"Oh?" I paused as I came upon the sight of the Harbinger Sect Compound; the front entrance was open.
I wouldn't make it far past the front courtyard's gates before Emma came into view. She didn't wave or greet me like a normal person upon registering my presence. No… Instead, she charged at me as she yelled, "Fucking brat! Didn't I tell you to cultivate until you reached the first Stage of the Saturation Realm?!"
She jumped and tried to drop-kick me, but failed miserably as I simply stepped to the side. The only reason I could surmise as to why things played out this way is because she had suppressed herself to just above her perception of my cultivation base. I knew she and the other two guys in the Sect were E Rank Skin Exchange Realm Cultivators, so she probably could have killed me faster than I could even see coming if she really wanted to.
"How dare you dodge, you fucking… Hmph!" After Ji put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, she slapped his hand off and started walking back to the Sect Compound like nothing happened.
"Hahaha," Ji laughed as we followed behind Emma, "Don't mind her, Joji. She's probably just a bit butt-hurt over the fact that I was right about you being a prodigy; probably..."
"Right… Oh, right! Here," I said, before rummaging around in my Bag of Holding and pulling out nine Fractured Spirit Stones. "I've already started hunting, so I guess I have to start paying tribute to keep my membership."
"Whoa, there kid," Ji said shoving the Spirit Stones back at me, "I don't know what Emma taught you, but you only have to pay 9% of your share of joint-hunting sessions. No Body Cultivator Sect, not even new ones like ours, will ask you to pay tribute for any money you've earned by yourself."
"Alright then," I nodded and redeposited my Spirit Stones back into my Bag of Holding. The only thing Emma had neglected to tell me about paying tribute was the fact that it only applied to group hunting excursions. Though, to be fair, I guess she wasn't expecting me to be out hunting by myself so soon.
"Anyways, what took you guys so long?" I asked, after we made it inside.
"This," Wattson said, earning my full attention with the chunk of sparkly ore in his hands. "We had to go all the way out to the Primo Tundra for this."
"Uh… A rock?" I couldn't see what was so important about the basketball-sized stone in his hands.
"That rock—" Emma sneered, "—holds a whole five kilograms of precious Primo Platinum. That's enough material for at least two of us to reach the peak of the Skin Exchange Realm."
"So, it's like a better version of a Spirit Stone, then?" I couldn't fathom any other way some piece of metal might be useful in cultivation.
"You can find out when you read up on the Skin Exchange Realm," Ji said, redirecting the conversation before Emma died of a brain aneurysm. "Now, it's your turn to tell us what you've been up to while we were gone."
"Well… Nothing much happened for the first three days after you guys left. I just cultivated until I couldn't take it anymore and decided to go hunting. Though, I did meet some guys while out on the field that told me they'd be watching out for our Sect," I said while pulled out the card I received from the Arling Sect.
"Hmm? Who gave you this?" Ji said as he looked over the card with an amused expression.
"I didn't catch his name, but it was a guy in his mid to late twenties; about my height, with short black hair. Oh and he had these two followers with him. Now, I know the guy's name was Ren, but the rude girl… Eh, it probably doesn't matter— Why are you looking at me like that?" Suddenly, everyone looked as serious as can be.
"You talked to the Arling Sect's patriarch?" Emma asked.
"His exact words were, 'tell your leader that my Arling Sect will watch out for you guys,' so… maybe?" How was I supposed to now he meant he literally owned the Sect?
"Why? Did I make an enemy or something?" I asked.
"Probably not, or you wouldn't be standing here, still alive," Wattson said with a sigh.
"The Arling Sect patriarch, Ye Arling, is a D Rank Air type Liquid Realm Cultivator. Forget Joji, all four of us would die without even knowing how, if we made an enemy out of him," Ji added, gravely.
"Ok? So what did he mean when he told me he'd watch out for us?"
"You… must have done something to impress him," Emma said, tone anomalous.
