"You see..."
Ato started talking to break the sudden silence.
"They are a pretty strong group and call themselves 'sect', though I doubt that they actually are one. But it's a fact that they have an Ascension-realm elder. A few days ago, he visited and arrogantly demanded that we'd submit, so they can claim this spot."
"An Ascension-realm? And yet they dare act arrogant?"
"Sect leader, well... we didn't inform them of your presence..."
Maren's eyes gleamed for the fraction of a second.
"So they don't know I'm here? Hehehehe... good... Then let's give them a surprise, shall we?"
'System open the shop!'
-Affirmative
A massive list of items popped up in his view.
'Can you only show me defensive arrays please?'
-Affirmative
With a flash, the thousands of item on the list were reduced to a few hundred, with prices ranging from a few points to the thousands.
'Can you also limit the price range to what I currently have?'
-Affirmative, Information: [Host] currently has 350 shopping points.
Instantly, the list was reduced even further, with only tens of designs remaining. Looking through them, Maren's face had a smile that got wider and wider.
'Only 300 points can afford me a Reality's-Path ranked array? Damn, that's cheap!'
Not that he would complain, honestly. While looking through the shop's list, a particular array design caught his eye.
'Hm? Although this one is only a Reality's-Path array, it costs 550 points? Isn't that too expensive?'
At first, his brows furrowed but reading the description, he thought it made sense.
'So this Mountain-Turtle array can prevent the surroundings from getting destroyed by a fight between Reality's-Path Cultivators! I'd certainly like to buy this, but the price... '
He looked at the icon in the shop indicating his points.
'System, can I trade the remaining resources in the inventory to points?'
-Affirmative
'How many points can that get me?'
-Information: [Host] can obtain a total of 30 points from that transaction, but can't use the same resources to trade with the system in the future
'Only 30? Damn, that's way too little... But I don't have uses for them at the moment anyway, so just trade them.'
-Affirmative
With a flash, Maren's inventory got nearly emptied out completely and his points jump to a total of 380.
'And here I thought I could cheat my way to victory by buying stuff from the system...'
Maren gave himself a mocking smile.
'Guess I'll have to flip through 'Mantled in Night Skies' and search for an appropriate array. I really don't want people to destroy my sect...'
"Ato!"
He yelled, summoning his loyal elder.
"Can I take a few branches from your Celestial's Blood? Not the ones with the fruit of course, but I want to carve some appropriate arrays for our sect and need the necessary materials."
Hearing Maren speak of claiming parts of his Celestial's Blood for himself, Ato nearly cursed at him, but after hearing his actual request he was glad he stopped himself in time.
"Of course, sect leader, just take as much as you need, just please be careful with my fruit!"
He revealed a begging expression. Those fruits were what he worked for during the last 60 plus years, and he was almost certain that he wouldn't be able to form a peak Stairs-Ascension foundation again, which was the most important requirement for it, apart from the seed of course, which itself was as rare as a phoenix feather.
"Haha, don't worry. Those fruits are really precious for disciples, I wouldn't unnecessarily destroy such a divine treasure."
Ato's expression looked quite funny to Maren, a scaled, middle-aged man sporting the expression of a child begging it's mother for sweets.
Suppressing his laughter he walked towards his mansion, while Ato started helping Mark and Tori with assessing Niita's current skill level.
During the next two days, Maren spent his time carving arrays, that could shield the sect from normal Perfection-Practitioner realm attacks. While looking through 'Mantled in Night Skies' he also found the design for a soulbinding contract. It could form a servant-master-bond between two individuals if they voluntarily signed it. As he found that quite useful, he created a bunch of them.
While he was still creating arrays, a slight ripple went through the air suddenly, originating from a mountain nearby and extending throughout the forest. Went the feeling passed through the courtyards, Ato paled and started running to Maren's mansion.
"SECT LEADER! THIS IS BAD!!!"
Maren didn't pay much attention towards the vibration, just thinking that it was some of the Practitioner-realms nearby fighting against each other, but seeing Ato's flustered expression, he realized that it had to be something more troubling than that.
"Calm down, what's up?"
