"Lord Santa... " the two elders whispered lightly as they looked at each other. Seeing the expression on each other's faces they knew that it is not a name that either of them has ever heard.
As they were climbing the steps drake who is following behind the two elders started to look around as he found the surrounding scenery quite mesmerizing.
From his view, drake could see large spiritual herb gardens, in which few disciples wearing sky blue color inner court disciple outfit tending to different kinds of magical herbs diligently while the many tiny rivulets which originated from spiritual spring pools provided the constant supply of spring water with rich spiritual essence to the various magical herbs.
In one of the spiritual spring pools which is a bit near to him, Drake could see lively scenes of exotic red dragon fishes leaping out and diving into the water, and rarely seen chaotic sea's golden royal salmon fishes could be seen swimming around cheerfully.
Just then drake caught sight of a beautiful scene, of a playful baby dragon fish, leaping out and slapping one of two diamond-shelled lobsters which were fighting furiously with their tough metallic pincers, right into the spiritual spring pool with its long tail.
While chuckling to himself seeing that, Drake suddenly noticed a reflection of a flock of birds flying in the sky. As he lifted his head up, Drake couldn't help but be entranced when he saw a group of pure white cloud feather eagles which are usually well known for their explosive speed flying lazily in circles with the evening orange sun at the center.
"What a paradise!" drake thought inwardly as he found it hard to hide his amazed expression.
Meanwhile, whenever the two elders, who were leading the way turned around and looked at drake, deep respect would flash in their eyes. When have they ever seen an expert, who could roam unhindered in the whole province, admire even the smallest of things?
They knew that what they have in their sect, is nothing compared to those large prefectural sects, which have huge spiritual beast forests full of exotic beasts like ferocious wyverns, dragon sharks and Beautiful phoenix redbirds, fire sparrows, and many other creatures which belong to distant bloodlines of saint beasts and mythical creatures like taoties, mermaids, kuns, qilins, pixiu, etc.
Also unlike them, those large sects would also have top tier spiritual veins running under their sect grounds, which would provide much better qi essence, which in turn is condensed into spiritual spring pools of high grade, providing the environment required for the growth of a variety of rare magical herbs and spiritual seafood!
As they were thinking about these things while climbing, soon they reached the peak of the sword-like mountain, and what appeared before drake is a grand entryway leading to a rather large courtyard, which housed various tall buildings with unique and elegant structures. The whole area had a grand and imposing feeling to it.
And as he stood at the entrance, taking in the view, Drake suddenly felt a faint prickling sensation on his cheeks.
"Sword Intent? "Drake questioned as his brows arched a little in surprise.
"Yes Senior, this mountain peak is a very special place in the whole sect, where you will feel a strong presence of sword Intent. In fact, this is the place where the sect founder had gained enlightenment into the slaughter sword intent, long back during a life and death crisis, when he was ambushed and surrounded by powerful enemies." one of the two elders who has a lean body said respectfully as he led the way through the grand archway and onto a smooth black colored stone path, which further got split into different directions, leading to different places and building located in the courtyard.
"Heh... Senior, you might not know, during that stormy night, the sect founder who is only at the early core formation stage at that time is said to have wielded his heavy long sword like a mighty sword god and fought a bloody battle on this mountain peak, slaughtering ten early-stage core formation, fifty foundation building, and nearly a hundred peak qi condensation experts. That day the blood of his enemies is said to have flowed like a waterfall from this mountain peak" the other plump-looking elder who is a bit too outgoing and enthusiastic said, while slightly lifting his chin and puffing out his chest with pride.
"Sect founder? And such a powerful figure at that... Why doesn't he remember anything about such mighty sect founder !!?" Drake who was silently listening to the two elders all this while wondered inwardly.
He couldn't be blamed for his lack of knowledge, even though Wen dingxiang has stayed in the sect for nearly ten years, there is never any information about such a mighty figure's existence. Drake even felt that there could very well be a mindboggling top-secret backstory to this sect founder figure, who not even left a trace in the long history of the whole of Azure dragon city.
"Oh... interesting. It's pretty rare to find experts of such caliber even in the provincial capital, let alone in this remote area" drake commented after composing himself.
"Indeed senior.. His legend has spread far and wide after that day. Later he established our mystic sword sect around this mountain peak, which was named as slaughter peak, and all those who became sect leaders of mystic sword sect later would take up residence here and practice their sword intent. Also what we are experiencing right now, is only a fraction of sect founders sword intent that got assimilated into the mountain surface overtime during his long stay on this peak" the lean elder summarized with deep reverence evident in his tone.
"Ahem... dear elders, is this mighty sect founder of yours still around ?" drake probed just out of caution.
Hearing drake's question, the plump elder's puffed-out chest caved in immediately, and his shoulders slumped down a bit. Noticing the extreme dejected look on the usually energetic fellow, the lean elder shook his head and sighed. He knew that this elder who is also the youngest edition to the ranks of core elders of the sect is a big fanboy of the old sect founder. So it's natural for him to become dispirited when he is reminded of the stories about the old sect founder's plight.
"Haaa... Senior, Actually it has already been a couple of centuries since our sect founder had gone missing, due to some unknown mysterious reasons. And two years after he went missing, there were many rumors of him being accused of indulging himself in fiend path and was said to have abducted gifted newborn babies and cultivated using their postnatal blood origin essence. At that time the prefecture lord had also put out a death warrant for the sect founder and has sent orders to wipe out anything related to him from the whole history of this prefecture.
Luckily the then sect master sensed the nefarious intentions of various forces, and immediately contacted the few powerful old friends of the sect founder, and requested their help in resisting the all-out attack on our sect at that time. And so our sect barely managed to escape the calamity, but without a powerful expert like sect founder holding the fort, our sect has declined with time." the lean elder said with a slight hint of helplessness and injustice in his tone.
"Damn it... now our sect leader has to marry that Yuan wenyan from Iron palm sect, just to prevent our sect from declining further.." the plump elder cursed while balling his fists tight.
Hearing the two elders drake nodded as he got the general gist of matters regarding the sect founder and the marriage proposal to the sect master from the Iron palm sect.
"So the Sect master and Yuan wenyan's marriage is not all because of their romantic relationship as everyone thought," drake thought as he followed behind the two elders, as their group took many turns as they continued on the black stone path.
And soon they could see a large majestic mansion with large bronze doors, with two large statues of sword holding bronze knights, which are twice the height of average humans, located on either side of the doors. The outer walls of the whole mansion are covered with marvelous stone carvings of a valiant sword fighter with long flowing hair fighting in different kinds of situations.
In one depiction he could be seen fighting a horde of enemies while riding on the back of a horse, in another one he could be seen slashing the head of a person wearing a crown and royal outfit while on the top of a huge cliff. There is even a depiction of him standing on the head of a humongous demonic python stabbing his long sword right into its forehead. The carvings looked so realistic and fierce that they made the whole mansion exude a feel of regal arrogance.