Chapter 1448 He Remained Suspicious

Upon asking for the other elders and the five stewards to head back to the Sword Spirit Sect, Timothy
and Harrison left first and went straight to the Arcane Sword Hall.

At the same time, Hannah walked into the competition area and sought Rocky. After finally finding him,
she said, "Here you are. Come with me. The leader wants to see you."

"Huh? The leader?" Rocky actually didn't expect that his battle with Xavier would catch the attention of
the sect leader. In his honest opinion, it came as a big surprise.

But at some point, he knew that he was going to be summoned by the higher-ups because of
everything that he had displayed in the entire competition. Thus, upon hearing what Hannah said, he
just simply nodded with a smile. Then, the two of them left the competition area under the watchful
eyes of the crowd who had just witnessed the recent battle.

As soon as they entered the Arcane Sword Hall, Rocky saw that Timothy and Harrison were already
there, seated and patiently waiting for their arrival. There was no one else except the sect leader and
the governor. With this, Rocky immediately discerned they were trying to keep this conversation a
secret one.

"Thank you, Hannah. You may leave now," Timothy ordered at once.

Hearing her father's command, Hannah cast a slight glance at Rocky before she bowed and left the
hall. She was actually concerned about how their meeting would turn out, but she knew that her father
was a sensible person. Hence, as long as Rocky told the truth and explained everything accordingly,
there shouldn't be any problem.

At this point, there were only three people left inside the hall—Timothy, Harrison, and Rocky.



Despite being in front of the two powerful figures of the Sword Spirit Sect, Rocky looked rather calm,
and there wasn't any hint of fear or panic in his eyes.

"Basil, let me get straight to the point. Do you know why we requested your presence here?" Timothy
inquired.

"Yes, sir. I do. You want to know where I really came from, what my purpose of hiding my real strength
was, as well as my intention of coming here to the Sword Spirit City. Am I right about all that?" Rocky
answered straightforwardly. He was a clever man, and thus he had a full understanding of what might
be running in their minds.

"Well, I guess you really are a smart man. Now that you know what we want to know, go ahead and tell
us the truth," Timothy said as he stroked his beard. Although he was the leader of the Sword Spirit
Sect, Timothy had always been gentle. Of course, he had a lot of reasons to doubt Rocky, but he didn't
need to be hostile towards him before he figured out everything that the young man was hiding.

"I understand. Then, please let me say this bluntly. The truth is that I actually didn't enter the Sword
Spirit City for any special or hidden purpose. I just wanted to improve my strength, and I thought that
this was the most suitable place to do it," Rocky said with a straight face.

"Really? That's all? Then, why did you need to hide your real strength? This fact bothers me a lot. I can
see that you're still very young, yet you've already attained such powerful strength. If you wanted to be
a part of the Sword Spirit Sect, you could have done it directly. After all, we never reject young and
talented prospects like you," Timothy remarked. After he heard what Rocky said, his suspicions weren't
fully answered. The young man's explanation wasn't that convincing for him.

"Before I came to the Sword Spirit City, I didn't know how strong I was. You might have already heard,
but I grew up in a very remote village, and only a dozen families were living there. Thus, no one really
told me anything about spirit warriors. I might have some skills and potentials, but I didn't discover them



until I came here," Rocky answered in a serious tone, trying his best to sound as sincere and truthful as
possible.

Timothy and Harrison exchanged glances upon hearing this. Rocky might have given them a plausible
explanation, but they still thought that there were a lot of loopholes in his story.

"Yes, I've heard your story from Hannah. But if you're telling the truth, how did you cultivate your
spiritual power then? I can't believe that you would become this proficient in using your spiritual power
just after coming here." Timothy continued to pry.

"Believe it or not, several spiritual beasts live around my hometown. Among them, some could produce
treasures that are similar to the ethereal crystals. Therefore, since I was a child, I have been in contact
with these spiritual treasures, though I didn't know what they were for. As time passed by, I was able to
absorb the spiritual power they emitted unknowingly into my body. Thus, I have a lot of spiritual power
stored within me but I didn't know how to use it. Finally, when I came here, I was able to focus on
utilizing it," Rocky continued. He had been well-prepared and already polished his made-up stories
even before he faced the two of them. But right now, it didn't matter how convincing they were. As long
as they bought them, that would be more than enough.

"I see. If that's the case, then that would explain why his spiritual aura can't be emitted from his body.
He has never formally practiced any kind of cultivation method and he only relied on absorbing the
spiritual power from those spiritual treasures. Although there is a lot of spiritual power within him, he
couldn't activate it. That's why he looks just like an ordinary person at first glance," Harrison concluded
as he discussed it with Timothy.

