1958 Twin Saber Sect

After selling everything but the Scythe, Alex was now richer by 11 thousand spirit stones. There were some surprisingly gruesome poisons that he managed to sell for a big price.

As the First Elder of a sect that fought against poisons, the old woman had managed to gather quite an assortment of poison. Alex wondered if she trained the Poison Fighting physique at all, considering it was only a technique to prepare disciples to be absorbed by the sect masters in the end.

Alex walked through the streets, searching for someplace to get a bit more information about the Blue Silk Continent, or the entire world if he could. There had to be one in the city, so he kept his eyes open.

"Fellow Daoist, you in the green robe!" a person called out.

Alex turned around and saw a young blonde woman seemingly in her mid 20s standing on the side of the road, gesturing him to come toward her.

She wore a dark blue robe with a small insignia on her chest of two sabers crossed together and held onto a bunch of talismans in her hand.

Alex walked up to her. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes," the lady said. "Would you like to purchase an entrance ticket to our Twin Saber Sect's secret realm?"

Alex was a little taken aback. "Your sect's secret realm?" he asked. "You want me to buy a ticket to it?"

"Yes, it's only a thousand spirit stones," she said excitedly.

Alex gave a stunned look at the woman. Sure, she was in the Immortal Origin 2nd realm or so, but to call 1000 Immortal spirit stones as 'only' was not something he expected to hear from this lady.

'Twin Star sect?' he thought. He was sure he had heard of that name somewhere before. Was it one of the many sects that tried to recruit him back when he had just arrived? They were.

He quickly remembered as much as he could about the Twin Star sect and realized they were a lower-tier sect that was struggling to get into the top 50 just in this continent alone. He had rejected them.

'1000 spirit stones just to enter their secret realm?' Alex thought. He couldn't imagine how good such a place could be.

Alex wanted to immediately dismiss the idea of going there and refuse the lady, but the thought of a secret realm in the Immortal world interested him. He wanted to see how it was.

"What is so special about this secret realm?" Alex asked.

"You don't know about our Twin Saber sect?" the lady asked, a small smile appearing on her face. "Our secret realm is a fantastic place to train and grow. It is also the place where our sect master hid his twin sabers, and you will have a chance to find it if you enter."

That didn't sound as fun to Alex. He didn't even use Saber.

"Is that it?" he asked. "Just two sabers?"

"Just two sabers?" the lady asked. "Do you not know about our founder, Bao Fengyu, Reverend Sixghost?"

Alex slowly shook his head. "I have never heard of him, but I'm ignorant about this world. Was he a great Immortal?"

"Immortal?" the lady scoffed. "Our found was a Divine realm cultivator that shook the world in the past. He was one of humanity's greatest assets in the war. If not for having been injured in the war, he would've still been alive today."

"Oh," Alex was slightly taken aback. He didn't know how much the lady was upselling the founder, but if she boasted about him so thoroughly, he had to be a great individual that others knew about.

Maybe there even was information about him somewhere.

"When did he die?" Alex asked. "Are his sabers inside the secret realm?"

"He died over 100 thousand years ago, but his sabers are certainly inside the secret realm. Our founder made sure to stash it there before he died. Only someone worthy of it can gain it."

Alex narrowed his eyes at the explanation. "And no one has managed to get it in the past 100 thousand years?" he asked. That was suspicious. He was beginning to get suspicious about the whole thing.

"No, the sabers haven't been found yet," the lady said. "If they had been, they would've been big news."

Alex thought for a bit longer. "Why not?" he asked. "Thousands of people should have entered. If there was a Divine realm cultivator's treasure inside, why have Divine realm cultivators not entered?"

If they had, Alex didn't see any reason to waste time trying to search for it.

"Because they can't enter," the lady answered. "Only those in the Immortal Ascendant realm can enter the secret realm."

Alex frowned immediately. "What do you mean? No one else can enter?" he asked.

"No," the woman said.

"Why not?" he asked.

The woman simply shrugged. "I don't know. That's how it is," she said. "That's why I'm out here searching for individuals like you to come to our secret realm since we can't have higher realm cultivators join."

Alex was truly surprised now. "Was this by design or is there some sort of problem inside?" he asked.

"By design," the lady said. "Our founder made it that way. No one truly knows why."

Alex was very much interested now. A Divine realm cultivator setting up a secret realm that could only be entered by a lower-level Immortal cultivator was a discrepancy that only made him more curious. The order of things happening didn't make sense to Alex and that made him want to find out more.

"Alright, I'll buy your thing," Alex said and brought out 1000 Immortal spirit stones. He had enough of it now that spending a portion of it didn't make him feel like he was bleeding money.

Also, he understood by now that if he didn't take any risks, he could forget about getting anywhere in his pursuit to find himself a small fortune.

The young woman happily gave him a talisman, which Alex checked thoroughly. It was indeed an invitation to enter the secret realm of the Twin Saber sect, and from everything he could tell, it was legit.

He read through the invitation to find when and where the secret realm was opening.

The Twin Saber sect was next to the Oldbranch City, around the center of the continent. And the time when its secret realm was opening was…

Alex paused. "Am I reading this right?" he asked. "The secret realm is going to open in 13 years?"

"Mhm." The woman nodded.

"That's… so much later," Alex said.

The young woman gave an awkward laugh. "What do you mean?" she asked. "It's just 13 years. It's not like you're waiting 400 years for the Three-Valley secret realm to open up again."

Alex didn't know what to say. Was he perhaps the weird one here for thinking 13 years was too long? Maybe he was. Even Saints spent thousands of years back home, so 13 years would've been nothing to them.

He sighed in the end.

"Alright, thank you for the ticket," Alex said.

"No, thank you for purchasing it. Good day." The lady turned around quickly and walked away without a second wasted.