Another step and swing of the blade later, the young lady dropped to the ground lifeless. Guizou sparred the youth, aware of his future mental demons.

Gazing up ahead, the large room within the mountain had yet to be explored. It elongated until much further away. "Mmmh?" Raising a brow behind the armor, Guizou saw atop a few very wide steps an old man adorning fluttering white robes with a grey and blue accent.

Carefully sizing him up, Guizou shook his head. "The kid over there." Pointing at the fuming old man of short grey hair only remaining near the sides, he laughed for a moment. "Are you not coming? I'd say you are... a level seven Warrior?"

The young man from now behind Wu Tian sparked hope. "E-Elder Song!!" His beaming smile was not acknowledged by the old man. He stared deeply into the stone being's deduced eyes. His clenched fist was tightly squeezing his own forearm behind his back. "You little shit! You dare disrespect my Sky Sovereign Sect?!" The corner of his mouth kept twitching while he shouted with a cracked voice.

Wu Tian was seen waving his hand dismissively. "Come on. No need for useless blabbering anymore. You stood there as your fellow sect members were slaughtered like pigs. What an elder indeed! Mister Song was it?" Having to now deal with a seventh level Warrior as a level three, Guizou removed most stops. Compared with a Star Realm expert, he did not need to use over the top methods. But he still needed to exude much strength from this frail body.

Taking a large step ahead, his body vanished on the spot. The old man widened his eyes slightly, his constricting pupils barely able to see an undulating yellow streak drawn into the air like a canvas.

A vision overwhelmed him, drowning his perception into a gigantic valley. He was at a loss, staring up above at a blue sky. Where was the orange stone of the mountain's insides?

Shadows of all kinds looming over this valley dwarfing him, he only stood there before darkness enveloped his entire self.

Collapsing onto the ground, his vessel had been beheaded on the spot. Wu Tian's armored figure was strolling behind him as if nothing had happened.

"Let's go kiddo! Let's empty those treasure troves!"

Above the clouds, the sect mistress Sun Xieren heard a report. She had been waiting for days, finally receiving it.

Unfortunately, a few moments later, she flew into a rage, flipping her maid like a prop into the air with a casual move. "Damn it! Who did this?! Who dares to kill the young master of my sect!!" Her first suspect was Luzhen Jie, but she soon dismissed it as only speculations. There should have been no reason for it. Even more so, his earlier visit somewhat helped his credibility.

"I'll find you... and tear your apart!"

Earthen Prism Sect, atop the brown pagoda.

Luzhen Jie was seated at his desk, the large window behind him. The old man of before was to his left, waiting. In front, right in the middle of the octagonal room, were two kneeling men with demonic masks on. Luzhen Jie immediately flung his sleeve. "Heed my order! All spies within the Sky Sovereign Sect must infiltrate the main mountain's hall above the clouds and detonate Triple Dragon Beads on half of the metallic pillars! Make the mountain peak spanning thousands of meters slide onto the rest of the sect beneath!"

The masked man on the sect master's left nodded before standing up and leaving. The remaining one had a yellow strip near his left clavicle. Luzhen Jie only tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table before speaking. "Once they succeed, take our elders and core disciples before besieging the Sky Sovereign Sect! Send our main force while I and the Grand Elder lead the way against their sect mistress and own Grand Elder."

"Understood!" The man smacked his heart before leaving promptly.

Silence remaining, Luzhen Jie turned his chair around, gazing outside the window. "Grand Elder, are you confident in winning?" The old man smugly clenched his raised fist while facing the sect master. "Their Grand Elder is also a Great Warrior! I am not scared!"

Smirking himself, Luzhen Jie nodded. "Good."

A few hours later, within the Sky Sovereign Sect's main mountain.

Elders were strolling through the orange walls and ceilings, descending the humongous spiral staircase lit with warm lanterns. During this descent, they came across corpses everywhere, the orange carved stairs the more tainted crimson further down. They passed by the countless dark holes on the walls, where disciples and such would live.

It was a complete and utter mess. But more importantly, a disgrace. "What happened?" An old man of long grey hair and beard, disheveled in many places, looked depressed. His gloom was imitated by all the elders present.

"Grand Elder, the culprit is probably the one reported a few hours ago." An old woman cupped her fists and bowed respectfully. The other elders merely nodded, unwilling to suffer from a bout of wrath.

"And why is the culprit not at my feet?! Why... why are our disciples... our children even! Dead? Why are they laying on the floor lifeless? Mmmh?!!" Taking his time to peer into the eyes of each elder with a furious look, he made them cower in fear. "We're terribly sorry Grand Elder!" All bowing even more than the old woman, they could not see his fluctuating emotions. Brows undulating, mouth quivering.

