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In the present...
Arthur arrives before the gate of the Core Disciple's residential area and as usual, he was stopped by the guards at the gate.
"Hal-!?"
Before the guards could complete their saying of the word 'halt', Arthur brought out the Supreme Guardian's seal with practiced ease.
"We pay our respects to the Supreme Guardian!"
They said together and Arthur merely nodded to them and walked past the entrance without a change in his steps.
Seeing the seal is equivalent to seeing the supreme guardian.
"Who is that?" One guard asked the other.
"I don't know. But this is the first time I am seeing the Supreme Guardian's Seal since I joined the sect."
"Hmmm, same here. I even thought that he doesn't give out his seal."
"Yeah, then this person must have a very high connection with the Supreme Guardian, so we must not mess with him."
"You are right. It is a good thing that we recognized the seal early before doing anything drastic."
...
While Arthur entered through the gates, he passed through a barrier of fog and appeared in a place that looked like another world.
'There is a great condensation of essence energy in this place,' Arthur noted as he spread out his Soul Power.
Then he looked around and could see many mountains and hills.
This was very different from how the Outer and Inner Court residence was built.
Unlike the others where one would see many mansions and houses, this place had only mountains as far as the eye could see.
The actual residence of the core disciples was built within the mountains themselves.
And each mountain in this place has a direct link to the spiritual veins that are deep in the earth.
Spiritual Essence Veins are the Earthly manifestation of essence energy, that is different from the one found in the atmosphere.
In a way, you could say that these veins are like the condensed version of essence energy just like the spirit crystals.
But rather than crystals, they condensed into veins deep within the earth.
This also gave them the advantage of recovery with Spirit Crystals' lack.
'This is just like the Serene Palace Painting.'
The world within the serene palace painting was just the same.
While Arthur was looking around his soul power sensed a group moving swiftly in his direction.
'They are here.'
Soon, the group appeared within his range of vision and he saw who they were.
"Kira..." He muttered in a barely audible voice that only he could hear.
When he thought of the encounter in the mountains he felt a bit of guilt.
'One could say that I am at fault, but if you look at it from another angle, she wasn't ruthless enough...'
"You are here," said a child female voice as the group arrived before him.
Kira was the one who spoke and she stood at the front of the group. Behind her stood two girls wearing the outfits of Core Disciples who looked a bit alike.
'They should be siblings,' Arthur noted from their appearance.
These girls were the ones who had wanted to recruit Arthur into their factions the day they watch him ascend the tower with Kira.
But they choose not to do so in the end.
"Of course I did. What, you thought I would run?" Arthur replied with a grin.
"Yes," Kira spoke with a straight face, but Arthur caught a bit of disharmony with her eyes and her reply.
He was only able to tell due to his incredibly high souk power.
'Damn, this girl is good. I wonder what kind of home training she went through to keep up with that cold uncaring tone and eyes,' Arthur wondered.
"So this is the one who wants to challenge Senior Poleon?"
"Tsk! I thought it was a core disciple but who knew he is only an arrogant outer court disciple?"
Two male disciples who were with the girls spoke up at this time. Their words and tone revealed their disdain.
There was another male disciple that was there too but he said nothing. And although he did not speak, his eyes revealed he thought the same as the others.
So there were five core disciples before Arthur, not counting Kira because she was not wearing the attire of core disciples.
"Hey, you two stop it!" Ordered one of the girls.
And quickly, the young men bowed their heads and apologized, "We are sorry Vice Leader Maria!"
Something about their tone showed Arthur that they were afraid of this Maria.
"You can't blame them, senior sister. After all, anyone without a knowledge of his identity would think the same."
"Hmm, you are Nadia. They were in seclusion when he cleared the tower."
When Maria said that, the eyes of the young men widened and they hurriedly raised their heads.
"He cleared the tower?"
"He is Invincible?"
They still felt a bit of doubt at first but when they thought more about it, things made sense.
Of course, their Vice Sect Leaders would not set a match with just anybody.
But then again, even if he is the genius seven-star battle genius, that doesn't mean he can win the battle.
Even with this thought on their minds, their attitude towards Arthur shifted a bit.
Now, they had some respect in their eyes.
When they thought of how with Arthur's talent, he would beat them in just one move if he were in the same cultivation realm with them, they could help buy sweat a little that they spoke that way to him.
Arthur did not respond to the words of the two and instead smiled at Kira.
"Shall we?"
"Hn." Kira nodded.
And without further ado, they led Arthur to a gathering within the sect.
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Meanwhile, there was a great uproar at the place where the sword tower was located.
The tower revealed the number '25'.
"How is this possible?!"
Many couldn't believe their eyes.
Their surprise was not born out of seeing the displayed number. No, rather their shock was due to how fast the number was displayed and the cultivation of the one who was ascending the tower.
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------------End of Chapter------------
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~~~~~ ANNOUNCEMENT ~~~~~
This Author is out of Christmas Seclusion!
"I am Invincible."
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