Rewinding time to about 2 months prior, right after Mira defeated the young man, but was stopped due to the interference of an old man.
The old man, the young man's master, looked at his disciple with complicated eyes. Truthfully, he was a bit hesitant to save him back there. Their Sect is not like the Orthodox Sects like the Battle Maiden Sect.
Comradery? Sense of duty? Responsibilities toward the Sect?
None of those things exist there. There are only two kinds of people in their Sect: the strong and the weak.
The weak are merely there as either fodder for the strong or to find a potential strong person.
Their Master-Disciple relationship is more contractual than anything. The old man is nearing the end of his lifespan and is grooming his successor, but the truth is the old man couldn't give two shits whether he has a successor or not.
He, just like most of the other members of the Sect, only cares about himself. To him, a disciple is merely a nuisance that can help him pass the time before he either breaks through and extends his life span or dies.
However, after teaching someone for decades, he'd be lying if he didn't hold some feelings for his disciple. However, these feelings are merely limited to what one might feel when one stumbles upon an abandoned puppy and decides to offer it shelter until someone else comes along and picks it up.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter sheltering it for a while, it'd be a pity should the puppy be taken away or die, but that's about it. He wouldn't cry over it and would probably get over it after a few hours.
His disciple in this story is just an overgrown puppy who he's taken care of for decades and allowed to feast on his knowledge and resources.
Actually, his feelings toward his disciple aren't too different compared to Mira's feelings toward her subordinates.
While Mira would certainly feel upset that someone killed her subordinates, she wouldn't feel too bad about their actual deaths. More than anything, she'd feel pissed off that someone decided to ruin her investment!
She's taken time out of her day training them, thinking about them, and providing them resources to advance and improve their talent. How can she let one of them die so easily?!
No! They owe her their lives several times over, so if they're going to die, then they can only die by her hands!
The old man's thoughts about his disciple aren't all that different.
The only reason he saved his disciple back there is because it would be a huge waste should he die.
However, now he's having serious doubts about his disciple's strength. He nearly lost to someone who just entered the Core Formation Realm as someone at the Nascent Soul Realm, after all!
The girl might've been heavily injured as well, but he could tell that the girl who nearly killed his disciple wasn't bothered by them.
Honestly, without even consulting with his disciple, he can already tell what happened just based on their injuries.
He probably severely underestimated her due to her low cultivation, but the girl was probably much stronger than he initially thought, causing him to increase his power bit by bit.
However, the tables must've turned, allowing the girl to take advantage of his momentary weakness, and from that point on, he had already lost the battle.
Due to the nature of their cultivation techniques, it's easy for one's intelligence to drop if one were to get too agitated.
There are ways to overcome this side effect, but they all pretty much require a firm will. The only problem with this is that most of the people who use their Sect's cultivation techniques don't have an excessive amount of willpower, at least not at first.
That's the point of the harsh trials they are forced to undergo in the Sect. It's to help temper their minds along with their bodies and Qi.
'Maybe I've been too soft on my disciple lately. Regardless of the situation or how strong that young lady was, he should've been able to kill her. I could see that she had no treasures to protect her and the only things that were unique about her were her tails. Even then, he should be able to kill her without much issue as long as he used his brain properly. Sigh… maybe this'll turn out to be a blessing for him should he get over it. However, that girl…' The old man felt his soul shake for a second before returning to normal.
'That girl is not normal. That killing intent… How many beings has she killed for it to be so dense and terrifying? Even I, who has lived long enough to participate in numerous large-scale wars, haven't killed so many people. I don't know why my disciple decided to fight to the death with her, but I'd rather he not get involved with that girl anymore. She reeks of trouble.' The old man sighed, thinking about Mira.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe really didn't want to get involved with someone like that. As someone who has lived for thousands of years, his ability to sense danger is extremely high, and for some reason, he felt that should he decide to kill Mira, he would be wiped out of existence. No, actually, he felt like he'd be lucky if that was the case!
It was an extremely weird feeling that he had no idea how to explain. He was one of the strongest people not only on the Continent but there aren't many people stronger than him in the entire world!
There are probably only a few hundred to a few thousand people who can actually contend with him, but even then, he'd still be able to put up a decent fight. And if he couldn't fight, then he had his ways to escape, but facing Mira, he felt like all of that was useless.
No, it probably wasn't Mira who made him feel that way, but whoever was watching over or training her.
'Could an immortal's remnant spirit have taken her in as a disciple? Just what was that feeling that shook me to my very core?' This thought weighed heavily on his mind, but before he could think about it too deeply, he reached his Sect.
'Sigh… Whatever, I'll just go bring my disciple, heal him up, then force him to go under intensive training for a while. If he wants to go to his death by fighting that girl again, I won't stop him.'
The old man thought as he walked into a random wall. However, far from crashing into the wall, the two seemed to faze through it!
Once they were inside, they were met with a gate with the words 'Crimson Slayer Sect' written on it.
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A/N: Thank you so much, everyone, for the support! Last month, we made it to the Top 10 of the Golden Ticket Rankings, so here are an extra 10 chapters as thanks for all the support last month!