Naath thought to himself “not the devil then what are you his second cousin?!” However, he waved it off and let the exhaustion take him as he fell asleep. When Naath woke up he was once more in a familiar bed looking at a ceiling he had already seen before. He knew he was in a small house on a little island in the middle of a large lake. He slowly got up from this bed and every part of his body screamed in protest. However, Naath ignored all of this and found his way to the door of the house. On the door was a note reading “Naath I have already started training with your wolf. Your training will continue after his is complete.”

Naath let out a long breath and shook his head continuing outside of the door. At the edge of the small island was a boat, Naath decided to go and actually explore this raging river sect he had been in for a few years now. Once Naath reached the other side of this lake he found a small lightly used dirt path. He began to follow this path that seemed to go out to the horizons. As he walked he enjoyed the fresh air and the beauty of the green grass and flowers growing to the side of the path. Naath’s body began to feel light. This was the first time since joining the sect that things had been leisurely for him.

After an hour or so of walking, Naath reached an area at the end of the path that looked like the gate to a large city. When Naath approached this gate he recognised one of the people near it and ran up to them saying, “hello elder, what is this place?” The person was exactly elder Fu from the council of elders. The one whose record Naath had shattered. Elder Fu jumped and turned around wondering which sect disciple was brave enough to holler out to an elder. However, when he saw Naath his expression immediately became peaceful and kind.

The guards by the gate who witnessed this elder’s reaction were stunned on the spot thinking, “To get even an elder of the sect to react like this, who exactly was this young man?”. Elder Fu said, “ah right he has been in a constant state of hellish training so you wouldn't know, this is elder Gui’s new and only disciple. Even the sect master has taken an interest in Naath here. He has the same privileges as any sect lecturer, do not hinder him in any actions at this level of authority or below. Naath to answer your question this is the sect core region.

As the name implies only core disciples are allowed to enter normally however being the direct disciple of an elder you can enter and exit as freely as you please. In this area we have many markets, the housing for the core disciples, several lecture halls, libraries, and research facilities. Even the sect master has placed his quarters here as this is the heart of the raging river sect. I see elder Gui has finally given you time off to relax from that hellish training. I don't know how you are still smiling and walking so freely, if it were me being trained by that old demon I'd have long since broken down.”

Naath shook his head and said, “elder is correct, however, he does this training in order to push me to my limits and for my own good. He may have sent me into that ten thousand beast forest with only a cultivation of bone hardening level three, but look how it helped me grow. In a matter of a little under a year, I entered into muscle strengthening. And although this training with the world's most toxic poisons is dangerous and painful its benefits in the future will be immeasurable. Just the extreme fire poisons I have conquered have already cleansed my body of most impurities and improved my condition.”

The nearby guards who were secretly listening to all of this were stunned. Every time Naath mentioned another part of his training or the result they got paler and paler. The two guards both thought simultaneously “we should watch this kid and make sure no higher-ranked core disciple accidentally angers him!” They could already imagine the consequences and brutal beating that disciple would face just from Naath alone. They both felt a rising sense of dread if anything were to happen to this young man while they were the ones on guard as well. Naath and elder Fu, who were completely unaware of this, were still chatting happily to the side.

The elder and young genius of the sect walked into the sect’s central city together creating an odd sight of an elder being courteous to a young man who was just barely 13. This drew the eyes of many core disciples and trainers of the sect who were in the city at the time. Even more so because Naath was wearing robes with rivers around the cuffs and appeared to be circulating all around the robe on his body indicating that he was the direct disciple of an elder. However, the signature marking the elder had all of them baffled, none of them had ever seen this signature.

This was of course due to the fact that elder Gui was always in seclusion near his lake and only ever came out when he had to manage formations for the sect or to attend meetings. This meant that few of the sect’s core disciples even know that there is such an elder in the sect. One of these few recognised the logo on Naath’s robe, a flame on the left side of the chest where the heart lies. The flame was a bright blue coloration indicating it was a soul flame made from pure soul energy. One of the more knowledgeable core disciples however put the clues together and jumped but considered where he was and dared not to shout out his realization.

