Before us stands a young-looking man, appearing just slightly young than myself. Covered in obviously high-quality clothes, it is clear he holds a high position in the sect.

With a subtle smile on his face, he gives a bow to me, and I do the same to him. The best guess I have to his position is that he may be a servant to one of the elders.

Making his position just under mine and above even the inner court members. A near equal to core disciples in this hierarchy.

As the caravan has now stopped, people are looking out of the carriages to view what’s happening up front.

“Hello Core Disciple Delinion. I am Lao Na, servant of Patriarch Tao. I apologizing for interrupting you and your followers’ journey to the Halls of Exalted Purity.”

The man speaks directly to me, while still acknowledging the others. A courtesy in that reinforces my assumption that he is an elder’s sect servant. Cautiously respectful, even when technically above others in authority.

That’s the life of a sect servant. As you never know when something may radically change.

He continues.

“As you might have already realized, something of great importance has come up which will require the Patriarch to talk with you about. Once you have everything settled with your team here, I can take you straight to him.”

As everyone has been listening intently, a large amount of muttering erupts from the group. Mostly on a positive bent, as it would have been clear if I displeased someone of an elder or higher status with a person like me. The acknowledgement of status and apologies to me is showing face and respect.

Meaning that whatever is happening is not a bad thing.

They are presenting it to be that way, at least.

I’m sure the Patriarch is simply hedging his bets. I’ve done far too many crazy things lately to not have had his attention. He probably doesn’t want to cause issues if I’m… and who may be backing me is important.

So, my job is to focus on that aspect.

Don’t give everything away.

With that thought in mind, I look at him with a serious look.

“I understand. If you could give me a just a moment, I’ll be able to go with you.”

He gives a nod before stepping back, giving us metaphorical space.

I turn to the group, addressing their thoughts.

“Okay, everyone. Continue on with Ai, Lin, and Shi to the Halls and follow their instructions. Once again, I recommend you take my advice on your cultivation paths, but ultimately, I leave it to you to decide.

“I’ll be back.”

I keep it short before giving them all a nod. As if this is nothing major.

They voice their acknowledgements as I turn back towards the Patriarch’s servant, Lao Na.

Moving in his direction, I feel a hand grab mine just before I move past them.

Ai’s.

Her eyes seem strangely emotional as she gives it a squeeze. I just behind her, I can see both Lin, Mei Lin, and Shi also looking worriedly. I give them the best smile I can before I squeeze back and move to Lao Na’s side.

The instant I am parallel to him, I hear a pop from my ears, caused by sudden pressure change.

I find myself in a completely different location, in what seems to be a massive cave covered in darkness. What light in the room that exists comes from the formations glowing on the ground and walls, all visually heading to a central platform suspended in the area from glowing chains.

My scan informs me this is in the center of the mountain. Deep, deep under thousands of miles of rock, lava, and earth.

And all around this massive cave are many others.

Many, many others. Each with their own formation and chains.

This comes from a simple ping from the scan, revealing this. There’s so much more above and below this area that could be discovered.

But to go any deeper into these causes me concern. As I’ve already found a few things of interest here.

Like extremely powerful spirit beasts.

Ugh. Knowing there are beasts like this here is a temptation to search for more and get more information.

However, I need to be cautious. There’s no saying what types of protections and alerts that are out here.

So instead of going deeper with my scan, I continue following Lao Na, who leads me ever closer to the center of this formation.

As we are walking quite a distance in this cave, the only thing I can think of is why he didn’t teleport us closer. Though, with all these formations nearby, I’m sure there might be some restrictions.

Either way, we eventually reach a small distance away from the elevated platform.

A rectangular slab sits in front of us and is slightly hovering above the formations. Lao Na carefully steps on it and indicates for me to do the same. As soon as I follow their lead, it lifts in the air and towards the platform.

With the lift shrinking the distance to the platform, I can see a bit more about it.

It honestly is just a large platform, with a square building in the center. There’s a decent amount of floor space between the edges and the building walls, so it gives the impression of there being a use to it.

My temporary companion speaks up at this point to explain the situation.

“Core Disciple Delinion, from here we will need you to go into the containment room on this platform. The Patriarch was planning on meeting you there in the first place, but seems to be… engaged at the moment.”

Why do I feel that a certain master of mine is involved with that?

Probably an attempt to save me from potential impending doom, but definitely prolonging my stay in this terrifying area.

Lao Na continues uninterrupted.

“In the meantime, I can serve you tea and other goods while answering questions you may have.”

While he says that in a calm and kind sounding manner, I can tell that there is no bridge in his words for other options.

I am staying here. Him providing some courtesies while here is just that, a courtesy.

As we transition from the slab to the platform, we head straight to an open doorway, one which remains open but gives a closed feeling the moment we step through.

Air is traveling through this building, but without a doubt, they locked this area down.

It is at this time, that he invites me to sit at a table sitting in the middle of the room. He brings over some high-quality tea from somewhere in his coat, before taking a seat at the table as well. There’s a slight pause from him before I hear him speak back up.

“So. What do you want to know?”