Ato had to catch a breath and calmed down after hearing Maren's advice. He then began to explain.
"Sect leader, just now, the ripple that went through the air... that was a spatial fluctuation!"
Seeing Maren still not understanding the seriousness of the situation, he hurriedly tried to make things clear, as a disaster would be imminent otherwise.
"That means there must be a teleportation array nearby! And considering the fact that none of the people on this island should ever have heard of spatial laws, and that those people that arrogantly demanded our surrender a few days ago called themselves sect before, this could be really, and I mean really, bad for us!"
Just as he finished explaining, an arrogant voice echoed throughout the valley.
"Ignorant natives, I'll give you a last chance; surrender now and we might let your puny organization off the hook!"
Looking up, Maren and Ato saw a cloaked figure floating in the air, a few hundred meters above the courtyards, looking down arrogantly.
"Hahaha, don't you dare come out now? Get your asses moving and bow the fuck down!"
Hearing the arrogant figures speech, Maren's left eye twitched.
'Motherfucker...'
Niita, who just arrived together with Mark and Tori, after seeing Maren blankly staring at the floating figure, couldn't help but remember how he usually handled arrogant people. The thought sent a shiver down her back and she maintained a distance between herself and this scary youth she had to call master.
Just when Ato wanted to return some of the insults to the cloaked elder, he felt Maren's hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Maren creepily grinning at him.
"Don't. Tell him your sect leader is here and would like to meet him. Let's see if he can still pull his neck out of the noose..."
He mumbled the last part, but Ato still heard it. His eyes flashing with understanding, he turned towards the floating bastard, an evil grin appearing on his face too.
"Bastard, our sect leader just got home and would like to meet you face-to-face! Do you dare?"
He yelled mockingly.
"Sect leader? Huehue, how dare you puny bastards even call yourselves 'sect', it's an insult to the main continent you ignorant fools!"
The disdain in the cloaked elder's voice parted to make place for traces of wariness.
"But sure, I'll meet your 'sect leader', I'm only just scared that he would toss you out to appease us, you dirty old snake!"
While throwing insults, the concealed elder slowly descended into the courtyard. When he landed, he looked around warily, but only seeing some Practitioner-realm brats, he glanced at Ato mockingly.
"Now where is your sect leader, huh? Too scared to show up?"
Wallowing in his arrogance he didn't notice how Ato's eyes flashed with playfulness.
At this point, Maren gave a slight cough, drawing the arrogant elder's attention onto him.
"Greetings, elder. I'm this sect's, Equinox-Flower's, sect leader."
The name was something he made up on the spot, as a mafia bosses son he was quite edgy after all.
Seeing this so-called sect leader he was so wary of, the elder this eyes nearly bulged out and he roared with laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS YOUR SECT LEADER?"
He wiped out some tears of joy.
"What a good joke. I take that as a sign of your surrender then?"
The elder thought that Ato just wanted to insult him by meeting up with a Practitioner-realm brat, and he actually didn't mind much. Too bad for him that he didn't know that Maren concealed his actual Cultivation...
Hearing the elder's gloating tone, Maren had a frown on his face.
"Sir elder might have misunderstood us, we have no desire to surrender. Rather, we'd like to ask the elder to let his troops retreat..."
He was quite annoyed by the arrogance people in this world showed, and already planned on how to get rid of the elder.
"Haha, brat, one joke is enough..."
The elder's Ascension-realm aura exploded.
"...now FUCK OFF."
He let the full might of his aura crash into Maren's figure, expecting him to either instantly crumble to dust or make Ato defend his disciples, suffering a serious injury in the process.
At first, he still roared with laughter, but soon his expression shifted to shock and then fear. This brat was not affected by his aura at all!
"I'll apologize in advance, but it's your own fault... I can't really control my cultivation well..."
Maren slightly bowed towards the elder. The latter, realizing what kind of monster he had provoked paled in fear.
"NOOOOooooo..."
An instant later, the full force of Maren's Divinity-realm aura crashed into him, grinding his bones into dust and flinging him outside the courtyard at neck-breaking speed.
Maren just looked at the flying figure.
"Team Rocket's blasting off again! Too bad he's not dead yet..."