"It still sounds too good to be true, but it's possible," Timothy replied with a nod as he fixed his gaze on
Rocky.



So far, all the things that Rocky said were reasonable enough to explain the dubious facts surrounding
him. However, both Timothy and Harrison experienced a lot in their lives. They wouldn't be easily
fooled with just that. There were still a lot of details that they needed to countercheck, and just a single
inconsistency would put Rocky in a tight spot.

"I also heard from Ramon that you bumped into Ally on purpose so that you could be taken for
treatment here. Why would you do that?" Harrison asked with inquisitive eyes.

"It's actually a long story, so please bear with me." Then, with a slightly deep sigh, Rocky started telling
another made-up story. "I left my hometown in order to make a name for myself in the Supreme Ether
Land. However, after I started my journey, I encountered some terrible guys. Since I was from the
countryside, I was easily fooled. I was swindled and they managed to take all of my belongings. My bad
luck didn't end there. Later on, I was abducted to the area just outside of the Sword Spirit City. I was
actually almost on the brink of being sold as a laborer. Fortunately, I was able to escape just in time. At
that point, I didn't have any money on me and so I suffered from hunger for a while. Realizing that I
needed to do something about my situation, I tried my luck to see if I could meet some rich people who
could spare me some food and money. Then, that was when I bumped into Ally. I was surprised that I
was taken here in the Sword Spirit City by the kind-hearted lady. Before that incident, I already heard
about the Sword Spirit City because of its good reputation. So, when I saw that I was brought here, I
thought this might be the opportunity that I was waiting for. And I'm sure that you already know
everything that happened afterward," Rocky said as he recounted his miserable "experience" before he
came to the city.

"So, you're telling us that you just happened to enter the Sword Spirit City by accident?" Timothy asked
with furrowed brows as he scrutinized Rocky further.

"Yes. Just as I told you, I really didn't have a specific purpose on why I entered the Sword Spirit City,"
Rocky greatly emphasized. "I totally understand that hiding my real strength is something uncalled for.



However, if other people discovered that I have such kind of spiritual power within me, I thought that I
would be under more suspicion and that I might be expelled from the Sword Spirit Sect. Therefore, I
waited for an opportunity to prove myself. With that, I hoped that I could attract the attention of the
powerful leaders like you two, so that I could come clean. Fortunately, that was what happened. In my
current state, I know that I'm not that talented in terms of swordsmanship, but there are other things
that I could offer. For example, I'm good at beast taming and beast curing, because I've been dealing
with all kinds of spiritual beasts since I was a child. I can say that I know them pretty well," Rocky
explained in detail.

"Speaking of which... That spiritual beast that you summoned earlier, is that a demonic spiritual beast?"

Timothy asked straightforwardly. "Yes," Rocky answered briefly.

"But demonic spiritual beasts usually don't appear in the Ethereal Region. Moreover, it's not something
that a spirit warrior can just control easily. So, how are you able to control this demonic spiritual beast?"
Timothy queried out of curiosity.

"It's because I raised it myself," Rocky replied without hesitation.

"You raised it?" Both Timothy and Harrison were greatly taken aback after hearing that Rocky was able
to raise a demonic spiritual beast, which was far stronger than ordinary spiritual beasts.

"I actually saved it from another fierce spiritual beast when I was still a child. At that time, I thought that
it was just an ordinary spiritual beast, only to find later on that it was something special. Not only did it
grow fast, but it was also stronger than ordinary spiritual beasts. I was fascinated by it, so I trained it
with all my might and I managed to make it act according to my orders," Rocky explained like it wasn't
such a big of a deal.

"How about when you merged with it? How did you do that?" Timothy asked. The truth was that he was
really curious about that skill. After all, in his vast experience, he had never seen a human being who



could fuse with a spiritual beast, let alone a demonic spiritual beast.

"Well, I'm afraid I might not be able to explain it. During the time that I discovered that skill, I was
actually in grave danger. Then, fortunately, I accidentally found out that I can do it. Since then, I've
been able to do it whenever I want," Rocky said with a bit of an awkward smile.

After hearing everything that Rocky had said, Timothy looked at Harrison and it seemed that they didn't
have anything more to ask. From their observation, Rocky never showed any hint of nervousness or
anxiety. Moreover, all of his answers were consistent and reasonable, and they didn't find anything
suspicious. However, Timothy still couldn't shake the feeling that this young man was still hiding
something and that he wasn't as simple as he appeared to be.


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