***
(Ye Chen POV)
When I heard her stop the process of them taking me away I thought there was hope she would salvage the situation. Hope, that she would say that I was interesting or something like that and would try to negotiate with these two to keep a hold on me.
Of course those hopes were shattered as instead she had completely expelled me from the sect. The token and even the clothing that was given to me was forcefully taken from me. It was a spectacle for others as my sect clothing was taken and hovered in the air for a moment before it was set ablaze.
The slightly hopeful eyes I had dulled immediately. I stared at her for a few moments, frozen and speechless at the act. My mind blanked until I felt my shoulders shaking.
When I came to, I was still in the banquet hall as Hao Lin was vigorously shaking my shoulders. Her eyes were turning red as she teared up.
"Brother Chen! Brother Chen…"
"Lin'er, I'm here. What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I raised my hand up as I wiped a tear away with my finger. There were light red glistening trails from her eyes which formed from her tears.
"I-I just heard that you're going to be taken away. How could I not be sad? It's going to happen so suddenly as well! I-I haven't even had any time to prepare for your departure!"
'Oh that's right, these two people said that they would take me into their sect, right? They didn't even get my opinion on whether or not I wanted to join, but so be it. I've heard quite a bit about them anyway so the environment shouldn't be too bad.
It's a shame that I have to leave now though, I didn't even get to finish my business here. I guess that fourth Sister will have to wait for a while.'
"Here, Lin'er take this to remember me by." I quickly thought of something I had before producing a silver ring encrusted with a small blue gem. It was originally planned to be used as a gift for wooing other women, but I couldn't leave Lin'er without something from me.
I actually have a small stockpile of these rings, but in differing variations, the only thing which gave them any semi-balance of similarity were the blue gems. I had picked it since that was the very color of my own eyes.
I took the hand on my left shoulder and opened its palms as I placed the ring in it before closing that hand up, all of which in a slow and gentle fashion.
At that point she let go of my other shoulder as she clutched onto that hand, but she didn't stop her eye contact with me.
"Promise me, promise me that you'll come back for me!"
"Of course, don't worry I'll use every chance I get to come back and see you!"
"You better!"
"You've said your goodbyes, now are you done here?" The mysterious aunty's voice appeared in my ears.
I turned to her before taking a look at the people around us, but three people in particular. Sister Xue, who I had to somehow find a way to restore our relation, That Big Sister, who I have to create a good relationship with and don't even know the name of, and that man next to her, the horrible bastard who must be hiding under a deep mask in front of others.
I thought about yelling out that he had forced those two women as his wives, but the two who saved me seem quite scared of that Big Sister, especially that old man who's been nothing but respectful in front of her.
If I really did yell it out then I'm afraid that something really horrible would happen to me. With That Big Sister's already bad impression of me, I felt that absolutely no one would be able to help me out if I spoke about that.
I don't quite know where this feeling came from, but it was almost like my entire body was sending alarms to not say those words. With such a horrifying feeling I felt like I had to listen to it or else something unspeakable would've really happened to me.
I raised my hand up halfway towards Sister Xue before eventually letting it fall back down when I noticed her turn away from my action.
That Bastard nearby looked at me with indifference, but that look felt as if it was all sorts of feelings to me. He was snickering, condescendingly mocking me, and with a touch of contempt, although he didn't show it I knew well in my heart that was what was probably happening under that mask of his.
That Big Sister on the side also looked at me with indifference, but I simply thought nothing of it besides the fact we hadn't really known each other for long.
"Come now, it's time." The two calmly walked out of the banquet hall and after a few extra moments looking at those I had to remember, I followed.
When I exited through the doors I heard as the crowd inside slowly started to regain its life. The two from earlier were simply waiting for me in the courtyard. The guards on either side of the doors stood as still as statues as I exited and I almost didn't even realize that they were there, but with another look I could see a little bit of fear in their eyes.
'Was it from those two? Haha, maybe this situation isn't so bad after all.'
"Alright Elder YI, you carry him."
'Oh? This beautiful Aunty will carry me? Perhaps a few accidents will happen and I'll just so happen to have a little more skinship with her then intended.'
"What? You're the one who wanted him! Fine, whatever. Come here! Alright, now let's go!" The aunty briskly walked over and with a single arm lifted me up by my waist. There she then started carrying me like I was simply some luggage under her arm.
"Ah? Elder Yi, you're going to be carrying me like this?!"
"Hah? What happened to "Aunty?""
"I-"
"Fufu~ Don't worry, I just think this would be a good way to keep you safe that's all. Now let's go."
With those words Both the old man and this Aunty started to float off the ground and slowly their altitude increased as well. I watched the ground gradually get farther and farther away from us with both amazement, excitement, and a slight fear.
