“Finally! We finally arrived!” Huo exclaimed.

They all mindlessly started to walk a little faster, finally seeing their sect after days of scouting around it. Well, all of them except for Hua Mei, who didn’t seem the happiest of being back in this place.

Aiden had already noticed it, but she was clearly different from the rest of them. He had tried to take a peek at her strength, and that’s when he realized that this girl wasn’t as she looked from the exterior. He hadn’t felt anything coming from her, which meant one of two things; either she was so weak that Aiden couldn’t sense a thing from her.

The second option was that she was so strong that Aiden couldn’t sense her strength, and Aiden was certain that the second option was the right one. There was no doubt in his mind about it.

“Hua, aren’t you coming?” Huo asked as he kept increasing his walking speed, leaving both Aiden and Hua all alone behind.

The bulky man was also closely following behind the lanky man, clearly excited to be back.

“You two can go. I’ll guide Aiden so he can take the test.”

“Sure! See you later!” They both said as if completely forgetting about Hua.

They were now alone, all by themselves. They glanced at one another, and they looked away in an awkward manner. Hua Mei had this hue of red on both of her cheeks, clearly embarrassed by the situation.

She, who had been walking at a steady pace, suddenly started accelerating, almost catching up to the two lackeys that were a few steps away from them.

“C-Come! I’ll present you to our Sect Master.”

‘Sect Master? He’s the one that will be doing the test?’ Aiden thought with a frown.

He had been sure that someone else would have taken care of such things. However, it seemed he would need to show his strength to someone quite powerful, someone who might see through his lies.

Aiden put on a serious look on his face, ready for everything that would be thrown his way. He didn’t want to be caught off guard or in a bad position. As of right now, his main objective is to find a way to reach the Dual Cultivation Sect, and the best way to do so is to have a good relationship with that sect and slowly obtain more resources from them, such as information.

“Are you sure that everything will be fine?” Aiden asked. He made for his hands to shake a little as he heard the name of the Sect Master. “I-I didn’t think your sect master would be the one conducting this test…this is getting scary.”

Hua Mei let out a yawn when she heard all those ridiculous things coming out of Aiden’s mouth.

“Hey, you can stop acting. I already know you aren’t weak. The others were ignorant, but I noticed you right away…no one would be able to survive in that forest for more than three months. Even coming out of it is already an achievement worth noting down.

However, while Hua Mei might have noticed…it was no reason for Aiden to tell her the truth about himself. He kept acting as best as he could, even if she wouldn’t believe him.

“Also, to answer your question from earlier. The sect master isn’t the one conducting the entrance test for the sect, but I felt it necessary this time around. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can feel threatened by you, which tells me that you’re powerful enough to kill me if you really want to.”

She glared right into Aiden’s eyes, who kept looking away, not giving away anything about his real self.

“Ah, whatever. If you want to keep acting this way, you’ll just be an Outer Disciple without the slightest benefit from the sect.”

Aiden wasn’t sure what that meant, and he also couldn’t really ask her since his entire persona about being from another sect would instantly fall apart. However, he had felt it from the tone of her voice; being an Outer Disciple clearly wasn’t something he wanted.

“Should I aim to become a Core Disciple?” Aiden mindlessly asked, as he was pretty sure that was the rank she was within the sect.

“Hm, that might be a little more complicated. Just aim to become an Inner Disciple, and everything should be fine for you.”

Aiden quickly nodded. He wasn’t sure how much strength was needed to become an inner disciple, but he would make sure to keep it to a minimum. He didn’t want to show too much of his power after all.

***

A few minutes later, Hua Mei had managed to make Aiden enter the sect, and they were now well on their way to the Sect Master’s office or house…Aiden wasn’t sure which one it would be.

People kept eyeing Aiden weirdly, probably because he was accompanied by Hua Mei, and he could hear the whispers of a lot of people around him.

“The Goddess is with a man? But who is he?”

“Probably a young master from a nearby sect…that must be it.”

“A Core Disciple from another sect?”

“Who knows? Goddess Hua isn’t the type to have men around her. I’m sure you know already. This means that the man with her is bound to be impressive.”

A lot of people seemed to have opinions about them. However, Hua Mei seemed used to hearing them as she didn’t even spare them a glance, arriving in front of another gate where even more guards were situated.

The guards didn’t even question her as they bowed in her presence, letting them in. They didn’t even ask about Aiden’s presence for some reason. Maybe she was even more important than Aiden previously thought.

“Hey, don’t make me wait. We’re almost there,” Hua Mei said as she turned around and looked at Aiden, who had slowed down.

“Right, right, sorry!”

Aiden ran up to catch up to her. As they finally seemed to arrive at the Sect Master’s house, there was a huge sign right before the entrance, and the sheer size of the building also made it clear who would be living inside it.

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The house was a small wooden hut suspended in the air with the help of the surrounding trees. It looked absolutely amazing.

However, there was just one small problem. There didn’t seem to be any sort of stairs to access his home, which meant they had to fly to get up there. Well, that’s what Aiden had deduced.

“So…uh…how are we supposed to get up there?” Aiden asked, praying that they didn’t have to fly.

He didn’t really want to be held by a girl. It would…hurt his pride as a man. If it came down to it, he would even prefer to show her that he could actually fly. After all, she already knew that he was hiding his strength, so there was nothing wrong with that.

“No worries, there are stairs over there,” she said as she pointed right in front of them, showing the stairs around the tree where the house was situated.

***

Finally, they had finished climbing those stairs, and they were now right in front of the Sect Master from the Nature Sect. Aiden had managed to hear that. Apparently, that was the name of the sect he had gotten into.

It was a weird name if anyone were to ask him, but he wasn’t the one making up the names.

Waiting patiently in front of the wooden door, Hua Mei softly knocked on the door three times.

-Knock!

-Knock!

-Knock!

“Master, I’m back.”

‘Master?’ Aiden thought, a huge frown appearing on his face.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep