As they watched him walk out, the sect master and the elders all deeply knitted their brows, but not a single one of them stopped him.
After all, killing him wasn't what they wanted. What they wanted was for him to take the trial and succeed since this was a matter that involved the future of their sect.
If Lin Fan didn't take it willingly and something were to happen, they wouldn't be able to explain it to the ancestor…
So they had no choice but to follow Lin Fan's words and let him rest.
Once he was gone from the hall, the sect master waved his hand and there was a black figure that appeared by his side.
This black figure kneeled down and waited for the sect master's orders.
The sect master was silent at first before suddenly saying, "Follow him and keep an eye on him. Make sure that he doesn't find a way to leave the sect."
The black figure gave a bow before disappearing again.
After he was gone, the sect master turned back to the elders and said, "We need to discuss what happens if he doesn't play along."
All of the elders nodded in agreement to this.
…
After leaving the hall, Lin Fan didn't relax his expression at all.
That was because there were still many people all around him that were all looking at him.
In fact, there were more people gathered than when he had first arrived in the Hidden Dragon Sect.
That was because as time passed, the news of his arrival spread and more and more people came to see him. After all, he was the chosen one that came with the Mark of the Hidden Dragon.
This was a matter that was widely known by every person of the sect, so they were naturally curious about him.
Once he came out of the hall, he didn't know what to do at first, but then there was a group of people that suddenly came over.
It was a group that he didn't recognize, but the way that the crowd opened up a path for them, it was clear that this was an important group of people.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtIn fact, the one leading them was in the Qi Condensing Realm, which Lin Fan was able to recognize now that he had been with the survivors of the Love Sect for a bit.
When this group arrived, they all gave a slight bow to Lin Fan before the leader said, "Young master Lin, we've been instructed to lead you to your residence. I'm sure that it's been a long and hard journey for you, so we've prepared a feast for you."
The leader then turned around and pointed forward with his hand as he said, "If you would please follow me, I'll lead you to your residence."
Lin Fan narrowed his eyes to look at him, but then he shook his head and said, "It's my first time here, so I wanted to take a look around the Hidden Dragon Sect first."
The leader didn't seem surprised when he heard this. He just gave another bow and said, "Then shall I guide you around? I'm sure that you'll get lost if you wander around our sect by yourself."
Lin Fan hesitated a bit, but he still nodded in the end because he couldn't refute it.
He had used words to talk his way out of going into the trial right away, so they had sent someone who was able to talk just as well to stop him. After all, if they couldn't use force, then they would play along with him.
Not to mention that even if Lin Fan wanted to run, he wouldn't be able to since force wasn't an option.
Even without the Golden Core Realm sect master and elders here, he still wouldn't be able to beat this Qi Condensing Realm person.
So he had no choice but to let this person guide him along.
When he looked closely at the group that he had brought, he found that there were also several beautiful girls following them.
It seemed that this Hidden Dragon Sect really wasn't above using any methods that they could to keep him here.
They were even willing to use a honey trap to keep him here and to make him go into the trial.
But of course, this didn't work on the current Lin Fan.
It might have worked on his past self, but now…he had built up his immunity to pretty girls because there were prettier girls waiting for him back home. He wasn't someone that would lose himself for every pretty girl that batted her eyes at him.
Since they were heading off, the leader of the group sent the girls and the others back to the residence to prepare for the banquet before guiding Lin Fan alone.
Lin Fan was surprised that he would guide him alone, but he quickly learned the reason why.
It didn't take long before they ran into another group that joined them.
This group was much stronger than the other group that had been with them before. This group was filled with people that were in the Qi Condensing Realm. The group was made up of people that were only in the Foundation Realm and the Qi Gathering Realm.
It was clear that that group was for honey trapping him and this group was the group that was in charge of making sure that he didn't run away.
Of course, there was a perfect reason for why this group was the one that came along with Lin Fan.
That was because everyone in this group was the disciple of an elder.
The one that had led Lin Fan in the first place was the personal disciple of the sect master.
