An Elder's Revolution - The Art of Sect Politics

As the door leading to his private chambers closed behind Liu Wei, he felt a heavy weight fall off his shoulders. He had done it. He didn’t like admitting it, but despite his confidence in his plan, he hadn’t been able to shake of the fear of something going wrong until the very end. Even on the way back, his success had felt unreal, unstable. Only now was it beginning to set in, that everything had worked out fine and that he could proceed as planned.

He would direct the Training Hall to new heights, he would fight the injustice taking place and in doing so, he would change the sect forever. Slowly, as his thoughts turned to this future, his relief made way to excitement.

It was the same kind of rush that one would get when managing to raise their cultivation or when preparing for a fight that they were confident in winning. The promise of accomplishment, of one’s efforts paying off. Only, this one was stronger than in any of those cases. Because what was to come wasn’t just a personal gain, it was a gain to everyone. The right thing.

The path he was treading on was the right one. Liu Wei was more certain of that than ever. But for now, he would need to reign in those feelings. To reach that future that he was dreaming of would take a long journey. It was now, more than ever, important that he remained focused on the present.

First of all, he would need to ensure that his new plans actually worked as he was hoping they would. For that, a few things were necessary.

He had decided that it was best to delay the announcement of the Training Hall’s new services to the wider sect for a while longer. To be specific, he would announce them on the disciple’s competition that was to be hosted in roughly a month.

Not only would most of the sect’s members be gathered there to watch the fights – it was one of the few forms of entertainment that most cultivators liked to participate in – but the atmosphere of the combat would also put them into the right mood to consider the offer more positively.

Until then, he would still need to make some preparations. First of all, he needed to commission a proper cleaning and maintenance of the premises. It was a bad idea to greet all of the members that would come here to train with a bad first impression.

Second, he would need to inform the instructors that he had selected for the job of the plan. Now that it had made it through the council, there was no need anymore, to keep it particularly secret, even if it hadn’t been officially announced.

Giving them time to prepare for their new roles would ensure a much smoother start for the program. He also wanted to give them the option the decline their new position. They had been hired with the expectation of teaching the outer disciples and if they wanted to continue doing that, he wouldn’t force them to do something else.

In case too many of them felt that way, it was important that he had enough time to find good replacements before the program launched. For now, he had only prepared a small number of possible replacements.

Finally, there was another idea that had come to him. If he wanted to generate excitement for the Training Hall’s new offer and its changes in general, it would be great if some of the outer disciples did better in the competition than expected.

…

Zixin curiously observed the other disciples that were present in the room alongside him. When today’s morning had promised to bring just another day of the same old training routine, it had clearly deceived him.

He had just been heading to the courtyard their class for the day was set to take place in alongside the other disciples when he and Chonglin had been singled out by Instructor Guiren.

He had told them that they had been summoned to the hall’s headquarters and subsequently sent them there. After arriving there, they had been led to this room in which they were waiting alongside several other disciples who, apparently, had received the same summons. What exactly they were waiting for, none of them knew.

Needless to say, this had left them with quite a lot of questions. The mood amongst the ten of them that were currently inside the room was diverse, ranging from apprehensive to purely curious. Zixin was the latter. He had decided to be cautiously optimistic about the whole ordeal.

After all, he was quite certain that he hadn’t done anything he would need to be fearful about. He simply didn’t have time for that, considering how busy he had been with training lately. He also had the confidence boost of being here together with his friend, while most of the others were here on their own.

They had already been here for quite a while now and beside several other disciples being brought one after the other, not much had happened yet. When the door opened again, Zixin expected nothing else than another newcomer, but quickly realized that the man who had brought all of them here was alone this time.

Chao, as he had introduced himself on their first meeting, held a list in his hand that he seemed to check everyone off on, before addressing them:

“It seems we aren’t missing anyone. Just a heads up, you are going to meet Elder Wei in a few moments, prepare to conduct yourself accordingly. Alright then, please follow me, everyone.”

