These pillars were spread around in a formation so that they were evenly spread out.
At the very center was where the flow of spiritual energy seemed to be gathering, almost as if there was something there.
Lin Fan couldn't help knitting his brows when he sensed this.
He waved his hand to have the village chief move further back and the village chief didn't dare delay.
This was something that involved cultivators, so there was no place for a mortal like him here. If he were to get involved, the most likely ending would be that he would be killed by whatever mysterious powers the cultivators had.
The village chief even wanted to go back to the village and leave everything to Lin Fan, but he knew that he couldn't do that.
If he were to do that and leave a bad impression on Lin Fan, then everything he had already worked hard for would be for nothing. He had to at least stay here and pretend to worry about Lin Fan to leave as good of an impression as possible.
But still, his life was the most important thing, so the village chief moved as far away as he could.
Lin Fan narrowed his eyes to look at the spot where the spiritual energy flow was gathering.
Even though there was nothing that could be seen with his eyes, he could tell that there was something different about this place with his spiritual senses.
So slowly but surely, he made his way towards this spot.
As he came closer and closer, he saw that the token in his hand started glowing.
It was faint at first, but the closer he went, the brighter the glow became.
It wasn't a strong and dazzling light, but rather a gentle and faint glow that surrounded the token. If one didn't look carefully, they might not even see the glow, but when one did look at it, they could easily tell that it was there.
Finally, Lin Fan came right up to where the flow of spiritual energy was gathered.
As he stood there, he tried to see if there was anything that he could interact with, but there was nothing there other than the flow of the spiritual energy.
Even when he put his hand forward covered in spiritual energy towards it to disrupt the flow or to trigger something, it just seemed to ignore it. In fact, he had to pull his hand back right away because the flow of spiritual energy was actually stronger than his spiritual energy, so it started draining away his power.
After thinking for a bit and unable to find anything, he finally chose to lift the token towards the spot where spiritual energy gathered.
The moment that the token was lifted, there was a sudden flickering glow that appeared around it as if it sensed something.
When it finally reached where the flow of spiritual energy was, the glow around the token suddenly disappeared and it seemed as if everything had suddenly stopped. Even the flow of spiritual energy disappeared and everything returned to normal.
As time passed, Lin Fan couldn't help getting more and more worried as nothing happened around him…But before he could do anything, something finally changed.
There was a door that suddenly appeared.
Well, to call it a door was a bit of an understatement.
This was a large gate that went from pillar to pillar, taking up all the space in front of Lin Fan. The only thing that he could see was actually this gate right in front of him.
With how big this gate was, it was shocking that he had missed it in the first place.
But he knew that there must have been some special array that had been in place here that had prevented him from seeing it.
He also knew that it must have been a very special array if it was able to make it so that he wasn't even able to touch the gate that had been in front of him.
The only thing that he could think of was…the subspace powers that he had read about before which filled him with excitement.
However, Lin Fan quickly suppressed that excitement since he didn't know what was going to happen next. He had unlocked the gate, but there was still the chance that the people behind the gate would be hostile, or there would be some kind of monster behind it.
That was all possible in this crazy world of cultivation.
However, nothing like that happened after the gate appeared.
Lin Fan had moved back with the token in hand, pulling it out to reveal a groove in the gate that perfectly fit the token.
That was most likely what had been the flow of spiritual energy just now.
As Lin Fan stood there in silence waiting for something to happen, the village chief suddenly bowed down behind him.
Lin Fan couldn't help turning to look at him with a confused look as he asked, "What are you doing?"
The village chief didn't seem to hear Lin Fan at first as he had his head down and was muttering something, but then he looked up at Lin Fan and said, "That is the gate of the Hidden Dragon Sect…It's been decades since we've last seen it…"
Lin Fan was surprised, but he also felt a bit relieved.
With the confirmation of the village chief, he was now sure that this was indeed the Hidden Dragon Sect that he had been looking for.
Now the only thing for him to do was to see what was behind the gates and see if they would have the answer that he was looking for.
So with this renewed determination, Lin Fan was about to go forward to push open the gates, but he didn't get that chance. Before he could even take a step forward, the gates suddenly opened with a burst of light that forced him to cover his eyes.
When the light faded, there were two figures that were standing there bathing in the light.
With the light coming from behind them, it was hard to see what they really looked like.
The two of them just stood there and after a long silence, there was a voice that said, "Eh? How did the sect gates open?"
A second voice said, "It seems like someone found one of the tokens and brought it back…"
Then both of them suddenly jumped and looked at Lin Fan, completely ignoring the village chief.
After all, they couldn't sense a single trace of spiritual energy from the village chief, so they knew immediately that he was a mortal. The only one there that released any trace of spiritual energy was Lin Fan.
Their eyes also immediately fell onto the token in Lin Fan's hand.
They pointed and whispered to each other before giving coughs to fix their expressions.
At the same time, the light that came from behind them faded and Lin Fan was able to see the real appearances of these two.
It was a young boy and a young girl who seemed like they were barely teenagers.
He could also tell that they weren't even in the Foundation Realm, just being in the Qi Gathering Realm. However, they were both in the Fourth Qi Gathering Realm, so they weren't that weak either.
After they calmed themselves, the boy said, "Welcome, one who has found the Mark of the Hidden Dragon, we have been waiting for you."
The way that he spoke made it seem like he was trying to be serious, but it really didn't fit his appearance and it felt strange seeing him act this way for Lin Fan.
The girl nodded and said, "Please follow us into the Hidden Dragon Sect and come meet the sect master. He will tell you what you have to do next."
Lin Fan raised a brow as he looked at the two of them, but he still followed them into the gate after giving a nod.
This was what he had been looking for, so it wasn't as if he would back down now.
After Lin Fan stepped through the gate, the two looked at each other before bringing the gate to a close behind them.
Once the gate closed, it disappeared from the sight of the village chief and everything returned to normal.
If he hadn't seen it, the village chief would have never suspected that there was a gate that had appeared.
But he knew that what he had seen was the truth because…he could see that Lin Fan was gone.
The village chief didn't know what to do at first, but then he decided to return to the village and bring more people back with him.
Now that the Hidden Dragon Sect was back, he was sure that their age of prosperity was here. So he wanted to prepare everyone to welcome back the Hidden Dragon Sect.
Inside of the sect, Lin Fan followed the two gatekeepers deeper into the sect.
As they walked through, Lin Fan couldn't help looking around curiously since this was the first sect that he had been in. What he saw didn't disappoint him.
This was a real sect, it was filled with various mountains that had courtyards on them and many different herb fields. At the same time, he could even tell that there was more spiritual energy found in the air.
Everything about this place just screamed cultivation sect.
As they walked along, there were other people that they passed by who all looked at Lin Fan with curious looks. However, when they saw the Mark of the Hidden Dragon that he had been asked to wear at his waist by the gatekeepers, they immediately revealed looks of understanding and started following them.
It didn't take them long to reach the top of the tallest mountain since they were all cultivators and Lin Fan found that there was a hall waiting for him.
This should be the main hall of the Hidden Dragon Sect.
The two gatekeepers that had led the way stopped here.
The boy said, "The sect master and the elders are waiting for you inside. We can't go any further because it isn't our place."
The girl looked at him and said, "We wish you luck, holder of the Mark of the Hidden Dragon."
Lin Fan looked at them for a bit before giving a nod and walking in.
After he had gone in, there were whispers that suddenly came from the crowd.
"The chosen one is here…Are we finally going to reopen the sect?"
"The chosen one is here, so it should be happening…but before that, he has to pass the trial."
"That's right, the trial…"
All of them looked at the hall with anxious looks.