20 OLD PETE

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"He's much more of a freak than you are back in the day." Suddenly, the same old man who Sieg met at the Inn showed up beside Gin. He's wearing a smile in his face, his left hand was clasped behind his back and his right hand was being supported by a cane.

"Well, it looks like the 'Order' would cause some commotion again." Gin said nonchalantly.

"We're not the type to be silent anyway. And it looks like we can only we only have one newcomer upon going back."

"Aii~~ do we really have to go back? Why are keeping up with this anyway? You're supposed to be-"

"Gin." The old man said softly, "Let it be, if it really is for me then it is for me. If not then it will not be too late to withdraw right?"

"Heh, whatever then…" Gin said dissatisfied, he then turned his attention to Sieg who is now nearly finished filling up the whole stone tablet.

And then, before the whole 30 minutes passed, Sieg finally filled up the stone tablet. It trembled a bit and rose into the air. It was releasing a solemn fluctuations. Sieg on the other hand, was spent. He slumped into the floor heaving lung-fulls of air, even then he still wearing a smile in his face.

'I did it!' He thought. But after noticing the the things he inscribed at the stone tablet, he frowned. 'How so then? I don't recall myself finishing the recording or even mastering this many inscriptions. So how?'

Seemingly able to read what's on his mind, Gin answered his doubts.

"Enlightenment does 'not only' make 'ya insensitive about your surroundings, it's more than that. The reason why 'ya don't know what going on around you is because your attention is fully occupied and would not tolerate any disturbances, that's enlightenment is all about. During enlightenment, the speed of thoughts, you're problem-solving skills and your progress in the thing that's making you occupied will be at three, or even 10 times the normal. Do 'ya get it now?"

"Oh! So that's why I am able to do all of the Basic Inscriptions then! Thanks for the guidance Big Brother." Sieg turned around and said to Gin, as he did, he finally took notice of old man. He was shocked to see him hear, and was also a bit terrified he never knew when he showed up. "Hello Senior!" He bowed to the old man and the old man smiled.

"Call me Old Pete, it seems like you did well young man…"

"I'm just lucky that's all…" Sieg was a bit embarrassed and surprised about what he said. Three or four years ago, you would never hear him say that he's lucky or anything like that. But now he can, he really changed a lot.

"Ahuu~~~ trying to be humble aren't we now huh? Big Brother can tell that your pretty smug inside right? Come, come admit it already haha…"

"No, no, no, not at all…" Sieg panicked and wanted to explain right away when he realized that Gin was only teasing him and said: "Aish~ stop teasing me Big Brother!"

"Alright quit it you kids…" Old Pete said, he tapped his cane slightly and the stone tablet that's emitting a bright light dimmed, it landed softly in it's previous place and looked exactly like before.

He stepped forward and said to Sieg: "Since you passed the test then you can totally be a student of our inscription school. However, I will give you options."

"Options?"

"Yes, the first one is joining the 'Heavenly Message Sect', it is not located here in the Great Blue Carp City, it is at the Nameless Peak Holy Land."

"Second, is to join the 'Order of Scribes' which is also located at the Nameless Peak Sect. This is an organization and not a sect so if you have plans on joining a sect, the organization won't stop you."

"But of course, if you have different plans, you can always refuse, we won't mind really." Old Pete stated Sieg's choices and patiently waited for his answers.

"Can I ask some questions before answering?" Sieg replied after quite sometime.

Old Pete nodded his head and gave him an encouraging look.

"Is Heavenly Message Sect, a '1-star level' sect?"

"It's a two star sect." Sieg was surprised by the by the straightforwardness of Old Pete, him on the other hand was not surprised that Sieg asked about this.

"If I join the 'Order of Scribes' will you guys shelter me if, per se, offended two sects?" Sieg was trying his luck in his question here.

Old Pete was surprised this time about Sieg's question. "How did you offend them?"

"I didn't do anything really, I was exiting the Dark Bamboo Forest when suddenly an item landed on my hands. Turns out that it was passed onto me by disciples of Freezing Sky Sect, then people that are wearing dark red robes and had a badge of a person standing in some sort of an altar, attacked me. I strangled one close to death and cut another one's hand but that's about it." Sieg narrated the whole scenario from his point of view.

Old Pete looked at Gin who was also looking at Sieg with a dumb expression. "You entered Dark Bamboo Forest and managed to get out alive?" They asked him again as a confirmation.

"Um, I live there."

"YOU WHAT?" Gin exclaimed, Old Pete was now dumbfounded, it looks like Sieg wasn't lying about this. Old Pete managed to regain his composure and asked him.

"Can we have a look at the item that you got?" Old Pete asked.

