“That’s all for today, please leave me alone.”

The disciples hurriedly started packing up their notes and getting up. He watched as each of them bowed before leaving the room, the last of them carefully closing the door. As the silence settled around him, Elder Ma Rong couldn’t help but let out a quiet sigh.

It wasn’t one of exhaustion, advanced cultivators like him could easily handle large amounts of both physical and mental stress, but rather one of sorrow. A contemplative sorrow that he had been finding himself fall into more and more frequently these days.

He had in recent times been forced over and over to realize just how far his ideals and ambitions for the sect were from being possible to implement.

It might have been foolish, but with the recent addition of Elder Xue Yan to his faction he had hoped that he could squeeze at least a few minor reforms out of the pillar families.

Convincing her to back them hadn’t been an easy task and neither had it been a cheap one. The woman was, after all, primarily moved not by conviction or moral code but rather by the sort of opportunistic greed that was sadly rather common for a powerful cultivator.

The families though remained unmoving and didn’t allow for any changes whatsoever of how the sect ran to take place. Even while they were constantly fighting amongst themselves, their influence remained insurmountable for Ma Rong and his Reform Faction.

Adding to his worries was the fact that his lifespan was slowly but surely reaching its limits. While his abilities as an alchemist had so far allowed him create all kinds of elixirs and pills to extend his lifespan to one far beyond that of an average cultivator in the sixth stage of Dao contemplation, he was undoubtedly approaching the point where his body inevitably couldn’t take it anymore.

The only option left to him if he wanted to further extend his life was to break through to the seventh stage. It was doubtful, whether he even had enough time left to do so. Even if he did, he would need to spend most of it in closed door meditation. He had no doubt in his mind that the pillar families would jump at the opportunity his absence would provide them to once and for all crush his faction.

This put Ma Rong before an impossible choice. He counted himself amongst the few cultivators who didn’t fear death on a personal level, but to die now without accomplishing anything for future generations would render the fight he had fought for the entire six hundred years of his life wasted.

His former disciple Guang Lai was a skilled alchemist in his own right, but he lacked both the strength and the skill to take over the leading position in the Reform Faction as of now. Not to mention that the families would never again make the mistake of allowing someone who wasn’t aligned with them to take lead of the Alchemy Hall, that Ma Rong was currently presiding over.

The wrinkled, old man was pulled from his thoughts by a sudden ripple in the fabric of reality. It was subtle, something only those who had reached the realm of Dao contemplation could feel at all, but it was still something rather rare. That was because it would normally only be caused by one thing: Someone of that very realm moving up a stage in his comprehension of their Dao.

This ripple was the same, as confirmed by the much less subtle sound of an explosion that followed close behind it. Ma Rong frowned. This could hardly be good news as, to his knowledge, none of the elders in his faction were close to a breakthrough.

He got up from his chair and moved to open the door, already preparing himself for the worst.

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…

Liu Wei stood in the middle of the room, taking in his surroundings while feeling his emotions return from the dulled state they had taken on during his breakthrough. He had done it. He had reached the eight stage of Dao contemplation, which put him on the same level as the sect patriarch and above all other elders. And yet he couldn’t bring himself to feel any excitement.

During the breakthrough he had felt it. Truthfully, he had known for quite some time but had yet refused to accept it. He had hit his limit. He wouldn’t be able to progress any further than this.

The progress towards reaching the eighth stage had been glacial, but at least there had been progress. Now though, he could feel instinctively that no amount of meditation could move him forward anymore.

This was to be expected of most cultivators. At some point their progress would slow down, their potential exhausted, and the time that was relentlessly pursuing them would catch up. But him? The great genius of the Lunar Peaks Sect? This had not been a fate meant for him! Not yet at least!

He had shot past the early stages of Dao contemplation with a speed unmatched in sect history, despite the fact that his chosen Dao was fire, which the sect didn’t even specialize in. All signs had pointed to him eventually becoming the patriarch and perhaps even to him being able to accomplish soul ascension. But then he had suddenly hit a wall. After he had reached the fifth stage, his progress had slowed down abruptly and continued doing so with every single step he took forward.

He had had been less than two-hundred years old back then. Less than half his present age of roughly four-hundred and fifty years. And yet he had only managed to move up three further realms in all that time. And now he was supposed to stop? Only two stages before ascension?

He couldn’t believe it. His face contorted with anger and his soul roared with power, attempting to push back as the reality of the situation crashed down on him in full force. For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to destroy anything and everything in his range, to lay this sect, forsaken by the heavens, to ruins at his own hands.

And then that moment passed. Liu Wei reigned in his emotions with the strength of will he had gained over hundreds of years of life and experience. He had neither reason nor ability to destroy this sect.

Now calm and collected again, he could sense someone approaching the room he was in. He quickly focused on bringing down the temperature around him, which his breakthrough and subsequent rage had brought to levels seriously harmful to lower cultivators.

For all that this weakness was their own fault, he wouldn’t risk this triumphant moment, that he would hold over the other elders, being disturbed by the sudden collapse of some unimportant disciple. His ego wouldn’t be able to take that, not today.

…

Qingge held one hand to her chest, feeling her racing heart while attempting to calm it down by breathing deep and slow breaths. Having a nervous breakdown would certainly not help her situation.

At least that was what she believed to be most likely true. She didn’t really have any clue as to what the situation was in the first place, that was part of the problem. The explosion that had occurred had already been confusing enough, but much less than the fact that seemingly every elder in the sect had suddenly showed up, wanting to speak to Elder Wei.

Qingge was currently assigned his personal assistant, as such it was her task to inform him of the matter. That was the main source of her anxiousness.

Every cultivator would at some point, usually rather sooner than later, learn to be cautious of all things they didn’t properly understand, especially when they were walking among those more powerful than them. With Elder Wei, it was more than that.

The man was widely regarded amongst members to be extremely harsh in his treatment of members and disciples alike. Qingge knew first hand, just how true that regard was. While she had so far managed to avoid catching his anger, she had seen many a punishment handed out in her time as his assistant, often for even the most minor and unintentional offenses. It was particularly bad, if one happened to catch him in a bad mood.

She feared that whatever was currently happening, might put him in one. The fact that the temperature around her was noticeably rising as she walked towards his room didn’t exactly help to alleviate that fear.

Qingge took another deep breath before approaching the door. She was still not exactly calm, but it would have to do. The immensely powerful cultivator Elder Wei was, he had most certainly already felt her presence, so she couldn’t exactly stand around in front of the room and take her time to relax.

Summoning all her courage, Qingge straightened her back and knocked on the door.