Once they reached a certain height they began to fly at a steady speed, not too fast nor too slow, in the direction opposite of the Azure Sky Sect. The sect was located generally in the southwest of the city and we were currently going north east.
My place of birth was this very city, Baohu city, but I have never really left the general vicinity of our area, even as an Azure Sky Sect disciple, so I have absolutely no idea how the world looks or how it's shaped.
My parents were mortals who made a living off of the market stalls, but we had a family heirloom. It was apparently passed down for generations before it was given to me and activated. Apparently our family used to once be glorious, but they have no idea what happened to cause our downfall.
With the activation of the necklace I gained not only the ability to cultivate, but to cultivate well. Once I learned that I immediately went to take a test at the nearest Sect I knew of and joined them, though not before I said goodbye to them.
I had seen the elders and inner disciples of the Azure Sky Sect fly and such was always a goal for me in the short term. I know I'll get there eventually, but even if indirectly this is the first time I'm flying.
I spread out my 4 limps and started flapping around when I suddenly felt the solid grip on my waist rapidly loosening.
"AAHHH!!"
"Stop flapping your arms and legs like that, it's a little difficult to fly when you move so much. If you don't, I'll drop you for real next time!" I looked at her as she flashed a smirk at my terrified expression. At that moment I fully grasped onto her arms horrified at whether or not she was joking, either way I didn't want to find out.
"Elder Yi, stop scaring the boy. Hmm, while we have this time I suppose we should introduce you to what you're about to go into.
First of all I'm the Great Elder of the Harmonic Serpent Sect, Qian Bao and the one carrying you is one of our elders, Elder Yi Nuan. First of all I'd like to know what sort of weapon you prefer."
"A sword."
"Perfect, we have plenty of manuals and techniques for that. As for your teacher, hmm let's see, ah I know, your teacher will be Elder Yi. It's not like she had much to do anyway, surely another disciple won't be much of a hassle for her."
'Oh? So this Aunty will be my Teacher? Haha! Life is going well isn't it? Though it seems she already has some disciples, well if they're female I won't mind, but men might have something coming to them.'
"What! Great Elder, you want me to teach him?! Can't you get another elder? My hands are quite full already!"
"Oh quiet you! You only have 3 other disciples! The next elder has more than 10 times your current number of disciples! One more is simply nothing. You know our sect won't simply stop growing, right? Besides, it's not like I'm giving you just any disciple to train. As one of the core elders you should understand the value of core disciples!"
"*Sigh!* Fine, I'll take him!"
"Good, I'll tell you what if you train him well I might give you a jar of my thousand year old wines. As a little gift I'll send you a hundred year old wine in a few days as a little more motivation as well, now how about it?"
"Th-thousand year old wine? That's all you had to say! Do I get to pick that hundred year old wine as well?"
"No, but if you do well I might give you one of the better ones."
"*Gasp!* Alright! Don't you worry, he'll be nearing the 3rd realm before you even know it!"
As they were talking about me I was admiring the current scene I was seeing.
Below me was a lush green forest, but underneath the leaves of the tree tops I could see buildings scattered about with hundreds of people around. As we kept flying we flew over a large clearing at the base of a mountain which had several more buildings and seemingly thousands of people.
At this point we flew up as I noticed the rest of the mountain range, we flew past several more mountains whose bases were occupied with buildings. Eventually we finally started to slow down and land on one of the mountains and soon after.
"Junior Ye, how much do you know about our sect?"
"Um, Great Elder I don't really know much, except that you're one of the top ranked righteous sects."
"Oh? Is that all? Do you even know how old our sect is?"
"Um, no…"
"Hmm, oh would you look at that, your new seniors are arriving. Hurry up and greet them."
***
(Yi Naun POV)
As my disciples came over I found it to be the perfect time to bring something I had just thought about up.
{Great Elder, are you giving him to me simply because you don't want to take the blame of being the one to teach someone she expelled?}
{Oh? Do tell Elder Yi, why do you think that?}
{I remember her words and the outfit that she burned, they were from the Azure Sky Sect. From the way she handled that she must have had a bit of authority within the sect to out right expel someone like that, right? If she's part of that sect she has to be part of their upper ranks or else their sect really is hiding too deeply. Perhaps she could even be the elusive sect master, though it should be a man.
Besides, why else would you so easily give up a jar of your precious thousand year old wine. I could have contributed to his talent, but I might as well bring it up, I'd just like to know why the Great Elder would give up the teaching position of such a star pupil.}
{Elder Yi, you should just keep thinking about wine like you always seem to do. Though you are a little partially right. Say you became friends with that husband of her's right? It seems you really liked him, perhaps in the future I'll send you over in the future to form connections with the Azure Sky Sect.}
When he mentioned that man my thoughts immediately tried to recreate an image of him in my mind. That overwhelmingly handsome man which seemed to resemble the very image of those so called immortals.