"Ahem." Grand Elder Theren cleared his throat, and within that sound lay an invisible power that instantly drew every gaze to him.
He remained silent for half a second as his eyes swept over the room, "I see that everybody that needed to arrive has arrived, so I won't waste time and will directly speak of the reason we are all here."
"The Realm of Broken Skies!"
"As you know, it is about to open—more precisely, it should open in a week or two."
Chatter.
Excited chatter broke out as the 'young' Core Disciples eagerly spoke with their friends, thrilled at the prospect of entering this Secret Realm.
Grand Elder Theren raised a hand and the silence swiftly returned to the hall, "Thank you. Now, as I was saying, the Realm of Broken Skies is about to open, and this means that our disciples will enter it!"
"As you know, this Secret Realm is only open to Spiritual Foundation Realm cultivators and lower, which is why our strongest Core Disciples at the Core Formation Realm aren't present today."
Clank!
Suddenly the door of the Sword Assembly Hall opened with all the subtlety of an elephant entering a room, as a lively and mischievous female voice resounded, "That's not true, I am here!"
Step, step.
Her footsteps echoed as Hua Lianyu entered the room with panache, her silky auburn hair swinging in the wind while the autumn pools of her eyes shone with liveliness and mischief as she scanned the room.
"Ohh?" Sect Master Qiu Yuelan, who had been half-listening to the 'speech' of Grand Elder Theren, suddenly sat a little straighter as the situation became far more… interesting!
Twitch.
Grand Elder Theren's lips twitched with a mix of amusement and exasperation as he watched Lian'er stride in with all the playful mischief of a child pulling a prank.
And he knew she had done it on purpose, cutting off his speech with that lively entrance of hers.
In another Sect, a disciple—Core Disciple or not—would have been severely punished for doing this, and even in the Wandering Sword Sect such behavior would usually warrant at least a verbal reprimand, but things were different when it came to Lian'er.
Hua Lianyu was the lively and mischievous Little Sister of the entire Sect!
She was somebody that everybody in the Sect loved, and even old man Theren could only sigh at her antics as he spoke, "Thank you for your flamboyant entrance, Lian'er, but as I know… you aren't in the Core Formation Realm?"
Lian'er playfully stuck out her tongue as she laughed mischievously, "Tetete, true that I'm not, but I just wanted to enter the room like that!"
"Ahhhh…." Grand Elder Theren sighed once more before waving her away without another word.
Bounce, bounce.
The beauty bounced away under the crowd's gaze; some of the stricter Elders watched her with a frown, while the majority looked on with clear amusement.
Bounce, bounce.
'Her seclusion lasted longer than I expected, even beyond the "max" time I had estimated, but…' his gaze fixed on the mischievous beauty bouncing toward him as he inwardly shook his head, 'It doesn't matter, at least she's finally out…'
As Mikael was thinking about his dear "Senior Sister," Lian'er finally reached them, her hazel eyes shining with playful mischief as she leaned forward with both hands behind her back, swaying slightly from side to side.
"Heeyy–" Lian'er began a lively greeting but was cut off as Lyra interjected, "Lian'er, I think it would be good to listen to what the Grand Elder has to say first, no? We can always talk afterward."
"This…" Hua Lianyu fell silent for a second before looking around, and instantly she noticed how EVERY Core Disciple and higher was staring at her, with Grand Elder Theren in particular waiting for her to finish her 'spectacle' before resuming his 'speech.'
Pout.
"...Okaayy." she grumbled an acceptance, a pout marking her visage, for while she was mischievous she didn't want to be too much of a bother or disturb this rather important 'meeting.'
Grand Elder Theren stayed silent for a couple of seconds more to see if Lian'er had truly 'calmed down,' and as he saw that it was indeed the case and he had everyone's attention back, he continued, "As, I was saying before a certain Lian'er decided to make her entrance—"
He paused for half a second as his gaze fixed on Lian'er before continuing, "The Realm of Broken Skies! Before returning to the earlier topic we were discussing, I would first like to give everyone an overview of what it is."
"Argh." some groans from Core Disciples resounded, as a number of them were understandably less than pleased about this overview that promised to be long and boring.
But Theren ignored them and spoke, "I know that many of you already know some, or even a great deal, about the Realm of Broken Skies but—"
A serious glint passed through his eyes as his voice grew sterner and a weight pressed onto the room, "Refreshing your mind can't do you any harm, especially considering that you will be exploring it in the near future."
"At that time these 'boring' informations could be what makes the difference between life and death!" he declared sternly, and his words, coupled with his grave demeanor, chilled the hall while seizing everyone's attention.
On that note Grand Elder launched himself into a long and detailed explanation of what the Secret Realm was and everything they needed to know.
After a while his 'speech' ended, and he concluded with this, "And finally, the last point: the Secret Realm's limited numbers. I explained why earlier but didn't delve into the 'how much.'"
"The Secret Realm can't handle an unlimited number of cultivators entering it, which is why all Sects have a quota of cultivators they can send in. For an Overlord Sect it's 200, while First Rate Sects have 50, and it continues on."
