The Sect Leader System-Chapter 201: Plans and Ploys

Teng Wuying was equal parts pleased and anxious. By benefit of his brother’s not so untimely death, he was now the sole inheritor of his family’s resources. And he was still alive, which would have been a much more difficult feat to pull off had he remained in Sixth Flawless Flowing City.

On the other hand, he was standing in front of his sect leader, Duan Dandan, who did not look pleased to see him in the least.

Not daring to meet her eyes, he cupped his hands. “Greetings, Sect Leader.”

“The reports I’m getting indicate our branch in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, the one which you are the appointed leader of, was completely destroyed,” the icy-eyed, white-haired woman said. “Why are you here?”

“To inform you of a likely incoming attack, Sect Leader,” he said meekly, keeping his face pointed toward the ground.

“You’re a little bit late, aren’t you?” Her tone was biting.

“Apologies, Sect Leader. Your…” Flunky. “…assistant kept me waiting for days. If not for him, you would have received the warning in plenty of time.”

She pursed her lips. “Explain.”

“My dear nephew, Teng Chun, got himself killed while accosting a higher realmed cultivator—”

“Why would he do such a thing? He was a brute, but he wasn’t an idiot.”

“The higher realmed cultivator did not behave like a higher realmed cultivator, Sect Leader, at least in the eyes of my dear nephew. Or that’s what we believe was going through his head at the time. He disobeyed my direct orders to observe only and approached the cultivator.”

“I see. Continue your report. You will provide a written version with the detail explaining how that conclusion was derived.”

“Of course, Sect Leader.”

Teng Wuying triggered a non-qi based technique he’d developed, causing sweat to appear on his forehead. The Sect Leader was considered the most intimidating person most people had ever met, and he took great pains to make it appear like he was just as cowed by her.

“Teng Jian, who was of course my brother and Teng Chun’s father, eventually emerged from seclusion for a successful advancement to Golden Core minor realm seven, Sect Leader. It fell on this lowly one to inform him of his son’s death.

“As branch sect leader, I had received a missive from the Poison Claw Sect concerning the events leading to Teng Chun’s death, explaining that the higher realmed cultivator was a friend of the Poison Claw Sect named Chao Su. This Chao Su was willing to face Teng Jian personally in combat if necessary but, upon pain of major reprisals, urged that no attempt be made to harm his juniors.

“The Poison Claw Sect further espoused a lukewarm belief that Chao Su was capable of carrying out such a threat.

“I, of course, likewise conveyed that information to Teng Jian. He did not take it well.”

If anything, the sect leader’s face grew stormier. She was not convinced by his explanation. His task would have been easier had she not known Teng Jian so well.

“Of course he didn’t take it well, you idiot!” she yelled. “You telling him that would have been like waving a flag in front of a bull.”

“I was required to tell him, Sect Leader. He was my older brother. It was his right to be told any information regarding the family that wasn’t protected by sect confidentiality. Failing to do so would have made me subject to censure and likely to being kicked out of the family. I could not take that risk.”

Duan Dandan still frowned, but her expression lightened some. “What happened next?”

Whew. That was the hard part of the conversation. If she bought that, he might actually escape her chambers with his position as a sect elder intact. A demotion would have made his life a bit more troublesome.

“Against my advice, he summoned two of his allies and departed for the village Chao Su was thought to have chosen as his base. As soon as the three left, I came straight here, Sect Leader. For what happened after that point, I have heard rumors, but you are surely more well informed than I am.”

“Your dear brother apparently got both himself and his two idiot sycophantic friends killed, and because the unmitigated disaster of losing three of the sect’s Golden Core cultivators at once wasn’t enough for them, they also incited this Chao Su’s wrath by killing one of his sect members.”

“Sect members, Sect Leader?”

“Yes. He’s apparently given top heaven grade cultivation methods to a bunch of talentless peasants, ostensibly to fight against a beast tide, and called them a sect. It’s ridiculous that I’m even aware of the existence of an organization consisting of a couple hundred farmers, but that’s what the fate of the Jade Chameleon Sect has come to due to the Teng family.”

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Teng Wuying held back a grimace. That wasn’t good. While becoming the inheritor of his family was good and still having his life was even better, it was suboptimal to have that very same family name be tarnished.

“Any cultivator would have acted the same, Sect Leader,” he said. “Just like you surely cannot leave this Chao Su alone now due to the loss of face our sect has suffered, Teng Jian could not let the murder of his son go unpunished.”

There. A subtle message that he was more than prepared to use his connections to question her every decision if she chose to besmirch his name should quell her ardor on that subject.

“Whatever the cause, the end results are devastating,” she said, her voice much calmer. “We have lost nearly half our Golden Core cultivators, including your … brother who was the farthest along of any of the current crop. Nearly as bad, we have lost countless spirit coins worth of materials with the complete destruction of the branch sect.”

“It can’t possibly be as bad as the rumors say, Sect Leader.”

He’d heard ridiculous stories saying that literally nothing was left. Preposterous. A hundred spatial rings combined wouldn’t have fit a fraction of the loot available at the sect branch. Chao Su could not have taken everything.

