Way of the Knights

Chapter 337 - Testing Grounds

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Raven shook his head once more and got out of trance. His gaze then returned into the bookshelves. 

He just finished reading all the scrolls, now he's wondering what do the books contained. He picked one up and started reading their contents. 

"The 4th Sea Master's Sunken Castle." Raven murmured upon reading what's on the first page of the book. "Oh, that must be the original name of this place. So it dates back all the way to the Ascendant's Era huh. Quite old."

He flipped onto the next page and started reading. He then gradually got immersed on to the texts and finished it in no time.

"Ah, I see." Raven murmured as he finished reading, "The 4th Sea Master Created this castle a few years after they set foot onto the Divine Realm. He created this place to honor the memories of his late wife, who happens to be someone from the Bearded Ladies Tribe."

The 4th Sea Master's Castle, or the Sunken Ivory Castle of the South is composed of three main parts: the wall fortresses, the main castle and the Master's Chambers. 

The Wall Fortresses is where one would found the offensive controls of the castle and its also the place where the chains that binds the castle to the Kraken, is located. There are a total of six fortresses around the castle, and if someone decides to free the Kraken, the have to dislodge the chains in each fortresses at the same time or else it wouldn't work and trigger an alarm system. 

The Main Castle is where the guests, servants and caretakers resided along with the master of the castle. According to what he read, there is a total of 20 guest rooms, 10 staff rooms that are shared by the servants, a library, a study room, meeting room, private rooms and five miscellaneous rooms inside this castle. Should any intruders managed to get past the walls and arrive here, a defense mechanism will be activated. 

When it is triggered, not only the Soul Punishing Tentacles will be activated, the hidden trap mechanisms will turn on and the guards will be alarm that an intruder has come. Normally, one has to have an invitation from the Master or Castellan in order to be treated as guest, any other methods of entering is considered as trespassing. 

Then, there's the Master's Chambers that no one else, aside from the owner of the castle could enter. It wasn't written was precisely is hidden behind those chambers but since only the Master can enter it, it must be of great importance. The way towards the Master's Chambers is of course, only visible and known to the Master of the Castle. The 4th Sea Master wrote that the Master's Chambers is the most important room in this place. Without it, the rest had no meaning. 

Raven had some faint guesses on what's hidden behind those places but kept it to himself first. He still not aware if he's currently being monitored or not, so just to be safe it would be wise to remain silent. 

He saw an interior map of the castle, which is totally useless since the rooms are constantly on the move. 

The movements are subtle, but he could tell that the rooms are switching places bit by bit, making this map inaccurate for his current situation, so he didn't even bother memorizing it. 

After reading this book, Raven placed it back on the shelf and browse another book to read.

***

After a whole day of non-stop reading, Raven is finally done reading every single book in the shelves. He massaged his temples and closed his eyes for a bit. He then summarized all the things that he had read so far.

First and foremost, he now knew the reason why this castle is in the lower plane. It turns out that it had a great purpose that Raven hadn't known before...

The Sunken Ivory Castle is one of the trial grounds for those who wanted to ascend.

Though the 4th Sea Master built this place to honor the memories of his late wife, it has been re-purposed by his descendants. 

After ascending to the Divine Realm, the humans started conquering one island after another. Their journey allowed them to reach new heights and also look towards a brighter horizon, chasing after the true peak of this universe and cultivation. Eventually, the humans occupied and lorded over the entirety of the Divine Realm, and most of them began dividing the spoils of war. 

At the death of his wife, the 4th Sea Master lost interest in everything. He had regretted that he left his beloved wife to die alone, completely unaware whether her husband is still alive or not, on top of that they also had a child that he wasn't aware of since he was so occupied with his lofty ambitions. He retired and decided to place his attention to what remains of his family. 

The 4th Sea Master is a dazzling individual, many idolized him and wanted to be his disciples. He built a sect and it prospered during his reign. Before his death, his son inherited everything that he has, along with the Sunken Ivory Castle. 

The 5th Sea Master then decided to visit his father's home land and saw the fate of the people they left behind. In order to honor the memory of his beloved father, he re-purposed the sunken castle and left if in the Grand Ancestral Plane as a tribute. It then became a testing grounds to those that is capable, anyone who's deemed worthy will be given a change to join their sect and ascend onto the divine realm. 

"I didn't trigger it back then since when I came here, I already found a way to ascend and is already a part of a sect. Plus, I only needed a material in here, nothing more nothing less."

This was the last place that he visited before ascending in his previous life. By that time, he already is aware of the Divine Realm and already had a way to reach that place safely. There are some people who's waiting for him already so the inhabitants of this castle didn't approach him and respected the order. 

"What's shocking is that, the Four Extremes are all testing grounds for those who wanted to ascend. I don't know about the Withered Forest of the West, but the sects connected to rests are recorded here."

"The Sunken Ivory Castle of the South is connected to the Boundless Azure Sect. The Sun Temple of the East is connected to the Divine Sun Sect and the Frozen Tombs of the North is connected to the Everlasting Snow Sect."

What's crazy is that, all of these sects are incredibly famous in the Divine Realm. Each one are ancient sects that has steep requirements on accepting disciples. Their foundations are extremely deep and their resources are extremely vast. 

Raven find it hard to believe that these sects actually had connections on his homeland. It was quite surprising that the ascendants hadn't completely forgotten their homeland. In hindsight, he should've known or at least guessed that this was the case. After all, the first batch of humans that came to the Divine Realm all came from this plane. Which is why it is name the Grand Ancestral Plane. 

Adding to his knowledge, there are still some places here that is used as a testing grounds for sects. He discovered them quite late in his life but he planned on visiting them once he's schedule is free and when he's considering the matter of his own ascension. 

"And then there's these Ancient Arts." Raven murmured as he glanced at the pile of books in front of him. 

He didn't return them yet since he can't decide whether he should take them or not. 

In his opinion, these books are too valuable to left rotting here. But at the same time, these arts might be left for those wanted to join the Boundless Azure Sect. 

These Ancient Arts are low class techniques that is distributed amongst the sects of the Divine Realm. But although they are low class, when placed in a lower plane, their values will skyrocket. Even Raven is tempted to steal these away and take it back home with him, but he was quite sure that that's a bad idea. He didn't necessarily wanted the disciples of the Boundless Azure Sect to be breathing down his neck once he ascended due to him stealing all of this. 

While these are low level techniques that are mostly considered as trash, he didn't think that the Boundless Azure Sect would allow just some random person to steal them. Trash they might be, they are still belong to their sect. So just to be sure that he won't court disaster for himself and his loved ones, he decided that he will leave them here. 

That being said, it doesn't mean that he would just walk away after seeing this. He could still see some value in them so he will be remembering them. 

Most specifically, he will remember the 'Breath of Flowing Water' and the 'Bounties of the Sea'.