The brown-robed man didn’t say anything for a while, watching Davis leave. In fact, their gazes were on Nadia most of the time. Having noticed a tiny wolf having concealed itself on his shoulder, the shock they felt was truly inconceivable.
If they were not wrong, they sensed that the tiny wolf was an Emperor-Tier Immortal Beast. That was absolutely shocking even to them. The shock factor did not come from the fact that it was an Emperor-Tier Immortal Beast, as they had seen enough in their lifetime, but it was a death-attributed beast and also an Emperor-Tier Immortal Beast.
The rarity of such a lifeform was truly astounding to them that they couldn’t understand what sort of resource both of them used to master Death Laws or become intrinsically connected with it.
Nonetheless, only after Davis left did the brown-robed man move his lips.
"Our Aurora Cloud Gate accepts Divergents. However, that doesn’t mean that they could do as they please or have our protection without proving themselves to have some sort of integrity and values."
"And the result was?"
"Davis Alstreim could certainly see that the young man was manipulated, that he was shattered over the loss of his loved ones. He forgave him this time, which is not the sort of thing your average Divergent is capable of as all they know is how to kill someone pointing at them, mostly out of pure rage and grievance instead of hatred."
"What if that inner disciple was truly killed?" The blue-robed man beside him continued to ask.
"Elder Frostbite, do you think I would let such a thing happen under my watch?"
"Then you would inevitably offend him, Elder Earthsaber."
"Then I’ll reveal myself and say that I simply tested him. Whether he accepts it or not is his decision to make. If he can’t be forgiving as he could be, then there is only so much he could accomplish, and so far he could advance."
The brown-robed man, who was addressed as Elder Earthsaber, simply shrugged, "Besides, if he thinks he can make us go around day and night to protect him, then he at least owes me the answers I’m looking for, whether he is worth being under our Aurora Cloud Gate’s protection or not."
The other two smiled as they shook their heads.
"If he wasn’t worthy, our Grand Elder wouldn’t have even allowed him to be here in the first place. The fact that he’s already our disciple means- Uhm, forget what I said. There are too many spies hidden to think Grand Elder bothers about all disciples, but I still think he made sure that Davis Alstreim is alright since he is a powerful Divergent. There’s no need to test him."
The white-robed elder suddenly opened his mouth, causing Elder Earthsaber to shake his head.
"Elder Whitejoy, it is precisely because he is powerful and even has an unknown death-attributed wolf as his mount that he cannot be taken lightly. One misstep, and it’s over for our Aurora Cloud Gate to invite a character of this caliber who could invite the anger of the heavens and strike our sect into oblivion, perhaps even cause a spacequake like before it swallows our foundation entirely. For all we know, he could very well be an Anarchic Divergent like Dead End of the Ghost Tear Hall. After all..."
The three elders looked at each other’s expressions smiling as they appeared to know who it could possibly be. After all, after the infamous assassin Deathseeker visited their Aurora Cloud Gate, there was little left to piece the puzzles together.
========
Davis headed towards a massive tall palace in the distance as he walked his way there since it was forbidden to fly. On his way, he couldn’t help but think about the encounter before.
He thought of the village that he had passed by when he had first come here, came to the easternmost branch of the Aurora Cloud Gate. Although his intuition told him that it might be the village swallowed by the so-called spacequake, he thought it shouldn’t be the case. Otherwise, he couldn’t say he was truly innocent.
After all, everywhere he went, he already understood that he was bound to change something. It was not because he was narcissistic or anything but because he knew that he had Fallen Heaven with him, the ultimate reason for fate to bend or go askew around him.
He had seen this before in the Tripartite Alliance Territory and other locations. Just by his presence or actions, fate tends to change for the people around him, or they are influenced in some type of way that they exhibit strange behavior that he couldn’t wrap his finger upon.
’Fallen Heaven skews fate more than my Anarchic Divergent status that it isn’t funny at all...’
"Fallen Heaven, is there no way to suppress your passive nature?"
,m "Impossible."
Fallen Heaven’s hoarse voice resounded in his soul sea, but it was only heard by him, "I already indicated this to you indirectly, but fine. Even if I conceal myself deeply, there isn’t much I can do about retracting my unique nature. You have to live with it as countless possessors of mine did so."
"And yeah. Most of them, if not all of them, died..."
As far as he knew, only Saintess Lunaria lived as she decided to discard Fallen Heaven upon obtaining it. To be able to refuse a peak treasure, he was in awe over her willpower. He thought even if her prowess was weaker, she definitely wasn’t an ordinary person.
"Now that I explained be prepared to face the possible consequences of having your environmental trajectory skewed more."
"..."
Davis pursed his lips, believing that there won’t be many repercussions since they were practically one and the same.
He finally arrived at the mission distribution palace. It was called the Commission Palace. Like many public islands, this island was also extremely populated with disciples walking to and fro, taking missions for themselves to earn contribution points.
There were also many groups who appeared to be in an alliance, giving Davis some ideas of how he could better integrate his people into an alliance so that they could earn more.
Paying no attention to the exclamation of the people around him, he entered the Commission Palace and began to look around. However, noticing that many disciples were just outer disciples here, he saw a flight of stairs in the distance and headed to the upper floor.
As no one came to stop or invite him, he had to think for himself and imagined that the missions for true disciples should be kept somewhere on the fifth floor.
However, he was wrong.
As he headed to the upper floors, he learned that the missions were segregated based on their innate difficulty and not their tiers.
For example, Davis checked out a mission on the third floor. He thought it would contain missions that were of Late Immortal Grade. However, it didn’t exactly. Instead, it contained Immortal Grade Missions that were difficulty level five and above, only meant for true disciples to challenge, going above and beyond to test their limits.
It soon became apparent to him this was the floor where he should be accepting the missions.
Looking around, he saw that there were many types of missions.
Security missions, mining missions, gathering missions, combat escalations, and investigating anomalies occurring anywhere within the vast Aurora Cloud Gate Domain and even outside. Even with its vast number of elite disciples, there was so much to do that most of the ordinary work was delegated to the workers.
Only the difficult ones were kept here, and even then, there was plenty to look through.
Davis couldn’t help but look at the security missions, finding himself interested in clearing out a Savage Beast Den that’s propagated for the sole purpose of livestock. With just a few looks at the other mission posters and he already learned that these savage beasts were almost the staple food and materials for the beings living here.
However, this livestock was certainly not domestic. They were completely aggressive and would kill anyone in sight, much like those who have gone insane or Vacuous Beasts. They would not even run in the face of danger and attack with all they got.
Still, he didn’t immediately accept any missions but went to the other sections and collected information on other missions.
For mining missions, it did not pay per hour or such but mining and delivering a certain amount of immortal crystals would net one a hefty sum of contribution points. However, the places where these mines were located were dangerous zones, ones that could not be tread easily.
Similarly, the gathering missions and other such missions were all fixed in danger zones.
To complete one, even true disciples would have to risk their lives.
"It’s you..."
Suddenly, an astonished voice called out to Davis, causing the latter to turn around and look at the person.
"Niel Bladeheart."
Davis’s brows raised as he saw the white-robed sword cultivator, recognizing him as the one he, Myria, and Ellia ganged up on to become true disciples. He appeared dashing and youthful, possessing piercing eyes, but those two eyes appeared tired and puffy underneath, seemingly exhausted.