The Secret Meeting

Inside the white marble hall at the peak of the highest of the six mountains, a very long rectangular table was placed.

Twelve thrones with very high backs were placed around the table, decorated with jade, gold, and white marble. They were placed five on both of the main sides: five on one side, five on the other, both sides facing one another. Each throne had unique elbow rests of various mythological beasts that gave them a magnificent appearance. Finally, at the head of the table farther from the main entry, the last two thrones, visibly larger than the others, were more decorated and with elbow rests in the shapes of dragon heads.

At the moment, 10 of the thrones were occupied by people of various sizes and aspects, from the most brutish to the most elegant. One thing that held them together was an aura emanating from their bodies so majestic that it would shake the knees of anyone else around.

All ten people who were on the thrones had uniforms of different colours to indicate their individual tastes, but there was also another thing: Each of them had a large, open golden lotus emblazoned on the center of their uniforms, and above it, five of the members there had another lotus with three golden petals, while the other five had a lotus there with three silver petals.

The large lotus's golden colour showed that each of them was a core sect member, while the smaller lotus denoted those with the small golden lotus as Inner Sect Elders, and those with the small silver lotus were Outer Sect Elders.

At the moment, they were all waiting and looking towards the two much larger and gorgeous thrones for the appearance of two very special people.

As they watched and waited for the two missing important figures, from the roof-height window that was present behind the two thrones, an icy air worthy of the extreme north spread across the room, and at the same time, a divine light accompanied it that burned the eyes of anyone who was watching for too long.

So after not even a few seconds since it all started, it was over. And now there appeared seated on the two thrones two very distinct people.

From the smaller lotus above the larger one on their tunics, one could understand who they were. Instead of being a three-petaled lotus, these two people had a four-petaled lotus that was coloured purple.

The person on the left was a very tall man, easily reaching 1 metre and 90 centimetres (6.2 feet) in height. He had very long hair of a flamboyant platinum blond colour with eyes of light gold colour. The hair that would have hung in front of his face was enclosed in a very high ornament and highly decorated with various precious metals, and the rest fell behind him like a sun that had released its vital rays.

He wore a soft-white coloured uniform; the gold embroidery that followed gave a sense of divinity to its entirety. His face was very masculine with sword-shaped eyebrows, very expressive eyes, high cheekbones, and a strong jaw, and it ended with neither big nor little lips, and his complexion was of a very healthy white. He gave the first impression of being 35-40 years old.

The other person who had just arrived was a middle-aged woman but still incredibly beautiful. She had an oval face, and delicate small blood-red lips that gave her a sensual vibe, but she didn't have much sensuality since that perfect face was as cold as a piece of permafrost. Her whole body didn't emanate any emotion, making her emotionless to the people in the room.

Her eyes were as elongated as those of a fox and were of the clearest ice colour; one could see ice crystals inside her eyes, making them look unique. In addition to the majestic aura she emanated, another mysterious feel almost made her out of this world.

Everything was completed by her light blue hair, held in a chignon with a strip of hair that trailed down behind it. Her hair, decorated with some gold ornament, but not too extravagant made her look very noble.

The uniform she wore was of very light platinum-colour, with a four-petaled lotus of a vibrant purple above the larger one, denoting its status higher than that of the people present.

As soon as they arrived, all the people present stood up and put their hands in front as a sign of greeting, "The present juniors greet the Great Sect Master Xi and the Great Grand Elder Zhou."

The newly arrived couple was the Sect Master of the Sect and the mysterious Grand Elder of the Sect: the most powerful Spiritual Masters in the Sect.

Watching his old comrades greeting them, Sect Master Xi gave them a slight smile, "Don't worry, my dear Sect Elders, you can sit".

And so they sat down, and Sect Master Xi cleared his voice. "Today I've summoned you for two reasons: the first is the account of this year's disciples and the second is a fact that unfortunately, we cannot avoid."

So the man dressed in divine colours turned to his right, where the Outer Sect Elders were sitting. An older man with a hunched back was sitting, with a face that was full of wrinkles with pale white hair.

It was the Seventh Elder who was present at the day of Lien Hua's awakening. He stood up with a serious face and thanked the Sect Master and coughed a bit "*cough*...Thank you all for coming today, I wanted to give an account of the disciples who entered our sect this year.

Starting with the most important ones we have acquired from the 50 children who have awakened, three talents are of mid-grade. Eight are medium-low grade and 25 low-grade talents. The other 14 children had non-gradable talents."