Instead, he shared his guess with the core disciples around him in hushed whispers, and the entire crowd around Naath and elder Fu were quickly taking part in the hushed whispers. Elder Fu stopped his talk with Naath and spoke up to the crowd. “As most of you are now whispering about this is indeed the new disciple of elder Gui. He is also highly valued by the sect master however, these reasons are not why you should watch yourself around him. Simply the fact that he survived elder Gui’s training shows he is stronger than most and has more sheer will.

Elder Gui in fact would rather everyone give Naath here a hard time to promote his growth. I will warn all of you, though this young man is a monster, the principle nor elder Gui will make a fuss if you manage to beat him to a pulp within an inch of his life. Even though this is the case, I would not try my luck with him. This is because if he does the same to you he will also not be punished, so proceed at your own risk.” Naath to the side groaned internally thinking, “This master of mine is a demon! Not the devil? Ptooey! My ass he isn’t the devil!!!” Outside Naath wore an indifferent face though as he examined the crowd who was looking intently at him.

While looking at the crowd Naath suddenly thought of something and asked elder Fu, “Elder Fu, do you by chance know where someone who entered the sect at the same time as myself is housed? His name is Baal.” Elder Fu looked like he descended into thought for a moment before saying, “I don't recall, there is a building that records these things here though, let's go take a look shall we?” Naath nodded his head and the two of them continued down the street drawing every pair of eyes there was to draw along the way. The news of elder Gui taking a disciple and even the elders thinking highly of him spread like wildfire.

On top of this same mountain inside one of its many peaks, a particular elder’s disciple was in the middle of ‘entertaining’ a few of the female sect members. While he was in the middle of this ‘entertaining’ a core disciple came to the entrance of the cave that the elder’s disciple had carved out and said, “Senior brother Reth, elder Gui has taken a disciple and it seems that he has even caught the eye of the sect master. After hearing about this I did a little digging into his background and it seems he also had heaven-defying luck and quite a few treasures on his person. The elders even explicitly said they invite anyone to challenge him to help his growth, and so long as we don’t kill him we will suffer no repercussions.” Hearing all of this Reth stopped his actions and put a loose towel around his waist. He walked to the entrance of the cave with a smile on his face.

He spoke up saying, “junior brother Marth, you have done well to inform me of all of this, tell me what is his cultivation?” Marth’s face brightened immediately hearing the amusement in his senior brother's voice he replied,“He is at the mid-first stage of muscle strengthening. Right now he is still with elder Fu wandering the core city, however elder Fu is the one who explicitly stated that anyone could challenge the new disciple and even beat him ruthlessly.” The smile on Reth’s face grew wider and wider as he listened more and more. Finally, he stopped and said, “alright let's go pay this young man a visit shall we? I'd quite like to see this talented young man that even made the obstinate elder Gui take him as a disciple.”

Reth turned back into his cave and changed back into his elder disciple robes. He bowed to the two women still on his bed saying, “apologies ladies, however an important matter has popped up and I must take care of it. As compensation, I will give you a portion of the brat’s treasures.” The two women harrumphed and began getting dressed as Reth and Marth both descended the peak of this mountain heading towards the central city. Naath at this time was in a building in the central city looking through the documents that said where outer disciples had built their own dwellings in the field. After digging for a little bit he found out that Baal had built near the base of the mountain and decided to dig into the side of it to try and make a hidden abode to be left alone.

Naath smiled when he saw this and memorised where exactly Baal's residence was and planned to go down and visit him at a later time. At this time elder Fu’s communication talisman went off and when he checked the message he chuckled and said, “Naath, something has come up I must leave you for the day it seems. I wish you good luck in finding your friend and in your travels.” Naath smiled and thanked the elder for his time and made his way towards the exit of the central city, he had no more need to wander or explore, he had something he wanted to do now and would come back here at a later date.

As he approached the edge of the city two people stood in his way one of them was clearly around 17 years old, he was tall, well built with blonde hair and piercing red eyes. He also gave off a slightly warm aura and Naath let out a breath thinking “damn a fire cultivator.” The one next to him was maybe 14 and was a head shorter than the first with dark black hair and dull orange eyes with a similar but much weaker aura than the first. These two were exactly Reth and Marth, Reth spoke saying, “hey brat I hear you are elder Gui’s disciple? Has he gone senile taking on a disciple who probably just hit puberty? Ah, no matter I’ll make this quick give me all of the treasures on you or I’ll just beat you and take them away.”