Chapter 19: Lake in the forest

Since Duchess apparent wanted to talk sect exams, Martial sage Iris told he own tale of how she made it into a more prestigious sect. It wasn't uncommon for a smaller sect to feed a larger sect when the sect was looking to build its core disciples roster.

"So, this is the great Dark Silver Day sect…" Unlike the small courtyards and dirt training fields of the beast sects, this was a real marital sect. They even had mountain peaks!

In the grand scale of sects, it was a still a small sect, with a mid-level nascent soul cultivator as its sect leader. Compared to her previous sect, a mid-level golden core realm cultivator was a mewling insect.

There was a large crowd, many young men and women hoping to change their futures. Some were way past their prime but still insisted they were eternally twenty-seven. Small sects tended to have small initiations and exams, mostly just to verify that one's accomplishments. Larger sects had formal exams and requirements.

"Those greater than thirty stay put, the rest advance up the stairs to the staging area to get their identification!" In brilliant silver trimmed ropes, members of the Day Sect directed participants forward. Since I was truly not over thirty, I advance up the stairs in the meandering crowed. The staging area was a grass barren field that saw way too much foot traffic. It was larger than the registration area. One could also see over the crowd the two stone pillars that formed the gate into the sect.

"That was unnecessary." Holding her nose Iris was a bit irritated. Someone had been too excited and let their sword, sheath, and all flying. In moments a tall perky girly with hair in an elaborate set of drills shoved her way over. She was tall and to Iris dismay a rack that would make fruit sellers jealous.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to let go." Handing the blade back, the busty babe bowed slight in apology before introducing herself.

"Good day, I'm-"

"Trash of the Lin family. Best be careful you don't wish to catch her stink." A man leading a small posse interrupted. How rude Iris thought, how can you call that bust trash? Of course, men wouldn't understand unless they had done stints as women.

"Yea unless you want to face the wrath of the third brothers second cousins first roommate, then I suggested you move along." One of the boys on the side of the first spouted off.

"Right than off I go." Without pausing I grabbed the hand of big boobs and pushed my way with her in tow out of the crowd. There were protest from the clique but I ignored it dragging her to the edge of the staging area.

We were halfway there when the teleport array activated.

Who knew that such a relatively small sect could afford a transportation array of this magnitude? Since I was holding on to busty, it appears we got teleported to the same place. Which would be fifteen feet above a lake. Dragging ourselves forward out of the water, I was treated to a sight which one would wage wars over. Dark black hair clung to her neck and shoulders, the silk of her robes turned see through, revealing a lacy under cloth that did nothing to preserve modesty. Her belt had come lose and the silk gained transparency well, highlighting thick creamy thighs.

"10 out of 10" Iris spoke not realizing she was in a similar state. Sputtering the girl blushed profusely.

"Hmm, so you blush all the way down." Wailing the embarrassed girl batted Iris, with strikes that did nothing. After a few moments she attempted to retain what modesty, she had by turning around. Unlike Iris who had trimmed and toned out due to the increased demands of her foundation, this girl still had a bit of baby fat, and a delightfully soft and rounded behind that Iris had the strong urge to grope.

"Pervert!" She said before digging into her things for some everyday talismans. She placed two on herself and then turned and slapped one on her companion's forehead.

"Bit overkill don't you think?"

"It's only because you helped me out, I can't afford to be in debt to anyone." For a moment Iris considered what she knew about the Lin family. Prominent power in the imperial court and…that was all she knew.

"You don't need to repay everything, its ok to let minor things go. After the show, honestly should be in your debt." Ignoring the indignation of her new friend, Iris gently removing the talisman and placed it on her own wet cloths. The qi activated talisman was of the water family, and slowly drew moister from her cloths into the paper.

It left Iris damp but not wet which was good enough to get by.

"Welcome to the Dark Silver Day sect. This is the first part of your entrance exam. Find the sect entrance, the time limit is three days!" Unsure of where the voice came from, it rang loudly across the entire forest they had been teleported to. Glancing skyward, one could tell that these mountain peaks were the same but angled differently. They must have used a short-range teleporter to drag them to the other side of the mountain.

"Thank you for helping me earlier, but I won't be traveling with a pervert like you!" She did a short bow, turning on a heel she stormed off into the forest, leaving the young Iris alone by the small shore of the lake.

"What a charming girl." Iris mentioned to empty air. The forest itself was vast, and the sect entrance would be somewhere near the base of the mountain. This test was clearly on land navigation, so she picked a spot and moved towards it. It wasn't long before she was completely lost.

"Well than let's try flamecholocation." While it wasn't the forest of its birth, the Apple Blossom flame still resonated with woods, giving a hazy picture of her surroundings. In the distance she felt the form of a busty lady that just walked out on her, and what appeared to be a small group of male antagonists.

She licked her finger attempting to feel the wind and its direction. When that didn't help, she threw a handful of grass, netting similar results. Satisfied that she still had no idea what the wind was doing she plucked quills and flung them skyward.

Once done she sprinted in the direction of a clearing where the scuffle was going on. Stopping behind a tree she had a brief moment to see what was going on.

