"I bound her to with an item I received as a prize in the Bloodthirst Sect's secret realm. They called it the 'Slavery Collar', and it should make her unable to lie to or disobey my orders. Of course, since she switched sides, I will take it off."
Layla raised an eyebrow in surprise at his words, feeling a mix of impression and annoyance.
"Enslaving the sect seed of a top five sect?" she eventually chose to laugh, "That's rather courageous. However, it's also foolish. Slavery Collars are evil items that are condemned in our continent, you'd only give more legitimacy to the Four Seasons Sect's claims that you're an evil cultivator who should be turned over."
"This kind of legitimacy is an empty way to justify taking from the weak. Is the Serene Lotus Sect weak?" Ken partly teased her, partly asking a serious question. He knew that after demonstrating his strength in the competition, his value had only risen, but he overestimated his credit.
"Argh!" Without warning, the room blurred around Ken. A sharp, jarring pain exploded in his side, catapulting him across the room. He hit the floor with a resounding crash, the impact rattling his bones. Dazed, he barely registered the echo of his body hitting the ground, a split second of confusion before realizing he had been attacked.
"Don't overstep your boundaries, Ken. You might be valuable, but it doesn't make you immune to laws nor does it exempt you from paying respect to those above you. One day, your status might be even higher than mine, but that is not going to happen any ti soon."
"I understand, Elder Layla," Ken groaned as he got up. From a quick check, he could tell that he had fractured at least three ribs and broke his nose from Layla's show of might. During the whole conversation, she never changed her position, remaining seated with one leg crossed over the other.
In a mont of anger at the humiliation, he exuded a hint of bloodlust and killing intent, but he quickly suppressed it, making it vanish as though it had never been there.
Layla nodded upon seeing his control over his emotions, ignoring his brief outburst. With a quick eye-to-eye glance, they knew neither of them held a grudge over what took place. Layla saw him as a young teen who needed discipline, while he knew how she saw him. He could respect that she only did it in private without harming his reputation.
"Good." Layla's voice was calm but carried an undercurrent of sternness. "Consider this, Ken. It's not about fearing the opinions of other sects. It's about the seeds we sow with our actions. Evil, once rooted, tends to spread its tendrils far and wide. Once you legitimize enslaving outsiders, it would only take a few days at worst, and at best, a few centuries before disciples start using such underhanded controlling thods on each other. Once this happens, the fall of the sect would be only a matter of ti."
"Thank you for explaining, Elder Layla, I was wrong," Ken replied without hesitation. He only thought about it from his own perspective, but he could see the truth in her words now.
Of course, he did not regret his actions; he just agreed that he should not overuse the slavery collars and that no sect should legitimize using it officially. If Ken thought using it would carry more benefits than risks, he'd enslave as many people as needed, and his cri wouldn't interrupt his sleep for a single mont.
"Good. We will make sure she's on our side and then you can remove the collar," Layla decided, ignoring the hypocrisy in her words. Despite speaking ill about the slavery collar, she thought it'd be a sha not to put it to use if it was already there.
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Back to the present:
'Hmm, even the Godly Qi is not enough for the advancent. I just can't make my body absorb the amount of Qi needed in ti, I'm certain of it after my attempt; it's not Vivi's incompetence or laziness,' Ken thought to himself. He had all the Qi he needed, he simply could not suck it into his body fast enough.
"Does it an Vivi will never make it to the seventh stage?" Alaric asked in curiosity, "We could just give one of our attributes up, but she can't do that, can she?"
"If the road is unpaved, make your own path. This monk thinks we should listen to what Team Leader has to say," said Henry as he released so of his Buddhistic Qi, calming everyone's minds. Since there were no malicious intentions behind it, nobody tried to fend it off.
"Indeed, she only has a single attribute, but as I said, none of us is going to give anything up, so this is irrelevant," Ken declared.
"It's unfair to treat it as a single attribute, you know?" Vivi protested against their wording, "I worked hard to develop my Elental Qi. In fact, technically, I have many more attributes than all of you."
Even Ken had to admit that Vivienne's powers were incredible. The woman's Qi made every elental technique stronger, aning she could use many different attributes without any disadvantage. While her favorites remained Fire Qi and Wind Qi, she could execute lightning attacks, earth moves, and more.
He rembered how surprised everybody in the room was when she was forced to confess her attributes before he removed her collar. According to her words, her exact affinity was not known even in the Four Seasons Sect. She only practiced Fire Qi and Air Qi in public before she advanced to the Core Formation Stage.
He recalled the elders' hands shaking with excitent, the passion in their eyes, and even occasional hints of greed. Fortunately, none of them could change their attributes now, making Vivienne feel much safer amidst the jealousy.
The elders' enthusiasm for welcoming such an astounding inheritance into their sect was only overshadowed by their disappointnt a few years later when they learned that she couldn't advance to the seventh stage, decreasing its worth significantly.
'The Serene Lotus Sect is obsessed with collecting inheritances, and the more unique they are, the more passionate they are about it. Every ti a new inheritance is found, they act like children who have laid their hands on a rare ga card,' Ken thought, amused.
"Don't worry about it," he eventually chose another approach. "Bag your things, we are going to switch to another sect."
"As in betraying the Serene Lotus Sect? Are you sure we can afford that?" Vivi asked cautiously. She never managed to make Ken change his mind since she joined his team fifteen years ago, so she could only try to be privy to his reasons.
"True, I'm not joining a suicide mission that turns the strongest sect on the continent into our enemy when we still aren't in the Supremacy Phase," Tiara stated, making her stance clear. Nobody in the continent liked them, and turning their last ally into an enemy was a death sentence.
"We are not betraying the sect. We will go on a long mission out of the sect's territory undercover. We haven't made an appearance outside in many years and we were forgotten. It's ti to remind the continent who we are."
"Don't act so cold, Icy Princess," Alaric said, patting her shoulder. "We both know the five of us have great potential and strength when we combine forces."
Ken smiled coldly as Alaric brought out his guqin and played a cheerful lody. The young man knew that he might beco wanted by the whole continent for his future actions, but he'd fight the whole world in order to maximize his cultivation.
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