Chapter 142: Disciple Negotiations (Patreon)

Liu Wei watched the last group of disciples leave the room. All told, a good number of exceptional candidates had been found this time around, more than in any of the last years’ exams. He estimated that about forty to fifty candidates would be taken in as inner disciples, not counting the dozen-or-so that belonged to the pillar families anyways.

The willpower examination had contributed to this success and thus been well received by the other elders, cementing it as a future staple to the exam and permanently securing the Training Hall’s control over the exam in the process.

Still, it was too early to evaluate the exam’s merits in their entirety yet – the most important part, from the elders’ perspective, was just about to begin. Liu Wei turned around to face the other elders in the room with him; it was time for the negotiations.

The question of which hall would take in which candidates as inner disciples was central to any admission exam. While technically, multiple halls could extend their offers to the same disciple and leave the choice up to them, unlike with outer disciples who showed promise later in their time at the sect, this was usually not practiced with newly accepted ones.

Instead, the elders would hash out which hall would make an offer to which disciple informally among themselves – a process that often entailed the trade of quite a few resources, favors and influence. It was, in effect, a somewhat lower-staked version of a council meeting.

The elders that didn’t have an affiliation with any of the halls had already excused themselves one after the other, having nothing to gain or lose in this ordeal.

The elders from the pillar families that remained were Meixiu Xia for the Healing Hall, Yue Zhong for the Information Gathering Hall, Sun Liang for the Formation Hall, Hao Peng who had just taken over the Manufacturing Hall and – though not technically an elder anymore – Ning Bai for the Outer Relations Hall.

On the side of the Reform Faction there were Guang Lai, representing his master Ma Rong for the Alchemy Hall, Lan Shi for the Enforcement Hall and Meng Hui for the Resource Gathering Hall. Then, of course, there was Liu Wei himself, but his situation as the leader of the Training Hall was somewhat different.

After the war, regular combat training had become part of even more members’ routine – economically, the Training Hall had fully emerged from its former status as a pseudo-hall. The financial side was going so well, in fact, that Liu Wei had relocated his personal wealth back to his residence as it didn’t look like he’d need to subsidize the hall anytime soon anymore.

All of that being said, there was still one key difference between the Training Hall and the others: Its core function was taking care of the outer disciples and while, with the changes Liu Wei had introduced, it was now also taking care of some of the inner disciples from his allies’ halls for their basic training, it still could definitionally not take any inner disciples itself.

While this was an issue he eventually wanted to address as part of the reforms he had in mind for the sect’s disciple system, for now it meant that he was here in the role of mediator as the host of the exam.

The elders had seated themselves at a large round table, flanked by their assistants who stood a little behind them with paper and brushes, ready to record any dealings made. As he joined them, Liu Wei noted that Ning Bai had replaced his usual assistant with someone he recognized: Qiao Bai, the girl that had made it to the finals of the grand tournament. He’d heard that the Bai family had recently been pushing her image as her generation’s leading genius, so this was probably an extension of those efforts.

“Well,” he began, “since the disciple admittance exam has officially been finished now, I believe the time has come to discuss the distribution of the talent we have witnessed these past three days. I believe it would be prudent to begin with the candidate that has undoubtedly caused the greatest ruckus this time: Xinming Yu, the girl with the heavenly constitution.”

The other elders nodded in agreement. Meixiu Xia was the first to speak up.

“Elder Wei is correct, that girl did indeed cause the greatest ruckus, and I do believe that she is the most promising disciple that has come to our sect from the outside in a while. I can’t imagine anyone here would not be happy to take her in as an inner disciple of their hall. So, to not prolong this whole discussion unnecessarily, I’d like to propose a first condition: Whoever ends up taking her will grant all the other halls absolute priority for the next fifteen picks.”

Liu Wei raised his brows: This was an unconventional proposal. Taking Xinming in under those conditions would mean giving up on many of the most promising candidates. That was a heavy price to pay, especially for the wealthy and influential halls that could otherwise hope to secure many of them. In other words: It likely meant that Elder Xia herself wasn’t aiming for Xinming.

“Your proposal has been heard, Elder Xia. Who would want to take Xinming in under those conditions?”, Liu Wei asked.

Only three of the eight raised their hands: Ning Bai, Lan Shi and Sun Liang. The latter was an outlier: As one of the strongest elders of the sect and a key contributor to the war against the Roaring Thunder Sect, Sun Liang was currently among the most influential elders of the sect, and the Formation Hall was second only to the Alchemy Hall when it came to wealth. As such, Sun Liang was well-positioned to take many of the most talented candidates for himself and denying himself such an opportunity was taking a big loss.

