After passing through a dark tunnel, Seph and Lilith found themselves outside of the black tree that Seph and the other yin cultivators used to get into the legacy trial.

  It felt like ages ago for all of them, and it was, but only one hour had passed in the real world.

  The time compression helped all these budding cultivators to hone their skills in a slightly protected environment where they didn’t have to face enemies that were too powerful for them.

  Everyone looked at Seph and Lilith stepping out; it was clear they all came out within seconds of each other. No one had even left yet.

  They didn’t seem surprised to see Lilith with Seph, because they didn’t all know each other, anyway.

  Even the cultivators that got out early -after the tournament or after the beast of the labyrinth showdown- didn’t get there earlier than everyone else.

  That was a protective measure to safeguard the new cultivators because in the cultivation world, there is strength in numbers, especially when it’s related to sects.

  You protect the young cultivators you are training so that they carry the sect later when they are more advanced.

  You create contests for them to grow stronger and to pick out the brightest disciples to focus your resources on them and help them grow into their full potential.

  The look everyone gave Seph and Lilith didn’t linger for long, though, except for a few smiles from the friends Seph had made inside the labyrinth.

  As Seph immediately heard shouting, “But you can’t leave; you need to join the sect, we were left here to wait for all of you when you get out so that we can take you back to the sect with us. Whatever happened in there, you can’t expect that you are that strong to survive the world of cultivation on your own.”

  Seph vaguely recognized the one who said that as one of the yin cultivators that was already with the sect. It looked like a couple of Death Establishment disciples were left behind to expect them and escort them to the sect, but Black Crow was having none of it. He was leaving them once and for all.

  “I don’t care about your little sect. I reached a decision already. You won’t be able to stop me.”

  The guard took a fighting stance against Black Crow and said, “I can’t allow you to leave. I’ll have to answer for every missing disciple. You give me no choice but to use force against you.”

  Black crow laughed derisively and snapped his fingers; his vultures immediately flew away in two different directions, and he followed them by turning into thousands of insects.

  The grotesque scene surprised the two Death Establishment cultivators, and by the time they composed themselves, there was no Black Crow to fight.

  They looked at each other in embarrassment that they couldn’t stop a merely Body Dismantling cultivator.

  Before they could compose themselves, they heard the loud voice of Feral Xu, “Goodbye everyone, but I am going to be a rogue cultivator as well. I never did that well with big groups of people, but I respect all of you and how far we’ve all come through these trials. I have to leave and create my own opportunities.”

  Many of the cultivators that were around nodded their heads toward Feral Xu.

  Divinity spoke loudly and said, “Goodbye, Mr. Big hairy man!”

  Feral Xu said under his breath, “Brat.”

  The little girl heard him and giggled in response.

  One of the Death Establishment cultivators spoke and said, “Not too fast; you are not going anywhere before coming back with us to the sect.”

  To everyone’s surprise, it was Kafka who stepped forward. He was Feral Xu’s opponent from the tournament; he spoke quietly and said, “You will let him leave, or you will have to go through me first.” Kafka’s cats all hissed angrily at the guard cultivator, who said under his breath, “What the fuck is wrong with these cats?” His partner responded in the same whispering tone of voice, “More like what the fuck is wrong with these cultivators? I’ve never seen these powers before!”

  Feral Xu spoke in his loud voice, “No need to put your neck out for me mate, let them catch me.”

  With that, Feral Xu used some movement skill and got to the edge of the mountain in an instant; the death establishment cultivators wouldn’t be outdone this easily, and they did the same using a movement skill to get next to him.

  Only they didn’t expect what Feral Xu did next as he jumped off the mountain.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Both cultivators gawked at him as he plummeted in free-fall for a few seconds before he extended his strong muscular arms and caught the side of the mountain with his claws and descended the mountain in big jumps using the claws to dig into the hard stone with each jump.

  “You can’t force them to be in the sect, and by that I don’t mean you are not strong enough to force them senior brothers, but it’s bad for the group if you exercise coercion to keep people in our sect.” Seph spoke from the sides, he thought that the senior brothers were panicking over nothing, and with that energy they were going to make the rest of the new disciples scared to even go along with them.

  “Well, looks like there is one respectful among them, at least.” One of the senior brothers said under his breath, where only his comrade could hear him.

  Lao Wencheng, Al H’awi, Rong Sha, Qui Ma, Brother Huang and Brother Liu all gathered in front of their senior brothers to go back to the sect with them, which made the senior brothers breathe in relief that they wouldn’t lose the entire patch of new disciples.

  Many other cultivators that Seph didn’t know were with them as well, and it looked like they were going to the sect, too.

  Glenda and Huan Chun were in the back talking about something, but they didn’t look like they were going to leave either.

