Arthur took roughly seven hours before finally finishing binding all the prisoners. Some thought smart of themselves and tried to attack him, but at once they were trapped inside the pillar prison before some mechas came and finished them off.
"Take me out," he didn't hesitate to go out the moment he finished.
As he returned to the sect, he found it more crowded than before. Everywhere there were people running right and left, while many shouts were spreading from one place to another.
"This looks lovely," he couldn't help but smile, "any news from the mecha scouts yet?"
'They should have arrived two hours ago,' Gege said before strangely adding, 'but once reached there the connection with the tree was lost.'
"Hmm…" Arthur expected such a result.
'Ding! That means the main army is coming from that direction,' the system said.
"How long before being here?"
``Three to four hours roughly," Gege said, 'provided that they didn't send an elite force ahead to act as vanguard.'
Arthur understood her meaning and was already thinking the same. "Find me Doaf, Amera, the crow, and Deem," he said, "also find those leaders of the sect. I need to get a rough idea about it."
'Ding! Leave this to me,' the system was free of any task lately, and Gege didn't object.
Arthur stood in his place while thinking deeply about this hard fight. "Without proper intel, I can't decide anything," he reached this conclusion as any plan lacked the essential pieces of info. "At least I would get more knowledge about this sect before dealing with the incoming threats."
His wait didn't last more than ten minutes before everyone he called for were gathered here.
In addition to his men, there were six old looking men standing in front of him. He knew they were the leaders of the mountains and the sect head as well.
"Thanks for saving our lives, venerable one," strangely the youngest of them said as he led others to bow their heads and did a kowtow to Arthur.
And Arthur answered with cubbing his hands, a move that attracted their attention.
"Is our venerable savior a fellow doaist as well?" the leader couldn't help but ask before adding, "my name is Jim, and I'm the sect head."
"I'm… Willy," Arthur was about to say his name wrong yet he paused before adding, "and I used to be much interested in the ways of cultivation for a long time now."
"Then it's fate to meet our venerable savior," Jim said, "I believe we can help you in the training if you wish."
"After the fight," Arthur simply said while evading answering this offer of Jim. He didn't need any training guidance, only info that he lacked much at this moment.
"Alright," Jim understood his meaning while his red eyes shone brighter, "I believe our odds are great. After all, the traitors who did this to us didn't touch any of our defenses at all."
Jim touched a sour spot in Arthur's mind. "Don't you feel this is a little odd?" he couldn't help but ask.
"I believe we shall speak elsewhere," Jim said before pointing to the distant peak, "we can talk there, not much nuisance or disturbance at all."
"Alright, follow me," Arthur turned into a dragon and that startled the cultivators for a moment before they sighed. "There are truly heavens above heavens," Jim said before taking out his sword and flew over it, following Arthur alongside his men and Arthur's men.
As for Deem, he was helped by the crow who let him take a ride over his back this time.
Once they reached the peak, Arthur found no one there at all. "This is a sacred place of our sect," Jim explained when Arthur glanced in doubt towards him.
"Now can you honestly tell me what really happened here?" Arthur finally could speak freely about these secretive issues of the recent past.
"We… got betrayed by one of our fellow daoists," Jim said with a dark face, "he was the leader of the iron peak. Very good person, or that's what we all thought."
He glanced at others and they all nodded. "This sect is well hidden from the eyes of the world. We mind our own business and the world minds its own," Jim added before sighing, "yet it seems our fellow doaist had another opinion in that regard."
"Like what?" Arthur asked.
"He… believed we were declining over the recent years," Jim explained with honesty. ``He had a point there, but the solution he believed in wasn't a really nice one. He proposed to be allied with those coming from higher realms and find ourselves a new vessel of knowledge."
"And you rejected this proposal of his, right?" Amera asked as she could get what happened as the others around her.
"That enraged him, however I never expected this would drive him to such madness," Jim shook his head, "our sect is specialized in karma and foretelling cultivation ways. He… believed in a vision he had, and in that vision the entire sect was set on fire and we were all mercilessly killed."
Arthur glanced in conflicted thoughts towards Jim while asking:
"He thought your fate was sealed."
"Our venerable daoist is truly correct," Jim bitterly said before adding, "he thought himself to be our savior. But in fact he turned out to be our executioner."
Arthur understood what happened here. That man went lunatic and contacted the dark forces in this world. These forces gave him the poison and he spread it. "Where is he now?" Arthur asked.
"I… frankly dunno," Jim sighed and this was alone a bomb that he threw on Arthur's face.
"He said he would kill himself after we all went to sleep," one cultivator said.
"I doubt someone like him would do that," yet the crow expressed his and everyone's doubts.
"That's why I said I dunno anything about his fate," Jim said, "I believe he might have retreated back to the dark forces he swore allegiance to."
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