(Brendan POV)
Walking along the deserted pathway with crumbling buildings at the sides of it felt rather eerie. The feeling was similar to that time when that stupid leprechaun had trapped us in that forest of his and Master had to save us.
"Kinda eerie, don't ya think?" Eris asked, mirroring my thoughts.
I nodded, "It feels deserted, yet there's the feeling that someone's been here recently, doesn't it?"
"Mmhmm… It's like someone might jump out from these buildings at any time... Hey! Should I jus' cut everythin' down?"
"That… Might not be the best idea. Senior Sister Eris might end up cutting something important."
She muttered "musclehead" under her breath but I'll just pretend I didn't hear that.
Since this Sect was built on the side of a mountain, its layout was rather similar to Master's Sect where the important buildings are closer to the peak.
Following the single pathway that led towards the back of the Sect, we had to pass by most of the buildings on our way there.
There were a few times where I thought I saw movement in the shadows of the buildings to the sides but whenever I turned to look, they were gone.
Since senior sister Eris, who had much better kinetic vision than I do, did not react to any of them, I must be mistaken about there being figures hidden in those shadows.
I did notice that most of these buildings did not look like it was worn down naturally though.
Cracked pillars, splintered walls and dried up blood stains were evidence of a battle fought here. Perhaps the Sect members here had gotten into a fight with another Sect which resulted in their disbandment in the past.
The only problem was that there were no bodies, not even skeletons, littered around this battleground. Which meant that someone or something had moved those bodies away, for what reason and purpose was anybody's guess.
Or it just meant there were no casualties but I find that highly unlikely.
Pushing such thoughts aside, the two of us finally reached the building where senior sister Eris had marked as their Sect Master's building.
While senior sister Eris went up to the door to inspect it, I took the chance to glance behind us to check if we were being followed.
For a split second, I was pretty sure I saw a shadow duck behind one of the collapsed building's doorways.
I narrowed my eyes and scanned the surroundings again, but nothing else seemed out of place.
"Brendan, take a look at what I found."
I turned back to see Eris waving at me from the doorway, beckoning me to follow her.
I decided to ignore the shadow I saw for now and went to where senior sister Eris was, curious about what she had found.
Stepping past the doorway, I noticed the roof of the building was caved in at the centre, as though something had crashed into it. Parts of the interior were also charred, suggesting a fire of some sort. Perhaps people had tried to torch this place and failed once upon a time.
Senior sister Eris brought me to where a pile of rubble lay and pointed a finger at it, "What do you see?"
I squinted my eyes at the pile, wondering why she had specifically pointed this pile of rubble out. All I saw were dirt, rocks, some pieces of burnt wood, a red feather, some broken glass and…
Hold on…
I bent down and picked up the red feather to take a closer look.
Running my fingers through the vanes, I marvelled at the softness of it.
"This… Could this belong to the Phoenix we're looking for?" I wondered aloud.
Senior sister Eris shrugged, "I would know about this less than you do. I just saw a red father and thought you might want to see it."
How do I say this… I suppose it's expected of senior sister Eris to think that way.
This is still quite a valuable find though. Unlike the rest of the building that has visibly decayed, this feather still looks new.
So either this was dropped recently or the feathers of this particular bird do not decay.
If you ask me, my money is on the former.
We'll still need to look for more clues before I can draw a definite conclusion as to whether this Phoenix still exists. Perhaps this Sect has a vial of said Phoenix's blood lying around somewhere.
But before that, I probably should tell senior sister about my feeling of being followed.
"Senior sister, outside…"
"There's twelve people following us, and another twenty surrounding this building, I know."
"Eh?"
"Hmm? Was that not what you wanted to tell me?"
I scratched my cheek, "Errr… No? I only had a feeling like we were being followed since I was seeing shadows moving around… But I didn't know if what I saw was real or just a figment of my imagination…"
She smiled, "Oh, they're real alright. I have a feeling the news about this… Erm… Whatever this Sect was called…"
"The Sect of Eternal Life," I reminded her.
"Yes, that. I have a feeling the news about them disbanding might have simply been a lie of some sort and the original members never left. As for why anyone would want to stay in this dump, I wouldn't know."
"Probably because there was nowhere they could go… Or they just don't…"
I stopped myself when I remembered the fact that there were no signs of the dead even after this Sect should have been 'disbanded' for such a long time.
Without any evidence of farming nor husbandry being done here… The people staying here might have really resorted to cannibalism…
Perhaps they even kill and eat any visitors here...
Either way, this is still not good for us since it means we're not alone here and most definitely in danger.
I glanced at senior sister Eris, "What should we do about them?"
She raised an eyebrow at me, "Nothing? They aren't even a threat. Even the monsters we fought that day were much more dangerous than these bunch of losers who don't even dare to come out and face us themselves. They're just sitting in the shadows waiting for our backs to be turned to jump on us. Pretty pathetic if you ask me."
My eyes widened at her, while I had been whispering, senior sister Eris actually said those words out loud. I'm pretty sure those people that were hiding in the shadows heard her loud and clear.
I sighed and took out a potion from within my storage ring while putting the feather we found into said storage ring.
On cue, several figures came stalking out of the shadows to block the entrance of the building while the others appeared around us.
Oh, now I know why senior sister Eris didn't think they were a threat. All of them were men so they shouldn't even be cultivators.
I'm guessing they might have been the servants of this Sect before it got disbanded or maybe just squatters who moved in afterwards.
Or just plain bandits who moved into this 'prime real estate'.
Not sure what they plan to do but I can already foresee a bleak future ahead of them, seeing that senior sister Eris already has her sword drawn and all.
May Master have mercy on your poor souls.