After a long journey where they left the city, walked through a large dark forest, and climbed up the steep mountain trails, the temples of the Order of Death were finally in sight.
"Phew!" Xander let out a deep breath.
'Thank God,' Xander could not wait to hand his jade slip over to the head priest, making him one step closer to finishing this trial.
"What's got you stressed?" Russel asked after hearing Xander's sigh.
This brought Xander back to reality.
He looked around with a somewhat shocked look, not sure what to say. He couldn't bring up the trial; it was a known thing that if you brought up the trial to the people in it, they would just act oblivious, almost like you were speaking a different language.
"Oh, nothing. Just can't believe we made it out of there. This is just surreal to finally be back… somewhere safe." Xander just said the first thing that popped into his mind.
"Yea, I'll admit I would have never imagined I would have thought of the Order of Death as a safe place, but I'm actually looking forward to getting there and finally taking a rest without the worry of a battle to come," Russel said with a small laugh.
This put a small frown on Xander's face that he hid from Russel, 'If only you knew that we will likely be going to battle in the near future.'
Xander had no clue how this trial was going to go, but based on the little he knew about the trials, he assumed that once he gave the jade slip to the head priest, he would read it, find out about the attack, and then ready his men for battle. Based on what happened in that battle, it would decide Xander's future. Pass or fail. Dead or alive.
After walking for another hour, they finally made it up to the main temple.
The leader of their little cohort, the F-grade soldier, walked over to Xander and Russel, bowed slightly, and said, "Priest, please make yourself at home."
Xander nodded his head, and the soldier began to turn around to leave.
"Wait! Wait." Xander said to the soldier.
The F-grade turned around with a curious look on his face, as if he was ready to charge into hell and back for anything Xander wanted. "Yes, is there anything else you need, Priest?"
Xander still wasn't used to all this priest crap, but he just rolled with it since it suited his needs.
"I need to meet with the head priest. I have something for him," Xander explained, which widened the eyes of both the F-grade soldier and Russel.
"Right this way," the soldier turned to the side, ready to lead Xander to the head priest immediately.
After beginning their little journey, Russel couldn't hold his curiosity and finally said, "I wasn't going to say anything about you being a priest, but now you even have something for the head priest of this temple. Who exactly are you?"
Xander once again didn't know what to say, so he just deflected and asked his own question, "And what exactly do you know about the priests of the Order?"
This surprised Russel, but he answered honestly, "Umm… not much actually, but I know you are pretty high up in the Order, and most priests have something special about them, but that's all I really know."
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what's special about you?" Russel asked back.
Xander clenched his teeth, trying to think of something to say, but after a minute went by, the F-grade soldier let him off the hook, "Here we are. Just enter through there, and I'm sorry, but your friend will have to stay out here with me."
Xander nodded his head, "No problem, and thank you."
Xander then pushed open the large double doors with a bit of a struggle and walked into the large but dark room that was lit by candlelight.
He looked ahead to see a short man who looked to be in his late 70s sitting behind a desk doing paperwork.
[Human - E-rank - Peak]
The old man looked up and said with a slight tone of annoyance, "What is it? Why are you here?"
Xander wasn't sure where to start, so he just went with the full truth.
"I am a priest from the temple to the south, and I came here with a message from the head priest," Xander said with as much fake confidence as he could come up with.
This grabbed the old man's full attention, and in the blink of an eye, the man was standing in front of Xander, crossing the full distance of the room before Xander even noticed.
The old man held out his hand, "Give me the message. To send a priest on such an errand, it better be important."
Xander didn't have to be asked twice. He just handed over the jade slip, and the old man grabbed it. After three seconds, there was a frown on his face.
"Bang!"
He clenched his hand, destroying the jade slip.
"Those f***ing bastards dare!!!" the head priest yelled in rage.
"Are they trying to start a f***ing war!? If it's a war they want, then it's a f***ing war they will get!!"
After simmering down after a moment of staring off into space, coming up with a plan, the short old man looked up at Xander and said, "You have done a good job, and I've been told why you were recently made a priest, so here." The old man pulled out a small jade slip, held it for half a second, then tossed it to Xander.
"Go give this to the head librarian of our Dao Repository and prepare yourself to leave bright and early tomorrow morning."
"We go to battle!"
'Ok, this is happening,' Xander thought with slight panic. He knew this was the likely outcome since this was a trial, but now that it was here, he was beyond nervous.
Xander quickly left the room, pulled open the heavy doors, and walked out to find the F-grade soldier and Russel waiting on him.
The soldier nodded his head slightly, "Priest, is there anything else?"
Xander stood there in silence, looking off into space before he nodded his head and said, "Yes, take me to the Dao Repository."
The soldier nodded his head, "Yes, sir, please this way."
Russel was silent, but he still followed along.
Along the way, Xander was dying to know what was written about him in the jade slip, but he was too scared that he would mess something up, so he refrained from messing with it.
Before long, they were inside a new building, this one lit up with both candles and plenty of natural light.
The soldier pointed ahead, "This here is our Dao Repository, and if you have any questions, that person over there is the head librarian." After saying that, the soldier waited for a moment, and seeing that he was no longer needed, took his leave.
Xander led Russel over to the librarian, who, much like the head priest, was a short and thin old man who also wore a pair of glasses, and handed him the jade slip.
The librarian at first thought nothing of it, but after reading the jade slip, his facial expression changed to shock, then to an unnatural calm.
"Priest, right this way, please follow me, and I will show you our selection," the head librarian said.