Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

"Nothing. I mean, I just thought... Never mind. I think I was just seeing things." Elva quickly shook her head, thinking that she might have mistaken.

"In that case, I'll just go ahead," Zachary smiled kindly and gave her a parting nod before he walked off.

As she watched his retreating form, Elva stood confused. If things were the way they had been in the past, Zachary would've taken the chance to flirt with her a little more. But things had changed. After Zachary had to have sex with her in order to save her life, it was as though he was a different person around her. He was far less flighty and seemed to be more serious and composed. And most of all, more distant.

There was no treasure-hunting quest to be done right now, so as Zachary entered the system, he put his focus on cultivation quests at the challenging level in order to earn more cultivation points.

About four hours later, Zachary completed his quest and Mimi piped up in a sweet tone, "Congratulations, Zachary! You have obtained 10, 000 cultivation points and earned the title—'A Studious Cultivator.' Your reward is being a warrior of King Level for one day."

"I get to be a warrior of King Level for one day? What in the world...?" Zachary blinked, puzzled and deeply intrigued. He hadn't expected to receive such an interesting reward upon achieving 10, 000 cultivation points.

"This means that upon receiving your reward, your strength will be elevated to the peak of the King Level for the duration of 24 hours," Mimi explained patiently.

"Really? That's something, alright..." Such an uncommon reward was a vast surprise to Zachary. He had never heard of it.

"Would you like to receive it now?" Mimi asked him sweetly.

"No, not right now. It'd be useless. I'd rather claim the reward at a moment of need." Such a great reward needed to be handled with great care. He couldn't possibly waste it.

Zachary had nothing else to do after this, and so he went to the Peach Blossom Forest to train the Blazing Roc as well as the Thunder Dragon Horse.

Simultaneously, in a pill refining room in the Welkin Sect, Herman was busying himself in the refinement of the pills. As he did so, he sensed a brilliant aura rising from behind him. Glancing back, he found a figure seated on his chair, gazing bright-eyed at him.

"What? You're...!" His eyes grew wide in recognition.

The figure seated there was none other than the Zi Clan's famed warrior of Imperial Level, Warren, the same person who came to Welkin Sect a few days ago to stir up trouble.

"Hello there, Herman. How have you been?" Warren smiled coldly at him.

"What are you doing here? What do you wa

f you is quite simple, really. All you have to do is persuade the other stewards to join you in forcibly making Lewis abdicate. If you want the position of sect leader, after all, the position must first be made vacant." Warren shrugged, giving him a genial smile.

"As to that, well... that isn't as simple as you imply." Herman hesitated. Lewis was highly revered within the sect and commanded the respect of all the other stewards. It would be hard enough to convince them to make him abdicate, much less find a reason.

"Don't overthink it. It's really quite easy. Let's say Lewis made a quite a big mistake...a substantial lack of judgment, maybe. If it is egregious enough, it'll be easy to force an abdication, won't it? Could you think of anything Lewis might have done?" Warren raised his eyebrows at him

"A mistake? That's a stretch. Master Lewis is always so damnably deliberate and prudent in everything he does." Herman shook his head.

"No one is that perfect," Warren responded patiently. "There must be something that he has done wrong. He would've slipped up somewhere, and made a mistake so big that it couldn't possibly be leaked out to the public. Poke around. See if he has any skeletons in his closet or dirty laundry that needs some airing. I'm sure you'll find something." Warren waved it away breezily.

"I got it." Herman nodded after a moment. "If Master Lewis has done anything so serious and covered it up, then he should indeed be made to abdicate."

"By the way," Warren suddenly said, "when did the disciple named Zachary come to your sect? I don't think any one of us has ever heard of the Welkin Sect having such an incredibly talented disciple. He may in fact outstrip Bruce and Elva." Warren raised an eyebrow, a little concerned.