3 Chapter 3

While the duo was fighting inside a sect headquarters, Auron was staring blankly into the horizon with many thoughts were going through his head.

For example, he was wondering how a demonic sect could have such a kind sect master like Zeke or a capable elder like Lewis.

When he was young his parents told him that demonic and righteous are not exactly like what public and ordinary people think. Cultivating demonic techniques doesn't mean that someone is evil and vice versa, it only points to the nature of the technique itself.

Righteous techniques could be considered to be more concerned with utility while demonic are said to be more lethal. For example, a righteous sword cultivator will do his best to perfect his moves and skills in order to become 'one with a sword' while at the same time demonic sword cultivator will only care about being able to kill swiftly and efficiently.

Despite that you could actually meet a demonic sword cultivator helping homeless people survive and a righteous cultivator who decides to kill a peasant for simply looking at him.

But as they say, seeing is believing. Even if he trusts his parent unconditionally he still doubted that. No matter how he looked at that his parents were just normal farmers without any experience with cultivation.

After standing like that for a few minutes he heard a voice that brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hey, are you Auron?"

He turned in the direction of the voice and saw a young boy around two years older than him. He wears poor-quality red robes with a symbol of a circle on a sleeve.

"Yes, that's me."

Auron ponders what a strange symbol means. Boy notices that and says.

"My name is Edward and this symbol on my sleeve means that I'm an outer disciple."

Auron nodded in understanding. He heard before about different types of disciples in the sect. Of course, he doesn't know the details but only a general categorization.

"Come with me. I will guide you around the sect and we will get you your robes, basic cultivation manual, and the first batch of cultivation resources."

After saying those words both Edward and Auron went away. A few dozens of minutes later they appeared before a tower with written 'Manual pavilion' on a plaque. Then Edward turned to Auron and said.

"Go inside. There you will find an inner disciple whose job is the distribution of manuals. Tell her your name and she will give you a copy of the basic manual."

He did as instructed. When he stepped inside he saw the interior of the building. There were no exquisite decorations, only tables in the middle, a few chairs to sit on, and lots of bookshelves full of various manuals on cultivation and battle techniques. In the corner, he saw a stone table with various demonic engravings.

Behind a table, there was a young lady with short red hair wearing a purple robe. Auron understood that this woman is the inner disciple that Edward was talking about. The most obvious hint was that she had a line inside of a circle on the sleeve of her robe. This means that her position in the hierarchy is higher than an outer disciple.

With that in mind, he approached the table. The woman saw him then and was startled and quickly hid something away.

"Ah, a new face. You want a basic manual right?"

Auron nodded and said.

"Yes. My name is Auron."

Hearing that the girl reminded herself that she forgot to introduce herself. She quickly took a small book from behind a table and gave it to him.

"I'm Cindy. Here is your manual. Now I don't want to be rude but I think that you need to go. You have a lot to do today."

Auron smiled, took the manual, and went away after saying goodbye.

After Auron went away the girl stopped smiling, looked around, and when she made sure that there is no one around she took out a flask and took a sip.

"Ah. I love this job. I can sit doing nothing and drink wine the whole day and they are even paying me for it."

Actually what she didn't know is that Lewis knows about that but he can't bring himself to scold her. The reason is that when he was younger he was doing the exact same thing, so if he were to punish her he would become a total hypocrite.

Back then when his mater learned of that she was so angry that she ordered him to drink all alcohol in the sect which to say was impossible to achieve. So when he failed he was forced to spar with his master, where 'sparing' means being beaten senseless.

After leaving the manual pavilion both Auron and Edward continued their tour. They went to many facilities of the sect. Among those was a library which contains various ordinary books filled with knowledge on different subjects like politics, history or even cooking. They've also gone to the resource distribution hall from which Auron took three sets of outer disciple robes.

"This is the last spot."

Said Edward while pointing at the multi-story building.

"This is a dining hall. Here all disciples eat their meals. Every floor has different quality food, the lowest floor has the plainest and cheap meals while the higher ones have better. The higher the standing, the higher floor you have access to."

Hearing that Auron started asking questions.

"Are meals free and served the whole day?"

Edward smiled and felt relieved knowing that his new junior is actually pretty smart for his age.

"To both questions answer is no. Meals are served two times a day which is announced by a ring of the specially enhanced bell that could be heard in the whole dormitory. Every meal except for the lowest floor has to be paid for with contribution points which can be gained by doing missions distributed by the sect in the mission hall or working for the sect-like Cindy who is taking care of the manual pavilion. Do you understand?"

Auron nodded his head and then Edward continues his explanations.

"Where was I? Ah right... As you can see dining hall is in the middle of the dormitories. In the east there is an area for outer disciples, north is for inner disciples, west is for true disciples and the south is for elders. Great elder and sect master have their own houses. The tour ends here if you have any other questions go to the library their book for almost everything."

With that Edward left leaving Auron alone before the dining hall.

After pondering over his next action he decided to first go to a dormitory and familiarize himself with his room and later on visit the library to learn more about the world and his new home.

Meanwhile, inside a sect hall, Zeke is sitting behind a table which miraculously is the only furniture left intact after his fight with Lewis while sipping tea.

He placed a cup on the table and looked at seemingly unconscious Lewis and said.

"You can stop acting I'm not angry anymore."

Hearing those words Lewis stood up while stretching his limbs.

"Ah. God that hurt. You have a nice punch old man."

After being called the old man again Zeke just took a deep breath and replied.

"The more I spend time with you the more I understand why she was beating you so badly."

He was obviously talking about Lewis master.

"... but at the same time makes me realize why she has taken a liking to you."

He lifted his cup again not waiting for a reply. Seeing that Lewis smirked.

"OLD MAN. What are you talking about? She is married and has children already. So we can't be together and to tell you the truth OLD MAN, there was never anything between us. I love and respect her as a teacher but nothing beyond that."

Being insulted again made Zeke use too much force destroying a cup, making a tea inside of it splash on a table. After taking another deep breath he smirked himself.

"You do realize that she is older than me right. If I'm an OLD MAN then what about her? Should I tell her that you called her an old hag?"

Lewis' eyes widened and his face went pale. Immediately he started bowing before Zeke.

"N-No! Please don't tell her! I don't want to die. I'm too young to die!"

Then Zeke's smile disappeared and his tone become serious.

"Either way do you think it was her plan?"

The great elder stopped bowing and stood up while saying.

"She asked me to take care of demonic beasts in that forest right before an attack on that village. Without a doubt, it was planned but something concerns me. They asked those kids to run away to a nearby city. Either they planned for them to get separated and someone waits for little Ayda there or it didn't go according to a plan."