Teng Wuying was equal parts pleased and anxious. By benefit of his brother’s not so untily death, he was now the sole inheritor of his family’s resources. And he was still alive, which would have been a much more difficult feat to pull off had he remained in Sixth Flawless Flowing City.
On the other hand, he was standing in front of his sect leader, Duan Dandan, who did not look pleased to see him in the least.
Not daring to et her eyes, he cupped his hands. “Greetings, Sect Leader.”
“The reports I’m getting indicate our branch in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, the one which you are the appointed leader of, was completely destroyed,” the icy-eyed, white-haired woman said. “Why are you here?”
“To inform you of a likely incoming attack, Sect Leader,” he said ekly, keeping his face pointed toward the ground.
“You’re a little bit late, aren’t you?” Her tone was biting.
“Apologies, Sect Leader. Your…” Flunky. “…assistant kept waiting for days. If not for him, you would have received the warning in plenty of ti.”
She pursed her lips. “Explain.”
“My dear nephew, Teng Chun, got himself killed while accosting a higher reald cultivator—”
“Why would he do such a thing? He was a brute, but he wasn’t an idiot.”
“The higher reald cultivator did not behave like a higher reald cultivator, Sect Leader, at least in the eyes of my dear nephew. Or that’s what we believe was going through his head at the ti. He disobeyed my direct orders to observe only and approached the cultivator.”
“I see. Continue your report. You will provide a written version with the detail explaining how that conclusion was derived.”
“Of course, Sect Leader.”
Teng Wuying triggered a non-qi based technique he’d developed, causing sweat to appear on his forehead. The Sect Leader was considered the most intimidating person most people had ever t, and he took great pains to make it appear like he was just as cowed by her.
“Teng Jian, who was of course my brother and Teng Chun’s father, eventually erged from seclusion for a successful advancent to Golden Core minor realm seven, Sect Leader. It fell on this lowly one to inform him of his son’s death.
“As branch sect leader, I had received a missive from the Poison Claw Sect concerning the events leading to Teng Chun’s death, explaining that the higher reald cultivator was a friend of the Poison Claw Sect nad Chao Su. This Chao Su was willing to face Teng Jian personally in combat if necessary but, upon pain of major reprisals, urged that no attempt be made to harm his juniors.
“The Poison Claw Sect further espoused a lukewarm belief that Chao Su was capable of carrying out such a threat.
“I, of course, likewise conveyed that information to Teng Jian. He did not take it well.”
If anything, the sect leader’s face grew stormier. She was not convinced by his explanation. His task would have been easier had she not known Teng Jian so well.
“Of course he didn’t take it well, you idiot!” she yelled. “You telling him that would have been like waving a flag in front of a bull.”
“I was required to tell him, Sect Leader. He was my older brother. It was his right to be told any information regarding the family that wasn’t protected by sect confidentiality. Failing to do so would have made subject to censure and likely to being kicked out of the family. I could not take that risk.”
Duan Dandan still frowned, but her expression lightened so. “What happened next?”
Whew. That was the hard part of the conversation. If she bought that, he might actually escape her chambers with his position as a sect elder intact. A demotion would have made his life a bit more troubleso.
“Against my advice, he summoned two of his allies and departed for the village Chao Su was thought to have chosen as his base. As soon as the three left, I ca straight here, Sect Leader. For what happened after that point, I have heard rumors, but you are surely more well inford than I am.”
“Your dear brother apparently got both himself and his two idiot sycophantic friends killed, and because the unmitigated disaster of losing three of the sect’s Golden Core cultivators at once wasn’t enough for them, they also incited this Chao Su’s wrath by killing one of his sect mbers.”
“Sect mbers, Sect Leader?”
“Yes. He’s apparently given top heaven grade cultivation thods to a bunch of talentless peasants, ostensibly to fight against a beast tide, and called them a sect. It’s ridiculous that I’m even aware of the existence of an organization consisting of a couple hundred farrs, but that’s what the fate of the Jade Chaleon Sect has co to due to the Teng family.”
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Teng Wuying held back a grimace. That wasn’t good. While becoming the inheritor of his family was good and still having his life was even better, it was suboptimal to have that very sa family na be tarnished.
“Any cultivator would have acted the sa, Sect Leader,” he said. “Just like you surely cannot leave this Chao Su alone now due to the loss of face our sect has suffered, Teng Jian could not let the murder of his son go unpunished.”
There. A subtle ssage that he was more than prepared to use his connections to question her every decision if she chose to besmirch his na should quell her ardor on that subject.
“Whatever the cause, the end results are devastating,” she said, her voice much calr. “We have lost nearly half our Golden Core cultivators, including your … brother who was the farthest along of any of the current crop. Nearly as bad, we have lost countless spirit coins worth of materials with the complete destruction of the branch sect.”
“It can’t possibly be as bad as the rumors say, Sect Leader.”
He’d heard ridiculous stories saying that literally nothing was left. Preposterous. A hundred spatial rings combined wouldn’t have fit a fraction of the loot available at the sect branch. Chao Su could not have taken everything.
