After their meeting was over, the other elders entered the room. But Julius didn’t stay for that part; he excused himself and returned to the Sunfire Pavilion, taking in all the information.

Grand Elder Koenn didn’t have as many details as he had hoped, but some were better than nothing. The Conclave working with or for the three sects was quite a surprising turn of events. And while he didn’t learn too much about the Conclave, he did learn a lot more about the three sects.

The Nine Peaks Sect was currently the number one sect among the Ten Great Sects. And their reputation was well deserved. Just as their name suggested, they had nine separate peaks in their sect. Each of these nine peaks was led by a powerful peak lord, with many more talented disciples.

They dealt with everything. Combat, crafting, alchemy, healing, trade, and many other aspects.

The Azure Sky Sword Sect was the complete opposite. They were almost entirely specialized in combat, specifically the sword arts. Their members were some of the most talented and powerful swordsmen in Corvus.

Their leader, the Sky Sword Saint, was arguably one of the strongest individuals in the entirety of Corvus and perhaps on the continent. The title of Sky Sword Saint was something he’d inherited from his predecessor. Every leader of the Azure Sky Sword Sect must earn the title to lead the sect.

Julius asked what had happened to the previous Sky Sword Saint, but none of the grand elders or Cassandra knew the answer. Some people assumed the man died in a duel with the current leader of the sect. But Koenn thought it was possible the previous Saint was still alive and simply retired, hiding in seclusion. And that was one of the Burning Sun Sect’s main concerns with fighting the three sects.

They had no idea exactly how many Tier 6s these sects had hidden away.

The Golden Cauldron Sect was very different from the other sects. Their personal combat power was much less, but they were by far the wealthiest sect in Corvus. This meant they could buy services from mercenaries to bolster their ranks.

The other issue stemmed from their extensive information network. With so many connections across the continent, they were informed of all matters. They were likely the trickiest to deal with, just by how much they have spread their influence.

All in all, it meant that the Conclave gained some powerful allies.

What little he did learn about the Conclave was still quite important. Firstly, Julius wasn’t the only one the Conclave had pissed off. Not long ago, one of the Conclave’s facilities had been attacked and destroyed by a third party. The resulting battle had been enough to level an entire town.

But Koenn had some of his people scavenge the area and found some important documents left behind in the wreckage. The information led Koenn to believe that the Conclave was interested in a place called the Obsidian Vault.

It wasn’t a typical vault, like one would suspect. Rather, it was an inheritance ground that the Lord of Obsidian had created before his death. They had died almost a decade ago, but it was only recently discovered last year.

That was where Koenn proposed that Julius go first. It was pretty far away from the Burning Sun Sect, situated on the other side of Corvus. But along the way, Julius could report on other regions and cities.

Julius hadn’t decided what he was going to do, though. He still needed to recover and let his body heal.

However, now that Grand Elder Avis no longer seemed against him, he didn’t feel the need to hide away anymore. If anything, the woman seemed interested in his relationship with Freya. He didn’t expect to meet a fan of Freya, but she was pretty amazing, so he couldn’t blame Avis.

In fact, it placed her in his good graces despite their initial opposition. Anyone who was a fan of Freya couldn’t have been a bad person.

***

A couple of months went by in a flash. During this time, he focused on his recovery, and to his amusement, the sect was suddenly very interested and involved in making sure he got better. They spared no expense, whether in the form of treasures or healers. Julius accepted some of the treasures, but he wasn’t that shocked when they didn’t work that well. His injuries weren’t something he suspected many people had dealt with.

Time and gradual acclimation to his healing skill would do more for his recovery than anything else.

Speaking of his healing skill. [Phoenix Incarnate] was an amazing little thing. He’d been a little wary that a skill with such a name would transform him into a bird or something else entirely, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. He remained a soft and fleshy human.

Although a legendary healing skill wasn’t something to be underestimated. It was a little hard to get used to, especially with his current condition, but thankfully, the skill was pretty much the same as his old skill, just cranked up to eleven.

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There was a lot more to handle, and he would need some practice before he felt comfortable using it on others, but he could feel its potential. If anything, he knew he wasn’t using the skill anything close to its full capacity.

The same applied to his focus skill. [Calm Before Ruin] was very powerful and very effective. He had a feeling that the skill was a big factor in why he’d been able to use [Phoenix Incarnate] as well as he had. He didn’t know if he’d been able to keep it active in the background like it had been for the past month without it.

He hadn’t simply stayed inside the pavilion either. He’d eventually gone back to teaching his classes. Just because his body was still half broken and piecing itself back together didn’t mean he was incapable of helping people with their aura training.

