Wei Lan and Wu Long were now escorted by around thirty elders and all of the remaining nine Grand Elders as they did not let anyone from the lower level members follow. The sect members continued to assemble in front of the sect’s central plaza while the elders created a perimeter in front of the crowd to cordon off the area.
A few Grand Elders and the majority of Elders wore guilty expressions once they were a bit further from the other sect members. It was not like all of the people were in on the conspiracy. Most of the people were just going along with the flow. However, it did not make them any different in Wu Long’s eyes.
“Quit fooling around and go!”
The Elders were slightly unnerved by Wu Long’s strange behavior as he continued to praise and admire the architecture around, touching everything, and seemingly feeling the materials it was all made of.
But he was with Wei Lan, and he did not seem that consequential since his realm reached only Qi Condensation. So they did not really pay that much attention to him, his behavior was just a little irritating to them. Wei Lan only shook her head as Wu Long chuckled and ignored them.
As they reached the Main Pavilion, they saw a man who stood in front of it. He looked middle-aged with the refined appearance of an imperial scholar. An impression people of the ‘righteous’ sects loved to give others.
There were also two people behind him, one was a woman looking not much older, but the man beside her started to show signs of aging, which meant that he entered about the final seventh part of his natural lifespan. All three of them were in the Core Formation Realm, and Wu Long could easily guess that the two behind were Sect Ancestors.
If the requirement to become sect master of this sect was reaching that realm, it could easily take hundreds of years before such a person would appear with the state of this fractured world. Thus their having not many ancestors despite having a heritage spanning over a thousand years is not surprising. There was most likely no founder among them since Core Formation Realm practitioners’ natural lifespan was only a little over a thousand years, so these two were likely later-generation sect masters.
There were also retired Grand Elders behind them, around twenty people in total, but most of them were not looking so old. Wei Lan noted that there were a lot of the older retired members as well as the oldest Sect Ancestor missing from the crowd, which meant that they also did not agree and were disposed of.
Wu Long then shifted his gaze to the right where a group of men, thirty men strong, stood across the little open space before the Main Pavilion. Their leader, a man in gray robes, was in the Foundation Building Realm, and the rest were in the Revolving Qi Realm. But the leader gave a much more dangerous feeling than the sect’s top practitioners despite being a realm lower.
‘Heh, either they really anticipated me here, or my luck is just that good’
He thought to himself, as a light of mild excitement appeared in his eyes. Last time he met such a dangerous opponent it ended in disappointment so he was still not able to completely get rid of that bad aftertaste.
Wu Long was not someone who would be considered what people usually call a battle junkie. He was quite the opposite, someone who preferred to get rid of his obstacles as fast as possible, and if he did not need to have a conflict he did not create one.
But not being able to release his full potential as it continuously and rapidly grew was a little frustrating. Additionally, fighting, danger, and being close to death were all part of the catalyst he used to stimulate his low potential in his past life, which allowed him to continuously break his limits in addition to other efforts, so he was used to struggling against bad odds. The lukewarm shallow waters he was in now were slowly but surely stifling him a little. 𝙚𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝙡.𝙤𝙧𝒈
Thus he greatly appreciated the chance he got this time, hoping that it would be a more stimulating experience that would allow him to vent his frustration and also allow him to stabilize his foundation. He also expected a lot from the ‘righteous trio’ of the sect master and ancestors.
When the people who should be here were all assembled, the whole place was covered by a smaller dome, sealing the place and preventing anyone from eavesdropping.
“So…you’ve returned”
The sect master looked at Wei Lan with sadness and a little bit of guilt mixed in. Wu Long was genuinely surprised, but it seemed this man was not the completely corrupt ‘righteous’ leader of a sect, but a man who struggled with his decision. Though it ultimately did not change his fate since he chose to betray his consciousness and Wei Lan, he at least earned a not-so-miserable death in Wu Long’s checkbook.
“You should have not returned… you were lucky to come out safe, maybe you could have lived a good life…”
“Are you not going to make excuses?”
Wei Lan’s eyebrow slightly twitched at the word ‘lucky’, since she knew exactly what her fate would have been if Wu Long did not save her.
“No…I will not. I did what was right for the sect, and at the same time preserved my own life”
“Do you truly believe that?”
“Yes”
“How could you? All of … all of the people who trusted and respected you…!”
Pain broke Wei Lan’s voice a little. Her hands were trembling while holding her long staff.
“Haa~, you don’t understand… we mere mortals have no way to oppose the wishes of higher beings”
Wu Long narrowed his eyes at this sect master who seemed to believe that he had chosen a road of salvation for his sect. But he did not speak, letting Wei Lan deal with the situation so she could find some closure after it was all over.
They spoke for a while. The sect master was in a slightly melancholic mood, lamenting that she came, and regretting that it all came down to this. Wei Lan was filled with pain, bitterness, sorrow, and anger. The sect leader admitted everything, not trying to avoid responsibility.
“Why?”
Finally, Wei Lan asked him for his reasons, and the sect master deeply sighed, making a quick look at the person in gray robes not far to his left, who surprisingly was not at all paying attention to their conversation, but was focused on the extremely handsome but otherwise unremarkable in terms of cultivation young man beside Wei Lan. As he confirmed that the person was not interested in monitoring or restricting what he spoke about he turned back to her.
“I was shown a glimpse of what was behind the curtain of this world. I then understood that we are all tiny pawns in the grand scheme of chess masters who treat this world like a game board. We cannot resist them, so I chose the lesser of two evils”
“And you believe in that nonsense?!”
“I do, but you are different… you would not give in, and would have dragged our sect into a conflict it cannot endure…”
“You are simply a coward!”
“Perhaps I am… but a living coward is smarter than a dead brave man!!!”
Some anger flashed in the eyes of the sect master, and his voice rose gradually becoming an angry shout at the end. However regretful and guilty he felt, being called a coward in the face by the disciple he once cherished the most, and whose respect he greatly valued was not something he could endure without emotion.
“Is that all you can say?”
She looked at him, as disgust appeared in her eyes.
“It is all, I have nothing to say to you except that I am sorry it has come to this. You were wrong in coming here. Now, I will have to end your life with my own han-…”
As the sect master was talking and a long staff appeared in his hand, as well as in the hands of both sect ancestors, Grand Elders, and elders, a clear cracking sound resounded. The smaller dome covering them broke and the sound of a riot broke into the space like an avalanche into a peaceful valley.
A dozen sect elders broke into the place with panic on their faces.
“Are you crazy? Why did you break the formation? And what is going on outside?”
The sect master shouted as he clearly felt the Spiritual Qi belonging to these elders meaning that they were the ones who broke in.
“S-Sect Master! It is bad!!! Y-Your conversation was being leaked in amplified voices throughout the sect by our own sect Grand Formation! We tried to reach you with the communication jades but the formation seems to be blocking everything! We attacked the smaller formation and only were able to break through now!”
Shock appeared on all faces except for one. A light smile touched Wu Long’s lips and as Wei Lan turned to him he simply shrugged his shoulders. All those scenes where Wu Long admired the architecture run through her mind along with astonishment.