Liam's hair stood on end. The woman's figure seemed to brighten as she opened her palms and pointed them at him. Liam felt instinctively terrified, similarly to when he had fought the jailer, albeit the sensation seemed slightly tamer.
"Wait!" Liam said, his body instinctively assuming a battle stance. "I don't want to fight! I just want to become a cultivator!"
"Enough with the lies," The woman scoffed. "You know that only cultivators can cross the barriers around Sects."
"What barrier?" Liam asked. "And am I really a cultivator then?"
The woman didn't want to lower her guard. Too many monsters existed in the cultivation world, and Liam's young face disproved nothing. Still, it would take true mastery to feign such genuine confusion, which Liam's questions didn't seem to carry.
"Do you truly not know?" The woman questioned.
"I don't know anything about anything," Liam admitted. "It's why I want to join a Sect."
"How exactly were you planning on joining the Sect?" The woman asked. "And if you don't know anything, how did you know that the Pale Moon Sect was here?"
"An old man told me that the immortals lived here," Liam replied, "So I thought I'd find the Sects if I climbed high enough."
"Your plan was to climb to the Sect?" The woman questioned, genuine disbelief filling her mind.
"I'm a good climber," Liam nodded. "I know my way around mountains."
The woman felt shocked beyond reason, but her wariness subsided. Such idiocy couldn't be the result of careful lies and masterful acting. That reasoning was so stupid it had to be genuine.
"You can't reach the Sect by merely climbing," The woman explained, lowering her palms. "All Sects have defenses. You must take specific, secret paths to enter them safely."
"Oh," Liam exclaimed, also abandoning his battle stance while the woman's terrifying aura vanished. "Is this about the barrier you mentioned earlier?"
"No, that's just to keep mortals away," The woman revealed before steeling her mind against that blinding innocence. "Do you truly know nothing? How are you even a cultivator?"
"An old man told me he'd make me a cultivator," Liam summarized. "I entered a green puddle, and this black goo came out of me afterward."
Of course, Liam had excluded many important details from his summary, which was a planned move. Traveling alone provided plenty of time to think, so he had prepared that reply, hoping that it would be enough to prevent additional questions.
"That's the breakthrough," The woman muttered, her tongue slipping once again.
Still, the woman immediately shook her head at that realization, even bringing a hand to her face in exasperation, something inside her prompting her to scold Liam. "You should stop trusting old men. The cultivation world isn't as nice as you think."
Liam lowered his gaze at that statement, opting for silence. He knew the young woman was right. His strong body carried proof of that statement, but no amount of preparation could make him devise a convincing reply.
Luckily, the woman misunderstood Liam's reaction, instead awakening some protective vibes inside her. She felt as if she had scolded an innocent child, giving birth to a faint guilt.
"I'm only an outer disciple," The woman announced, the glowing plants under claiming her gaze, "But I'll cut you a deal. I'll bring you to the Sect's disciplinary committee if you keep this garden a secret."
Liam's eyes lit up, snapping at the woman before inspecting the glowing reddish plants. He was curious about them, but his honesty ended up prevailing.
"Miss, I'm not that good with secrets and lies," Liam warned.
"I figured," The woman sighed helplessly, but still appreciated that honesty. "Just let me handle the talk. Also, it's Lucy."
"Miss Lucy?" Liam probed.
"Who knows?" Lucy nodded, finally wearing a smile. "You might have to call me Senior Sister Lucy soon enough."
Liam didn't understand that point, but still remembered to introduce himself. "I'm Liam."
"Well, Liam," Lucy called. "Follow me."
Lucy turned toward one of the valley's slopes before her figure brightened again. Liam's animal instincts tingled, but the reaction wasn't as intense as earlier.
Then, Lucy shot toward the central peak's slope, unleashing incredible speed that startled Liam and forced him to dismiss any useless thought. She looked to be faster than him, so he only focused on keeping up.
Initially, the slope was manageable, but its steepness reached critical levels as the two kept climbing.
Liam had half-expected Lucy to slow down there, but her speed didn't diminish, creating quite the spectacular scene. Despite the slope being almost vertical, her figure remained straight, easily jumping from foothold to foothold without needing to use her hands.
In a way, Lucy resembled a weightless fairy, gracefully treading a path no ordinary human could cross so effortlessly.
'Wasn't she weaker than the jailer?' Liam wondered while relying on far more disgraceful methods to keep up.
Liam basically went on all four, forcefully propelling himself up, his iron fingers occasionally piercing the tough rock to create handholds he could use. He had gained the title of monkey-boy for a reason, and his climb perfectly showcased it.
Nevertheless, despite Liam's mastery and physical prowess, he still fell behind Lucy, her figure eventually disappearing past the almost-vertical wall's edge.
Liam panicked, hurrying ahead, only to find a plateau when he crawled over the wall, with Lucy waiting for him a few meters ahead.
"Why aren't you using your Qi?" Lucy asked, watching in confusion as Liam stepped on the plateau and straightened himself up.
"How do I do that?" Liam voiced a genuine question.
"With a circulation technique," Lucy responded, already prey of Liam's blinding honesty.
"What's that?" Liam immediately asked another question.
"It's what allows cultivators to process and use the Qi in their core," Lucy explained before snapping out of that dazing honesty. "Are you telling me that you climbed the mountain without Qi?!"
"I told you I'm a good climber," Liam responded, not sure about what was so surprising about what he had done.
Lucy opened her mouth but managed to hold back her tongue now. Moreover, something far more shocking popped into her mind.
Strong mortals did exist, and Liam's tight robe even highlighted his muscular frame. Lucy could accept that he had managed to find her through physical strength alone. It was stupid but possible nonetheless.
However, the recent climb was different. Lucy hadn't used her full speed, but she had still relied on her Qi, achieving prowess that mere physical strength couldn't possibly match.
And Liam had failed to match it, but not by much. He had only fallen slightly behind despite the challenging path.
'How strong is he?' Lucy couldn't help but gasp in her mind, the surprising feat shocking the very foundation of her knowledge.
In the meantime, something else caught Liam's attention. The plateau had initially looked ordinary, but the scenery in his vision changed after he took a step forward.
Another slope rose from the plateau's back, but its shape suddenly transformed. Rising paths that coiled and twisted over the mountain became visible, and Liam even spotted a series of oddly circular boulders alongside their upper sides.
The boulders rested on the walls, reminding Liam of the rock that hid the Divine Cult's underground structure, but more shocking details became visible and distracted him.
Three vast wooden structures interrupted the paths at different levels of altitude, with the last seemingly resting right under the mountain's peak.
Those buildings were bigger than anything Liam had seen in Slygrove, being four-story-tall, as wide as an entire block of houses, and apparently gravity-defying. They expanded outward, parts of their floors not resting on any rock, pillar, or plateau.
At once, Liam knew that he had stepped beyond the world of ordinary people. That was a scenery that only magic could create. At last, he seemed to have finally found a Sect.