It took Liu Wei a moment to realize his reasons: The art of formations could only be learned upon reaching the Soul Realization Realm, because it required one to unlock their soul sense. Xinming’s constitution, her innate soul sense, would allow her to skip that step, giving her the opportunity to begin learning it while she was still a child. This made her especially valuable to Sun Liang, head of the formation hall and one of the peninsula’s foremost masters of the art.

Now that he was thinking about it, Liu Wei didn’t believe that this had escaped Meixiu Xia’s attention either; In fact, removing Sun Liang as a competitor over the candidates she was angling for was probably the reason for her proposal.

“Very well. If no objections are raised, negotiations well continue between the three of you.”

The other elders stayed silent. Theoretically, they could raise a bid to counter, but that would require outbidding the somewhat abstract value of Meixiu Xia’s proposal and while Xinming’s constitution was certainly interesting, it wasn’t all that uniquely beneficial to most of them.

Ning Bai was the first among the three to speak up.

“Since the two of you seem determined to take this candidate for yourself, I’d be willing to withdraw in exchange for… say… an equivalent of ten thousand tier one spirit stones from the one who ends up taking her.”

Some of the elders frowned at his blatant move to swipe additional resources from a situation he clearly had no actual interest in – he hadn’t even tried to make an offer to secure the disciple he was nominally interested in. Liu Wei supposed he had nothing to lose by antagonizing them. He’d already been stripped of all standing among his peers after all.  

“That is acceptable to me.”, Sun Liang stated. “What about you, Elder Shi?”

“Acceptable.”

“Unfortunate. But very well. Elder Wei?”

“Elder Ning Bai will withdraw from these negotiations for the agreed-upon sum. Elder Shi, Elder Liang, you are now the only contenders.”

“Since ten thousand isn’t enough, I’ll raise you to twenty thousand.”, Sun Liang stated.

“I refuse.”

“Then just name your price already, Elder Shi. You know that you cannot outbid me, neither my hall nor myself.”

“I apologize, Elder Liang, but I don’t intend to withdraw. Xinming has shown a level of willpower that I deeply admire and that I strongly believe should be nurtured.”

“I don’t believe you understand, Elder Shi. This girl’s disposition makes her uniquely suited to mastering the art of formations. It’s a talent that will allow her to reach a mastery matched by only the greatest geniuses of her time.”

The old snake’s tone was harsh and demanding, but Lan Shi wasn’t one to back down.

“Oh, I fully understand. I shall have her instructed in the art and I’ll be sure to generously compensate your hall for its aid in the matter.”

“I tire of your jests, Elder Shi.”, Sun Liang answered, his voice dripping with venom and his presence flaring up.

“I am not jesting in the slightest, Elder Liang.”, Lan Shi answered, unbothered by the pressure in the air.

Sun Liang sighed, realizing that his threatening demeanor was unlikely to sway this particular opponent.

“We shall have it your way then. The Formation Hall will extend the girl an offer and if you believe that you can match it, you are welcome to try and fail.”

For the first time since the beginning of the confrontation, Lan Shi broke eye contact, staring down at the table, seemingly lost in thought. When she looked back up, her face was filled with a newfound determination.

“Very well. I shall offer Xinming to take her as my personal disciple. Can you match that offer, Elder Liang?”

Liu Wei stroked his beard. It Sun Liang’s turn to fall silent now, and judging from what he could read of the other elders’ expressions, he was perhaps alone in not being too surprised by this development.

For his part, Liu Wei believed that, while she would perhaps have taken her in as an inner disciple first to monitor her for a while longer before finalizing her decision if her hand hadn’t been forced, Lan Shi had had this possibility in mind ever since Xinming’s performance at the willpower examination. If anything, the reveal of the constitution that Sun Liang was so desperate for had likely played only a minimal part in her decision.

Liu Wei looked at his brooding old rival with no small amount of satisfaction. He rarely had the time and opportunity to bash heads with him directly nowadays.

Like most pillar family heads, Sun Liang already had a personal disciple that he was positioning as an heir in case of his death. While it wasn’t too rare for someone to have two disciples at the same time, it was unconventional because nurturing two individuals was generally seen as too time-consuming.

The more central factor, however, was that no pillar family head would take someone from outside their family as a disciple, especially not someone from some unimportant background.

Xinming could potentially be worth a lot to Sun Liang and the Formation Hall, but that was as far as it went. A master-disciple relationship was a deep bond of mutual trust and respect. That was a step too far, even for someone like her.

The result of this whole ordeal had been a foregone conclusion from the start.

“I withdraw.”, Sun Liang pressed out through gritted teeth.

“Elder Liang has withdrawn from the negotiations. Since no additional terms have been agreed upon, he will receive the same compensation as Ning Bai. Both will be paid by the Enforcement Hall. In return, Elder Shi will offer Xinming Yu the chance to become her personal disciple.”