"It was you, wasn’t it?"

As his words fell, the young man slowly turned around to face him with the same indifferent look in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Yuan Ming stepped closer, lowering his voice. "The voice transmission. You warned me not to move when the blood drop approached."

For a moment, the young man remained silent, his dark eyes studying Yuan Ming with an intensity that made him feel exposed, as if every secret he carried was being laid bare.

Then the young man’s lips moved. When he spoke, his voice was different. It sounded so cold that it felt like no human was capable of speaking like that.

Yet here he was.

"If you had exposed your cultivation at that moment, they would have taken you away."

The words were simple, but the weight behind them made Yuan Ming’s blood run cold.

"The supervisor was watching. The elders above were watching. The moment you revealed yourself as a Golden Core cultivator hiding among Foundation Establishment disciples, they would have known you were an infiltrator." The young man’s expression remained unchanged. "And infiltrators don’t simply get killed in the Demonic Cult."

"They get... anyways. Trust me, you do not want to be ousted as a traitor."

Yuan Ming did not seem surprised by the fact that he was exposed for hiding cultivation. Instead, he seemed confused by something else entirely.

As if seeing through his thoughts, the young man tilted his head. There was something almost pitying in his gaze.

"Your attempt at being inconspicuous was flimsy at best," he said bluntly. "The dirty robes, the bloodstained sword, the unkempt appearance—you were trying so hard to look like you didn’t belong that you ended up standing out even more."

Yuan Ming felt his face heat with embarrassment.

"A truly unremarkable person doesn’t need to try," the young man continued, his tone almost lecturing. "They simply are. But you? You made quite an entrance right on the doorsteps of the cult."

He gestured vaguely back toward where they’d come from.

"Because of what you did then, you have quite the reputation among the newcomers who came along with us."

A chill ran down Yuan Ming’s spine at those words. He turned slightly, casting a glance back down the dark path where other participants were still selecting their chambers.

His eyes widened slightly.

They were looking at him. Not all of them, but enough to make his skin crawl.

The young man with black hair—the one Yuan Ming now spoke with—was regarded with a different kind of attention.

Eyes that held wariness, calculation, and even envy. He was an obstacle to be overcome since, for everything they were thrown at, he came out on top.

So they were both careful and cautious towards this man.

But the looks directed at Yuan Ming...

Some of the male participants sneered at him with open contempt, seeing him as the disgusting vagrant he’d pretended to be.

Others ignored him entirely, dismissing him as beneath their concern.

But it was the female participants that made his blood freeze. Several young women were watching him with expressions that made it clear that their swords would find his neck the moment they were given the chance.

There was also another type of gaze he sensed among them, leering, predatory interest that had nothing to do with cultivation or competition.

Their eyes were filled with a different kind of hunger that he did not want to indulge in.

One woman in particular, her face half-hidden in shadow, was staring at him with such intensity that Yuan Ming felt violated just by meeting her gaze.

She licked her lips slowly, deliberately, before turning away with a cruel smile.

Yuan Ming’s hand unconsciously moved toward his sword before he caught himself.

’What have I done?’ he thought with growing horror. ’I tried to hide and instead painted a target on my back.’

He turned back to the young man, his expression now showing a mixture of gratitude and wariness.

"Thank you for the warning," he said quietly. "Both then and now."

The young man said nothing, merely watching him with amusement deep hidden within his eyes.

Yuan Ming took a breath, then spoke more carefully. "But that wasn’t what I actually wanted to ask."

The young man raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh?"

Yuan Ming glanced around, making sure no one else was close enough to hear. Only after he was sure did he whisper under his breath.

"What I want to know, Elder Noah," he said, watching the young man’s face carefully for any reaction, "is why you are here."

The young man with long black hair and the aura of a heavenly demon suddenly smiled faintly. He did not flinch or pretend to be confused; instead, he directly admitted it since he was the one who exposed himself.

"I was surprised when I heard your voice in my head, but I figured it out when I saw the robes you were wearing."

As Yuan Ming had said, Noah was wearing the same clothes he used to wear when he was back in the Tian Empire, which is now known as the Tian Kingdom.

Because of those unique black robes and the sense of familiarity he got from him when he used the frequency technique, he was able to recognize him.

This was also why he did not panic when Noah revealed he knew his real cultivation.

"Just trying a new technique. I thought it would be good to infiltrate every sect and ’check’ them out from within."

Yuan Ming was smart enough to understand what Noah meant. With the threat of the Red Dawn Cult looming over their heads, they could not have any internal conflicts or distraction.

"But you should be careful; right now I am using an array to hide our conversation with some random speech, but the whole place is rigged with another array that helps the cult monitor every move we make and listen in to every conversation."

Yuan Ming trembled in fear before nodding like a pecking chicken. "I will keep it in mind."

’Elder Noah is so powerful. He is using qi and array formations, and yet, no one is able to detect a thing.’

While Yuan Ming was lost in admiring him, Noah turned his head to face a young man trying to sneak in the deepest room inside the cave and waved his hand.

A small blade shot out of his sleeves and stabbed the young man in the back.

"I forgot to mention this before, so I will excuse this cave room; I am claiming it." He slowly walked towards the injured man who was groaning in pain and pulled out the knife before speaking coldly. "Better look for another one."

He looked away from the man and scanned the rest of the participants before adding, "The same goes for you. Warning is only given once; there is no second time. I will claim your heads, so... know your place."

Saying this, he turned and walked into the cave, leaving the rest shivering in fear and rage.

Yuan Ming watched with an open mouth as Noah entered the room and closed the door shut behind him.