The Sect Leader System-Chapter 301: The Price of Greatness

The Skycart wasn’t as bad as Zi Delan had feared. The ride was smooth, and its formations deflected most of the wind, leaving only enough for a pleasant breeze. And the bench seats, as the sect leader called them, were more comfortable than anything Zi Delan had ever sat on.

Yes, it was definitely a pleasant ride.

Until Jin LiJuan detached the Skycart from her glider.

Even though he’d seen the device’s safety demonstrated, his head associated flying through the air with being pulled by her. Once she let go, the obvious result was that they’d plummet to the ground.

Only that, of course, wasn’t what happened. Instead, the Skycart was just as smooth as it floated down as it had been in flight, and it landed without so much as a bump.

In fact, the fall was so slow that Jin LiJuan and Ganzou made it to the ground before them and stood waiting for them to get out. As soon as the Skycart settled in its landing position, the occupants quickly exited and gathered before her.

“We’re at a border between zones.” Jin LiJuan pointed back the way they came. “If you go that way, you’ll run into mostly rank two beasts. Threes are in the direction of the mountain. Ganzou will patrol for anything rank four and above and deal with them before they reach you.

“The density of beasts is medium, nothing like near the village prior to the tide. I recommend groups of three to give you enough safety to handle the dangers while still giving everyone a chance to fight. We’ll camp here tonight, so you have the rest of the daylight hours to hunt. I will give each group a whistle before you depart.”

Zi Delan was actually quite impressed with the intense girl so far. The choice of location and the orders she gave both seemed quite competent. He was quite glad that Master had selected her as the expedition leader.

The transition from street rat to respected cultivator was a jarring one for Zi Delan. It had been hard enough feeling accountable for his small gang, and all he’d really had to worry about there was finding enough food to keep them from starving and to keep them from drawing attention from the enforcers. There was no way he was ready to have the lives of a dozen people fighting monstrous spirit beasts be his responsibility.

The glider and Skycart had flown fast enough after an early start to leave many hours before sundown, plenty of time to hunt, and since everyone was eager to get started, the groups quickly split up.

Zhong Kun and Han Huian stayed with Zi Delan, while the rest of his former gang went off on their own. For the Poison Claw Sect members, four of them led by Deng Meixiang separated from Pan Jiang, who wanted to remain with Jin LiJuan.

She went to the leader of each of the other three teams and gave out a whistle, one that Master had supplied to the sect members prior to the tide, and a spatial ring to store beast parts.

“These are loans,” she said. “Return them to Sun Hua after we return.”

With that, she turned and headed into the brush toward the rank threes, Pan Jiang and Ganzou behind her.

Intense. Definitely intense.

Zi Delan and the members of his former gang were all at Qi Gathering minor realm six and didn’t expect to advance further before the expedition was over. That cultivation put them at the equivalent of a peak rank two, meaning they each should be able to fight a beast of that level solo. As a team, however, it was likely they could handle rank threes.

“Solo or team?” he said.

“Team,” Zhong Kun said.

At the same time, Han Huian said, “Solo.”

The vote left Zi Delan as the tiebreaker. Since their goal was to prepare for the tournament, experience with solo fights made sense. On the other hand, the rank threes, even as a team, would probably be more challenging. Difficult fights usually translated into more gains.

Of course, he doubted Zhong Kun viewed the situation the same way. He’d been hurt fairly severely during the beast tide and might have died had not he been rescued and fed a healing pill. Likely, he simply felt safer with all of them working together.

“Let’s go solo today,” Zi Delan said. “You can pass up your turn if you want, Zhong Kun.”

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

The four Poison Claw Sect members had gone toward the rank threes while the other former gang members chose the same as Zi Delan’s group. They all headed in different directions, however, so as not to interfere with each other’s hunting.

It didn’t take long before they could no longer hear other teams, leaving them feeling quite isolated in an area known to be teeming with dangerous beasts. Which should have been no issue considering that they’d been hunting such creatures almost since the time they joined with Master. The further away Zi Delan’s team traveled from the Skycart, though, the more agitated Zhong Kun got.

Zi Delan thought about saying something but didn’t want to embarrass his friend. Besides, he just needed to get a strike or two in against a beast, and he’d snap right out of it. Probably.

The terrain was rocky with many dusty trails around islands of bushes and trees. About a half hour from the landing site, rustling in the brush ahead drew their attention, and they quickly halted.

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“I’ve got this one,” Zhong Kun said.

Zi Delan and Han Huian shared a glance. She shrugged. He shrugged back.

“It’s yours,” Zi Delan said.

All six former gang members carried both a spear and a bow. Their plan was to primarily work with the former during the expedition, but cross-training, as Master called it, was also important. The three in the small group had previously decided that one of the two backups would ready an arrow while the other stood close by with the spear and the third fought.

Han Huian quickly strung her bow as Zhong Kun prepared himself. Before she finished, a red fox emerged from under a bush.

One of the major disadvantages of being in the Qi Gathering realm was not having access to spiritual sense. They had no way of knowing the rank of the beast. Given the lack of Ganzou appearing to protect them, though, they were pretty sure it was a three or below.

The lack of information meant they had to treat every encounter as potentially deadly, which, in Zi Delan’s opinion, was a great habit to form regardless. He tightened his hands on his spear, ready to jump in if needed while Han Huian finished stringing her bow and nocked an arrow.

