A Nascent Sect

It took nearly a month before I learned the technique to my Master's demanding standards though I was still far from mastering either technique. I had also tried to evolve my core to the second level before quickly realizing that I would need additional elements and more control of the elements before I could breakthrough to this level.

My Master being satisfied with my improvements finally decided to show me the way to the mainland. He brought me to a room in the mansion I had yet to enter. This room was a small square room which in the middle had a perfectly flat granite table that was surrounded on three sides by rolled up paper.

Upon entering, my Master immediately grabbed one of the papers from the crates and spread it out on the table revealing a map of a vast continent split into many different areas with twelve areas in the middle being distinctly larger than all the other regions. As soon as he finished rolling the map out, he started speaking,

"As I would hope you have guessed by now, this is a map of the mainland. Each of the areas this map is broken into represents the territory of a sect. Generally, the weaker sects are near the coast, and the stronger sects are near the center. This brings up the next important point, the twelve great sects. Each of these sects has at least one fourth phase coremaster and many third phase coremasters. Which means you shouldn't even think about messing with them anytime soon. In fact.."

As he starts to say this, he pulls out a quill and inkwell drawing a large circle in the middle of the map.

"Don't even go anywhere within this circle before you are a third phase coremaster."

Looking at the circle, I realized it covered nearly two-thirds of the continent. Before I could ask what the reason for the ring was, my Master continued on making an X on the map and saying,

"This is where you will be sent to initially." He then colored in one section of the map.

"This is where the Golden Lion sect resides and controls. If you want revenge, you can go fight, but if you don't want to get nearly killed again, you should wait until you get to the third stage of the cultivation technique. Otherwise, besides fighting entire sects, you should be relatively safe in the outer zone just make sure to avoid any members of the twelve great sects for now."

As he stated this last warning, I swear I could see a mixture of hatred and sadness in his eyes. The first real emotion I had seen from my Master. After this, his face returned back to his normal expression, and he led me out of the room and down another hallway that I had yet to travel.

The room we arrived at was perfectly circular and utterly bare except for a set of mysterious runes that twisted across the floor forming what seemed to be a distinct pattern. When we walked into the room, he indicated a point at which I should stand saying,

"This room can instantly take you to the mainland, so you won't have to worry about that trip. Also, since you will need something to do when you get there, here is another mission for you. Form your own sect, I've even got the banner and motto made for you."

He then handed me a piece of cloth. As soon as he gave it to me, the room lit up with a blinding light forcing me to close my eyes and when I opened them I was standing in what looked like the same room except my Master was no longer anywhere to be seen.

I walked out of the room looking at the flag my Master had handed to me. It had a dragon on it very similar to the one I had talked to in the Ruins. On the flag, it was curled around the set of words,

"Peace through Victory."

When I finally got done being distracted by the flag and actually looked around, I noticed that unlike I had initially thought, the room had definitely worked and had transported me to the mainland. The area I was in was the ruins of what undoubtedly had been a grand building at one time.

It had half crumbled stone walls which still reached up hundreds of stories on the cusp of collapsing. The most impressive thing in the ruins was or what most likely used to be the back wall. It had a giant mural which somehow hadn't faded at all with time. It depicted two men clashing as the landscape shattered around them in a very apocalyptic scene.

With one side showing the sky raining lightning and the other was showing the earth breaking apart. With such a beautiful mural, I was saddened that I couldn't see the building in its' full glory along with any other artwork it must have contained.

After I was done gazing at the artwork, I realized I was in a new location with no plan and no idea what I wanted to do. I figured since I didn't have any better ideas I might as well follow the pseudo-mission my Master had given me. Of course, that still left me with no idea how to even start forming a sect.

I suppose the first order of business should be figuring out where I would want to even claim territory for this new sect that certainly only existed in my mind. Looking at my map, the area I was currently located in was actually one of the few areas unclaimed by any sect near the coast.

There were only two cities marked within the unclaimed territory. But considering that I was just starting out having a deserted territory might not be a bad idea while I was still figuring out how this whole sect thing worked. Deciding if I ever could, I would rebuild this building as my sect headquarters.

The first step should be finding some people to follow me though I wasn't sure what I could offer them since I currently had zero cultivation methods and no idea how to acquire them. With nowhere to start, I decided I might as well go to one of the cities and see if they were any different from the one I had already visited. I chose the city that was closest, the only separating me from it was a mountain range.

Looking out into what was supposedly the city's' direction, I saw a wall of white peaks blocking my passage. I also started noticing a few things that were different about the mainland there where I had come from. One was the density of the elements where I came from. The element density was comparable to a thin fog. Here though it was comparable to thick smoke. The other thing was the wildlife; here they would run away as I approached just like where I came from.

The key was when they fled, they moved at what was near maximum speed as a first phase coremaster. This now made me understand why everyone said that all coremasters came from the mainland. I was admiring these differences when I finally stepped into the mountain range and was weighed down by forces with a realization that the gravitational forces had tripled. Nearly causing me to trip due to the sudden change.

I looked around wondering what would be causing this change but the only difference I could detect was an increased density in the earth's elements. Continuing on as I got further up the mountain, the gravity continued to increase slowly. Luckily with my increased physical abilities, the gravity wasn't growing nearly fast enough to cause much hindrance to me. I quickly approached the peak when I noticed what seemed to be some sort of cave.

Only it was unnaturally rounded as if someone had decided to carve a perfect circle in the mountain peak. Curious and wondering what could make such a perfect circle in the mountain; I went over and looked around. I saw that the hole continued deep into the mountain.

Entering in, I noticed as I walked the gravity increased at a much faster rate than it did while I was climbing the mountain. Eventually, as I walked, the smooth walls were slowly replaced with walls filled with what felt like runes but were impossible to see due to the inky darkness.

Making me even more eager to see where this tunnel led. Unfortunately, as I got closer, the gravity had increased to such a force, that I could barely even take one step much less continue on down a corridor which I still couldn't tell how far it continued.

Knowing there was nothing I could do, I stared into the darkness with disappointment shaking as I was barely able to hold myself up due to the gravitational forces, I turned back making a mental note to come back here when I was stronger or else I wouldn't be satisfied.