Julius found many people glancing at him as they walked through the sect. They were mainly looks of simple curiosity, but there were a lot of them. Was it really that big of a deal that he was walking with Cassandra?

He wasn’t even walking beside her; he was walking far behind her. Even trailing behind Shin and Maya.

Speaking of those two, they were getting a lot of attention themselves. It would appear they were very popular among all the sect members. Shin, especially with the female disciples, and vice versa for Maya. It was like seeing two celebrities walking down the street. Even when he was at the capital, he didn’t gain this much attention.

Shin was soaking it in, though. The teen was smiling widely and practically blowing kisses at the lovestruck girls. Maya seemed a little more annoyed, but she still handled it with grace.

On another note, he tried to make himself comfortable. When he entered through the gates to the sect, he had passed through some kind of barrier. This barrier was unlike any one he had experienced before. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but his senses felt different.

The way the mana interacted with the air and the high concentration of fire mana felt unusual. Most of the time, he never really noticed any differentiation between mana types in the air. Only in places like the forest, where life mana was prevalent, or by the ocean, where water mana was everywhere.

But here, not only was the fire mana a constant presence, but the nature of it felt… off. It wasn’t exactly unnatural, but it felt almost too pure and too clean. As if it were filtered by some kind of artifact or other means.

As the crowd continued to gather around them, he noticed a figure walking toward them. What stood out immediately was the feeling of their aura. It didn’t feel as powerful or overwhelming as Cain's or Freya’s. But it felt heavy and solid.

He was immediately intrigued and observed as an old man shuffled over to them. He didn’t look decrepit old, but he was definitely one of the older people Julius had seen who was at least Tier 4. Julius suspected the man was Tier 5, but for all he knew, he was wrong and the old man was a monster pretending not to be.

However, he doubted it. The feeling he got from the old man was warmth and caring. Also, by going off the grin on Cassandra’s face, she knew this old man.

“Elder Malric, I was just about to come and see you.”

The old man chuckled and paused in front of them. “Well, I’m glad I saved you the trip, vice leader.”

“Please, stop calling me that. You knew me since I was a girl, if anyone can call me Cassandra, it would be you,” Cassandra replied.

“I wouldn’t dare. Especially not in front of these troublemakers,” the old man said with a pointed look at the gathered crowd.

Julius heard several in the crowd chuckle as if it were humorous.

“What are you guys doing? The vice leader is not a zoo animal for you to look at your leisure. I know for certain that many of you have better things to be doing. If you don’t start dispersing, I am going to assign you guys random tasks, got it?”

It was like someone had just threatened to drop a mountain on their heads, and he watched as the entire crowd scattered in every direction. Their speed was quite impressive. Some of them even used skills to escape.

There were still a few lingering eyes, but for the most part, the crowd had disbanded. Julius was amazed at how easily a few words accomplished this.

Then a barrier suddenly formed around them, isolating them from any prying ears.

Elder Malric looked over at Caldrus with another smile. “Did you enjoy stretching your old bones, Caldrus? I heard it was exciting back in the Empire’s capital.”

Caldrus didn’t so much as rise to the bait. “Yes, it was nice to relax and not worry about sect business.”

Elder Malric seemed disappointed that he didn’t get more of a reaction out of Caldrus and turned to Shin and Maya.

“So what about you two? By the looks of it, you both experienced some interesting things.”

Shin let out a sarcastic laugh, but Maya quickly elbowed him in the gut, stopping him from saying whatever he had planned on saying.

“Yes, we learned a lot from the trip,” Maya said politely.

“Good. You two were getting too comfy here in the sect. It’s nice to see you two actually get out in the real world. Did you have fun?”

Maya gave a pained smile, and Shin looked like he was forced to swallow a toad.

“That bad?” Elder Malric’s question wasn’t even asked to them; it was directed to Cassandra.

“It wasn’t that bad. I made sure they weren't in any mortal danger,” she said as if that was already a huge concession.

Elder Malric seemed to think differently and sighed loudly. “Oh, Cassandra."

“Oh! So it’s Cassandra now?”

“I told you, I can’t address you so casually in front of the outer court. That would set a bad precedent, and it is already chaotic enough in the outer courts. We don’t need our new disciples calling our vice leader by her first name on top of it.” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

“I told you, we should be a little more strict with the rules. You are too lenient. That’s the reason why it’s so chaotic.” Caldrus noted.

Elder Malric shook his head. “We’ve had this discussion many times. As I told you before, creativity breeds innovation and innovation breeds talent. If we weigh them down with too many rules, we wouldn't be any better than some of the other sects. Plus, fire needs to be free. It’s better to teach them control when they are weak and young than to try to fix it later. This way, they can push the limits of the rules safely and also see where they can go.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Caldrus was about to respond, but Cassandra held a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Not now. We can discuss the strictness of the outer court at another date.

Caldrus muttered his reluctant agreement.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Elder Malric asked.

“I wanted to ask you if there had been any issues while I was gone. Anything you heard that might be out of the ordinary?”

The old man had a pensive look and glanced over at Julius.

Cassandra waved her arm. “Don’t worry, it’s okay to talk about it in front of him.”

Elder Malric clearly wasn’t a fan of this, but he must have trusted her enough because he continued with only a little bit of hesitation.