The creature didn’t make a sound when it spotted the three cultivators and went immediately on the attack, darting at Zhong Kun. Who froze. He stood there completely motionless.

“Attack, damn it!” Zi Delan yelled, already moving.

Han Huian was faster, loosing an arrow that struck the fox in the side. The tip penetrated, giving evidence that the beast definitely wasn’t a rank four. In fact, by the depth of the wound, it was probably only a rank two.

Even though Zhong Kun was still frozen, even taking a bite or a claw or two shouldn’t hurt him too badly given his Body Cultivation.

It turned out that the protection wasn’t needed. The hit had drawn the fox’s attention to the one who injured it, and as it dashed toward Han Huian, Zi Delan got in a lunge that penetrated deeply into its side.

Another arrow finished it off.

“Are you okay?” Zi Delan said.

“I’m fine,” Zhong Kun said tersely.

“What happened?”

“What do you mean? It’s dead. We won.”

Zi Delan sighed. “I mean you didn’t do much.”

“Well, how was I supposed to? I knew nothing about the creature, whether it was a rank one or a rank twenty. No one told us a thing. It’s all that little girl’s fault.”

Disregarding the other nonsense for the moment, Zi Delan tilted his head, trying to understand what little girl his friend was talking about and how anyone else could possibly be to blame. “Little girl?”

“The one the sect leader put in charge instead of you. It ain’t right. If you’d been chosen, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Zi Delan hadn’t always been the leader of their gang. He’d earned the position—not that he’d particularly wanted it—by being smart and making good decisions that kept them mostly fed and out of trouble. Unlike rival gang leaders, he wasn’t very forceful and rarely corrected his members.

In the current situation, he held a lot of empathy for his friend, who had obviously been more affected by the injuries during the beast tide than anyone realized. But the statement that had just been made could not be allowed to stand. Not only was it wrongheaded, but it was dangerous.

“Do not ever let me hear you say a single negative word about anyone put in charge of you. Ever,” Zi Delan said. “Do you understand?”

Zhong Kun appeared flummoxed by the reaction. Even Han Huian was clearly taken aback.

“I need an answer. Do you understand?”

“What are you talking about? Why?”

“Do you not see how far up we’ve moved in the world? Did you like being street trash, barely surviving on crumbs from the trash heap, fearing the enforcers could come and kill you at any time? Don’t you think it’s much better to be a cultivator, to have people look up to us, to be powerful, to have all the food we want to eat and new clothes, a house beyond what I could have even dreamed of, and an avenue to become more wealthy than we ever imagined?”

“What does that have to do with that weird little girl?” Zhong Kun said. “Just because the sect leader treats her like she’s his kid or something doesn’t mean she should be able to order us around.”

“You really don’t understand? Let me draw you a picture with three facts. Fact one, we owe the sect leader a debt. Yeah, we were surviving in Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town but barely. If just a few things went wrong for us, we could have gone hungry for days or a week, becoming too drained to find any more food. We’d have wasted away with no chance of saving ourselves.

“Or maybe we could have chosen the wrong target, one who had money to bribe the Town Manager. The enforcers could have killed us without breaking a sweat.

“How many old street rats do you know? Not many.

“The sect leader probably saved our lives. Period. Whatever he wants us to do, I’ll do.”

“But—”

“No. No, but,” Zi Delan said. “Fact two, all that is asked of us is to follow a few simple rules. Now, I’ll admit that I was a little worried during the beast tide. I thought maybe he’d throw us out there in front of the wall to be fodder.

“But that wasn’t what happened. You had a bit of bad luck, but Master managed the situation as safely as he could. Nobody died. You didn’t die.”

Zi Delan fingered his contingency ring. “Heck, right now I bet he’s busy doing something of vital importance, but if I broke this ring, he’d appear instantly to save us.

“I’ve talked to the Poison Claw Sect members. That’s not how sect leaders behave. We have something special here, and one of the few things that is asked of us is to follow the hierarchy and respect those put in charge of us.

“Is that too much to ask of you? Back on the streets, if someone had told you they’d give you a place to live that was nicer than where the richest people in town lived with all the food you could eat and all you had to do was follow the orders of some kid, would you have done it?”

Zhong Kun at least had the decency to appear chagrined.

“And fact three, that same hierarchy benefits us as much as anyone. We’re disciples and founding members of the sect. Do you realize how high up we are? The sect now has over a thousand members, and we were in the first hundred. As it grows to ten thousand or a hundred thousand, we’ll still be in that first hundred.

“That kind of status means something in a sect. Just about everyone in the village already refers to us Senior, and the number of people showing us respect will only grow.

“So what if a kid was put in charge of us today? Tomorrow, we might be put in charge of dozens. We should be doing everything in our power to protect the hierarchy, to enforce it. Because, in the end, I guarantee it will be much more to our benefit than any perceived indignity of having to obey someone else.”

“Fine,” Zhong Kun said. “I got it. You won’t hear another bad word from me about her or anyone else.”

“Good.”

And the fact that he agreed really was a good thing. If Senior Sister or Senior Brother had heard a sect member saying something negative about the expedition leader like that, it would not have gone over well. Zhong Kun was much safer from reprisals if he held to the commitment he just made.

There was still the problem with him freezing up, though. That wasn’t normal, and neither was his defensiveness. If the situation didn’t improve soon, Zi Delan would have to find some way to fix it.

He sighed. There was no getting around responsibility, paying the price for greatness.