The journey to the Iron Wood Forest went by in a breeze. Although it was a long one from the Sect, especially from my peak. Thanks to a flying sword built for speed and stealth, I arrived at the forest in an hour. A few minutes passed after flying over the forest, I sensed a disturbance below the sea of dark red leaves.
In the heart of the forest towering trees rose majestically towards the sky. Their trunks reaching up like ancient sentinels guarding the secrets of the woods. Shafts of sunlight pierce through the leaves illuminating the patches of vibrant green moss and delicate ferns that carpet the forest floor.
However, this tranquil space was now filled with a scent of blood.
Standing on a nearby branch the view of the people limping hastily across the path became clear. Several carriages had flipped over. The horned horse supposed to pull the carriage lay headless on the floor. Another one had its leg cut clean off, while the third spasmed on the floor foaming at the mouth along with a bloodied woman trembling. Poison most likely.
“Everyone stay alert! Gather yourself and don’t drop your guard! Those bastards might attack again so stay sharp. Help will arrive soon!” The guy with short brown hair shouted wrapping his bloodied arm with a cloth to stem the bleeding with a blue belt.
The other seven disciples wore the same white uniform as him but with different emblems on their shoulders. They gripped their swords with a tense air hovering over their heads, their eyes darted around the place in search of something. Behind them, the new recruits shook in fear. Kids, young girls, or middle-aged men all looked around like chickens in a coup waiting for some hand to nab and butcher them.
So, it already happened. Not finding him below I landed in front of the guy who led this caravan.
“Eek!” The recruits behind began to pale at my sudden appearance.
One of the disciples gulped as she pointed the sword at me. To her, I should’ve looked the same as the guys who attacked them before. The red belt on her uniform was enough to know the reason. An outer sect disciple wouldn’t know me and she looked much younger too. But, before I needed to say anything the guy leading them bowed in front of me.
“I, Liu Fu, leader of the Seventeenth Caravan greet the Second Peak Master!” His powerful voice shook the other disciples out of their frozen state. They quickly lowered their weapons and also bowed with their hands cupped before their chest.
“We greet the Second Peak Master!!” Although they were going through the motions before this, the relief in their voice seemed contagious spreading to the recruits behind.
Aside from the outer disciple who pointed a sword. Her fear was unfounded, that wasn’t an issue worth considering in this situation.
“Let’s save that for later. How did this happen?” Liu Fu stood straight and answered my question.
“We were on our way to the Waterfall outpost when they attacked. Although we tried to defend in a hurry, some of us were caught off guard. One of the disciples is in critical condition along with five of the recruits. They have also kidnapped some of the recruits and some others have run away in the chaos. We fear that may have been taken too.” The more he spoke the harder he clenched the sword hilt.
“How many of the recruits are missing in total?” I asked Liu Fu. He looked at the crowd once to make sure.
“Ten of them aren’t here.” There were a total of ninety recruits in total then, similar to the number I knew of.
“Anything about the assailants?” At my second question, the disciples looked at each other before an answer came.
“They wore plain purple uniforms and were trying to hide their affiliation. But at the end, when Xi Ting got in a scuffle with one of them this token fell out and they tried to kill her.” Liu Fu handed me a purple token, it had a red string attached to it and cold to touch.
One side etched with a name, and the other had a solitary cloud covering several mountains with the number ‘3’. This was a genuine article. A disciple token from Purple Cloud Sect.
Inner Disciple, Han Bo.
Looking at them again, the others too felt the weight of this failure. The reason the sect dispatched inner and outer sect disciples during the recruitment process of new disciples was for good reason. It not only gave them ample experience, but it also served to establish an image of the sect itself. They failed to respond to this ambush and it reflected poorly on everyone.
It already became clear in the eyes of the recruits behind them. Doubts could be easily instilled in the minds of those with limited knowledge. These doubts will soon become facts that will spread everywhere they go, whether inside the sect or outside.
The Azure Sky Sect’s transport Caravan was attacked and their inner disciples couldn’t even defend it. Since the Purple Cloud Sect, a prominent rival of ours, was in the conversation it would become a bigger issue.
A Sect runs on two things, Resources and Reputation. Both of these were essential and a hit to either could cripple a sect in several ways.
“I apologize, second Peak Master, it is because I made a faulty judgment. I’ll be sure to find those Purple Cloud Bastards that messed with our sect!” Liu Fu, who talked with me, was a Rank 10th inner disciple from the Tiger Peak. He wasn’t weak in any way, but there wasn’t anything he could do in the current situation.
“Now isn’t the time for hasty moves.” My words seemed to have poured cold water onto all their determination. But, allowing them to move would create a bigger mess.
Taking out three ceramic bottles from the ring, I handed them to him.