All those present, hearing this year's report, could only raise an eyebrow from the surprise and the Sect Master Xi adorned a big smile that was attributable to his good mood.

Grand Elder Zhou also raised her head slightly in interest after hearing this year's talent report. But as good as it could be, it had nothing to do with her anymore and was soon disinterested.

Looking at all his colleagues' faces, Sect Master Xi smiled and especially once noticing that Grand Elder Zhou had looked at him for a moment. The Seventh Elder was thrilled to be noticed by all of the powerful people in his sect.

By now, he was old, about 150 years old and was almost at the end of his life span. If he did not rise in cultivation rank, which was now completely denied because he was weakening each day, he could live a maximum of another 20 to 30 years if he strove hard.

By now, he had only become good at doing straightforward tasks that did not require an enormous release of spiritual energy, which would harm even more to his present state.

After he said this, he sat down again in his place while everyone went back to watching the big thrones as Sect Master Xi put his hands on the marble table in a solemn way, drawing everyone's attention to himself.

Even Grand Elder Zhou began to look at her old disciple with gravity in her so inexpressive eyes. And that alarmed everyone. Seeing that everyone had the attention on him, his face that before was very cheerful and happy suddenly became severe and hard.

"The second piece of news I wanted to share with you today is the fact that all of a sudden, the Imperial Family has called for general help from all the provinces; no one will be excluded. And this morning I received a letter with the imperial stamp, asking Grand Elder Zhou and me to go immediately to the imperial palace and decide to bring two more people at our discretion."

Hearing the sudden news, everyone was shaken to the bone. What could have happened that all the provinces of the Empire had to send their strongest Spiritual Masters?

As soon as Sect Master Xi said this piece of news, a person on the left side of Sect Master Xi stood up and immediately asked with fear and anxiety in her voice, "What could have happened that was so serious? And if so many high ranking members leave to go there, it will endanger the stability and safety of the Sect here!"

The person who spoke was a 40-45-year-old lady with pale purple hair and magenta-coloured eyes, adorned with a pink sakura-coloured uniform, and over the large lotus had a golden three-petaled lotus.

Sect Master Xi turned to the woman who had made her statement and tried to calm her with a passive and undisturbed voice, "Don't worry Junior Lin. Also, I don't know what could have happened. I hope it's not something too serious. Furthermore, if something happens I have my teacher with me that with her martial spirit Ice Python King we could have very high protection; also my Holy Light Wolf is of the healing variety so we should have no problems."

Hearing the calm and reassuring voice of their Sect Master, some of that anxiety that had inhabited their hearts was suppressed, but it had not been eliminated.

Like that, Inner Sect Elder Lin sat down much calmer, while Sect Master Xi knocked on the marble table, regaining the room's attention. "As for the Sect's stability, you will have to get by. I know you will succeed. I hope that the Imperial Family will be able to explain this sudden call..."

Looking down and contemplating, the almighty Sect Master Xi sighed in defeat and looked back at each of his Sect Elders. "Now I will have to decide who to take with me. Junior Wang, Junior Lan, you will come with Grand Elder Zhou and me."

The first who had been called was a very muscular man, who wore only a very short sleeveless uniform where his muscle-bound arms came out.

He was also the tallest person present, easily more than 2 meters tall (6.6 feet). He also had a chignon that gathered all of his brown hair, which was not very long. He had a brutish and serious face, and his complexion was very dark. As soon as Junior Wang heard his name, he rose and greeted Sect Master Xi.

The other person that was called was a very young woman. Her appearance was that of a 20-year-old with an oval face, phoenix-shaped eyes, and very fleshy pale pink lips.

She wore a lavish uniform of a light red colour that was quite reminiscent of her hair, being of a dark shade of the same red, and she had eyes the same colour as her uniform.

In her hand, she held a small paper fan which had printed on it a fantastic landscape which she used to cover her mouth while talking.

Junior Lan also got up and thanked Sect Master Xi even though behind that sweet smile she was very annoyed and angry. She also had a little bit of fear because she didn't want to risk losing her life if this summons was too dangerous. In the end, Junior Lan was very young; she still had her whole life ahead of her.

But eventually, she surrendered with a long sigh and thought it might be an experience for her to grow more powerful.

Grand Elder Zhou, noticing all this inner monologue, was ready to promptly counter her disciple's choice if the girl had not immediately changed her mind.

And so Sect Master Xi said that in 10 days they had to meet at his house to leave for the capital and dismissed everyone.

Meanwhile, the evening had arrived, and Lien Hua had just sat on the cultivation mat in the middle of her house.