Returning to the Sect

"We were concerned there may be more Nascent Soul cultivators in their hideout so we used invisibility talismans to sneak in. Turns out there was 1 less than we thought hehehe. It made our job easier and we took the time to kill them without having a prolonged battle."

The Supreme Elder then began to free everyone from their constraints. The Sect leader finally being free, approached the 2 skeletons lying in the center of the hall. These were the 2 disciples that were thrown into the orb earlier. He waved his hand and their remains disappeared, storing them within his space ring.

"You were loyal disciples of our sect, I shall bring you back with us and bury you with honour. Unfortunately, we lost many in the ambush with their remains unfindable however, we shall erect name plates and head stones for them back in the sect."

With that declaration, the Sect leader turned around and began searching the hall. The other Elders that had come for the rescue also began looking around the various buildings, searching for any treasures or spoils to take back.

Soon a treasury was discovered, unfortunately it primarily contained items useful for demonic cultivation. These items were destroyed since they were taboo objects, created from the remains of living humans. Aside from these, some regular cultivation resources were found like mana stones, ores, weapons and pills.

After securing all the treasures they could find, the rescue team escorted the Sect leader and disciples back to the sect. While it was very unfortunate that they wouldn't be able to participate in the tournament, the Sect leader wasn't too concerned. He knew the Mahayama cultivator was most likely searching for James and so even if someone else won the tournament, that expert would likely ignore them and come looking for their sect. He did not know why the Mahayama cultivator was looking for James but as long as they had what the expert wanted, it put them in a good position for negotiations.

He'd originally wanted to go, not only to promote the might of their sect's younger disciples but also out of respect for that venerable senior in attendance. After this event though, they had an excuse to return to their sect and allow that expert to come to them, which would be far safer.

The travel back to the sect was uneventful, which was exactly what everyone hoped for after what they'd just experienced. Along the way, James took the time to explore the new System function.

'Open Collection'

*Ding*

James found himself in what seemed like a giant warehouse with rows upon rows of shelves. On a shelf on his left lay a floating clear sphere, inside of which lay a finger. The finger was long, black and slightly decayed with a long sharp nail. It radiated red and black waves but the clear sphere it was in seemed to contain these waves.

'Was this finger inside the red and black flaming sphere? What kind if being could…how powerful do you need to be for a finger to contain so much power? Also…does this new system function just let me look at weird objects I find and collect? That seems a bit useless…especially since all the other functions so far have been incredibly useful and overpowered.'

James was confused that he didn't see any other system notifications or text relating to the Collection function or the recently acquired finger. He tried storing other objects but it appeared impossible and he had to wait until the system recognized an object before he could. With that he decided to ignore it for now, he figured he would learn more about it in the future.

Upon returning to the sect, James rushed straight back to the Enlightenment Peak where Faldon and Liz crowded him with concern. It took quite a while to calm them down but once he did, he bragged about being able to take down a Nascent Soul expert, going into detail about his heroic feats. They were both extremely shocked to hear it but were ultimately just glad he was back safe.

——

The Sect leader sent a magical beast to carry a letter to the other sects at the tournament site, letting them know of their situation and to tell them they've decided to back out of the competition. He also stressed that they should also remain on high alert when returning to their respective sects as it is possible other demonic cultivators may be targeting them.

The other Sect leaders, while a bit concerned with the brazeness of the demonic cultivators were ultimately overjoyed to have 1 less competitor when the stakes were so high for this tournament.

The Mahayama Supreme Elder was told of the situation and why one of the sects needed to withdraw. She was a beautiful woman with golden haired, a slender figure and a face that appeared no older than 30 years old. Her name was Valeria. She was slightly displeased at the situation but understood why they decided to no longer attend. She was also given a letter from the Sect leader of the Drifting Clouds sect where he hinted at the fact that the heavenly disciple she was looking for was within his sect. He also told her that she was more than welcome to visit their sect any time and she would be treated as an honoured guest.

Valeria was intrigued and decided to visit them should she truly not find the disciple she was looking for at the tournament.

——

James spent a few days recuperating before returning to his usual routine. A new change to his routine though was that he began learning and training in magic formations. His new routine was that he would train in combat techniques with Liz in the morning and magic formations in the afternoon.

He also wanted to look into increasing his cultivation but decided to fortify his current cultivation for a while first. While he has been able to increase his cultivation realm very quickly, he was sorely lacking in methods, tactics and techniques when compared to other cultivators in his realm. He was confident in being able to win in a fight against anyone in the Foundation Establishment realm with just his physical strength but he knew that the higher his cultivation became, the more this gap will become apparent.

James found magic formations truly fascinating. The more he learned, the more versatile they appeared to be. There were formations for almost anything someone could imagine, from creating a barrier to protect an entire sect to heating the bottom of a pot to ensure tea remains always warm. He could only imagine what he could accomplish when he becomes a true master of formations.