926 Five Places

Aria repeatedly nodded, agreeing to whatever she said. She was just happy to have solved the problem she created a few days ago and didn't burden Alex that much.

"Shall we go then?"

"I understand." Aria nodded while glancing at Alex, who also nodded her head.

Elder Illevis watched their interaction and smiled inwardly. She wondered what they would do if they realized they needed to live in a single house.

Not many people were able to get something from the Sword Stone, and almost all of them got it after meditating in front of the Sword Stone for years. In other words, Aria's talent was one of the best, if not the best in the current generation.

However, she had no plan in announcing it, lest the other peaks would try to snatch her. At the same time, she didn't really think any less of Alex. His talent in sword might be lower than Aria, but his cultivation speed was far too monstrous. At just the age of 47, he managed to become a Martial Saint. He might even reach God Rank under seventy years old. If this happened, there would be a big chance for him to reach Rank 2 God.

With Alex and Aria in her peak, the Blossom Sword Peak was bound to rise. She needed to make sure there was no one who could disturb it.

While thinking about it, Illevis then led the way to her peak.

It was quite a long journey because the sect was so big. Even if Alex used his full power, he might need a few minutes to reach it, but because he couldn't show his power, it took him three hours before arriving at the peak.

They saw many peaks on the way, along with the disciples and peak masters peeking on them.

"There are a total of sixteen peaks in my Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Among the rest, my Blossom Sword Peak claims the top five position, albeit in the last position. That's why I am sure you won't regret choosing my peak because it happens to be one of the best."

"Thank you for Elder's consideration and the recommendation letter." Aria thanked her.

"It's fine. Your talent is the one giving you this opportunity." She smiled. "Just make sure that you don't show your strength very often because people may get jealous. If that happens, they are going to start targeting you. It will be either you join me or you perish."

"I will put Elder's words in my mind."

They continued for a little longer before arriving at the peak. Alex found a big building on the very top and realized it must be the elder's house.

"Peak Master. You have finally returned." One of them greeted her while the others bowed to her while glancing at Alex and Aria, observing their reaction.

"Umu. It took a while, but yeah, this is my lucky day." She grinned and called a single name. "Melvie."

"I am here, Peak Master." A young lady suddenly walked toward her as she bowed her head politely. "Do you need anything from me?"

"Yeah. Since you are the favorite disciple, how about giving them a tour and sending them to their house? It has been arranged, right?"

"Yes." She gracefully nodded before realizing someone's stare. She took a peek at who it was, and it turned out to be Alex's and Aria's gazes.

She knew about this type of gaze. "Aiya…They are really extraordinary. It seems you two have guessed who I am…"

"The lady in front of the gate a few days ago." Aria nodded while Alex stayed silent.

It piqued the others' interests at this point. Some were elders that had been dealing with all the matters for the peak while some were their assistants, so they knew that the sect master asked Melvie to be the lady to scout talented people. Despite using a perfect measure to hide her identity, the two managed to guess it right away, albeit only one of them gave the answer.

That was why in terms of perception alone, they might be the best of the new batch.

"Nice to meet you. I am Melvie. And yes, Peak Master has said it herself, I am the current Favorite Disciple of Sword Blossom Peak." She smiled. "I will be giving you a tour of our peak and the entire sect before showing where you will stay for the night. Is that alright?"

Aria was in charge of talking here, so she immediately clasped her hands. "This junior gives her thanks to Senior Sister."

"Good." She then clarified again with the peak master. "Do you want to add anything, Peak Master?"

"Give the inner disciple tokens to them."

"Yes, Ma'am." She smiled before looking for the one in charge of the tokens and asked her for two tokens before handing them to Alex and Aria. "Here you go."

"And make sure you don't create trouble for now. I will be heading toward Elder Agya after this."

"Alright. I will take care of everything. I can use your name to scare them away, right?"

"No. For now, use your own name for that. If there is anything, just tell them they are the new disciples."

"…" Melvie fell silent for a few seconds as she realized that this course of action would create a misunderstanding inside the sect. On one hand, the favorite disciple gave a tour around the sect personally. On the other hand, it was on her personal accord.

There would be people thinking they were powerful for a newbie, but when they checked their strength, they would think otherwise. It seemed that the peak master didn't want all the things they could see in them to be known for the time being. She abided by that instruction and nodded. "Alright. I will be going now."

"Yeah. Take care. The rest of you should also go back to your work." Illevis waved her hand.

