Chapter 9: My lost cousin

*whoosh whoosh whoosh*

Flying with my flying treasure back to the sect I was thinking that the air traffic could be a big problem if this world had the equivalent of automobile companies.

Well, not that i care, my only problem is that I don't have an obstacle path for me to 'train' in flying, but oh well, nothing that money can't solve.

Moving my thoughts away from entertainment, I was thinking of a way to maximize the gains from my newly acquired artifact, the 'peeping eye of heaven'.

You might be thinking 'won't you just have to move around to find new shit?'

You are not wrong but also not entirely right. Why? Well, the moving around part is right but this is clearly a brute force method and also in the millennia of cultivators searching for treasures in the holy central continent, I don't think that there are many treasures left for me to find so the moving around solution is not feasible.

Just as I was pondering to myself, I suddenly grinned.

If the MC starts from the 'starting village' won't I be finding good things if I go to the same place?

This is robbing the MC even before he got the chance to get the fateful encounter.

'Ahh! Just thinking about it has brought me immense pleasure.'

Enjoying the sceneries we moved closer to the sect.

—— 2 hour later ——

We got to the sect in 2 hours because I didn't want to deplete all my Qi reserves, who knows what might have happened on the way? No one can ever be too cautious.

Getting to the gates of the sect we got off our flying treasures to walk for a distance. This is a tradition in our heavenly sword sect; regardless of rank, cultivation, or status, you have to walk this path on foot to show respect to the sect.

The reason for this act is an act of memorial. This was the path that the first generation of elders walked when they decided on creating the sect back in the time.

Well, a bit walking is nothing to fuss about and in this world that you can fly in skies and breath in waters, might humble you a bit.

As I started walking with the elders, core elder Guo turned to face me.

"Chief disciple Li, I would leave the report of this mission to you. We would excuse ourselves." He told me while cupping his fists.

By giving me the right to report the mission report and excusing himself, elder Guo first gives me face to be the one who reports the final results and by excusing himself made it appropriate for me as a junior to be the one to speak instead of the senior.

Getting used to this kind of mind circuit would definitely take me some time. The amount of information in elder Guo's sentence is really something. Well, this is why you don't fuck with old people.

With a gentle smile, I faced elder Guo.

"Core elder Guo, you can rest assured I won't miss a detail. Thank you for this time." I played the right cards to respond to him.

First of all, I responded as a 'junior' to please him with my 'respect for elders', and secondly I thanked him for being in this mission. Although it was a sect mission, the way I responded to him made it sound like he did me a favor so it would make him think that I see it as he was there to 'guard' me not 'observe' me.

This way I easily got the good impression of a core elder.

And It has to be added that he is one of the elders responsible for the martial art repository of the sect.

What? Shocked?

Believe me when I say it, if you read enough Chinese novels you will be a natural in this.

Elder Guo was clearly happy with my response and laughed while patting my shoulder.

"Haha… Good, good, good. If you need anything you know where to find me. I won't be taking more of your time. Hahaha…" he was so happy that he didn't even give a glance to the outer elders and went towards the martial art repository.

Not gonna lie, this elder seems to be on easy mode.

Well, whatever. Never hurts to have one more connection.

Nodding to other elders I started walking.

Walking once in a while is refreshing, also I have no memory of Li Huang touring the outer court so this is a new experience.

Do you remember I said that walking is humbling? Scratch that, this is only satisfying my ego.

Why? With every step, there are at least five outer disciples who salute me.

Do they know me? No, but do they need to personally know me? My robes are of the core disciples with some small changes that show that I am a chief disciple.

Other disciples are using this chance to curry favor to me.

Their flattery continued and I answered them with smiles and nods. This is my home field, having a good relationship with them has no demerits if all I have to do is smiling and nodding.

Suddenly I thought of something.

My peeping eye of heaven can detect all kinds of treasures, so if I use it on living persons it can show me peoples with bloodlines, special bodies, and more…

Won't I be able to find geniuses like finding weeds this way?

I could hardly maintain my facial feature to not show my grin.

'Peeping eye of heaven'

I activated my artifact and started looking around. When I was testing this artifact on the way I found out that my eyes get a hue of pink when activating this skill.

Looking around I could see that each person had a different amount of talent that was shown to me by the level of brightness that they showed.

Obviously, even the outer disciples here are considered at top of the food chain in the world, but alas there are mountains behind mountains. Even the most extraordinary talent might find someone better than him.

As I walked I looked for someone who could catch my eyes.

I was almost a the edge of the outer court but didn't find anyone good enough for me…

Of course, I didn't check the whole outer court I just walked on the main road.

Just as I was looking around something caught my eyes. This is a new thing that I experienced when using this artifact.

I could see a faint glow in my left direction. I quickly checked the artifact memories for this kind of development.

What I found out surprised me; when you are close to a great treasure you can feel a faint aura from them even if you are not seeing it.

It's like when your goal is out of render distance but you have directions for it…

My 'render distance' is clearly a variable to my cultivation level so right now this distance of 20 meters is all I can check.

The fact that I can feel the faint aura of the treasure means that the treasure is super close to me.

Turning around to my left I followed the faint aura.

These robes have an amazing effect, people would walk out of your way when they see you wearing them. This robe is a must for any introvert.

Passing by some courtyards I arrived at my destination. The treasure was there, Well 'it' was a girl.

She had black hair with light pink eyes, a slim waist, long legs, and a beautiful face with a 'I don't give a fuck' written on her face. She was around my age and looked 13 or 14.

Before I could figure out what was the nature of her body that emitted this much light in my eyes, the bickering of the people around her caught my attention.

"Junior sister, you should have used up your seven life worth of karma to be able to warm master Li's bed." One of the male outer court disciples who was surrounding her told her.

"Yes, now that you have the young master's favor getting into the inner court is only a matter of time…" The other lackey nodded with vigor.

The girl just kept looking at them like they were insignificant.

Just as I was looking for some junk food in my storage ring to watch the show, I suddenly noticed something.

"Who is this young master Li?"I blurted out absentmindedly.

The place was silent as I spoke so everyone heard what I said.

The lackeys turned to me to shout at me but they all froze as they saw my core disciple robes.

Only one of them didn't freeze because he was ogling the girl and didn't turn around.

This however only lasted a few seconds, after that he shouted at me while turning to face me.

"Bold! How dare you—" and he froze as he saw me.

As the reality of the situation dawned on them, they dropped to their knees.

This is the reason that I say the 'face' is bullshit. 99% of people are like this, dropped to their knees when they see their situation is a little disadvantageous.

"Who is this young master Li that you were talking about?" I asked the main question.

I don't know any relatives in the outer court. It is either someone impersonating us or some other Li family.

Hearing me they got a bit of color back thinking that I don't want to offend the 'young master'.

"He is chief disciple Li Huang's older cousin, Li Heng." The lackey said with pride.

This time I was taken aback.

"From when did I have a cousin?" I was really baffled, so much so that I didn't even curse.

"Y-You." Now others were shocked equally if not more.

Now everyone took a closer look at me and noted the difference in my robes and core disciples.

'This is a chief disciple robe!' everyone shouted in their minds.

There are two chief disciples in the sect; Li Huang, and Hu Anjing.

Clearly, the one in front of them is the patriarch's disciple, Li Huang.

A chief disciple is like a legend in the outer court and now they have seen one with their own eyes.

When everyone was admiring the one and only Li Huang, he was in process of planning his cousin's funeral.

'Oh cousin, you are fucking around using my name?'

"Let me see this lost cousin of mine…" I chuckled to myself.