“There are Twenty Rank 9 Earth Grade recovery pills, Ten Rank 9 Heaven Grade Healing Pills for normal injuries, and Five Rank 8 Heaven Grade Healing pills for serious injuries. You there with the Osmanthus symbol, water it down and feed it to the recruit who lost his hand.” Finding the one from Alchemy Peak made the task easier, all I had to do was give her some written instructions and she’d handle the rest.
“Y-Yes Second Peak Master!” The girl with short green hair quickly jumped into action to take care of the injured.
The hushed clamor of the recruits reached my ears, but even some outer sect disciples couldn’t believe their eyes. Although low in rank, Heaven-grade pills weren’t something that came by every day. Especially not for mortals and outer sect disciples even if they got an Elder’s favor.
Walking around the surroundings of the carriages, I buried four stones in line to form a square around them. With a simple hand sign Qi passed through the jade token in my hand the inscription of the four stones gave a white glow gathering the natural energies. Then the stones dimmed to turn invisible and formed a barrier around them. With that, the protection and camouflage formation wrapped around them.
“Keep this with you.” Confused, Liu Fu took two jade tokens, one white and the other yellow.
“Second Peak Master… this is…” Words were caught up in his throat.
“One of them controls the formation. The other is a transmission token. If someone else approaches, contact me immediately. If it is someone from the sect, tell them that I am on my way back.” The look in his eyes was enough that he didn’t understand but nodded nonetheless.
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It was then that a little kid walked up to me. His clothes looked ragged and had dozens of patches on them. He looked about ten with unkempt black hair, but had a small frame with wrists akin to twigs.
“S-Sister… Please… Ugh… Sister…” His light red eyes filled up with tears as his body trembled. The kid had trouble saying words but he tried. Understanding what he wanted didn’t take much trouble.
The disciples tried to come and get him but I allowed it. I was waiting for something like this. Kneeling to match the kid’s gaze to wipe his tears with my sleeves.
“When you are invited to the Azure Sky Sect, we make your safety our top priority. After all, you all are the future of the sect. So, don’t worry. I’ll bring your sister back.” The kid nodded trying to hold his tears, but failed. He must’ve felt that no one would save the people who got kidnapped.
But, I planned to visit those guys. Not because my disciple happened to get kidnapped. Even if he wasn’t it wouldn’t have changed anything. The reason was to clear the dirt smeared on my sect’s name.
As the disciples took the kid to calm him down, taking the chance I turned to leave. The gazes landed on my back. Curiosity, hope, and elation, but deep down there should be questions regarding whether I could really do it. There wasn’t a need to look at their faces to understand what they felt at that moment.
To some of them, it looked like I had put up a show with those words after what happened. They thought right. Now I had their attention with this promise. Knowing what happened here was enough to ensure success. They won’t kill the recruits after going through so much trouble to snag them. That is unless they have no other choice.
Expanding my senses wide I couldn’t feel anyone within a range of several kilometers with me in the middle. During disciple recruitment, several disciples are sent into the real world to do the task as the face of the sect.
Because of the importance of such a task, the Disciples chosen for recruitment aren’t slouches. The disciples had to measure up to a lot of requirements even if they had a meager task of setting up the devices and recruitment sites. If they participated in the task, it meant they were capable enough to face the dangers that came with it. But, another safety net was in place for them that only the Peak Masters knew of.
The Disciplinary Hall’s Shadow Force. A secret group that did tasks without getting in the public eye, on paper they didn’t even exist. Teams from this Force would accompany the caravan in secret. They had to step in when things went beyond the capabilities of the disciples. That happened here, but they didn’t show up.
“They must’ve gone missing after the last routine report.” I’ve checked for traces since arriving at the location and found nothing.
When my disciple told me about this incident in my past life, the lack of information and credible sources made it harder to investigate. Thus, we only found bits and pieces about the entire incident. The conclusion we came to was that the forces that wiped out the caravan also killed the shadow team or someone else did it in their stead.
Coming here myself, it has become clearer. My future disciple got kidnapped along with other recruits. But, unlike what I knew, the entire caravan wasn’t slaughtered alongside the shadow team. Only one disciple and a few recruits had received life-threatening injuries, the rest could walk it off. They even left a token from a rival sect, something we heard nothing about.
“If I didn’t know everything I would’ve been fooled to believe that this was indeed Purple Cloud Sect’s doing to tarnish our reputation.” The Demonic sects had planned this well, but what irked me was the future that clashed with the present.
With such clear intentions, they wouldn’t have killed all eyewitnesses. But, the truth will soon come to light.
Before me was a tall rock face with an impressive width. It had no openings, but this was the place where the attackers had hidden themselves. Sensing the flow of Qi around here, my eyes located the spot where it became twice as thick compared to the surroundings.
Even if they kept it to a simple camouflage formation to lessen the disturbance of natural Qi, they hadn’t set it up for long. With the difference in energy, locating their little hideout is easy.
