STORY 11 - HOW TO SAVE A SECT IN SIX SIMPLE STEPS (17)

I kept an eye on the elders’ bath temperatures and made sure Golden Pride didn’t cheat. But while I was doing that, I had to figure out the next steps.

The best place to start was to understand the current situation. We were in the middle of a war between orthodox and unorthodox. And I was on the defending side with fewer but more powerful disciples.

Meanwhile, outside forces, like the Chi Qi Tan wholesaler, were interfering for their own benefit. I didn’t know what to do about them just yet, but I would keep their interference in mind.

My and Little Spring’s goal was to stop the war, so no group lost too much to fight the demonic cult.

Providing a replacement for the missing Immortal Bone Creation expert had helped, but fielding someone so new to their realm wasn’t enough to prevent the war. Hell, I doubted the two this sect had could bring the assholes from Harmonious Sound and Leashed Claws to a negotiation table. They were just too weak.

Besides, a lot of animosity existed between the three sects. Even more history. Most of it I didn’t understand. I would have to collect research on it later so I could help with negotiations. Not that I wanted to stick my genius self in the middle of that shitstorm, but it might come down to that. I had to be prepared with suggestions if it did.

Frankly, just from the brief exchange I witnessed at the alchemy convention, the two sides were searching for any excuse to kill each other off. A truce would be hard fucking won.

Of course, the most fucked up part of this situation was a truth about all wars: The old monsters strategized, lied, and profited, while the young disciples died for it — believing the goddamned lies about doing it for the benefit of themselves, their family, and their sect. It would always cost the promising futures of too many to make up for the loss.

Even in Xianxia, the sects never started off by having the big shots come out first to resolve things and prevent the loss of life. They sent their young in first, sometimes without even considering their true strengths.

Supposedly, this would let them ‘gain experience’. And if they died, they died. But the fact was that every single one of those elders was a selfish, hanging shit nugget who wanted to resolve things between the younger generations first so they could focus on their own cultivation, greed, and survival.

Sure, gaining experience was necessary, and extremely important in this author’s poorly world-built universe, but at what cost? Twenty-five percent of the sect’s youth? Fifty? Sixty? Only the ones that weren’t given advanced defensive tools because they were loved by their masters?

And how many of those students were skilled, or had talent in things that were just as important as fighting during peaceful times? How many resources were used to raise them up to their current cultivation level? And which disciples had friends and beloved family?

In war, the important professions that mattered for living well often didn’t fucking help. Not when that powerful expert on the field started slaughtering the younger generation because they could.

Fuck. This war was going to be such a goddamned waste of life, time, and resources. And all for what? Greed? Hatred? Prejudice?

Fucking useless. Thousands of lives were on the line here. The lives of the friends and students I’d made were at risk!

If these three sects wanted a fight, they should have saved their resources for a time when it actually mattered. For defending themselves. Like in a battle against the demonic cult. Not for grabbing a sect’s resources while they were temporarily weak.

Fucking assholes.

Maybe they thought stealing their unorthodox enemy’s supplies would help them fight off the cult better. In reality, it would only eat up their own resources.

If they really wanted to defeat the cult, they should do what my sect did. We gathered research and testimonials on the methods the cult used to recruit its disciples and spies. ⱤåℕỒꞖÊṦ

Once we finished analyzing the collected data, we recognized the patterns in how they set up their traps. We developed methods for individuals to avoid getting ensnared.

The sect leader sent teams out to teach other righteous sects. This solidified the connection we had with our allies and prevented the cult from gaining new disciples.

In this case, knowing the enemy really was half the battle.

We’d discovered that their most effective strategy was gaining leverage over someone. They would use it to force their victim into learning a demonic technique. Once they had a taste of that disgusting, overpowered energy, the cult would blackmail them.

Of course, with their energy corrupted, the victim would spiral, losing sight of their most important things. Eventually, even the original leverage had nothing on the addictive power they gained.

That maid who spread the demonic vine plague to save her son was a perfect example. If we hadn’t caught her when we did, she might have taken some energy for herself. Some time later, she would have been so focused on gaining that sickening energy that she would have forgotten her child entirely.

