Back at the cavern a little earlier before the invasion took a turn for the worst for the Divine Ice sect, the grand elder held a large bag of books, medicinal pills, herbs and other resources required for survival and arrived with her disciple.
They appeared before Lumi who was deeply immersed in her meditation state as the ice cold air entered and left her mouth along with her breathe. "Huuu.. hu.. Huu….hour."
Her breathing was the only thing that could be heard until the sound of footsteps approached and the grand elder arrived in front of her and spoke in a hurried tone of voice. "Stop practicing and gather all of your things quickly! We need to leave quickly or else there will be no more of the sect that will remain after today."
Lumi opened her emotionless eyes and nodded stiffly and went to pack her bag at the fastest speed possible.
The disciple by the grand elders side looked towards Lumi's beautiful and cold appearance with a look of hatred but quickly concealed her thoughts from the others.
After everything was packed Lumi joined the group and the three of them headed towards a secret path and found themselves before an ice covered wall with runic markings carved and a small hole.
The grand elder took out an old looking key which seemed to be made of a very special material, she put the key into the hole and turned it until she heard a click.
The ice wall began to open up after several sounds continued in the background from various mechanisms opening the new path within the ice wall.
The disciple looked shocked at this and asked. "Master what kind of material is that key made from?"
The grand elder removed the key and the path began to close as they all entered. "Both of you follow behind me and don't get lost. The first sect leader who founded the sect once found a large piece of millennium ice ore. The first thing she had crafted was a sword which is the sects main artefact but she also had a key crafted with the remains, only that key would be compatible with the ice walls lock and if any other keys or methods were to be used the traps would be activated. Millennium ice ore is a very cold and tough metal which would not break when used as a key to open such a tough locking mechanism and the ice cold temperature would not melt anything by the key hole on the ice wall. If an ordinary key was used in the same shape it would either break inside the key hole or the heat added to the metal by body heat may cause the ice around the hole to melt."
The disciples eyes began to display visible greed upon hearing about the sword and keys material but concealed it from her master. "The founder must of been a very strong person then."
The grand elders eyes dimmed a little as if mourning how she could not do a thing to protect the sect the founder had built from scratch. "She was… but in the end she could not beat the human lifespan. In the end she grew old and passed away like any other human, in the end her descendants and those who entered the sect began to take on her role and kept the sect going for many years but in the end it all comes to an end in a single night."
Lumi who walked as if she was the grand elders tail continued to emotionlessly follow in silence.
If the grand elder gave her an order to pack up then she packed up, train the. She would train and follow then she would follow, besides that the only basic things she did for herself was sleep, eat, clean herself and relieve herself.
The rest she does is according to the elders schedule and orders as if she had no wishes or desires of her own and could not properly function without instructions.
Seeing the tail behind them the disciple scowled as if remembering a moment she hated but soon her lips turned upwards into a happy smile as if savouring her escape and her revenge.
She was the daughter of a women picked up from a brothel and a noble family head, she was mixed with a disgraceful and noble background from birth which greatly distorted her personality after receiving many dirty and disdainful looks.
She was destined to never be able to escape from her origins and even when she entered the noble household everyone never let her forget how she should be grateful for their tolerance for putting up with her existence and how disgusting of a thing she was.
After she got sent away by the family she felt a sense of freedom and she entered the sect but again she could not cut her ties even then.
Every day came with a new struggle as she fought hard to gain the top place within the sect but when she met a certain girl she could not help but feel deep hatred towards her.
The girl was originally more beautiful than her, just as hardworking than her but a little below her in terms of talent that it was barely noticeable.
What the she hated the most about the girl was her innocence and her pure and straightforward personality as they challenged each other for the first spot with the same batch of disciples.
She could of been placed as first had she tried her best in her heart but she was given strict orders to not win the final match so that she instead would become the grand elders disciple.
Since that day deep inside she could feel a building up hatred towards the girl who won first place.
After some time she came to realise it wasn't because she lost but because the girls pure personality was the direct opposite of her twisted self that she kept hidden.
Every time she encountered the pure girl she was reminded how much of a dirty and wretched person she was just like all of those people had called her in the past.
Still she continued to be a spy for the family because she had no choice, day passed by and the girl became more innocent and pure as if she had become a blank slate which further increased her hatred towards her.
When opposites meet there can often issues between the two if there isn't enough understanding of each other and there was never an opportunity for the two to even develop any kind of understanding of the other so the hatred began to build one sidedly without the other even knowing.
With Lumi's current state she wasn't even in a position to be able to notice the directed hatred towards her and even if she somehow did she would not care.
The three of them arrived at the end of the path and the same movements followed to open up another path leading outside.