The shout which Yuan Shuchun and Jun Xie had ignored as someone being drunk was actually a trigger to activate the human bombs called Sleeper Cells!
Both of them couldn't help but take a deep breath when they thought such a small thing was actually going to have a disastrous effect on their sects.
Their shock didn't go unnoticed by the elders, and Grand Elder Xuan, who only cared about Yuan Shuchun's safety asked, "Disciple Yuan Shuchun, what happened to you?"
"That shout," Yuan Shuchun replied, "Just after there was an assassination attempt on Jiang Yun, we heard a faint shout coming from outside. It was the same 'thousand souls' shout which the assassins had said and the one you're saying is a trigger."
"Yes," Jun Xie added after Yuan Shuchun finished her words, "At that time we thought it was just a drunk disciple or something, and ignored that shout."
"Hm?" Sect Leader Su suddenly frowned, "Doesn't that mean everyone in the hall heard it, and if there were sleeper cells among the disciples… they too must have heard it."
The other elders beside him also nodded because they had also thought of this.
"We must get the disciples of the hall before it's too late," One of the Elders spoke, "The hall has too many disciples, and even if there's only a single sleeper cell, almost half of the disciples will die. This is a loss which the sect can't afford to suffer."
"Yes," Grand Elder Li nodded his head, "We need to take out the disciples, but the hard part is how to find those sleeper cells? Because we don't know who to separate from whom."
"This is also what is bugging me," Sect Leader Su added, "If we put a sleeper cell among normal disciples, then the lives of those disciples will be in danger."
"Also, we don't know how many sleeper cells there are."
"Why don't we separate them into peaks?" One of the elders proposed.
"And how will that help us?" Sect Leader Su rejected his proposal, "There's no point in separating the disciples based on their peaks or ranks, because, as I have said, any one of those disciples could be sleeper cells."
"Sect Leader Su, why are we only considering the disciples in the hall? What about the other disciples that were outside the Heavenly League building? Any one of them could also be a sleeper cell."
Sect Leader Su nodded, "Yes, we can't deny this possibility, however, sometimes we need to weigh the gains and losses. And tonight, whatever we do, there's a big chance that we will be the one who will be on the losing side."
"Are you saying we are not gonna care about the sleeper cells outside the heavenly league building?" Grand Elder Xuan chipped in, trying to put Sect Leader Su in a tight situation.
Sect Leader Su crossed his arms and replied, "It's not that this is something I want to do," He then looked at the other elders while explaining his thought, "But you see, the disciples in the hall will definitely die tonight if we do nothing because there's not enough space for them to scatter enough to get hurt."
"Also, those disciples are much more important because of their potential and talent. Don't forget that all the new Inner Court disciples of the sect are currently sitting in that hall."
"And if we don't do anything to stop the upcoming disaster, it will take more than a generation to get the disciples back on track. Not to mention the trust we will lose among the clans in our region, will they send their sons and daughters to a sect which couldn't even protect its own disciples?"
Many pursed their lips as they had words to argue with the Sect Leader.
Sect Leader Su then took a deep breath and finished his words by saying, "This is a war we have already lost, and I don't want our sect to face the worst situation."
"So what should we do?" Grand Elder Xuan asked, this time he was not in the mood to create trouble for the Sect Leader.
"We need to make a plan to get the disciples out of the hall and find the sleeper cells before it's too late." It was Grand Elder Li who replied to him this time.
"And when is that?"
"When what?" Grand Elder Li frowned.
"When is 'too late'?"
"Three hours after the shout is what I know. But I have no confirmation regarding this. The sleeper cells might explode anytime."
Sect Leader Su nodded his head and said, "Yes, and that's why we need to do something."
After a moment of thought, he said, "How about checking these disciples? After all, there must be some way or some link between them or between their leader?"
"There's no way someone could be trained into sleeper cells without formal training. Most probably their master is the same."
"Hm," Grand Elder Li nodded his head, "We need to find something which connects these sleeper cells to the master or the trigger."
Jun Xie suddenly said, "Master, I think we can only check each and every one of the disciples inside the hall, once we find some time which is weird but common in some disciples, they will most likely be the sleeper cell."
"This sounds plausible," Grand Elder Li replied, "However, this is not an easy task. The disciples are so many that we won't be able to check all of them."
"We can divide them into groups and then the elders and the core members of the Heavenly League will check the disciples." Yuan Shuchun said.
"How will we divide them into groups? And why should we not check the Heavenly League's disciples? After all, anyone from them could also very possibly be a Sleeper Cell." Jun Xie objected to her proposal.
In his opinion, everyone in the hall was a sleeper cell unless proven otherwise.
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A/n: If you find any typos/errors, please let me know through comments.