Omni-Mastery

"You really joined the joint meeting's tournament?" the village head asked this question first as soon as we sat down.

The nature of this question made it seem like he was kind of handing out conformational questions, which he already obtained a hint about using his innate ability.

He didn't even bother asking about the letter I left as he already understood the situation beforehand...

"Yeah, I did, and I got a high ranking as well," I still replied to his question without any problem, it was part of his nature to talk like that anyway…

Naturally, I didn't plan on hiding anything about the meeting from him, the whole sect community knew that my Lan persona had obtained the highest rank in the tournament, so there was no need to be so bothersome.

"Oh, top 10, no… even top 5! As expected from you, young Lan, hahaha…" he caught up on another detail quite easily, it was almost as if…

'Did his innate ability's strength increase as a good side effect of the unsealing…?'

Not only did he seem more frequent in using his ability this time, but he also seemed to bring out more details than usual…

'Either that or he was suppressing it before…'

It wouldn't be very strange that the village head could have went out of his way to use his ability sparingly back then to keep me from being uncomfortable as we were still plain acquaintances, only to use it as the current frequency after we got more familiar after the unsealing, he could also be doing this to fast forward the talk to save me time.

'It's quite an interesting ability…'

"Ahem… so what about that young man…?" seemingly not so familiar with this topic though he shouldn't have stopped using his ability, the village head asked…

'Could it be because he isn't familiar with demons to begin with, so he can grab unknown hints…?'

I really couldn't tell the limit of his ability nor could I tell its rules, even using 'Eye of Knowledge' didn't really help, which wasn't that surprising either considering that the strongest point of innate abilities was its versatile nature and unknown bounds…

"Well, he is another one of those who I met and managed to reform just like the bandit group, though his case is a bit different…" I vaguely explained Sprout's situation…

Regarding the slight brainwash of the bandits that I applied before, the village head was mostly, in the dark, though he seemed to know that I have done something out of the norm at the very least, so he wasn't surprised by what I said and didn't even bother going into more details as he asked once more, " you want to leave him here as well…?"

"Indeed, though his degree of reformation is different, he should act normally and even a bit familiarly, he might also have a few strange quirks but he knows not to cross his bounds, so I was wondering if you would accept him into Green Earth Village as another normal villager till I come back for him when I need him…" I gave a simple explanation in reply.

"Of course, I have no problems with such things, in fact the more the merrier!" the village head smiled as he showed his consent.

"That's great then!"

"But that's not all that you want to ask about, right?"

"That's correct…"

The discussion was once again being led back to the village head's own pace as if it was how it was supposed to be to begin with…

"Well then, what are you waiting for, say it already!" the village head said as he enthusiastically smiled.

"I know it's a sensitive topic for you and all, but…" 

"You… want to know more about the 'Elemental Blade Sect'...?" the village head stopped smiling for a second before he looked at me seriously.

"Yes, I have a very important reason for that," I said adamantly as I didn't really care if the village head would be able to deduce my goal and the whole underlying screen, if he knew then so be it…

"Something important, huh? Well, I guess that is true, it's a pretty huge burden that you need to carry on your own… I wonder…" the village head looked at me with a mixed expression of pity and curiosity, it seemed like his hints were also limited on this topic…

"You don't need to get involved… you can't afford to as well. Just leave it to me, all I need is a few important points that I want to know about the 'Elemental Blade Sect'."

As for what I exactly needed to know…

"Very well, I won't hold back on the information, you can ask away," the village head said after closing his eye for a second before revealing an even more serious expression.

"I would like to ask you about the power structure of that sect, especially the nature of those who attacked you and your sect, did they represent the whole sect or were they just an individualistic group?" 

I naturally wanted to investigate the sect that had the highest possibility of being the sect that Sprout mentioned, at least according to my limited information on sects…

"Well, the power structure of the 'Elemental Blade Sect' is a bit complicated, as they are the closest to being coined as the strongest sect of humanity, but well… that strength does come in with a price…" the village head recounted a small introduction before adding, "they are severely branched and too disassociated… to the point that smaller factions exist within the sect."

"Branched…"

'Is it really the one…'

It was obvious to me that the closest to Sprout's description was the 'Elemental Blade Sect' as it was the one that seemed to have a broad selection of warriors of all elements and weapons, but it seemed like it was even more complicated than that as I suspected…

"They even have subsidiary sects that are even more divided just like that 'Sect'..."