Chapter Thirty: The Sect Leader Emerges from Seclusion
“It has been many years since we last saw the Sect Master, and we miss him greatly. If the Sect Master could come out, it would be for the best!”
“Yes, if the Sect Master doesn’t come out soon, this sect might just change its name altogether!”
Four or five elders spoke up in succession, leaving the Liu, Huang, and Mu families so furious they could not utter a word.
Su Yizhao’s eyes narrowed slightly.
These elders truly wished for the Sect Master to emerge, but it was certainly not for his sake.
Lacking strength—how helpless that felt!
The Grand Elder suddenly stood up, a heavy aura surging forth. “Do you all truly wish to summon the Sect Master? Then you must bear the consequences yourselves!”
At once, the hall fell silent.
A threat.
A blatant, naked threat.
“That’s right. If summoning the Sect Master brings consequences, I, Cheng Jiaojiao, will bear them alone!”
A trace of surprise flashed in Su Yizhao’s eyes.
He had not expected that at such a critical moment, it would be Li Xuyue’s master who would step forward to hold the line.
“Very well! Elder Cheng, I’ve long thought you clung to your title without fulfilling your duties. If the Sect Master is summoned and it turns out nothing serious has happened, what then? Shouldn’t you relinquish your position as elder?”
“Nonsense! What do you mean by not fulfilling my duties as an elder? Does filling the inner halls with one’s own clan’s disciples count as fulfilling one’s duties? Does suppressing dissent and turning a blind eye to wrongdoing count as fulfilling one’s duties?” Cheng Jiaojiao’s face was flushed with anger.
“Elder Cheng?” The Grand Elder drew out his words, “You ought to have evidence for what you say!”
The Second Elder also stood, glancing at Su Yizhao with contempt. “Fine! If Elder Cheng is willing to step down, then let the bell be tolled and the Sect Master summoned!”
The Grand Elder hesitated only a moment. “Sound the bell. Summon the Sect Master!”
“Sound the bell. Summon the Sect Master!”
“Dong, dong, dong...!”
The deep chime of the bell reverberated, stirring the mountains.
Countless cultivators were startled from their cultivation, and without hesitation, shot toward the main hall.
After the twelve tolls of the bell, seventy or eighty thousand cultivators had gathered, densely packed around the hall.
“What matter requires the disturbance of my rest?”
A gentle yet distant voice echoed in the ears of all seventy or eighty thousand cultivators present.
It seemed to come from the heavens, or perhaps from deep underground, or as if it sounded right beside one's ear.
Within the hall, all the elders rose at once, their faces grave, none daring to look around.
Su Yizhao was seized by a suffocating pressure.
Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.
For at the very center of the grand hall, seated in the place of honor, was a middle-aged cultivator.
That seat had been empty but a heartbeat before.
What kind of cultivation is this? he wondered anxiously.
“Greetings, Sect Master!”
“Greetings, Sect Master!”
All the elders within the hall bowed with cupped fists, and outside, seventy or eighty thousand disciples immediately prostrated themselves.
“When I secluded myself in cultivation years ago, I clearly instructed that all sect affairs, great and small, be handled by the three elders. Why do you now disturb me?”
The voice was like a gentle breeze, softly brushing through everyone’s ears.
But not a single soul dared to draw a loud breath, not even the eleven elders in the hall.
The heads of the Liu, Huang, and Mu clans kept their eyes lowered, not daring to look up.
“Reporting to the Sect Master, it was Elder Cheng Jiaojiao together with these two elders who insisted on waking you. For fifty years the sect has thrived under our management—what matter could possibly require the Sect Master’s personal attention?” The Grand Elder bowed in reply.
“Elder Cheng?” The Sect Master turned to look at Cheng Jiaojiao.
“All these years, not only has Elder Cheng failed in her duties, but today, over a new disciple who’s only been here a few days, she acted recklessly and disturbed the Sect Master’s rest. Sect Master, please punish her!” The Second Elder spoke with his head lowered.
Sensing something, Su Yizhao looked at Cheng Jiaojiao and caught her gaze. He nodded slightly.
Cheng Jiaojiao stepped forward, bowing deeply. “Sect Master, inner disciple Su Yizhao has information concerning the very survival of the sect, yet he was wantonly pursued and hunted by the Liu, Huang, and Mu clans. This, Sect Master, is what the three elders have done in the last fifty years under your trust!”
“Nonsense!”
“Cheng Jiaojiao, how dare you speak such lies before the Sect Master!”
“Sect Master, we must ask your forgiveness! It is our own fault, for failing to guide Elder Cheng, that she has become so extreme in her views!”
All three elders spoke at once.
The Sect Master said nothing, but instead raised his head to look at Su Yizhao. “You are Su Yizhao?”
Su Yizhao’s heart hammered in his chest, but he answered calmly, “I am, Sect Master! Elder Cheng spoke not a word of falsehood!”
“Courting death!”
“Presumptuous!”
A figure was suddenly sent tumbling from the hall with a loud slap, crashing to the ground and spitting blood.
“Sect Master, please calm your anger!” The Grand Elder hastened to plead.
The tens of thousands of disciples fell utterly silent.
Su Yizhao looked carefully and saw that the Huang clan head was still sprawled on the ground, unable to rise.
He hadn’t even had time to react before a single slap struck down a cultivator at the Spirit Lord realm. What kind of power was this?
“This is the elders’ council chamber—what business have you three here? Not only do you trespass, you dare speak so brazenly, as if this Sect Master does not exist? To my mind, Elder Cheng’s words may well be the truth!”
The Grand Elder trembled all over, instantly bowing. “Sect Master, please be merciful. This is the second-generation head of the Huang clan—he grew overbold...!”
“Hmph! Enough!”
“Thank you, Sect Master!”
The other two clan heads had already slipped quietly out of the hall, blending in with the sea of disciples.
Power.
This is true power!
Su Yizhao thought with awe.
Suddenly.
The Sect Master turned to him. “What is this matter that threatens the very existence of the sect? If you do not have sufficient cause, you know the consequences!”
You?
From the corner of his eye, Su Yizhao saw Cheng Jiaojiao’s face turn instantly pale.
Behind him, Li Xuyue’s soft form pressed closer.
At last, he understood—before the Sect Master, the so-called three great clans, the three elders, were nothing.
No, before true strength, all else is meaningless.
It was the Sect Master alone who upheld the sect.
He summoned his courage and asked, “And if I do, what then?”
“Haha! Bold youth, you dare bargain with me, Xuan Wuji? Speak! What is this matter?”
Xuan Wuji.
The Sect Master’s name was Xuan Wuji.
Su Yizhao opened his mouth to speak, but the Grand Elder interrupted, “Sect Master, Su Yizhao has been in the sect no more than four or five days. If all disciples began to act as he does, how could you ever find peace in seclusion to pursue your next breakthrough—?”
“Elder Huang, spare me your roundabout words. Are you trying to probe whether I have broken through, or simply to silence him?” Xuan Wuji looked at Huang Jiaren with a faint smile.
Huang Jiaren’s expression shifted slightly, but he persisted, “You are overthinking it, Sect Master. I simply propose we set a rule. If Su Yizhao has nothing of import, let him and those involved be executed as a warning to others!”
“So be it. If there is substance to what he says, your three clans will bow and apologize. If not, Elder Cheng is stripped of her post and all those associated with him are executed!”
The seventy or eighty thousand disciples seemed to stop breathing, their gazes instantly focusing on Su Yizhao.
The three clans must apologize!
An elder stripped of rank!
All executed!
None of these had ever happened before.
Su Yizhao felt the soft body behind him tense, and he slowly straightened his back...