15 The Enemy's Disciple Has A Good Personality?

Maryam returned to the sect feeling deeply disquieted. That night, she made her way to the house of Lina, the woman she had asked out right before she left for the forest.

Lina noticed her general air of discomfort and invited her in to eat. Then Maryam fucked her with an air of desperation.

Lina made no move to resist, and after a moment of shock, responded enthusiastically. After all, Maryam was a very hot woman. And Lina had been a virgin for almost forty years; she had nothing to wait for anymore.

As their activities went on, Maryam's desperation slowly faded and was replaced with an aggressive passion. She was experienced with women and left Lina feeling very satisfied.

When they were done, some emotion seemed to drain from Maryam's body. She looked at Lina with sober eyes. Wordlessly, she lay down next to her lover. Maryam's face was turned towards the ceiling and she seemed lost in thought.

A while passed, and Lina began to drift off to sleep.

"Have you ever been in love?" Maryam asked abruptly.

Lina turned her head, and her eyes lingered for a moment on Maryam's lips.

"Yes," said Lina, "Once."

"What was it like?"

"She was beautiful," Lina replied, "I think she might've not been objectively that attractive, but even so, her smile was my favorite thing to see in this world. I'd have done anything for her." Lina continued to describe her love and how she was attracted to her, at times sounding almost resentful.

"You sound infatuated."

"I was. All my memories of her are covered in a sort of glow. Every second I spent with her seems to be frozen in time. She was my best friend, you see."

"What happened? Did you ask her out? How did she react?" Maryam asked, unsure of why she was bracing herself for the answer.

"No. How could I? She probably didn't even like women. I wouldn't harass a friend like that; she'd likely have distanced herself from me in disgust."

It wasn't the response Maryam dreaded, but she still felt her heart sink.

"But, you know," Lina continued, noting the look on Maryam's face, "I have never had any success in romance. Maybe I did the wrong thing."

"Yeah, you're not very good at this. I shouldn't have asked you."

Lina looked a bit hurt, but Maryam ignored her.

In several days, Maryam's suspicions about the purpose of Autumn's bracelet were essentially confirmed. The sect was abuzz with talk due to news of a certain event.

A dragon had been killed.

It was not some immature flame-drake or other weak descendant of dragon blood. A pure-blooded dragon had been killed.

In the entire territory controlled by the sect, only the sect head and the great elders were capable of such a feat. All of them had alibis for the timeframe when the event happened.

Sect disciples wondered and theorized as they chatted.

"Could it be the rise of a new Essence Fusion cultivator?"

"No, don't be ridiculous. How would it be possible for someone to get that far while escaping the sect's notice?"

"A foreign intruder, then?"

"They say the only ones found within a hundred miles of the scene were a group of mortal merchants."

The idea of a group of mortals being involved with the defeat of a dragon was so patently ridiculous that it wasn't even worth discussing.

"But it's curious. My uncle was part of the party that found the scorched battleground, and he says it looked like the coordinated attacks from multiple positions."

"What are you guys talking about?"

The voice was friendly and cheerful. The group turned to look at the new arrival. It was a pretty young woman with large and shining eyes.

Her appearance stirred the surrounding people.

"Is that Nalema Mo?"

"That failing old geezer's genius disciple? Tch, look at her. She's way too good for him."

The crowd's chatter continued along those lines. Apparently, Nalema was so talented that even the sect head wanted her as his disciple, but she insisted on staying loyal to her original master. She had long surpassed him in social status and cultivation, so it was a shame.

Maryam looked over at the woman and felt a strange familiarity coming from her. Typically, she would have gone over to flirt, but for some reason, she felt a faint feeling of wrongness from the girl. Besides, she hadn't felt like hitting on girls ever since she came back from the forest.

As if sensing her stare, the girl looked in Maryam's direction and their eyes met.

"Sorry, guys, I think I just saw someone I know. I'll catch up with you later," Nalema said to the group.

Then, Nalema began to walk over to Maryam. As she drew nearer, the sense of wrongness intensified.