  What was surprising was that Divinity was talking to Gabalawi about something, Seph was close enough, but he couldn’t hear anything, until Gabalawi said, “Let us go back with them first to not exasperate the situation further and I’ll help you.”

  Seph’s mind wandered to what they were up to, specially that they never really shared a friendship in the labyrinth, not one that he was privy to, anyway.

  Dahlia and Esme were standing together, and it didn’t seem like they were leaving either.

  Seph took a deep breath in to prepare for the conversation about to happen.

  He looked at Lilith and told her, “Be prepared; a struggle might happen now. I need to go back and give the potion to my mother, and these two might be too much of knuckleheads to get how important that is. Hopefully, they won’t object.”

  Lilith just looked deep into his eyes and said, “I am beside you.”

  Seph thought, she is intense; every time she looks at me, it’s like she is looking deep into my soul and my heart skips several beats.

  He shook these thoughts away from his head and walked right up to the senior brothers.

  “Senior brothers, I am not sure if you remember me, but I am the guy that got murdered here before you all made it to the tree. I entered the trials mainly to get medicine for my mother. I’ll come to the sect, but I need to go to my mother first and give her the medicine before I come to the sect., hopefully you understand that, because it’s non-negotiable.”

  The senior brothers looked at each other and one nodded to another, who said, “We understand, we were specifically informed by the elder to allow you to go back to your mother. When you are ready to come to the sect, just listen. The bell of Amoria rings daily to guide lost souls back to the sect.”

  “I am going with him.” Lilith suddenly said while giving them a challenging look with her piercing eyes.

  The senior brothers thought, Who the fuck is she even? Is she on the level of these two monsters that escaped?

  One of them broke his reverie and said, “Who are you?”

  She answered, “I am Lilith, and I am his companion. He doesn’t go anywhere without me.”

  The answer made no sense to the senior brothers, but the other one jumped in and said, “And you are coming back with him to the sect for sure?”

  “Wherever he goes, I go period, we will see you later.” She spoke with such authority that baffled the senior brothers, but they had already had too much of these new disciples.

  Seph turned around and spoke to the others he considered friends from the sect, “We will meet again, everyone; I’ll be happy to introduce you all to Lilith once we come back.”

  Sun followed by some screeches as if he were saying his goodbyes too.

  Many nodded or waved to the trio as they descended the mountain.

  ***

  Descending the mountain wasn’t as hard a task as climbing it.

  The storm wasn’t raging as bad as when they got in, but it was still in effect as not a lot of time has passed.

  Seph didn’t feel as cold, but he was most surprised that Lilith didn’t feel cold with her style of clothing.

  Her clothes had changed form after they left the group. It looked like she changes them at will. Seph wasn’t sure at all.

  Now her scales covered her chest in a heart shape with the bottom tip of the heart stopping right above her belly button, and both top halves of the heart stopped right under her shoulder blades with a small cleavage between the two halves.

  What’s more surprising was her entire back was bare; there were no straps to hold the front of her clothes to her body.

  That dumbfounded Seph, so he ogled the edges of her scale armor to find out that it dug into her skin to keep in place.

  “You are staring.” Lilith said suddenly.

  She sternly followed by saying, “It’s not polite to stare.”

  Seph said, “I am sorry! I was just trying to figure out your armor; I never laid eyes on anything like it.”

  Sun covered his face with his small palm in disappointment, which made Seph wince.

  “Haha, I am just teasing you; you should have seen the look on your face. This is going to be fun,” Lilith said cheerfully; she was having too much fun teasing Seph, and it didn’t seem like she was going to stop soon.

  Baby, her bone dragon, made a laughing sound as well from her shoulders; it looked terrifying and cute at the same time.

  Seph didn’t know how to respond to that; he had never really had any relationship with a girl before, and he didn’t know how to deal with her. It was too much too soon.

  He wanted to check what her shorts looked like, but at a glance it looked like another heart shape that looked the same in the front as it was in the back, she didn’t acknowledge his glance though, which made him sigh in relief, and made her smile with the side of her mouth.

  Seph remembered he never checked her class, and he surreptitiously used the eye of the veteran on her; he didn’t know any etiquette to use the skill, so he always just used it secretly on other people.

  Name: Lilith Scorn

  Class: Dragon Mistress. (Epic)

  Cultivation stage: Body Dismantling (III)

  Seph thought, “She is behind me with a single cultivation level, but her class is the rarest I have seen so far; she must have enough extra attribute points. It sure helps to have the first ever Yin cultivator as your father!” He smirked after the last thought and Lilith noticed and asked suddenly, “What are you smirking at?!”

  Seph was surprised and fearfully answered, “Nothing at all!”

  https://www.patreon.com/EndlessSleeper