My confusion must have been apparent since the Elder then began explaining.

“The Sect Master is voted into the seat of power once every half-century from the pool of Grand Elders.”

[Oh, he’s not the strongest?] I thought the leader was the strongest one like in the stories.

“What? No, not even close. Why the heck would the strongest person want to lead the Sect? Do you know how awful that job is? I bet he barely has time to Cultivate. No, being a Sect Master is a lot of work. The leader is chosen among the Grand Elders and has to perform his duty. The upside is that he can then retire, living the rest of his life in peace.”

Elder Fa stared into the distance for a moment, seemingly losing himself in old memories. Then his eyes refocused and he continued to speak. “The Council of Masters is the real force behind the Sect. Let me tell you, if a Sect Master does a poor job of guiding the Sect, bad things tend to happen to them. Similarly, if they do a good job, they tend to enjoy greater benefits after they retire. Rarely has anyone dared to harm the Sect in that way. It’s a good system keeping the leaders honest.”

[Let me guess, they get a cut of the taxes?]

“Exactly!” The Elder’s eyes widened and he nearly jumped in my face. “The bigger the Cultivation base of the Sect, the more money they get. That’s why growth is always necessary and this war is going to be a big pile of dogshit. We are going to lose so many decades of growth, the Council of Masters won’t be happy.”

He snorted. “I have the sneaky suspicion the Sect Master is trying to nurture you into a guardian or something. Another century or so, with your current speed of growth, you will probably be the strongest person in the Sect. Should you remain loyal and remain with us, he’s going to be able to take the credit.”

I mulled over the words for a few minutes. [Why are you telling me this?]

The man shrugged. “You saved me, I thought I might as well tell you the truth. That way you will at least know where we stand.”

[You are not trying to make me owe you a favor for when you become a Grand Elder?]

“Grand Elder? Me?” Elder Fa burst out laughing. “My boy, I have been already struggling, and I’m not even halfway to the Sky Realm. That is the height I will never reach. No, if I survive this war, I’ll spend the rest of my days relaxing with my great-grandchildren and their kids. Life is too short to be wasted on politics and sneaky schemes. I’d rather spend my time enjoying good food and the company of people I love.”

I nodded seriously. [In that, old man, we are the same. I just like a good fight on top of that.]

“So I have noticed…” The old man said. His eyes shifted to the corpse. “The bow you used… May I see it?”

I shrugged and took it out, showing it to him.

“A marvelous weapon.” The Elder said stroking the wood. “Where did you get it?”

[Funny story that. I actually got it from the other Brilliant Sword Sect Elder I killed.]

“Elder De Danw?! That loser? Really? He had this thing?” The man asked incredulously. “Does it have a name?”

[Soulreaper.] I said flatly.

“S-Soulreaper?!” The Elder exclaimed. He looked at the bow with a reverent look and wide eyes. “This bow was supposedly stolen from the Brilliant Sword Sect… How did he get it?”

[I… have no idea.]

I was shocked by that revelation. The bow was stolen? Did De Danw steal from his own people? Well, considering he had some weirdly expensive treasures hidden in his secret base, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a thief. He was too young to have personally made the money to buy it, that’s for sure. The memories really didn’t allow me to see how he acquired it all.

“May I test it?” Elder Fa suddenly asked.

[Um, sure.] I gestured for him to go ahead.

The Elder nodded and pushed the energy into the bow. It began to glow and he began to pull on the string. It went well, but I could see him struggle as he drew it halfway, and completely stopped after reaching the second third. He slowly released the string.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Huh, now that’s difficult. You can fully draw this?” He handed the weapon back.

I grabbed the bow and took a deep breath. Energy surged through me and went into the weapon. It was reinforced by it and empowered the material, boosting its toughness. I pulled back the string, my shoulder, and back muscles exerting their peak force as I did so. The first half was easy, but as I neared the full draw length I could feel my body complaining. The wood bent into a C shape without making a sound and I finally locked out, holding the string tight.

I breathed out and slowly released the string. That was hard. My fingers felt numb.

[Uff, it was easier when I transformed.] I chuckled, looking at the bow.

“Hahaha!” The Elder began laughing and slapped his thigh. “Mighty impressive, boy, mighty impressive! I can see why the Sect Master favors you. Such strength, I guess you really are a warrior by heart.” He shook his head. “Ah, I wasted my youth pursuing other things, but I don’t regret it. Fighting is just not my cup of tea.”

