Hidden Group

All the bodies around were from the Grey Hound sect. There were four of them lying around, and as someone who knows what bullets are I immediately recognized what those small bleeding holes were on the bodies.

Although the number of shots fired didn't correspond with the amount bodies, though soon I saw the body with two holes in them. I think that was the one which fell immediately as soon as I reached this place.

I thought that they said the Grey Hound sect usually works alone, why did they group up to take on Rao Nuan?

"Rao Nuan why are you alone, where is the rest of your group?" Yao Ya asked still tightly holding onto my arm.

"Well first of all our group split up into two smaller groups as soon as we crossed that portal. I was voted upon and the majority being a single extra person chose it. So we ended up in two small 10 men teams to cover more ground, and then we just started walking without any direction or even understanding which way we were heading. At some point our small team leader even wanted to split up again into fives to cover even more ground or so he said." Rao Nuan went on a small rant of her whole experience to explain why she was alone.

"He was starting to break down from the lack of.. well anything, after this morning he chose to split up once more. Luckily that vote had failed though, but after some time we eventually stumbled upon a large group of Grey Hound sect disciples gathering. In the end they spotted us and everyone scattered or were killed. They sent a some of their men against me as well, but as you can see I won!" She pointed at the bodies that had only bled some more since we arrived.

Luckily for her, those people had some wounds from a bladed weapon already. She might have even been the one to cause them, but it'll probably be a little easier to explain their deaths with these. That is if one of the others ask about it.

"Um, Miss Rao could you explain what that noise was from before?" The disciple beside Qiao An asked.

'Shit... is there anything that could explode during this era I could use to help her out? Fireworks? Do they even exist yet? Maybe I could just make up a magic tool to tell them about.'

"Those noises? ..It was that man's technique!" She pointed to the most recent body, "He used some sort of fire type attack which combusted. Luckily I was able to avoid all of them and not get a scratch on me."

"Hmm.. you said that you happened upon a large group of Grey Hound disciples gathering?" Qiao An asked with apprehension

"Yes, why?" Rao Nuan responded, sounding slightly confused

"Where are they?! We have to stop them!" Qiao An yelled out, "My father told me to keep an eye on the movements of the Grey Hound sect. You may not know this, but although on the outside they mostly appear loose and unorganized in reality they're well structured.

Well at least for the ones that they trust, as for the others they're mostly in the dark about it. Once they've proven themselves as a person they could trust they'll just the inner circle. Many in the outer courts of the Grey Hound sect make their own little gangs or packs, while the their alpha pack sits within the inner walls.

The only reason they have built up a lone wolf type of disciples on the outside is because of the amount of internal strife there is in the outer courts. They single handedly changed the disposition of many about the Grey Hound sect's conduct.

My father said that if the Grey Hound sect makes any big moves to watch out for it. Especially since our sect isn't on friendly terms with them." She explained.

'Woah, woah, woah where did all this exposition suddenly come from? Why did she, out of nowhere explain the entirety of the inner workings about the Grey Hound sect. At least this means that I probably won't have to worry about those deaths from a while back coming back to bite me.

Also is this the plot guiding her? Seems awfully convenient that she needed this information and it just appeared in front of her. Speaking of plot I wonder what kinds of over the top items our Mc friend has acquired already.

Maybe he's already found a fragment of the space and time law to learn or something else like a magical space hidden within his body that contains a mansion with everything he'll ever need within..'

"Anyway you have to bring me over or tell me where to go. Don't worry I can pay you for doing this for me. Ah here! This should be enough!" Suddenly in a flash a small bag appeared in her hand. it was full to the brim the size of a softball and she handed it over to Rao Nuan. "It should be around 50 spirit stones in there."

Rao Nuan took a good look at the bag in her hand before looking at Qiao An, "You really want to go?" There was a hint of confusion as she spoke.

"Yes! I have to find out what they're doing out here." Qiao An said with determination.

"Well, alright. Is everyone going to be coming along then?" Rao Nuan glanced at everyone around while she spoke.

I looked around and saw that both Chen Huang and the disciple behind her nodded so I guess I'll join in as well. Nodding my head I noticed as Yao Ya did it at the same time as I did, neat.

"Alright then, let's go." Without delaying any further she pocketed the bag and started quickly moving in some direction.

..

"Alright it's just over this small cliff." Rao Nuan pointed forward, past an area where the forest suddenly ended.

Apparently we were on a cliff? As we got closer the fact we were on a cliff was more obvious, but it wasn't too large.

"Alright we're going to have to crawl over there to keep hidden as long as possible." Rao Nuan instructed as she got on her stomach and began to crawl.

After a few moments of everyone crawling we made it to the edge and looked down. The drop was maybe around 3 stories tall and below was the group she told us about.

There seemed to be around a 100 or so people who wore the grey robes. It was quite a sizable force considering the amount of people who entered this realm. I think it was around 300 disciples they brought in their entirety, and a third of their entire forces are down there, doing who knows what.

For now it seems like they were just gathering around as people were still in little groups chatting with one another while waiting in the area. Truly something to be wary about! Socializing!!! A man with extreme anxiety probably would have died by now from the extreme pressure of the mere thought! A reckoning for the socially inept to even peer upon.

"Ok we're here now what do you plan to do Qiao An?" I asked as I watched the people casually walk around and talk.

"I need to see what they plan to do here gathering so many people. They could do something horrible, I'll need to tell my father about this."

'This kinda feels like a cult down there. Maybe that isn't the best word to use wince they haven't actually done anything.'

After around half an hour or so of quietly watch the groups down there move around something major finally seemed to be happening. The groups of talkative people quickly stopped as a person appeared at their forefront.

It was a man who wore the same robes as everyone else yet they were extra respectful to him. Is he the organizer of the event? Probably looking at how he was proceeding to gather all the attention of the people. Most of the people saw what was happening and looked over at the man, but a few wouldn't notice him.

In that case he would walk up to them and say something. Either no one except the person who it was directed at would hear the messages or everyone knew the contents of these messages.

Once everyone's attention was captured as he went forth to an alter of some sort before pulling out a book, reading the contents out loud.

'This is feeling more and more cult like by the second. What's next on their agenda? A live sacrifice or something to offer to the gods?'

Although I thought of that as a joke they apparently didn't, and not too different from what I said happened. A live sacrifice was brought over to the man. It wasn't anything too dramatic though being only one of the many boars within the forest.

I was a little let down that it wasn't a human, but it's probably for the best if it wasn't. I wonder what this ritual would do for them.

'Wait a minute... what's that? Oh damn, I guess they didn't skip out on the human sacrifice after all. Oh shit, isn't that our sect's colors? *Sigh* It's one of Rao Nuan's surviving group members isn't it?'

The man was bound and looked worse for wear with the holes and minor blood stains on his robes. A number of bruises covered his visible body.