"Is that so, Crane? All of that has really been your doing till now?!"


    "Who is this? Reveal yourself!"


    The ck-bearded man, who was called by the name Crane, frowned as his countenance grew a bit pale, shouting in response to the angry voice.


    "There is no need for you to act this way Crane, I already know it''s you, you can''t deceive me..."


    The source of the voice appeared to being closer as a human youth silhouette emerged from one of the shadowy corners of the room.


    While I was still shackled by something and incapable of moving my face to observe the situation in the room, ''Omni-viewing Eye'' was already working, so I got a full view of the show.


    "How?"


    The frowning bearded man''s expression immediately dissolved into a passive yet sharp one as he stared at the white-haired youth.


    "How were you able to find this ce, de?"


    That''s right, the youth was exactly the sect master of the Elemental de Sect, his face showed that he was extremely unpleased…


    "How? You are really asking how? Are you not going to try and exin yourself and deny the words you just said instead of being too focused on how I found out?"


    "Sigh… this guy is really too troublesome, failure on myst mission, destruction of the fail-safe gate as well as exposure of my true identity, my lord is going to be quite angry for this."


    The ck-bearded Crane''s expression has morphed into apletely passive one, he seemed as if he didn''t care about anything anymore as he just disappointedly looked at the ground.


    "...So you have long been a loyal dog to this lord of yours… Outrageous, not only have the demons resumed activity, but my old friend who I housed within my sect had been using the authority I gave him to help achieve the demons'' aspirations. Simply outrageous!"


    de only appeared to bementing at the beginning as his face seemed to be extremely depressed before he finally exploded in anger as even I felt the pressure caused by that.


    "Alright, it''s too sad that I''m not able to spend more time with you friend, but I will have to leave now, so please make way."


    Patting the dust that fell on his shoulders from de''s rage, Crane passively looked back at de as he demanded.


    "And why do you think I will let you leave after all you have done?"


    de''s expression finally calmed down as he looked back at Crane, there were less than two meters of space between them, a sh between both of them wouldn''t even require more than a second to start.


    "Let''s be real friend, you must have realized by now that the current body I''m using is a clone of my normal body, my regr one which had been usually in the sect had already departed under the pretense of visiting a branch sect of our beloved sect… now then, if we say you do manage to kill this version of me, the other version would still be capable of escaping. However, I obviously don''t n to lose my only priceless sacred avatar for no reason, and while I can''t say that I would be able to take you down with me, I can still pretty much take down this genius of yours… Don''t you think it would be better for both of us if you act like the civilized great person you are and let me leave so that little genius here won''t lose his life?"


    Hearing Crane''s bbering about me losing my life as coteral damage, I didn''t even bother to have a change of expression both on the inside and the outside, this guy was simply…


    "Ah, I see, you still can''t realize the situation you are in nor the person you are dealing…"


    "Huh?"


    The ck-bearded Crane''s expression immediately darkened…


    ''Just as nned…''


    "How long were you still nning to pretend like this young Lan?"


    "No! How could you sever the connection between me and my original body?! Are you really forcing my hand to take him down with me?"


    Crane hurriedly retreated in panic in my direction, but sadly for him…


    "Sorry senior de, the shackles took a bit of time for me to undo…"


    "You… You! How could you remove the shackles made with the bones of the Ancient Marks'' predators? Are you some sort of a demon?!"


    "Now now Division Master, did you forget who the real demon is here?"


    Having already moved away from the ce I was pinned to as I was already standing beside de. I stared at Crane whose expression seemed as if it would almost scream out of confusion on its own as I yed down the meticulous process that I went through to reach this point in my head…


    `~~`~~`~~`


    2 days earlier…


    "So you are saying that the demons from the ancient records are rising back to wage war and that and that a person of great authority in my sect is supporting their act? Can you really prove that like you said?"


    As the youth with lengthy white hair stared directly at my eyes, I simply nodded before opening my mouth once more.


    "I totally believe that senior de is trustworthy and naturally not allied with the demons so I will reveal a big part of my n to you so not only you will be able to catch that traitor by your own hands and witness what I talked about, but we will even be able to hold a very strategic advantage if that n is executed exactly as I nned it!"


    "...Alright, I know you aren''t as simple as you appear to be so I will temporarily believe your assumption for now, so go ahead and exin your n."


    Nodding back at the youthful sect master who acknowledged my proposition, I immediately exined.


    "To put it out very simply, I had dealt a very insulting blow to the demons very recently. While it doesn''t hold much of a strategic value, it means that I have knowledge that they wouldn''t want me to spread, just like I exined everything to you, so currently, I''m pretty much a thorn in their side that they will try to get rid of sooner orter…"


    "And?"


    "Considering my assumption that there is a demon spy hidden within the sect, it wouldn''t be very hard for them to notice who I am considering the leads I have set purposefully as well as my sudden rise, so they would naturally use every chance to send me away and deal with me on the side."


    "You are obviously not asking for protection since you had no intention of bing my personal apprentice which would grant you ultimate protection within the sect, so you are…"


    "Yes, I''m exactly asking for the opposite, for my n to work, this hypothetical demon spy can''t know I met senior de nor think that I will be protected by senior de."


    "Continue."


    "Knowing what I have just achieved recently, the demon spy would naturally try to deal with me before I''m noticed by senior de, so I''m pretty sure that I would be sent out of the sect somehow within this week."


    "So you want me to appear neutral while you are sent to some sort of a trap, before relying on me to save you and expose this hypothetical demon spy of yours?"


    "I only need certain things to guarantee my safety and the sess of the mission, whether senior de wants to act by yourself is up to you."


    "Very well…"