfather told me you would explain the bare minimum you know about the trial. I plan to claim this world shard. It is a perfect place for my harem." I would allow him to always have his girls close by. That would allow him to travel teh world and enjoy everything this vast world could offer him. His words pulled her back to reality and elicited a laughter from her. A few moments later she finaly stopped, calming herself and answered his inquiring gaze,
"We have been trying to lay claim to this 'world shard' as you put it, for almost thousand years, and not one has yet sucseeded. What makes you think you are any diferent?" then realizing her blunder she quickly added "Master."
"Hmh, feisty." Rex spoke, a light smile appeared on his face. "Act as yourself, I am not into beating my girls for some weak excuses. Regardless, explain to me what you know regarding the trial and we will see what can be done."
"Please follow me." she spoke, then turned and started walking along one of the three paths that split in different dirrections from the small building. As they walked she told Rex a few things they had learned about the world shard, and what they asumed was a part of the trials, as well as a few other guesses, that they had eliminated as untrue. She also told Rex a few things about the area around them.
As it turned out, they were limited to only a few square killometers in their exploration, as the area further out was locked behind a barrier of sorts that prevented the ability to advance further. Still, there was a rather lavish mansion at the end of one of the remaining paths, and the other ended in some sort of a garden, which was ubfortunately outside the barrier, as such was unexplored as well. Soon they had reached a different building, that remainded Rex of some sort of academy tower, or similar place that stored knowledge. Once they were close enough to the building, from a nearby pond a whirlwind of water shot out, and landed a few meters in front of them. THe water stabilized soon after into what looked liek a form of a man, and it magically spoke
"Aaa, velcome again Vivian, and her friend. Have you finaly prepeared for the test?" it asked.
"No, it is not my time yet. This man is interested in partaking the test." she responded. The elemental looked at Rex for a brief moment, shrugged and spoke in a relaxed manner
"Understood. Now, sir, would you prefer the test of might or the test of knowledge?" It asked Rex now.
"Any specifics regarding the tests? Like if combat focuses on endurance and or destructive power, What knowledge we are talking about? phylosofical or practical? And so on." The spirit though for a moment, and while it was thinking Rex added another question "Also, if you are a sort of a steward of this place, would you care to introduce yorself?"
"That will not be necessary for now, since if you fail you will forget about me anyways, so it is a waste of our time." the spirit responded cassualy, butRex had the feeling that it just did not want to get its hopes up, then after some time it answered Rex previous questions
"I suppose the test could be classified as ancient knowledge test, and combat test would be focused on endurance and ability to avoid monsters. That is as far as I can inform you, anything else more specific can be inquired once there is a master to this place." The answer the spirit gave Rex, made him smile quite wide and he very quiclky responded to the question the spirit posed
"I would prefer the combat trial."
"Are you sure?" the spirit questioned "It has been quite a long while since the last time anyone had atempted the combat trial and the monsters in the zone had grown quite numerous and powerfull. Once started it cannot be stopped for a few days, so the danger level is quite high."
It had to be noted that teh Tyrant Dragon sect almost never chose the combat trial, and that was because one of the first and only to attempt said trial was a peak SS class master of theirs who died after entering the trial. And since said man was the peak of their individual power, the sect decided to not risk loosing more of their powerhouses in such an unknown and dangerous test. Rex choice brought a smile to Vivians face, as she was quite sure that he was too arrogant and was signing his own death sentence. While she would faithfully carry out her grandfathers order to serve this man, she would be more than happy to see him die and both release her from this duty and remove a threat that his existence created for the sect.
Once Rex had affirmed his decision for a few more times, the elemental steward sighed and aquiessed. A moment later a portal was opened near the building adjacent to which the elementals pond stood, and once it was stable, Rex looked at the portal, then at the sighing steward, then he looked at Vivian, smirked and spoke as he was walking towards the portal
"Vivian" and once the girl looked at him he continiued "Better prepare mentaly, I will be claiming that body of yours once I am back." All she could see on the mans face as he dissapeard into the portal was confidence. She smirked
"Well. I suppose I will be holding the record in our sect for the shortest time spent in someones servitude." and with that she returned to the building she used to study and meditate in this place. She still had a long way to go to cram all that ancient knowledge that was in those books.