8 Lord Santa

Right now the Sect leader, Grand elder, and the two of the four inner court elders are at the sect's entrance due to the commotion caused by the ' Wild woman '. So there should only be two inner court elders in the core region at the moment.

And according to the sect rules, there should always be two elder inside the core region in order to be able to operate the barrier to full power and protect the core region in case of any sudden enemy attack. So this is the most he could get out of his ' distracting ' plan.

Right now he doesn't know when the Sect Master and the other elders would return. He had to complete the mission as quickly as possible. After observing the situation at the formation entrance for a few minutes drake took a deep breath and put on the secret Santa outfit. After that, he also began to put on a matching kind white-bearded old man's disguise on top of it.

The art of disguising is something he has constantly improvised over the span of his career as a small-time thief when he was back on Earth. But still, after arriving in this world he was thoroughly amazed when he first learned through Wen Dingxiang's memories about the various bizarre means the people of this world had created for disguising themselves.

In fact, the materials used for disguises were all obtained from the remains of various rare spiritual beasts which had some unique characteristics.

For example, the old man's full face mask that he is wearing now is processed from the back skin of a low-grade human-faced spider. They are a unique spider species present in this world that are quite big in size than normal spiders and have the skin on their backs formed in the shape of a life-like human face.

These spiders are quite deadly though. But the more deadly the specimen is and the more number of humans they consume in their lifetime the more defined the facial features on their back become and so therefore will be more ideal for making disguises. Also, the skin of human-faced spider ages as it grows old. So there is no need to add additional wrinkles when making an aged mask.

Also, the thick, shiny-white fake beard that covered almost half of his face is made out of a demon bison's wool. Apart from these he also used a low-grade potion that contains diluted mermaid tears as its main ingredient for temporarily changing his irises to sea blue color. He also adjusted the height of the heels for the heaven-grade outfit's black boots in order to conceal his original height.

All of these things are the cheapest ones he could obtain in the Azure dragon cities black market with the spirit stones he obtained after selling the wood element spiritual root which Wen dingxiang had been cultivation for five years in hopes of using it as an ingredient for a qi advancement potion.

Unfortunately, he was never able to use it as he failed to collect the other main ingredients that are required for the potion.

Anyways what drake used are all minor disguise techniques and are only effective if one didn't encounter a core formation realm cultivator. Because once someone advances to the core formation realm their soul also strengthens considerably and they would be able to carry out spiritual sense inspection.

Only the more advanced potions or artifacts that could alter even the muscle and bone structures temporarily would be able to hide one's identity in front of someone who reached the core formation realm to some extent.

As he got done with his disguise drake inspected everything once again to see if he made any obvious mistakes that would give him away. And once he is satisfied drake slowly came out from behind the building and started walking towards the formation's entrance with a rather casual gait.

Both the guards who were standing on both sides of the entrance suddenly had their eyes widened in bewilderment as an old man wearing a shiny red coat, red trousers, and red hat which are all outlined with fluffy white fur suddenly appeared before them.

"Hey stop right there... Who are you? How did you enter here ?" One of the guards shouted as he drew close to drake while the other guard also became alert as he looked on vigilantly.

"Here it comes..." drake whispered lightly. He stopped walking and started to stroke his beard gently while also putting a faint smile on his face. He pretended to observe the formation barrier with a nonchalant expression.

"How did I enter ?" drake asked while tilting his head as he slowly turned towards the guard.

"Hmm... why don't you call your sect master out, then I'll tell you how I entered." drake continued as he tried to sound as casual as possible while inwardly doing his best to suppress his nervousness.

"Oh.. you want to meet sect master? Who do you think you are? You better spill out how you entered here and beg for mercy otherwise heh.." the guard threatened with a sneer on his face.

"Why would I beg for mercy? Sigh*.. people these days... they don't seem to understand the immensity of Heaven and Earth" drake retorted overbearingly while trying to maintain the demeanor of an unmatched expert.

"You.." the guard immediately became enraged as he lifted his leg and tried to launch a kick on drake's stomach.

BAAMM...

The moment the kick connected drake the guard's body was flung out like a rag doll, he landed nearly twenty meters away from drake and then rolled another six meters before coming to a stop. The guard's face is completely covered in dust while the leg he used to hit drake is fractured very badly. His body remained unmoving on the ground as he is not even conscious at the moment.

"What the.." Drake became stunned. He looked down at his secret Santa outfit in disbelief. Suddenly he noticed an icon similar to the one used for the mobile phone charging indicator appear on the top right corner of his vision. Right now the icon displayed a level of ninety percent.

"What does this mean ?" drake pondered for a moment and guessed that it must be related to the defensive power that the Heaven-grade outfit had expended when the guard attacked.

"Co... Core... CORE FORMATIONNN!!! " the other guard exclaimed in fear as he regained his senses from the shock caused by the sudden turn of the situation.

When drake who was in elation due to the outfit's overwhelming power heard the guard's words a radiant smile slowly parted his lips exposing his shiny white teeth.

"Don't... Don't hurt me Sect... Sect Master is not here. She... She went out for a walk with Master Yuan." the guard stuttered as he freaked out seeing the radiant sunshine smile.

"Am I that scary ?" drake thought as he looked at the guard's expression in amusement.

"Oh... Well, I wouldn't mind waiting until your sect master returns. Why don't you open the formation entrance for me." drake said trying to sound as gentle as he could looking at the trembling guard.

