Chapter 1: I’m a Peak Master?

Southern Border of Jade and Rose Kingdom, Mountain ranges, Grey Mountain Sect

In the 7th mountain of the Grey Mountain Sect, inside one of the shabby cave houses, Gabriel sat on his bed, sweating bullets as he looked at his hands.

"You can't be serious… I really did get transmigrated…" he muttered to himself. Soon enough, memories of the original body entered his mind, melding with his own, creating one cohesive memory.

His past relations were erased as the new memories of this body's relationships with other people in this world melded into his deleted memories. Now, he is Gabriel Smith—the real one—while carrying someone's knowledge from his previous life.

As soon as the memories completely assimilated, his sweat intensified as he recalled something terrible.

His master, the previous peak master of this mountain, died unexpectedly when he failed to break through. His cultivation went haywire and exploded, causing a massive wave around the sect. It was also a massive loss to the sect, as his master was one of the strongest members of this sect. He and the elders of the sect, along with the sect were the only members of this sect in the Elemental Fusion realm. His master failed to break through to the Samsara realm.

Now that his master died two days ago, today is the day Gabriel is going to be inaugurated as the peak master, as he was the only disciple of his master and no one else. It's the reason why this mountain is terribly barren.

His master was known to be a training addict and was famous for not being a proper master. After becoming a peak master in the sect, he was only forced to take Gabriel because he was asked by the sect master, who threatened to take the cultivation supplies away from him otherwise.

As such, despite being only of average talent, Gabriel was taken by his master. At first, Gabriel was glad to be taken by one of the strongest masters in the sect, but two years in, he hadn't been able to take serious lessons from his master!

He was only given cultivation books and had to teach himself without pointers from his master! As such, there were countless times Gabriel failed to properly cultivate his strength, thus damaging his average potential to a terrible level! The moment that happened, Gabriel knew it was over for him, and the belief that his master would do something about it vanished as grievance developed.

Because of this, everyone in the sect considered him the unluckiest man in the world, and rumors started spreading that Gabriel brought bad luck to anyone near him, making him lonely and developing a quiet personality.

Five years under his teaching, two days ago, his master notified him that he was going to break through and what was surprising was that he promised he would finally teach him!

And what happened next? His master failed and died, thus solidifying the myth about Gabriel being the embodiment of bad luck. This event made Gabriel's reputation even worse.

Gabriel is only at the Vitality Infusion stage in the mortal cultivation realm, and today he is going to be inaugurated as the peak master of this mountain. In the history of the Grey Mountain Sect, he will be the weakest elder. Hell, some random disciple from the sect is guaranteed to be more powerful than him, making this entire affair a joke. To most elders of the sect, it is a reputational damage, and almost every leader in the sect opposes his inauguration as the peak master.

However, the sect master refused and insisted on staying with tradition, making the situation crazier and resulting in feelings of hate directed towards Gabriel.

...

Recalling this event, Gabriel sweated bullets. Now he knows why the previous soul of this body gave up and killed himself—because he couldn't handle the pressure from all sides. Not only that, he was likely to be killed sooner or later due to his terrible reputation that affected the entire sect. This damage to the sect was hated by all leaders except the weird sect master for allowing this to happen.

"Fuck!" Gabriel couldn't help but cuss loudly, making the entire mountain echo his vulgar shout.

"Sigh," taking a deep breath, Gabriel tried to calm himself. Soon enough, he found himself shocked as he stared into a floating window in his view.

[System Initiating]

The moment he read that, it was as if heaven shined into his soul. "Thank god! A system!" He knew the moment he saw this system his fate would literally change!

[Master – Disciple System Online… Hello! ]

[To initiate the system, the owner must take a disciple! ]

[To have a disciple, one must take the process of the heaven oath, where the fate of both persons will be entangled. ]

Reading this, Gabriel sighed in relief. Taking a disciple, he thinks, will be easy as he will be authorized by the sect to take disciples since he will be the peak master.

Knock! Knock!

Hearing a knocking sound from his door, Gabriel stood up from his bed and opened the door.

There, a disciple wearing a core disciple outfit. He knows this person as the disciple of the first elder, Marcus Blake. This disciple has really good talent and at 17 years old, he's already at the Soul Ignition stage! Two stages higher than Gabriel!

---

Marcus Blake, despite being scared of going into this mountain, was instructed by his master to take Gabriel to the main hall for his inauguration as peak master. He couldn't defy his master's orders, so he came to fetch Gabriel and inform him about his inaugural. Marcus Blake could only hope that Gabriel's bad luck wouldn't affect him, considering that if his master became the sect master in the future, he would become the first elder, and being the first elder means that he would be the future successor of the sect.

"Disciple Gabriel, I'm here to take you to the main hall for your inauguration. Please follow me," he said.

