A 10-seater minivan drove away from the Grey Estate. Instead of looking like a big tempo vehicle, it looked like a luxurious limousine with a broad frame. The body of the minivan was painted metallic black and a symbol of a wolf howling could be seen on the hood of the car.
The minivan was divided into two compartments connected by a movable black glass. Meanwhile, the seats of the van were placed on the left and right side, with the back facing the windows of the van. Each side capable of holding 4 people.
John had decided to sit on the front seat, right next to the driver. Usually, he would never sit on this seat, but right now, he wanted to leave the kids alone and have them talk with each other. Even though they all were of the same family, many of them did not even know each other personally.
"Master, I am deeply honoured that you have decided to give this old man some company." The driver/butler spoke out. His voice filled with emotion and respect.
"......"
John didn't know how to reply.
***
Sigil, Alicia, Bethany and Jacob were sitting on the left side of the van. Jacob was thinking that he might have a shot with Bethany since Alicia and Sigil were engaged unofficially, but who knew, he had to eat the bitter pill.
Starting from the corner, Bethany took the first seat, Alicia took the second and Sigil took the third seat. This way, both the girls were covered by Sigil. Meanwhile, Jacob remained slumped on the seat next to Sigil.
On the opposite side sat Oliver, George and Annie.
The whole van was suffering from an awkward silence. In front, John chose to remain indifferent about all the chatter of the old butler, while the younger generation remained silent out of the sheer awkwardness and unfamiliarity with each other.
After all, everyone will feel uncomfortable if they had been put into a box filled with unknown and strange people. But this feeling would intensify when those people are your distant acquaintance that you purposely avoided.
The situation did not last long because of Alicia's popularity.
"So, how are your preparations? I am still feeling nervous even after all the preparations." Annie smiled as he started the conversation with Alicia.
Annie was the daughter of an Elder of the Family that showed promising growth. Even though she wasn't much of a genius compared to the two members that were selected for the Family's baptism, it did not mean she was weak.
She had already opened her fifth gate and she only needed to complete a few more missions to reach the pinnacle of mortality.
"It's the same for me. This is the one-time ancestral baptism we are talking about, how could I not feel nervous?" Alicia smiled politely and replied modestly. The skill of speaking and maintaining the facial expression during the conversation had been ingrained in the top members of the younger generation.
Annie nodded in understanding. Since they both were seated on the opposite and face each other, they had to speak a little louder. Meanwhile, Bethany simple closed her eyes and decided to rest. According to the Family Head, the destination wasn't far, so she decided to utilise this time to calm her mind.
Oliver and George also started whispering to each other. Apparently, they also decided to enjoy each other's company. It was only Jacob and Sigil that remained silent.... awkwardly.
'Fuck!' Jacob cursed internally as he snuck glances at Sigil.
Sigil was also portraying his character well. His face held a small, yet arrogant smile. His whole demeanor displayed confidence. Alicia didn't mind it that much. After all, she understood that behavioural change is a gradual and slow process.
***
Almost 40 minutes later, they reached the border of Chestcovia City. Unlike Harrisonburg City, it wasn't surrounded by forest, the bordering area was simply an undeveloped region with lots of farmland.
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Right now, they all could see the unfortunate City perfectly. But it was surrounded by a translucent, blue-coloured hemisphere that showed a regular wave-like pattern. The city did not have a lot of tall buildings and the group could see a tall pillar with many paintings and scribbles of spiders. In fact, a giant, 12-legged spider was carved on the top of the pillar, whereas, many ancient writings could be seen on the base of the pillar.
The Grey Family wasn't the only one that reached the city. The surrounding three families, the alliance and some talented lone Witches could also be seen.
Seeing the specific area filled with Leader Level figures, John turned to the group and once again encouraged them.
"I wish you all, best of luck. This is a wonderful opportunity for you all, after all, this is a super-sized Ancestral Pool that also affects the potential of the chakra points. I hope that you guys can make the highest use of this blessing." John spoke before he left to mingle with other leaders of families and organisation. He was already feeling a little empty from the inside as he listened the old butler chattering away. He really needed to talk to someone with Equal status.
"Huff, it's time. How about teaming up and cultivating together?" Jacob proposed hesitantly.
Even though their task was simple, it was filled with hidden hurdles. In the ancestral pool, one needs to actively absorb the energy and strengthen themselves to create a better foundation and ascend to the realm of chakra mastery.
But, this world is filled with competition and your success meant someone else's loss. Many people will try to harm you and make it so that you wouldn't be able to absorb the energy. Use of spells and other magical weapons was not allowed. They could only use mortal weapons.
In the olden times, it would have been fine, but with the invention of gunpowder and advancement of technology in the area of firearms, even mortal weapons posed threats to their lives.
Their group had weapons with themselves, too.
As they slowly conversed with themselves, a conflict erupted.
It was the RedHawks and Ivan. Even though the leader of the RedHawks stayed away, he was staring daggers at his only son– Ivan.
