While the duo was engaged in combat inside a sect's headquarters, Auron was staring blankly into the distance, his mind racing with several theories.
To give just one example, he was perplexed as to how a demonic sect could have such a kind sect master as Zeke or such an accomplished elder as Lewis.
His parents taught him when he was a child that the demonic and the righteous are not exactly what the general public and ordinary people believe. Cultivating demonic techniques does not necessarily imply that someone is evil or vice versa; rather, it simply indicates the nature of the technique in question.
Righteous techniques, could be considered to be more concerned with utility, whereas demonic techniques could be considered to be more lethal. If a sword cultivator is devoted to becoming 'one with a sword,' he will put forth his best effort to perfect his moves and skills. On the other hand, a demonic sword cultivator will be concerned only with being able to kill quickly and efficiently.
While you may encounter a demonic sword cultivator who is helping homeless people survive, you may also encounter a righteous cultivator who decides to kill an unarmed farmer for the simple reason like looking at him.
However, as the saying goes, seeing is believing. Even though he had complete faith in his parents, he had his doubts. No matter how he looked at it, his parents were just ordinary farmers with no prior experience in cultivation.
After standing like that for a few minutes he heard a voice that brought him out of his thoughts.
“Hey, are you Auron?”
In the direction of the voice, he turned and saw a young boy who was approximately two years older than him. He is dressed in shabby red robes with a circle symbol on one sleeve.
“Yes, that’s me.”
Auron ponders what a strange symbol means. Boy notices that and says.
“My name is Edward and this symbol on my sleeve means that I’m an outer disciple.”
Auron nodded his head in agreement. He had previously heard that there were different types of disciples in the sect. Of course, he doesn't know the specifics, but he does have a general idea of what is going on.
“Come with me. I will guide you around the sect and we will get you your robes, basic cultivation manual, and the first batch of cultivation resources.”
Following the utterance of those words, both Edward and Auron went away. They appeared in front of a tower with the words 'Manual pavilion' written on a plaque, a few dozens of minutes later. Then Edward looked Auron in the eyes and said.
“Go inside. There you will find an inner disciple whose job is the distribution of manuals. Tell her your name and she will give you a copy of the basic manual.”
He followed the instructions. His first view when entering the building was the interior of the structure. There were no elaborate decorations; instead, there were a few tables in the middle, chairs to sit on, and a large number of bookcases containing various manuals on cultivation and battle techniques. In the corner, he noticed a stone table with various demonic carvings on the surface.
A young lady with short red hair and a purple robe was hiding behind a table in the back of the room. Auron realized that this woman is the inner disciple that Edward was referring to earlier in the conversation. The most obvious clue was a line inside a circle on the sleeve of her robe. This indicates that she is in a higher position in the hierarchy than a disciple from the outer circle.
With that in mind, he approached the table. The woman saw him then and was startled and quickly hid something away.
“Ah, a new face. You want a basic manual right?”
Auron nodded and said.
“Yes. My name is Auron.”
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Hearing this, the young lady remembered that she had forgotten to introduce herself . She grabbed a small book from behind the table and handed it to him in an instant.
“I’m Cindy. Here is your manual. Now I don’t want to be rude but I think that you need to go. You have a lot to do today.”
Auron smiled, took the manual, and went away after saying goodbye.
After Auron had left, the girl stopped smiling and looked around, and when she was certain that no one else was present, she took a sip from a flask she had brought with her.
“Ah. I love this job. I can sit doing nothing and drink wine the whole day and they are even paying me for it.”
The truth is that Lewis is aware of her actions, but he is unable to bring himself to reprimand her. The reason is that he was doing the exact same thing when he was younger, so punishing her would make him appear to be a complete hypocrite.
When his master learned of this, she became so enraged that she ordered him to consume all of the alcohol available in the sect, which was, to put it mildly, impossible to accomplish. He was forced to spar with his master after failing, where "sparing" means being beaten senseless.
After leaving the manual pavilion both Auron and Edward continued their tour. They went to many facilities of the sect. Among those was a library which contains various ordinary books filled with knowledge on different subjects like politics, history or even cooking. They’ve also gone to the resource distribution hall from which Auron took three sets of outer disciple robes.
“This is the last spot.”
Said Edward while pointing at the multi-story building.
“This is a dining hall. Here all disciples eat their meals. Every floor has different quality food, the lowest floor has the plainest and cheap meals while the higher ones have better. The higher the standing, the higher floor you have access to.”
Hearing that Auron started asking questions.
“Are meals free and served the whole day?”
Edward smiled and felt relieved knowing that his new junior is actually pretty smart for his age.
“To both questions the answer is no. Meals are served two times a day which is announced by a ring of the specially enhanced bell that could be heard in the whole dormitory. Every meal except for the lowest floor has to be paid for with contribution points which can be gained by doing missions distributed by the sect in the mission hall or working for the sect-like Cindy who is taking care of the manual pavilion. Do you understand?”
Auron nodded his head and then Edward continued his explanations.
“Where was I? Ah right… As you can see, the dining hall is in the middle of the dormitories. In the east there is an area for outer disciples, north is for inner disciples, west is for true disciples and the south is for elders. Great elder along with sect masters have their own houses. The tour ends here. If you have any other questions, go to the library for almost everything.”
With that Edward left, leaving Auron alone before the dining hall.
After much deliberation, he determined that he would first check into a dormitory to become acquainted with his surroundings, and then visit the library to learn more about the world and his new home.
Meanwhile, inside a sect hall, Zeke is sitting behind a table which miraculously is the only furniture left intact after his fight with Lewis while sipping tea.
He placed a cup on the table and looked at seemingly unconscious Lewis and said.
“You can stop acting, I'm not angry anymore.”
Hearing those words Lewis stood up while stretching his limbs.
“Ah. God that hurt. You have a nice punch, old man.”
After being called the old man again Zeke just took a deep breath and replied.
“The more I spend time with you the more I understand why she was beating you so badly.”
He was obviously talking about Lewis master.
“… but at the same time makes me realize why she has taken a liking to you.”
He lifted his cup again not waiting for a reply. Seeing that Lewis smirked.
“OLD MAN. What are you talking about? She is married and has children already. So we can’t be together and to tell you the truth OLD MAN, there was never anything between us. I love and respect her as a teacher but nothing beyond that.”
Due to being insulted yet again, Zeke reacted with excessive force, breaking a cup and causing tea inside to spill onto a nearby table. Following another deep breath, he smirked knowingly.
“You do realize that she is older than me right? If I’m an OLD MAN then what about her? Should I tell her that you called her an old hag?”
Lewis’ eyes widened and his face went pale. Immediately he started bowing before Zeke.
“N-No! Please don’t tell her! I don’t want to die. I’m too young to die!”
Then Zeke’s smile disappeared and his tone became serious.
“Either way do you think it was her plan?”
The great elder stopped bowing and stood up while saying.
“She asked me to take care of demonic beasts in that forest right before an attack on that village. Without a doubt, it was planned but something concerns me. They asked those kids to run away to a nearby city. Either they planned for them to get separated and someone waits for little Ayda there or it didn’t go according to plan.”