1097 The Sanctum Calls

As Alex looked around the shadowed land at various different people that were there, Zhu Shaofan started handing out envelopes to a few of the saints that were there.

"The Sanctum will open at any moment now, so we don't have much time. Go and memorize who you will be keeping an eye on," he said.

The few saints nodded and left, vanishing into the crowd of other saints.

"What's that?" Alex asked.

"Hmm? It's a list of people for them to gather information on," Zhu Shaofan said. "Sure they will be going in to prove themselves, but that doesn't mean we can't gather a few bits of information when we have the chance."

"You're gathering information about these saints?" Alex asked with a look of surprise. He hadn't expected them to be this forthright with gathering information.

"Of course, I'm in the business of selling information, so I must keep a stock of new ones for the people that want it," he said. "For example, they say that the Yao family's youngster, Yao Bujiang has managed to learn a rather unique Dao, but no one can confidently tell what it is. They will help me bring back those sorts of information."

"I see," Alex said. "Have you gathered my information too?"

"Of course," the man said. "But don't worry, I won't release it until all of this fiasco is over."

"I appreciate that," Alex said blankly and continued looking around the crowd.

He was absolutely certain that his father wasn't here… but a human heart was a fickle thing. It couldn't help but hope even when the chances were zero.

He hoped at least, if not his father, then he would find something else. Something that could help him lead to some answer.

Unfortunately, he couldn't go out to look on his own. He didn't want people to even notice him here. Who knew where the assassins could be hiding?

The people that had gone out returned and Xue'er affirmed that they had all memorized it.

Zhu Shaofan gave a big smile. "Alright, it should be opening any minute now," he said as he looked towards the massive spire that looked like it was right in front of them, but was rather far away.

"You all, start moving closer. When you feel an aura pulling you in, accept it. It will be looking for your approval to bring you in," he said.

"Understood, senior," everyone said and walked towards the Spire. It wasn't just them, but everyone who was going to join was doing so.

Alex slowly began walking as well. He saw the many saints that went closer to the spire and even a few True realm cultivators.

Alex knew there would be True realm cultivators that wanted to try it out as well. After all, not everything in the sanctum came down to one's might. There was a chance for a self-tempering realm cultivator to be the one to succeed in the sanctum.

Of course, that chance was almost non-existent. Not just them, even True realm cultivators would have a very, very low chance.

Still, some of these people wanted to try it out, mostly the True realm ones. That was why the 10 council elders had made a rule to limit people to those under 200 years old if they are not in the Saint realm yet.

It would give the people that wanted to go in a chance, but the majority would still need to stay out.

That said, 'Some' True realm cultivators still came to be thousands of them easily. It seemed they were staying away from the Saints beforehand, but now that the time was approaching, they went in.

Alex looked around at the crowd, trying to look for his father, one of the assassins, or the other thing he was searching for.

He kept an eye on the crowd while wondering what he was going to do inside the sanctum itself.

The sanctum was a sort of competition set between thousands of competitors. It was a large tower, separated into so many floors that no one had an idea of how many there were, just that there were most likely multiple rooms on the same floor.

Each one of the rooms had people perform something in it. Most of the tasks were unique to the rooms, but it was possible they repeated as well.

You followed the rules of each of the tasks and competed to complete them. Only a select group of those who completed the tasks could advance to the next floor.

If you failed, you went back all the way to the first floor and started all over again.

The elders had said that there were multiple ways to go through the floors, as there were multiple pathways. As they had suspected, each floor held multiple rooms, so one didn't have to go through the same pathway if they didn't want to.

It was said that in the past the first person to reach a new floor in the current iteration of the competition earned a treasure. However, after the space inside had started crumbling, no one got anything.

Now, the only way to prove yourself was to reach the topmost floor and be the one to activate the device that teleported everyone out. Once that happened, the sanctum would go into a hibernation of sorts and it would be years before it was ready to be open again.

It was said that the last time the Sanctum had opened, it was completed by someone from the Jade Fire sect, and it had taken them exactly 8 months and 12 days.

So, Alex understood that this was likely going to take a lot out of his time out here. However, if that meant he could find his father, he was willing to do anything.

Alex suddenly felt a fluctuation of space and turned toward the massive spire. 'It's happening,' he thought.

It was only a few seconds later that the other people, even the strong ones like Zhu Shaofan or the family heads and sect leaders of the various top families and sects of the southern continent sensed it.

Alex felt the pulse of energy touch him and it seemed to be asking if he wanted to come in.

He looked around and saw people disappear one after another. Everyone had been waiting for this, so they entered without hesitation.

As the people disappeared, the surrounding crowd got thinner and thinner. 'I should go in too,' he thought and was about to turn around when he noticed something.

His eyes widened, his vision zooming as far as he could. He looked at a man to his left that was walking away from the spire. More accurately, he looked at a ring on his finger. A golden ring with a gem on it that had spirals carved around it.

Alex had seen that ring before, and it had been very recent as well.

In the recording of his father that had been sent to him, there was a moment where his father got up in anger and a hand appeared to force him back down. Alex hadn't noticed it before, but upon replaying what he had seen in his head, he had noticed a ring on the hand that had emerged in the recording.

This was the same ring.

He had been looking for it ever since he had arrived here, and he had found it.

'That's the bastard that knows about my father,' Alex thought and turned around to go after the man who was flying away.

He too was going to fly away when a person walked right up to him and smiled.

Alex stood stunned when he saw the man that was smiling at him. It was his father. Before he could say anything, the man spoke up, "Where are you going, son? Aren't you going to come in with me?"

Alex was way too flabbergasted to make sense of anything. His father was actually here? Was this real?

He never expected his father to be here, and for him to… Alex paused. His father had a cultivation base in the Saint Core realm.

That was definitely not correct based on the recording he had seen. "Who are you?" Alex asked angrily.

The man just smiled and suddenly disappeared from in front of him. He had gone into the sanctum.

Alex turned to follow him, but then remembered the man with the ring. He turned towards the man who would likely give him more information, but to his bad luck, he had already flown away somewhere.

"Fuck!" Alex shouted out in anger, earning a few glances from the people around him. He looked into the sky, trying to find the man that was there, but there were too many people for him to see anything at all.

"Dammit!" he shouted and turned around towards the sanctum.

The man had flown away, but Alex had seen him. He had seen his face. He could find him later. For now, he needed to find his father's imposter that had just entered the Sanctum.

He had seen his father enough to impersonate him, so that meant he definitely had an idea about him. He could force the answer out of that person.

Alex felt the pulsing spatial energy around him that waited for his intent. He gave it the answer it desired. Then, he was sucked away by the Sanctum like everyone else around him.

Alex found himself in a massive room with many, many people, so he immediately spread his spiritual sense to find his father. But of course, there was a problem.

Spiritual sense didn't work on the first floor.