Based on all of this, it could be said that they were showing Lin Fan quite the respect by having the disciples of the sect master and the elders show him around. However, he knew what the truth of the matter was.
Still, he didn't let that stop him from achieving his goals.
He had the sect master's disciple lead him to all the various special spots of the Hidden Dragon Sect.
They went to the cultivation technique pavilion, the alchemy pavilion, the mission pavilion, the herb gardens, and the other important facilities of the Hidden Dragon Sect.
Normally, these would be off limits to people that weren't in the Hidden Dragon Sect, but he had some privilege as the holder of the Mark of the Hidden Dragon. With this token and the permission of the sect master, he was able to easily gain access to every place in the Hidden Dragon Sect.
In fact, they even opened up some of the forbidden places for him which surprised him and also didn't surprise him.
He was caught off guard at first that they would do this, but he figured that they had most likely done this to put him at ease.
After all, these were only the public forbidden places that everyone already knew about. It was impossible for him to know about the true forbidden places hidden by their sect, so he couldn't go there.
Still, Lin Fan was able to achieve what he wanted to achieve by being able to tour these places.
He had something that others didn't…
His Appraisal Eyes.
While moving through these places, even when he moved from location to location, he had his Appraisal Eyes on the entire time. He looked at every spot around him, as he tried to find anything that would give him a clue.
However, no matter where he looked, he wasn't able to find a single thing.
Well, it wasn't that he wasn't able to find a single thing.
In these places, there were many precious things that were stored and with his Appraisal Eyes, he was able to see through many of them.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmNo one would have expected that just by looking at these cultivation techniques on their shelves, he would be able to see through them. If he wanted, he would even be able to cultivate them since his Appraisal Eyes had already told him the method of cultivating these techniques and if he stored them, he would be able to bring them back to the Love Sect.
He had to admit that the Hidden Dragon Sect really had many different cultivation techniques. There were even more cultivation techniques here than what was inherited from the Love Sect.
It was the same with the other locations.
With a single look, he was able to see through the various pills, arrays, and items, so he was also able to learn the recipes for them.
This was stealing their knowledge without openly stealing it.
Of course, with just Lin Fan's memory alone, it was impossible for him to record all of this.
So he bought a special item from the Dungeon Master System store.
It was a very cheap item, but it was an item that would help him record anything that he wanted. So he used it to write down the cultivation techniques, the recipes, and anything else he wanted secretly.
Just like this, Lin Fan was able to steal from the Hidden Dragon Sect.
Just with this, he had gained enough knowledge to start his own sect.
After all, the most important thing of a sect was the cultivation techniques that they had. He had stolen most of the cultivation techniques that the Hidden Dragon Sect had, so he was clearly qualified to start a sect.
The only things that he didn't steal were the sect's secret techniques and recipes that were kept behind a locked door.
Seeing him walk slowly from time to time, the sect master's disciple couldn't help asking, "Young master Lin, are you alright?"
Lin Fan just nodded and said, "No problem, I was just admiring the facilities of your sect."
The sect master's disciple felt that there was something off, but he couldn't tell exactly what was off. So the only thing that he could do was continue leading Lin Fan around the sect.
Eventually, they reached the end of their tour and Lin Fan still wasn't able to find a single clue.
It seemed that the Hidden Dragon Sect had really hidden things well…
He hadn't even been able to find a way out of this Hidden Dragon Sect.
So it seemed like he had no choice but to face the Hidden Dragon Trial like they wanted him to…
But of course, before he went into the Hidden Dragon Trial, he would prepare everything that he could.
When the tour was over, the disciples of the elders all started tensing themselves as they prepared for the worst case scenario. They had been on guard against Lin Fan making sudden moves the entire time since they didn't want to accidentally let him escape, but to their surprise, he didn't do a single thing.
Even at the end, he just said, "Let's go to the feast, I'm quite hungry."
All of them were caught off guard by this, but the sect master's disciple nodded with a smile and led the way.