Chapter 860: The Outer Sect's Rotten Traditions (Patreon)

“Now that Elder Ke has blessed us with his presence, perhaps we can continue,” the white-bearded elder said as he placed his jade slip down with a soft click. “Some of us have been sitting here since the morning bell, and at my age, I can no longer afford to spend my hours waiting on those who cannot arrive on time.”

That elicited a few quiet chuckles from the elders around him, and even though I realised this particular elder and me weren’t going to get along, I didn’t blame them for being annoyed at me gatecrashing their meeting.

“I apologise, esteemed elders,” I said, dipping my head at them one at a time. “Unfortunately, the invitation only reached me today, otherwise I would make sure to attend on time.”

“Hmm, a late invitation, where have I heard that before.” The old man’s eyes moved onto the sleeping form beside me.

“Well, Elder Gong, everyone is here now, and that is what really matters,” the woman with the abacus said brightly, sliding a bead into place with a click. “Let us continue before the tea goes completely cold.”

The elder, who I now knew was called Gong, looked like he wanted to say something else but with a sigh he nodded and tapped the lid of the small clay jar sealed with yellow wax that sat in the centre of the table.

Whoever this woman was, it was clear she wasn’t one of those jade beauties that only had their looks working for them, she was experienced with manipulating the room. I would need to keep an eye on her.

“Like I was saying before, the next item is the Primordial Silt,” Elder Gong said. “As you all know, it is mud from the bottom of the Jade Spring Lake, which makes it useful for fertilising spirit herbs or nourishing a weak inner world. Even though it is a pleasant thing to have, I would hardly call it special.”

I didn’t believe it for one second because shrewd elders always knew how to downplay the treasures that truly mattered. And it seemed my instincts were correct because beside me Lin Youran’s head moved on his pillow as a tiny shake that if I hadn’t been sitting right next to him, I would have missed it.

“Azure,” I called out inwardly. “Have you heard of this treasure from our readings in the sect library?”

Unlike me, Azure had perfect recall and would be able to remember things that at the time I didn’t find to be of relevance.

“Master, this is a great resource for a cultivator looking to break through to Life Realm since it can spark the first life on a barren planet.”

My eyebrows rose a little because even though it wasn’t of any use to me, for a normal Stellar Realm cultivator this could mean the difference between dying at the peak of Stellar Realm or living for thousands of years at the Life Realm. I understood why an elder who was at the breakthrough point would downplay it.

“This silt belongs to our young talented Elder Pan,” Elder Gong continued, nodding towards the thin elder who had smashed into the table earlier. “The sect rewarded it to him for the dredging mission that he took three extra months to complete.”

From the old man’s tone, I got the impression that he thought the reward was way too high for the effort put in.

But what was this mission that the sect thought the young elder deserved a chance to enter the Life Realm?

“Master, the dredging mission is where an elder holds a water-repelling array for months while the disciples dig,” Azure explained. “But because the ice essence is cold enough to freeze qi in the meridians, nobody wants to volunteer, especially since they have to stand like that until the mission is complete without any break.”

That didn’t sound pleasant, so it wasn’t a surprise that the task fell on the youngest elder. It probably would have been my job had I broken through when the mission began. Honestly, I’m glad I was able to dodge that one.

“Unfortunately, since our Elder Pan has only just broken through to Stellar Realm, he has no responsibilities worth mentioning,” Elder Gong continued. “Which is why he has generously offered to pass it on to someone who could use it to serve the sect better than he ever could. Is that not right, Pan Shu?”

“Y-yes, Elder Gong Ru,” Pan Shu said quickly, staring into his tea, not daring to meet the old man’s gaze. “That is… that is what I said.”

Why did I get the impression that he did not in fact say anything like that, but before I could think too much about it, the offers came tumbling in one after the other.

“Southern Flame Peak will take it,” the bearded elder who had offered me a seat declared, slapping his palm against the table so hard that the teacups rattled. “Elder Pan, I will give you an ingot of Flamecore Spirit Iron. The furnace array under the peak needs life qi to—”

“Your furnace array needs a few more centuries of dedicated cultivation before it can even dream of life qi, Ma Gang,” the woman with the abacus cut in, her painted nails tapping the beads. “Elder Pan, I will offer you two bottles of Starlight Dew, a mountain from my own inner world, and a small favour you can call upon when you see fit. In exchange, the Primordial Silt will be recorded in the Hall of Accounts, where it can be kept safe for the whole sect until the time comes for it to be used by the one who is most worthy of such a treasure.”

“Worthy?” The scarred body cultivator snorted. “Anything recorded in your accounts somehow always ends up in your pocket, Qiao Feiyan.”

The smile on her face faltered but the body cultivator continued.

“The disciples of the Tempering Hall bleed for this sect every day. Elder Pan. In exchange for the silt, we will offer you a Bone-Forging Elixir that will make it impossible for any Stellar Realm technique to penetrate your bones, and Elder Hou and Elder Shen will each add a jar of beast marrow. Think carefully, Elder Pan. Think about the bleeding disciples.”

“Your disciples bleed because you make them punch boulders, Duan Hui,” Ma Gang muttered.

The offers continued, the insults that were carefully veiled became more explicit as angers flared. No one was willing to back down for the chance to enter the Life Realm. And with every offer, Pan Shu sank lower into his seat, and every time someone said his name, the poor guy flinched. 

But what I found interesting was that every offer had been made for the disciples, or the sect’s accounts, or the good of the sect, and nobody had once admitted that they wanted it for themselves. It seemed that I had underestimated the politics of elder level cultivators, they all valued their reputation, so they didn’t want to openly snatch a treasure in front of everyone else. 

