A man stepped through a decrepit hall with moss-covered walls, holding lanterns that hadn’t lit up in a hundred thousand years. Not a single source of light reached the place where the man walked.

The man wore a single gray robe that made him appear quite ordinary. In fact, the robe seemed to blend him into any location he stood around. Aside from the robe, the most unique thing he had on him was a thick string that was wrapped around his forehead.

It was no gold or silver string, just regular appearing threads. But of course, they weren’t as regular as they appeared to be. The man arrived at a junction that split the pathway to his right and left. The man chose neither. “Master, I request passage,” he said and waited.

A moment later, the wall before him turned translucent, allowing the man to walk through it. He arrived on the other side which seemed even darker than the hallway outside, even though both of the locations lacked a source of light.

Here, the man couldn’t even use his Spiritual sense to look around properly. Not that he dared to.

He got onto one knee and waited patiently.

“Why have you returned?” a deep voice reverberated throughout the entire room, the origin of which was undecipherable. The voice was a mix of man and woman, something that hid even the gender of the person who spoke.

“I am sorry, master. I have failed you,” the man said.

“Failed me?” the voice asked. “Explain your nonsense, Zhengmian. You were supposed to be using the technique I gave you to improve yourself and lay in wait. What happened?”

“The sect I created, it was destroyed, master,” the man said. “The Blue Silk sect discovered my plot and came to destroy the sect. My two brothers are dead, and I have nowhere to go but return to you, master.”

The voice said nothing for a while, creating an eerie silence around the room. After a while, it finally returned.

“Idiot,” the voice said. “What if you were noticed when coming in? It is good luck that no one has followed you.”

“They won’t find me, master,” the man quickly said, pointing to his forehead. “I found this thread from something that was spying on me. I killed it and took it for myself. This Heavenly Silk thread has been helping me stay away from the eyes of anyone who wants to find me.”

The voice said nothing for a moment before returning. “Interesting. That is quite the find. I wasn’t aware anyone bred Heavenly Silkworms in this realm. I was certain it had gone extinct here generations ago.”

The man waited to be certain that his master was done talking and said, “What should we do now, master?”

“We?” the voice gave an audible scoff. “There is no ‘we’ here. There is only me, and it is not time for me to show myself just yet. A few dozen millennia more sounds about right.”

“It will be too late, master,” the man replied. “All of the sects have begun taking down all the demonic sects as well as they can. It is not easy to remain as one in this day and age.”

“Many have. You were just a failure,” the voice said, sounding disgusted. “Many of my other disciples are doing just fine.”

The man suddenly felt the thread around his forehead get pulled by an invisible force and disappear into the room.

“Master?” he called out.

“I will take this. This will be of great aid to me in the future,” the voice said.

“But master, without that, I can’t—”

“Are you questioning my decision?” the voice asked. It sounded calm, but the words fell into the man’s ears like loud drums. “N-no,” the man replied quickly.

“Now go. I want nothing else from you,” the voice said.

The man was stunned. He couldn’t leave like this. Not after all the things he had done. “Master, please. I can be of use still. Tell me what I need to do and I will do it.”

“Hmph! You say you will do anything?” the voice asked. “Then go bring me some more of these threads. Bring me back enough and I will give you an incredible technique, far beyond the Poison Physique Devouring technique.”

“Really?” the man asked, excited.

“Yes, just bring me more of these threads,” the voice said.

“I will master,” he said. “I will.”

“Good. Now leave, and do not return until you’ve found it. No one can know that I still remain here,” the voice said and the door behind the man opened up. freewebnovel.cσ๓

“I won’t disappoint you, master,” the man said and turned around to leave.

He walked back through the dark hallway, thinking about what he needed to do soon. Without the Heavenly Silkworm on him, he would be visible to the Seer’s divination again. He needed to find another few threads before the Seer could get to it.

He was certain the seer didn’t look for him every day, but every few months? That had a much higher chance of happening. Before that, he needed to find those threads.

And he knew exactly who he needed to find for this too. In fact, he was happy he had an excuse to search for him.

“You won’t get away with what you’ve done,” the man said softly. “You thought you could live a normal life after killing my brothers? I will make your life a living hell.”

And so, the sect master of the now defunct Poison Fighters sect began his search for Alex.

* * * * * *

Unaware of anything happening on the outside, Alex was very excited to enter the sect treasury to choose a treasure for himself. He had decided to take a treasure instead of a ticket because he was already close to getting a few tickets anyway, and he needed no more than 3 of those.

So, it was better to get a treasure. He had given up on potential Divine treasures in exchange for those sabers, so he looked forward to this.

The sect master had explained that he would not be getting any sort of Divine treasures. Anything he chose would have to be an Immortal treasure or less. As for what it had to be, he was free to choose anything he wanted to.

They arrived at another mountain, protected deeply by many elders who roamed around the place constantly. They arrived at a rather regular-looking cave and entered.

Alex saw nothing at first but noticed a soft, fluctuating space aura around the place. From time to time, he could almost see an outline of something.

“A secret realm?” he asked the sect master.

“Yes,” the man said. “Our sect treasury is within this secret realm,” the man said.

“Is there enough security inside?” Alex asked. “I don’t see much.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” the man said. “Anyone who steps through here and does not have a Dao tablet will literally burn for all eternity until both his body and soul are completely turned into ash.”

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“I… see,” Alex said.

The sect master smiled. “Let’s go,” he said and the two teleported into the secret realm.