Immortal Cultivator System

Mara.

That's a name Biyu had already heard. It had taken her a few seconds to remember where she heard it. Jian had been talking to someone called Mara while in his room. She hadn't entered the room that day, but she was certain she hadn't felt another person in the room. 

Jian was still a child, a weird one yes but a child nonetheless, so it wasn't that weird for him to have an imaginary friend. It seemed like that Mara wasn't so imaginary after all. 

And he was dangerous too ,not as dangerous as that Sukaretto creature, but he was still dangerous enough to trigger all sorts of alarms in Biyu's mind. 

"My oh my, the heck are you doing here ? This is the last place I thought I would see you !" Mara exclaimed. In the darkness Biyu couldn't see his body, she could only hear him. 

"Same for me, Mara. What happened for you to end up on this backwater world ?" 

"Well.....You have a lot to catch on if you don't know what happened to me and....The Zero King." Mara said. If Biyu could see him, she was sure he would scratching his neck in embarassment.

She decided it was best to listen to them and not intervene. When predators growl at each other, the prey either run or play dead. And she wasn't going anywhere in this situation.

"Zero.....King ? You mean Queen, right ?" Sukaretto asked, earning himself a gasp from Mara.

"Y-You knew ?!....Wait, of fucking course you know. You're part specter now, so you must have joined the Void. I hope no one in that place knows, or else at some point we'll get our ass whoopped. " Mara said, suddenly feeling depressed. He was having such a good time on this world.

"Well I don't see why you're panicking. There are demons on this world....Well if they can be called demons. If they knew, they would already be searching for you.....Right now they are just searching for...." 

Sukaretto and Mara looked at each others in the eyes for a few seconds before Mara yelled.

"Ahhhhhh damnit !!!! I need to tell Jian, fuck !!!" 

Both the strange creature that was apparently a half specter , whatever that meant, and Biyu watched as Mara ran away to who knows where.

"Well...This was strange, but not unusual. Anyway your guide is waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. Our intervention wasn't planned at all, but this is what the Void is all about....Unplanned stuff happening all the time, just like the situation in this Kingdom, the Peizhi Kingdom I think it's called." Sukaretto said. In an instant, his glowing eyes were nowhere to be seen and something pushed Biyu on her right.

The path slightly shone in the distance, telling her where to go.

'I guess....I'll have to put up with this demented organisation.'

**********

(At the same time, a few kilometers away from the Raja Sect's HQ.)

The number of disciples surrounding the mountain was truly amazing. People always said that sects couldn't possibly go at war with entire kingdoms since they lacked manpower, but in this case....They clearly had enough to go head to head with an empire.

There were disciples and elders of all sects around, wearing robes of all colours, however one robe stood out. A black robe with purple strings.

It was the robe of the Starlight Sect. That sect wasn't really famous like the others, but in the middle it was known as the one sect to never go against unprepared. They were professionnals at war tactics. Guerilla maneuvers, assassination tactics and many more things...They could do those better than most armies on the continent. This was simply because their patriarch wasn't like others, he wasn't a cultivator who had spent most of his life training in closed doors cultivation.

Even during the siege, all the patriarchs were cultivating, but he wasn't. He was training the troops. The other patriarchs were sages, he was a warlord.

And so naturally he gained many fans during this siege, disciples who had ever only heard about him but never saw that legendary man.

Zhi Cao, Patriarch of the Starlight Sect and veteran of at least a dozen of major conflicts throughout the continent. 

It was exactly because of who he was, or rather what he was, that when two enemies were caught around the grand base of operation the sects had built, they were brought to him and no one else.

"I was told you had something important to show me, Treasure Elder." Zhi Cao said to the treasure elder of the snow peacock sect. It was a woman, pretty young for her role, and an otherwordly beauty at that. Even during such harsh times, the disciples were all swooning over her. But not Zhi Cao, he would swoon at the prospect of war and nothing else.

He lived for war, for battles...For blood and screams. There was a reason as to why people called him ' The Great Demon General' 

"A-Ah yes, great patriarch. We have found a disciple of the raja's sect and an ally of his, trying to get past our camp and fortifications." The treasure elder said while bowing so low it was a bit ridiculous. But people never showed enough respect to the great demon general. There was never enough with him. 

"Hmm.....Bring them to me. All of you, leave the room." He said to the random disciples and elders who were minding their own businesses inside the huge castle that had been built south of the mountain. The sects had built fortifications with castles all around the mountain. It had taken them a lot of time, but they knew they had the numbers to make sure the Raja Sect wouldn't act meanwhile. 