"Are you the one who beat my master?"

"Who?" asked Maryam.

"He is Elder Nevus. I know you had your grievances towards him, but was it really necessary to go so far?"

"Necessary?" Maryam smiled. "Of course not."

"Then, why would you—"

"I wanted to. And he wronged me first. Why shouldn't I?"

At this, a spectating student glared at Maryam and looked like they wanted to interject angrily.

Nalema hesitated. "Well, I guess you probably had your own side to the story. After all, my master hasn't been well for years. In that case, I'll have to apologize on his behalf."

As Nalema talked, Maryam observed her and was shocked. Nalema truly was a genius. Even as she spoke, the world's energy flooded around her and attempted to integrate itself into her flesh at a remarkable pace. Such skill at 'gathering' was something Maryam had only seen in one person before, and that was herself. She likely had more talent than Nalema in this regard, but nobody else alive could approach her skill.

That was when she realized what was wrong. Nalema had such talent but was only at the peak of the Bodily Rebirth stage. Given her appearance and her cultivation level, she should be in her mid-twenties.

If she truly had talent comparable to Maryam, she should've already stepped into immortality. Even if she was taking her time, there was no way she could only be at the peak Bodily Rebirth stage at her age.

Now thinking hard, Maryam released a flash of energy directly in front of Nalema's eyes. To a not particularly talented cultivator, this flash would be so subtle and undetectable that they wouldn't even notice, but to someone of Maryam's caliber, it would be like a sudden bright light in their face.

Nalema didn't even blink.

Maryam had thought of an explanation. If she was only good at 'gathering', but not at 'sense' or 'control', her lack of progress could be explained.

However, while cultivation talent could be split into separate sectors, those sectors weren't unrelated. A cultivator could be most talented in one area, but their skill in the other two sectors would typically not be far behind.

Maryam had never heard of a case where a cultivator had heaven-defying talent in one sector and extremely little in the others. But that unthinkable situation appeared to be right in front of her, in the flesh.

It truly was a waste.

Maryam had drawn her judgements rather quickly, and Nalema was still talking.

In addition to expressing her desire to move past the conflict, Nalema also mentioned that she had a lot of issues with how the sect treated those with lower cultivations.

"I don't have the power to change it now, but in the future, I hope that I can help fix these issues. For now, though, you can come to me if you run into any more trouble. I'm only a single person, but I'll do what I can."

Maryam could see why Nalema was so popular with the lower-ranked sect members. Despite her talent, she wasn't arrogant at all, and she treated everyone as equals. It was extremely rare to see a genius show such consideration for those below them.

She didn't seem to be doing it for the sake of gaining their admiration either. Maryam's intuition told her that this girl was sincere.

"So, are you also here for the cave expedition?" Nalema asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am." Maryam had been taking it easy, but she needed to get stronger quickly now, and the sect was not a good place to break through.

The sect had recently found an entrance to what appeared to be an ancient underground city. The so-called cave expedition was the result of the sect wanting to explore this city to search for interesting relics. All disciples of the sect had been invited as there was a lot of ground to cover.

Of course, anything powerful discovered was to be reported and turned over to the sect, in exchange for ample rewards and merits.

Nalema, perhaps noticing the lack of people around Maryam, showed a look of concern. "Do you have a group? There may be a lot of core creation stage and below cultivators coming with us, but most of them are following someone strong. It's very dangerous to go alone."

"Oh?" Maryam smiled, "Then, can I go with you?"

Nalema smiled back politely, "Of course."

And like that, Maryam joined Nalema's group. There were hundreds of people in it, and it seemed to have several pre-formed alliances. Many were at the initial stage of Core Creation and there were several who were at the peak of Core Creation.

Maryam noticed a few people eyeing her with bad intentions, but while she was standing near Nalema, there was nothing they could do.

The cave was fortunately not too far away from sect grounds, and the trip was short.

Following the pretty, reliable woman, Maryam entered the ancient city.