Death... and me

Wringan Continent, north side, a nameless island. It was on this island that two airships had arrived after six days of travel. Until now, it was only occupied by a few demon beasts, mostly bird types...or so it should be the case. However, when the Freedom Sect arrived at the island, they were met by thousands of humans.

"This..." Malo was taken aback. According to Rean, no one was supposed to be living here, so where did all these people come from? "Could it be that the island was taken by another group before we arrived?"

Fizer didn't seem to care too much about that, saying, "So what? With me here, they'll have to leave as long as I say the word."

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he told them, "Calm down, everyone. There's nothing wrong here. The decision to take this island as a home for the Freedom Sect was made even before the war was over. That being said, a lot of the humans who participated in the war already knew we would come here."

Rean then pointed at the humans who were looking at them from below before continuing, "Look at their cultivations. All of them have enough strength to arrive in this place on their own. Without a doubt, they took the chance the demon beasts were transporting the humans and used some airship that would drop them close to this place. With that said, it wasn't hard for them to come, especially those cultivators at the Core and Soul Fusion Realm and above."

Julia immediately understood what was happening. "I see...they all came here because they wanted to join the Freedom Sect, right? After all, Roan, who acted as the main commander of the army, is also part of it."

Rean nodded, saying in response, "That's basically it."

Malo couldn't help but feel nervous after hearing the reason why there were so many humans. "But...we haven't accounted for new members. We don't have any kind of test or anything else we can use to decide who can join or not. First of all, there are a few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators among them. What will they think when they hear that the Freedom Sect's Sect Master is only at the Core and Soul Fusion Realm? Besides, can we trust all the new disciples at all? Wouldn't those stronger create a lot of problems for us?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "If that's the case, you can simply say that the Freedom Sect isn't accepting any new members for the time being. Or that we have an age requirement, so anyone above it wouldn't be allowed to enter."

Fizer couldn't care less, though. "You're worrying too much. Did you forget I'm the strongest human on this planet? As long as you use my name, who will dare to cause a ruckus in the sect?"

Malo pondered over it for a bit before saying, "Although that's true, I would rather not take in any new member who's above the average level of the cultivators in our Sect. First of all, I'm only 18, and I'm already the oldest member other than Burio's group, the adults Rean brought to live with us in the past. Everyone else down there is mostly above their thirties. There are plenty of cultivators down there with similar cultivations, but almost all of them are far above our age."

Sure enough, the Freedom Sect was mostly filled with youngsters. Some of them, like Rafin's group, participated in the war as well. But the majority weren't even at the right age to do that. The sect has many, many kids around 6 to 7 years old. On the other hand, there were almost no kids down there, save for a few rare exceptions of cultivator couples with their own kids.

Roan shook his head in response, saying, "Then go down there and tell all of them that you won't accept anyone into the sect. Or perhaps you could tell them that you'll only accept the kids."

"M-Me?!" Malo couldn't help but let out cold sweat. There were plenty of cultivators down there stronger than him, with most of them looking quite ferocious.

"Who else? You're the Sect Master, so act like one."

Malo then looked at Fizer, who pretended to not notice it. Obviously, he also wanted Malo to get used to these kinds of situations. As a Sect Master, he had to be ready for everything.

It was then that Burio, one of the adults Rean brought back to the sect in the past, had an idea. "Malo, you don't necessarily need to send them all away. You just need to not accept them in the sect."

"What do you mean?"

Burio then explained, "You all keep saying that the Freedom Sect has the ability to become the strongest sect of the human race in the future, right? Such a sect can't stay isolated since it will definitely receive many missions. Then...why don't you tell those people down there to build a city outside the sect? It would act as a hub for new candidates who want to join the sect in the future. Wringan Continent is bound to give birth to many human cities, so we might as well have one here."

They had to admit that Burio's idea was quite good. "Is there any objection to Burio's idea?"

Everyone shook their heads, showing that they also thought it to be a necessary step. With that said, Malo finally took a deep breath and flew from the airship's deck. Fizer also followed him since the idea was to use his presence, after all. The humans below had been waiting until now, so they all paid attention to the youngster that had appeared.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Malo, and I'm the Sect Master of the Freedom Sect."

Naturally, those words shocked most of the cultivators present.

"So young!"

"So weak!"

"I thought Rean and Roan's Sect Master would be someone even stronger than them."

"He isn't even close to those two. However..."

"He definitely has shocking talent. Already at the Core and Soul Fusion Realm at such a young age."

Those and many more comments went back and forth before Malo raised his hand. "Silence, please." Fortunately, the people stopped talking and paid attention. "I know why all of you have come here. However, it is impossible for me to allow all of you to enter the Freedom Sect."

Sure enough, those words dropped like a bomb on the cultivators' heads.