“Haa~ I really cannot figure you out. You may be powerful, but our sect did not artificially grow like the Supreme Master Pavilion.
Clear River Pavilion stood for more than a thousand years and there are generations of heritage that come with it. It is one of the oldest sects in this country that stood long before there was even a Jurong Kingdom and one of the considerably large sects on the continent, even though it might not enter the top 10 it is still within the top 50.
Do you even know how many generations of sect protectors we have? We did not take many disciples in, as we raised the bar very high since there were too many people who wanted to join, but after so much time do you think our sect is as feeble as the Supreme Master Pavilion?
The current pavilion master is a Core Formation Expert, and unlike the decrepit ancestor of the Supreme Master Pavilion who barely reached his realm and whose life force was already depleted, he is in his prime and in the 6th level”
She started persuading him. His feat of obliterating an entire medium-large-sized sect was no doubt impressive, but in her opinion, if he got on the high horse because of it he would be making a deadly mistake.
“I know”
But he simply nodded in return with the same smile.
“I am grateful for all that you have done for me, and that you want to help me, but I cannot in good consciousness lead someone I am indebted to death”
“I think you are overthinking this, I do not need to fight all of your sect since I do not like meaningless slaughter without any cause, and you are there so we should theoretically be able to spare anyone not related. Though that depends on you.
Additionally, I do not need to hunt them down like Lust Cultivators, so if we do have to fight the sect protectors once they start running I can ignore them.
Thus, the only ones that could possibly be of any consequence are your grand elders, sect ancestors, and the sect master.
And if you do not want to lead me, it is fine, I will tag along on my own. We cannot arrive at the same time anyway, since then it will not be you welcoming me as you promised but us coming together”
He replied in an absolutely calm and somewhat casual tone as if he was talking not about fighting a sect but about going out shopping.? After some time of looking at him, she sighed somewhat defeated.
She had to go, but there was nothing she could do to stop him from following her, and nothing she said seemed to work.
“Haa~…fine, do what you want…I just do not want to hear any words of resentment on the way to the Yellow Springs”
“Great, shall we set off then?” ．
He smiled at her, and she shook her head in surrender. Wu Long tipped the waiter generously and set off with Wei Lan. The spring rain left as suddenly as it appeared, so they went without their cloaks or bamboo hats.
“You have quite an abundant Spiritual Land”
He commented as they went out of town and started on the trail leading to the sect through the Spiritual Lands. Wu Long sensed that the Spiritual Qi here was quite potent, thus creating a good atmosphere for cultivation. The surroundings should also be abundant with quality medicinal plants and the like.
“Yes, but that makes it that much more dangerous since the demonic beasts that populate it are generally of higher tiers. We even have confirmed a low-level 8th-tier demonic beast in the depths”
“Oh? What type of beast is it?”
“It is a fire attribute snake-type beast, but we cannot match it to any records so we just call it the Fire King, since it is the overlord of these Spiritual Lands. Even the strongest people in the sect cannot do anything about it so we avoid going into the depths to not provoke it”
“Fire-attribute snake?”
Wu Long’s eyes shined with interest, as this might turn out a good profit if it had a Neidan.
“I just told you that it was an 8th-tier demonic beast right? It means it would take at least a Core Reformation Realm practitioner to just not get instantly obliterated by it”
She looked at him with astonishment when she noticed a certain glint in his eyes.
“You love food, right? Think of how delicious the meat of a high-tier demonic beast would taste”
When Wu Long said this, a somewhat dazed look appeared on her face, but she quickly snapped out of it and shook her head. Not that the higher the tier the more delicious the meat was, but the abundance of Spiritual Qi that coursed through the meat would cause a change, producing a reaction with a cultivator’s taste buds, making the meat taste delicious specifically to cultivators.
“You are a madman!”
“Hahaha”
Wu Long only laughed at her look of shock at what kind of ideas visited his head.
“I am joking, if we really were to eat it, we would have to look for someone to cook it, since it has to be a skilled person”
“I can cook it! … I mean, hypothetically… stop putting crazy ideas into my head!”
She blurted out the first part of her response almost instinctively, the second part was where it hit her what she had said first, and when she got out of her flustered state because of the first statement she slightly blushed and glared at him with rebuke. Wu Long first looked a little surprised but only laughed more later.
On the way they met several disciples of the sect in separate groups who looked at her with shock and as she smiled at them awkwardly greeted her.
After some time…
“Stop there!”
They saw a patrol of sect protectors, and as Wei Lan told him, he did not see anyone below the 6th level Qi Manifestation Realm among them, meaning that those who could not reach this realm did not qualify to stay as sect protectors and would have to either leave or become sect retainers.
“Who-…G…G-Grand elder Wei?!?!”
As they looked closer at who was approaching the protected territory their eyes widened.
“It is nice to see you, Protector Gan, do you think you can let me through? I am quite exhausted from travel and also have a guest”
“…My apologies, Grand Elder Wei, no can do”
As Wei Lan greeted the leader of the patrol squad he first was shocked and then a regretful expression appeared on his face. As Wei Lad raised her eyebrows he was a little surprised but continued to explain.
“You were officially ex-communicated from the sect…we were told you left of your own accord after the scandal”
“Scandal?”
“…You and Grand Elder Lin, Grand Elder Mo, as well as a number of elders were accused of accepting bribery to subvert the sect interests, as well as collaborating with corrupt country officials and sects to oppress the innocents of the country, the other Grand Elders fought back and were killed along with some of the other traitors, but you and most of the elders should have left…”
Wu Long saw the fire of fury she suppressed before exploding again in Wei Lan’s eyes. He sighed as he expected something like this.
This was a regular behavior of sects that were considered righteous and just. The people who were usually at the top of such sects enjoyed their status of righteous people and the respect they got for being just, as well as craved to be viewed as upholders of morals and principles, thus, when they acted in an unjust manner they had to make up a sanctimonious reason for it, that would let them continue being viewed as just and righteous in the eyes of society.
Of course, they knew that it was to some extent a pointless effort as there were always people who saw how the world really worked and not what they were shown, but the number of such people was truly pitiful compared to the mindless crowds who gobbled the lies and pretenses of these people, so their vanity was satisfied with that.
It was also the reason why such people were usually aloof and quite shut off from the outside, since they wanted to be seen as above the mundane which was their excuse to not see people from the sects that were not righteous. They did not like meeting people from? ‘unrighteous’ sects who would jab at them with comments about their ‘righteousness’ in their conversations with largely no consequences since they still did it in veiled ways. Of course, open ‘defamation’ and ‘insulting the integrity’ of such people would almost always be met with retaliation, which could be immediate or slow depending on the situation and offender.
Wu Long was very familiar with this behavior but it seems that Wei Lan was meeting it for the first time. It was likely that she was kept in the dark when the sect or its members did shady things, and was left alone only because of the strength she brought to the sect.
He did not interfere, only waiting for her to calm down and deal with the situation herself, as he was here only as support and not the main participant in the events that were about to transpire.