As the crowd of disciples broke into an applause, Liu Wei allowed himself a moment of self-satisfaction. His speech had quite obviously hit its mark exactly how he had intended.

In all honesty, it wasn’t that great of a speech, after all much of its purpose had been an informative one. To many of the disciples though, it had been perhaps the first decent speech they had heard in their lives. They had, after all, been accepted into the sect when they were only between ten and twelve years of age.

For all that sects liked to stylize themselves as the central hubs of culture and scholarship, most of that was merely a superficial façade. Sure, there were actual scholars like those of the Bai family amongst them, but those were mostly focused on practical and strategical knowledge, rather than more artistic pursuits. And while there were indeed some among them who were capable of writing and holding speeches that would have even a centuries old cultivator shiver with feelings of grandeur and purpose, none of those speeches would ever reach an outer disciple. They were to cultivate and to train, not to educate themselves in higher forms of rhetoric.

It was regrettable, but it wasn’t something he could change, at least not in the short run. Until the training for outer disciples had even remotely caught up to that of the inner ones, he would need to focus on efficiency above all.

Speaking of that, it was now time for the actually relevant part of this event. The speech was something he had included mainly to set a tone for his future actions. That still left him with the need to take those actions though. The announcements he was about to hold would mark the official start of his effort to reform the training hall.

When the noise had died down, Liu Wei once again started speaking:

“Now, as much as it makes me happy that my speech seems to have resonated with many of you, it wasn’t the only reason I called you here today. I have something I want to announce to all of you, as it is something that concerns every member and disciple of the Training Hall.”

Truthfully speaking, it would concern nearly every member of the sect, at least in the long run, but Liu Wei refrained from phrasing it that way of course.

“As most of you probably know by now, I have only recently taken up the position as leader of the Training Hall. I have spent the past weeks examining it thoroughly to ascertain how I can best serve this new duty of mine.”

That was the truth, though he had been concerned with more than just that. Eying the rows of instructors and other staff revealed mostly curiosity. One man seemed very anxious though: Chief instructor Mei Feng.

This was rather expected. Over his time here, Liu Wei had expended some effort to collect additional information on him, revealing that his first instinctual assessment had been more than correct. Making use of the lack of oversight and attention the Training Hall had been receiving both from the sect and from its own leader, Mei Feng had effectively transformed himself into the hall’s unofficial leader. Besides lording over its members and neglecting his duties, he was diverting a significant portion of the hall’s already few resources into his own pockets.

To him, a leader that actually took his job seriously seemed like a threat to his position. He wasn’t wrong about that either.

“In the following days, weeks and months, I will be introducing several changes to the workings of this hall. To give all of you time to prepare for them, I will be announcing the first of those right now.

First of all, in order to reduce the workload on the existing ones, as well as improve the quality of the education, the hall will be hiring additional instructors, starting immediately. To accommodate them, the hall’s existing personal will also undergo a significant restructure.

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Next up: the hall will be increasing the resources assigned to each disciple. Alongside this will come a general increase in payment across all personal.

Of course, nothing comes without a potential downside. To prevent this sudden influx of resources from being misappropriated, we will be cooperating with the enforcement hall to establish a completely new division, focused on internal investigation and combatting corruption.”

All of this was essentially just set-up for the things yet to come, but it was still more change than the hall had experienced in centuries. Both the instructors and the disciples were locked in a mix of disbelief and euphoria, at least most of them were.

Mei Feng’s face had lost all of its color. This was clearly beyond even what the old man had thought to be the worst case.

Liu Wei didn’t particularly care. The man was an interesting phenomenon to understand the inner workings of the training hall, but he wasn’t a threat. Confronted with the power of an elder, he could do absolutely nothing to even so much as hinder the progress Liu Wei made.

“For now, that mostly covers it, but there is another thing I would like to address at the occasion. As some of you might have heard, the Parting Clouds Sect and the Serene Plains Sect are planning to hold a tournament next year to which disciples from all sects in the northern alliance are invited.

To determine which disciples will be sent there, our sect will hold an internal competition, hosted by the outer relations hall. Any disciple can enter this competition free of charge and I would encourage those of you willing to test themselves to enter. Even if you don’t believe yourself capable of winning, it will be a good experience to improve your skills.”

This announcement had little to do with Liu Wei’s goals, it was simply a means of relieving the tension his previous ones had built up in the crowd.

“That ends my announcements. For now, I bid you goodbye, and wish all of you a good night. I am sure you have a lot of things to talk to each other about.”

With those words and a last nod, Liu Wei descended from to the ground and retreated into the building, leaving the crowd behind.

…

As the outer disciples started leaving, Jia let herself drift with the movement of the crowd. Blocking out the increasingly loud chatter, she focused on recalling the words of Elder Wei over and over again in an effort to commit them to memory.

She couldn’t afford to lose any of them to less important thoughts of her, neither could she allow herself to form any opinion of them, as that would taint her memory.

As the disciples scattered to move to their respective dorms, the tide of people surging through the streets grew thinner until it had completely dispersed. Jia didn’t follow any of them though. As much as she would have liked to go into her room, or that of one of her friends to spent the next hours exchanging theories and cooking up rumors about what had just happened, she still had something to do.

Leaving the dorm district behind, she hurriedly traversed the now empty streets. The sect’s streets were completely secure, but she was nervous nonetheless. What she was doing right now wasn’t strictly forbidden, but it was highly irregular. If she was seen by someone, she would doubtlessly be asked some questions, questions she wouldn’t be able to give a good answer to. It would be awkward at best, highly suspicious at worst.

Once she had left the Training Hall’s premises completely, a wave of relief washed over her. Out in the general districts, nightly activities were far more common, meaning she would not stand out as much.

After a couple more minutes of walking, she arrived at an unassuming little house, not standing out in any way to the unknowing. Before entering, she made sure to straighten her robes and mentally repeat the elder’s words one more time. Then she knocked.

The door opened almost immediately, a black figure donning a white mask greeting her from behind it.

“We have been expecting you. Hurry, the lady is waiting in person.”

Jia didn’t allow herself any outer reaction, at least no obvious one. Internally though, she felt her heart pick up in pace rather quickly, something that would undoubtedly not escape the person she was about to meet.

Reeling in her stress, she stepped inside. The masked person led her through a few corridors until they arrived at another closed door. This time, there was no need to knock though. As soon as they stood before the door, a voice from behind it addressed them:

“You may enter.”

Taking a deep breath, Jia did as commanded.

Inside, seated on a simple wooden chair, was none other than Lady Zhong herself, elder of the sect and matriarch of the family that Jia served. Her spotless white skin beneath her flowing black hair would have given her an otherworldly beauty if it were not for her cold and dark aura that seemed to weave around her like living shadows.

“Sit.”

Jia did as commanded. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the masked one retreating and closing the door behind them.

“You may now tell me everything the Elder has said. Word for word.”

“As you command, my lady.”