Council Hall, Central Peak. Late Evening.

Around a large table, there were eight seated. Some were old and looked seconds away from dozing off, whereas others were young and beautiful (and also seconds away from dozing off).

This was a routine meeting that they were required to attend - after all, with great power also came great obligation to attend meetings (which honestly could have just been summarised into a jade slip to save time, but the Sect Leader ignored every submission they’d made about it to the suggestion box).

Indeed, despite appearing like a random selection of people picked off the market road, these eight individuals were in fact the most powerful people in the Treading Infinity Sect: the Sect Leader and the Grand Elders.

As per, the Sect Leader was prattling on from his seat, painting a rich image and gesturing rousingly to stir their spirits. “So, what do you all think?”

The First Grand Elder was painting a not quite as vivid but nonetheless gripping image in watercolour, showing a pond skater’s daring escape from a chorus of frogs wielding whip-like tongues.

The Third Grand Elder was busy racking his brain on writing a daoist love poem, assisted by the Fourth Grand Elder who was giving thoughts on it from the female perspective.

The Fourth Grand Elder, meanwhile, was busy racking her brain on how to prevent her Senior Brother from sending over such horrific text to his crush and creating a diplomatic crisis between their two Immortal Sects.

The Fifth Grand Elder had his arms at right angles on the table, forearms clasping elbows, creating a bed to lie his brow on and stare into the table from; he was deep in thought pondering over the matter the Sect Leader had raised, even if his loud snoring and occasional nonsensical mutterings suggested otherwise.

The Sixth and Seventh Grand Elders were sitting up straight at least but with glassy-eyed looks that made it obvious that they too were in the same mental space as the Fifth, fiercely debating over the matter the Sect Leader had raised, of course.

The Eighth Grand Elder was drinking her green tea in peace.

Accordingly, none of them heard what the Sect Leader - who was also the Second Grand Elder - said.

He had to noisily clear his throat once more. “I said, does anyone have any opinions?”

“Huh?” The First Grand Elder looked up from his painting, glanced to the others for help, and discovered they were more oblivious than him, even now paying no attention. “Er, I agree with whatever decision you believe is best, Old Lao.”

“Are you sure? Surely we should debate on this topic before proceeding.” the Sect Leader said. But a glance around the table later, he showed a resigned expression. “Hmm, well, alright then. I’ll jot it down as a topic of discussion for our next meeting.”

The First said nothing at this, knowing there’d be no point.

“Now, onto the next matter,” the Sect Leader continued, “it was brought to my attention a few days ago that one of the Outer Sect Disciples was showing signs of having inherited an ancient cultivator’s legacy. This looks ever more likely after today’s events.”

As one, the Grand Elders paused whatever they were doing and snapped to attention (except the Fifth who continued snoring and the Eighth who continued sipping).

The Sect Leader used his divine sense to message Elder Ma waiting outside the Council Hall, who entered at the signal and bowed deeply towards the table. “Martial Nephew greets the Grand Elders.”

“Be at ease, Ma. I trust the Outer Sect Tournament went without a hitch?”

“Yes, Sect Leader. I have prepared these jade slips for you all to see - this one shows the matchups and who won against who, and this one shows the candidates that the other Elders and I believe showed sufficient promise to be elevated to the Inner Sect. If you have any challenges to make regarding the chosen candidates, please let me know.”

“No, no, that’s quite alright. We have faith in your judgement,” answered the Third Grand Elder; it went without saying that managers at their level were all experts in the Dao of Delegation.

“To have brought this to our attention, I assume the ancient cultivator’s legacy inheritor was one of those selected?”

“Yes, Fourth Grand Elder. The reasons for doing so are included in the jade slip. I also questioned the disciple named Zeng Fei earlier today on all other relevant details, so I should be able to satisfy any other queries you have regarding him.”

The Grand Elders looked positively on Elder Ma’s preparation and scanned the jade slip with their divine senses, skimming through the content.

“Are you sure this is something to do with an ancient cultivator and not that ‘Charmer Gu’?”

“Ha, good point - he is the only one in the sect who uses spirit beasts. Could be ‘Sweet Talker Gu’ finally decided to take on a disciple.”

“About time that ‘sycophant’ decided to pass on his teachings.”

Elder Ma nodded along their jokes with a polite smile. “As Martial Uncles have guessed, Old Gu was indeed present when Disciple Zeng returned to the Training Hall for an arranged duel and displayed his new cultivation art for the first time. Old Gu tried to attach a Scrying Sprite to the disciple out of curiosity for their circumstances, but the spirit beast spontaneously combusted on touching the disciple’s skin.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“…” The Grand Elders were speechless as to how this was in any way close to what they’d guessed; although Elder Ma was both reliable and attentive, he was also overeager to kiss ass whenever given the opportunity.

Still, this Outer Sect Disciple’s peculiarities were starting to sound like a headache to them.

“Do you think—”

“Yep.”

“Mhmm.”

“Textbook case,” the Sect Leader said. “Since we’ve all agreed an ancient legacy is involved, we can skip ahead to what to do about it.”

The important question on all their minds was whether this ancient’s legacy was actually desirable or not. After all, anyone who created good techniques should have no issue finding worthy successors, a fact that applied as much now as it did in the past.

The truth was that most ancient cultivators created techniques that were flawed or that came with overly high drawbacks, which is why no one in their time had wanted to learn these techniques. Yet, rather than acknowledge the reality of their situation, these people preferred to insist they’d been born in the wrong generation, surrounded by ignoramuses who couldn’t understand the awesomeness of their techniques.

But at least someone in the future would surely comprehend their genius, they told themselves, proceeding to hide their graves - within which contained their legacies - for some poor sod to fall victim to many millennia later.

