When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again-Story 11 - How to Save a Sect in Six Simple Steps (15)

White Scale frowned down at me. “I can’t kill you like you deserve because you’re under Senior Noxious Fangstrike’s protection, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kick you out of the beast taming side of this peak.”

“Who told you I was here, then? The one who was most adamant that you come over here to mess with our formation repair job?”

”Ha! I don’t need to give you an explanation.”

Vengeful Siren stepped forward. “Little Brother, please tell us. Whoever sent you over here to cause trouble might be a spy for the orthodox faction.”

He crossed his arms and huffed. ”It was a mere child who is the least spy-like person I know who told me you were trespassing here.”

While he didn’t outright say who it was, it was obvious he was talking about Little Teasing Mouse. Now, the real question was, did she send him over here knowing he would mess up our patch and endanger the sect, or did she just mention where I was causing him to fly into a rage? She had to have known he couldn’t get over how badly I beat his precious son, then stopped him from getting revenge.

“As I said before, if anyone here is a spy, it’s her!” He pointed at me.

”Nonsense!” Siren said. “Would a spy from the orthodox sect work to cure us? Would she help us fix the broken life gate of the sect’s defensive formation, defending us from an imminent attack from our long-time enemies and rivals?”

White Scale sneered at me. ”A brat as young as her couldn’t have come up with that cure. It was all Senior Noxious Fangstrike. Giving her partial credit was just because she’s his good luck charm. I highly doubt she contributed significantly.”

Yeah, this denial shit was how so many women in science back in my past-past life had their contributions miscredited or stolen by their male colleagues. The only reason I was letting this pass was because I didn’t want credit. In fact, I wanted my contribution to stay as hidden as possible in case my sect found out how much I helped this damned sect.

“I can see from the stains on her sleeves that she’s just helping you with the menial grunt work.”

Almost all the work, actually.

He grinned at Vengeful Siren like he figured it all out. “Obviously, you’re the brains for this repair.”

At the end of his tirade, I wanted to clap... at how easily this fucking idiot won this year’s mental gymnastics tournament. I thought the rat girl would win it again with her outstanding performance earlier, but she just got her ass kicked by the sect elder.

”Sister Linlin. Does he need treatment?” Little Spring whispered while pointing to his head.

I stared at the red-faced elder and nodded. “You know, I think he does.”

”You dare!”

His peak of Golden Core spiritual energy began to crush down on us. Since we were both at the peak of Foundation Establishment, it didn’t affect us as much as it could have, but it still hurt. My legs trembled from the effort of fighting back and pretending that he wasn’t affecting me at all. A sour feeling built in the back of my throat.

Little Spring clenched his jaw. He turned pale but didn’t allow the pressure to push him to his knees.

The cracks on the ground began to lengthen.

Shit! The pressure he used must have been spread through the whole area instead of focusing on Little Spring and me.

Vengeful Siren and Golden Pride used their energy to return the pressure.

Immediate relief spread through me.

White Scale took a few steps back and coughed up a mouthful of blood. The betrayed look he sent the two made them grimace sheepishly.

What was that about?

I wiped away a small drop of blood that escaped from the corner of my lips. ”The future of this sect looks bleak. Just because someone is a master doesn’t mean they are leadership material. Especially if they’re dense.” ᚱ𝐚₦ΟᛒЁŚ

Little Spring pounded on his left shoulder. Resisting the pressure must have given him a bad knot. “If I were the sect leader, I would have stripped anyone that dense of their elder status until they learned how to read a situation.” He gestured to the cracks that were still expanding. “Only a fool would harm the life gate of the sect’s defensive array after Temporary Elder Linlin barely fixed it.”

White Scale paled when a crack reached his foot. It stopped before reaching the end of the stone circle.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the cracks started to slowly close back up. Finally, the node was repairing itself. We weren’t out of danger yet, but this looked promising! Their combined pressure must have been just the thing the patch needed. Something I hadn’t considered, but after it happened, I could see how the pressure replaced getting properly hammered.

I glanced at Little Spring. The sun hit his hair just right. He appeared to shine like the damn main character he was.

[Image Link]

Yeah, okay. This lucky break was definitely the work of the brat’s protagonist halo.

Wait. Did this kid just out me as the main contributor behind the patch we just made? I had to do damage control. “I’m not the one who fixed it. It was a group effort. I only did what I could.”

Little Spring looked confused, as if wondering why I wasn’t proudly shouting that I was definitely the genius behind this and that White Scale should respect me for it.