“There have been a number of problems since you left. We’ve had a few issues with neighboring sects. The Heavenly Crane Sect has been especially aggressive in the past month. A few of our disciples have been outright attacked while on missions. The Frost Moon Palace is also a nuisance, but that isn’t out of the ordinary. There have been several reports of rift outbreaks in the surrounding areas, particularly in dangerous regions. We have increased the missions and the rewards accordingly, but we might need to send out specific core disciples or elders to handle it.”

“Understood, I will read the reports when I have time. Any issues from the top three sects?”

“Not that I can tell. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they are secretly supporting the Heavenly Crane Sect or the Frost Moon Palace.”

“Anything else?”

“Young Adrian and the elders supporting him have been making a fuss,” Elder Malric almost sounded amused by this.

Cassandra pinched the bridge of her nose. “About what?”

“Something about the Scorched Wastelands being too dangerous this time of year, and we should hold back on any expeditions or missions in the meantime.”

She chuckled evilly. “That little brat is just hoping to avoid going there. I had hoped his father would have already sent him there before I got back, but I should have known better.”

“He’s too soft on him,” Malric said with a sigh.

“I agree. Hopefully, it won’t be the same case with my other grandchildren,” she said with a brief glance at Shin, who suddenly found his shoes very interesting.

“Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. Who is this young boy you brought with you? Another stray you found on your way back?” The old man joked good-naturedly.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s not a stray. He’s an honored guest, and I need your help to get him registered. He will need a uniform and badge indicating his appropriate status.”

“Honored guest?” There was a look of surprise and confusion on the man’s face. Then, with a slow turn, the old man examined Julius seriously for the first time.

Cassandra smiled. “Yes, honored guest. He will have the same privileges as a core disciple.”

“He doesn’t plan to join the sect?”

“Not at this time, no.”

“I’m not sure if the other elders will like this,” Elder Malric said hesitantly.

“Luckily for me, it doesn’t matter what they like. I am the vice leader, and assigning someone as an honored guest is well within my powers,” she said, her voice becoming more authoritative and firm.

Elder Malric bowed. “Of course, Lady Cassandra.”

“Good, now I need you to do that and also help him set up to teach several classes. I believe the outer disciples will be a good start for him.”

“He’s going to teach them?” There was a hint of disbelief in his tone.

“Yes, he is.”

“He looks very young. I’m not sure if the disciples will listen to him.”

“If they don’t want to learn, then it will be their loss. Make sure you gather the most… stubborn and willful members,” she finished after a brief pause.

“What is he going to be teaching?”

Cassandra smiled brightly. “Willpower resistance and enhancement.”

“Willpower training? At his age? Is this another one of your experiments again?” There was skepticism in his tone.

“Just do it. If it doesn’t work out, then I will apologize for wasting your time.”

Elder Malric seemed mollified by this.

“But, if it does work out, I want you to apologize to young Julius and me,” Cassandra slipped in.

The older man nodded firmly and smiled. “Deal.”

Cassandra clapped her hands happily. “Wonderful! If Maya’s improvement is anything to go by, then I suspect there might even be inner disciples coming to his lessons.”

Elder Malric seemed suspicious of her confidence but didn’t say anything. Instead, he simply bowed and turned to Julius.

“Follow me. I can get you set up with everything you will need. I can also show you where you will be sleeping for the time being.”

“Give him my spare pavilion.”

This must have finally crossed Elder Malric’s patience. The old man stood up straight and looked at Cassandra with a steady glare. “I may not be aware of what this is or what is going on. But this is too far. Giving him such extreme privileges is already a massive breach of tradition, but this is far beyond that.”

“I’m not going to have him sleep in the outer court. Too many prying eyes and full of nosy people. Plus, it’s not like I am using it at the moment,” she said with an uncaring shrug.

Elder Malric grunted in frustration. “It’s not about that. Based on the fact you haven’t told me his importance, you are keeping it secret, correct?”

She nodded.

“Okay, then, giving him what is essentially a core discipleship is already going to cause issues. But giving him the Sunfire Pavilion to live in is a different problem entirely. Not only is it dangerous for someone his age, but people will assume that he is your long-lost grandchild or something,” Elder Malric paused for a moment as thoughts ran rampant in his head.

“Wait, is he?” He asked, genuinely concerned.

Cassandra laughed. “No, of course not. But I want to make sure he is comfortable, and I know that the pavilion is well protected and isolated from prying eyes. I can also come and go from there whenever I please.”

Elder Malric let out a sigh of relief and whispered quietly, “thank god for that. As if we need any more of your spawn running around causing chaos.”

“What was that?”

Elder Malric shook his head. “Nothing. So is he your personal disciple?”

Cassandra didn’t even bother to address the previous statement. “No, but I am giving him some lessons in my spare time.”

Elder Malric thought about it for a few moments before letting out a defeated sigh. “Fine, give him your pavilion. But we need to say that he is staying somewhere else. As long as he isn’t seen or tells anyone he is staying there, it should be fine.”

“Works for me,” she said with a pleased smirk and turned to Julius. “Go with Elder Malric, he will take care of you. Maya, go with him, show him around once he’s done. Shin, you come with me. I need to talk with your parents. Loreyn, go file the reports with the others and make sure you tell the Sect Leader Kaelor about my return if he hasn’t already heard.”

Then, before Julius could ask her some of his questions, she was off, dragging Shin down the street.

He turned back to Elder Malric, who looked like he had aged ten years in the past several minutes, and smiled as brightly as he could.

“It’s nice to meet you!”