"The important point with this information is that our Sect has 200 places, and this means…"
He took a small pause as he scanned the Core Disciples below, "That all Core Disciples at the Spiritual Foundation Realm can participate and enter the Realm of Broken Skies without any conditions, while the spots left…"
"The spots remaining after the Core Disciples take their 'quota' will be battled for in the Inner Court, disputed in tournament fashion by the tens of thousands of Inner Disciples, while the strongest—"
He estimated the number of Core Disciples present, "More or less 120 Inner Disciples will also be able to explore the Secret Realm!"
"The tournament that will decide which of your Junior Brothers and Sisters will explore the Secret Realm with you will begin in less than an hour and last approximately 3 days. If you are interested you can go watch it, or stay here and wait until we depart for the Realm of Broken Skies, it's your choice!"
Step, step.
The Grand Elder's footsteps echoed as he returned to his earlier position near the Sect Master, making it clear that he had finished speaking.
A position beside Sect Master Qiu Yuelan, who was once again looking dreadfully bored and not fully awake, her eyes half closed as she exuded a lazy charm while gazing blankly into the air before her.
It was obvious that the brief excitement stirred by Lian'er's entrance hadn't lasted long beneath the 'terrifyingly potent' dullness of Grand Elder Theren's speech, dragging the lazy beauty back into her half-awake state.
"Ahhhh." a languid sigh slipped from the mature beauty as she propped her visage with one hand in a slouched posture, inwardly grumbling, 'Why do I need to be here? It's the same damn routine every 20 years, I need to take care of this damn Realm of Broken Skies!'
'Wasting my precious time here in this dreadfully long and boring fashion! Time that I could use in far, far more productive ways like…'
'I don't know, maybe sleeping!' a dreamy softness flickered across her features before it twisted into faint "disgust," 'Hell, even "Cultivating" would be better than this! At least it wouldn't be soo boring…'
These thoughts ran through her mind as she cast reproachful glances toward Grand Elder Mei and Grand Elder Theren, who sat just beside her.
Both Grand Elders felt their Sect Master's gaze but acted as if they hadn't noticed a thing.
'It'll do her some good not to always be sleeping and to sometimes act like the Sect Master she is supposed to be!' was the thought that passed through their minds as they ignored her angry glances.
After all, each time it was the same, every time Qiu Yuelan was needed to act as a 'proper' Sect Master she wasn't happy, especially during each opening of the Realm of Broken Skies, since it forced her to act as Sect Master for far, far—at least in her opinion—too long.
Because of that, each time it opened she was in a grumpy mood, and if it weren't for the fact that the ones who 'dragged her' there were these two Grand Elders, she wouldn't have come at all.
The only reason she allowed herself to be 'dragged' by them, even though she was stronger than they were, was because of the bond she had with all three Grand Elders.
With Qiu Yuelan's father dying when she was very young and her mother passing while giving birth to her, she had been left all alone, but fortunately the three Grand Elders, being close friends of her father, had taken care of raising her.
Because of that she considered them, even the eccentric Jianhai, as her family—her two 'fathers' and her 'mother.'
And it was for that reason that she occasionally listened to these three.
Like in the current situation with the Realm of Broken Skies, she wasn't here by 'choice'; it was Grand Elder Theren and Grand Elder Mei who had dragged her from her bed to the Sword Assembly Hall so that she could oversee the Secret Realm's opening.
Or else, if it hadn't been for them?
With her extremely, extremely lazy personality she most definitely wouldn't be here, she would have done as always, delegating 99% of her Sect Master tasks to the Grand Elders, who would dutifully handle them in her stead.
And what would Qiu Yuelan do with the time thus freed—train to grow stronger, study more about formations, focus on strengthening the Sect?
Nothing of the above. The beauty would do as always, which was… sleep!
Her favorite activity was and had always been sleeping, to the point that her laziness was soo extreme her 'schedule' looked something like this:
80% sleeping, 15% learning about formations—because she always loved the Formation Dao—and 5% for everything else!
With a schedule like that, it was a wonder how she had managed to grow into a Core Perfection Realm powerhouse at all.
It was a question the Grand Elders asked themselves every single time they caught Qiu Yuelan being lazy…
"Sigh, how boring…" muttered Qiu Yuelan as she idly played with the hem of her Taoist Robes before shifting her gaze toward the situation below, more precisely toward the Core Disciples still present.
Compared to the situation a couple of minutes earlier, when Grand Elder Theren had just finished his 'speech,' the hall had changed drastically, with the crowd now noticeably thinner.
A little less than half the Core Elders and more than 2/3 of the Core Disciples had already disappeared.
All of these powerful cultivators had left the Sword Assembly Hall to go watch the tournament that would take place among the Inner Disciples.
They knew they would need to wait for about 3 days anyway, and so rather than sit here idly they preferred to watch a tournament that only came once every 20 years.
A tournament that promised to be far more entertaining than simply meditating while waiting for time to crawl by.
'Unfortunately… I can't even do that and am stuck here!' grumbled Qiu Yuelan as she watched them leave to "have fun" while she remained "stuck on her throne."
"Sigh." another sigh slipped from her pink lips as her languid golden eyes began to wander over the now thinner crowd of cultivators still present, searching for something interesting.