"Hehe… Well, it"s not really my fault either. Hearing that you have dealt with those invaders makes me a.s.sume that you do realise where does the energy of this place come from?"Shrugging his arms, the old man smiled before reaching forward with his hand and pointing at the chair in front of him.
"Why won"t you take a seat? I have a feeling that our talk will last a while."
Taking a look at this elder, I couldn"t feel even the tiniest shred of enmity coming from him, as if he was completely devoid of any negative feelings. While I couldn"t tell that he managed to force my guard down with his unexpected approach, for some reason when hearing his words I felt at ease as if meeting with a long lost grandparent of mine.
"So, what do you want to talk about?"
Sitting down just as advised, I checked for the n-th time if all my barriers were in place, making sure to pay the special attention to the mental barriers around my mind. Even if just the fact that Bonger resided in my own brain made it quite unlikely for anyone to have any chances at influencing my mind, but as they say, G.o.d care"s for those who care for themselves!
"That"s quite funny because seeing your moves in the upper palace I was sure it would be you who would bury me with your questions."
Once again showing his surprisingly white teeth for someone of his age, the goose sect master made a quick move with his hand causing a set of tableware to appear in front of us. Grabbing the handle of the elaborate teapot, the elder raised it to the air and poured two cups of it, before putting the jug down and pus.h.i.+ng one of the sets towards me.
"But if you insist on me starting the conversation, then let me summarize what I think I found out about you. I think it will startle you quite a bit, so keep in mind that I"m way past the point where I care about such stuff."
Just the introduction alone that this old man used to prepare my own mentality for what was about to come made me wary of his words. If he was about to explain some silly things, there was no point in him preparing the ground like that! What did he have in mind when approached this talk as if the very first point he would tackle would cause me to instantly attempt to claim his life?
"First of all, I know you are a system user."
In an instant, my entire body tensed up. With all the alarms going off in my head, I had to put all of my focus into holding back the reins of my automatic reaction to keep myself from launching an attack. From what I could see with the energy vision, while I would be far from calling this elder a weak man, he wasn"t as powerful to pose any real threat to my safety!
With my jaws clenched tightly and the whites of the bones showing on my knuckles, I took a moment to calm down, only to be struck by the sect"s leader words again.
"From what I saw, you have someone you want to revive."
Okay, while this information was as grand as him speaking about the system as if it was nothing to be surprised with, the consequences of someone having this knowledge were far less dangerous.
"Additionally, you can operate with the otherworldly force of decay."
Just when I thought that the time of the huge hits to my consciousness was over, this elder once again showed to me how little I knew about this world and the capability of some old monsters inhabiting it.
"H-how…"
"How do I know all of that?"
Before I could even staggeringly voice my question, the elder voiced it out himself only to raise the cup to his mouth and hide his smirk by taking a sip.
"While I might not be the strongest cultivator out there, I"m definitely the oldest one. What others attempt to achieve by growing in power, I managed to reach just by living long. Ah, I hope you won"t put an end to my life right here and now, only because I managed to reach the level where I can see through most of the things."
Hearing the defensiveness in the elder"s voice, I couldn"t help but smile and relax a bit. After all, if he was telling me all of this stuff right now, then he had all the time he would ever want to do whatever he wanted with those pieces of information. In short words, if he aimed to pa.s.s it to one of the protectors, he would already do so, and killing him now would not prevent anything from happening, outside of making those who would chase after me even more keen on ending my life!
"Okay then, since you saw through all my secrets, how about you start answering my questions? After all, I don"t think there is any point in me voicing them out if you know so much already!"
Hearing my pouty reply, the elder only widened his smile before putting his cup of tea back on the table. Cupping his hands together, he looked at me with a serious look in his eyes for once before finally opening his mouth.
"What you are looking for, the revival liquid of sorts, can"t be found in this city. I"m the only sect elder that prevented his disciples from using this fluid to grow stronger, opting to make it insurance for the talented cultivators who would for some reason, lose their life. As such, even if you use all the vials that you stole from the treasury, putting an end to the lives of the new generation of disciples that was supposed to carry the burden of ruling this sect in the future, you won"t be able to achieve what you want. On the other hand, I can show you the way to obtain as much of this liquid as you want, but I want you to return those vials back to where you took them from in exchange for my guidance."