Right, he hadn’t been here when I made the deal with Vengeful Siren. ::Don’t give me too much credit. I don’t want to expose my formation expertise.::

Little Spring grinned proudly. “I think it’s a bit late for that, Temporary Elder Linlin. I’m pretty sure everyone here knows you’re a brilliant formation master. That’s not something you’ll be able to hide after this.”

I flicked the kid’s glabella, and he winced. “Of course I’ll be able to keep it hidden! No one here is going to admit a little Foundation Establishment girl was key to resolving an issue this big.” I turned to Elder White Scale. “You’ll help me by returning to the top of the peak and saying it was all Golden Pride and Vengeful Siren who fixed this, and I was only here for moral support, right?”

White Scale’s face turned tomato red. A vein bulged on his forehead. It was like he wanted to do that, but since I asked him, he wanted to expose me. The glare he sent me was priceless. Then he turned to Vengeful Siren. “Why are you allowing them to treat me like this?”

He held up both hands. “This is between you and Temporary Elder Linlin.”

He huffed. ”Those who make me lose face will pay!”

Little Spring tapped his chin. ”Senior, since you made yourself lose face, does that mean you’ll pay?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

His face was so red it looked like steam was about to escape from his ears. Now was my chance to get him to admit it.

”Or maybe,” I said, “it’s the fault of the little rat girl, since she mentioned I was here. ”

He froze. “How did you know it was Little Teasing Mouse?”

I grinned. “You just confirmed it.” I would never be a social adept, but even I could pick up a trick or two after spending so many centuries exposed to Bloodsword’s harem of psychotic bitches. “Her actions sound suspicious, if you ask me.”

“Don't speak of things you don’t understand!” He viciously flicked his sleeve behind him as he turned and stormed away. On his way out, he punched an old rotting tree, completely obliterating it and sending detritus up into the air to fall everywhere.

Vengeful Siren sighed. “Could you two stop inciting my junior brother’s ire? A war is about to start, and we all need to get along.”

“I’ll try, Senior,” Little Spring said. He bowed his head, looking chastised, but I could tell by his slight smile that it was an act.

I glanced at the fin-eared elder. ::Teasing Mouse sent your junior brother here to mess with us during a crucial repair of the sect’s defenses. Will that help you kick her out of the sect?::

::Brother Flood Dragon’s White Scale is explaining to me right now that the girl, who is apparently a friend of his son’s, told him you were here but asked him not to go since you were doing something important and would leave soon. But he had been too furious to listen to her warning.::

Of course, she’d enthralled that asshole lion guy. ::She could have planned for his reaction!::

::As much as I’d like to believe that, that evidence is circumstantial at best. But I have to wonder, do you suspect that girl has enough intelligence to plan something so nefarious?::

::No.:: Damn it. She definitely didn’t.

***

It took a full two hours for the stone to finish cooling. During that time, I had Little Spring stand on a sheet of metal I made to help level the patch with the rest of the area. It was his punishment for letting it slip that I was the real mastermind behind the formation repair.

He stared at me with large, adorable eyes. “Is it done yet?”

I studied it with my divine sense. “It’s still a little warm, but everything appears to be connected correctly, and even the cracks have vanished.”

Siren held up a hand. “Wait. Let me inform the junior sect leader that we’re going to activate it soon.”

The junior sect leader’s voice entered my ears, and from how everyone else appeared to listen, they heard it, too. “Don’t activate the formation just yet!”

I scowled. Why the hell not?

“The spiritual fruit wholesaler, Chi Qi Tan, is making an offer for our Irrepressible Blood Chrysanthemum haws .”

The hell? That was the flower that they used to create their beast blood contract bath. After the flower fully matured, it would drop its petals and form a haw fruit similar to rose hips.

I hadn’t had the chance to study the fruit of the Irrepressible Blood Chrysanthemum yet since I had been busy with the flower, but if it was anything like a spiritual hawthorn fruit, it would be mildly poisonous but packed with medicinal properties. If they could remove the poison through processing, they would be a perfect product for immortal chefs.

That said, this was the secret plant of the sect. It was something rare that could only grow in these ocean-side mountains, a space similar to Little Spring’s, or in an advanced horticultural formation. But the last two options were so costly that only larger sects or clans could make them.

What deal could possibly be so important that the junior sect leader would stop us from activating the formation right away?

“Elders, I need your approval to sell all the haws we have in stock from the old chrysanthemums. We weren’t planning on using them for seeds anyway, since we separated the highly poisonous crop from the variants we’ll use for the beast blood contracts. In exchange, the auction house has agreed to provide us with spirit stones, armor, trap formations, and weapons.”