“I sent eyes I could trust to verify. It is as bad or worse. There is simply nothing left of the buildings or any other part of the grounds. Even the first foot of dirt was removed.”

“Then we must get it back, Sect Leader!”

“There is no getting it back. It was destroyed, not stolen. Chao Su apparently uses Lightning, Earth, Water, and Void in his attacks, among other elements.”

For the first time in a long time, Teng Wuying was struck dumb. He’d stashed pills and spirit coins in hiding places throughout the sect. If what the sect leader said was true, all those resources were gone. As was his residence in Sixth Flawless Flowing City with all the wealth he’d accumulated there.

All he had left were his family’s resources and a few emergency reserves.

She was right when she’d referred to the attack as an unmitigated disaster.

“Wait, Sect Leader. You said Lightning, Earth, Water, and Void?”

That assortment of elements was extremely unlikely for any cultivator. Combining two separate primary elements with two rare and powerful secondary elements was almost unheard of.

“And you said ‘among other elements.’ That implies he used more?” He doubted the sect leader would either lie or receive inaccurate reports, but a cultivator having access to five elements was extremely improbable.

“If not for the evidence of him using so many elements in battle, I would have discounted the next piece of intelligence. Apparently, this peasant sect that he has created has a Trials Pagoda.”

Teng Wuying smiled, relieved beyond measure. “We must acquire this pagoda, Sect Leader. It is ours by right, given the destruction he has caused. And I shall petition the elders to be given leadership over it. After all, my family has been harmed the most.”

The look on her face told him that his suggestion had not been received well, but that was okay. The elders had plenty of power to overrule her when it came to such matters as distributing dominion over sect resources. As long as she okayed the initial attack, he would gain control over it.

And she absolutely had no choice but to authorize the attack. The pressure to resolve the huge loss of face was too severe for her to ignore.

“You will order the attack, won’t you, Sect Leader? After all, it is reported that he didn’t employ an aura. Perhaps, he hasn’t developed one yet.”

“Seven elements,” she said. “Seven. And he might have used more. It was difficult for the observers to detect all the elements used by his shield.”

He didn’t see her point. She was acting like the number of elements made him an unbeatable foe, or at least one that was unfathomable. But he was neither. Sure, such versatility would give Chao Su an advantage, but it was nothing that could not be overcome. And the existence of the Trials Pagoda explained how he’d managed such a feat.

“The observers are absolutely positive that he employed a Concept with five of those elements,” she said. “Some believed that all seven were powered by a Concept, but that assertion could not be confirmed.”

Teng Wuying had to do the math. Golden Core cultivators took an average of twenty-five years to form a Concept. Prodigies accomplished the feat in ten to fifteen years. The absolute record from a woman who achieved enlightenment during her meditation was five years.

But that time period was just to form a Concept with one qi element.

A person not knowledgeable with high realmed cultivation might think that forming a Concept for a second element was easier and thus took less time. That person would be wrong.

In fact, forming a Concept for a second element didn’t take twice as long as the first; it took four times as long. Even assuming Chao Su was the most talented cultivator in existence, five years for the first plus twenty years for the second was the absolute minimum time period to form two Concepts.

The third took even longer, nine times as long as the first. The fourth took sixteen times as long and the fifth twenty-five.

At a minimum, it had to have taken Chao Su at least two hundred seventy-five years to create five Concepts. But that time period was based on a crazy assumption of it only taking him five years for the first. Ten years was still ridiculously short but was a much safer bet for a minimum, equating to five hundred fifty years required for him to form all those Concepts.

A Golden Core cultivator’s lifetime was only five hundred years.

The facts confirmed that not only was Chao Su definitely at least in the Nascent Soul realm—not that there had been any real doubt—but that he assuredly had developed his aura.

“I can see from the look on your face that you understand,” Duan Dandan said. “There are too many oddities about this Chao Su for him to be a simple Nascent Soul. He is something outside our experience. Whether that means he’s reached Nihility or he simply has access to resources greater than all found on this entire continent combined, I do not know. I am, however, almost sure that all four of our Nascent Souls combined could not defeat him.”

“If he is indeed that powerful, all factions save for the Poison Claws will back us, Sect Leader. He’s surely not a match for twelve Nascent Souls.” Teng Wuying grinned suddenly. “Or ten.”

She frowned. “Ten?”

“Ren Ning and Guo Mingzhu both already have one foot in the grave, Sect Leader. Let them die heroes, sacrificing themselves for the good of the sect.”

“You want me to throw away half our Nascent Souls on an attack they cannot win? For what purpose?”

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He could almost see her thoughts churning as she paused.

“If this Chao Su defeats both of them in straight up combat, the other factions will see his true strength,” she said. “Between that and their greed for his treasures, they will band together with us. We just have to be ready to seize the spoils.”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

She frowned again. “There is a problem. The elders will never approve this plan.”

Teng Wuying met her eyes for the first time during that meeting. “They will if I tell them to.”