Upon stepping into the room Naath’s eyes dilated to adjust to the darkness. He quickly noticed that there were seven seats lining the wall on one side of the building. The seats have screens covering the tops of them blocking the faces of the people sitting in them. Naath stood near the opposite wall and faced the seven seats, noticing there were people sitting in them Naath cupped his fists and said, “greetings elders.” A voice sounded out from the seat in the center saying “good you are intelligent enough to guess who we are.”

Another voice sounded from the seat closest to the door “he was also diligent enough to arrive here with one day to spare.” From the last seat furthest from the door came another voice “he was also strong and willful enough to not quit and simply kept climbing until he reached the top.” The fifth seat over “he was also lucky enough to find many treasures along the way.” Naath could see the outlines of all the elders' heads nodding in unison at this comment. From the sixth seat came the unexpected voice of an elderly woman.

“Child you no longer need to call us elders simply call us old things seniors. We watched your journey on the mountain. Elder Chu and myself have some questions for you, we will each ask one and it would be best if you did not lie to us about anything. Anyway my question is, are you a reincarnator?” Naath immediately stiffened visibly at this question and his eyes expanded slightly, his breathing shifted and his heart rate went up.

All of the elders immediately noticed this and perked up and shared the same thought at this moment. ‘He couldn't be right?’ Naath remained silent for a while trying to think of how to answer. He asked his rune for advice but true to his word he was silent, not planning to help Naath for the next year. Finally Naath took a deep breath and said “seniors this junior is indeed a reincarnator. However I am from a vastly different plane and have almost no knowledge of this one. The things I have learned thus far are a very small fraction of the knowledge of this place.”

All of the elders went quiet until a voice came from the second chair “haha you see old hag Fen he was! How do your own words taste?” Raucous laughter continued from the second chair for a time, when it finally died down the elder sitting there spoke again. “Hey kiddo, you wouldn't happen to have a master hidden from our view then right? After all, how can someone with almost no knowledge from this plane manage to refine an infinity gourd?” This time instead of stiffening Naath grinned wide as he thought of a response.

The rune in Naath’s soul sea heard this thought loud and clear and if he had a body would stiffen completely. He was about to scream out “NOO!!” but it was too late. Naath spoke up saying “seniors this junior does indeed have a master guiding him, however due to some… unfortunate circumstances, he is now confined within my own soul sea and his life is linked with my own.” Inside Naath’s soul sea the rune was turning scarlet from rage and embarrassment as Naath spoke. However he still kept silent despite himself, adamant to keep his word.

All of the elders were slightly shocked to hear this and started to talk by sending messages with martial energy so Naath couldn't hear. These kinds of messages are called “voice transmissions”. After what seemed like complete silence to Naath the elder in the third seat spoke up saying “young man I am fully willing to take you as my disciple what do you say?” Naath was just about to answer when a familiar voice came from the second seat “oh no you don’t you old fogey Han I want this child as my disciple!” From the sixth seat came a response “you two useless old men will have to fight me for him as well!” Soon similar responses were resounding through the entire hall as all of the elders began to argue.

Naath was completely dumbfounded, weren’t these people supposed to be elders? Aren’t elders supposed to be dignified and look down on all others keeping an air of superiority? Then what was happening in front of him? The elders were getting into shouting matches with one another over him, a simple disciple who hadn’t even been in the sect for a full week. However there was one elder who was silent the entire time. The elder in the fourth central seat. Finally this elder spoke up and asked, “young man, did you just say he is in your soul sea?”

All of the other elders went quiet as they just now comprehended the meaning behind those words and looked at Naath once again with new bewildered eyes. Naath nodded his head and said, “yes senior, why is something wrong with this?” A happy laughter came from the fourth seat as the elder in it said, “no, no, in fact this is good very good, however it means none of us here are worthy of being your master. However there is one elder in the sect who is very much so capable of taking you as his disciple. I will warn you though he is a touch, no, extremely harsh in his training methods. Training with him will be… the experience of a lifetime.”

The other elders all erupted into curses of lament. From the first seat “not that crazy old bastard!” The second seat “Poor child, his blessing just became a curse!” The third seat “ouch, sorry young man, I wish you the best. Silence form the fourth. From the fifth seat “sigh you win some you lose some.” The sixth seat “And here I thought I'd get such a handsome young man as my disciple” The seventh “well… shit, I lost another star pupil to that old freak” Hearing these reactions Naath became hesitant however the fourth elder raised his hand and in it was a transmission jade.

He spoke into it saying “elder Gui, we have found another talent with an open soul sea. Please come to the elder hall to pick him up.” After saying this the elder put away the transmission jade and said “young man I’m sorry but this is no longer a choice, nurturing someone with a soul sea is far too important. And for someone like yourself to not have a proper master is unacceptable.” As the elder finished speaking came a loud voice from outside yelling “I was right in the middle of meditation, I was this fucking close to a breakthrough!” *BANG!* The doors were thrown off of their hinges and flew through the room hitting the opposite wall. On the other side was a man with spots of gray here and there in his hair with a mostly brown coloration.

His stature was tall about 6 feet, he wore a bright white robe signifying his position as an elder and was holding up his finger in front of his face pinching them together to indicate how close his breakthrough was. His eyes were bright yellow contrasting the dark expression of anger on his face. His voice continued “so is this the little shit that you all interrupted my meditation for?!” All of the elders felt a wave of pity in their hearts for Naath. Elder Gui was not in a good mood. The elder in the central seat spoke up saying “yes brother Gui this is him. He is a rare talent with heaven blessed luck, who also happens to be a reincarnator with a soul sea and a master who is trapped in that soul sea to boot.”

Elder Gui looked at Naath and a grin that made a shiver run down Naath’s spine appeared on his face as he said. “Haha this will be fun.”