As the fog dispersed around Ip An, a person suddenly appeared from the fog in front of him. His heart began to fill with excitement and uneasiness. They were a teenager with jet black hair that extended all the way past their shoulders. Not even a single stray hair could be spotted sticking out of their head. Adorned in robes that were a mix of red and white, it well-represented the extreme wealth that the person possessed.

If this person were to appear inside the Peerless Cliff City there would be a stampede of women chasing after him! He was incredibly handsome. But what made Ip An feel uneasy wasn’t his appearance, but the frighteningly cold expression they held on their face. And at the same time, he was incredibly excited. It was an immortal! They were real! He had no doubt in his mind about it.

Suddenly, Ip An found the medallion had escaped his hand and flew through the air into the cold-face teenager! Ip An’s jaw slightly dropped as he looked at the other person with an incredulous expression as if he had just seen a ghost.

The cold-face teenager inspected the medallion with sharp eyes as he felt it in between his hands. Once he was finished, the medallion flew into a leather pouch by his side that had magically opened up its mouth at that moment. After it was stowed away into the pouch, its mouth closed like magic. During this, Ip An stood in place. Ip An knew that if he tried to move then there was a possibility that the immortal in front of him might take action.

“Where did you get this medallion?” the cold-faced teenager asked him with a cold voice that caused Ip An’s heart to skip a beat. Ip An knew where he got it from, but this person was just so scary!

“Immortal! I was entrusted with this medallion by my grandfather just a couple of months ago. After I received it I took a long journey to reach these mountains and finally arrived here”, Ip An answered nervously, hoping he didn’t mess up his speech or answer incorrectly, “However, I also have this!”

Ip An rummaged through his bag that was completely visible to him because the fog was gone and found the letter. Strangely, he had accidentally bent the letter and had started to panic thinking he had ruined it. But once he woke up in the morning the next day he found that it was back to normal. It was a strange material. He then presented the letter to the cold-faced teenager and like that it was also sent through the air flying to him.

“Yi! A letter?” The cold faced teenager’s unchanging appearance suddenly broke as he received it. And as he began reading his eyes slightly widened in shock. Once he was finished reading he was at loss for a couple of seconds with rapidly blinking eyes.

“You…”, he pursed lips with a struggling expression, “I can’t really deal with this myself it seems.”

Just as Ip An was beginning to question the strangeness of that pouch, his jaw immediately dropped when he saw the cold-face teenager pull out a three-meter long grey sword from it with just a wave of his hand. And that wasn’t all. It even began floating in mid-air. And then the cold-faced teenager hopped onto it like he was as light as a feather! Ip An had no words. One by one all of these immortal techniques were used right in front of his very eyes. And the other person didn’t even bat an eye!

“Hop on”, the cold-face teenager’s facade resumed.

Ip An’s confirmed in disbelief as he eyed the flying sword as if God had just descended, “R-Really?”

“Yes, of course”, the teenager gave a slight smile seeing his awe-struck expression. His reaction made him feel some sense of pride so he wasn’t offended at all despite his useless question. Even then, he could sense that Ip An was just a mortal so he naturally expected him to be surprised upon seeing what an immortal like him could do.

Shortly after, Ip An hopped onto the sword and expected to be holding onto the immortal for support but found that the sword was seemingly as stable as the ground he walked on. It felt strangely unnatural that it felt like this. Without warning, they launched through the air at a frightening speed that nearly caused Ip An to scream but luckily didn’t when he reminded himself that he was in the presence of an immortal.

Quickly, they rose high enough to exit the fog and a tranquil mountain range filled with greenery entered his vision. And upon these mountains were small dots that quickly expanded to otherworldly buildings that seemed straight out of a tale. High rising pavilions that had several floors, colossal halls that spanned hundreds of meters and grand stone monuments. It was like heaven!

They continued flying past all of these sights and tall mountains for a couple of hours and during all this Ip An did not ever get sick of it. The whole time there was an uncontainable smile on his face as he looked at the amazing views. Additionally, as they flew in the air there were also other people flying through the air. And when they saw him, many would raise an eyebrow and give the cold-faced teenager a strange look. And Ip An had managed to get the courage to ask for his name despite his cold affront and learnt it was Luan Shui.