The cult was a vile group. But, like the saboteurs from the Leashed Claws sect, I could still learn something from their methods.

We needed leverage to use against the leaders and elders who might oppose a truce or treaty.

It was too late to gather blackmail since we couldn’t leave the defensive formation. And I didn’t count the secret that Alchemist Iron Fang was messing around with Fairy Ice Lotus Flower as extortion-worthy. But everyone had someone or something they cared for. Even old monsters.

All of them wanted immortality. Or at least a way to become immortal. Sometimes it was a treasure that would help them advance their cultivation. But this sect wouldn’t have anything like that. Everything would have been used by the previous sect leader to advance.

So, if experts couldn’t become immortal through cultivation, that only left immortality through legacy.

Since this universe was a Xianxia, it was likely that those experts would send their young disciples or relatives out to the battlefield. Often with a lot of very useful and valuable treasures, so their life wouldn’t be in too much danger.

I split my mind to consider as many possibilities as I could and began to form a strategy. We would need a massive amount of support if we wanted to end the war before too many casualties made reconciliation impossible.

I smiled widely as I stared down at the baths of my soon-to-be-willing helpers. Muahahaha!

::I have a new plan!::

***

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Mr. No Longer Crabby, who now had a perfectly shiny skin-colored forehead, grinned down at me. “Are you certain you can pull this off?”

I crossed my arms and looked up at him. “If you and your beast tamers do your part, I’ll do mine. Whether it works like I think it will, we’ll have to see.”

“I’ll make the arrangements. It will be hard to convince these particular cultivators to join a special team, but I can use some of my connections.” He hesitated. “Are you sure you don’t want to involve—“

“If that person gets involved,” something I doubted, “then I’ll deal with it. Until then, gather those tamers we talked about.”

He nodded and pulled out a heaven rank sword that hummed with power. It was a blade that a Golden Core cultivator would kill for. The guard appeared crab-like, and on the pommel, four carved seashells glinted gold. “Here, I no longer use this, and those puppets of yours are only useful if they have good weapons.”

I was not letting him get rid of the karma he owed me that easily!

“I’ll borrow it for now.” I gently took the new sword and gave it a practiced swing. I hadn’t put anything into it, but the air in the bathing house stirred along with the spiritual pressure. Impressive. If I used my sword Qi with this weapon, it would be nearly twice as strong!

I wasn’t happy about the crab theme since it reminded me of that terrible crab mission, but I could work with what was available when it was this good.

He patted my shoulder. “Keep it.”

I glared down at the sword, willing myself not to accept the gift. Because I could eventually make something better. And I would! But how many years would that take?

Damn it! I couldn’t say no. It was too good. It was even better than Little Spring’s hairpin!

“Like I said, I no longer use it, and a master like you, who can be ruthless to both yourself and your enemies, is someone I can appreciate.”

And I appreciated that these three elders actually listened to me, even though I was two realms below them. If they hadn’t, I would have had to accomplish my plans all by myself… with the help of a bunch of haggard disciples I would have coerced into joining me.

I placed the sword inside my ring. “Thank you, Elder Wrathful Waterspout.”

He grinned. “Call me older brother. I’ll be in touch, Elder Linlin.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s ‘temporary elder’. You can’t just call me ‘elder’ because it’s easier! I’m not an elder!”

He laughed as he happily moseyed away.

Insufferable.

Golden Pride flattened her ears against her head and walked over to me. She clearly liked having lion ears since she’d left the bath without them.

I crossed my arms. “I’m almost sad you didn’t fail.”

“Ha! After what I went through with Brother Flood Dragon’s White Scale, I’d never let myself owe someone double.”

Now I really wanted to know what her story was.

She rubbed her spatial ring. “I’ll do what I can by writing down what I remember about the various elders of each orthodox sect. And I will assign some disciples to defend you later.”

“Thank you, Elder.”

“It’s my pleasure. Frankly, I’m shocked that a young woman like you came up with such a ruthless tactic.”

“I am a genius, after all. It should be expected.”

She grinned. “That you are... Elder Linlin.”

