Bok Taejin said sheepishly, "Actually, I am the newly appointed Sect Leader of the One Flower Sect. But I haven't even started cultivating yet. There was no food left on the mountain, so I had to come down and look for something to eat. With this token in hand, nothing in the Jade Blossom Mountain Range would have attacked me on its own."
Bok Taejin had carefully thought it through before deciding to be honest with the villagers.
First, he was only 14 years old and had no strength yet.
Surviving alone in the wild was nearly impossible.
The Life and Death Technique might help him become strong, but who knew how many years that would take?
He needed protection in the meantime.
Second, according to his memories, this area was under the jurisdiction of the One Flower Sect.
There were no other cultivators in this village—no matter how formidable the villagers were, they were still ordinary people.
Even among cultivators, only few people could forcibly take the One Flower Sect's Sect Leader Token from someone.
How could a group of ordinary people possibly do it?
Since he had nothing of value on him besides the Sect Leader Token, he wasn't afraid of being robbed or killed for his belongings.
Revealing his sect background wasn't a risk—in fact, it might even help him get closer to the villagers.
Just as Bok Taejin was considering whether to explain further, Im Beomhyeon let out a long "Ohhh" and said, "So you're that kid from the One Flower Sect who can't cultivate? Your Sect Leader mentioned before that he might ascend one day and leave you to fend for yourself in a village. Who would've thought that even with the One Flower Sect's Sect Leader Token in hand, you'd almost starve to death on the mountain?"
Bok Taejin: …
Could they not phrase it like that?!
Sure, the one who had been that foolish was the original owner of this body, but now he was the one bearing this identity!
Wait a second—
Im Beomhyeon's words contained some very interesting information.
Could it be that the former Sect Leader had known all along?
The old Sect Leader in the original owner's memories was just an ordinary old man with mediocre cultivation.
He held the title of the Sect Leader of the One Flower Sect, relying on his seniority and peaceful nature to maintain good relations with other sects.
However, he was not particularly sociable and only interacted with other sects when necessary.
Since the One Flower Sect consisted solely of him and a young disciple who could not cultivate and thus could not even use communication artifacts, he had no choice but to frequently engage with other sects.
Bok Taejin once suspected that the 's lack of progress in cultivation was due to being too distracted by these trivial matters.
However, now, he reconsidered—perhaps that was not the full truth.
The former Sect Leader is likely had some secrets of his own.
It was important to note that the structure of sects in this world was not like the ones in the novels he had read in his past life, where conflicts and battles were common.
On the contrary, the sects here were quite harmonious—sometimes even more so than martial arts sects in wuxia stories.
Above the sects was a vast empire.
Initially, all the land belonged to the empire.
Later, the empire allocated portions of land to various sects and conducted evaluations every hundred years.
Each sect's centennial task differed.