After dropping disciple Felix off, Elder Rong used his Quake Step to ascend the mountain. With a few agile movements, he appeared before the second highest building on the Sect’s mountain, the Hall of Seeking. Rong couldn't help rolling his eyes as he thought of the name.

Why my senior brothers came up with these stupid names I don't know. Just call it the meeting house. There are already enough ridiculously named cultivation techniques and methods out. We don't have to add to the confusion by giving the buildings misleading names as well.

He stepped through the doorway to be hit by what felt like a wall of sound. Raucous laughter and voices resounded through the room. He shook his head in bemusement.

Thank God none of the disciples can see this. I am afraid we would lose our air of mystery and profundity. A few of them have even pulled out spiritual wine.

Rong took the last open seat and looked over the eleven sworn brothers and sisters who had started this sect with him. While his cultivation had fallen behind, leaving him the only one below Nascent Soul cultivation, he didn't begrudge his fellows this difference. He had understood that with his background in teaching, much of the responsibility of organizing their disciples' education would fall on his back.

Though the fact that I would have started my ascension to Nascent Soul last night if it weren’t for the attack is still pissing me off.

"My brothers and sisters," said a raspy voice. "Now that Rong has joined us, it is time to focus on why we are here.” Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at the speaker. The most unassuming of all the people here, the speaker seemed like an old man who had just wandered in and sat down. The only thing that stood out physically about him was a black scar around his throat. "Now that we have begun taking steps to have the disciples healed, we need to decide on our response to the attack itself. "

Rong knew that the annoyance in Brother Akeno's voice was half at the attack and half at the fact he wasn’t cultivating.

Though perhaps maybe more than half. If what Brother Jin has said is true, the old maniac doesn’t have a Dao companion mostly because he refuses to stop cultivating even during sex, and it's not dual cultivation either. Some things deserve a little more care and attention.

"What can we do senior brother?" Asked Elder Ja, one of the few females in their group. "Not even you were able to sense the old monster. If the expert chasing the old demon hadn’t deigned to send us that spiritual message, we wouldn’t have even known of the attack until the bodies were found. We should just be grateful that we were able to stop the afflicted disciples from cultivating. If their injuries worsen, our sect wouldn’t have had the resources to help them.”

"How can you give up senior sister?" asked a sweet voice from the opposite end of the table. The youngest of them all, Elder Zhenzhen looked at her elder sister with a small pout on her lips.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

She always was the most passionate of us all. Thought Rong. He looked again at her facial expression. And the most bullheaded.

"We must pursue another route to get even, or at least protect us and our disciples." Continued Elder Zhenzhen. "Senior brother Harold, surely you can think of something. Perhaps one of your contacts can do something."

The creak of a chair could be heard as Elder Harold sat back into his seat, lacing his fingers together. A giant of a man, Rong knew that behind that white beard and jolly face was a keen mind. Harold was often the man who got the twelve of them out of trouble, so he might have a solution.

"Unfortunately, junior sister Zhenzhen, we aren't really positioned well to get much aid. We chose this spot because there was no one around stronger than us. My contacts have also told me that some of the ancient sects and families have begun moving again. We cannot afford to draw their roving eye, even if they would be our best hope in destroying this bastard. With a name or even a clue, perhaps I could find a way to leak his trail to his enemies, but we know too little.”

Harold pulled his hands apart and slowly began to tap on the table as he thought the situation over. “Perhaps we must take this as a wakeup call. We have been passive in the past ten years as our sect’s foundation is relatively young. The idea was to give us time to digest all the treasures from our adventuring days but maybe we should be moving a little more aggressively.”

"Is that really what you would advise Harold?" Said Akeno. "We established this Sect with the idea of making a generation of cultivators with the lessons we learned as rogue cultivators. Better than the devil cultivators but without the sword up their asses like most orthodox cultivators. I can also feel my ascension to the next rank coming up. Should we truly rush ahead now?”

“If it was back in our rogue cultivator days, I would be with you brother. In fact, I would say let's hide in a cave until you ascend. However, if we turtle up now it will make us look weak. We cannot simply move location with ease now. Our disciples could also benefit from more stimulus. Not to mention we can recruit a little more aggressively at the same time.

"Sounds great. Are we done?" Said an annoyed voice. Rong looked over to see his junior brother Jackie. “I need to get back and make sure my disciple hasn't died. I, uh, left at a rather dangerous point in his training."

"Did you endanger your disciple again?" Said Rong in anger.

Elder Jackie coughed awkwardly “You guys said this wouldn’t take long.” Jackie wilted under Rong’s glare. “Alright, he won’t get any permanent damage, but it will ruin a month of work.”

"Of course, Jackie. Go quickly," said Grand Elder Akeno with a sigh. Elder Jackie did a backflip out of his chair and disappeared midair. "Anything else before we get back to our duties?” The surrounding elders shook their heads. “Anything more to add on that disciple with the worst soul damage?”

“Nothing of serious concern brother. Though his memory seems to have been hit worse than I feared from the few questions I have asked of him.”

“Mmm, he will probably need a good amount of help readjusting.” Murmured Akeno. “Does anyone have a disciple in mind?”

“Ah, I know just the one,” said Elder Ja with a smile. “It’s actually a friend of his.”

“Perfect,” said Akeno with a clap. “Well, I suppose that’s most of it. Let us be back to our duties.”