Awakening the Divine Spark

"Get out!" Was the only reply Lee got when he went to meet Elder Shen.

Lee kind of hoped to use their relatively normal relationship and previous familiarity to ask her to give him a mission to go to the Celestial Abyss sect. She was the elder leading the Mission Hall, and surely now and then there was some kind of interaction with the parent sect, but all he got was a finger pointing at the door and an angry stare.

After a longer physical training to calm his mind, Lee went to the library and asked junior elder Chen for an advice, but after he mentioned the Celestial Abyss, she turned cold and left. Fortunately she didn’t throw him out, firing on the spot.

Lee didn’t have that many acquaintances in the sect. He decided against consulting Chi Yanzhen and Li Hanchen. After all the two were close with Shen Rouya. That left only his young friend, whom he didn’t take completely seriously, and Han Li.

Left with no other options, Lee meditated through the night, but in the morning ran off to the closest village to purchase sweets. He returned only after noon, but Han Li had just woken up and happily accepted his bribe to be her breakfast. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

"Forget it!" She said, "You can’t cross the ocean. No one can. The only way is to get someone to open a rift for you. But the sect master probably won’t do it ... and that means you have to persuade someone from another sect. You’re out of luck."

"How much would it cost for someone to open a rift for me?" Lee asked. He considered himself to be a reasonably resourceful person and with time he could find the necessary means.

"A skillful elemental lord would probably open a rift for you only if you were his personal friend or if it was for a business deal or something." Han Li said, "But if you mean the rift gate ... it will cost a large container of elemental sparks to only start it up. How much do you think an elemental lord would charge for the effort? You can’t persuade someone like that with few sweets, no matter how good they are!"

Then she licked her fingers, savoring the last bits of sugar, and said, "Drop the idea. If an opportunity comes up in the future, use it. Otherwise, do your thing."

The revenge kind of was Lee’s thing, but unfortunately, the situation was beyond his control. He went back, slightly depressed, but pulled himself together during the upcoming days. There was the expression – the god was not a child, he knew what he was doing. Since the whole world was against him, Lee was not going to fight back, at least not yet.

***

It was half a month later when things changed. After the usual practice, Lee was about to enter the library when a person standing next to the entrance obstructed him.

"Follow me!" The guy said, and not waiting for the answer marched over the central square. Lee could only sigh, and with the thought what have I done now?, followed. The badge on the guy’s chest indicated he was from the Hall of Justice and Lee had no way to refuse him.

After a quick walk across the central square, they entered the main building of the Hall of Justice and Lee was led to the very top of it. Judging by the looks on the faces of the people he met on the way, not that many visitors were allowed here.

The spacious room he was invited into was simple, but functional. It only had a large desk with a chair beside it, a long shelf along the wall, and four larger armchairs around a tea table.

The people sitting in those chairs were not what Lee expected to see, though. He froze recognizing Sect Master Wang, Elder Shen and Elder Luo whom he hadn’t seen for a very long time. This was quite the occasion for all three of them finding time for a nobody like him.

"Sit!" The sect master pointed at the remaining chair, but Lee wasn’t able to read anything from his expression.

He nodded, and followed the instructions, inwardly thinking, ’I hope they aren’t looking for the fourth to play bridge or spades. I don’t remember what the cards look like, much less the rules.’

"There is something you could do." Elder Luo said, getting straight to the point, "The sect master has agreed to send you to the Celestial Abyss if you’re successful."

Lee carefully observed the three people, then stood up, bowed, and said, "Thank you very much for taking care of me. But I changed my mind, I don’t want to go there."

If these people needed Lee to do something, it was surely something dangerous. And he had done enough stupid things lately. He fully intended to follow Han Li’s advice, in fact, that was the most reasonable thing to do.

"Sit." Shen Rouya said, and Lee could only follow the order with a sigh, "I told you this smartass is perfect for the job. He might be weak, but I doubt any of our proud disciples could pull off what we need. Maybe it’s the time in Ashland, maybe he has always been such rogue ..."

"Thank you, Elder Shen." Lee said, not hiding the bitterness in his voice.

Clearly he went overboard with the cookie joke back then and the madam had not forgiven him. Who knows, maybe now she intended to torture him to death, disguising it as a mission of sorts.

"No bickering!" The sect master said.

Lee felt like the man had somehow changed lately, and it wasn’t just because he had grown his beard longer. He looked tired, but that wasn’t it either. What Wang Zhen lacked now was the aura of approachability he once had.

"You probably heard that the sect executed the captives we took during the Blackwater incident?" The sect master asked.

Lee nodded. He was in coma at the time, but the stories about that bloody event were told to this day.

"Well, not all." The sect master continued, "Elder Luo locked up around fifty, and during these months we have slowly going through them, trying to find more about the attempt to overtake the sect."

Any other person would be interested, or maybe even proud the sect master shared a top secret information. But Lee’s expression turned ugly. The old fox pressed him in the corner with a couple of words. Now he had no way to refuse no matter what they asked – even if the information wasn’t that important, he was a liability now!

"Everyone knows that." Lee tried to build a quick bridge out. He kept a straight face, and said, "Everyone knows that you killed Elder Su and the two idiots she worked with."

For a split second Wang Zhen and Elder Luo were taken aback. Not because Lee was twisting the lie, mixing it with truth. But it was a strategy that would’ve worked on many other occasions if it wasn’t them who he was talking to.

They were several times older even if Lee counted all of his lives together – he simply couldn’t compete with their experience. But his wit was immediately appreciated.

"Turns out it’s not that easy." Elder Luo ignored Lee’s attempt to slip out the net, "Elder Su wasn’t the mastermind, nor was LunLun or sect master Yelren Vorth. Someone has been preparing a takeover of largest sects on the continent for a long time. Someone wants to get their hands on the Celestial Abyss."

"You want me to kill them?" Lee sarcastically snickered, "Done!"

"May I spank him, please?" Shen Rouya said clenching her fist, and it was clear that instead of a palm on the butt Lee would receive a fist in the face. Biting his lip to not it let slip again, he sunk deeper in the chair, finally ready to listen.

Seeing the simple threat worked wonders, Elder Shen began to reevaluate her attitude regarding the other disciples, but Elder Luo continued.

He said, "No one expects miracles from you. But there is something you could do to help. You might know, or maybe not, but torturing people usually doesn’t lead anywhere. Same in this case, almost. What we learned is that there was another influential person involved, and we want your help to find them."