350 Gues

"You think grandmaster already made his choice?"

As the youth clad in dark blue armor exit the big gate of the Central Division alongside the green haired Division Master, Diana, the only girl resident of the division couldn't help but ask her fellow neighbours who were all standing by the side and watching the same thing.

"Sure seems like it…"

Cain had a depressed face as he nodded, the only reason that an esteemed Division Master would personally come for the sake of an apprentice would be that the sect master himself asked him to do so.

"What's your thoughts Blake? You were there yesterday, are these rumors really authentic?"

Ray thought calmly as he asked, rumors around the sect would naturally be exaggerated from mouth to another, he really was a bit unbelieving of what he heard, even if this new genius was actually able to succeed at what Dice failed at, this wouldn't be enough to do all that...

"...Yes, in fact he did more than the rumors tell, he is totally on a league of his own, and although I can't speak for us all, we are not his match, at least I'm sure that I'm not."

Blake simply shook his head, 'seeing is believing' and he did see what he considered as impossible being achieved yesterday so he had already accepted the reality of it.

"Hmmm, I guess we will have to wait for the next batch, staying at the Central Division is not really that bad anyway."

Ray nodded as he calmly replied, Blake's expression alone said it all, this Lan should really be on a different plane of genius, so their only choice was to stand back and hope that the sect master would accept another personal apprentice soon before they were too old to make the cut…

"I will go practice, see you later."

Seemingly having his passion ignited by this discussion, Blake said and headed to his own courtyard.

"Same."

"I should go as well."

"Hey! I will also go, let's go for a spar Ray!"

The three who were left immediately followed suit, it could be said that their mentality wasn't that fragile to be crushed at the first defeat as their fighting spirit that has stagnated from the long lasting balance for the last six months seemed to wake up from its slumber…

`~~`~~`~~`

"We are almost there…"

Having walked quite a bit behind Wind who was leading the way to the sect master who asked for me, I found it hard to remember the path we took to get here even with my photographic memory and 'Omni-viewing Eye', it seemed it was related to the natural disposition of the sect, which somewhat reminded me of the illusion formation that was placed on the base gates.

Of course, they were quite different in comparison, not only was the effect more subtle in the sect, consisting of simple distraction and distortion, but it was also much more powerful as it even managed to fool my senses.

It wasn't actually surprising that Wind was capable of guiding me in the case I wasn't even able to remember the path as he probably had something like a formation key to allow him to bypass the distraction effect, which made a lot of sense as having a hidden location created without setting a way to access it would be plain foulery.

"Alright, you can go in."

Stopping directly in front of a very plain building, Wind pointed at the similarly plain door as he instructed.

'I guess that's part of the formation…'

"Understood."

As it was quite obvious that Wind wasn't going to enter along with me as he just stood there so I stepped to the front and pushed the door open…

Creaaaak…

As the door creaked open loudly as if it had very rusty joints, the scenery changed as I found myself in, similar to how the tower worked but with less mystery air to it. It just felt as if the door and the what's inside of it just didn't match.

The scenery inside was simple to a very large inner cave yet the door was still there behind my back attack to the rock wall somehow.

'Let's see…'

Moving within the cave, I could already sense the presence of someone very close, who was likely the sect master, he could also be simply just his servant.

A few quick steps was all it took before I finally spotted the person as well as the interior that seemed to be decorated like some sort of an individualistic hall. The person, who looked like a youth at 18~20 years with a body stature similar to mine, had long white hair flowing to the ground as he sat cross-legged with both his eyes closed shut…

"Good, you are already here."

As I was about 5 meters away from the cross-legged youth, his eyes were slowly opened as he looked at me in amusement.

It wasn't hard to guess the identity of the youth who just got up as my perception didn't seem to have any trouble at the moment, the surge of elements, weapon energy and mentality that came from his body were already enough to give me a very big hint…

"Yes, Grandmaster…"

Though his looks were quite surprising, I had no doubt that this youth before me was the sect master even though we looked like two of similar age, just like I appeared older by a year or two, he himself was probably quite old in comparison to his youthful looks.

As 'Grandmaster' was the official way the apprentices had to call the sect master, I, who always tried to appear as polite as possible in most situations, naturally used the same way of address.

"Let's drop the formality, you can just call me Blade for now."

"Understood."

"Good, now let's get into the actual business, top ranker Lan... or should I say sect guest Lan?"

'Great…'

The sect master of the Elemental Blade wasn't simple indeed...