He had returned to the class, receiving an equally warm and cold welcome back from the disciples. On one hand, people were glad that he’d returned with his unique aura. Elder Sarei had done a fantastic job while he’d been gone. But she didn’t have the same aura as him.

His ruinous aura was quite special, and so while they improved their overall control. They didn’t get the same results as when they trained with him.

But this also meant they were forced to experience said aura once again. Not to mention, his recent improvements and time in the wastelands might have influenced his aura a little bit. He didn’t know if it was because he died or if it was because his soul was in an unusual state, but his aura was quite aggressive. More so than normal.

This did wonders for the people in his lessons; their resilience and rate of improvement skyrocketed, but that was only possible if they could withstand it. And many of them weren’t.

There was a silver lining to this, though. Due to a very special spirit, these disciples weren’t killed or had their souls permanently maimed. So that was good news. It would have been a shame if Julius had killed all of his attendees. He doubted even Cassandra would have been able to save him from that.

Because of Drasil’s recent evolution, the spirit could now heal people much more effectively. This also had a serious impact on soul recovery and overall aura fatigue. Without Drasil, he suspected that more than a few disciples might have been put into a coma.

And it was unanimously decided that Drasil was a necessary participant during the lessons.

When he arrived at the courtyard where he held the lessons, he found himself staring at a small crowd of people who were definitely not a part of his usual class. He was confused but saw Kora stroll out of the crowd and walk over to him.

He hadn’t really talked to her all that much since they returned. They had eaten together occasionally, but that was it. He spent most of his time in the outer court or at the pavilion, which meant they didn’t cross paths all that often.

However, he learned that she had been promoted during this period. He knew there had been talk of that before, but her efforts and contributions during the incident made it clear.

“Core Disciple Kora, what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked with a grin.

She returned the grin with one of her own. “We finally got permission to join your class.”

“We?”

“Some disciples I gathered. I’m sure you remember some of them; they were in the wastelands with us.”

He glanced past her and realized that he did recognize some of them. Surprisingly, Zev was there as well, hiding in the back of the crowd. When their eyes met, Zev inclined his head ever so slightly. Zev had been another person promoted to a core disciple for his contributions.

He also spotted Thomas, Kora’s teammate during the expedition, waving with a smile. He even spotted Aaron, though the guy was still avoiding his gaze like the plague.

“The elders approved?”

“Grand Elder Koenn gave his approval,” she said with a smirk.

Julius frowned. He knew that many elders, despite the effectiveness of his methods, were still apprehensive about allowing their disciples to participate. He didn’t blame them either, especially this past month. He had a third of the class quit during this period.

“Fine, as long as it's approved, feel free to join,” he said, looking over and spotting Maya. “Hey, Maya, can you get them situated while I finish setting things up?”

Maya sauntered over, looking a little tired. This past month had been particularly brutal on her. She’d been pushing herself harder than anyone else, but it showed results. Her willpower was twice as strong as it’d been when he first met her. Her control showed similar results. He wasn’t able to bully her with his aura as easily. If he wanted to, he really needed to pressure her.

“Sure, follow me,” she said to the newly arrived disciples.

While she did that, he finished up the lesson preparations. With Sarei’s help, he’d been able to modify some of the enchantments to better fit his new idea. He couldn’t wait for the rest of the disciples to see what he had in store for them. Luckily for Kora and the group she brought, they were just in time to experience it for themselves.

“I forgot to ask, but did you try something like this before?” Sarei asked him after everything was set up.

He smiled widely. “Nope, but I have high hopes.”

She sighed. “At least your optimism hasn’t changed. Make sure you turn it off if you think they might actually die. Please, I don’t want to have to file all of the reports if that were to occur.”

“I think I might take that as a challenge,” he shot back, to which he received a hard slap in the middle of his spine from her before she walked away to gather all of them.

When everyone was ready, he clapped his hands together in excitement. “Okay, so like I mentioned before, we will be trying a new little exercise I came up with.”

He was immediately assaulted with shouts and general complaining.

One boy, Harold, who was always quite vocal, shouted out, “What do you mean by ‘mentioned before’? You didn’t mention anything.”

Another young woman, who was usually quiet, asked softly, “What are you going to do with us now?”

“Is this a new torture technique you’re testing out on us?” A way too eager guy asked, stars practically shimmering in his irises.

“Are we going to die?” A young girl asked innocently.

He ignored these complaints, though. He’d gotten pretty good at doing that over these last couple of months of teaching. Feedback was always welcome, but often disregarded. He couldn’t wait to see how they reacted.

He was brimming with excitement.