Were they doing this because they believed the sect would get wiped out and have its plants destroyed? Or was there a more sinister reason? I was sure this was a shady as fuck deal, but it wasn’t something the current sect could pass up.

”I need the approval from at least half of the elders. Including our temporary elder, Linlin.”

I turned to Vengeful Siren. “Do you know anything about this Chi Qi Tan company?”

He shrugged. “They mostly sell spiritual fruits like bananas, oranges, and pineapples en masse, but they also sell rare fruits to powerful cultivators all over the world. They’re owned by a large conglomeration of medium-sized clans. But their main owner is a member of the largest clan on the continent.”

If they were from the orthodox faction, it was possible that this was a trap of some kind… Or they were just capitalists profiteering off of a war between three giants. It was hard to say when I lacked proper research on them and the sect politics of this area.

“Temporary Elder Linlin, with Noxious and a few other elders in closed-door cultivation, you’re the tiebreaker.”

Goddamn it. ::You should take it. If this company is working both sides of the war, then not taking up on their offer will only hurt you, especially if they’ve already provided weapons, armor, and formations to the other side. Just have loyal experts inspect everything before you make the exchange.::

The junior sect leader paused. “So we’re damned if we take it, but worse off if we don’t?”

::Essentially.::

”I’m mostly worried that they’ll grow their own bushes from our seeds and cut us out in the future.”

::This sect needs to survive first before it can worry about companies taking advantage of its special fruits. If it makes you feel better, I know that when the seeds get out, they’ll have a hard time growing them outside of this area. And even if they can get them to produce haws, they’ll be from a different and more flawed version of the bush. Don’t give them any of the new variants.::

“I’ll make doubly sure!”

I grinned.

Around forty minutes later, Wild Hoof said. “The sect will activate our defensive formation in a few short minutes. This will isolate us completely. If you are not within a sect’s boundary by the time it turns on, you will be left outside. If that happens, you will need to count on your own fortunes to survive. Good luck, disciples of the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect! Rawr!”

All throughout the sect, a roar taken up by all the legitimate disciples echoed through the mountains, causing the ground to vibrate. Even the contracted beasts and little Xiao Bai joined in for the fun of it.

I turned to Siren. “Do you have the spirit stones ready and the key to activate it?”

”The Spirit stones are stored in a secret vault only the sect leader and the formation have access to. And all I have to do is break a token to activate it.” He held up a finger. “But first, let me do a divination.”

It had been a while since I’d seen a diviner around. I didn’t know the unorthodox sect had anyone with that skill, but it made sense since they had survived for this long, even with all their dumb-ass mistakes.

He pulled out a turtle shell and began throwing coins inside of it. He threw them eight times. Then sixteen. After tossing them a hundred and twenty-eight times, he walked over to Little Spring and handed him a blood red jade token.

”According to my divination, we’ll have the best results if little Verdant Spring here activates it.” He tapped on the smooth white surface. “Just crush it.”

He nodded and, as if trying to bend it, he used all of his physical strength, causing veins to bulge in his hands and neck. It didn’t budge.

Everyone appeared completely flabbergasted.

”Oh!” Then he struck it with his finger while including his spiritual energy. The jade shattered like glass.

Power thrummed through the air. The whole node glowed brightly before sending an illusory circle up, high above our heads. All throughout the sect, more nodes revealed themselves through pillars of light. Blue lines burst out from their symbols, connecting with each other to surround the three peaks of the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect and the foothills that included the outer sect. Like a wave of light, a thin sheet of cerulean hexagonal tiles covered the area before disappearing. It was beautiful.

[Image Link]

Cheers sounded all around us. Elder Vengeful Siren tilted his head like he was having a secret conversation, likely with the junior sect leader.

“Did it work?” The kid asked.

I pointed to the sky. “You think it didn’t after all that?”

He shrugged. “It disappeared.”

”It’s still there, just invisible. Making it glow all the time wastes too much energy, and this formation pretends to be efficient.”

Vengeful Siren and Golden Pride shared a grin. “We did it! We’re safe for a week and a half!”

Whether we would get all of those days or not was up in the air. It was always possible that they’d hit us with so much damage that the formation had to consume more energy from the shield than the sect had spirit stones.

But at least step two of saving this sect was complete. Now it was on to step three. Preventing Teasing Mouse from being a distraction for the competent disciples of the sect.

After the bullshit she just caused, I had upped her danger level from threat to possible disaster. The best way I could think of to get her out of the way would be to brainwash the elders I’d trap in my treatment bath until they understood that keeping that idiotic brat out of the war and its preparations was necessary. Considering she was likely suffering from an itchy poison that would last a while, I believed this wouldn’t be too difficult.