"Don't worry about what happens, we will take responsibility."

"This is your chance to become a fourth wife, you won't get better than that elsewhere."

"Don't worry what we have is more than enough for cheap scum like you."

"Let's get those clothes off, we won't hurt you much."

Iris was stunned for a moment, intellectually at this point all they had done was say hateful things. The more she thought about the implications the more she felt something was fundamentally wrong with what they were doing. She herself had been fortunate to not encounter this kind of trashy scum underbelly before.

Her quills landed, striking the lustful men who were too distracted to see it coming. They also didn't see the sword that followed it. A silver thunderbolt struck the closet one to Iris before she broke cover and fell into the crowed of men. The leader like Iris was a high foundation realm cultivator, one who responded better than the dead man with the sword in his chest. Unfortunately for the other man on leaders right, he was a low rank foundation realm, with two quills in his chest, aggravated when his shirt was clutched and interceded with the quill storm that Iris was throwing as she closed the distance.

"Wasn't nice!" Iris cried as she moved hand to hand with the leader, a scared man who looked to be her own age. She kicked from the left, when he attempted to grapple as he blocked with a forearm. Her other leg kicked his hand forcing him to abandon that idea. Gracefully twirling in the air, his left partner had enough time to remove his quills and attempted to kick Iris forcing her to bounce back in front of jiggly girl.

"You don't look to bad either girly, how about you join the fun?" He grinned lecherously.

"You all, right?" She asked the cornered women, stepping forward from the tree she had her back to.

"I'm ok they hadn't done much but block and chase me." Looking at them, they wore in dark clothes, not sect robes or any other distinguishing features. While a bit ruffled there was no sign of significant damage on the two remaining men. These must be footpads or hired help.

"Feel up to taking righty there?" Iris asked as she brought her hands up defensively. Her opponent drew his own sword.

"I don't help prevents, but you can owe me one." Had Iris been paying more attention, she would of realized that it was the other way around.

"You can both owe me shortly, with tongues." What a disgusting failure of a human being. Throwing paper slips from her cleavage, I figured she must be a rich heiress since these were quality. Small explosions and lightning bolts forced the men to split up. They darted about, coming to grips with their foes.

The most common weapon in the world was by far the sword. Unsurprising both warriors had long strait swords, while Iris had hers buried in a guy who was permanently dirt napping. She plucked her last two quills and held them barb front like a pair of daggers in front of her.

"That the best you got" I have something you can handle that's bigger than those puny quills." It was the first time that Iris had ever truly felt revulsion for another human, though she was unsure of what he was talking about.

"Quill at you!" His reach was advantage, but they were in the high foundation realm, so the match up was less important. She was faster prodding his blade to redirect it. These were ten year diamond quills, enough pokes and they would have blades of the same length.

Iris ducked and launched quills at the man that boobzilla was fighting, earning a look of glee from the male who was going to cut her down. At least until he explodes, as busty tossed several talismans into his non aware side.

"Shade stalker apple claw strike!" She touched her essence flame, raking her opponent with red flamed fingertips. Her fingers cut through his sternum like an ax through butter. After waiting to make sure they weren't getting up she relaxed a bit.

Mentally she issued a quick prayer for the four fallen men, it would have been petty to not do that much.

Brilliant light flashed as the other women finished off her own opponent. Turning, Iris paused to admire her chest as she heaved deep breaths to recover from her fight.

"What…are…you…staring at." Shaking herself from the overwhelming cleavage, she reached into her robes and pulled out some bandages." She crouched down next to the girl looking softly and sincere.

"Lets get you patched up, we can't have your pretty silk skin marred."

!@# !@# !@#

"A natural seductress." Mary ended the story as the two bickered about who was hitting on who.

"Its not like Song Lin and I ever did anything, do you how many were killed just for her talisman making abilities?" Iris exclamimed

"Don't pretend that it wasn't about the fact that her knockers and hips were more well known than her skills as a thousand-year talisman maker." There was a hint of disgust and pure jealousy in her words.

"She's a ten-thousand-year crafter ill have you know, and yes, she won best cleavage on the fifteen continents sixty-three years in a row. That's not why I followed her around, I need her help to make arrays to for the marigold and daffodil flames." Iris fired back defending her self.

"I know that but that doesn't mean you have to follow women around like some sort of puppy!" Nettled Iris didn't relent.

"You chased after that senior leader of yours at least twice, and there was that one girl that threw herself at you when I was help you get your realm breakthrough." To be fair Iris had only been partialy aware that there was some sort of romentic tension between them at the time.

"Senior leader helped me after we failed the cloth test to catch up in the basics. It's not like I was serious about any of the women! I just was too scared to chase you" She mouthed the last part rather than speak it aloud.

"Well how was I supposed to know, I didn't have a first kiss until a few days ago!" She shouted back, missing the look of surprise on the two other dinner guest

"Why don't these two just get married already." It was impossible hear over the argument but both cultivators heard one of the maids whispering at the back archway of the dining room.

"Lets get out of here!" Iris roared as she scooped up the noble, sprinting from the hall. She didn't think that their lovers spat would spread far and wide beyond the walls of the duchy estate.