The Sect Leader System-Chapter 345 - Punished

Kang Lin’s hands wanted to shake, something that simply wasn’t tolerable for a cultivator of her stature, so she let out a deep breath and steadied them tight against her legs. As she stared at the door in front of her, the one that led to Master’s office, and tried to summon enough courage to knock, she couldn’t seem to keep from hunching her back to keep her head low.

Could she even call him Master anymore? Sect Leader was probably more appropriate. Surely, at the very least, he would expel her as a disciple.

Which would be terrible. The disciple-Master bond was sacred. When a disciple acted so badly that a Master had to end the relationship, the chance of anyone ever taking that position again was almost none.

With one ill-considered act, she’d managed to lose one of her best friends, her former almost fiancé, and her Master. She couldn’t believe what an idiot she’d been.

Still, though, a part of her didn’t understand what she could have possibly done differently.

Before she could muster up enough gumption to announce her presence, a message dragon popped through the door. She grabbed the paper and read it.

Kang Lin,

Your reason for coming here today is important, and I do not want to diminish that seriousness. In fact, it is due to the gravity of the situation that I sent this message.

Wan Ai and Sun Hua are on their way to my office. I believe that it would be much better for me to complete that conversation first so that I can give you and your situation my full attention. Please tell them to come in when they arrive.

Well, it looked like she’d have to wait a bit longer to learn her fate.

Less than a minute later, the two girls arrived, neither looking particularly angry at Kang Lin. In fact, none of the Rising Tide Sect members she’d seen as she’d walked through the campground had reacted to her much at all.

So there was that…

She immediately told the two that they were to enter first.

It had taken a lot of courage to go to Master’s office, and she’d been surprised when the other two girls who had arrived slightly after her had been admitted before her. She wasn’t upset about the order, though. Master’s explanation had, after all, made sense. Besides, the longer she could put off what was coming, the better.

But as seconds and minutes stretched with agonizing slowness, she grew more and more anxious, going over in her mind how the meeting with the sect leader would likely go. Waiting was torture, but at the same time, she prayed to the heavens that whatever the two girls were discussing with him would last so long that he wouldn’t have time to talk to her.

Moments later, Sun Hua and Wan Ai emerged from the office, and the sect leader called for Kang Lin to enter.

She sighed. It was too much to hope for.

The other two girls seemed happy, and they both cupped their hands to her, a gesture she returned. That was good, both because they showed absolutely no animosity toward her and because their meeting with the sect leader had gone well.

At least they probably hadn’t upset him. Her presence was sure to do enough of that all on its own.

When she stepped into the office, the first thing she noticed was that there was no tea waiting for her. That slight was expected, but it still stung.

The sect leader kept his face as impassive as she’d ever seen it. For any other elder, that would have probably been a good sign. The sect leader, however, was generally a happy person, and that usually showed on his face. Being expressionless was his version of a scowl. The only thing worse would have been him being livid, an experience few had seen and lived through.

As she reached within several feet of him, she kowtowed, pressing her forehead flat against the cool floor.

“Rise,” he said. “I want to see your face while we talk.”

She swallowed. Her words weren’t unkind, but they were cold. When she’d gone to her grandfather, part of her had held out some hope that she was overestimating just how badly she’d messed up. She’d somehow allowed the same optimism to arise before facing the sect leader.

From his tone, she hadn’t exaggerated how much she’d erred. If anything, she was in even more trouble than she’d anticipated.

Still kneeling, Kang Lin rose so that she could see him. “This lowly one apologizes, Sect Leader.”

A brief silence followed.

“Do you understand why I’m upset?” he said finally.

She’d done so many things wrong from his perspective that it was difficult to choose just one. “This lowly one doesn’t know exactly. Refusing Yang Ru’s offer of marriage and disrespecting your sect in public were likely this lowly one’s two largest transgressions.”

His lips turned down into a slight frown. “You were never under any obligation to marry Yang Ru. Politely refusing his desire for marriage for whatever reason is not something that would ever draw my ire.”

Kang Lin tensed. Somehow her words acknowledging her improper actions had made things even worse. She kowtowed three times, touching her brow to the floor with each one, before rising. “Apologies, Sect Leader.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

His face tightened, a sure sign that he was growing even angrier. Her every act of contrition seemed to be the exact wrong thing to do.

“No more of that,” he said.

So cold were the words that she wouldn’t have been surprised if actual frost had formed around her. Such things were possible with a cultivator as powerful as the sect leader.

“This lowly one doesn’t know what to do to make things right, Sect Leader.”

He sighed. “You’ve always been so level headed that I almost forget that you’re only sixteen. Tell me, how many boys aside from Yang Ru have courted you?”

Oh. If there were one question she’d never have expected him to ask her…

“None, Sect Leader.”

He sighed again. “To reiterate, what you did isn’t wrong. It’s the way you went about it that was absolutely dreadful. By rejecting him so thoroughly and in public, you hurt him, Yang Xiu, and my sect. And the latter of those three is the least consequential. If our honor or face or whatever else all these idiot cultivators consider so important can’t withstand the angst of a teenage girl, then honestly, my sect isn’t strong enough to exist. Understand?”

Kang Lin felt heat rising to her face. To have matters that not only she but her entire sect considered to be so important be so trivialized by such a powerful figure wasn’t easy to hear. It made her feel like a silly child.

