'They are all suffering by death aura for some reason,' Alex thought as he looked at everyone that had now landed next to him. The amount of death aura in each person was minuscule in parison to someone like the Mad immortal who could fuel Godslayer to bee a powerhouse for a single attack.
But, the death aura had hidden so deep inside their dantian that normal pills couldn't help them relieve it at all. Every time they cultivated, they would draw from that death aura, passing it along to the rest of their body.
That was why everyone from this sect looked so deathly in the first place. They all were cultivating with death aura without realizing it.
"I'm here under the Emperor's request to check the mysterious deaths. Would you mind taking me inside?" Alex asked.
"Of course," the sect leader quickly said. "You all can return. I will take care of our guest."
The group all flew away, leaving behind only Alex and the sect leader.
"What would you like to do now, fellow Daoist?" she asked.
The woman was only in the Saint Foundation realm and hadn't even entered the Saint Core realm yet. She was rather weak when pared to the previous sect leader, which was one of the reasons why the sect was slowly degrading over time.
"I am not exactly sure," Alex said. "Would you mind explaining about the sect and how the people that had died until now are connected?"
"Of course," the woman said. "It's no secret anyway."
She soon started explaining the history of the Broken Ravine sect.
The history of the Broken Ravine sect was one that even the sect leader couldn't tell was true or not. It was a story passed down since long time ago, but there were no records of the story, so it was hard to verify it.
According to her, before the sect ever came into existence, this place used to be a normal mountain range. At some point in the past, however, a fight took place close by that was of proportion that had never been seen in this world in present times.
That was a fight of Immortals.
No one knew who exactly the two figures were, but one of them was said to be a swordsman. And, he had killed his opponent right here in this mountain range using an attack that had destroyed half of the mountain range.
In a place of what should be tall mountains, all that remained was a deep ravine carved out by the attack of said Immortal.
The sect had formed on top of this mountain range many, many years after and was thus named the Broken Ravine sect because of the geography of this place.
Alex remembered learning something similar a long time ago only in less detail. The woman continued her explanation of how the sect was and how the disciples were. She went into some detail about the Outer sect, Inner sect, and Core sect.
Alex nodded as he listened while looking around the sect as they walked in to question some elders and disciples if they knew anything. The gate lead directly to all three different disciple sects, which made it easier for everyone.
As Alex walked, he noticed a young woman walking by with the smallest hint of death aura inside her. Another disciple walked past and they had the same too. Everyone had a death aura, and Alex needed to figure out where it came from.
As he walked, he noticed someone that did not have a death aura at all.
"Oh?" he stopped and looked at the young man. "Young man, can you e here?"
The young man turned and saw the sect leader with Alex. He quickly bowed and walked up to the two. "How may I help you senior?" he asked.
"How long have you been in this sect?" Alex asked the young man.
"12 years, senior," the young man answered after thinking for a few seconds.
Alex turned to look at the sect leader. "Is that a long time in the sect?" he asked.
"That's… about average for a disciple. They usually spend about 20 to 30 years before graduating, so he must be a new Inner Disciple," she said.
"So, he's not a new disciple, is he?" Alex asked. "Can you tell me a bit about yourself in this sect?"
The young man introduced himself and told Alex about what his daily life was like in the sect. The young man was a formation expect and wanted to bee one of the best in the sect.
He worked hard every day and rarely ever trained to be anything other than a formation expert.
The young man walked away, leaving the two of them there afterward. "Did you learn anything from him?" the sect leader asked.
"Not really," Alex said. "Let's ask some other ones too."
As the sect leader brought him deeper and deeper into the sect, Alex learned more and more about the disciples and what they did. Some of them had a death aura in them, some had not.
Soon, the monalities amongst the ones that did became so clear that the sect leader herself felt fear for her entire sect.
Every single person that had ever gone down the ravine to train had been affected by it. Everyone that did go down there was the best of the best of the sect.
"The ravine is the problem?" the sect leader refused to believe it. "But we've been training there since centuries ago. It can't be true that it is causing all the problems, can it?"
"All signs point to it being the problem," Alex said. "I will find out for sure after I go check it out myself. Can you tell me why you send people down to the ravine in the first place? Are there resources down there? Or is the Qi denser there?"
"None of that," the woman said. She hesitated a little bit, unable to e to a conclusion on whether she should answer it or not.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me anything," Alex said.
The woman sighed in the end and explained. "The Ravine is filled with a sword aura left behind by the immortal figure of the past. We use it to train our cultivator to form their own Sword Intent, Qi, and hopefully, Sword Aura."
"Hmm, that's right," Alex remembered. "Brother Guo Chiang used Sword Aura against me during our battle to defeat me with a single strike. He wasn't even a Saint back then. Was this where he learned it all?"
"Guo Chiang is one of our strongest right now," the woman said. "He's our 2nd Elder in the sect."
"Is that so," Alex said. "Anyway, I'll have to go to the ravine. For the time being, call back everyone so they don't burden my investigation."
"Sure," the woman said. "If the ravine has some problem that is harming our elders and disciples, then I couldn't be happier to help."
Soon, the order went out and people came out of the ravine in droves. Some plained, but with the sect leader handling the process, the plaints died down soon enough.
"It's ready," she said.
Alex arrived at the edge of the cliff and looked down at the massive ravine that was in front of him. It was here that he was going to have to find the source of the Death aura and destroy it.
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