Running away and hiding from things has become second nature to James, so when he realized that he is screwed, and has to run away again, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. But he kept his face passive, at least it was not the first time he had to pretend to be ignorant.
The man took a yellow paper from his pocket, stared at it for some breaths, and it emitted a light that blinded James, when he looked back the paper was nowhere to be seen.
That is a message talisman for sure James thought
He hasn’t seen one before, but he has heard of them. Some fancy people in the city use them to send messages.
The man looked at the crowd for several breaths before clapping his hand, and just like that, all the chatters stopped.
“Before we continue I will be giving you your badges, they work like your identification, and you can use them to store contributions points. Which you can use to buy cultivation materials from the sect and many other things. To gain them, you either have to do a mission for the sect, you can go to the mission hall, and they will explain the procedure to you, and the second is by selling cultivation material to the sect, but right now most of you own nothing so you don’t have to worry about that part,” the man said.
The man clicked his fingers and just like that a case appeared in front of him.
From it, a circular silver desk half the size of a man's palm flew out toward Debra. She took it in her hand, it glowed, and after that, it disappeared.
“Good Job Debra, what you saw now was Debra linking with her badge and willing it to disappear, for the rest of you the linking is simple, all you have to do is touch it, as for the disappearing it is a protection measure so it won’t get lost or stolen, you can will it to appear at any time. Now do what Debra did” the man said
From the chest more badges appeared, one of them floated before heading toward James, when it reached him he put his hand on it, and suddenly he has something like a new limb in his head.
The feeling wasn’t good at all, he willed the badge to disappear, and it did, and willed it to appear again, and it did, but he got tired from that like he had run in a sprint.
He willed the cursed thing to disappear again.
“As some of you may have noticed the badge uses your Qi to disappear and reappear, it has a small space enchantment and is linked to you, the Qi consumption is huge, and you don’t have a lot of Qi so stop playing like a bunch of children.” The man said
The crowd stopped what they were doing and looked at the cultivator.
“So if you took the time to look around, you may have noticed that only four of you have a silver badge. The others have copper ones that are painted gray, that is your stand on the sect. Silver you are an inner disciple, gray you are an outer disciple. Now my part is done, and you will be divided and guided by others, those two meatheads standing there are your seniors, the tall one is an inner disciple and the short one is an outer disciple. Treat them with respect because they can kill you before you can blink,” the man said
James watched as the crowd began to divide, each heading for its guide, before he could follow Debra, the man put his hand on James’s shoulder.
James turned back; he could swear there were at least 10 meters between them. And he didn’t see the man move.
It looked like running won’t be easy when people could just teleport like that.
“You stay here, your guide will be coming now,” the man said
James remarked that the man didn’t use his name as he did with Debra and Kim.
That should be an indication to something, because from what he understood it was just the man creating a report with people who should become important in the future.
Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, All he can do right now is wait and see, and gather as much information in the meantime.
After what appeared to be an eternity for James, there was a movement to his right, when he turned around there was a woman there.
If James could describe her with one word, it would be ‘Cold’.
She is extremely pale with a face that doesn't betray anything, if he isn’t seeing her moving he would have thought that she is dead, and just like the man she looks as to be in her mid-twenties.
The man bowed to her and appeared as though he had lost decades of his life.
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“Welcome, mam, this is the one I told you about,” the man said.
Well, that must be the letter he sent earlier. The woman didn’t respond and kept looking at James.
James didn’t say anything and kept his face passive. She doesn’t look like one who cares about etiquette, if his guess is right, and she is probably more interested in what he is, rather than who he is. She turned and left.
“Follow her,” the man said with urgency.
After following the woman outside the hall, she put her hand on his shoulders, and they began to float, after that, they headed inside the sect ground.
James watched with fascination as he ascended the mountain, and hell it was big and flying was cool.
He remarked that the farther they got, the fancier the building below them had become.
James took this moment to register the land clearly, he noted the roads and how big they are, he noted the houses, the geography, and he tried to remember as much as he could.
