Path to Transcendence

Chapter 470: Vice Sect Leader

Apparently, dragging a lifeless body through a crowd of people drew some curious eyes. Who would have thought?

It took some time because of the massive crowd from the tournament, but luckily, Stephan escorted them through some specific passages that avoided most of the chaos. Being a Steward of Foreign Relations must have some nice perks.

They appeared at the top of the stadium, where affluent families such as Derek’s had a booth for privacyʼs sake. Thankfully, there were a lot fewer people around. Most people Julius spotted were staff and the occasional noble person leaving their booth.

Stephan led them to a room and pulled out a badge, scanning it on the door. Julius wasn’t able to catch what the object did exactly, but from what he spotted, it was like an aura signature inlaid in the card that deactivated some of the enchantments placed around the room.

A loud click signified that it was open, and Stephan pulled the door handle. However, Julius could spot hints of nervousness on the man’s face, but it was quickly hidden after the man took a calming breath.

Julius, Cain, Freya, and Adrianʼs limp body all followed Stephan into the room. The room was much larger than Julius expected. Even with what he knew about spatial enchantments, the room was massive.

Occupying this massive room were only around a dozen people, and over half of those were staff members serving food and or other things. At the front of the room, staring out at the glass windows and looking down at the still-ongoing tournament, was a group of people wearing similar robes to Adrianʼs. Although if Julius was being honest, he didn’t think many of them were actually watching the tournament.

He spotted two younger children around his age doing their own thing. One of them was a handsome boy with long black hair and sharp features. His long hair was pinned up in an elegant bun held together with a pin similar to the flaring sun symbol on their robes. He seemed uninterested in the entire situation down below.

The other was a young girl with similar features. Her sharp cheekbones framed her face, showcasing her porcelain skin and breathtaking beauty. However, unlike the young man, if she was bored, she hid it better.

The other person Julius spotted was an older man who didn’t look ancient, but was certainly old. His hunched back and white hair made him seem even older, but Julius could sense some intriguing hints of something leaking out with each breath the older man took.

The other person sitting there was probably the only one watching the battles. He assumed this was the Vice Sect Leader that Stephan had mentioned.

She was quite beautiful as well. She didn’t have the same type of beauty as the young man or girl. It was a different type of beauty, one much more unpredictable and wild. She had the most fascinating red hair Julius had ever seen, which illuminated like a setting sun. She had the same sharp cheekbones as the girl, but there was this air of maturity as well. If he had to describe her, he would say that she looked very dignified.

“Why is my son being dragged in here like a sack of potatoes, Stephan?” The woman suddenly asked when they approached closer. Her voice was cold, a stark contrast to her appearance.

She turned, and Julius was able to see the rest of her face, including her ruby red eyes. Julius could see the anger lingering in her gaze, but she controlled herself. Fortunately, Freya had already healed her son before they entered, so he wasn’t covered in wounds.

He hadn’t moved a muscle or appeared to be awake still, but at least he didn’t look like Cain had thrashed him not too long ago.

Stephan bowed low and quickly explained what had happened once he had motioned for the staff to leave the room. Not hiding what her son had done, but also explaining why Cain and Freya were there. He also surprisingly told the woman that Cain had beaten her son up.

“Is this true?” Surprisingly, the question wasn’t asked toward Stephan, nor toward Cain or Freya, but at Julius. Her gaze strayed for a brief moment on the two of them, but Julius didnʼt know whether or not she realized that they were very strong. He wouldnʼt be shocked if she did, but if she knew, then she hid it well.

Julius met her gaze calmly. “Yeah, he asked me to come along with him, and I refused. Then he attacked me with his aura immediately afterward,” he said truthfully, knowing it was useless to lie in front of someone like her.

While she was hiding her exact strength, it was safe to say that someone like her was likely Tier 6 if she was the Vice Sect Leader of such a powerful organization.

Her gaze was quite stressful to be under. Despite having both Cain and Freya next to him, he felt like he was all alone in the room with this woman. There was the same weight coming from that he had felt from Cain and Freya, which confirmed that this woman was dangerous.

Even though he knew that he wasn’t to blame for this issue, he was a little worried about what would happen if she decided to act.

For the next minute or so, nobody said a word. The tension was slowly building in the room, and Julius had to consciously stop himself from infusing mana and aura into his body.

Fortunately, just as he was about to say something, she let out a weary sigh, and the tension went along with it. “I apologize for my son’s actions. Despite my best intentions, he has too much of his father in him. He still thinks he is in Corvus and behaves as such,” she said with a disappointed look toward the son in question.

“So you’re not angry?” Julius questioned.

She brushed her red hair behind her ears. “Yes, but not at you. If what you told me is true, then I owe you an apology,” she said, but suddenly her eyes narrowed. “But if I find out that you left anything out, then there will be consequences.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Julius thought about saying something, but decided it was better to keep quiet. Instead, he watched as the woman walked over to her son’s body and, without any preamble, gave it a stiff kick.

“Get up. I know you are awake, Adrianagus,” she said calmly, but laced with coldness.

The previously lifeless body let out a groan, and the man who had assaulted him staggered to his feet. “Hello, mother,” Adrian greeted sheepishly.

“Is what they said true? Did you attack this young boy?” She questioned.

“I merely extended an invitation for him to talk; he then proceeded to turn down my invitation rudely and disrespected me. That was when I decided to give him a small introduction of manners,” the man stated with a dark glare toward Julius.

