The next day, an elder of the Elemental Sect came to the field. He looked at everyone and then started to explain the situation.
"Welcome to the Elemental Sect, my name is Sian Rull. You already know why we called you here, so let me give you the more detailed information. We need as many Elemental Flowers as possible. The more you get, the better will be your payment. Once again, every three flowers acquired, one shall be yours."
"There are rarer Elemental Flowers that have different elements or traits like Space, Time, Destiny, etc. They also follow the same rule, if you find three of them, one is yours. In case you can't find at least three of this type of flower, we can negotiate later with you."
"Now, about the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm. As the name implies, this is really a Realm in the form of an enormous path. It extends almost endlessly, and there are several risks inside. The first of them is the Demon Beasts. Those that were born inside this realm don't have intelligence. It's different from the Demon Beasts outside who gain sentience at the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm."
"That's not all, it also has several plant demons, old golems, long-forgotten formations, etc. Lastly, but not least, there are your competitors. The Elemental Sect is not the only one with access to the Elemental Path once it is open. There are also another 5 powers in control of another five entrances."
"Although we all will appear in different points of the area, the six paths will eventually connect to each other. As long as you move forward without stopping, it shouldn't take more than a day before all six paths connect. Although I won't say that you can't fight between yourselves, I would recommend that you leave it for when you find people or beasts from the other paths."
"Every single one of you will receive a formation mark which is necessary for anyone to enter. This can also be considered as your ticket to the outside. Once 18 days have passed, the path will automatically close. This mark will then activate and immediately send you out. But don't misunderstand it. This thing can only be activated once the realm starts to close, not before. If you somehow lose it, you will be locked inside. The Elemental Path only opens every 100 years. Still, we have never seen anyone who got left behind to come out the next time it opened. So make sure to protect your marks well."
"Although I think it is obvious, I will say it anyway. The further inside you go, the more Elemental Flowers you will find, and so the dangers that you will meet."
"Every time that the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm opens, part of the way is cleaned by the cultivator and demon beasts of that time. Once you enter again, you will start close to the place where your predecessors stopped. So it goes without saying that this place won't have too many dangers but at the same time not many flowers either. Of course, this is just a possibility. There is still the chance that you will all appear inside of a strong demon beast race territory or something like that. So make sure to be alert as soon as you enter."
Someone then asked.
"What is the story behind this place?"
Elder Sian just shook his head.
"We don't know, it has existed for a very long time, and none of the powers controlling the entrances have found anything so far. Unfortunately, the highest realm of cultivation allowed inside is the Divine Soul Realm. We never had the chance to send a high-level cultivator or demon beast to check it entirely."
Another question came after that.
"What if we find some treasure not related to the Elemental Flowers?"
Sian shrugged his shoulders and quickly replied.
"Anything else acquired inside is yours to take. But I might as well tell you that no one has ever encountered anything else other than what I mentioned to you before. Well, I guess that the materials that those formations, golems, and demon beasts have could be considered as spoils too. It's up to you if you want to bring it out with you or not."
Tinnian from Krune's group also made a question.
"Why is it called Elemental Path?"
Sian replied once more.
"It's due to its environment. Some times you will find snow, other times a desert, suddenly, a storm might appear, even an ocean is possible. Well, I guess you understood why we call it like that. Our Sect is also named like this because of the Elemental Path."
Someone got curious and asked about the other powers participating.
"Oh, they are all clans or sects like us. The big majority of their participants came through the Mission Hall requests. So even if I tell you about them, it won't be of much help against your adversaries anyway."
Sian then received a few more questions after that, and he answered all of them patiently.
Krune noticed that close to the center, there were a big group os Divine Soul Realm participants all using the same clothes as Sian. Krune looked at Marshine and asked.
"Are they members of the Elemental Sect?"
Marshine nodded.
"From what I heard, they are the explorer team. Different from us, they are not going inside for the flowers, but for the sake of exploring the place as far as possible. Even though the Elemental Path has existed for a very long time, all the six powers controlling the entrances still believe that some treasure can be found at the end. The other five also have explorer teams like this one."
Krune nodded and didn't ask anything else. He was here for the Elemental Flowers, after all.
Around one hour later, the Elemental Path was about to open. Sian looked at everyone and said.
"Alright, I have said everything I had to say. As you all know, our Elemental Path Sect has a 5 stars reputation with the Mission Hall. That means that we always keep our word. If you haven't reached the Soul Forging Realm after a hundred years, we welcome you to participate in the Elemental Path Realm opening once more."
Suddenly, Spiritual Energy started to gather in the center of the field. Suddenly, the Elements began to spin around the center and grow in size. Krune immediately recognized that phenomenon.
'It's just how the old Rainbow Sect entrance looked like. So this is where the Elemental Path Entrance of the Elemental Sect appears. It's right inside of their Sect. Well, I guess this was obvious anyway.'
It only took around a minute for the path to be formed. Once it appeared, the exploration team immediately rushed inside without saying anything. Elder Sian didn't seem to care either. He just looked at everyone else and said.
"Well then, the elemental gate is open. I wish you all good luck in your harvest. I will see you again in this field 18 days later."
Krune's group didn't waste time and immediately entered. The other teams also rushed inside, and everyone soon disappeared inside the Elemental Gate.
Once inside, Krune's group noticed that they appeared on a snowfield. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have any dangers around. As for the Elemental Sect exploration team, Krune could only see them in his Divine Sense. It was evident that they immediately departed as soon as they entered. But soon, something unexpected happened.
Krune, Tinnian, and Rarol returned to their original forms. Not only them, but all the demon beasts that were previously in their human form also transformed back. Some of them seemed surprised with it, others seemed to expect that already.
"This..."
Krune immediately understood the situation.
"It's just like the Divine Path Sect Illusory World. It forces everyone into their original form. Why didn't anyone comment about it?"
Before Krune finished transforming back, Light Spirit quickly acted and released arcs of purple lightning around Krune's body. By the time that Krune finally returned to his wisp form, the others could only see a bid ball of Purple Tribulation Lightning. That obviously made a lot of the participants curious about him.
Krune let off a sigh of relief and said.
"Thank you, Light Spirit. You saved the day."
Light Spirit didn't seem to care too much.
"There was no other way. Remember what Cinty told you before? A wisp with different color means a Major Core Owner. She probably already dealt with the ones who saw you that day in the Wisp World 13, but she won't be able to do anything with the ones here. So we better keep the number of cultivators and demon beast that saw your true form as small as possible."
Krune nodded and looked around.
"Hey, Jolk. What is happening with you?"
Krune just replied.
"I'm just a little bit too shy, so I don't like others to see my real form. Don't mind it, keeping this layer or lightning is as easy as breathing for me."
Marshine and the others didn't believe about the shy thing at all. Still, it is not their place to complain about not being able to see Jolk's real form or not. But there was one thing that they and the other participants thought to be impressive. The fact that their Divine Sense couldn't feel Jolk's presence at all! That is to be expected, Light Spirit used the same trick as he used when they left the Rainbow Sect back then.
Still, this made everyone warier of Krune, After all, not being able to sense someone with their Divine Sense means a massive gap in the initiative. That technique was simply way too good for sneak attacks.
Rarol just smiled, seeing that and said.
"Alright, we have no reason to keep waiting. Let's follow the explorer team since they definitely know the right way to go."
Everyone in their group nodded, and they immediately moved out.