"That makes even less sense, since our interaction revolved around my first hunt. Where I… may or may not have been running from a harmless baby Nejo like a bitch before I figured out they were harmless," I called it how I saw it, but the others seemed aghast.
"Now what?! Why do you all keep looking at me like that?" It's like my every action was unfathomable.
"You hunted a Nejo as your first Demonic Beast? No. Disregard that. When was this and what was your cultivation base at the time of incident?"
Time of incident? Did Wattson really have to make it sound like such an important event?
"Er… It was earlier this morning and I was halfway through the first Stage of the Saturation Realm."
"Was?!" Everyone was starting to scare me from how serious they were taking my words.
"Yeah?" I said, somehow sounding unsure despite it being less than a day since these events took place. "After I killed the Nejo and talked to the guys from the Arling Sect, I sold the Demonic Beast corpse for five Fractured Spirit Stones and my Bag of Holding. Then, I used the Spirit Stones to cultivate and now I'm in the Second Stage of the Saturation Realm."
For a time, I felt creeped out with the three pair of adult eyes roaming around my underaged — seventeen, where I was raised was considered underaged, anyway — body.
"It's possible that maybe, just maybe," Wattson started, "this can all be explained by the cultivation method you picked."
"The Path of the Archfiend?"
Nope. That statement just made everyone look even more constipated.
Words, Emma understood, just wouldn't work. So, she effortlessly dragged me out of the compound with Ji and Wattson in close pursuit. When we got to the inner courtyard, an open space in the heart of the compound, she tossed me a couple dozen feet away from her and said, "Talking to you will only continue to confuse me."
"I don't see how bringing me here will help clear up any doubts…" I admitted.
"Enough talk, Joji. Now," she smirked, "we let our fists do the talking."
Wow. Talk about being corny; that was awful…
Alas she was serious if her poised stance and intimidating aura was any indication.
I put my hands up despite knowing the futility of my actions. I shouldn't even stand a chance against most other Cultivators in the upper Stages of the Saturation Realm; never mind, anyone in the next Realm entirely.
"Now, try to kill me, so I can see where you are in terms of strength," Emma said.
"Cultivators in the Saturation Realm are the hardest to appropriately identify with regards to Stage, so it all comes down to combat prowess," Wattson explained.
"Without the Energy Center of Collection Realm Energy Cultivators, or the insulating layer of skin possessed by Skin Exchange Body Cultivators, it becomes impossible to probe Saturation Realm Cultivators, unless…" Ji started.
"Unless what?" I asked, finally understanding why everyone keep overestimating my cultivation base.
"Unless one possesses the Core Sense of B Rank Cultivators…"
"Seriously guys… Shut the fuck up," Emma said to Ji and Wattson before turning to me and demanding that I finally start our fight.
I shrugged my shoulders and charged at her.
Her eyes widened slightly before she shot me a disdainful look and relaxed her posture; like she had already won or something.
When I made to reaching distance of her, I engaged in close combat… I punched, kicked, and failed to hit her for almost a minute straight before she retaliated.
Flick!
All she did was flick her index finger against my forehead, yet I must have been airborne for at least a solid three seconds.
"Some prodigy he was," I could hear Emma start laughing as I picked myself off the ground and rubbed my forehead.
Fuck, it stung.
"Oi, can it with that sarcasm," Ji actually defended me, "Or are we going to forget this is the same guy that came to our sect all of four days ago without even knowing what cultivation was?"
"His Martial Arts are atrocious," Emma deadpanned.
"What Martial Arts?!" Ji, Wattson, and I all yelled at her.
"So you admit you didn't study any Martial Arts before going out to hunt? Forget prodigy, this guy's a certified super genius, boys."
"Cultivation-wise, I agree," Wattson said without a trace of sarcasm.
"Kid's got the raw speed of someone six Stages deep into the Saturation Realm. In four days? I don't think even the core disciples of most C Rank Sects in the lower Abyss Worlds cultivate that fast..."
But I was only in the second Stage, according to the Path of the Archfiend…