The Sect Leader System-Chapter 342: What Punishment?
Yang Ru had never felt so miserable in his life. He’d known that he had little chance to fix whatever mistake he’d made with Kang Lin, but neither had he expected her rejection to be so absolute.
He tried to separate himself from his emotions. Even during the worst time in his life, when he and Yang Xiu fled their home without even properly burying or mourning their parents, he could set aside the negativity somewhat to view things logically instead of giving into despair.
For some reason, that ability to coldly analyze his feelings wouldn’t materialize, though. Instead, each emotion stabbed at his heart, unmitigated by the icy dispassion he usually could eventually achieve.
The bitter sadness of loss. The sharp stab of betrayal. The empty abyss of loneliness. He just wanted them to go away.
As he struggled to manage his reactions as he always had, a new sensation tugged at his soul. The more he concentrated, the clearer his perception of the pull became.
“Don’t bury your emotions in a frozen grave. Use them to move forward. Determine a goal and channel them into your efforts to achieve it. Turn your pain into passion,” a voice deep inside him urged.
The message resonated with him. He would burn the sadness, betrayal and loneliness on a pyre and use it to fuel his fury. His steps would move forward, always.
He’d be unstoppable. Undaunted. His unwanted feelings would form the foundation he’d use to trample and bury anything in his path. To crush all foes.
Even if those foes used to be friends. Or if he’d hoped those foes would become more than friends.
Kang Lin kowtowed, burying her face on the floor, as her grandfather walked into the study. “This lowly one has erred, Esteemed Elder.”
Silenced stretched as she kept her forehead flat against the cold bamboo flooring while she waited. Which wasn’t a good sign. If she were overestimating just how much trouble she was in, he would have told her to rise. Not speaking meant she might actually have underestimated the magnitude of her failure.
“By all rights,” Grandfather eventually said, “today should have been a celebration for the Kang family. One of our members recently jumped from the peak of Qi Gathering to the third minor realm of Foundation Establishment more rapidly than the most feted geniuses in Sect history. Throughout the tournament, that family member displayed poise in combat and a mastery of multiple powerful techniques. Advancing to the top eight should have solidified her status as a rising star.”
He paused, a lengthy break that lasted so long that Kang Lin almost—almost—raised her head.
“Have I been too lenient?” Grandfather continued. “I kept thinking, ‘Kang Lin is a smart and filial girl. She knows how important it is to keep good relations with the Rising Tide Sect. She understands her duty both to her sect and to her family. Sure, she’s going through something, but I have every confidence that she’ll work it out.’ But your actions today have absolutely destroyed any trust that I had in you.”
Kang Lin kept her body motionless and remained speechless even as his words slammed into her with more force than a hammer. The worst part was that he was right. There wasn’t anything she could say to defend herself.
“How bad is the rift?” Grandfather said. “Is it repairable?”
She pictured Yang Ru’s face in her mind. He looked absolutely miserable when he left the ring. Her actions had surely destroyed whatever relationship, whether friendship or something else, they had.
Yang Xiu was the same, except with anger instead of sadness. If the two of them ever met again, Kang Lin would be lucky to survive the encounter.
“No, Esteemed Elder.” 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
She heard an angry huff, an unusual sound coming from her usually good natured grandfather. It seemed that it was her day to trigger uncommon emotions in people she cared about.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
People who used to care about her.
“You have cost your sect good standing with two future powerhouses,” he said. “The impact cannot be calculated. The most optimistic outcome is that only the Kang family is diminished. A not impossible consequence is that the eventual destruction of the entire Poison Claw Sect can be laid upon your actions this day.”
Kang Lin frowned. That analysis seemed … inflated. Sure, Yang Xiu and Yang Ru were powerful, but wasn’t it exaggerating to say they could somehow annihilate a big three sect?
Grandfather’s view of the side of her face must have given away her thoughts.
“You doubt me? Think about it, you silly girl. Two A ranked talents. Top heaven ranked scriptures. Apparently any technique they can imagine given to them. Equipment from the best craftsman not only on this continent but that I’ve ever even heard of in a legend or even a tall tale. A Trials Pagoda that can burst any bottleneck. Their master, who dotes on them, possesses power so great that it is nigh incomprehensible. What will those two become? What is their ceiling? Nascent Soul?”
