" Elder Skinling!? What happened to you?!" The elder who had taken on the job of kidnapping Chu Yang and running away with him look at Elder Skinling with a shocked expression on his face when he saw him.
This was not totally without reason, as the current Elder Skinling had lost both his arms earlier and his current self was nowhere close to being the same state as before, the other elder even started feeling a bit bad about the fact that he had just run away with Chu Yang while Elder Skinling blocked the path of the Flying Sword Sects people for him!
"I got injured trying to escape, I barely manged to get away after using the blood sacrifice technique imparted by the Sect Master onto us… For now, it looks like I will have to rely on you to get back safely to the Sect…" Putting on a pitiful expression, Elder Skinling let out a deep sigh of despair while melancholically glancing at where his arms were supposed to be from time to time.
"N-no worries Elder Skinling, we are mostly safe already and we even manged to get the traitor and the Devil-Immortal Jade! The Sect Master might even be happy with our task when we return and help you recover your arms!" Smiling awkwardly, the other elder reassured Elder Skinling as he quickly made his way over and helped him up.
No matter what, they were still members of the same sect and Elder Skinling and he had been quite close for some time and worked together on several occasions in the past.
"Indeed… For now, let's hurry back to the sect! I'm sure that the Sect Master is anxious to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back, so we can resume the ritual…" Shaking his head a bit, Elder Skinling and the other elder soon made their way back towards the Black Rose Sect.
It was only for a moment, but Elder Skinling narrowed his eyes slightly with killing intent when the other elder turned around to pick up Chu Yang.
The killing intent only lasted for a short moment and Elder Skinling quickly controlled himself again upon remembering what he had talked about with the mysterious person earlier.
No matter what, he had to complete the task that he was given! For the future of the Black Rose Sect and for his own future!
…
"Looks like there won't be any problem with that guy…" Observing the situation from above, Xuan Hao smiled a bit to himself as he saw that Elder Skinling did not talk about his meeting or anything, it looked like his plan so far had worked and Elder Skinling would most likely do the thing that he had tasked him with!
"Now back to square one… How do I enter the Black Rose Sect?" Thinking a bit about, Xuan Hao decided to fly ahead of the Elder Skinling and the other elder from the Black Rose Sect.
Elder Skinling would most likely not dare to do anything to Chu Yang, as he was "critical" to the plan Xuan Hao had told him about earlier and most importantly, there was a high chance that Elder Skinling had mistaken him for a Domain Lord because of his ability to fly…
Xuan Hao would not be so kind as to correct his mistake if something like that had really happened. Flying with the help of a sword due to having True Sword Intent, was after all something completely unheard of in the Heavenly Sky kingdom and few people knew about such a thing in the first place.
Time passed by and after travelling back over the Red Dust Desert, Xuan Hao soon made it to the Bright Sun City where Qing Yi and he had their first formal encounter with members of the Black Rose Sect.
Xuan Hao only observed the city below for a few seconds before moving on upon discovering that everything was normal without a sudden demonic cultivator having suddenly appeared and destroyed the city in the name of the Black Rose Sect or something.
The journey to the Black Rose Sect was peaceful and Xuan Hao did not encounter any demonic cultivator or anything along the way and by the time he arrived in front of the path leading up to the Black Rose Mountain that the Black Rose Sect was located at, Xuan Hao was a bit sceptical as to whether he was truly inside the territory of a demonic sect…
Maybe he had taken a wrong turn along the way?
From what he had learnt, most demonic sects would not be placed high into the sky where the qi between heaven and earth was the densest, instead, they would be located in an underground valley or cave system of some sort, so as to be closer to the netherworld or something.
All Xuan Hao knew about them being underground was that they did it because, like cultivators, they would have an easier time cultivating and improving.
As for why they could improve the further underground they were, Xuan Hao had no clue, but he guessed that it had something to do with the energy that they cultivated being denser the further underground one went, similar to how qi grew denser the higher up one went.
Throwing his doubts to the back of his mind, Xuan Hao tried his best to supress his own aura as he cautiously made his way up the Black Rose Mountain.
Along the way, Xuan Hao discovered a lot of empty pavilions and other sort of living quarters and slowly started growing more and more confused.
Where had they gone? Did they perhaps relocate after becoming a demonic sect?
All these thoughts swirled around Xuan Hao's mind as he soon made it to the peak of the Black Rose Mountain, it was only at this point that he finally realized where the Black Rose Sect was truly located!
At the place that the Sect Masters pavilion was supposed to be located at the very peak of the Black Rose Mountain, there was instead a giant gaping hole leading straight down into what looked like a bottomless abyss.
Xuan Hao could faintly hear faint roaring sounds coming from the bottom of the abyss as he peered down into it.
Glancing towards a few platforms located a few meters below the normal ground level, Xuan Hao spotted a few black robed individuals holding weapons, if he were not in the Nascent Soul Realm, they would have surely spotted him by now!
Every single one of them had reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm and were cautiously looking towards the top of the hole located a few kilometers above them at the top of the Black Rose Mountain, seemingly ready to act the moment they spotted something out of place.