Riding deeper into the forest, Maren found out more and more auras, some concealed and some not.
'What is going on...?'
Maren was confused, what did those people want here? It would be understandable that various forces sent scouts, to make contact with his sect after Ato basically announced it to everybody a few weeks ago, but why would those scouts hide in the forest then, instead of going to the sect ground. And the weirdest thing was, there were some occasional Peak-Practitioner auras flaring up in his senses! Wasn't the Ahan city lord supposed to be the only one who reached that realm on this island?
A feeling of uneasiness started spreading in Maren's heart.
"Niita, get off your horse."
He sent that message directly into her mind while dismounting.
"Something is going on, and I don't like it."
Looking around warily, he started circulating his Qi in a peculiar way, making his aura and Niita's disappear silently. He then urged her to move quickly.
'What the hell is this? Why would I feel so uneasy?'
He scanned the nearby mountains, but only detected some Practitioner-realms hiding in some trees.
'Their target clearly is my sect headquarter, but why would they dare to have thoughts about it? Don't they know that Ato is holding the fort?'
Suspicion plagued his mind, but since he couldn't really put a finger on the reason why he just proceeded towards the sect grounds.
'No matter what's going on, meeting up with Ato would be for the best.'
___________
On a mountain in the near vicinity .
The calming scenery and lush forests calmed the eyes of the cloaked people standing on top of the same mountain.
"Elder, he didn't seem to have noticed us."
A cloaked man was bowing towards an equally concealed figure.
"En, the grand elder's array seems to be working fine. It's unfortunate that our sect can't mass produce it, otherwise..."
The equally cloaked figure cackled as deviously looked on forward.
Had Maren heard the conversation between those two, he would have been utterly shocked! Another sect has already sent their forces on the island!
While he expected it, he wouldn't have thought that the mainland would find the island this fast. He thought he had time to lay down his sect's foundation at least! Unfortunately, Maren couldn't have known that blessed land on the main continent was getting sparse, making it difficult for big sects to expand. They thus sent scouting parties in all directions years ago, their task being; find unclaimed blessed land and establish a foothold!
"A tiny hidden force actually dares to call themselves a sect, just because they have an Ascension-realm as the spearhead! Truly ignorant. And they have the audacity to claim this heaven-blessed spot of land for themselves. They should learn how the word 'fear' is written!"
As an elder of a big-scale sect on the main continent, the concealed figure couldn't help but instinctively disdain the poor and tiny native organizations. They normally wouldn't even enter the eyes of somebody with status as high as the concealed elder's!
Of course, had the figure known that the sect leader's cultivation was at the Divinity-realm, they wouldn't have been this disrespectful. After all, even they, a force ranked 34th of the main continent, only had two Divinities, their grand elder and sect leader!
"Is the teleportation array ready yet? We need to get the construction team of the sect over here!"
The elder turned towards a young man dressed in silver robes.
"It will be in two to three days, but... "
The man seemed to be troubled.
"What is it?"
"Elder, you know that my sister in the Blazing-Sun sect is more knowledgeable in spatial arrays than I am, and I'm worried she might notice the fluctuations of the teleportation. I'm worried they might lock down the coordinates and take this island from us!"
"Understandable, but don't worry."
A playful smile hung around the elder's mouth.
"Our sect leader will personally come, huhu. Those Blazing-sun bastards won't see that one coming."
Those words seemed to calm down the silver robed youth, but the trouble on his face didn't fade away completely. But the operation was led by the elder after all, and he, as a mere core disciple, couldn't influence his decisions. He walked away to continue working on the array while the elder let his gaze wander through the mountains again.
_________
Maren's footsteps stiffened and he turned around instantly.
'Did... somebody just watch me? How could those mere Practitioner-realm Cultivators even sense my existence, let alone watch me?!?'
With a sweep of his aura, every Cultivator in the radius of a few miles became visible for him, except the ones in the concealing array.
'Weird... I swear that I sensed correctly... '
He looked around once more, but since he still couldn't sense anything, he turned around and lead the way towards the sect.
