"Is that so, Crane? All of that has really been your doing till now?!"

"Who is this? Reveal yourself!"

The black-bearded man, who was called by the name Crane, frowned as his countenance grew a bit pale, shouting in response to the angry voice.

"There is no need for you to act this way Crane, I already know it's you, you can't deceive me..."

The source of the voice appeared to be coming closer as a human youth silhouette emerged from one of the shadowy corners of the room.

While I was still shackled by something and incapable of moving my face to observe the situation in the room, 'Omni-viewing Eye' was already working, so I got a full view of the show.

"How?"

The frowning bearded man's expression immediately dissolved into a passive yet sharp one as he stared at the white-haired youth.

"How were you able to find this place, Blade?"

That's right, the youth was exactly the sect master of the Elemental Blade Sect, his face showed that he was extremely unpleased…

"How? You are really asking how? Are you not going to try and explain yourself and deny the words you just said instead of being too focused on how I found out?"

"Sigh… this guy is really too troublesome, failure on my last mission, destruction of the fail-safe gate as well as exposure of my true identity, my lord is going to be quite angry for this."

The black-bearded Crane's expression has morphed into a completely passive one, he seemed as if he didn't care about anything anymore as he just disappointedly looked at the ground.

"...So you have long been a loyal dog to this lord of yours… Outrageous, not only have the demons resumed activity, but my old friend who I housed within my sect had been using the authority I gave him to help achieve the demons' aspirations. Simply outrageous!"

Blade only appeared to be lamenting at the beginning as his face seemed to be extremely depressed before he finally exploded in anger as even I felt the pressure caused by that.

"Alright, it's too sad that I'm not able to spend more time with you friend, but I will have to leave now, so please make way."

Patting the dust that fell on his shoulders from Blade's rage, Crane passively looked back at Blade as he demanded.

"And why do you think I will let you leave after all you have done?"

Blade's expression finally calmed down as he looked back at Crane, there were less than two meters of space between them, a clash between both of them wouldn't even require more than a second to start.

"Let's be real friend, you must have realized by now that the current body I'm using is a clone of my normal body, my regular one which had been usually in the sect had already departed under the pretense of visiting a branch sect of our beloved sect… now then, if we say you do manage to kill this version of me, the other version would still be capable of escaping. However, I obviously don't plan to lose my only priceless sacred avatar for no reason, and while I can't say that I would be able to take you down with me, I can still pretty much take down this genius of yours… Don't you think it would be better for both of us if you act like the civilized great person you are and let me leave so that little genius here won't lose his life?"

Hearing Crane's blabbering about me losing my life as collateral damage, I didn't even bother to have a change of expression both on the inside and the outside, this guy was simply…

"Ah, I see, you still can't realize the situation you are in nor the person you are dealing…"

"Huh?"

The black-bearded Crane's expression immediately darkened…

'Just as planned…'

"How long were you still planning to pretend like this young Lan?"

"No! How could you sever the connection between me and my original body?! Are you really forcing my hand to take him down with me?"

Crane hurriedly retreated in panic in my direction, but sadly for him…

"Sorry senior Blade, the shackles took a bit of time for me to undo…"

"You… You! How could you remove the shackles made with the bones of the Ancient Marks' predators? Are you some sort of a demon?!"

"Now now Division Master, did you forget who the real demon is here?"

Having already moved away from the place I was pinned to as I was already standing beside Blade. I stared at Crane whose expression seemed as if it would almost scream out of confusion on its own as I played down the meticulous process that I went through to reach this point in my head…

`~~`~~`~~`

2 days earlier…

"So you are saying that the demons from the ancient records are rising back to wage war and that and that a person of great authority in my sect is supporting their act? Can you really prove that like you said?"

As the youth with lengthy white hair stared directly at my eyes, I simply nodded before opening my mouth once more.

"I totally believe that senior Blade is trustworthy and naturally not allied with the demons so I will reveal a big part of my plan to you so not only you will be able to catch that traitor by your own hands and witness what I talked about, but we will even be able to hold a very strategic advantage if that plan is executed exactly as I planned it!"

"...Alright, I know you aren't as simple as you appear to be so I will temporarily believe your assumption for now, so go ahead and explain your plan."

Nodding back at the youthful sect master who acknowledged my proposition, I immediately explained.

"To put it out very simply, I had dealt a very insulting blow to the demons very recently. While it doesn't hold much of a strategic value, it means that I have knowledge that they wouldn't want me to spread, just like I explained everything to you, so currently, I'm pretty much a thorn in their side that they will try to get rid of sooner or later…"

"And?"

"Considering my assumption that there is a demon spy hidden within the sect, it wouldn't be very hard for them to notice who I am considering the leads I have set purposefully as well as my sudden rise, so they would naturally use every chance to send me away and deal with me on the side."

"You are obviously not asking for protection since you had no intention of becoming my personal apprentice which would grant you ultimate protection within the sect, so you are…"

"Yes, I'm exactly asking for the opposite, for my plan to work, this hypothetical demon spy can't know I met senior Blade nor think that I will be protected by senior Blade."

"Continue."

"Knowing what I have just achieved recently, the demon spy would naturally try to deal with me before I'm noticed by senior Blade, so I'm pretty sure that I would be sent out of the sect somehow within this week."

"So you want me to appear neutral while you are sent to some sort of a trap, before relying on me to save you and expose this hypothetical demon spy of yours?"

"I only need certain things to guarantee my safety and the success of the mission, whether senior Blade wants to act by yourself is up to you."

"Very well…"