"Yes patriarch !" They all yelled at the same time before quickly leaving. Only two disciples were left, two pink haired twins wearing the starlight sect elite disciples' robes. 

The captives were brought in a second later, and Zhi Cao only spoke once the treasure elder and the disciples of her sect had left.

"Hircen of the dragon's bane and.....I don't know you. You can't be from the sect since you are strong enough to be an inner disciple and I never heard of you." He said.

Hircen and Jin Daiyuu looked like they had gone through a war, with wounds all over their bodies. Hircen even had his left earlobe cut off. The two were unable to speak, Hircen because his throat was too dry and Daiyuu because Zhi Cao had such a domineering aura.

He was like an almighty king, someone she could never look at right in the eyes. Hircen was simply too much of a disrespectful man to even care about this aura. So he immediately cursed at Zhi Cao after a disciple gave him some water. 

"You motherfucker ! I don't care if you kill me, but touch Daiyuu and I'm taking you to hell with me !" 

Looking at Hircen who still had such a fire inside of him, Zhi Cao then looked at Daiyuu and saw that her cowering attitude wasn't only due to his aura.....She had went through some traumatic events.

"I can't very well execute someone I don't even know. Why don't you present yourself, girl ?" Zhi Cao said as he sat back on his couch. It wasn't comfortable by any means, which was why the twins weren't sitting on it too, but Zhi Cao didn't need comfort.

"I-I'm Jin Daiyuu...I was a-"

"A high ranking officer in the armies of the Buddha Free States. You come from the state that was burned down by the zhao tribes, huh ? And you're from that Jin family...Interesting." Zhi Cao instantly said as soon as he heard her name. That silenced Daiyuu and made her even more fearful of that man. 

"And you must be Zhi Cao, patriarch of the Starlight Sect, huh ? Not everyone can recognize you by your appearence, but I can old man. " Hircen said, spitting on the ground as a sign of defiance. Zhi Cao rose an eyebrow before sighing.

"Seems like you only know a bit about me, otherwise you wouldn't be spitting on my floor. But this doesn't matter. Aren't you curious as to why there is only me and two of my disciples here ? We are an alliance of sects, and yet only the starlight sect is here." 

"As if I fucking care about that ! Tell me what you want, that's all !" Hircen yelled. He wasn't exactly in the mood for mind games or whatever Zhi Cao had planned. But the patriarch seemed pleased by Hircen's attitude as he slightly smirked.

"Good. I don't like playing too much with weaklings. I'll be clear here, you sect wants to slaughter mine secretly. After that they plan to reveal the existence of something...Something that most people don't know about, and for a good freaking reason. They want the alliance to break down due to chaos, and if they can slaughter my sect it will happen. My sect is like the police in this alliance, we maintain order and make sure everyone do their jobs correctly. Thing is, a guy from your sect revealed those informations to me, and I don't exactly want to have my sect get slaughtered." Zhi Cao said, freezing the very blood in Hircen's body.

If the Raja's Sect tried a stealth attack on the Starlight Sect....It would be a slaughter on the Raja's Sect side. Sure Giran and some of the elite disciples would do a lot of damage, but overall it would be the Raja sect's loss. 

"W-Why...Why are you telling me this ? Just to scare me ? No....You must have a plan that requires this." Hircen said.

"Indeed. You got it right. Now I don't want to lose my sect, but I don't care about this alliance, me and my guys....We live for fights, we live to become stronger and fight scarier enemies. Fighting a sect like yours, with so much people on our side and so few resources on yours....It sounds boring as hell. Your sect's plan won't be stopped....Except I need you to give them some informations. I got everything planned on my side, so just give them the informations written on this scroll, and it will all work out in the end." Zhi Cao said, taking out a small scroll and throwing it at Hircen.

"...What ? Why would you do that ? Hell , why would I do that ?!" 

"Why you ask ? Because if the whole alliance breaks, the zhao tribes won't be happy and some of the sects who previously couldn't stand each other will end up fighting among themselves...It would truly be the grand sect war the masses talked about, contrarily to this random attack on a weakened sect that can't do shit. As for you, you'll do it for two reasons...Firstly I won't let my men use that girl as stress relief....And secondly, only the Sun Blazing Sect will keep on attacking your sect...A dozen of sects or only one sect attacking you....I think the choice is easy to make."