“Adrian,” his mother said warningly.

“I did it for you. I thought you would be happy if I brought him to you,” Adrian tried to weasel his way out of this situation.

“You are here as a representative of the Burning Sun Sect. You will not act like a common miscreant who beats and kidnaps young children. It is an embarrassing reflection of our sect and our values. Do you understand?” Her eyes flickered with fire.

“But mother—” He was able to get another word out of his mouth before she had already wrapped her aura around him, collapsing it on him from all sides. Despite not being subjected to it directly, Julius groaned as the sheer heat of the aura seared his skin.

“You seem to have forgotten our purpose here. It is to cultivate a healthy relationship with the Empire. Not to act like a petulant child doing whatever he wants.” Each word from her was reinforced with a pulse of aura.

The other members of their sect pretended as if they weren’t there. Their heads were down, and they were looking away from the commotion.

“But he has—”

“You don’t think I didn’t see it!?” Her voice cracked out, and Adrian physically flinched.

“This isn’t home, and you can’t do what you wish. Now sit there and shut up. If you cause any more issues, I will send you back home and send you to cultivate in the Scorched Wastelands for a month.”

When she finally believed she had made her point, her aura relaxed and she regained her composure. “My deepest apologies, family matters can be quite complicated,” she said to them without a single sign of her previous irritation.

Julius nodded in understanding, but he was curious about something else.

“What did you mean when you said you saw it?” He asked, interested in what she might have seen that Adrian had also seen.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” he said calmly, looking at her expectantly.

She looked genuinely confused by his question. “I apologize, I do not understand the question,” she said to him.

While she looked innocent, he knew in his heart that she was hiding something. He laughed. “Consider it part of my compensation,” he said to her, keeping eye contact the entire time.

While some might believe his behavior to be risky, considering that he was talking to someone who was quite powerful, he didn’t care. He wanted to know what they were talking about.

She finally let out a smirk. “Are you sure that is what you wish for as compensation?” She asked him.

He shrugged. “Unless you can offer me something better. I am not exactly in need of anything specific at the moment.”

“Okay, if that is what you want,” she said with a shrug and took a moment to think. She looked at her son and focused back on Julius.

“We were talking about your fire,” she finally told him.

Julius squinted at her words. “What about my fire?”

“There are some special properties to it that people who cultivate fire techniques might find valuable or interesting,” she noted and paused for a moment as she observed his reaction. “Curious. You don’t know, do you?”

He played along with her. “No, I don’t. Should I?”

“I am not particularly surprised. It is not exactly common knowledge in the Empire, I guess. Most people in Corvus wouldn’t know how to recognize it, especially since you are only Tier 3. But there are definitive signs,” she said to him.

“What is it?”

She grinned. “Have you ever heard of advanced forms of various elements?”’

He nodded slightly. He had heard something about them in one of the books he had read, but the author hadn’t gone into much detail. Julius understood it was something that naturally occurred when you reached higher tiers of advancement.

“Yes, but not that much,” he admitted.

“Well, your fire has certain aspects that indicate signs of this occurrence, which is highly unusual for someone your age. I have seen very few people get one at Tier 3,” she told him.

“What kind of advanced fire do I have?” He felt some excitement building up in him. He liked the sound of what she was saying.

She chuckled. “Oh no. You don’t have one yet, but your flame is in the midst of blossoming into one, and that is already impressive enough as is. It is why my stupid son tried to bring you to me. But it won’t be long until you do. Trust me, when you acquire an advanced form, you will know.”

He pouted. He had thought she meant he already had one. “What kind of form will I get?” He asked.

“It’s hard to say. There are many variations of it, and even if they have the same name, they often function very differently,” she explained. “Mine is called Heavenly Flame, and I got it when I was in Tier 4,” she added, almost like it was an afterthought.

“Mother!” Adrian shouted out in panic. “You shouldn’t be telling this boy this information.”

She glared at her son. “It is his compensation. If this is all he wants, then giving some information is the least I can do. After all, my son attacked him not too long ago, remember?”

Adrian put his head down in guilt, shame, or maybe even embarrassment. Perhaps it was a mixture of all three.

She then turned back to Julius. “As I was saying. You are already pretty close to gaining an advanced form. What form it takes is a mystery, but I imagine it will be pretty strong if your Concepts indicate anything.”

“You can tell what my Concepts are?”

She shook her head. “Just a vague feeling, but I did sense some aspects of life and destruction in those little spikes you used. The fact that you have already gotten that far with your Concepts and Emblem indicates you will find gaining an Authority quite easy.”

“Do I need an Authority to gain an advanced form of fire?” He continued to ask her questions. If she was going to volunteer this information, he would be a fool not to take advantage of it.

“No, like I said. People at Tier 3 can earn one. But an Authority does make the process a hell of a lot easier.”

“Easier, but not impossible,” he noted more for himself than anyone else.

“Correct,” she said with an amused grin as if she already knew what he was thinking. To be fair, it wasn’t that hard to predict what his thoughts were. And he wasn’t ashamed to admit that his head was full of ideas of his wielding a more potent fire.

Heavenly Flame? That sounded freaking cool. He wanted something like that.

He looked at the person who had suddenly become the most interesting person on the planet to him. If he could figure out how to acquire something like that, then it would be more than adequate compensation for his pain and suffering.