"What? You don't even know about this? What's wrong with your system!"

For the first time ever since we started talking, the elder's eyes widened up as if he saw some kind of rare, ancient monster right in front of his face. Only after he took his time to calm down did he sit back up on his chair and hid his face with his palms.

"Okay then, it seems it will turn to be a long story."

With a tired sigh, the elder moved his hands and placed them flat on the table before sending me a long, taxing gaze.

"Do you know what lies beyond the realm of sage?"

Just the first question that he asked was enough to put me on the spot. How I was even supposed to tell him that I didn't even reach the realm of sage yet? And if that was taken into the account, how could I know what lied even further on the cultivation path?

"No, I never bothered to find out, as I reach the sage level only recently."

Since it was the first time when the elder was most likely mistaken about something about me, I was in no hurry to fix his misunderstanding. With how unnerving it was to have him flaunt his knowledge about my deepest secrets as if it was nothing, just having this small bit that he wasn't privy to was akin to holding the last fort from the ongoing invasion!

"You see, before I tell you about this, let me explain to you another matter. While not all immortals are system users, all system users are immortals. In other words, after one completes the sage stage, what lies beyond is the level of immortal… But that's not entirely true either."

Raising his hands to his chin, the elder raised his eyes to the ceiling of the building, as if he wanted to gaze into the starry sky of this fake dimension. With his vision clouding and facial expression relaxing, I could tell that his thoughts long left his body and wandered through the plains of his own memories.

"You see, I'm sure you know about it, but you could say that this world, in its truest form, is divided into two separate realms. While those two parts are separated by the void, if we are speaking about the livable universe, then our mortal realm and divine realm are the only two that do exist. But you might wonder why I'm telling you this…"

As if reaching the most interesting part of his story, the elder smiled and deviously picked his cup of tea. Slowly taking one of the longest sips that I saw him taking, his eyes were sparkling as he waited for the tension to build up properly.

"To be frank, most of the people think that the immortal realm is the highest you can get before advancing towards the divine realm. While in itself it's true, it doesn't mean that its the highest realm you can reach in the mortal world!"

If I were to exclude all those moments when the elder casually ripped all my cover apart and spoke about my deepest secrets as if they were common knowledge, this would be the moment where I was surprised the most.

"Isn't it a bit contradictory? If the immortal realm is the highest one can get to in the mortal realm, how could there be anything higher?"

As puzzled as I was, if the elder mentioned it, I only need to push him a bit to learn the rest of the story. After all, if he never intended to share this information, he wouldn't say a thing about it in the first place!

"Trust me, it's not. Have you ever heard about the protectors? I bet you did. In fact, this name is nothing more than a silly nickname that people gave us several centuries ago. But in reality, those that are currently called protectors, are in fact, grand sages!"

While learning this bit was of a great profit for me, considering how I still have yet to use my wisdom visions to sort all the information that I obtained so far in a proper way, there was one thing that actually gained even more of my attention.

"We? Are you one of those protectors?!"

When this realisation of the meaning behind the elder's words struck me, I instantly recovered my guard. It was the protectors that I was constantly wary of encountering, and I just learned that one of them was sitting right in front of me!

Everything made sense now!

From how he knew about my exploits, about my plight, skills and even the system, yet failed to realise that I was actually still at the saint realm of power when speaking about cultivation!

"Relax, there is no point in getting so agitated about this."

Contrary to my sudden eruption, the man remained completely calm, watching me jumping out and arming for the fight with a strange glint in his eye.

"Relax? It was one of your kind that nearly killed my beloved one! Prepare to pay for your crimes!"

With my hand instantly finding the handle of the snakebite, I was about to unleash my entire power against the man in front of me, only for the entire area to suddenly… stop!

It was as if all the laws that governed over the flow of time, the passage of magic or the way in which it reacted with the real world were broken in an instant.

"I told you to relax."

Only capable of moving my pupils, I could see how this elder's demeanour changed. from a feeble and weak geezer, he turned into a dominant figure that simply oozed power! It was as if his mere presence was enough to tear the laws that governed over this world, forcing everything that inhabited it into unconditional submission!

"AS IF!"

I wasn't someone who would just give up when facing overwhelming odds! Just like back when I had to fight with Pengu, I just used that chance to grow even stronger, and if that man dared to threaten me with a power that he somehow managed to hide away so far, I just had to make sure to repeat exactly the same steps as I did back then!