Instead, they made it seem as though they did it for the good of the sect. This was ridiculous, these people had built stars and moons inside their own souls, and here they were, pretending a jar of mud was for the disciples when everyone knew exactly whose inner world it would end up in.

But it became quickly apparent that not everyone cared to expend the effort to follow the elaborate game the elders were playing.

“I want it,” Elder Lin Youran said, opening his eyes.

Every head in the hall turned towards him.

“You seem to be interested in Moonwell Essence, I can give you two jars of it, a Still Orbit Stone, and a Tranquil Moon Jade,” he continued in a bored voice, “that’s my offer.”

As soon as he said what he needed to, he didn’t waste any time, immediately, his head sank back into his pillow and he closed his eyes as he waited for the verdict. Across the table, Pan Shu’s eyes went wide.

“M-Moonwell Essence?” he whispered. “You’d really give me two jars? That’d be enough for my third moon to finally…” He trailed off when he noticed the displeased expressions on the majority of the elders’ faces.

“Elder Lin, to openly ask for a sect treasure for your own selfish needs,” Duan Hui cut in, his face red. “Have you no sham—”

A lazy wave of aura that originated from the cloud beside me made him swallow back his words. Whatever the wave touched, it slowed, whether it be the steam rising from the teapot thinning, or even my own qi in my meridians.

Even though the display of power wasn’t focused on me, for a second, I had the strangest urge to yawn. As for Duan Hui, his eyelids drooped and hadn’t it been for the elder beside him grabbing a hold of his shoulder and giving it a shake, the elder might have taken a nap right there.

When I walked into this meeting, I had already guessed the sleeping elder was unusual, since nobody normal brought their own cloud to a council meeting, but even then, I hadn’t expected him to release an aura that sat at the very peak of the Stellar Realm.

Now it made sense why none of the older elders had told him to sit up or get off his cloud, they all knew exactly how strong he was, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have their own methods of dealing with him, though.

Out of everyone at the table, Gong Ru was the only one whose tea hadn’t gone still because his own Peak Stellar Realm too had shielded him, but it wasn’t just his cultivation power that made him dangerous, clearly the old man had centuries of practice at fighting with words.

Pan Shu didn’t get the chance to accept Lin Youran’s offer when Gong Ru spoke first.

“I must say, Elder Lin has presented a very generous offer, and if our young Pan Shu had been of the selfish type, he would take it. Only a fool would not,” the old man said, stroking his beard. “But we must think of the Outer Sect as a whole. Elder Lin had shown many times that he is not interested in any affair except his own, and we all know that the moment an outer elder reaches the Life Realm, the Inner Sect takes him. Elder Chen Yong was only the most recent example of this. But if young Pan were to hand over the Primordial Silt to me, an old man at the end of my years with no dreams of high aspirations, I would make sure that if I break through, I will stay in the Outer Sect and be the voice it requires so that every elder in this hall would benefit.”

I had to admit, he had somehow presented his own survival as a gift to everyone else, that took a skill.

“In return, nephew,” Gong Ru continued, turning to Pan Shu with a warm smile, “my great-granddaughter at the Medicine Hall will make sure you receive the first portion of the Moonwell Essence that went to her this morning, and I will make sure that you are never sent to the Jade Spring Lake ever again.”

Pan Shu hesitated. His fingers twisted together under the table, and his eyes flicked to the cloud, then back to Gong Ru, then to the cloud again. He clearly wanted to trade with Lin Youran, but the way Gong Ru and the other elders around him were smiling at him, there was clearly a threat there. After all, a man with the power to never send him there again also had the power to send him there every single year.

“I…I accept Elder Gong Ru’s offer.”

Before the old man’s wrinkled hand could take hold of the wax seal, Qiao Feiyan slid a bead across her abacus and frowned. “Are you sure, Elder Pan? Because once a deal has been made, it cannot be reversed.”

“I…I’m sure,” Pan Shu swallowed after a reassuring nod from the elders.

From the cloud beside me, I heard a small sigh of frustration like Lin Youran was going to say something, but then rolled onto his side with his back to the table. It seemed that arguing would have taken more effort than the Primordial Silt was worth.

The more I watched, the less I enjoyed how this meeting was being run.

Sure, it made sense for elders to trade among themselves because Stellar Realm cultivators needed specific resources for their inner worlds, and the sect treasury could only give out so much, so you sold what you didn’t need for what you did.

The problem was the power imbalance.

All of the major elders had their own groups, Gong Ru and his group of old grumpy men, Duan Hui and the two elders on either side of him, Ma Gang and the other elders from the Southern Flame Peak, and Qiao Feiyan with her own group of female elders. If you belonged to a group, you had people to back your offer and smile at whoever was hesitating.

That made it difficult for a new elder or a lone elder to get anything worthwhile from these meetings, at least without giving up something far more valuable in return, just like poor Pan Shu. The guy had been frozen at the bottom of a lake for who knows how long, and he had been bullied to take the worse of the two offers because he had no one to protect him.

Unfortunately for me, I was a new elder and a lone one.

The Sect Master’s protection didn’t extend to protect me from those within the same cultivation level as myself, he would only get involved if some Life Realm elder or Civilisation Realm monster caused issues for me. And with regards to Life Realm elders, I wasn’t completely sure, he might think that was a suitable challenge for me. Not to mention the Sect Master had an entire sect to run, he couldn’t manage every little feud between his elders.

As for the Inner Sect elders, they didn’t care about what they saw as leftovers, so with nobody watching, the Outer Sect had slowly turned into the corrupt mess that was playing out before me.

“That concludes the resources for this month,” Gong Ru announced with a smile. “Now, we move on to techniques.”

My eyes widened slightly because this was why I was here. It was time to acquire some Stellar Realm techniques.

A/N

Slight teaser for tomo's chap - Elder Lin Youran will make a move!

Comment below what will happen

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