Death... and me

However, they didn't have time to check it for now. That's because the system only considered their situation safe once Xuve came to ask for their cooperation. That meant it was time to be questioned about the affairs of the outside world. The twins could only leave Kentucky and Luan in the room and head to the main hall, where the elders of the Traquio Sect were already waiting.

Their Sect Master, who was called Ormo, was the first one to talk in the 'audition.' "Hello, friends. It seems like you can already take care of yourselves. Since you have almost fully recovered, we will have you take care of your other members, the Demon Bird and the kid. Is that fine with you?"

Naturally, the twins had no issues with that. They would take care of Kentucky and Luan even if Ormo didn't ask them that. "No problem at all. We would also like to thank you for your support. We thought we were dead, but here we are. We will try to pay this debt however we see possible."

Ormo nodded, satisfied. "That's good. My sect is known for being quite open-minded, so you don't need to dwell on this issue too much. All we want from you is information from the outside world. Since you appeared in our closest Divine Lake, you most likely came from Salt Canyon, right?"

The twins nodded, saying, "Indeed. We were transformed after being caught up by the Salt Sweep. That's what we call the phenomenon there. After we recovered our consciousness, we were already here." The twins decided that it was better to not mention the natural formation or the white river. After all, who knew? This might be some secret that others shouldn't know about, and it could very much set the twins as targets.

Ormo had already heard such descriptions many times, so he wasn't too impressed. Instead, he decided to enter the main topic. He looked at one of the men there before saying, "Good. Elder Kloce, it's your and your groups' time to ask questions."

Kloce nodded. "Thank you, Sect Master." The twins noticed that there were different chairs, and each one seemed to have a symbol. Kloce seemed to be the one in charge of the group in the chairs with the same symbol. Following that, he looked at the twins, saying, "My group is made of people who came to the Upside Down World through the Salt Canyon or their descendants. That means your knowledge is a lot more important for me than the others."

The twins finally understood the division of chairs. "So that's how it is. No problem, elder. Go ahead and ask. However, there's one thing we must tell you in advance. My brother and I were indeed brought here by the Salt Canyon phenomenon. It's just that we also came from outside Pol Continent. However, we will try to answer as many questions as we can."

Kloce's group was surprised to hear that. It was extremely rare to receive people from somewhere else other than Pol Continent. "Is that so? That's quite interesting." Nevertheless, he did ask the same questions as he intended from the start.

Kloce asked about the powers in control of Salt Canyon Undersea City and Utari Island, as well as a few other cities that the twins didn't know anything other than their names. He wasn't the only one, though. Some of the elders or their relatives also asked questions. For example, if the twins knew anything about their children, parents, families, clans, sects, etc. Fortunately, Roan had read a lot of things in the Mercenary Guild, so it turned out that he was able to answer quite a few of those, much to the surprise of the people present. However, when it came to individuals, the twins knew almost nothing since they didn't focus on specific people.

The audition continued for quite a few hours before the elders and their relatives were finally satisfied. "Thank you for your cooperation, friends. You answered a lot more than we expected. It's quite unfortunate that your knowledge was more related to the grand scheme of things than the individual people from each power. Well, I guess that's to be expected since you were only in Pol Continent for a limited amount of time."

Now that all the elders had finished their questions, the twins thought it was a good opportunity to ask their own. "No problem, elders. By the way, we would like to ask a few things as well. Of course, if it's a problem, then just ignore our request."

The elders looked at Ormo, who nodded his head after hearing that. "Go ahead."

"Since the lakes are obviously connected somehow to the phenomenon, isn't there a way to leave this place through the lake itself?" Rean asked.

Ormo couldn't help but laugh a little when he heard that. "Hehehe... do you think no one thought of such an obvious thing before? Trust me, the number of people who tried to use the lakes to leave this place is uncountable. Unfortunately, it seems like the lake only works one way and not the other. Of course, the lake is enormous, and everyone is free to check it. If you want, you can go and see it for yourself later. Trust me when I say there's no lack of people and demon beasts who hope that someone finds a way out."

Roan knew why no one bothered to protect the lake. Other than the ability to revert one's statue's form, it had no other use. It wasn't like the white powder had enough Divine Energy to be comparable to Rank Three Divine Stones. It made sense since Rean expected the colored water to have the opposite effect to the white powder, so it was expected that it had no Divine Energy. Besides, if someone really found a way out, then it was even better.

Rean nodded, saying, "I see... we will indeed take a look later."

After that, he asked a few less relevant questions before he ended his part of the question and answer session. "That's all. Thank you, Sect Master Ormo."