"So, what do we do now, headmaster?" asked one teacher, while all the others also looked at him.
As for Bai Han, he secretly sighed in relief after hearing this question. As a matter of fact, he lied, or to be precise, did not tell the whole truth. What Bai Han said about the Spirit of the Epoch is true, but his motives are not so pure.
During the recent incident, he has developed a strong disliking for Wang Wei because he reminded him of his father--Emperor Kong.
Their amazing talents, the way that they always think outside the box, and more importantly, the way that they use the entire world as their chessboard and everyone else as a chess piece.
He hated some of these qualities from his father, as such, Bai Han discovered that he has projected some of his hatred to Wang Wei. Nevertheless, despite realizing the nature of his emotions, he refused to change them.
After taking a deep breath, Bai Han replied to the other teachers: "Before we discuss our next step, we first need to make sure that our internal troubles are dealt with first.
"So, did we discover how the people of the Dao Opening Sect took control of our formation?"
"Unfortunately, the answer is no, headmaster," responded the teacher that was in charge of the security of the Academy. "After the incident, I investigated the person in charge of the formation, but they were completely clean.
"In the end, I was forced to even search his soul, but I did not find anything; she had no relationship with the people of the Dao Opening Sect, or anyone else for that matter. We did not even find her contacting anyone strange."
"Bai Han had a frown on his face as he realized that this should be a problem that they placed their emphasis on. Then, he said: "In that case, let's talk about our counter-measure for this situation.
"First, we have to ensure that these terrible rumors about us do not reach the Domains controlled by our Academy; these places are the foundation of our Academy, and nothing can happen to these places--no matter what.
"Second, since we could not get access to certain precious resources from the different Associations in the South, we have to use outside help. Luckily, our recent ally, the Association of Chamber Commerce has agreed to provide us with some of the rare resources.
"However, their conditions are that the price will be more than a hundred time than before, and they will not publicly support us."
"Tsk," said one of the teachers. "Before Xi Guan was begging us and even sending his daughter to us, but now that we are in trouble, he wants to turn his face over?"
"You cannot blame him. After all, the alliance between Lin Fan and Xi Shi had just been created, and before the Chamber of Commerce could reap any benefit from it, our Academy was hit so hard.
"We should be satisfied that they were willing to keep the alliance given the circumstances. As for the increase in price, it should be expected given that they are merchants: making profit is their fundamental nature," replied one teacher.
Bai Han nodded in agreement with her. Then, he said: "Our third step is to counter-attack. Since the Dao Opening Sect can use public opinions to attack us, we can do the same to deal with them."
Of course Bai Han knew that this particular endeavor would probably be useless. With Wang Wei's cunningness, he should have anticipated such a response and prepared beforehand for it. Nevertheless, the Academy still has to try to show its stands that it is willing to fight for its honor and glory.
"Lastly, we need to do whatever it takes to prevent Wang Wei from gaining access to the 3000 Dao Tablets.
"According to my analysis, since his Fate Puppeteer Physique is a brand new one, he does not have a cultivation technique perfectly suited to him that allows him to play all the advantages of his physique.
"Hence the reason that he wants access to the Tablets. So, we must stop him by all means."
"How do we do that, headmaster?"
"First, we must prevent Li Jun from entering the top 30 of this tournament. With his strength, it is only a matter of time before he acquires a spot in the top 30. As long as he gets a token, he will not hesitate to hand it over to Wang Wei. So, we must deal with this situation first."
All the teachers had pensive looks on their faces, then one person said: "Couldn't we just make a rule that the person who got the token can only use it for themselves?"
Another teacher shook his head before saying: "That will not work. Everybody knows that the rule previously stated that a person can do whatever they want with the token. There have been many precedents of people using their tokens for someone else.
"So, if we rashly change the rules again--adding to the previous debacle of the Professional Championship--the people of the Dao Opening Sect can use this as another way to attack our reputation again."
"Not to mention that they could use this event to start an Emperor Dao War with us," added one teacher.
Then, the faces of all the other people in the room became ugly. Many of them are aware that if they ever started an Emperor Dao War with the Dao Opening Sect, their chances of being the winner are quite slim.
The truth of the matter, this is one of the reasons that the Dao Opening Sect is so feared by many other factions of this world: their foundations were too deep.
Not only did they have the most Great Emperors in this world, they are one of the oldest factions of this world. So, no one knows how many secrets that they are hiding in there.
Bai Han coughed lightly to wake up everyone from their dread then he said: "We do not need to change the rules, just make sure that he is 'disqualified' with a publicly believable method."
"Headmaster, are you asking us to cheat? Isn't this going too far?" asked one teacher with a timid voice.
Bai Han looked directly at the person who spoke: "Do you want to allow the person who walked all over the face of our Academy to benefit from us without suffering any consequences?"
All the other teachers--including the one who asked that question--lowered their heads and did not say anything else. Thinking about what Wang Wei did to them, he really should not be allowed to get any benefit from them.
Bai Han secretly nodded before continuing: "Plus, we will not be cheating, just giving Li Jun's opponent a little advantage, that's all."
Although many teachers did not like such behavior, they knew that this was for the greater good of the Academy, so they did not say anything.
"The last thing we need to deal with is Crown Prince Ji Song," said Bai Han calmly.
Many teachers had a look that said: "What does Ji Song have to do with this?" Although they did not say anything, Bai Han could easily read their minds based on their facial expression.
Only a few savvy ones could guess the answer.
Bai Han sighed before giving the answer:
"All of you heard their discussion during the Opening Ceremony. Although no one heard what they bet on for their battle, based on Wang Wei's past behavior, it is obvious that he bait Ji Song into battling with him in order to acquire his token to enter the Secret Realm of the Dao Tablets."
Many people suddenly understood many things after hearing this, then they realized how scary Wang Wei truly was. They guessed that he had already created many back-up plans for himself after asking the Academy to give him a token in exchange for resources.
It was as if he expected his failure from the very beginning, then planned for every possible outcome to reach his goals.
"What's next, headmaster? In all honesty, I do not see a scenario where Ji Song becomes victorious in this battle. This Wang Wei seemed like a very scary person.
"I cannot believe that he is a member of the younger generation. From his actions, he seems like an old fox that has lived for many years."
"Well, given who his mother is, it is not that surprising that he is so cunning." replied another teacher.
Many teachers winced after hearing those words--including headmaster Bai Han. It seemed that many of them had suffered at the hands of Yu Yan during their generation.
Bai Han took a deep breath to calm himself down and removed some terrible memories from his mind that he would rather forget. Then he said calmly: "We need to give Ji Song some help. We will give him the Demon God Bone."