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“At first, I was simply angry that you hurt those who are as close to me as my own children. Since I feel the same way about you, however, I could have gotten over that relatively easily.”

He thought of her like one of his own? Somehow that revelation made her feel even worse.

“The real issue,” he said, “is that you’ve triggered a situation that might become significant indeed, leading to both my heirs possibly suffering a qi deviation.”

Her jaw literally dropped. She’d known nothing about such a thing. “A qi deviation, Sect Leader?”

“You’re no doubt aware how aspects can shape personalities?”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“The extent of the influence is dependent mainly on two factors. The cultivator’s talent is one of those, and both twins are in the A range, meaning that their aspects are more likely than not to affect their behavior.”

Kang Lin nodded. Such was widely known to cultivators.

“The second fact is a bit more esoteric. Zou Tian is more heavily linked to the Shadow aspect than most cultivators are to theirs, allowing him to manifest its power even before he became a cultivator.”

She nodded again, fascinated by the information despite her dread of what was still to come.

“The characteristics of an aspect make its impact highly variable,” he said. “Even I don’t have a way to measure that factor accurately. I do know that aspects with a dominate qi element tend to have more of an effect than those with multiple.

“The twins are a particularly weird case. Have you ever wondered at the fact that Yang Ru’s personality seemed much more Ice related while Yang Xiu’s seemed more suited to Fire?”

“This lowly one had noted that, Sect Leader.”

“That was a function of what I like to call Twinned Quantum Qi Aspect Resonance."

Her eyebrows rose.

“Yeah, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Still, it gets the point across that, somehow, their being twins with highly ranked spirit roots made their aspects bleed over to influence the other’s personality. At least, that was what was happening until you came along.

“I’m not exactly sure why, but something about them both experiencing extreme emotions at the same time somehow reversed the effects. Which is a problem because the reversal of their previous behavior is having a bad influence on them.”

Kang Lin frowned. “If all it took was an extreme emotional event, why wouldn’t it have occurred when their parents were killed, Sect Leader?”

She was partly honestly interested in the answer, but she had to admit that, if her question disproved the “extreme emotion” theory, it would also lessen the blame on her, which would be a welcome outcome.

“At that time, they weren’t cultivators. My belief is that their mortal emotional states couldn’t affect the aspect resonance.”

Uh. Kang Lin didn’t know how to respond to that. She wasn’t exactly an expert on how qi aspects impacted people.

“The point is that, since they grew up essentially being influenced by a different aspect, they have no innate resistance to the one affecting them now. Yang Ru isn’t doing too badly since Fire and Momentum are both so prevalent in his. The two elements fighting for control gives him the ability to stave off some of the worst effects. With Yang Xiu, though, all her other qi elements are secondary to Ice, and her personality has done a one eighty in a short time. I’m worried about her.” 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He didn’t have to say, “and it’s all your fault.” Kang Lin felt it to the core of her being.

“So I’m left with two kids whom I love very much being in pain,” the sect leader said, “and I hate, hate, hate to see that. I want to strike out against the cause of their distress.”

Kang Lin tensed, worried for a moment that he might physically attack her. If he did, that could literally be the end of her.

The sect leader met her eyes. “The problem is that I care for the cause of that hurt almost as much. You are important to me, Kang Lin. I know you have your own family and your own sect, but I always felt like you were one of my own.” His anger from earlier had been replaced by deep sadness.

That was when she realized the truth. Her actions hadn’t only hurt the twins; she’d hurt the sect leader as well.

“I keep thinking that, since you’ve done great damage, punishment is warranted,” he said. “Then I think, you didn’t mean to hurt anyone. You were—and still are—trying to work through your own stuff. It’s hard to punish you for that. So I was left with one course of action that seemed prudent—to ask what you think.”

Huh?

“So I ask, should you be punished? And, if so, what should that punishment be?”

Kang Lin had come into the sect leader’s office expecting to be admonished and willing to accept whatever consequences were given to her. She’d messed up and deserved to pay for those mistakes. What she was completely unprepared for was for her to be required to give her input into those consequences.

Her mind spun.

She kowtowed, flattening her forehead against the floor again. “This lowly one has dishonored your sect and your heirs. Punishment is not only warranted; it is necessary. This lowly one only requests that the consequences be limited to this lowly one and not extended to the Poison Claw Sect.”

“I won’t hold an entire sect responsible for a kid screwing up.”

“Gratitude, Sect Leader.” She paused, still keeping her head down. “There is only one punishment that this lowly one considers adequate—you publicly rebuking me and dissolving my discipleship.”

Her voice was shaky, and tears welled in her eyes.

The sect leader let out a long breath. “Rise, please.”

She did.

“Are you sure?” he said. “That’s a big step, a really bad one for you.”

“Yes, Sect Leader. It is the only way.”

His lips tightened into a thin line. “If you feel that solution is the only acceptable resolution, I won’t disagree with you. I do, however, require a cooling off period. Nothing so important should be done in haste but rather only after careful consideration. We’ll wait until after the tournament finishes. If you still agree that this is the only way forward, I’ll make an official public announcement.”

“Understood, Sect Leader.”

Though she recognized the wisdom of waiting, she was equally sure that she would not change her mind. Her future was destroyed, but a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She’d taken responsibility for her actions, and she no longer had to worry about what would happen next.

Kang Lin rose to her feet and exited the room with her head held high.