Mountain's Folly

5. Disciple? Me? No!

The library unlike most of the other buildings in the sect, was a fairly simple affair. The rounded arch built into the wall was extravagant in its material, built out of Hardened ether stone, and incredibly costly and dense material that was near impossible to fashion. Displaying the full majesty of their sect even in their simplicity. A force of pressure settled on me as I got closer , feeling around my person, it was quite invasive actually, once it located my Sect token in my storage ring, retreating I could still sense its presence on the fringe of my senses, it seemed ready to pounce at any time. Seeing such a sophisticated system in place just to protect the outer sect library was a little disconcerting, these type of protections really were not cheap. Especially one that was as intelligent as this one seemed to be.

Going through the archway brought me even more shock. I hadn't realized that it was a portal array, even with my weakened senses I should have been able to make that out. But no. This was a shared library with all members of the Sect, which I found quite interesting. In the Ghost Devouring Sect there was a large demarcation between members it was extremely rare for minor members of the sect to come into contact with anyone from the upper tiers unless they themselves had a job for them. So this system, where outer, inner and regular members of the sect constantly intermingled even if just for a second really fostered a different attitude of cultivation. That help was always on hand, that you didn't have to find every answer yourself. It was quite the model. One I could test its effectiveness as my time here goes on. Another nice experiment to go along with the many I had planned already.

The library itself was also impressive in its immensity, a large open area was where you first walked in, with endless shelves stretching out in every direction. In the center of it all were many crystals and arrays that would probably either help you find books or give you the information themselves. It was truly impressive, people constantly floating up to higher levels, a giant ball of runic energy hung at the top of the cavern, illuminating us all thought the power of knowledge which I found quite cool I must admit. A similar array to my abode ran through the entire library. Promoting peace and learning. It just made you feel concentrated. Despite being a righteous sect, they influenced their disciples psyches far more than almost any demonic sect I have come across, which says a lot.

They are building cultivators who follow the trend and require aids to cultivate here. Which I suppose gave them many low level and average cultivators, but the truly powerful were few and far between. Still a system that built a reliable army of cultivators, rather than are more individualistic approach.

Walking towards the central area, a man seated in the middle of all those arrays was a bit of a shock to see. He had been invisible up until a few metres of the podium, now he was all too visible to me. No one else seemed to react to this old man floating in the middle of the huge library, so I assumed he was an elder, maybe absorbing knowledge from the runic sphere above us, no doubt a huge conglomeration of knowledge. As I came closer and looked up at him, one of his eyes cracked open. He turned slightly and stared directly at me, That was slightly concerning as i didn't want to really have an extra attention, especially from someone who seemed a lot stronger than my original body. So it was worrying for various reasons. I kept moving however, set on my course of action, he decided that he also didn't want to stay still and began moving towards me. I felt a barrier being placed around me that was slightly worrying, the people around me going slightly out of focus, a spatial barrier of this level was very sophisticated, so now I was naturally even more worried.

What did this old fogey had in store for me, he purposely separated me from the space of the general populace, which long term could be catastrophic at my current power level if I were to stay in disjointed space. I didn't have to wait for long however as we met in the middle quite quickly. His stern eyes staring down at me from his floating perch.

"You will become my disciple and study under me directly."

All I could do was look up and him, my mind racing a mind a minute, I really didn't think it was in my best interests to disciple directly under a nascent soul elder, no matter what they would realize something was going, our senses when we reach such levels are very difficult to avoid in the long term, especially when they feel something is wrong, I would need to feel him out before accepting such things.

" I apologize elder, but that is simply not possible, I am a disciple brought in by elder Peng, who has gone to a great length to get me educated, and be able to rise quickly through the ranks of cultivation"

His look just further intensified, I could only gather that, that simple rebuttal would not be enough to dissuade this elder. Who must have noticed my constitution which is probably perfect for the practice of his techniques. Unfortunately any technique that would mesh perfectly with my constitution probably would go against my soul form, meaning I would have to weaken my soul foundation and threaten the already weak connection I have with the prime Soul.

"Unfortunately for you chap, your constitution makes you perfect to practice my Emerald Body technique, I also outrank that young bastard Peng quite a bit, so from now on you will be my chief disciple, congratulations."