Goddamn it! Not her, too! I gritted my teeth. They were helping me, and now wasn’t the time to call them assholes, no matter how much they deserved it.

She chuckled and then handed me a jade talisman in the shape of a lion. “This is something that I had when I was at Golden Core. It should protect you when others can’t.”

“Thank you, Elder.”

“Call me older sister.” She beamed at me.

Fuck it. As an orthodox cultivator in disguise, I had to keep up appearances. “Older Sister Golden Pride.”

“You’re welcome... Elder Linlin.”

I scowled. Why was she still calling me that? It wasn’t funny!

Her eyes glittered with amusement, and her lips thinned as if she was stopping herself from laughing.

I scowled. “Shouldn’t you call me ‘sister’ back?!”

She just grinned and used her superior cultivation base to vanish.

Damn it. I needed to stop that elder nonsense before it spread.

Vengeful Siren stretched languidly before stepping up to me. His fin-ears had vanished, but the man still looked ethereal. “I have my doubts about this strategy. It’s reckless, and Senior Noxious Fangstrike will be upset if anything happens to you.”

“Don’t worry about my safety. Focus on your part in this mission.”

“I’m already thinking of different tactics we can use if we make it to negotiations. I’ll do some divinations later to see if any of them look more promising than the other.”

He glanced towards the exit and then sighed. “I suppose if I don’t give you a gift like theirs...”

“No need.” While I would accept gifts I needed or deserved, I never expected handouts or red packets. Ever since I came to this universe, it seemed like I almost always had to make my own way and fight for what I needed. Even when I was Peak Master Verdant Bamboo’s disciple, I barely received any life-saving treasures from her. If she had anything good, she gave it to that cock mosquito first. Then she told me to rely on myself since I was the older sister.

If I didn’t know that Bloodsword hated me and that she didn’t give a shit, I would have thought that she was jealous and secretly wanted me dead.

He held up a hand. “No, no. Let me see what I have.”

As if searching for something, he started dropping things at his feet that ranged from expensive wood, metal, and stone to a myriad of yellow paper talismans. Finally, he pulled out a beautiful set of formation flags, along with a small manual, and handed them to me.

“There we go. This was what I was looking for.” He smiled. “This is the 888 Stars Amplification Formation.”

The what?

My knowledge of formations was impressive, but that didn’t mean I knew every formation in the world. It just meant that I could understand them with enough time and resources.

I stored the flags and immediately pored over the manual.

Vengeful Siren may have chuckled. Whatever.

The text described an elegant and complex transcendence-rank formation. If this guy hadn’t known I was as accomplished as I was, he never would have given this to me. Frankly, even a formation master at Nascent Soul would have a hard time setting it up due to the massive amount of complex calculations. I would have to scout out the battlefield later so I could begin planning in advance.

The useful thing about lower-rank formations was that they were mostly internal computations and flag placement. Only the most powerful and permanent formations needed the master to have a higher cultivation. Because the energy requirements of this formation were insignificant, I could barely pull it off with two mid-grade spirit stones.

I clapped the pages together and placed the manual into my storage ring.

“I’ll borrow this treasure for now and return it after the war.” I left the ‘if we both survived’ unsaid. “You’ll work your way up to it eventually.”

He grinned. “I knew this would be better in your hands. Maybe observing how you set it up will help me get past my block.”

“If not, then I’ll give you a few pointers later.”

“I look forward to it... Elder Linlin.”

I scowled. “Not you too! You elders are lucky my cultivation base is lower than yours, or I’d teach you all a lesson.”

He laughed. “I’m sure you would.” He started walking away.

I frowned down at the mess he’d left behind. “Don’t forget your materials. They’re expensive.”

He glanced back at them. “Oh, that trash? I’m throwing it out. Handle it for me.”

This fucker. He could have just said he thought I might need them for our plan. Why be so god-damned indirect?

With a wave of my hand, I picked them up. Of course, I’d have to find the sect’s forge rooms to use them since the kid’s space was being upgraded, but I’d make time. There was one item in particular that was necessary if we wanted to be successful, and I was the only tool smith on the continent who could design and create it.

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