After some time they arrived at a house probably in the middle of the mountain.
James looked at it more closely because probably this will be his prison or home.
It was a one-floor house, with a garden at the back, nothing to write home about, but it also has a peaceful atmosphere around it.
Other than one man in front of the house there is nothing in hundreds of meters, no disciple passing, no other structures, nothing.
They landed in front of the house and waiting for them was the man, it was the first time that James had seen one as old as this one since he entered the sect.
If he could put an age to him, it would be around sixty. Strangely enough, he has a dangerous aura around him.
The man bowed to the cold lady.
“Hello Lady Hiems,” the old man said
The woman didn’t respond, and James began to doubt that she is mute, but he is probably wrong.
“Everything is ready my lady and I can take it from here, if you wish of course ?” the man said
This time the woman nodded before flying away, well that would be an improvement if you asked James.
“Come with me and listen closely, as I won't be repeating this. You possess a unique constitution known as the Body of Qi, granting you a substantial reserve of Qi, surpassing that of your peers. In fact, your Qi reserve is three times greater than that of a cultivator at the same level. While this might not seem significant to you, it holds immense importance. In battle, you can endure far longer than others at your level, and you possess the ability to execute Qi-intensive attacks that surpass the capabilities of those around you. These advantages afford you superiority in combat and numerous other situations.” The man said
Well, that has a lot of advantages, but what is the catch?
James didn’t ask and waited for the man to elaborate, maybe he can explain to James why he is so important to the sect that they sent someone to attend to him.
And why put him in a house isolated from others? He doubted that his aptitude is better than Debra’s.
And what is the problem with those people, he has a name, not “hey” or “you”.
James cleared his head. Potentially all of this is just him being paranoid, and maybe he is picking clues where there aren’t any.
“However, there's a drawback: you require significantly more time to cultivate, three times the resources needed by regular cultivators. Additionally, you accumulate a substantial amount of impurities, posing a potential risk to your foundation in the future. This is why we've isolated you from the others. The optimal strategy is for the sect to provide you with special resources, allowing you to focus on your cultivation and prevent falling behind your peers.” the man said
That explains some things but didn’t ease his worries at all. Because the man didn’t mention the price he has to pay for all of this treatment.
James knows that there is no free lunch in the world, and the men didn’t mention an objective or a time limit for this treatment.
The man tossed him a scroll and James caught it.
“This is a shadow cultivation method, and you will use it until you enter the initiates phase or the foundation phase if you like to call it that. Normally it takes a week to do that but for you, it will probably be three, after that I will give you the resources you need to continue. If you have any questions, now is the time.” The man said
James has many questions, but those can wait. Now he needs to ask a question that will either ease his fears or confirm them.
And nothing is better than what he has been lacking his whole life. A name, normally after being accepted, the sect will register you as a citizen.
And from what he could gather before coming, that should have been one of the first things they did.
“Actually yes, I was a Nyxen before I came to the sect and I would like to update my status to a citizen,” James said
For his part, the man replied fast
“Of course, tell me your desired name and I will take care of the procedure. I would like to inform you that you won’t need it here in the sect, your badge is more than enough, but the day you go outside the sect ground you will have it in your possession that I can guarantee,” the man said
Not the best response he hoped for, but not the worst. But it has no timeline, and it gives a condition that he doubts he could accomplish if his fears are true, so he needed something more concrete.
“Will my first name is James, as for the second, I have the shadow attribute so maybe something that indicates shadow, James Ombre,” James said.
Of course, choosing that name has nothing to do with shadow.
It is the name of one of the prominent noble families in the city, the only reason he knows that name is because they have some power in the crime world.
And also from what he gathered some elders in the sect.
But the reason he chose the name is simple: no one is allowed to name themselves after the noble families if they are not part of them. Even James knows this, so the man would as well, so there is no way in hell he would allow him to pick this name.
“Of course, no problem, I can do that,” the man said.
James kept his face passive, well that is the best confirmation he could get, it looks like he is screwed well and all.