“Chao, I need you to put up a public notice to both staff and disciples of the training hall.”

“I’ll do so immediately. What should it contain?”

“I will be holding a speech about cultivation and make several important announcements next Friday at sunset. It will take place on the main plaza. Attendance is recommended but voluntary to disciples and mandatory for all staff members.”

“Is that all?”

“That is all.”

“If you excuse me, I shall go put it up right now.”

“You are excused.”

At that, the middle-aged man hurriedly left. Liu Wei let out a sigh. His new assistant Chao was honest and eager, but Liu Wei still missed the high degree of competence his prior assistant Qingge had possessed. In the past few days, he had had to do a lot more administrative work then he was used to, slowing down his progress in preparing for the coming recruitment campaign.

Looking back, he should have asked his new allies for some help in preparing the whole thing, but he had neglected to do so. Establishing contact to them again for something this trivial was out of question, as they had agreed to try to keep their new ties as hidden as possible until the next council meeting. A simple safety measure to ensure the opposing faction had as little as possible to work with.

It was standard procedure in sect politics to only ever reveal what was necessary, when it was necessary. That was the reason espionage was so incredibly important and the Zhong family had consistently been one of the most powerful pillar families through all of its history.

In any case, Liu Wei was almost done with said work. After that, he would only need to write the speech that he intended to hold before finally having some space to breathe.

Writing that speech would be rather easy, despite the fact that he had no experience in teaching disciples, as he would only touch on topics that were very familiar to him. It wouldn’t even need to be a masterpiece, as its main purpose was to establish that he would be taking a more active role in the disciples’ education going forward.

That was something he had decided on after consulting with Ma Rong. Not only would it help the disciples in their cultivation efforts, it would also serve to provide them a positive example of what an authority figure could be like, which would hopefully help form them into less selfish and more empathetic sect members later on, something that was indispensable if they truly intended to permanently better the sect.

Catching himself as he realized that he had once again lost himself in thoughts, Liu Wei ended his own subconscious attempt at hiding from the financial calculations and sect member records that were still waiting on his desk and once again dove into his work.

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…

Dodging and ducking in all directions, Zixin utilized what he had learned through hundreds of hours of extensive and intense combat training to accomplish the far less dangerous, but certainly not less trying task of weaving himself through the crowd of outer disciples that had formed on the plaza before the Training Hall’s head office. Long rows of benches had been set up, but most of them had already been occupied.

Elder Wei’s speech on cultivation was something no outer disciple he knew would want to miss. An elder sharing his knowledge was an incredible occasion, something that hadn’t happened once in the entire time Zixin had been a disciple of the sect. The fact that it was the elder who Zixin had made a personal experience with was just a cherry on top.

Even if the speech hadn’t been held by an elder or even anyone of importance, any excuse to escape from the dull life of an outer disciple for even a few hours was a good one. The past month had been an endless repetition of combat training, theory lessons and concentrated cultivation, as Zixin had not allowed himself any leisure time.

Slowly but surely, others in his group were starting to reach the Body Reformation Realm and Zixin was set on keeping his lead at least for a while longer. He knew that this would probably not go on forever, as people’s talents started showing in the higher realms, but his competitiveness didn’t allow him to fully accept that yet. At least for now, he remained the rising star of his group and he thoroughly enjoyed having that spot.

Spotting his Chonglin’s characteristic broad figure in the crowd, Zixin made his way towards his friend who had recently joined him in his realm.

“Hey, there you are!”

“Zixin. Late as always.” Chonglin teased him while sitting down on the spot that Chonglin had kept free for him.

“I still had to finish my exercises. Besides, it’s not I who am late, it’s you who is always so early.”

“Which is a good thing, because otherwise you wouldn’t have anywhere to sit anymore, isn’t that right?”

“True, I guess. Anyway, what do you think the speech will be about?”

“I’m more interested what the announcements will be about.”

“Why the hell would you care about some announcements? It’s probably just some administration stuff.”

“If they didn’t concern the outer disciples, why would the elder announce them to us and not just to the staff. Besides, I don’t think Elder Hui ever made any announcements.”

“Well, he didn’t hold speeches either.”

“Yes, but that’s just knowledge about cultivation. Instructors have that as well.”

“You are not actually trying to tell me that an instructor knows as much about cultivation as an elder, are you?”

“Of course not, but the things that an elder knows and an instructor doesn’t are not things we can understand right now either way. Besides, he would never tell us about those in a speech.”

“You have a point, but I still think this is going to be interesting. Why would he be holding the speech otherwise?”

As Chonglin was about to respond, the two’s argument was cut short as Elder Wei emerged from the building.

Instead of the mostly white robes he had worn both times that Zixin had previously met him, which were the official robes signifying his status as an elder, he was wearing brown ones. Their design reminded him of the robes the instructors wore, only that they were adorned by decorations similar to the sect elder robes.

With seemingly no effort, Elder Wei suddenly began ascending into the air. When he had reached a few meters of height, maybe five or six, he stopped in place and, levitating perfectly in place, looked over the crowd.

Zixin wasn’t sure, if it was just his imagination, but he felt like the elder’s eyes had stopped on him for a brief moment before moving on.

After a few more moments, the Elder Wei closed his eyes. When he reopened them, his unreadable expression of neutrality gave way to a soft, benevolent smile.

Then, he began to speak.