I nodded, storing away the bow, and looked at the corpse on the ground.

[What about this guy? What are we going to do with him?]

The Elder’s eyes narrowed. “What do you think we should do with him?”

[Uh… Eat him?]

The old man would have surely spat out water if he was drinking any and roared with laughter.

“Eat him! Hah! Brilliant! Haha! That’s how you show your enemy you really mean business. Not even a corpse shall remain. Haha!”

He continued to chuckle for a while longer and I kept quiet the entire time. I was serious. What else could we do? That was a body of a Level Five(?) Spirit Realm Cultivator. The decades, centuries of accumulation of Essence were too much to be ignored. Even if he didn’t do much in terms of Body Cultivation, the passive improvement was still huge!

“Oh, you were serious…” The Elder slowly stroked his beard and then waved his hand. “Ah, whatever, I guess you can have it.” He waved his hand and the corpse flew up, the head separating from the rest. “But we are keeping the head. As proof for the Sect.”

The rings also flew off, as did any other jewelry the guy had on him.

[Um, could I perhaps have one of the storage rings? Mine is nearly full.] I asked shamelessly. I know I had gained a lot already and shouldn’t be ungrateful, but I was really tight on space. Buying rings was difficult and expensive and an ordeal I didn’t want to go through.

With a flick from the Elder, a ring flew at me and I caught it. It was empty, but the space inside was even bigger than the one I already had. I gained another 150% storage capacity!

“There you go, but now shush. Before people start complaining I’m favoring you.” The Elder grinned and waved his hand.

The front doors opened and other people came back in, clearly curious as to what happened inside. They looked at me and then at the Elder, but the man was already busy staring at the screen, and my face showed no emotion. All the loot was already stored safely out of sight so there was nothing to see.

For a while nothing happened and some of the guys left to rest in the adjacent room. I closed my eyes and absorbed the Souls after coming to the conclusion most of their memories were not worth keeping.

I did absorb a few techniques, more out of curiosity than any real intent of using them. I had my own way of fighting that didn’t fit with the ways of Brilliant Sword Sect Cultivators.

They were cowards in my eyes, or maybe I should call them perfectionists, always trying to avoid or deflect a strike rather than resist the hit. It was not something for me, but it was good to have that knowledge. You can never go wrong by learning more.

Suddenly there was a loud beep from the screen and I opened my eyes. The things on the screed were zoomed out all the way and I could see a group of black dots entering our detection range. Supposedly that was over 25 kilometers, way more than I or the Elder were capable of.

But the dots didn’t go towards us, instead they moved by at the outer edge of our mechanical sight. The Elder murmured something under his breath and did a few things. It was confusing a bit since the language on the screen was the runic one that I didn’t fully understand, not to mention that the arrangement and style on the screen were nothing like what I was used to with Earth computers.

There were a few more beeps as various dots entered our detection range, but they were mostly singular dots that moved sporadically. Wild animals most likely.

I asked the Elder and he said the machine only detected creatures at or above the Golden Core. Everything else was invisible or ignored. Good thing it was because the forest was teeming with small critters. If they were shown on the screen, it would be a huge mess.

A large runic word flashed on the screen and I recognized it as something meaning full or complete.

The Elder sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Finally.” He stretched his limbs and then slowly stood up. He winced as he did so and held the side of his stomach. The deep wound he sustained was apparently still bothering him.

His eyes met mine and he spoke. “Our job here is done. I have notified the Sect and they should send someone here shortly to oversee the outpost. As soon as they arrive, we’ll depart. I’ll be in closed-door Cultivation until then. Spread the word to the rest.”

I nodded and watched the Elder close himself in the empty storage room. I felt a barrier forming on the inside and he vanished from my sight.

Since it was the middle of the night, I decided to finish what I was doing before spreading the news. I consumed many Souls of peak Golden Core Cultivators, pushing my own Cultivation forward by about twenty months. I thought it would be closer to two years, but I clearly overestimated the enemy. They were weak, depressingly so.

Not one of ours died in the conflict, though some have sustained severe wounds. It showed just how much stronger our younger generation was. Well, at least stronger than their bottom feeders. The people who died weren’t the elite, instead, they were the ones with Mortal Talent, forever cursed to remain in the Golden Core Realm. Death soldiers.

“Hey…”

I lifted one eye and saw Arkos standing beside me.