Kael stood slowly. He rolled the map carefully. Tucked it inside his robes close to his chest. He looked down at the dying man one last time. Then turned and walked away. His boots crunched on broken stone.
Behind him, the old man's breathing grew quieter. Then stopped entirely. The wind carried his final breath away into the mountains.
Kael studied the map that night by the light of his Silver Lotus Flame. Mount Lianxu was marked clearly. But getting there wouldn't be simple. The mountain sat at the heart of Skycloud Sect's territory. A sect that boasted hundreds of thousands of disciples. Hundreds of elders. And also formations everywhere.
Walking in as a rogue cultivator would get him killed or captured within hours. But there was another way.
Every first-rate sect held trials for accepting new disciples twice a year. The next set of trials was in two months according to the old man's notes on the map.