"You bastard! How could you? Why would you?" A black haired man kept on hitting the other one with a rose tattoo on the side of his neck.
Surprisingly, Ivan did not retaliate. He remained quiet and took the beating. Seeing this, Sigil sighed. He could not help him even if he wanted to. Personally, Sigil wanted to kill Charles himself, but he would never have gotten the opportunity to do so.
"You betrayed us. YOU LEFT US!" Sigil actually knew the aggrieved party. His name was Peter, Ivan's friend. Well..... his ex-friend.
"I am sorry." Ivan smiled sadly. His eyes filled with emotions, alas, he had no right to speak about some matters. After all, he decided on an action and was facing the consequences.
It was at this moment that an unusual presence was felt by everyone.
Slowly, all of them looked up and saw an old man floating downwards. He was Old Sparrow, the director of the dark Guild– Grand Sparrow.
"Kekeke, Welcome! I will be conducting this year's Baptism." Old Sparrow cackled and his hoarse voice reached everyone.
As everybody focused on Old Sparrow, he continued.
"Fighting with opponents and crippling the competition is allowed, but if anybody kills their opponent, they will be executed on the spot. Any questions?" Even though his voice was hoarse, his words ignited the fighting spirit of every team.
"Yes, I have one. What happened to the Grimoire World." Roman asked with a cold voice, making Old Sparrow flinch.
Usually, if any chakra expert tried to get into a conflict with Old Sparrow, he would have immediately killed the opponent with a snap of his fingers, but now, he wasn't a member of a dark guild. He had to play by rules, too.
"We were fortunate enough to find the inheritance ground of the Grimoire World and passed all the tests." Even though he knew that his lie was filled with loopholes and the news of the Grimoire World getting destroyed will reach the Alliance headquarters, he still had to buy some time.
He secretly cursed the directors of the other two guilds. They were quick enough to choose their task and left him with this burdensome task.
His words caused a lot of murmuring among the crowd and Roman simply smirked. Since he couldn't fight the directors physically, he chose to fight them a battle of wits. After all, they also had a part in the death of his youngest son.
Meanwhile, Sigil smiled. Old Sparrow's words couldn't fool the wise ones. Firstly, he knew that he was the one to inherit the inverse Witch's Grimoire, second, why would they destroy the Grimoire World after inheriting it.
The Grimoire World could produce many rare space path and illusion path resources. It would have provided them with a huge amount of profits. After all, not everybody in this world was foolish and clichéd.
Similarly, Ricardo, John, Brian, Alan and Roman deduced the truth.
Somebody had stolen the Grimoire!
Even though this news came as a shock to them, they still kept quiet. Instigating the matter further would only cause them backlash from the three directors. Even though they couldn't kill them, the directors could still pressure them in another manner.
Roman understood this and kept control of his emotions. His smile made the Old Sparrow curse in rage, but the situation caused him to keep his emotions in check.
Meanwhile, Sigil finally understood that sometimes, simple words could have hidden meaning. He finally understood that not all of them were as clichéd as the previous owner of the body and not all of them could be fooled easily.
Snorting coldly, Sparrow continued.
"Alright, the baptism will be active for five days." He spoke simply and flew away. Almost at the same time, the hemisphere with a wave-like pattern changed it's colour from blue to dark Grey as the totem in the middle of the city shined a pitch black light. The words on the foot of Totem shone a crimson light as the eyes of the ten-legged spider turned crimson, too.
A small opening was formed on the surface of the Hemisphere and the selected members rushed inside the city. Many were running alone while others ran in groups.
Sigil had decided to team up. After all, they could alert each other if they saw some long-ranged weapon or someone following them.
The moment the group entered the city, they suddenly felt a rush of pure energy inside their body. But they only felt it and no changes occurred in their bodies. After all, one needed to meditate and consciously absorb the energy to stir their energy gates.
Most of the competitors were of the same age and had only opened their energy gates up to the seventh energy gate– Gate of Wonder. Meanwhile, those who had opened their eighth energy gate could be counted in one hand.
Even when Sigil was hailed as a genius, he had only opened his seventh gate. Even though it could be said that he did not have enough time, but the fact remained that he was still weak compared to some youths and this society only demanded results.
Nobody would care about your hard work or your sacrifices if you don't produce satisfying results. That is the reason that Sigil could live an unobstructed life of debauchery. He produced satisfying results in his Cultivation.
The closer they were to the totem pillar, the purer the energy became. After entering the ancestral pool, every group dispersed and quickly hid away. After all, there was a chance that conflicts would arise and nobody wanted to waste their precious time on this petty competition.
Sigil's group chose a residential house with two floors built. They quickly settled inside the house. Two people from the group had to guard the house while the other five will be cultivating.
***
Sigil made himself comfy on the bed belonging to the dead. Since it was a two-storied house, the five of them had enough room to practice alone.
He simply closed his eyes and entered his meditative position to start cultivating.