"And I guess I'm safe to assume that the divine protector is even stronger than its mate, am I right?"

While initially, I thought about finding out this holy goose or something in order to milk it dry out of its essence only to repeat this step as many times as I could with all the divine bests in the entire heavenly city when I thought about having to face something even stronger than this male goose capable of wreaking such havoc with just a honk of its…

Despite being stronger than any of the disciples or even elders through sect masters, I doubted that I would have any chance when going against their divine protectors. Just the name of those beasts made a cold sweat appear on my skin, with how likely they were to be connected to those protectors that still haunted me in my dreams ever since I first saw them appear from the interdimensional portal!

"Yes, the divine beasts are the strongest existences in the entire city. Even the ancestors wouldn't dare to go against them!"

Even if those ancestors that this random disciple spoke about were an enemy that I could cope, the fact that they couldn't deal with those protectors of the various sects only served to make it clear that even I might be at the danger of losing my life, was I to attempt stealing its blood essence.

Thinking about it, this situation made quite a lot of sense. It would explain why the envoys from the continent preferred to secretly control the entire city rather than doing it openly!

"Okay then. Last question, what and who can I expect to find in the castle?"

Obviously, the greatest chance was that this majestic building would be the real housing of the sect master of the goose sect, or at least a place where he would end up meeting with his elders. Yet just like with the divine beast, I wasn't going to waste my time by going there, fighting off all kinds of traps that could somehow still operate without the power source, only to learn that this place was in essence, a museum!

"The castle? You meant, the palace?"

Tilting his head to the side, the male disciple looked at me as if there was something wrong with my head. Thinking about his words, I recalled how did that place look like in a normal vision, only to realise where did I make my mistake.

"Yeah, the palace. Who or what can I find inside?"

There was no point debating with this man whether what he saw was true or not. While I was quite curious just how the heck did that illusion managed to hold on despite the lack of energy that would power it, it wasn't something that I had to know to achieve my goals!

"Isn't that obvious? It's the sect master's palace, so outside of the main sect treasury, you will only find the Sect Leader and his direct disci...eee… elders."

While the slip of this disciple's tongue held quite a lot of meaning, with how I didn't really care about this place all that much, whether the elders from the sects were in fact the direct disciples of the sect master, or whether it worked in a completely different manner and that slip of a tongue indicated something entirely else, it didn't matter to me at all.

And since all that I wanted to learn was already told, there was no point in me staying in this place any longer.

Not even bothering to open my mouth, I simply nodded my head as slightly as if it was just a leftover momentum from me closing my eyes for a moment. With my legs almost instantly carrying me out of the cave, I looked up at the top of the castle the moment I was finally freed from the confines of this underground tunnel.

"Now calling it palace makes sense…"

Intentionally turning my altered vision down, what I could clearly perceive as a massive fortress before, when enveloped by the plethora of flowers, trees and all other types of weeds, really gave off the vibe of the sun residence of some powerful figure.

To be exact, the structure of the building itself remained exactly the same, yet rather than seeing thick and robust walls, they looked like some kind of artistic pillars, only placed to hold other elaborate pieces of architectural genius in place.

If that was the sight that those disciples that I left in the cave always saw while walking this path, then it was no wonder why they would be so surprised when someone named it a castle!

While my thoughts were wandering through all the reasons possible for someone to spend the immense effort required to turn this ugly cemetery into an illusion of paradise, I finally reached the side gate leading to the inner part of the building.

After a quick check to make sure all my shields were in place, I pressed my hand against the door and stepped inside. Yet to my surprise, despite my altered vision still active, the room that I entered looked just like one would expect it to look without ever seeing through the illusion!

Was the magic that influenced this sense of mine stronger here, or was it a reality?

��I see you finally make it. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, sir Peter. I hope it wasn't that hard reaching this place after you overloaded the local core…"

Hearing the voice, I instantly turned my head to its source, only to see an amiable, elderly man sitting on a simple chair near the side of this spacious room. With his both hands occupied with a fork and small, butter knife respectively, he gave off the vibe of someone that couldn't be bothered with stuff that was of the utmost importance for the most of the people.

"Sorry no sorry. It's not my fault that you set this place to work like this!"