Death… And Me

And so they did. As soon as Rean settled down in the new residence, he went out, telling Rean, "I'm going to check the Blacksmith and Formation Hall. Let me know if you need something."

Roan, who was also stepping out, nodded in response. "I'll be going to the arenas. It seems like they have an Inner Sacred Land ranking there, and the formations even put the disciples at the same level of cultivation. It's an improved version of the system we had in the Dalamu Sect." Sure enough, Roan was more interested in the battles.

Rean didn't mind. He knew that Roan would be passing by the Alchemist Hall sooner or later to memorize all the books he possibly could memorize before they left. 

With the jade slip map in his hands, Rean didn't take too long to reach the Formation Hall. Surprisingly, he also met up with Venali there. "Oh, aren't you that leader guy from the Huring Country below?"

Venali's mouth twitched in response when he heard those words. As twins, Rean and Roan obviously had very similar voices. Even though he saw Rean wasn't Roan, he still didn't like him as Rean also finished ahead of himself in the last test. "Hmph! What? Did you think I was simply good at battles?"

Rean immediately shook his head. "Of course not! The Sacred Land doesn't even have side occupation tests as they know that all the geniuses attempting to enter it are usually very good with other things. Seeing you here is just natural."

Rean then patted Venali's shoulder before saying, "Don't take what my brother said to heart. He doesn't care about anyone. Come, let's check what the Sacred Land Formation Hall has to offer. We can even share some knowledge with each other. How about that?"

Venali didn't know how Rean could act so friendly after everything that happened. "And why should I do that? Do you even have some Formation Master knowledge that's of use to me? I'm already a Golden High-level Formation Master, you know?"

Rean wasn't surprised to hear that. He himself could increase his Formation Master level to Venali's standard if he was also at the Elemental Transformation Realm. Unfortunately, his cultivation was acting as a barrier for that to not happen. Not that Rean thought to be worse, of course. He did have his circuitry runes, after all. "Of course I have, look!" Rean then created a simple drawing of one of his circuitry runes in the air for Venali to see. If Venali was really at the level he mentioned, there was no way he wouldn't feel tempted by it.

"This..." Venali's eyes lit up as he had never seen such a rune before. He couldn't tell how it worked as it followed a completely different concept from his knowledge. Nevertheless, his eyes were good enough to recognize that Rean didn't just draw some random figure in the air. "What do you call it?"

Rean knew that he caught Venali's interest, which was very good for him. Huring Country was commanded by the Sacred Land. Even though their country had to go through the tests to have their disciples join the Sacred Land, they definitely knew a lot more about the place. With Venali's help, Rean was sure that he would get into the things that mattered the most in the Formation Hall much faster. "Hehehe! Interesting, isn't it? This is something I've been working on for a long time. You probably already got the information from Cosec City's Lukimeria Sect. With that, yes, I'm not someone from this continent. This is something I brought from my home place."

Of course, Venali already looked into it. Or, to be more specific, his Huring Country elders did it once the twins began to stand out during the tests. He was told in the middle of the competitions about it. "Entered some mysterious ruins and got teleported all the way here, wasn't it? It seems like it wasn't a lie. I refuse to believe such runes existed in the Huring Continent while I don't know anything about it."

Venali still didn't like the twins for them to make him lose the first position in the tests. However, there was nothing he could do about it anymore. Besides, refusing to learn more about those runes Rean showed him would be an idiotic action as a Formation Master himself. "Fine! Come with me. I have already reserved a private room to study, so we can use it to discuss the runes there. In the same way that I don't know much about those runes of yours, you probably don't know the real core of the runes we use here, either. It's a fair exchange."

"It's a fair exchange," Rean repeated Venali's words, satisfied. He didn't need to reveal much. Just some basic forms of the very first attempts of his circuitry formations should be enough to blow his mind.

It was then that a voice came from behind the two, saying, "In that case, I want to join as well."

Rean and Venali looked behind and noticed a woman heading in their direction. Venali narrowed his eyes as he seemed to know her.

As for Rean... "Err... I feel like I saw you somewhere..."

Venali looked at Rean with a shocked expression while the woman almost vomited blood.

Once she arrived, she grabbed Rean's shoulder and began to squeeze it tightly. "You're doing it on purpose, right? Right?!"

Unfortunately for her, even in the middle of the pain, Rean still couldn't recognize her. "So-Sorry..."

"Ahem..." Venali then called Rean's attention, trying to salvage the situation. "She took ninth place in the last test, you know? That's why she looks familiar."

Only then did Rean remember the girl. It's just that he only paid attention to Hedoi, Venali, and Liana after the test. Her results didn't really catch his attention that much. "Oh! Shalendra Krisyra! I knew I had seen your face somewhere."

Shalendra's mouth twitched in response. Obviously, her ninth position in the test to join the Inner Sacred Land wasn't much in Rean's eyes. "I don't like you...."