A few hours later, he finally saw the inner courtyards, with the ever familiar golden pine tree inside.
The magnificent buildings soared in the sky, while the pavilions majestically reflected sunlight and brightly seared the bystander's eyes.
When Niita saw these magnificent buildings for the first time, she was stunned breathless. This palace looked even better than the city lord's mansion! Just who was her master to be able to own this place?!
Maren, seeing Niita's reaction, was quite pleased. Impressing beauties, after all, was something every young man enjoyed.
"Hahaha, surprised?"
She just meekly nodded her head.
"Well, you're gonna live here with my other two disciples, so it's best to get familiar with the place fast."
After entering the courtyard, she got another shock. In the middle of the place was a giant snake laying on the ground sleeping, while occasionally giving out wisps of an earthshaking aura!
"That's Ato..."
Maren kicked his head.
"...our current grand elder, and your martial uncle."
After getting his head smashed into the ground, Ato hurriedly transformed into a human and bowed. There was just one person here able to knock him out in one hit, so he didn't even have to look at who just arrived.
"Greetings sect leader!"
"Hmm hm, I see you've recovered a bit?"
"As expected of sect leader, you could see my current state with one glance!"
Ato sounded surprised.
"It is indeed as you say, I am at Stairs-Ascension realm again, but... "
His tone got more troubled as he spoke.
"...with my injured foundation, it'll be quite hard to progress any further without Celestial's Blood."
"Haha, no worries, take your time lest you suffer instability in your Qi."
Maren was quite lax with his tone. Unknowingly, he already treated the sect as his home, or at least something close to it, and was feeling relieved by being back.
"Where are Mark and Tori?"
"They are currently on pest control, some annoying little bugs have infested the mountains recently, and some daring ones get close to the sect grounds, so we had to get rid of them."
Maren's brows furrowed.
"I noticed several strong Cultivators on my way, how are the two of them supposed to get rid of those?"
"No worries sect leader, they both already reached the Practitioner-realm."
It made Ato chuckle.
"Really, it makes people envious, how are those two so fast... Then again, if I had cultivated with 'Mantled in Night Skies' from the beginning, I probably wouldn't need to use Celestial's Blood to reach the Divinity-realm."
Hearing this piece of good news, Maren's mood got happier and some of the uneasiness faded away.
"But Ato, call them back anyway. There is something weird about the situation and I don't want to risk it."
"Ok, no problem."
He then let out a low growl that strangely reverberated throughout the valley. Seeing Maren's questioning look, he explained.
"We started using this method to communicate when the both of them left the sect."
"Heeee? You seem to get along quite well... "
Maren raised an eyebrow and said the standard line to make people annoyed. As expected, Ato rolled his eyes and ignored the sentence.
Instead of answering the taunt, he casually glanced at Niita.
"And who is this lady?"
"Ah, she is my third disciple, Niita."
Seeing Ato not really interested in her, he teasingly added,
"Her aptitude is higher than youuurs~"
Somehow, at this moment he just felt like teasing Ato, it made him relax.
They continued their banter until, a while later, two men walked into the courtyard. When they caught sight of Maren they immediately bowed.
"Greetings, master!"
"En, I'm back. And I also brought you..."
He stepped aside, to allow Mark and Tori to see Niita.
"... a junior sister."
"WHAAAT!"
They both immediately exclaimed. A junior sister! And a beautiful one at that! Their minds were instantly filled with all kinds of... interesting thoughts.
"Pah, toads lusting after swans meat."
Maren disdainfully looked at the two.
"Do you think I'd bring you two a plaything? Wrong!"
Both of them immediately felt guilty about having indecent thoughts, but instantly afterward they looked at Maren with stupefied expressions.
"She is obviously mine, hehe." Maren lewdly licked his lips as Nita meekly watched on with obvious fear in her eyes.
Damn this master of theirs, how shameless can one be! Not that they'd have a word to say in the matter...
"But anyway, it's nice to be back! Only... can somebody tell me why so many bugs invaded my backyard?"
He glanced around, and the expressions of everybody fell instantly. Of course they couldn't avoid that topic after all...