The expressions in the room changed instantly. This was the conference hall of the Sacred Jewel Sect, and all the key members were gathered today, including the leader. Speaking so dismissively here was an insult, a direct attack on their prestige.
All eyes turned to the source of the voice—the unknown man sitting lazily in his wheelchair. He opened his eyes but stayed seated with a sleepy expression.
"Don’t be insolent, cripple." One elder shot him an aggressive look.
"Got something on your mind, friend?" The sect leader, on the other hand, remained calm, eyeing him with curiosity.
"Push me forward," Alm told Heril, who quietly wheeled him up to the main spot, where the leader was seated.
Once there, the man made a small hand gesture. "Today, I need to step in and take charge. Step aside." His words were an order to the leader.
"You’re trying to take over?" The sect leader narrowed his eyes, staying calm despite the challenge—a remarkable show of patience.
"What are you worried about? Just move out of the way, I’ll deal with this quickly." Alm responded coldly, his gaze filled with disdain. "Your passivity is what caused all of this; it’s because of you that a disciple who could’ve changed this sect’s fate was almost destroyed by a bunch of fools. These mediocre rules only serve to empower idiots."
The sect leader finally took offense as the matter became larger than just a personal slight. The man insulted all the elders, his authority, and spat on the sect’s rules.
"Ignorant brat, how dare you speak so much in front of us? Throw him off the mountain." The most powerful High Elder yelled in fury.
Following the command, several elders surrounded Heril quickly. One of them spoke: "Young Lady, your friend is being unreasonable. Will you do something, or should I deal with him myself?"
Heril didn’t hesitate, just shook her head and sighed, regretting the situation. These fools didn’t realize the danger looming over them.
"Then I’ll handle this." The elder said, reaching out toward the man.
*BANG!*
Suddenly, the elder was flung backward, crashing hard into the floor, splitting the stone beneath him violently.
"So, you’re a cultivator! Let’s see how strong you are!" Another High Elder, enraged, lunged at the man.
*BANG!*
The result was exactly the same as before—he was slammed into the ground.
"W-Who are you?!" The other elders were stunned. The man hadn’t even lifted a finger!
"Not giving up? Come all at once, I’ll beat you until you submit." Bruno stated firmly, while Alm cursed internally, wishing to see some real blood.
The man’s arrogance infuriated everyone. The sect had indeed fallen from grace, but being disrespected like this was unacceptable, especially by a cripple in a wheelchair. How could it be that all of them were powerless against a single cultivator?
"Very well, let’s see what you’ve got!" All the elders in the hall, consumed by rage, attacked at once.
They simply didn’t believe he could be stronger than all of them together! They unleashed their most powerful techniques, pressing hard against the ground.
"Boring…"
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*BANG!*
In response, he snapped his fingers. The hall nearly exploded as all the combatants were blasted back, crashing to the floor at the same time.
The man lightly touched the armrest of his wheelchair. In that instant, all the fallen ones felt an irresistible force lift them… then the hall echoed with deafening thuds.
*BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!*
They were lifted only to be slammed back into the ground, their faces smashing into the hard stone, blood splattering across the hall. The only one left standing was the sect leader, watching in disbelief, his mouth hanging open.
Heril wanted to say something, but stayed silent. Even though she had mentally prepared herself, she couldn’t help but let out an admiring sigh. She knew he was unfathomable, but not at this level. In her mind, the elders here were powerful figures, but in reality, they were nothing more than insignificant ants.
The unknown man needed only a slight finger movement to subdue everyone without encountering any real resistance.
"Senior... if our sect has offended you in any way, we sincerely apologize and will accept any punishment…" The sect leader trembled with fear, bowing his head. He was on the verge of kneeling.
Personal honor didn’t matter to him. Protecting the sect and its members was more important. He wouldn’t hesitate to bow if it meant achieving that goal. Those elders were the pillars of the already weakened sect. Without them, it would be doomed.
"If I wanted to kill you or destroy this sect, I’d have done it already. A simple wave of my hand would be enough." The man looked impassively at the sect leader.
He snapped his fingers again, and the pressure vanished. Everyone in the hall could finally stand, quickly retreating to the side. Their bodies were bruised, their faces disfigured. They trembled as they looked at the man now.
"Greedy fools… I want to kill you all, and it would still be justified. But one more dead ant or less is irrelevant."
No one dared to respond; they all broke into a cold sweat.
"May I know your name, Senior? Which great sect do you hail from?" The leader tried to smooth things over since the figure didn’t seem intent on killing them. He wasn’t part of their sect, so he assumed the man belonged to some other great sect.
"It doesn’t matter. From now on, I’m a disciple of this place. Better yet… I’ll take over this sect." Bruno said coldly as he looked at him.
Everyone was shocked by this twist. A cultivator so powerful joining their sect out of nowhere? A common disciple who could easily suppress them all?
The Sacred Jewel Sect was currently the weakest, but it still had a process for accepting disciples. Everyone had to pass an exam before joining. But for him to declare himself a disciple left them speechless.
The sect leader forced a smile and bowed again to the man: "Senior, you see, our sect is just a small, decaying pool, not fit for a true dragon like you…"
"Afraid I’ll take your place as leader?" Bruno asked.
