A tavern owner, a blind man, and a panda entered a bar.
Hisaki guided Adam to the bar counter, weaving through the packed crowd. This seed to be a very famous inn in the Outer Ring. As such, there were many people in here.
From ti to ti, Xiao Mo would sneak glances at Adam, who had donned his Stealth Cloak and covered his head with the hood.
What a scary man, the panda thought to himself as he munched on the bamboo.
I’ve never seen Hisaki-san so frightened. For a mont, I truly thought that this madman would have killed him.
As for ? I would have probably lived. I’m a cute panda, after all.
Adam was in a terrible mood at the mont. The Cult of Bones was his biggest enemy. So, the mont he heard their na, he seed to have montarily lost all rationality and almost engaged in his crazed impulses.
If not for the white-robed Adam warning him, he might have really done sothing crazy. The constant ravings of the Faceless Mask made him highly emotionally unstable.
But I was right, he thought to himself.
The Cult of Bones really does have a presence in Yen-Lu!
Hisaki had promised him to tell everything about the Cult, as well as the secret organization he worked for.
Adam didn’t believe his claims about there being a prophecy related to him, but he did believe that the organization Hisaki was a part of had been secretly fighting the Cult’s influences in Yen-Lu.
He believed it imdiately. The Cult was a parasite, dipping thier poisonous fingers in every continent. Adam knew that they wanted to get the Magi of all the continents of Tron under control before the planetary alignnt.
They had tried to do the sa in Ravenfell three years ago. So, Adam did not doubt that the Cult would use the sa tactics in Yen-Lu as well.
Adam noticed Hisaki speak to a bartender, upon which the latter montarily turned his gaze towards him. Then, the bartender nodded before allowing them entry to the kitchen.
Hisaki, Xiao Mo, and Adam entered the kitchen and then headed for the basent. Then, Hisaki pressed a certain point on the wall. Following that, he weaved a set of hand seals. A few monts later, the wall parted on both sides, revealing a secret passageway.
Xiao Mo turned towards Adam with a smug look. "Hehe, bet you’ve never seen anything like that."
Adam remained silent. He was in no mood to talk.
"...How rude." The panda pouted.
After entering the secret passageway, the three descended further underground. The air grew cold, and the faint scent of damp earth lingered.
When Adam extended his Sphere of Resonance, he found several invisible barriers erected.
They’re very careful, he mused.
Finally, they arrived at an arched wooden door. Hisaki knocked on it in a particular sequence. Then, a voice echoed from the other side of the door, asking him for the passphrase. Only after Hisaki answered correctly did the door open.
He then turned to Adam and said with a faint smile, "This is one of the many safehouses of our sect within Yuanshi."
"Elder Zhenren is a part of this sect, too, I’m guessing," Adam softly muttered.
Hisaki chuckled wryly. "What do you think?"
With that said, he turned around and entered. Adam could already sense several presences inside—so of them in the Mana Vortex Rank! Although he didn’t sense any hostility from anyone within, he didn’t let his guard down.
Should anything happen and he was ambushed, he would imdiately summon the Staff of Calamity and blow a giant hole through this safehouse.
But to think they have a spy in the Baihua Sect, he wondered.
And not just any spy. The man is the Elder of Finance! Just how influential is this sect?
The mont he entered the room, Adam could feel all eyes were on him. So watched him with fear, others with hope. So looked at him with skepticism, others with fanaticism.
He didn’t care. It was a little awkward, sure. But he didn’t care about their gazes all that much.
All that reaction just because of a stupid prophecy that might not even be true, he thought to himself in ridicule.
Under everyone’s mixed gazes, he found a chair and sat down with his back facing the wall. Then, he got straight to the point:
"Tell everything you know about the Cult."
"The Cult?" An elderly man at the Mana Vortex Rank stepped forward, leaning on his wooden cane. He turned to Hisaki and asked, "You told him about the Cult?"
"...Yes." Hisaki nodded after a brief pause. "He seems to have great enmity with the Cult."
"Hoho!" The elderly man laughed heartily. One of the younger Magi brought him a chair and helped him sit.
The elderly man gazed at Adam with his kind, murky eyes. "You really are the one from the prophecy. I am certain of it now."
Adam was in a terrible mood. He almost snapped at the elderly man, but at the last second, he viciously bit on his tongue and got his emotions under control.
"Old man, I will be honest with you," he began. "You shouldn’t place too much hope on that prophecy. Because of... certain things, it is nigh-impossible to divine my fate. If I were you, I wouldn’t bother too much about that prophecy."
The mont he said those words, the Magi in the room glanced at each other with a startled look in their eyes.
Hisaki turned to the old man and murmured, "Grand Elder Li, could this be the reason..."
The elderly man, Li Shuren, stroked his long white beard. "I see, I see. It all makes sense now."
Adam frowned. "What does?"
"Our first Sect Leader, the man who founded our organization, Lao Ren, was the greatest Diviner to be born in our world. In his lifeti, he had made many prophecies, most of which have co true with shocking accuracy," Grand Elder Li began.
"There was a prophecy about the Ghost of Hoshigane. I’m sure Hisaki has already told you about it. But... did he ntion that this prophecy was the most cryptic of all of Lao Ren’s prophecies?"
Adam could understand where the old man was getting at.
The most cryptic of them all? And the reason it is vague is that I possess the lotus? He thought in shock.
If this is really the case, then... how extraordinary was Lao Ren as a Diviner?!
He glanced at all the Magi in the room, and suddenly they all seed to be covered in a cloak of mysteries. Hidden in the darkness, they all looked at him with... hope.
Adam couldn’t help but ask:
"Who... are you people?"
Grand Elder Li gently smiled.
"We walk in the dark, so the world may bask in the light. We are the Shadow Sect."
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