"Hold on!"
Damien's voice thundered through the room. He couldn't let the Seeking Lotus Palace Master continue leading the conversation like this. If so, he'd only eat continuous losses.
"You're a powerful person, no? You should've clearly heard my conversation with Sierra in the other room. I'm not here to find a wife, I just want to find a good sect for an acquaintance of mine to attend."
"But you passed the mountain trials." The Palace Master replied blandly.
"So?"
"The mountain trials aren't simple. Their strength varies completely depending on who steps through the gates. It was said that the Ancestor's lover only felt a light breeze on the mountain path. Meanwhile, anyone else had to face intense challenges. What about you? What did you face?"
"I—"
"He faced a few minor killing formations and a beguiling array, but he's already a 4th class, so these minor arrays couldn't do anything to him." Sierra cut Damien off before he could speak. She was obviously taking great pleasure in his misfortune.
"Mm, then it's just like the ancestor's lover. Those minor formations only activated for show. This mechanism was put in place so that nobody would question the ancestor's bias in creating the mountain trial. Since then, this setting has never been activated again. This means you are destined for our sect."
The Seeking Lotus Palace Master spoke with certainty. She wholeheartedly believed in the sect's teachings and history. In fact, she was quite bland in some sense.
While she was a wise and powerful sect master, she was also strictly adherent to the old rules. When it came to tradition, she didn't mess around. The reason the Seeking Lotus Palace was still an all-women sect was due to this quality of hers.
Damien rubbed his forehead in frustration. It really was difficult getting through to this woman. He'd more easily be able to convince a wall to talk back to him.
"Look, I don't want any wives right now. I have enough already. Whatever your tradition is, I won't participate in it."
"But you don't have a choice. If you don't follow our traditions, I'll be forced to execute you by sect law."
Damien rolled his eyes and sneered. "This woman…don't you know how to be flexible sometimes? Nobody will want to marry someone as stuck up as you."
"That's fine since I have no plans of marrying. The sect is the only importance in my life. So then, what is your choice? Follow tradition or die?"
Damien's eyes hardened. He really didn't have the ability to fight the Palace Master even when just considering their base strengths. If Damien's other suspicion was true…then even his chances of escape became nonexistent.
In this situation, choosing to surrender and pick a wife-in-name from the Seeking Lotus Palace seemed to be the best move, but Damien's personality didn't allow him to bend so easily, especially not to someone like the Palace Master.
A sudden idea popped into his head. "Fine. I'll follow your traditions. I've already picked which woman I want to marry too."
"Good. Tell me her name and I can bring her to you. Once you've introduced yourselves, I'll brief you on the Challenge Gate and you two can enter together." The Palace Master said plainly.
However, Sierra's eyes widened in shock. She'd spent some time conversing with Damien. If she thought about what she knew about him…
His next action proved her worries true. His arm raised parallel to the ground, his index finger outstretched. Sitting where he was pointing was none other than the Seeking Lotus Palace Master herself.
He spoke with a smug grin. "You. I choose you."
"I am not an option." She replied without a change of expression.
"Are you sure about that, though? From the story you told, it seems your Ancestor was an option for her lover after he passed the mountain trials. If you love tradition so much, shouldn't you be happily offering yourself up?"
The Seeking Lotus Palace Master frowned. She didn't want to admit it, but Damien's words were true. The sect master was indeed included in the candidates a man could choose.
However, there were strict conditions for that to occur. To be specific…the exact conditions Damien met.
He was the only one in the past several tens of thousands of years to activate the mountain trial's mock trial, and the second person in history to do so. This rare occurrence was precisely what qualified him to pick the sect master as his wife candidate.
In the old ancestor's words, the mountain trial judged destiny. The trial one received would align with that destiny.
Essentially, Damien was "destined" for her.
But she didn't want marriage. The only thing she ever cared about was the sect, and she knew that'd never change in the future.
Her eyes turned to Damien, expressionless.
"You are allowed to choose me if that is your wish." She said, surprising both Damien and Sierra.
"However, if you wish to marry me, then not only do you have to achieve a new record in the Challenge Gate, you must also defeat me after you exit!"
In the end, Damien seemed to be a talented young man. Aside from upholding the sect's traditions, she could also build a connection with this young genius through their agreement. However, it would only be on paper. As long as she lived, she'd never let him lay a hand on her. This was her reasoning as she made her decision.
Damien smiled and nodded his head without hesitation upon hearing her proposal. He never wanted to marry the palace master in the first place, he simply wanted to delay for time.
If the palace master was still insistent on the rules, then in the worst case, Damien could run away and find a different world suitable for Jiao Mei. However, the matter hadn't become so complicated yet.
The Seeking Lotus Palace Master was inflexible about tradition but extremely wise when it came to ruling her sect. As for Sierra, she was a cunning fox who could trick anyone into doing her bidding. These two combined created a terrifying head to the Phoenix known as the Seeking Lotus Palace.
Their combined leadership could be trusted in Damien's opinion. Even if he had some conflict with them, the sect would still be a good fit for Jiao Mei as long as their techniques were good enough.
But for Damien to even find out about their techniques, he needed to maintain contact with the Seeking Lotus Palace Master and Sierra. Therefore, buying himself time using the Palace Master herself as his prize was his best option at the moment.
Nevertheless, with Damien's agreement, their conversation about his strange circumstance had come to a conclusion. The Seeking Lotus Palace Master tapped on her test, creating a holographic projection in the air.
But just as she was about to start explaining the Challenge Gate to Damien, he stopped her.
The familiar scent on her body kept getting stronger and stronger with time. Now, it was almost overwhelming.
The universe was screaming at Damien, and he noticed it quite quickly. Without another choice, he opened his mouth and asked the Palace Master the question that had been plaguing his mind.
"You…are you a Celestial?"
