"You… Even if you can defeat us, you won't have a good ending!" The guard started laughing as though he had lost his mind.
Dyon grabbed the center chain of the cuffs and leapt into the air, letting them tangle below him as he crossed over into the Inner Sect.
As soon as he left, the crowd of students that were hiding came out. Of course, Dyon had noticed them already, he just couldn't be bothered to care.
"Should we tell the outer sect elders about this?..."
"Read the rule book, idiot. Outer sect disciples don't have the right to interfere with a core disciple. Only core elders can."
"But…"
"Don't even think about it. You saw it for yourself, he knows the rule book like the back of his hand."
**
The scene of Dyon dragging two Punishment Faction disciples through the Inner Sect spread like wild fire. However, surprisingly, no one dared to stop him or even speak a word of reproach. Something about Dyon's calm and nonchalant appearance in the face of the agonizing screams of the two chained disciples sent shivers down their spine. This was simply not a man they could afford to offend.
After a seemingly leisurely stroll, Dyon had made his way to the center of the Inner Sect. There, he found a communal plaza that acted as a central pathway branching out to every other area of the Inner Sect. From here, it should be possible to follow a straight path to wherever you choose.
At the very center were two poles. One pole had the rankings of the inner disciples and acted as a stage for glory. The other pole had a list of the worst disciples to ever appear in their Unseen Peak, and acted as a stage for shame. Anyone who committed unpardonable offenses was listed here.
While the first pole changed depending on the area of the sect it was in, as well as the changes in disciple power, the second pole was identical whether it be here, or the outer or core sect.
Dyon leaped to the top of the second pole, still dangling the two Punishment Faction disciples from his hand. After rummaging through the belongings, he managed to find a suitable knife.
With a casual swing of his hand, they were stripped naked other than their single shoulder armor. Then, nailed to the Pole of Sins using their cuffs.
After finishing this, Dyon leisurely sat at the top of the pole, a clear look of boredom on his face. "Tell the Inner Disciple who brought my robes to crawl out here."
Dyon reclined on the top of the pole. "For every minute he makes me wait, he'll lose a finger. For every ten minutes he makes me wait, he'll lose a limb. If he makes me wait more than half an hour, he can consider his life forfeit."
**
Within the core sect, six black robed figures and a single white robed one were gathered around a table. Four were female, while three were male. A few of them were figures Dyon would recognize, namely: Donari, Violet and Nikolaos.
They were currently in luxurious courtyard, fit with a small spring and lush flowers, laughing amongst each other as though they were the best of friends when the reality of the matter was far from it. In truth, they were each other's fiercest competition, but for some odd reason, they had come together.
Although they didn't very much like each other, the one truth they could all agree on was that they had each earned their spot as a core disciple. However, this new Dyon character hadn't done any such thing, so they decided as a collective to deal with him.
Initially, they assumed that he would choose to endure. At that point, they could slowly raise the stakes until he ran away with his tail between his legs. In fact, they were currently laughing about how stupid Dyon must look waiting alone at the gate for an event they wouldn't be leaving for, for at least a couple more weeks.
However, that was when a servant came rushing in, breathing heavily. Actually, it would be more accurate to call this 'servant' a lackey, because he wore the blue robes of an inner disciple.
"Senior brothers and sisters." The inner disciple bowed deeply, recognizing that interrupting such powerful characters wasn't in his best interest. "There's a problem."
The five of them frowned.
"What happened?" A petite beauty with light brown hair asked.
As the inner disciple spoke, the more and more angry the core disciples and their Legatee became. Maybe if they were clear headed, they would have realized that the inner disciple was embellishing the story as best he could, but at this point, they were willing to find any fault with Dyon.
The truth was that the inner disciple had no choice but to lie. According to reports, this Dyon character was actually threatening to harm and torture him. If he didn't incite these seven to go and deal with Dyon personally, he would be the one to suffer because he was the very person who brought Dyon's robes to him!
In the beginning, it should have been easy. Lie to a core disciple, embarrass him a little, and gain the opportunity to cultivate in the energy dense core sect. But now, his life was on this line!
For a martial artist, losing limbs and appendages was a very serious matter. Meridians were spread through of the body, so being cut off in such a way was as good as placing a road block on your future.
Of course, there were many methods of regrowing such things, however, this was the 98th quadrant! To find such things was already an impossible task, let alone to then be able to afford them! If he really allowed Dyon to do this to him, he would be as good as dead!
Nikolaos' face darkened. "Lead the way."
**
By now, 15 minutes had passed since Dyon's statement. He continued to recline as though what was going on had absolutely nothing to do with him, enjoying the atmosphere.
Those who were gathering around had no idea what would happen and couldn't help but to gather around. The cleverest among them began selling seats to the best vantage points to see the most action at the safest range. Considering there were many owned buildings surrounding the inner sect pavilion, the number of individuals like this weren't small.
Suddenly, a booming voice sounded off. "Little Bastard, you dare spit in the face of the Punishment Faction in this way?!"
The crowd watched in shock as an inner sect elder appeared in the air. Judging by his single shoulder armor, his identity was more than obvious.
The Punishment Faction was divided into an organized hierarchy. There were the disciple members, but also the elder members, while those were further divided as well. Essentially, outer and inner disciple members were overseen by outer and inner elder members. As for the core members, there was only one, and he was the head of the Punishment Faction.
This was all to say that an inner elder of the Punishment Faction was only second in authority to the head himself!
The lazily reclining Dyon casually sent a glance up at the elder standing in the skies. It amused him that the single shoulder guard was still a mere 6th stage practitioner level defensive treasure. Clearly, he had been too spoiled in becoming the successor of the Celestial Deer Sect.
"Elder, please help us!" The two former bridge guards cried out pitifully.
They hadn't been hanging there for long, but their wrists were chaffing, their arms were highly uncomfortable, and they were actually stripped naked for everyone to see! This was the most embarrassing moment of their lives. And this was not even mentioning the fact Dyon had shattered their knee caps.
The elder in the sky wore blue robes much darker than the normal inner sect robes, but, his face was completely red with rage. Dyon found him to be quite interesting, though. The fact he hadn't attacked was more than enough to catch Dyon's curiosity.
Dyon smiled. "You're not a bad elder."
With his Perception, seeing through the character of people weaker than him was quite a simple matter under normal circumstances. Although Inner Sect elders were lower level saints, and Dyon was suppressed to less than 50% of his peak prowess, he wasn't so out of it that he couldn't handle a 4th grade saint.
