Back in the core sect of Soul Rending Peak, the largest core disciple mansion was receiving a guest.
"Senior Sister Violet." A young man with a pale appearance and reserved disposition bowed respectfully. However, the surprising part wasn't his respect, but rather the fact he showed such respect despite wearing core disciple robes.
"What are you doing here? You know that I don't like to be disturbed."
Violet was currently observing the water flow of her courtyard spring. What was interesting was that this mansion, and in particular, this spring, was meant to be reserved for the top core disciple. But, Violet wasn't ranked number one, she was ranked number six.
Understanding this, it was truly odd that she'd live in this particular courtyard…
That aside, to a layman, it looked like this petite, brown haired beauty was just dipping her feet in the water and relaxing. It was only those who understood the specialty of this spring that knew that Violet was actually cultivating.
"We… We lost him." The pale young man said slowly.
"Lost him?" Violet's brow furrowed. "How is that possible? Did you not send Bonni like I asked you?"
Hearing these words, the pale young man was incomparably aggrieved. He had not only followed Violet's words, he had gone above and beyond. However, this leader of his wouldn't care about that, she only cared about the results… And the result was his failure.
As for Bonni, although she was only an inner disciple, that wasn't because of her lack of strength. In the future, she would definitely be an outer sect elder at the minimum, with her most likely peak being an inner sect elder.
One has to remember that becoming a core disciple isn't just about power, it's also about talent and passing the trial. There were many inner disciples with cultivation that far surpassed that of core disciples, and Bonni was one of them. Not only that, she was also adept at movement and stealth techniques. The idea of her losing track of a 32-year-old made next to no sense.
Seeing that the pale young man didn't answer, Violet's frown could only deepen. She knew that that meant he had followed all of her orders to the letter.
"Did he notice he was being followed? Bonni would at least know this, right?"
"According to Bonni, he didn't notice her presence, or else she would have sensed him lock onto her. From her accounts, he just seemed to have accelerated his speed for no particular reason. It could just be that he was following the sect's no flying rules, so he had no qualms after he stepped outside of the sect."
Violet nodded, this made sense. It was logical to increase your speed after stepping out of the sect.
This was also a breath of relief because this meant Dyon was likely not on guard against her. But, it was troubling that he had so much speed…
In Violet's eyes, they had only seen the tip of the iceberg that was Dyon. The fact that he revealed so much of his strength just now likely meant he didn't know he was being watched.
"There's something else you should know, senior sister."
"What is it?"
"The other reason Bonni lost track of him was because there were no energy fluctuations with his increase in speed."
"You mean?..."
"He didn't use his energy cultivation, nor his wills, to lose Bonni… He's much more powerful that any of us knew… It's almost too shocking to believe that he's only 32…"
Hearing this, Violet's eyes brightened with a mix of emotions ranging from lust, the will to conquer, and apprehension. This Dyon was almost too big a bite for her to eat…
...
At the moment, Dyon was slowly healing his bone, he had no idea just how many benefits his inability to use major parts of his cultivation was to him at the moment. At least for now, Violet didn't know that Dyon was aware that he had been being watched. Which, one would think, was a good thing.
'Old Lizard, do you think there's a connection between my Devour technique and the Mystic ranked core teaching of Soul Rending Peak?'
Obviously, Dyon hadn't used Devour in a long time because it was a soul type technique. In addition, he rarely got the opportunity to use it because just like other soul techniques, it was incredibly dangerous to put into action and could cause severe backlash. All of this said, the technique was very useful to him.
It was hard to ignore the similarities between Devour and this mysterious Mystic ranked technique.
For one, they were both soul based techniques. Secondly, they both involved absorbing the soul of its victims. And, finally, in one way or another, they both involved the memories of the owner of the soul being absorbed.
As far as Dyon could remember, he had only used the absorb memory ability of Devour once, during his first campaign, however it did exist. It was just that he preferred to use Devour to replenish his soul strength.
As for this Mystic ranked technique, it could allow other to instantly learn anything the originator of the soul knew to the same level of proficiency.
Drawing connections between the two was inevitable.
'The odd thing is that I don't see anything in my master's memories that categorized Devour as an 'evil technique'… If I knew that it was, I wouldn't use it so liberally.'
There was another connection that couldn't be ignored. This 98th quadrant was formerly the strongest soul path quadrant in existence. While Celestial Deer Quadrant, Dyon's home, although, yes, it was the former 1st ranked quadrant, it also had very high attainments in the soul as well.
The reason why it was this quadrant known as the highest ranked of the soul path, and not the quadrant from Dyon's master's era, was because the Celestial Deer Quadrant was about much more than just the soul. Plus, it was also the quadrant that was the ancestral grounds of otherworldly body cultivators such as the Demon Sage and the Ragnor and Pakal ancestors. This didn't even mention the elves who had high attainments with their bodies as well.
It could be said that this quadrant was the only true members of the Soul Path. This was not only because it was the only path they once followed, but also because of the type of energy that hung in its air… Energy Dyon couldn't sense because his soul was still sealed, and energy the Dragon King wasn't qualified to sense because his soul talent was too poor.
'It's not impossible.' The Dragon King finally answered. 'This quadrant and the Celestial Deer Sect had very good relations, for obvious reasons. In fact, no one truly dared to set their sights them until after the Celestial Deer Sect was destroyed. It's not out of the realm of possibility to believe that the elders of Soul Rending Peak might have given over their technique to the elders of the Celestial Deer Sect for research purposes.'
Dyon frowned. 'Don't you think that's important information you should have told me before? Do I have to poke and prod information out of you?'
'I assumed you knew, you have your master's memories, don't you?'
'My master sealed a portion of her memories for my safety. Although I have ownership of The Seal now, and can undo those restraints at will, I obviously can't use my soul right now, so how could I check those sealed memories?'
'Well, it's because your mind is protected by that treasure that I can't see through it despite being linked to you. Don't expect me to understand all of your intentions, hmph.'
Dyon rolled his eyes. Was this really an ancestor dragon who had lived for millions of years, or was he an angsty teen. Shouldn't it be beneath him to squabble with Dyon like this?
'This is good information to have, though. Another layer to the mystery. If my master thought that knowing information about this quadrant would be detrimental to me, there's a reason for that I should figure out slowly.'
After about half a day passed, Dyon felt that he had reached his peak condition again. Truth be told, he didn't need to spend so much time healing since a few fractures in his legs wouldn't hinder him too much. Plus, he had a lot of experience fighting with this exact injury, especially during his second, third and fourth trials. However, he was currently in enemy territory. He wanted to be at his peak just in case anything untoward happened.
Dyon left the rock he hid in, taking mind to seal the entrance once again to make it look as though he was never there. Then he left the area, quickly finding a dirt road from his off-road position that led directly to the city.
Soon, Dyon found himself approaching massive city gates.
Having taken off his mask long ago, he strolled past the guards with an amiable smile on his face. After greeting them politely, he strolled in.
The guards didn't bother to vet Dyon, after seeing his core disciple robes, their expressions were filled with awe and worship. How could they dare to follow the strict laws of Cathedral City now? What were rules in the face of power?