"No, of course not." The leader shook his head quickly, trying to keep a dignified expression. "I’m willing to step down if there’s a better candidate. But, Senior, with all due respect, we know nothing about you, having just met…"
Alm and Bruno confirmed that he was being sincere. This leader had always wanted to revive the sect, but was limited by the meager power they had.
The leader was clearly the strongest in the sect, a low-level True Emperor; but that was insignificant on this planet. The younger generation also had limited potential and would likely not surpass the previous one due to the sect’s decline.
"Don’t be foolish." Bruno replied. "What’s in this decaying place that I could possibly want? The only thing of value was in that mountain, where I’ve already been. I wouldn’t come here for anything you might have."
The group couldn’t even be offended by being called trash, given the man’s overwhelming strength.
"Heril likes looking after the new recruits. As for you, you completely ignore the new disciples. All the teachers here are worse than trash, which is why nothing good grows in this rotten place. From now on, all the young ones will train with her at her residence. As for you, continue wandering around, and don’t bother me until I give another order." Bruno said indifferently, then turned to Heril. "Let’s go, we’re done here."
***
They returned to Heril’s house, and unsurprisingly, Lean had moved in for good. The Old Man had become their servant, and she wanted to stay as close to him as possible.
The next day, the Sect Leader ordered all the newly recruited members to move into the area where Heril lived. Alm and Bruno just turned to the Old Man and gave him a simple instruction:
"You want answers, right? You’ll have to work for them. Go and give the youngsters a few pointers. Don’t hand out any techniques, just make them fight and beat them until they pass out. The ones who don’t give up and keep fighting will be worth your time."
The Old Man nodded and quickly headed off towards the young ones. With Lean and Heril left alone with them, Bruno sighed as he watched them. All in all, the two had been put through a tough test, but they had trained diligently during that time.
Obviously, everything was now clear: Heril was actually Sesel, and Lean was Ervly. Adding in Leafar, who was the Old Man, unlike all of their other allies living in the Yinblood Sect, they hadn’t been trained by them and were far behind the others in many aspects.
This was even more obvious now. That’s why Heril and Lean didn’t stand out much, even without their memories. As for Leafar, he did better in terms of power but fell short in other areas.
So this was a huge opportunity for them, and the two made it through on their own merits. Sesel developed a strong Dao Heart, while Ervly went through a kind of extreme torture that required learning, precision, and sheer willpower. Her Dao Heart also solidified, and her control over the Yin flames reached an extreme level.
"Now, they can both reap the fruits of this experience," Bruno said calmly to them. He called them over, then extended his hand and touched their heads.
They didn’t resist at all, and he quickly unlocked all their memories within this universe.
Previously, they had unlocked all of Ruri’s and Maelik’s past lives as a test. The results were still under review, so they decided not to do that for everyone just yet. Only the lives within this universe were enough for now.
When the two opened their eyes, it took a few seconds for them to stabilize. Alm and Bruno were pleased, as the determination in the two, compared to before, was like night and day.
Sesel looked at them, deep in thought. Bruno smiled slightly: "Now that you’re back…"
He mentioned all the others who were unconscious in the inventory and explained everything that had happened up to that point. The two listened with serious expressions until they revealed something new.
"In my fourth life, I reached the level of Divine Inquisitor and got the golden box in the New Order Empire," Ervly said.
Sesel nodded, confirming that something similar happened to her, having received the same box.
Alm and Bruno reflected on this. They had lived in the empires like the others, but unlike everyone else, in one of their lives, they reached the level of Divine Inquisitor. And they both received the exact same golden box and came to the same sect on this planet? That’s no coincidence.
They confirmed it shortly after. They had already lived more than one life on this higher planet, but before, they also cultivated in the same sect. Both had tried to join other sects but were never accepted. In other words, the golden box they got in the empire was what determined everything.
’Ruri said she always died young, even though she was talented in all her lives. As an extremely talented woman, she was always targeted by some man. And because she couldn’t bear to see others suffer, she always ended up succumbing because of it.’ Alm thought.
Bruno added to his thoughts: ’As for Corin, he always got caught up in wars between clans or races, trying to create peace, putting that above his cultivation. In the end, he always died before reaching the top. We still haven’t recovered Thea’s memories, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened to her.’
Alm concluded: ’As for Leafar, Ervly, and Sesel, they weren’t as talented as the others, but through sheer effort and because they didn’t stand out much, they reached the top and ascended. Sometimes being average has its perks.’
The two then explained how their ascension to the divine planet went. Alm and Bruno were surprised, as both of their experiences were identical.
As soon as they arrived on the planet, they were greeted by other Divine Inquisitors, who took them to a place above the planet, very close to the nine suns. There, they were killed without mercy.
But their cores, along with the laws they had created and their micro-universes...
Both nodded, and their eyes gleamed. A powerful energy radiated from their souls. Alm and Bruno could feel a hidden power perfectly fused within their souls.
’Wait… so everyone on this planet is a Divine Inquisitor who ascended from the empires? They kill them and do something strange with their souls, to…?’ Bruno muttered, until the answer came to him as he recalled the mission description given by the system.
’To create immortal cultivators. The reincarnations are indeed connected; that’s the method of advancement.’ Alm concluded.