"The disciple who lost his life, Kang Bai, was from the Kang Clan of the Capital City, and his father, Kang Ximin, will be arriving here soon."
Elder Tu's words rang throughout the meeting hall as he continued, "The high tier Qi Stealing Mole was killed by Kang Bai before it could hurt anyone else. However, Kang Bai lost his life in the process."
Sect Leader Su pursed his lips and asked, "What actually happened in that incident?"
Elder Tu took a deep breath and replied, "Actually, as usual, everything was working out fine; the disciples were tasked to hunt down as many Qi Stealing Moles as possible. But after about an hour or so, something happened in the inner region of the Spiritual Medicine Mountain, and one of the high tier Qi Stealing Mole got out of the array bindings and started to wreak havoc."
"Unfortunately, disciple Kang Bai was within the range of the high tier Qi Stealing Mole and thus went towards the noise of the commotion. Sensing danger and assessing the situation, Kang Bai, instead of running away, decided to fight and take down the high tier Qi Stealing Mole."
"But all this was for a naught because the cultivation difference was too huge, in the end, with no choice left, Kang Bai decided to sacrifice himself and died alongside the Qi Stealing Mole, thus saving the lives of many disciples."
Sect Leader Su nodded his head when he heard those words, and after a moment of thought, he asked, "How did the high tier Qi Stealing Mole even get out of the array system? Did you investigate the situation?"
Elder Tu nodded his head as he replied, "Sect Leader, we did investigate the situation, and it turns out that the array system somehow failed due to an unknown reason."
"Investigate further regarding this unknown reason; we can't have our arrays failing like this. This time it was Kang Bai; next time it would be someone else." Sect Leader Su was not going to take the situation lightly.
Elder Tu nodded his head and said, "Yes, Sect Leader. Even now, as I speak, elders are investigating the situation."
"Alright," Sect Leader Su then paused for a moment before continuing, "When will Kang Ximin come here?"
"Clan Head Kang should be here by evening."
"Hmm," Taking a deep breath, Sect Leader Su then looked at other elders while asking, "What do you think should be the appropriate answer to him? The situation is still under investigation. We can't just shift blame to anyone."
"Why do we need to shift blame?" Grand Elder Xuan spoke, "That Kang Clan kid wanted to play hero and lost his life, case closed."
"Grand Elder, what if someone else was present at the scene? What if the Qi Stealing Mole got out due to human error?" Sect Leader Su asked.
"So what?" Grand Elder Xuan shrugged, "We don't need to waste our time in this."
"We already have the situation - high tier Qi Stealing Mole got out, Kang Bai sacrificed his life to stop it."
"There's no need to dig a hole for ourselves by proving this story wrong."
"But that won't be right," Sect Leader Su shook his head, "Why should a life of a disciple be wasted for no reason? Why should we suppress this situation?"
Grand Elder Xuan took a deep breath and said, "I don't understand why you want to attract more trouble to our sect. Last night's situation is enough to get our sect very busy for the next few months, and here you're insisting on investigating the death of an outer court disciple."
"So what if he's the son of a big clan? What if he was talented? Sect won't get anything now that he's dead."
Imagine this - if we investigate the situation and it turns out Kang Bai got killed due to some human error, what will happen then?"
"I know what will happen - we will lose a big ally. We will lose Kang Clan's support."
"No, we won't," Sect Leader Su shook his head, "If there is any injustice in this case, and we manage to uncover it, Kang Ximin would instead feel grateful. But if we tell him that this was a natural incident and later it turns out to be a human inflicted incident, and Kang Ximin gets to know of this - our sect will be in real trouble after that."
Grand Elder Xuan shook his head and was about to say something when Grand Elder Li, who had been silent all along, opened his mouth about the situation and gave his views, "we should let the investigation go on; we will lose more if Kang Ximin gets to know about the foul play from someone else. And that man has just lost his son. He would believe any nonsense that could justify his son's death."
"He's down, he's angry, and most importantly, he's looking for someone to put the blame on. We just need to take care that it's not us who get blamed."
Sect Leader Su nodded his head, "Exactly what I am thinking."
Grand Elder Xuan said, "Why are we even caring about a simple clan from the capital? So what if they are the big four? I am confident in the capabilities of our sect; we don't need to care about such clans."
Grand Elder Li waved his hand, gesturing him to stop, "You do not see the bigger picture. It's not the Kang Clan that we need to worry about."
"It's the whole capital city."
"What?" His words confused many elders present in the meeting.
Grand Elder Li took a deep breath and said, "The political situation between the sects and the clans of the Xin Kingdom is currently in a delicate balance."
The top clans, especially the Xin Royal Clan, are currently looking for an opportunity to create trouble for the sect. They want to suppress the sects and take control over them. However, the problem they face is that not all clans are on the same page or have the same agenda."
"Like the Kang Clan. This clan does not wish to have anything with the politics and power struggle happening in the Kingdom. But now that they have lost their heir, they are most probably going to join the opposite faction, and directly or indirectly, they are going to affect the current balance."
"However, we can stop all this if we calm down Kang Ximin and have him understand the situation."
Sect Leader Su nodded his head at those words and said, "THat's why we need to investigate the situation thoroughly, and if someone is found guilty, we must punish them. And if the story of Kang Bai is indeed the truth, we must glorify him as much as possible to satisfy the Kang Clan."
Seeing otters nod their head, Sect Leader Su then said, "Let's adjourn the meeting for now. Start investigating this situation, and don't forget about the thorough checking of all the disciples within one month. We will continue after Kang Ximin arrives in the sect. Hopefully, things don't escalate much."
Others present in the hall nodded their heads and began to stand up.
After a few minutes, almost all had left the hall as Sect Leader Su remained seated on his chair, thinking about something.
"Senior Brother…"
A voice brought him back to reality as he found Peak Master Duan standing in front of him with a frown and annoyance written all over his face.
"What happened, Junior Brother Duan?" Sect Leader Su asked while looking around, only to find that everyone else had left the hall.
Peak Master Duan pursed his lips and said, "Senior Brother, don't tell me you didn't notice?"
"Notice what?"
Taking a deep breath, Peak Master Duan replied, "You didn't notice the blatant scheme by that bastard Xuan? You didn't notice how he almost took away the rights of nephew Fang Chen to be the future Sect Leader of our sect?"
Sect Leader Su pursed his lips and said, "I did. I did see through that little scheme."
"Then why didn't you rebuke him? That old dog was trying to clear the way for Yuan Shuchun by removing Fang Chen, who could be the Sect Leader candidate in the future."
"He wanted Fang Chen to cultivate on the second floor of the Sword Stele and to cultivate. Fang Chen must not accept the trial. But by not accepting the trial, Fang Chen was about to forfeit his chance ever to be the sect leader of the Gracious Sword Sect."
Sect Leader Su nodded his head, "Yes, I know, but don't worry about that. I would have never let this happen."
Peak Master Duan remained silent for some time before asking, "Senior Brother, if in future, Fang Chen proves himself to be very talented, will you allow him to enter the fight for the position of the Sect Leader? If yes, then what about the Fang Clan? Don't forget that Fang Chen doesn't know about your relationship with him; he only thinks of himself as the young master of the Fang Clan."
"And if your answer is no, then how you will stop him? Will you also suppress him like Yuan Shuchun? But won't that make him even more averse from you?"
...
A/n: We will go with one chapter per day for few more days and will increase release from the first of the next month. Things have gotten quite busy here, am not even getting two hours to sit and prepare the daily chapters. Please bear with me for some time.. I will publish one long chapter for the next two-three more days.