12 We All Know Where This Is Going

2008 words.

...

The Sect has a total of 9 Elders, a Grand Elder, and the Sect Master. They are numbered according to their seniority so the official strongest isn't the first Elder. Its the third Elder who is known as the greatest swordsman of the Sect. Not even the Sect Master could beat him.

The Patriarch of the Sect died three years ago and chose the present sect master as the leader.

The First and Second Elders are the oldest, followed by the Grand Elder. Those two were tilted the Twin Swords of the Sect due to their nigh unbeatable Combination Skills.

The Third Elder usually stays in reclusive cultivation as he practiced the Heartless Heavens Sword Sutra. At this point he lacks any mortal desires and only lives for the sword.

The Fourth Elder is a wanderer who rarely stays in the Sect. He dabbles in Divination and Mystic Arts.

The Fifth to Seventh Elders are from the same generation as the Sect Master. They don't really have much good feelings for the Sect Master as they lost the competition to lead the sect. Among them the Fifth Elder hates his guts. He had a crush on Bai Qiao since forever but she married the Sect Master.

The Eighth Elder bore a grudge against Chen, amusingly. It was all because Chen beat him as a Peak Golden Core when he was a Nascent Soul himself to qualify as an Elder. Chen was in a rush to become stronger so he didn't care about making enemies with him. He had carved that humiliating scene within his heart and took any chance he had to go against Chen.

At this moment all of them were sitting around the meeting table as they sat down to discuss where to put Yuxia in.

The Grand Elder gave no opinions as she stood as the judge. The Fifth Elder thought a bit and said, "Elder Yuxia is married, albeit unofficially with Elder Chen right? Why not work together on the Ninth Peak, after all Our sect can only have so many peaks."

The First Elder shook his head and said, "While it is true that a Tenth peak would be one too many to have, the ninth peak already has the least amount of disciples and the Fourth peak is completely autonomous. Two Elders in charge of one peak would be too much."

The Eighth Elder sneered, "Since there is no place for her to work in, why not put her in charge of the Disciplinary Committee, after all it has been going out of hands lately."

The Disciplinary Committee was supposed to be maintaining the rules of the Sect and had rights to arrest even Core Disciples in case of them being caught flouting rules.

But by now, the Disciplinary Committee had already become a shit hole. All the members are corrupt as hell and no elder wanted the responsibility of fixing them.

Of course, the Eighth Elder, Lu Hong only wanted be a pain in the ass as usual.

Chen called out from his seat at that, "Why don't you go hold that position? Shouldn't the stronger Elder hold a peak? Have a spar with Yuxia what do you say?"

Hearing that Yuxia lightly giggled. "What do you think, Eighth Elder? Up for a spar?"

The Eighth Elders face twitched a bit but he stayed silent. He saw the Ninth Peak being covered in Ice when Yuxia broke through. He was the weakest Elder of the Inner Sect and knew that he couldn't do anything near what Yuxia did. After all, any bloodline is rare, let alone Yuxia's OP one.

The Sixth Elder squeezed out a smile and said, "Now now, lets all calm down and put down our differences. The Disciplinary Committee will be abolished in a month, do remember what the Sect Master ordered. As for where to put Yuxia... Why not make her in charge of the Scripture Pavilion? That place needed a Nascent Soul as it's top since long ago."

The First Elder looked at Chen and Yuxia and asked, "Is that fine with you two?"

The scriptures pavilion is a good place to lead. It's essentially a job where you get salary without doing anything. The only problem is the lack of authority. Yuxia wouldn't really have much of a say in the Elders Meeting if she took that job.

Chen had no reason to object. In a month or so, neither of them will need a position in the Sect anymore. At that time they would have to give Yuxia authority even if she didn't want it. Both Yuxia and Chen nodded,

""We Agree.""

The Grand Elder spoke up then, "Does anyone have any objections?"

No one spoke up. The Eighth Elder knew that he'd gain nothing of annoying Chen or Yuxia so he stayed silent as well. So without any obstacles, Yuxia took over the Scripture Pavilion.

After that the Elders kept discussing about the future plans of the Sect. The Grand Elder intervened once or twice but stayed silent most of the time. The position of the Sect Master has more benefits then responsibility. The ones who truly works are the Elders. Due to the lack of disciples in the Ninth Peak, Chen was the free-est of all the Elders. He had very little to worry about. While watching them all discuss their responsibilities, he remembered something. Calling for their attention, he spoke up,

"Remember the Shattered Star Saints Martial Arts tournament? It's about time the esteemed demigod calls for another one in a year or two."

The First Elder had an unsightly expression on his face, "This generations disciples aren't all that good. The Draconic Phoenix Sects Twin Saints are undoubtedly the strongest. We only have Elder Chen's disciple, Zhao Hong and my disciple Song Wei worth mentioning in this generation. Saintess can't expose her strength yet."

