A jade tablet fell to the floor with a clatter.
John stared at the medallion in his hand, struggling to come to terms with the implications of it. Rejecting the monumental responsibility and burden that had plopped into his lap. He almost didn't notice the second tablet that had teleported with him. When he was finally able to tear his eyes away, he glanced at the floor, spotting a much more ordinary looking jade slip. The sect leader had all but dismissed him, maybe the slip would have some answers.
Picking it up and inserting qi, a huge amount of information was laid bare before him. An extremely complex spiritual imprint was hiding within the spiritual jade, flooding it with qi revealed it to be something of a journal, written by the previous Left Hand of the Sect Leader. There was also some hastily imprinted notes, presumably from the Sect Leader himself. Tracing the imprint rather than flooding it with qi, John could read the journal as if it was right in front of him. The words were thick with intent, carrying the density of meaning that spoken word and body language would usually handle. It was an unusual sensation.
This was the first jade slip John had used personally but he knew what they were, high level techniques were often recorded on them and it was now obvious why. It was necessary to have so much depth of communication for more complicated techniques, otherwise it would be impossible to pass on. All that said, the Sect Leader's notes were as bizarre as their meeting had been. They were thick with the same odd pacing and monotonous timber, but it was laced with strangeness and madness. Several sections clearly drifted into rambling or inane babbling, some sections had been painted over with loud white noise, drowning out any meaning.
If the sect leader was going mad... John didn't know what to think. In some ways he was clearly already teetering on the edge of sanity. Only such a man could force adolesents to consume mind-altering drugs so that they would attune to a hellish breach in reality--all in the name of creating soldiers. Now he was getting clearly more erratic. On one hand, John wouldn't mind seeing him fall directly into infirmity, on the other hand, John still needed to use the sect as a stable platform for development. Nothing could be done quickly, so John put it to the back of his mind.
Parsing through the less understandable parts, and ignoring the journal entries for now, John pieced together the message from the sect leader. Essentially, he had laid out some of the various benefits and responsibilities that John now shouldered. The sect leader wasn't joking when it came to taking over the Weird parts of the sect, that was a large portion of his new responsibilities. No longer just the figurative leader of the Weird kids, John was supplanting Catherine as their full on caretaker. John would need to manage their housing, development, and logistics. Catherine did a fine job, but she was a stooge of the sect in the end, she didn't care to make more detailed adjustments that could otherwise benefit the Weird cultivators significantly. Already, John could see how this elevation in rank was going to strengthen his friends and allies.
Beyond that though, John was expected to recruit and induct new Weird cultivators, which made John deeply uncomfrotable. Was he really prepared to kidnap more people just to bolster the ranks? Would the sect leader even care, or keep track? If he was paying attention, not fulfilling this responsibility could be bad, especially if he was getting more unstable. The notes mentioned another set of notes in the experiment chambers that he should go read. He would eventually.... probably. John had once discussed better methods of inducting new disciples, it was possible he could make that a reality. Perhaps no one else would have to suffer needlessly.
John got to a confusing section and had to review it several times before he fully understood; the sect leader had almost glossed over it, but John was given the rights over missions and punishment that he had wagered for from the Songs. John was glad to see that noted, even if it was barely mentioned, it would be more difficult for the Song family to try and reneg on the deal. John was sure that Gaius would be thrilled too, but probably for the political influence it would let John wield, on his behalf. John pushed that headache to the back of his mind too, there was a lot yet to be done and he still wasn't done reading.
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As far as new responsibilities, that was basically it. John was expected to lecture occasionally, and to personally manage the relevant Halls occasionally. He was also bound to defend the sect if it was attacked by an outside force--which seemed unlikely, the sect had never been attacked in its entire history. The benefits were considerably more interesting. John was granted a mansion in the core sect to live in and use as he saw fit. He was being given access to resources above his cultivation level! The qi was so dense there that John forsaw himself quickly leaping through foundation establishment and forming his core. Not to mention the new building would have several facilities he could use for alchemy, formations, etc. He need only request their construction and trade the appropriate number of contribution points.
Elders had a way of gaining contribution without completing missions directly, namely by accepting and mentoring disciples. John didn't think he was quite ready to accept a disciple but he could see the clear benefit. Elders were also granted the ability to leave the sect 'city' and wander the mountainside, as well as make use of it for their own purposes, unless it was already occupied. Ordinarily they could simply fly out but John could leave through a few more mundane entrances. This caught John a little by surprise. He knew that the different stages of the sect were separated by formation gates, but it hadn't occured to him that they would be on separate peaks. The air was always thick with fog and rainclouds, it was basically impossible to see outside the bubble of each zone anyway.
Depending on what the mountainside looked like, John could make serious plans out there. Golden Core would be difficult to advance with just wild qi alone. Even with his ability to rush through the rest of Foundation Establishment, the Core sect wouldn't be sufficient. If it was, there would be no reason for those cultivators to do anything but sit around, and evidentally most Golden Core cultivators in the sect worked as Elders. John had been considering a way to artifically raise and harvest pure silk qi from monstrous spiders directly. He would need the help of Ben....
If John could get away with it, he wanted to pull all the best Weird cultivators out of the sect and into the mountainside with him. If everyone could create a similar garden suited to their needs, their collective power would grow wings. It wasn't called cultivation for nothing!
While John focused on his plotting and planning, he quickly finished reading the sect leaders notes. John was granted a few other perks, namely an increased permission to leave the sect, unlimited access to libraries and previously forbidden techniques, and a controlling interest in sect resources he could use to manage his direct disciples and charges. John didn't see a lot of need to leave the sect any more, if he wasn't going to focus on missions he probably didn't need to leave personally. He would just set up missions to collect samples of Weird qi out in the world, rather than go collecting personally. He wanted to leave his family alone as well. Now that he was stronger, he couldn't risk an even more fearsome demon heading in their direction. Not to mention he would live to see 200 as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, assuming he didn't get killed by demons of other cultivators. It would only get more exaggerated in Golden Core.
Libraries.... John needed to see if the 'Head Librarian' was real or not, he was still frightened by that. The sense of death had been indistinguishable from reality. John wasn't convinced he hadn't been legitimately killed and brought back to life using some unfathomable and dark method. He needed to look into Tribulations and prepare for his advancement as well. Odds were good his tribulation would be unusual.
Lastly was the control over resources. This was undoubtably what the Operators would be interested in, in addition to his ability to issue missions and control punishments. Unfortunately, John needed those resources to groom lietenants and empower the Weird kids. The Weird faction as a whole. Where there was benefits there would be conflict, but John was not looking forward to duking it out with Kai's much more skilled father. For now, John would focus on advancing and laying the groundwork for his extra-sectular stronghold.