“I sent eyes I could trust to verify. It is as bad or worse. There is simply nothing left of the buildings or any other part of the grounds. Even the first foot of dirt was removed.”
“Then we must get it back, Sect Leader!”
“There is no getting it back. It was destroyed, not stolen. Chao Su apparently uses Lightning, Earth, Water, and Void in his attacks, among other elents.”
For the first ti in a long ti, Teng Wuying was struck dumb. He’d stashed pills and spirit coins in hiding places throughout the sect. If what the sect leader said was true, all those resources were gone. As was his residence in Sixth Flawless Flowing City with all the wealth he’d accumulated there.
All he had left were his family’s resources and a few ergency reserves.
She was right when she’d referred to the attack as an unmitigated disaster.
“Wait, Sect Leader. You said Lightning, Earth, Water, and Void?”
That assortnt of elents was extrely unlikely for any cultivator. Combining two separate primary elents with two rare and powerful secondary elents was almost unheard of.
“And you said ‘among other elents.’ That implies he used more?” He doubted the sect leader would either lie or receive inaccurate reports, but a cultivator having access to five elents was extrely improbable.
“If not for the evidence of him using so many elents in battle, I would have discounted the next piece of intelligence. Apparently, this peasant sect that he has created has a Trials Pagoda.”
Teng Wuying smiled, relieved beyond asure. “We must acquire this pagoda, Sect Leader. It is ours by right, given the destruction he has caused. And I shall petition the elders to be given leadership over it. After all, my family has been hard the most.”
The look on her face told him that his suggestion had not been received well, but that was okay. The elders had plenty of power to overrule her when it ca to such matters as distributing dominion over sect resources. As long as she okayed the initial attack, he would gain control over it.
And she absolutely had no choice but to authorize the attack. The pressure to resolve the huge loss of face was too severe for her to ignore.
“You will order the attack, won’t you, Sect Leader? After all, it is reported that he didn’t employ an aura. Perhaps, he hasn’t developed one yet.”
“Seven elents,” she said. “Seven. And he might have used more. It was difficult for the observers to detect all the elents used by his shield.”
He didn’t see her point. She was acting like the number of elents made him an unbeatable foe, or at least one that was unfathomable. But he was neither. Sure, such versatility would give Chao Su an advantage, but it was nothing that could not be overco. And the existence of the Trials Pagoda explained how he’d managed such a feat.
“The observers are absolutely positive that he employed a Concept with five of those elents,” she said. “So believed that all seven were powered by a Concept, but that assertion could not be confird.”
Teng Wuying had to do the math. Golden Core cultivators took an average of twenty-five years to form a Concept. Prodigies accomplished the feat in ten to fifteen years. The absolute record from a woman who achieved enlightennt during her ditation was five years.
But that ti period was just to form a Concept with one qi elent.
A person not knowledgeable with high reald cultivation might think that forming a Concept for a second elent was easier and thus took less ti. That person would be wrong.
In fact, forming a Concept for a second elent didn’t take twice as long as the first; it took four tis as long. Even assuming Chao Su was the most talented cultivator in existence, five years for the first plus twenty years for the second was the absolute minimum ti period to form two Concepts.
The third took even longer, nine tis as long as the first. The fourth took sixteen tis as long and the fifth twenty-five.
At a minimum, it had to have taken Chao Su at least two hundred seventy-five years to create five Concepts. But that ti period was based on a crazy assumption of it only taking him five years for the first. Ten years was still ridiculously short but was a much safer bet for a minimum, equating to five hundred fifty years required for him to form all those Concepts.
A Golden Core cultivator’s lifeti was only five hundred years.
The facts confird that not only was Chao Su definitely at least in the Nascent Soul realm—not that there had been any real doubt—but that he assuredly had developed his aura.
“I can see from the look on your face that you understand,” Duan Dandan said. “There are too many oddities about this Chao Su for him to be a simple Nascent Soul. He is sothing outside our experience. Whether that ans he’s reached Nihility or he simply has access to resources greater than all found on this entire continent combined, I do not know. I am, however, almost sure that all four of our Nascent Souls combined could not defeat him.”
“If he is indeed that powerful, all factions save for the Poison Claws will back us, Sect Leader. He’s surely not a match for twelve Nascent Souls.” Teng Wuying grinned suddenly. “Or ten.”
She frowned. “Ten?”
“Ren Ning and Guo Mingzhu both already have one foot in the grave, Sect Leader. Let them die heroes, sacrificing themselves for the good of the sect.”
“You want to throw away half our Nascent Souls on an attack they cannot win? For what purpose?”
He could almost see her thoughts churning as she paused.
“If this Chao Su defeats both of them in straight up combat, the other factions will see his true strength,” she said. “Between that and their greed for his treasures, they will band together with us. We just have to be ready to seize the spoils.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
She frowned again. “There is a problem. The elders will never approve this plan.”
Teng Wuying t her eyes for the first ti during that eting. “They will if I tell them to.”
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