Without giving them much time to think, he turned around and began marching off. Zixin was the first to free himself of the shock the words had left them in, and hurriedly moved to follow him. At his movement, the others also came to their senses and did the same.

Quick glances to the sides revealed that their nervousness had just increased many times over. Zixin would probably have felt the same, were it not for the fact that he had already met the elder twice in person. While the first time wasn’t exactly pleasant, the second one more than made up for that.

To Zixin, it was mostly his curiosity that had exploded. What in the world could the elder want with them?Whatever it was, at least he would find out in a few moments. As they came to a standstill before a door that had two guards posted outside, Zixin straightened his back and reminded himself of the proper etiquette a disciple should show before an elder. After several long moments, they were beckoned in by the familiar voice of the elder.

…

As the disciples entered the room, Liu Wei carefully observed each of them. One of them, Zixin, he naturally already knew. He had been quite surprised at the coincidence when Instructor Guiren had pointed him to the boy.

The disciples besides Zixin seemed quite nervous, as was to be expected. Not only had they just been summoned by an elder and probably had no clear idea as to why, that elder also had a reputation for handing out unreasonably hard punishments in response to minor, often accidental offences. Or at least Liu Wei imagined that he might have that reputation amongst outer disciples.

In any case, Liu Wei hadn’t had a couple of kids brought before him just so he could watch them be scared of him. It was high time he relieved them of some of their fear.

“Hello. Thank you for coming here. Please be at ease, you are not in any sort of trouble. Quite the opposite actually.”

The disciples seemed to collectively breathe a sigh of relief at this, losing a lot of their tension, though not all of it.

“The reason you are here today is directly related to the competition next month. I am sure all of you are looking forward to it, considering how hard you are training.”

The tension now fully turned to curiosity, as they could finally start making rough guesses as to why they were here.

“All of you have been selected by me after consulting with your respective instructors. I was pointed to the ten of you as the most hardworking individuals when it came to training for the event.

For reasons that I can sadly not yet reveal to you, the Training Hall would benefit from a good representation by its disciples in the competition and thereby from your efforts. This, and the fact that I like to reward hard work, leads me to the following proposal: I would like to personally administer training to you in the following weeks leading up to the tournament.

In return, I would only request that you remain humble before your fellow disciples and that you give both the training and the tournament your best efforts. You aren’t expected to win or reach any specific standard, I only ask that you try. You are of course free to decline my offer if you wish to do so. Now, what do you think?”

The disciples were unanimously struck silent. His offer was an extremely generous one and they knew that. Not to mention outer disciples, inner disciples and even those who hailed from a pillar family rarely had the chance to receive direct tutelage by an elder.

Liu Wei felt a hint of guilt at dropping something of this caliber on their heads so suddenly, but it couldn’t be helped. There weren’t really many alternatives and on top of that, he still had his pride as an elder.

Despite his change in outlook on the world, over four hundred years of successful cultivation were still something to be proud of. He certainly wouldn’t cause them intentional discomfort, but he also wouldn’t bend over backwards just to make receiving the already positive news as comfortable as humanly possible to them.

The first disciple was the one that Liu Wei recognized as Zixin’s friend. He spoke clear, with only the tiniest hint of trembling in his voice and complemented his statement with a neat bow.

“I gratefully accept your gracious offer, honorable elder.”

Dispelled by his words, the other disciples followed suit. None of them seemed to seriously think about declining his offer, not that he would have expected them to. But as his experience with Qingge had taught him, not relying solely on one’s own expectations when it came to the wishes of others could never hurt.

After the last of the disciples had finished, a rather timid looking girl that had to seriously pull herself together to stop herself from stuttering too much, Liu Wei continued, giving them a genuine smile.

“Well then, I’m happy that all of you accepted my proposal. We will shortly discuss the specifics of when and where I would like to train you, but first of, I want to get to know you a little. Please start by properly introducing yourself, if you would.”