Eventually, the pair landed in front of a particular hall on a noticeably smaller mountain compared to all the other ones he had seen. From the outside, it was built out of expensive wood and carefully shaped to create patterns that would cause Ip An to question how long it would’ve taken to do that. And as they entered the place the wealth of the Bloody Path Sect, as he knew it was called from the letter, became very evident. These guys were just monsters with all the wealth priceless treasures they were hoarding!

As they walked inside, they were both greeted by a male servant that quickly attended to them with a bright smile. They completely ignored Ip An, however, only acknowledging Luan Shui, “Senior Martial Brother Luan, what brings you to the guest hall today?”

Luan Shui gestured to Ip An beside him, “This mortal boy has just presented the Heaven-Chosen Medallion and thus I wish to have him retire here in the guest hall until I sort out this matter with the Inner Sect Stewards. Make sure to take good care of him.”s

The servant suddenly looked at Ip An with a surprised look on his face, “The Heaven-Chosen Medallion! The last time one of those was used was centuries ago, I even forgot they exist if I hadn’t been an avid reader of the sect’s ancient records myself. But don’t worry Senior! This servant will make sure to take great care of this valuable guest.”

Luan Shui gave a nod before leaving, his long black hair swaying side to side underneath the golden-hair pin at the back of his head. After Luan Shui exited the hall the servant’s attitude changed as he ordered with a disinterested expression, “Follow me.”

Ip An followed in the male servant’s footsteps and after a couple of turns through some equally grandiose hallways at the side of the main hall, the servant stopped at a particular closed door. Then, he pulled out a green gem from a leather pouch that looked identical to Luan Shui’s apart from being a slightly duller colour. He too used the same wave of his arm to pull out the green gem as it floated in the air in front of him. Yet again Ip An was in awe but this time he was more used to it. It was still a novel experience seeing this.

“Go inside”, the servant ordered after the green gem lit up in a bright light that caused the doors to ease open. With no other option, Ip An went inside with a wry smile slightly sensing that something was off. But, just as he took a couple of steps inside the door behind him swung close.

Ip An became alarmed as he screamed, “What’s the meaning of this!”

A devious chuckle came from the servant who was on the other side of the door, “Sorry, but you’re an unknown factor. Luan Shui is going to address this matter to the stewards of the inner court who are essentially in charge of all internal matters of the sect. They will decide what your fate is. After all, you are but a mere mortal and as I said earlier it has been centuries since the Heaven-Chosen Medallion has been enacted by someone. Until then, you stay put inside this room. And don’t try to escape. It is useless. Even that immortal I call Senior Martial Brother Luan cannot escape this room.”

Hearing this, Ip An lost all hope and he felt uncertain of what was going to happen in the future. What was going to happen to him? All kinds of unpleasant possibilities flashed through his mind. Soon, he let out a long sigh and turned away from the door and looked around at the room he was in.

It was surprisingly very bare for a guest room in an immortal sect. Well, if he thought about it was to be expected. He was just a mortal.

There were only four things, a thin bamboo bed in the middle of the room, a small pond of water in the far right corner, a wooden table and chair and a small bookshelf filled with books. This wasn’t including the bright white gem that kept the whole room illuminated in a low light that was just the right of brightness for his eyes.

Although Ip An became excited when he saw those books he wanted to familiarise himself with the room and take some time to intake the situation. After a short walk around the room and sticking his finger into the crystal-clear water that didn’t have even a single sign of muck in it he pulled out a few books from the library, sat down at the table and began flipping through all of them to distract himself.

Either way, he couldn’t resist because the only books he had read were the same five books that his grandfather had possession of. They were by no means useless, it was enough content to let Ip An become fluent in reading with additional help from his grandfather. But as Ip An began reading he was very surprised. A majority of these books used terms and vocabulary he had never even heard of before. But by inferring their meaning and the characters they used, he could make a rough guess as to what they meant.

Like this, he flicked through every book at a slowly increasing pace and once he was done he thought upon all of it for a moment. All of these books were about the history of the Bloody Path Sect. It made sense, if they were a guest then what else would they want a guest to read about in their spare time?

But as Ip An briefly glazed over some of the sentences in these books he suddenly felt a slight chill run down his spine. This sect…

According to one of the most exotic looking books that were titled, ‘Ancient Tales of the Bloody Path Sect’, apparently the sect had been established over ten thousand years ago!

And what Ip An thought when reading this was that everyone in the sect was over 10,000 years old! He almost fell from his chair in worry when he realised that he had been potentially in the presence of people who were older than even ancient kingdoms and the corpses of dead turtles.