"Still… It's a bit weird to have you going around with a mask…Do you have an idea on how we solve this? After all, it will create quite a disturbance."

Aria furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Alex.

Alex gave the confirmation, and Aria took off her mask. Her eyelids were still closed so as to not invite sympathy from others.

"Is this fine?"

"Of course. Thank you very much." Melvie nodded with a smile before glancing at Alex.

"I apologize… This is something I can't take off in front of many people…" Alex decided to open his mask a bit, allowing the others to see the horrendous burn mark around his right eye.

*Gasp—* The people sucked a cold breath as they couldn't believe what they saw earlier.

"There are many things that can heal the skin. Do you want…" The peak master wanted to make an offer but stopped half-way.

"This is something like a reminder for me. I apologize if this makes all of you uncomfortable." Alex smiled gently, hoping that the others could understand.

"Ehm. I guess it's fine. Some often wore a half-face mask, so it won't mean anything if you wear that. You don't need to show it to others as well and just let me do all the talking if someone wants to check you. Or you can just show the tokens and be done with it. As for your appearance, this big sister also likes a mysterious person, you know. It's so sexy." She tried to comfort Alex.

"It's fine." Alex gently smiled.

"In-in that case, let's set off." She nodded her head and stretched her hand while leading them outside to fly again.

Inside the hall, a commotion burst out as they looked at their peak master, confused about the reason she gave these two youngsters such a treatment.

"They are pitiful children but talented people. Can't I show a bit of care to the disciples? I have been doing it this whole time, right?"

When they heard it, they nodded their heads. Illevis certainly knew that some of them were untrustworthy because they were the spies that the other peaks sent, so she didn't want to talk much about it.

Meanwhile, Alex and Aria had arrived on the bottom of the hill as Melvie started explaining. "First of all, there are several things you need to know about the sect. There are five places that you will eventually visit. The first is the arena. No killing or crippling is allowed inside this sect because of the "if you have a grudge, settle it outside" rule.

"The second will be the Blade Tower. Not only does it offer you the best quality weapons, but it also has the stock of pills and array plates. I am sure you will need it at some point. The third will be Sword Cave and Sword Stone. It's the inheritance palace. Other than the time close to the enrollment, you can stay there for a period of time, depending on the points in your token.

"As for the fourth one, it's Martial Arts Pavilion. You can get any kind of weapon arts. There are even many Divine Arts there. Although it's not as popular, we also have many Element Arts, albeit most people are focusing on the Weapon Arts.

"Last but not least, it is the place where you can search for points, the marketplace. In the middle of the marketplace, you can find a mission board where you can choose your mission. No one can abuse their own identity here, including the inner and core disciples and even me. You need to wait in line, even if it means you are behind a thousand of outer disciples. Do you understand?"

Alex and Aria nodded.

"I will explain their details while we are on the way." She started flying toward one of the places and kept talking. "This is the arena. It's mostly for you to challenge someone. I think there is nothing I should add except this one. You have the right to reject a challenge. That's all."

An hour later, they arrived in front of the Blade Tower. Just like she said, there was a huge collection of weapons, pills, and array plates. There were even raw metals and medicinal herbs there. He wondered if there was a peak tier medicinal herb that had the effect like Void Flower, albeit found nothing.

After looking around inside the tower, they skipped the Sword Cave and Sword Stone because they had been there. She only added the cost to practice in that place.

They then went toward the Martial Arts Pavilion. Unfortunately, they could only stay at the entrance because they had no permission to enter.

The last place would be the marketplace. Just like what Alex predicted, he saw a giant mission board that contained thousands of missions to satiate the need of so many disciples. But what surprised him was the fact that in front of the mission board had a real market where people traded.

"The market is a bit strange," Alex exclaimed in surprise as if he noticed something wrong.

"I don't know what makes you think that, but yeah, this market is a special one. It sells many things, including the materials for the missions on the board. The disciples often brought back the missions' materials and sold them here because they would make more money if someone decided to take on the mission and immediately buy it from them.

"It might sound weird, but that's the world. Sometimes, points are not more important than Spirit Crystals. And if you want to get big cash, you can get a huge amount of the materials and sell it just slightly above the marketplace. Considering the time you need and any other things, people might decide to buy it from you instead of going on a mission. You can say it's like trading your wealth with points. Can't help if we were born rich." She shrugged.

"Interesting."