NOVEL WEB Entering the sect
"What did you see in the cave of divination?"
One word, in a single sentence. You wouldn't expect that to do much. Oh but it did a lot, Deimos realized this was probably the first time she had ever felt real and true fear in this new world. She never really thought about anything before this.
All she did was fight fight fight, train train train, and grow stronger. But this was something far beyond what she could handle before. She made that contract to keep Asmodeus away for a reason. He was far too strong for her to even imagine contesting.
She didn't know what to do; she saw in the vision that the sect ended up failing to defend anyway. She thought to herself that she needed to get as strong as possible as fast as possible, and to get away before Asmodeus got here.
Problem being? She didn't know when he would arrive. A few days at least, or years at the most, how long exactly—was not something she could predict. Her sole interest was survival and staying at this sect for a long time was now not the best...
Matter of fact, she didn't even know how he found her. All the vision showed her was what would ha-
Elder Shoushan interrupted her train of thought. "What's with that look? Didn't like what you saw?"
Deimos, looking out for her own personal interest, obviously wouldn't inform them how she was about to bring a great deal of destruction to the sect. She knew for a fact they would kill her if word got out. It's just how the cultivation world works.
Calming herself to the point where she could speak, she told him, "Nothing much, I- I just need a little time to think about that... and... well t- so... that really was the future, right?"
Elder Shoushan looked at her with understanding and a little smudge of sympathy. He too had gone through the same experience, and in his place, he witnessed his friend's inevitable death. If only he knew the future was nigh impossible to change.
He tried all he could to stop his friend's death when he found out what was going to happen, but in the end, it was him trying to save his friend that eventually drove him to his death. Momentarily recalling fond memories of his dead friend before refocusing on the task at hand.
He cleared his throat before saying, "I'll let you sit with that knowledge for a while, but first, I shall find someone to give you an introduction to our sect."
Holding his hand out to her once more, he said, "Be proud of yourself Deimos, you are now officially a disciple of the Great Dao Sect."
Deimos tried her best to stop thinking about that future. It's really all she can do at the moment. She thought to herself, 'Now I have a reason to get stronger. Getting stronger... why was I doing that in the first place?'
Walking behind Elder Shoushan, who let her sort through her thoughts without interruption, she thought, 'Wouldn't I never have even gotten into this position if I made my way out of the forest without seeking out power?'
Backtracking in her thoughts, she affirmed herself, 'No, getting stronger was good. I would have never made it out of the forest alive without cultivation.'
Continuing her thoughts, she ended up with the conclusion that she couldn't blindly trust her good luck. So what if it was hundreds of times the luck of your average joe. She managed to stumble across a sealed demon that now wants to kill her.
'I stumbled across this sect out of pure chance, I don't even know how big it is, how strong the techniques are, or anything about it for that matter. Why do I keep blindly following my luck?'
All of these thoughts storming through her mind, were interrupted by Elder Shoushan resting his hand softly on her shoulder and saying, "You'll make it through this. I'll have you know all great cultivators need some motivation to work hard."
Elder Shoushan thought to himself, 'This motivation sparked from the cave of divination is why our sect trains elite cultivators'
Finally, arriving at a large building bustling with people draped in hanfu robes of varying colors. Black, white, gilded black, white with red stripes, black with blue stripes, gilded white, then there were more with different numbers of mixed colors, 3-4, she saw one person's robe that had 4 whole separate lines of color.
But most prominently were those in white robes with a single stripe of color. As if Elder Shoushan knew what she was thinking, he said, "Robe colors indicate professions, both color of stripe and amount matter. The more stripes the more professions. For example gilded stripes indicate someone more battle oriented. Obviously its more specific then that but I'll let your guide get into that"
Walking through the main square outside the massive building was pretty easy because everyone seemed to recognize Elder Shoushan. Everyone moved out of his way and bowed respectfully as he passed by. There was one man who refused to bow and be respectful like the rest of the disciples.
Elder Shoushan looked displeased with this, but he wasn't such a person to harm a disciple in public for something so small as not bowing in his presence. Deimos looked over at the boy who refused to respect his elders, she didn't see anything particularly special about him, and she felt kind of indifferent about the whole not bowing thing too.
After Elder Shoushan waved his hand and told the disciples they were allowed to stop bowing, did everyone return to their everyday business. Occasionally there were people staring at Deimos and whispering between themselves.
She could hear a whispering voice say "Who's she?" and another voice whispered back "I don't know... perhaps a visitor from another sect?" the first voice then says "She doesn't seem strong enough for that though" the second voice then responded "Well... what if they're a new disciple?"
Still following Elder Shoushan, Deimos got slightly too far away and those voices were drowned out by the many more in the crowd that was parting around them. Until finally they came across the large building they were aiming for.
Entering through the doors and seeing an extravagantly built hall where the roof was probably 10+ stories high, with shops both floating and on the ground. Individuals were flying on their swords through the sky, looking at missions to take part in and forming groups for harder missions.
Elder Shoushan finally brought them to a single stand run by someone who looked very bored, Elder Shoushan picked this man as her guide because he seemed to be getting no business at his shop and he looked kind of desperate.
The man looked up at them, briefly glancing at Deimos then back at Elder Shoushan and then bowing respectfully at him. The man in the stand says, "What can I help you with today sir elder?"