Using the flying sword to reach the spot I drove into the rock face without hesitation. Although in front of me was a rock wall, my body passed through it like traveling through light mist. In front of my eyes was a well-lit cave where a bright yellow light flared. There wasn’t any reason to hide my presence so the formation alerted them, I wanted them to know.
“Intruder!” One of them barked.
“Kill him now!!” The people clad in purple ran towards me with burning enthusiasm and drawn swords.
However, they had nothing of interest so breezing past them I arrived in front of the motionless boy held by a young girl. Her green eyes widened in shock upon my speedy arrival. But, my eyes stuck on the boy with a sun seal on his forehead. Purple spots covered his body as a faint heartbeat reached my ears. It seemed to weaken with every beat. The poison had taken root deep in his body, yet there wasn’t any discomfort on his face.
“So, it is already in motion.” Leaving Wang Yang in the speechless girl’s hands, my eyes locked on the eight who created this problem. Especially on the woman in the back who bit down grinding her teeth.
“Give up on escaping. I have already installed another formation over yours, and without my permission, you cannot leave…” The sound of cold metal clattering on the ground filled the cave as all their weapons formed a pile at my feet. “Unless you can defeat me without any weapons.”
“Y-You…” Some reached into their robes for secret weapons, but even those lay at my feet.
“H-He even got my storage ring…” The panicked whisper caused them to grit their teeth too.
“You… who are you?” The one in the center spoke up first, her voice still calm as a serene lake while her strong gaze tried to probe me.
“I suppose it would be faster to show you.” Pointing the index finger of my right hand at them. Dark green Qi filled the cave and engulfed them. Then with a slight hum, they came crashing down.
“W-What’s this?!” Bewildered, they could only try to resist the weight on them.
“A Golden Core?!” Someone understood.
“Help! I am being crushed! My Arms! My Arms are going to break!!” Some were unfortunate enough to have a rough landing.
The cave began to shake along with their cries. With their bodies pressed on the ground, they had no way of overcoming this Qi Pressure. Their strength was about the same as my disciple told me while recounting this day. Turning my gaze to the strongest here, what I found didn’t surprise me.
She matched my gaze with unwavering eyes. There was a sureness in those defiant eyes that nothing could harm her. Her strength at the peak of the Foundation Building stage didn’t have what it took to escape me, she should be aware of that. But, before anyone else, the woman raised her hands in surrender.
“Senior please listen, my name is Lang Jiao, a disciple of Abode Master Qian Yun from the Purple Cloud Sect.” The woman had a purple jade token in her hand and it indeed had the names on it. “I am sure you know how serious my Master is regarding her disciples.”
A chuckle almost escaped my lips at this stupidity. This woman stayed under the impression that I wouldn’t harm her if she showed that, and for good reason. There weren’t many who would do that without confirming everything. They knew the madness of Qian Yun to touch any of her disciples. But, this group lived in a big misunderstanding.
Even if they were Qian Yun's disciples, I wouldn’t let them off for this. Regardless, the plan had to go on.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, the price for disrespecting the Azure Sky Sect is heavy.” With the Qi pressure to suppress the ones who tried to speak I continued, “But, since you are Qian Yun’s disciple, I’ll ask you some questions. If you dare to lie, I’ll end your life then and there.”
“How would Senior know if we are lying or not? Isn't senior planning to kill us all using that loose interrogation as an excuse?” Allowing the woman to ask the question was the right decision, she thought that I had bought her little ploy giving her some confidence. Wording the sentence that way in this situation, I had drawn the perfect response.
“Don’t worry I’ll be impartial.” With those words a colorless crystal appeared in my right hand, making sure that they could see it. I spoke, “When activated this item will flash red if someone in its vicinity lies.”
“Bu—a!!” Hearing enough from her the Qi Pressure continued to suppress her while I approached the nearest guy.
“Which sect do you belong to?” Along with the question the suppression on him eased. This should allow him to speak, and he did the moment his lips were free.
“I am from the Purple Cloud Sect!” His eyes shined with innocence as his words sounded earnest. Yet, the stone flashed bright red.
“N-No, wait! I am really from the Purple Cloud Sect!” He tried to squirm away but that wouldn’t help much.
“P-Please! Recheck it senior! Something has to be wro—!!” Before he could finish his words my flying sword reached his neck. Although mainly used for traveling, its sharpness could never be in doubt.
With a thud, his head struck the brown floor and his body slumped, his fingers still twitching. His deep red blood sprayed onto the people with him as a whimper came from behind. Ignoring that my eyes locked with the woman again in the cave filled with silent screams and the scent of iron.
“If you want to throw your life away, you are free to. But, do not blame me, I simply seek the truth.” For the first time since I came here, ripples of panic started to settle into her red eyes.