He scoffed. “They won’t aim that low. Nihility at the least. Perhaps they’ll reach immortality. And what will be the fate of any those two decide to eliminate?”
Kang Lin swallowed hard. She herself had referred to them as legends in the making. It just hadn’t sunk in just what their seemingly inevitable ascension would mean for the Poison Claw Sect. At the time, she’d considered their eventual success nothing but a positive. Because she was their friend. Because the two sects were allies.
Had been allies?
Just how badly had she messed up?
“What should this lowly one do, Esteemed Elder? There has to be something.” A thought struck her. As much as she didn’t like the idea, it might be her only way forward. “This lowly one will go to Yang Ru and grovel. Pledge marriage. The situation can be fixed.”
“Would he have you now? Why? You humiliated him in the arena. You gave him less face than you would our worst enemy,” Grandfather said.
He was right. If she were Yang Ru, she would even grant her an audience, much less agree to a marriage. Her actions had gone way beyond mere error. It wasn’t out of the question for the Punishment Hall to get involved.
“Please tell this lowly one what to do, Esteemed Elder.” Her voice was pleading, seeking salvation from the only source that might be able to right the ship.
There was another long silence.
“I fear the disciples are lost to us but maybe not the master,” Grandfather said. “Go to Chao Su. You are still his disciple. Plead your case. Ask for his forgiveness. Throw yourself on his mercy. That is the only path.”
Again, Grandfather’s wisdom was absolute. As much as she feared her master’s wrath after what she’d done, he was her only hope.
“Gratitude, Esteemed Elder.”
Benton blew out a sharp breath. Watching teenagers go through angst sometimes tended either to amuse him, assuming the cause and effect were relatively trivial. Mostly, though, witnessing such an event filled him with sympathy for the sufferer. After all, the fact that he was way too far distant from that time in his own life didn’t mean he couldn’t understand what they were going through.
The act he’d just seen stirred a different emotion. He found himself feeling something unexpected—anger. Two of his kids were experiencing pain. Worse, two of his kids had been made to experience pain.
The new Benton, who had been given power he wouldn’t have even been able to imagine back on Earth, wanted to punish the source of that pain.
Which presented two problems. One, it indicated that he was becoming a much different person than he had been, and not necessarily in a good way. He’d always been a “turn the other cheek unless he was absolutely forced not to” kind of guy. The fact that a desire for retribution came to him so readily was more than a little disconcerting.
Two, the perpetrator was also one of his kids. And that one stung.
Usually, his choices were simple. If someone harmed one of his, that person was in for trouble. In the current situation, though…
It wasn’t like none of his kids ever fought. His middle child and youngest were like cats and dogs for a couple of years. It got so bad that he and Evelyn even decided against a couple of vacations simply because they didn’t want to have to deal with the two children being confined together in a car.
Bickering was one thing, though. Truly hurting each other was something entirely different. Punishment seemed warranted, right?
Benton sighed. Maybe. No one acted out of actual maliciousness. Kang Lin let her emotions and self doubt get the better of her. Yang Ru didn’t have the maturity or wisdom to take a step back and allow her to work things out for herself. The fact that they were forced to fight each other in the tournament also didn’t help, obviously.
Still, cultivator society demanded certain proprieties be observed. Benton wasn’t so great at observing those conventions, but he both had the power to get away with it and the willingness to deal with whatever repercussions arose. Kang Lin had neither. The way she’d behaved in public against a Rising Tide Sect member was not okay.
So back to punishment.
If he had to name his biggest weakness as a father back on Earth, it was his willingness to allow his empathy to overrule any sense of justice he might have had. Without Evelyn there, his kids probably would have grown up to be complete brats.
A twelve-year-old who let her emotions and impatience drive her to do something stupid didn’t deserve the punishment of never being allowed to cultivate. A sect whose Golden Cores deliberately went after juniors, killing one of them, definitely did deserve to have their branch sect destroyed.
What punishment, if any, did Kang Lin deserve?
