After heading the Fate's Shadow Headquarters, Wang Ju locked herself in a room, refusing to meet any of her subordinates.
The truth of the matter was that today's failure affected her more than she let on. The reason being the fact that the little rivalry between the Dao Opening Sect and the Death Order Palace.
The title or position of Shadow is not just some random position of the sect with no power. On the contrary, the Shadow is considered the Yin of the Sect Master's Yang.
As such, the Shadow is privy to tremendous amounts of knowledge and information that even some Supreme Elders are not aware of. Some information can be very well considered taboos of the world.
As such, every generation of shadow will have countless restrictions placed on them in order not to reveal these secrets. On top of that, the Shadow will go through a ceremony in which they bind their life to the Sect Master that they served.
If the Sect Master died for some reason, the current Shadow will be responsible to hand over all his subordinate and power to the next chosen Shadow, then commit suicide to accompany the sect master in the afterlife.
There is only way to dissolve this bond, and that is for the Shadow to defeat the sect master that it served in a direct duel.
The reason for this was actually the origin of the Shadow.
This method of binding the shadow was used by the sect to keep their secrets and properly control their intelligence agency and prevent them from defecting to the enemy sect.
As such, long ago, the Shadow did not have the opportunity of freedom, until the Shadow Ruler Emperor.
Thinking about the Shadow Ruler Emperor, Wang Ju sighed. This was indeed an amazing Emperor of the sect.
He was the only Emperor from the sectarian faction of the Dao Opening Sect.
Not a lot is known about the Shadow Ruler Emperor besides the fact that he was an orphan adopted by the sect to train as an intelligent agent.
Through numerous competitions, he slowly rose to the highest position of Shadow and started to serve the Sect Master at that time.
According to the Sect's record, he was a fine shadow and was extremely good at his job. Until, he did something no one expected: he demanded a fair deal with the Sect Master of the sect right before the Heaven Mandate Battle.
Back in that time, the position of Shadow was not nearly as high as today. As a matter of fact, most shadows were nothing but dead men raised by the sects, ready to sacrifice their lives for the sect at any giving moment.
So, when a shadow demanded that he actually fought the Sect Master, right on the verge of the Heaven Mandate Battle, many people were shocked, then outraged that a lowly "slave" raised by the sect dared to challenge their master.
Many people called that the shadow was executed immediately. However, some elders at that time convinced the others to just allow this fight to happen as a way to show the superiority of the sect master and squashed the ambitions of future shadows.
So, the fight was set.
However, to the horror of all the high levels of the sect, the sect master of that time was decimated.
According to records, the fight was not even a close one as the shadow easily defeated the sect master of that time. In fact, if the sect master did not activate the restrictions placed on the shadow, he might have died in that battle.
After this fight, the high level were shocked and terrified. You have to know that the sect master at that time was their most powerful cultivator, chosen to fight for the Heaven Will of that generation. However, he was defeated so easily.
As such, many people of the sect wanted to immediately kill the shadow to prevent a future enemy. With the powerful restriction they had placed on him, it was still possible to do this.
However, not all people felt that way. A few people believed that the Shadow was raised by their sect and belonged to one of them.
Instead of killing, it is better to remove the restriction on him, then allow him to represent the sect in the Heaven Mandate Battle instead of the sect master.
The disagreement between the two sides got so bad that it reached the point that a civil war was about to happen in the Dao Opening Sect.
However, on the brink of the war, a powerful elder appeared and stopped the fighting. The Elder then reprimanded all the upper echelons of the sects for forgetting the teaching of the Ancestors.
He reprimanded them on how over the years, the sect have gotten arrogant due to the fact that they are considered one of the most powerful sects in the world. And if such arrogance did not stop, then it is only a matter of time before the sect is ruined in the hands of future descendants.
After that, the Elder sided with the more reasonable faction and removed the restriction of the Shadow and allowed him to represent the sect to compete for the Heaven Will.
Wang Wei remembered how intrigued she was when she read this part of history. She always wanted to know who was the person that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The records did not mention any name, just referred to him as the Elder. However, Wang Ju believed that the origin of this person was extraordinary as he could actually be all the upper echelons of the sect.
Being able to reprimand all those Supreme Realm True Monarchs, then let them listen to him, this person must not have high status, but also be very powerful. Wang Ju guessed that this person must be one of the Immortal Venerable or Dao Ancestors that the sect have kept a secret.
When Wang Ju was in the Shadow Training Camp, she learned of their existence. However, the information she knew was also disturbingly vague. So, she knew that by only reaching a certain level she would be privy to these secrets.
. . .
Back to the story of the Shadow.
When the Heaven Will Battle arrived, the Shadow went on to suppress all his peers. His appearance was a shock to many of the Heaven Chosen of that generation when they realized that the person representing the Dao Opening Sect was the Shadow known to do the dirty works of the sect.
However, none of that mattered because the Shadow managed to prove the Dao and become known as the Shadow Ruler Emperor.
After this event, a new sect rule was created that allowed the Shadow to challenge the sect master in order to remove their restriction and change from Shadow to Sect Master.
Of course, Wang Ju has no desire to challenge Wang Wei for the position of Sect Master. As a matter of fact, she is technically not really the True Shadow as this position is still in the hands of the person serving Sect Master Wang Tian.
The reason that she remembered this story right now was because of what Wang Wei said to her today.
The Shadow Ruler Emperor was treated terribly back then by the sect, however, he still remained loyal.
After he became Emperor, the Shadow Ruler could have forsaken the Dao Opening Sect, or turned hostile to them, but he did not.
So, when Wang Wei said those words today, it showed that he treated her like her family instead of just a subordinate.
And it also made her realize that the loyalty of a Shadow to the Sect Master is not a one way street like she believed, but a tunnel that connects them both together.
Just those soothing words were enough for Wang Ju, but she did not expect that her young master even promised to give her a Dao Washing Pill.
She knew how precious that pill was as it requires a total of 9 million years to make, not to mention all the precious materials needed.
In order to refine such a pill, an alchemist has to place his furnace in a formation and let countless years pass in order for it to be finished. And most alchemists would not even live long enough to see the pill finish due to the long time required.
And what is the purpose of this pill?
Well, as the name suggests, it is to allow the Dao to wash away a person's body and increase their talents: whether it is their sensitivity to spiritual qi, the strength of their body, and more importantly, their understanding.
This pill is only used by the sect when there is no Heaven Chosen talented enough to represent them in a generation. With this, the sect can turn an ordinary genius into a Heaven Chosen with a talent close enough to people with special physique.
Even then, according to the sect's rules, the Sect Master cannot directly decide who to provide this pill to. The decision must be made when more than three quarters of Elders agree to the same person.
However, Wang Ju is aware that each of the three families of the Dao Opening Sect have secret stashes of this pill hidden in their own clan. These clans will never publicly acknowledge that they have such a thing because the sectarian faction actually does not.
The three families have gone through extreme lengths to keep the recipe of the Dao Washing Pill to themselves, thus weakening the strength of the sectarian faction.
This is the reason that Wang Ju did not doubt Wang Wei's words when he promised to provide her with the pill.