Chapter 202: Celestial Abyss.

Chapter 202: Celestial Abyss. "Messenger Lee, the Cloud Peaks sect." Lee introduced himself, "Bringing sect master’s letters to masters of the Enforcement Hall, Knowledge Hall, Tribunal hall and the sect master." In the early morning he arrived at the gate to the inner sect, holding four sealed letters in hand, and directly walked over to the clerk responsible for registering the visitors. The man was sitting at a small table next to the gate, currently conversing with one of the guards. He was obviously tired and sleepy after sitting around the whole night and expected to pass on the shift any moment.

"You can leave them here." He lazily said.

"You’re kidding right?" Lee laughed.

"Smartass ..." The clerk mumbled under his nose, opening the registry journal, "... Cloud Peaks ... what was your name?"

"Lee!"

"It’s early. You’ll have to wait for someone to accompany you." The man said.

"No need – I know the way. Not my first time." Lee said with a nonchalant expression, "I need to make haste before the steward runs off, otherwise I’ll have to sit at the sect master’s doorstep the whole day. I doubt the poor man has a moment of free time with the wedding and all ..."

The clerk glanced back at him, as if measuring from head to toe, but Lee only stretched out his hand, as if expecting something.



"Don’t run around!" The clerk said after a brief pause, and put a green-colored metal token in Lee’s hand, "It’s for your own benefit. If you step on the wrong toes, no one will save you, even your sect master. The inner sect is full of big-shots."

"Thanks!" Lee said with a nod, "I hope it’s over soon, you guys look tired."

"You have no idea ..." The clerk said, waving Lee off.

Ten breaths later Lee was already walking through the streets of the Celestial Abyss’s inner sect. The infiltration might’ve seemed easy, but it was anything but that. He had to fulfill all the necessary conditions to not only be allowed inside, but also allowed to go in alone.

The proper dress code, origins, amount of letters and recipients were all carefully thought through. Besides, the fact that he was a teenager was the most eye catching aspect that worked in his favor – he looked absolutely harmless, but at the same time professional.

If he came with one or two letters, he would’ve been forced to leave them at the gate. But no one had the time to run around the sect, delivering letters to several hall masters. More importantly, he seemed to be knowledgeable enough to recognize that the letter to the sect master was supposed to be delivered to his steward.

And the last part was the most important. Last night he heard multiple stories about the tyrant sect master’s steward who had crippled dozens of disciples purely out of stress. While the man was experienced elemental lord, the wedding preparations and thousands of visitors were driving him crazy. No one in the sect was wiling to antagonize him.

***

Lee was in, but now he was faced with other issues. He was positive that if he lay low, he could hang around for a couple of days. The problem was – he didn’t want to witness the wedding. He came here to kill the bride.

Getting into the sect master’s palace was out of the question. Period. Not in such short amount of time.

His face was foreign and for the tens of elemental lords it would be a child’s play to deal with him.

Lee needed to craft the next part of the plan, and quickly. But before anything else, he got rid of the four letters.

Now he became a regular visitor who would’ve been thrown out if his identity was checked by one of the many enforcers. Fortunately they weren’t as brazen as their counterparts in the outer sect – one could never know what backing the most harmless looking person around here had.

Morning was a bad time for information gathering. Contrary to the outer sect, the inner part wasn’t full of drunkards who passionately shared all their secrets. People here were either esteemed guests, or inner disciples busy with their own thing.

Lee didn’t look like a guest, thus he began to pretend to be one of the locals, marching from place to place with a concerned expression. With confident steps he followed others around the sect, visiting most halls. On the way he slowly, sheet by sheet, collected a stack of papers and already before the noon he looked like any other clerk around here.

The only problem was – the running around was completely fruitless. He didn’t find out anything new, only got tired and hungry.

"You! Stop daydreaming!" Lee’s thoughts were interrupted when for the second time today he entered the Trading hall and stared at the wall displaying two long columns with names that didn’t mean anything to him.

"Sorry, Sir!" Lee immediately reacted, slightly bowing to the annoyed middle aged man in front of him.

"Since you have time to spare, go to the Sect Affairs hall. Tell the damned Silas that there is only room for two more delegations left." The man said, and immediately walked away.



Lee stared in the direction the man left, trying to comprehend the implications, but then inwardly grinned, ’Alright! I guess I work here now!’

He knew where the Sect Affair hall was, but he never went in. Now, he rushed there, and asked the first person where could he find Silas. It turned out to be a lady in her fifties, with a short temper, but Lee obediently delivered the message, word for word.

Unsurprisingly, Lee found out that had to return to the bastard Wu, and tell that it was his problem to figure out how to accommodate six representatives.

Although it was slightly amusing, Lee wasn’t too happy to play the message courier between the two hall employees, but it did give him legitimate reason to run around the sect. In fact, in the afternoon he was sure no one in the Trade hall or Sect Affairs hall considered him to be an outsider.

More importantly, the argument between the two elders turned out to be about the seating during the upcoming auction. Lee couldn’t care less whether the Ling, Chen or whatever families could attend. He also didn’t care that his stomach was growling from how hungry he was.

What he waited for most of the day was the chance to get into the auction, which was supposed to be one of the main attractions during the pre-wedding festivities.

The damned Silas was thrilled by his idea and even suggested that a polite and proper person like him should transfer to the Sect Affairs hall instead of wasting time in the Trade hall. Lee promised to think about it, and in the evening guided six people, a pair from three different families, to the auction venue.

Unfortunately, this was where his luck ended. No matter how persuasive Lee’s actions were pretending to belong to the families, he still to wait far in the back, together with other servant-level assistants. Meanwhile, close to a thousand guests sat at lavishly stacked tables in the spacious auction hall, expectantly flipping through the lists of items about to be auctioned.

At the very front table, right next to the stage, everyone could see the most important people in the sect. In fact, those were the most important people in the world – the sect master and the junior sect master. And right next to the junior sect master sat his bride, a woman dressed in snow white robe.

Noticing the crimson hair, Lee knew he had finally caught up to her. Even though he was over hundred yards away, he felt his heart rate accelerate, but it was too early to celebrate.