Within a dark hall at the core of the Soaring Sword Sect sat one of the leading figures the Law Enforcement Hall of the sect, Elder Tang Fangming. He was an old man with a beard of pure white and a scrunched back, wearing a red robe covered in golden three-clawed dragons. He posses a presence as dominating as an emperor, with a legendary aura. When confronted with him, all the disciples in the sect would feel the urge to kneel and if they didn't, there knees would be crushed.
In front of the sitting elder stood Lin Xun, clearly shaken.
"So is that it, is that all you remember", Elder Tang Fangming's voice echoed throughout the hall.
"Yes, senior."
"I believe you, now leave and tell the next one to come in."
Lin Xun quickly left the hall, sweat covering his forehead. So far, Chen Mingyue and him had just been questioned on their last few days. Even though the elder hadn't used any cruel tactics, he's presence alone was terrifying. Lin Xun motioned to Shang Yuan, guiding him towards the door.
Shang Yuan entered the hall, as he looked around he was awestruck on the beauty of the room. The walls were decorated by talismans and silk, with giant golden statues standing by the sides of both walls. At end sat the elder in a lotus position, he seemed less like a fragile old man and more like a slumbering dragon, preparing to strike.
"So, what is your perception of the matter young one?"
"The same as what the others said."
"Oh", Elder Tang Fangming was confused. "So you have no idea what the root cause of the matter was?"
"Nope."
Elder Tang Fangming lightly chuckled, "Let me tell you about a little secret child. When beings like me reach such a level of power, we see through everything. I see through your bones and blood, every movement of your muscle, even your soul. Lying to me is useless."
"I never lied", unlike the other two Shang Yuan was holding his ground.
"True, true...", the elder nodded. "But you haven't told me the whole truth either."
"Fine, but if you want the truth you'll have to answer a question for me."
Anger flashed on the elder's face, "Insolence! You do realise that I can turn you to dust with the shake of my hand!" Elder Tang Fangming had been treated like a god by his sect members for years immemorial, for a mortal child to now ask something of him was unthinkable.
"Why don't I just use a spiritual technique to devour your soul and gain your memories!"
Shang Yuan still stood his ground, "I doubt you will, since if you were able to you would have done it before even talking to us. Like you said, we mortals are nothing to you."
Elder Tang Fangming froze, although the boy's assumption were wrong, he wasn't too far off the truth. Due to the Immortal Commandments he couldn't harm these mortals through his techniques. Normally it wouldn't matter if a righteous path immortal killed a few mortals, but the entire sect had seen these mortals enter. Questions would be raised and even if he got away with killing them, his reputation would be severely hurt.
Elder Tang Fangming couldn't help but be a bit impressed with the mortal boy, at first he seemed just unnaturally brash for his situation, but he seemed to be not too bad intelligence-wise. Something that the disciples of his sect were lacking in, seeing as they were raised in an environment set on cultivating immortality. Although cultivation does raise intelligence through the improvement of the brain, the sect environment breeds a nasty type of arrogance and neglect of preparation.
"Alright… What is your question?"
"What was the fate of the female immortal that murdered my clan?"
The elder's eye showed a sign of finally understanding, "You mean Zhao Ling."
"I'm actually quite curious why she decided to annihilate your clan, why do you think it is?"
"The Chen wench lied to her about my clan!"
"I seriously doubt that's the reason, you might not know this but there are serious rules about mortal dealings in this continent."
"This continent?"
"I digress, you should know that the fairy you mention has an extraordinary identity. She is the Saintess of Primal Vermillion Sect."
Shang Yuan's face got slightly red, his hatred couldn't be contained. Lava poured in his insides.
"But she's not a worry, since the Nine Elusive Sword Sect executed her. She was too arrogant in thinking no one would find out about her brash actions, an example had to be set. Now tell me, what occured today?"
"I killed the entire town."
"What?" Elder Tang Fangming's cordial manner immediately disappeared in the wind.
"That's right, I've had enough of them so I killed them."
"Your not lying… How?"
"I used this."
Shang Yuan pulled out a bead from within his cloths. Of course, Elder Tang Fangming had noticed the bead when Shang Yuan arrived, but he hadn't put any real attention on it.
The bead flew from Shang Yuan's grasp and on to the elder's hand, but when it made contact with something shocking happened. A white rune appeared on the bead and as it approached the elders hand range a white flame emerged.
"A spiritual flame?!" The elder quickly lifted his arm where a powerful gust materializing from within his sleeve, returning the bead to Shang Yuan.
A look of greed appeared on the elder's face, but he made sure to hide it within an instant.
"You can leave, thank you for your assistance young man."
Shang Yuan exited the hall with haste, shocked over what just occurred.
The elder quickly regained his calm. "So, what do you think we should do?"
Behind Elder Tang Fangming, a mysterious figure walked out from the wall like it was made out of air. The face of the figure was covered by a straw hat and no part of his or her body could be seen from the large black robe he wore.
"We need to keep the child in the sect", said the mysterious figure in a light female voice. "That must be at least a Divine Artifact, maybe even a Immortal Artifact."
"No wonder Zhao Ling acted so brash", the elder mused. "How can you tell it's so powerful. Only beings in the Soul Divination realm poses Divine Artifacts, let alone Immortal Artifacts that are probably mere myths like True Immortals."
"I came across that fire in the past in the Dragon Corpse Continent", said the mysterious figure in a heavy male voice. "A powerful Devil God possessed it, it's a divine flame known as the White Bone Chakra Flame. And for a mortal to be able to bring out the flame for the artifact, it means that the artifact must possess power of insane levels."
"Then what should we do?" Elder Tang Fangming said. "The artifact seems to be bonded to the boy, it doesn't make sense. I doubt the boy even knows how to blood refine artifacts."
"Which is exactly why we need to keep the boy in the sect", said the mysterious figure in a ghastly, almost lifeless tone. "As long as we cultivate him and he refines the bead as his natal artifact, even if we can't take the artifact, we will, have gotten a powerful card in hand."
A giant grin spread across the elder's face, "As long as we get a artifact of that level, we might even be able to raise out sect to another level."
"Yes, but make sure to handle the matter relating to the village."
"What do you wish of me?"
"Kill the deacon from keeping the story to spread, I'll go the city and destroy the karma of the city, making it as if it never existed?"
"Has your cultivation of the sacred Soaring Nirvana Technique reached a breakthrough?"
"Yes, it should be possible to hide it from the Nine Elusive Sword Sect. Especially if they've just died."
"Ha, ha, ha… With your breakthrough and that artifact, this will be an especially interesting era for our sect."
"Don't get arrogant little Fangming, put Shang Yuan and the other two into the outer sect, make sure they don't speak about the disaster."
Elder Tang Fangming blushed, it had been centuries since he had been referred to as "little".
"Off course, I'll make sure everything goes as planned."