Chapter 104 - "What Is There To Trust?" (1/2)

Shin Sumi's field of vision was restricted but her half closed eyes, contrarily to that of the other hundreds of prisoners, were still capable of sight.

Trapped in the illusion of State of Sleep, none of the others seemed to have realized that they had just performed a large-scale instantaneous transportation to the other side of the continent.​​

Outside the bubble, Shin Sumi saw the Night Twelve in the same position as before, only instead of having the massive grey tower in the background, her field of view had changed to a mountain.

No, there were tendrils of smoke rising from the top, thousands of meters high until they mixed with the occasional clouds. This was a volcano.

On the slope of the volcano lay thousands of houses, courtyards and paths. Their number was big enough that Shin Sumi could only guess at their number in one glance. Just like the mountains in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, the higher her eyes went, the less dense the habitations seemed to be.

At the edge of her field of view, other natural formations smaller than the central volcano rose through the earth as if forming a circle around it.

”The nine mountains of the Blue Fire Sect” Shin Sumi had heard about the strongest sect ever since she had just started walking the path of cultivation. The Blue Fire Sect had nine mountains, each controlled by a specific master, and one active volcano whose flames were blue.

The volcano was the centerpiece of the set, the residence of the Patriarch, the Elders, and that of their direct disciples.

Each mountain was more or less connected to its neighbors, their slopes meeting in between and ensuring the entire sect was impregnable like a natural fortress.

In the ring formed by the nine mountains and one volcano was a circular valley, big enough to house ten of the Dark Sky Starry Sect's upper valley.

On the edge of the valley, right at the beginning of the volcano was where Shin Sumi and the prisoners from the Sky Earth Sect had been transported.

”And now what?” Mantis' crisp voice rose through the air. From her tone of voice, Shin Sumi could tell that she was tired. Despite the twelve of them powering the spirit formation, the energy consumption must have been so great that it had left the Night Twelve panting.

Raccoon replied, ”We wait for the Seniors to arrive, any second now. After that, these prisoners are none of our business anymore.”

Mantis nodded, her voice low enough so that only Rat and the prisoners around could hear her, ”I hate leaving the sect for missions like this. It is always so tiring. I just want to sleep.”

”I know, I know. Anyway, wanna check out the hot springs at my place?” Mantis continued, a devious smile on her face.

Rat immediately turned all kinds of shades of red, like a child who had just been caught stealing a candy. He snorted, then coughed, then turned away from the girl who was still smiling.

By this point, it had only been around ten breaths since Shin Sumi and the others had been transported across the continent.

People from the sect, disciples and low level Elders were starting to gather around the plaza on which they landed. They didn't get any closer than a hundred and fifty steps though, staying off the platform.

Only one man who looked to be thirty years old or so walked the steps slowly.

It was only after he had come into view that Shin Sumi realized that the crowd had parted ways respectfully to let him approach.

”What a nice batch of fresh young people! You have outdone yourselves,” said the man, whose voice was strangely older than his body looked.

Upon hearing his words, Rat, Mantis, Raccoon and the others turned and bowed deeply, looking at the ground rather than at the man who surprised them.

”Master Lead Fire,” Raccoon greeted respectfully.

A split second later, a flash of red light forced Shin Sumi to close her eyes once more. A storm of powerful Shinsoo swirls right in front of her forced her to control herself in the best way she could, having cold sweats on her back.

”Something even more powerful than the rest combined has just appeared,” was what her instinct screamed at her.

Not looking directly at the source of the Shinsoo turbulence, keeping her empty eyes straight forward, Shin Sumi nonetheless saw that another group of people had appeared on the platform.

While only being composed of twenty people, the group radiated with at least ten times more energy than Shin Sumi's batch of close to five hundred prisoners.

”The masters of the Sky Earth Sect,” Shin Sumi didn't have to conjecture too much to know who these people were, as well as their guards.

”Lead, how nice of you to greet us back from our mission,” joked a large man whose face was obscured by a dark hood. His robes were pure black, deeper than the darkest night. The only light emitted from his body was the triangle of his white beard poking out of the hood and floating around as if agitated by an unexisting beard.

Master Lead Fire nodded with a smile before raising his shoulders nonchalantly, ”Oh, I'm only interested in fresh samples, Bronze.”

Master Bronze Fire sighed, then looked around at the hundreds of prisoners, ”Can my Twelve have a pick first this time? They organized most of the battle while Iron, Copper and I dealt with the Reverends.”

Behind Master Bronze Fire, two other hooded figures nodded silently. They each held large magical chains in one hand, the other hand making strange complicated motions, incantations to strengthen the chains holding the prisoners in place.

If what he said was true and the newly arrived prisoners were indeed the Sky Earth Sect's Reverends, Shin Sumi knew that the three Masters were all close to being as powerful as Patriarch Sen himself.

Each Reverend of the Sky Earth Sect was as strong as a Pavilion Master in the Dark Sky Starry Sect. Fen Wudao had explained that much to Shin Sumi before she left for her mission.

Still as discreetly as possible, she looked at the three hooded men and the dozen of Reverends. Upon closer inspection, she could definitely see traces of battle on them.

Torn robes, missing limbs, but mostly blood. The battle must have been harsh but there was no doubt that it had been completely one-sided.

Master Bronze spoke again, turned to the assembly of Blue Fire Sect disciples still a few steps short of the platform, ”Tomorrow a large auction will be held, at noon. All disciples of the Blue Fire Sect are allowed to attend.”

Shin Sumi had not quite yet understood what he meant by that when the crowd started cheering loudly.

The black hood of Master Bronze turned towards all the low level prisoners and Shin Sumi. His hand extended downwards with his palm opened, a massive surge of Shinsoo wrapping around the already existing spirit formation that held everyone under State of Sleep.

The crowd had already started to disperse but Master Lead's voice rose above the crowd's noise.

”What are you doing, Bronze? You don't believe in the strength of your twelve young protégés?”

Master Bronze turned around slowly, his hand having finished the barrier formation, ”Oh I'm quite confident in the kids. I simply want to make sure that nobody starts picking prisoners before tomorrow when the Patriarch gets back.”

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Master Bronze didn't trust Master Lead.

***

Shin Sumi sighed.

”No matter how I inspect it, I can't find any weakness to this barrier.”

It had been many hours since they arrived in the Blue Fire Sect and ever since Master Bronze erected his barrier around them, the plaza had been completely silent and empty.

The Masters had dispersed the crowd and left with their own prisoners, the Sky Earth Reverends.

Shin Sumi was now starting to understand Bronze's strength and place in the sect. Their Patriarch was absent and Master Bronze was most likely the second in command around.

With the prisoners under State of Sleep's illusion and his two-way barrier, no prisoner could hope to escape and no disciple could get in. As such, not even one person was tempted to walk around the plaza at night and no guard had been assigned to watch over the prisoners.

Besides, Shin Sumi's group of a few hundreds was composed only of Liquid Realm disciples, the majority of them between the first and third step. In comparison to the Blue Fire Sect's strength, they didn't even qualify as fully-fledged cultivators.

”Did they kill all of the Core Development Elders and cultivators besides the Reverends? What happened to the Sky Earth Sect's Patriarch?”

”Most likely, each Master will have a pick of the slaves they want. What they do with us afterwards...” Shin Sumi shivered at the thought, ”Especially that Master Lead. From what I understand, he is not held in high regard by the other factions.”

Thoughts swirling in her mind, Shin Sumi concentrated on thinking of a plan. Something, anything, that would allow her to regain her freedom.