"Listen up..."

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"What... alright..." Having a hard time calming himself, he spat through gritted teeth, a soft voice chilling their hearts with shame. "A teacher for a day, a parent for life!"

"Look at them!" Shouting more and more each word, the Grand Elder flung his arms as if he had turned crazy, flapping his feet onto the pools of blood like a kid in the rain. "Look!!! Look what our children have become! How unfit as parents! How disgraceful! How shameful! How ridiculous! How pathetic! How treacherous! How evil! How maddening!"

"All of you..." Almost bleeding from his tight fist, the Grand Elder shut his eyelids, trying to see where he went wrong. "All of you..! All! Of! You!! You all will clean this place! You all will salvage their remains! You all will have to explain their deaths to their relatives!"

Flustered and angered faces all around, the elders remained as they were, bowing deeply. They merely spoke a single 'yes' before excusing themselves.

The Grand Elder was utterly fuming, smoke almost visible around his head. "The Sky Sovereign Sect has always been just and kind. Who... if I..."

"If I find who you are... you will die a miserable death!!" Screaming at the top of his aged lungs, his rough voice echoed throughout the sect and beyond.

Sky Sovereign Sect, atop the stairs, near the hall above the clouds.

Orange stone was everywhere, as usual, only lacking the many holes of cave abodes. There was nothing but smoothness, also unusual. The quality of the stairs, walls, ceiling and even the materials for each lantern. All of these came across as fancy, if not downright luxurious.

The many elders of before were cursing silently, their dried, clean robes fluttering from their wrath. "Who does he think he is? I swear if he wasn't the Grand Elder!" A middle aged man roared softly.

The old woman of before shook her head in disdain. "It's more about his Great Warrior cultivation base. It's too dangerous to fall out with him." Another old man in the group scoffed. "Actually! It's not even about his strength! We only need a few of us at the same time to defeat him. It's about sect mistress! With a Divine Realm backing, what are we supposed to do?"

Each nodded with clear relief. It was much better to talk unhinged with fellow martyrs. They had all died as cultivators since their submission to this sect.

"This is for the greater good, let's just remind ourselves of that. We are shaping the future generations and might obtain opportunities from it!" Another old woman almost burst out laughing. "So you want to teach a slave and have them gift you treasures?"

The old man who spoke coughed dryly, his long grey beard and eyebrows as still as a peaceful lake. "No... I wouldn't call it that. This is not what I envision." They all started laughing without restraints.

Suddenly, footsteps disturbed their relaxing time. The two elders most behind turned their heads as they kept walking up the stairs, before stopping, all elders soon following. A bald middle aged man frowned deeply. "What's wrong? Why are you all in a hurry?"

A group of three disciples wearing white robes were rushing up the stairs panting. The most forward one had bangs covering his eyes, looking shy. "Oh! Elders! Please excuse us we..."

"We?" Questioning, the bald man saw this disciple shape a dumbfounded expression.

"We..." Suddenly pushing away his two fellow disciples down the stairs, he kicked the step he was on, jumping at the group of high level Warriors he should respect as elders.

It was rude, making them all vigilant. But the disciple suddenly opened his robes like a lunatic, shouting like a dying creature. They all widened their eyes before panicking.

The mountain shaking, a sudden explosion had awoken every living being. From a distance, the mountain remained peaceful, but from the inside, the lanterns were swaying without stop, the ground trembling, the ceiling showering the world below with orange dust.

Back near the top, the old woman patted her messy robes and long grey hair, her wrinkles not helping preserve her forgotten beauty. She felt like seeing a ghost now would be uneventful. She could not see much around her, orange and grey-brown dust clouds everywhere she gazed upon. She was on her bottom, on a now destroyed step, unrecognizable, just like the surroundings.

She heard grunts and coughs behind her, from the steps above. As for below, where five elders were, she did not hear much. One was coughing, some sound emitted following this reaction. She squinted her eyes, seeing red dribble down a moustache and beard.

Managing to see a bit more, she saw the bald elder and the one next to him, a black haired middle aged elder, collapsed on the steps below, or what remained of them, a minuscule crater left behind, where their bodies could be seen disfigured.

She abruptly clenched her forehead, remembering what had happened. She was shook, clearly having seen the core disciple open his padded robes, revealing a few rows of badly preserved orange glass beads. Without her high level Warrior cultivation base alongside her fellow elders shielding her by luck, or bad luck, she would have perished too.

"There..." She began to speak with a hoarse voice. "There were more... two more..." Looking around a bit more, she could not see a fully functional elder remaining. Understanding that her pleas and woes would remain unanswered, she felt numbness cover her every senses, collapsing back down, her head calmly sleeping on her arm.