Chapter 31 - The Sect Master Kneels
Pebble bit the gate.
The mountain screamed.
Not metaphorically.
Every stone in Iron Lotus screamed at once.
Pebble swelled from fist-sized to wolf-sized in three breaths.
Then he exploded into feathers.
"Pebble!"
A black bird emerged from the cloud.
Two heads.
Four wings.
Still ridiculous eyes.
[Companion evolution detected.]
[Heaven-Eater Juvenile]
He tore the red veins from Veyr.
Mira caught the elder before he hit the ground.
The gate collapsed.
For now.
We returned to the surface.
Thousands of disciples waited in the plaza.
Jace stood on the ninth bell platform wearing the sect master's seal.
When he saw me, he knelt.
The entire sect followed.
I nearly turned around.
"What are you doing?"
Jace looked up.
"The bells recognized you as the tenth candidate. Tradition says the sect master kneels to the one above the bells."
"Tradition can get up."
Nobody moved.
I sighed.
"Please?"
Jace stood, smiling.
The system flashed.
[Opportunity: claim Iron Lotus Sect.]
[Reward: Sect interface unlocked.]
I declined.
[Defiance +?]
The number glitched.
Good.
Then scouts arrived from the eastern pass.
Golden banners filled the valley.
Mira's face changed.
"My father."
Lord Sen had brought ten thousand cultivators.
And a message.
Surrender Mira Sen and Kai Renn before sunrise.
May you like
Or Iron Lotus would be erased.
