An Elder's Revolution - The Art of Sect Politics

As anticipated, the reactions to this announcement were positive across the board. For all their caution and political instinct, all of the present elders were genuinely invested in their cause. Having someone as powerful as Liu Wei join them was the absolute best-case scenario for them.

Amongst all of them, Ma Rong seemed the most excited, his wrinkled face beaming with an uncharacteristic joy.

“If everyone agrees, I would be happy to have you join us.”

“I agree, of course.”

“So do I.”

“I see no reason not to.”

“Then I welcome you as a member of our faction.”

“Thank you all for your trust. I shall make sure not to betray it. If you don’t mind, there are still some things that I want to talk about.”

“Please go on.”

“Alright. First of all, let me reiterate that none of this is a negotiation. I have some things that I would like to offer my help with and some that I would like to ask your assistance for, but I am not in any way trying to tie them together. My cooperation and help are wholly unconditional and you are free to decline any requests you wish.”

He didn’t want to come of as pressuring them. On top of that, he believed that all of his requests had enough merit for the others that they could stand on their own.

“To start, I would like to talk about the Enforcement Hall. Elder Shi, am I right in assuming that you are planning to utilize it to attack many of the pillar families’ hidden dealings?”

“Of course, you are.”

“In that case I would like to offer you my full backing in any and all actions that the hall takes against them, as long as they remain grounded in sect law.”

“I will gladly accept that.” Lan Shi’s eyes gleamed with a grim anticipation at this. This declaration gave her a lot more freedom when it came to her actions against the pillar families.

“The next thing I would like to talk about is my plans for the Training Hall. I believe this is something you’re still quite curios about, since I haven’t yet explained my reasoning for wanting to lead it.

It is quite simple: I want to improve the conditions for the outer disciples. My ultimate goal would be to create a system in which any disciple is treated the same and there is no need to separate them in terms of inner and outer disciples at all. My first step towards that goal is improving the training conditions for the outer disciples as much as possible.”

“I assume you will need a lot of resources to accomplish that, won’t you?” Meng Hui asked.

“Yes, that is true. I am not about to ask you to sponsor my hall’s operations though, if you thought that. I am aware that your halls all need their funding to properly function and to fund your other operations. What I want to do making the training hall itself profitable.”

“How would you accomplish that? The other elders won’t simply let you start businesses with your hall.”

“I know. The halls can only operate within their designated field of responsibility. That limits the Training Hall to providing training. It doesn’t limit who it can provide training to though.”

“You plan on providing training to non-disciples?”

“Exactly. Currently, the average sect member won’t receive any training after their time as disciple. The pillar families provide it to their own, of course, but the only time the other members get to hone their skills is either in real battle or in private spars. I believe that professionally organized and supervised training is something that many members would be willing to pay for. The same goes for consultation in matters of cultivation.”

“That could work. You would need a lot of capable instructors though.”

“That is why I am bringing this point up. I will use the assets that I brought from the Enforcement Hall to jump-start this entire undertaking. I will be hiring veteran fighters and other experienced members and I wanted to confirm whether it was alright with you if I extend these offers to members of your halls. The Enforcement Hall specifically would be a big target in this case.”

“I am fine with that; I will be reorganizing the hall either way. I can even supply you with a list of good candidates.”

The other two elders gave affirmative nods.

“Thank you all. Then I would like to bring up my final proposal, something which would require active cooperation from your halls.”

“Please do so.”

“On the next council meeting, I will propose a joint project to all halls willing to accept: This project concerns, all newly taken inner disciples from those halls. The respective hall would from then on cooperate with the Training Hall in handling their education. The Training Hall would continue to provide them basic guidance, living space and sustenance, while the cooperating hall would focus solely on providing them resources and specialized training. I ask you to accept this proposal.

On the surface, it will simply allow the cooperating halls to stop wasting resources on things outside of their usual field and thus take on more disciples. The actual reason for this program is different though. By ensuring the disciples remain in the Training Hall, it will become impossible for the halls to indoctrinate them to their cause.

Because of this, none of the pillar families’ halls will accept this proposal, at least that’s what I expect. This however leaves us in a good position either way. Whenever one of their halls invites an outer disciple to join them, I would like you to counter with an invitation of you own. To most disciples, the prospect of keeping in touch with their friends will be enough for them to decide to take your offer. This means that the other halls will mostly lose the ability to take on disciples after their initial admission.

My hope is that this will eventually force them to join this cooperative program as well, which would be a great step towards a system where all disciples are treated equally. Even if they don’t, they will lose out on so much talent, that they will seriously suffer from this, while the sect will be filled up with a new generation of disciples who haven’t been stripped of their ideals, which will serve to bring the sect closer to a just system.”

This was the solution that Liu Wei had come up with after weeks of contemplation. It would not need to be voted on, because it was a direct matter between halls, which would prevent the pillar families from outright blocking it, while still having the potential to reform the entire system. There was no doubt in Liu Wei’s mind that the pillar families would look for ways to avoid that outcome, but it was at the very least worth an attempt.

“That’s quite the shrewd move, Elder Wei. I see you have put quite some thought into this. You can count on the Alchemy Hall to follow that plan.”

“The same goes for the Reinforcement Hall.”

“The Resource Gathering Hall as well.”

“I have to thank you once again. I look forward to our cooperation. Let us make this sect a better place. Now, this concludes the things I wanted to talk about.”

“Great. There are quite a number of topics I would still like to address though.”

“Feel free to do so, Elder Rong.”

…

Shirong Yuan stood atop the northern mountain’s peak, his eyes trailing off in the distance. The cold wind blowing in his face carried the rare note of change in its trail.

He was old, older than any other individual in the sect, and over the course of his long life, he had learned to listen to the unspoken words of his chosen element. Wind was a herald of things to come, and though most may have thought this saying nothing but superstition, he knew that, as many of the old tales, it was based on a grain of truth.

Nobody, not even the Dao could know what the future held, but there were signs of possible futures that one could pick up on.

The possibilities that the wind told him about today were ones that were filled with conflict and bloodshed, but also with opportunity and cleansing. It was the taste of change.

Shirong Yuan grimaced. That could mean many things, from great good to terrible disaster. He had sworn to his master to protect this sect and its legacy with his life and soul, just as the latter had sworn to his own master. He would abide by this oath with everything he had, as long as he lived. Such was the fate of a guardian.

He would meet this change and he would judge it and if he deemed that it threatened the sect, he would fight it. That was all he could do.

Shirong Yuan felt a shiver in his bones. It wasn’t the cold; no mere cold weather would even so much as inconvenience a cultivator of the Dao Contemplation Realm. It was his age catching up to him.

He was old, far older than a cultivator of his level ought to be. He didn’t use some powerful alchemy or ancient treasure to keep himself alive. It was simply his will to keep breathing, as it was not the time for him to die yet.

But it would be soon. Guardian or not, no human was made to live eternal and Shirong Yuan didn’t have the power to keep on fighting what was inevitable for much longer.

Then, his disciple would have to carry the torch, a duty that he would hopefully be ready for, when the time came.

But not yet. Shirong Yuan felt that he still had a role to play in this world before he could leave it. What that duty was, nobody could know, not even he himself. Only time would grace him with an answer, as it had always done.