Gabriel nodded; he knew this already.

Gabriel followed Marcus Blake, but when Gabriel tried to get closer, Marcus Blake intentionally distanced himself. Seeing this, Gabriel could only smile wryly and silently follow behind him.

But because he had been lonely for almost seven years now in this sect, he really couldn't manage basic conversation, and because of this, only their footsteps could be heard, making Marcus Blake even more terrified. He felt as if a dark shadow of bad luck was looming behind his back, making him scared.

Please talk, damn it!

It didn't take long for the awkward walk to end as the two quickly arrived at the main peak of the sect, the first mountain peak. The two walked, and Gabriel heard gossip in the background as he noticed scared and unfriendly gazes directed at him.

Right, he remembered that today was also the day for the sect to take disciples out from the sect, thus there were many people here on the main peak trying their luck to enter the sect. Despite the Grey Mountain Sect being a low-tier sect, regular people would still have a chance to enter the path of immortality and maybe try their luck. After all, no person wants to miss their chance of becoming an immortal because being immortal means strength, power, money, long life, and prestige given to these people once they attain it.

Hearing the terrible rumors being spread to the potential recruits, Gabriel couldn't help but have a heartache. I still need a disciple. Please don't spread rumors about me! Do it later when I have a disciple!

The two arrived at the gates and soon entered the main hall.

There, in the middle, was a high seat with eight seats facing the carpet in the hall. These seats were occupied by the elders of the sect or the peak masters, while the middle seat was occupied by the sect master. A man standing in front of his seat was staring at Gabriel, a strange glint in his eye making Gabriel feel pressured by his gaze alone.

This man is strong! No wonder he's considered the strongest person in the sect! Worthy of his title as the sect master!

In the surrounding seats were the elders of the sect. They also looked at Gabriel with pity, some with anger, and some with silent disdain.

In this sect, there are nine main peaks, the first one being the mountain they're in where the sect master and the first elder reside with his disciple in tow. This is also the biggest mountain in the surrounding area, which is why it is the first peak. Each peak has a peak master, and Gabriel will be the 7th peak master once this is over.

Marcus Blake clasped his hands and respectfully bowed. "Greetings, sect master. I brought Disciple Gabriel."

The sect master nodded his head and then looked at Gabriel.

"Gabriel Smith greets the sect master." Gabriel did the same out of respect and greeted him also.

Seeing this, the seemingly confident Gabriel made Victor Armstrong, the sect master, nod with a smile. This wasn't the reaction he was expecting from Gabriel.

"Elders, please be seated," Victor said. Everyone except the two disciples in the center took their seats, and Victor also sat in his chair.

"Since everyone is here, we will commence the inauguration of the 7th peak master." The moment he said this, the atmosphere in the hall seemed to get colder. Sensing this made Victor smile again. Soon enough, unable to contain his feelings, an elder from the side stood up and faced the sect master. This person was the 2nd peak master, Brandon Forge, the smith path cultivator.

"Sect Master, I think this is not appropriate," he said.

"What's inappropriate?" Victor asked in a relaxed manner.

"The reputation of our sect is at stake here!" the elder aggrieved.

As soon as he said this, two more elders stood up: the 5th peak master, Aaron Sinclair, and the actual high elder of the sect, Marcus Blake's master, Sebastian Miles.

"Sect Master, please reconsider! The reputation of our sect will be in the trash if this matter spreads in the world! The sect has been working hard for countless years to gain reputation despite being a low-tier sect to attract talents. If this matter spreads around the world, I'm afraid we will be affected hard by this!" Sebastian argued.

"Yes, sect master, please reconsider! I'm also afraid that we'll be laughingstocks no matter what if this continues! The rumors alone are enough for people outside the sect to question why we are doing this," Aaron said, clasping his hands together.

The other elders of the sect nodded in agreement, even Gabriel agreed deep inside. However, if he didn't have the system, he would also push the sect master to let him off. But now, needing a disciple, he could only go silent and let fate decide itself.

However, to everyone's shock, the sect master lazily put his head on his hand and only made a "Hmm" sound.

What shocked everyone was the aura that accompanied that voice, making everyone in the hall feel his power and fear him. No one knew the strength of the sect master, but the elders estimated it at the Samsara realm, though no one knew for sure.

This eccentric sect master was sometimes amiable and sometimes a headache, like in this case. Everyone didn't know why he was letting Gabriel inherit the title of 7th peak master.

"You guys… You know what's inappropriate? You guys interjecting into my decisions!" Victor grumbled, applying pressure on the three elders, making them sweat hard.

WTF! Is this a dictatorship!?

The first elder could only swallow his anger and sit on his chair, followed by the other two elders. The sect master aura had chocked most of the elders seated and cold sweat trickled down their back, they shut their mouths and did not dare to talk anymore.