The Second Elder smiled wryly, "The demigod only calls for the tournament once in about 30 years. It's hard for any sect to consistently maintain the quality of the disciples of each generation. We had our glory the last time with Elder Chen defeating all his opponents in a single move. It's fine if we lag behind once."

The Fifth Elder replied, "The greatest problem is the Tyrant Saber Sect. We did stop fighting already but our rivalry still exists. Their Little Saber Sovereign is a talent nearly comparable to Elder Chen. Losing to them would be too great a hit to our morale."

The Grand Elder sighed and put her hands on the table. Thinking a bit she said, "Even if we are to lose, we shouldn't lose too badly. All of you train your disciples for the next few months as intensely as possible. I'll open the Sects Treasury for them to pick one Magic Item maximum."

"Ah wait, Zhao Hong left the Sect to adventure a few months ago. He should be coming back in a few days. He told me that his improvement was quite substantial."

"That would be a great news right now. Hopefully he can at least put up a fight against the Little Saber Sovereign." The First Elder gave a slightly pleased smile. All the others except the Eighth Elder nodded in agreement. A glint of light flashed through his eyes,

'Heh, you all will be in for a surprise. The new disciple I took in outside the Sect can beat your precious Zhao Hong soon. Even if I can't beat you Chen Jiandao, my disciple is stronger than yours!' The Eighth Elder laughed smugly in his mind.

Three years back, he found a heaven defying talent while living as a guest in a mortal clan. The brat was deemed talentless by all those blind old bastards of the mortal Sects. When the boy was downtrodden and depressed due to being dumped by his fiancee who thought way too highly of herself, he took him in as his disciple. And boy was he pleasantly surprised. In three years, he already reached the Peak Foundation Establishment. Other than Elder Chen, that's the fastest growing speed he had ever seen.

The only problem was this new disciple of his gets into way too much trouble. Though he gains opportunities from all those pain in the ass situations so all's well that ends well. Just a month ago, he provoked a small cultivation clan. The dispute ended with a massacre of all the clan members. He planned to surprise everyone with this overpowered new disciple of his.

The meeting went on for a few hours more. When every recent problems were addressed (Properly, not a useless time waste of a meeting where everyone just gives ideas but a meeting where they actually try to solve them.) The Grand Elder called off the meeting and flew back to her own Immortal Cave. When Chen was about to leave with Yuxia and Bai Qiao, the First Elder called out, "Elder Chen, we have something to discuss with Elder Yuxia, can you please lend her to us for a minute?"

Chen wore a polite smile and said, "It's up to Yuxia. If she wants to stay of course she can."

Yuxia was about to decline their invitation when she seemed to hear something and turned to Chen, "Chen, I'll see what they have to tell me , you can go back."

Chen nodded and said, "Alright, I'll be cultivating at our house so come back soon."

Saying so, he left with Bai Qiao and the Third Elder. Seeing the Third Elder following them, Chen asked, "What's the matter Elder Sword? Do you have something to say?"

"You... It looks like you got really strong. I wish to spar with you. I have a feeling that if I fight you, I might improve my swordsmanship." The Third Elder replied with zero expressions on his face.

Chen scratched his head a bit as he sighed in defeat.

"Haaah.... I thought you might have noticed. Hey, can you keep my strength a secret if I fight with you Third Elder?"

The Third Elder nodded seriously and said, "You can call me old sword."

He took out his sword and said, "So shall we start?"

"Lets get to an hidden place first. As I said before, I have no intention of displaying my powers just yet." Old Sword nodded as he followed Chen. While Chen's secret was slightly discovered, he wasn't scared. He knew that Old Sword was someone who wouldn't give a single shit even if Chen suddenly wanted to kill him as long as he doesn't destroy the Sect. The only thing he might really care about is the Sect, the place where he was born and where he wishes to die in.

.....

As Chen was about to duel the Third Elder, Yuxia followed the First Elder towards a secretive Immortal Cave on the Main Peak. She was slightly nervous and asked the First Elder who was walking in front of her, "Umm.. Elder, where are we going?"

The First Elder glanced back to look at her sexy body barely covered by the revealing robe personalized by herself. He had a smirk on his face and said, "You will see soon. Let's go in."

Saying so, he opened a secret lock within the Immortal Cave and a door opened. Behind the door, The Second, Fifth to the Eighth Elder were all waiting quitely. They were all looking curiously and most were looking quite surprised. Only the Eighth Elder had a wretched smile on his face.

The First Elder nodded at them and said to Yuxia with a mock apologetical tone, "You see, when we heard that you became a Nascent Soul, I couldn't resist telling them about our little meetings. They didn't believe me so I wanted to prove it to them what do you say?"

Then he suddenly attacked and restrained Yuxia using a hidden formation. Before she could even resist, her Dantian was sealed. The First Elder continued speaking,

"Anyways, what you think doesn't really matter."