"This.." the guard hesitated hearing drake's sudden request.

"Sigh*.. actually you don't need to worry that much. I only want to gift her something. So, stop shaking and open up the entrance." drake urged once again.

Hearing that the guard became puzzled.

"What the hell! If you just came to gift why would sneak in like this? With your strength wouldn't the sect master welcome you inside personally ?" the guard thought inwardly as he didn't whether to laugh or cry.

There is nothing the guard could do even if he didn't believe him. He knew better not to annoy powerful experts. So, even though he is feeling indignant the guard did not make any fuss as he put his hand in his pocket and slowly took out a bronze token and pressed on the red-colored gem embedded in its center.

"Haa finally..." drake whispered as he looked at the entrance while rubbing his palms in anticipation.

..

..

.. !?

The entrance did not budge even after he waited for a long time. Drake couldn't help but frown as he turned towards the guard with a questioning look on his face.

"This... Senior please don't get angry. Both of us are only responsible for guarding the entrance, Only the core elders could possess actual keys to open the formation barrier.

What we were given is only a token to alert the elders inside in case of any unforeseen situations. I used it earlier to inform the elders who are inside so that they would welcome senior inside" the guard explained quickly fearing that the old expert would misunderstand him.

Before drake could reply to that suddenly he noticed that the formation's entrance door started to glow faintly. As the glow gradually turned into blinding white light the door suddenly disappeared and the view inside the formation entered drake's eyes.

What entered his vision immediately after the entrance opened is not some majestic mountains and beautiful waterfalls but the two ferocious-looking inner court elders who are in half-step foundation building realm.

"Huh? what...." before he could speak the two ferocious elders pounced at him and slashed with their swords.

KACHA... BAAM...

Both of their swords broke in half and a strong repelling force pushed them reeling back several meters. As the two elders gradually regained their footing after a bit of struggle both of them looked at each other with fear evident in their eyes.

Drake on the other hand immediately looked at the icon in corner of his vision and his expression suddenly changed as he noticed that the defensive power level this time decreased by about sixty percent.

Right now the remaining power is only at thirty percent and from this and the previous exchange he had with the guard's drake estimated that thirty percent could at most block three attacks from a peak Qi condensation expert or one attack from half step foundation building elders.

"Now things turned a bit tricky. Anyway, I still have invisibility effect, let's wait and see what they will do." drake thought inwardly as he looked at the two elders.

The two elders also looked at drake and found that unlike them the old expert is completely unharmed and even his clothes remained all shiny without a single crease. Immediately they realized that they had hit an iron wall this time.

Before attacking they had already inspected the intruder's cultivation while they were inside the formation barrier and found it to be only in Qi condensation second stage. They believed that the other party must have used some underhanded methods to fool and intimidate the guards.

So they planned to immediately attack the moment they opened the formation entrance in order to not give any time for the intruder to play his tricks. But the situation turned for the worse and the other party seems to be to a genuine powerhouse as they did not see him use any powerful artifacts or evil techniques.

Of course apart from drake for everyone else the Heaven Grade Santa outfit will look as ordinary as it can get.

Fear engulfed the two elders as they realized that the harmless-looking old man before them could very well be a powerful core formation realm expert.

THUD..

"Senior please forgive us for our impudence. We were blinded with arrogance earlier and could not recognize senior's mighty vigor."

"Yes, Senior please show mercy, we have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai."

Both guards fell on their knees immediately and started to plead.

"What vigor? What Mount Tai can you get any more shameless. You are so ruthless just a moment ago, now you praise me like your life depend on it ?" drake cursed inwardly.

"Cough* Cough* Don't worry too much about these trivial matters. I didn't expect anything much from the elders of this backwater sect in the first place. Now, quickly lead the way to your sect master's residence" drake waved his hand casually and said.

"Please come this way senior" the two elders invited drake respectfully without delaying any further. They have no choice, With the power, he displayed earlier by effortlessly blocking their attacks they realized that the old man is far above their league. Even their sect master would have to expend great effort if the both of them launched a sudden full force attack like that.

If they still blocked the old senior and irritated him... They don't want their sect-protecting formation to be broken as well.

Hearing the two elders drake nodded his head and slowly entered the formation entrance while stroking his beard. Drake already began to enjoy this act of pretending to be someone powerful.

Immediately after entering the core area beyond the formation barrier drake felt a substantial increase in the Qi essence in the air. That should be expected as the amount of qi essence available in the inner court and outer court's premises would not be of any use to cultivators who want to condense their Dao pillars.

"Hmm.. this abundant Qi essence really makes one feel good. I wonder what grade the spiritual vein located here is.." drake thought inwardly as he followed behind the two elders.

As they walked drake noticed that there are a total of six mountain peaks situated inside this core region and of them, one mountain stood out specifically which is higher than other peaks and looked a bit like a sword. Drake reckoned that this peak must be where sect master's residence is located.

And it didn't take long to confirm his guess as the elders brought him towards the sword-shaped mountain as they began to slowly climb the stones steps leading to its peak.

"Senior If I may ask. What is senior's name ?" one of the elders asked carefully as they were climbing the steps.

"My name? Hmm..." as he pondered about what nickname he should use suddenly his eyes lit up.

"Well, you can address me as.. 𝐿𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑆𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎," Drake said with a smile on his face as he stroked his beard.