"Sure!" Sieg slipped his hands inside his storage bag and took out the item: "It's this beast skin right here…"

As soon as he took out the beast skin, he saw Gin and Old Pete shook fiercely. Sieg was puzzled, he never understood what's this item all about, and from the looks of it, these two knew what it is. Their eyes were glued onto the beast skin, their gazes kept moving from him, the beast skin and each other. Old Pete then asked Sieg politely this time.

"Could we take a closer look at this item?" He almost choked when he said this, this was incredibly a shameful act for him already but he just can't help it. He needed to know, he want to know if this was the item that both him and Gin was thinking about.

"Yeah sure…" Sieg replied casually, he didn't sense any greed from the two so he knew that they won't stoop that low to steal his belongings. Well, he could also sell this to them, the price is very negotiable. He handed the beast skin to them casually as well.

As Old Pete and Gin looked at the beast skin closely, after a few minutes of looking at it in detail, they both looked at each other and laughed.

"Oh fate~~ how mysterious you are…" Old Pete became a little bit emotional as he said this, Gin also sighed and looked at Sieg with sparkling eyes.

"Did you know that if you showed this beast skin in any sect, even a holy land level one, they would accept you as their core disciple right away?" Old Pete said casually to him.

It was Sieg's turn to be dumbfounded, he blurted out: "This beast skin is worth that much?"

"It's worth even more than that! Actually you would be cheated even if a Holy Land level sect gave you half of their resources."

Sieg's brain almost stopped working. What is this concept? Half of the resources of a Holy Land Level Sect? Even if he spend his whole life living like a 'silkpants' he would not be able to completely spend that! And he was even being cheated because of that.

If any 'normal' person heard these words, their eyes would be filled with greed and they would even go crazy just to get it back. But Sieg's thought was completely different.

Yes he was tempted, but he knew that even if Old Pete is willing to hand the beast skin back over to him, at the end of the he's too weak. Even a guard of a Holy Land level sect can kill him in one punch. He doesn't have the power to protect this kind of treasure and it would even cause him a headache keeping it.

"Why is such a terrifying item exist anyway? If you guys can give me time to be stronger I would definitely keep that item but now I'm too weak, what if someone saw me keeping this stuff then? I would be hunted left and right by powerful sect disciples, where am I suppose to run then? I doubt that master would protect me since he won't even show his shadow. What should I do then?" Old Pete and Gin heard Sieg's little mumblings.

"If I keep it, it's not like Big Brother Gin and Old Pete would tell anyone about since they told me this item's worth, I can't feel any greed or malice in them so I should be fine. But it would really bother me a lot if kept this type of item with me, I would be in a constant stress about it, that may cause some disruptions on my cultivation, I wouldn't want that. Especially since I have a lot of stuff to learn and I need to maintain the peace of my heart. Okay then! It's decided, I'm going to let them have but that's on the premise that I would have something in return." Sieg's ramblings continued.

Old Pete and Gin was dumbfounded, is he not hearing himself right now? Does he know that they can hear him?

"Oi Kid! We can hear 'ya you know?"

"What!?" Sieg was bewildered, Old Pete and Gin laughed out loud on his reactions.

'What an amusing kid, he's dumb and intelligent at the same time. Maybe it was because he lived inside the Dark Bamboo Forest that he's like this. I think he never filtered his thoughts and was used to saying them aloud since no one could or would hear him inside the forest anyway. But what's even more surprising is that he knows his place. A lot of people would kill just to have type of treasure, specially old people like me. I just can't bring to harm hin that's why I told him the truth, yet he actually hesitated. His Master was very lucky to have a disciple like him.' Old Pete thought.

What he said was the actually the truth though, it was so hard to resist a treasure like this no matter who heard it really, but a kid like Sieg didn't actually jumped the gun right away. Compared to people at his age, Sieg was way too matured about making decisions yet he still retains the purity of a kid. To find some people like him is ever rarer than the beast skin itself.

"What's your name again young man?" Old Pete asked.

"My name is Sieg, Sir Old Pete." He replied politely.

"Calling me Old Pete is fine Sieg. And yes we heard your thoughts just right now, don't worry you can totally trust both of us to keep this secret, and since you decided to part with this beast skin of course I won't treat you unjustly. I would tell you a very sensitive secret but you have to promise me not to tell to anyone as well okay?"

"Yes O-old Pete!"

"Good. 9 steps of Awakening, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation and Void Realm, you know that these are the current realms according to some informations right?"

"Right."

"But did you really think that the peak of Martial Arts is the Void Realm?" Old Pete said slowly, Gin had a rare and solemn air about him again. And Sieg's brain started to make wild assumptions already. It didn't took to long for him to find out what Old Pete wanted to tell him.

"Yes, there is in fact another realm above the Void Realm, and that is…"

"9 Transformation Realm.."