It went without saying that they referred to themselves with imposing names to trick all those who stumbled upon their grave, some even going as far as to design traps and tests so that the poor victim would feel a false sense of achievement, naturally leading them to believe the legacy being awarded must be something super special.

If anyone else went through this much effort to deceive their fellow man, society would label them a cheat or a trickster, which in turn were fitting descriptors for these ancient cultivators who had no one to receive their legacy.

For the Grand Elders, it was rather embarrassing that one of their disciples had fallen prey to such a legacy scam while within sect grounds, not even journeying the wider world.

“Sixth, wasn’t it your job to scan the Crooked Mountains for legacy rooms before opening it to the disciples?”

“Oh, lay off it,” the Sixth Grand Elder replied in an aggrieved tone. “If those graves were so simple to find, do you think the modern cultivator world would be awash with loudmouths who’d inherited this ancient’s and that ancient’s legacies?”

The Sect Leader nodded, adding, “These ancient scammers knew no one of our experience would fall for their lies, potentially even destroy their lairs, so they came up with myriad different ways of designing their gravesites to escape the notice of people above a certain threshold. It’s no coincidence that everyone who receives a legacy also has a low cultivation base; get them young before they know any better, that’s the motto these ancient cultivators roll by.”

“Ma, out of curiosity, what did the disciple say the ancient cultivator’s name was?”

“Disciple Zeng’s master went by the Daoist name Heavenly Demon Emperor.”

The Sect Leader glanced around to see head shakes and shrugs. Sixth was even chuckling to himself.

“This guy must not have gotten the memo that went around all the other ancients, because they all renamed themselves stuff like the Unmatched Under the Heavens Sword Demon Asura and the Peerless Primordial Poison Heavenly God Emperor.” Sixth put on a despondent look and sighed. “If only these lofty figures had been recorded in the history tomes, we could have known more about them. What a tragic loss.”

“Ma, what exactly did the inherited legacy consist of? If it’s just a technique…” The Fourth Grand Elder trailed off on seeing Ma’s head shake.

“In order to inherit the cultivation art, Disciple Zeng was forced to undergo a body transformation ritual, which also caused his cultivation base to drop from fifth to first before his duel in the Training Hall. I scanned his body to check his claim.” Elder Ma paused, before continuing.

“When I initially met the disciple, I noticed nothing amiss about his body. It was only after hearing about the ritual that I carried out a more thorough scan, specifically searching for any tell-tale signs, and…” Elder Ma deliberated over his words. “Although his dantian and meridians look ordinary on the surface, the extent of esoteric transformations they’ve undergone is so great that I was briefly stunned Disciple Zeng had even survived such a ludicrous ordeal. I can confidently say any attempt to reverse course will result in the disciple’s death.”

“Makes sense - it’s common for these legacies to come with irreversible body modifications that make the inheritor more suitable for cultivating the technique. Out of curiosity, what was this one called?”

“The Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”

The Sixth Grand Elder broke into heavy laughter now, banging on the table (the Fifth adjacent to him slept through this, unperturbed).

Even the other Grand Elders who were less familiar with ancient cultivator legacies couldn’t help but smile at the name; given that divine grade was the highest grade of techniques, it was clear this ancient cultivator had possessed zero talent in naming whatsoever.

It was the First Grand Elder’s voice that cut through the laughter. “Still, we should not forget the small possibility that this is a legacy from a legitimate ancient Immortal and not a scam. If anything, the fact that the daoist and technique names are so simple would suggest that they didn’t care for people’s opinions of them, a quality often found in eccentric powerhouses.”

This insightful comment gave pause to the others, including the Sect Leader who turned thoughtful. “What were your thoughts on the disciple, Ma?”

“Since Disciple Zeng’s cultivation technique is beyond doubt a unique art, it is unknown how promising it will be in the future. But equally, at the present moment it cannot be denied that it is an incredibly potent art. The one who Disciple Zeng fought in the tournament, Dong Fu, was a body refiner that’d repeatedly shown the ability to challenge disciples at the very peak of Qi Refining; indeed, Zeng Fei himself was downed by a single punch from Dong Fu, and it was his spirit beast that went toe to toe with Dong Fu and eventually bested him.”

“This Dong Fu was strong enough to also earn a place in the Inner Sect, right? In which case I can see why even someone as impassive as Gu was moved into curiosity: a spirit beast that has the strength and endurance of a demon beast is remarkable, even more so if this art can allow more than one beast to be summoned at once.”

Elder Ma had an awkward look on his face. “Disciple Dong is a capable body refiner, yes. There was an existing grudge between himself and Disciple Zeng, so I believed a match between them would push Zeng Fei to reveal the full extent of his abilities… though, I was under the belief that Dong Fu would win in the end. As such, there was much debate about ascending him to the Inner Sect after he’d lost.”

Despite the obscure wording, the Grand Elders naturally understood what he was trying to say having worked up the sect system themselves.

The Sixth smacked the slumbering Fifth on the head. “Oi, wake up!”

“Huh, wuh.” The Fifth blinked at the rest of them agape, looking not all that different from a water buffalo dumbstruck by a fly buzzing in front of it. “What?”

“Seeing as your Enforcement Faction strongarmed Dong Fu into the Inner Sect, he is someone capable, right?”

Eyes widening, the Fifth stared at them agape. “Who?”

“Okay, so someone below him made the call then. Well, if Zeng Fei turns out to be the real deal, you may want to preemptively clear the air between the two.”

At this point, the Fifth’s eyes were so wide they were like moons. “Still who?”

Alas, his earnest questions went unanswered.