The Sect Leader System

Chapter 354: Warm Welcome for a Return from the Cold

Wan Ai quietly sat in her room, bored nearly to tears. She had pretty much memorized all her manuals by that point, so there was literally no point in going over them again. Worse, she was so close to reaching Foundation Establishment that she couldn’t cultivate. At all.

She supposed she could practice making mortal grade pills. Again. Which was what she’d been doing almost every hour of the day for a week.

Knock. Knock.

The sound of a fist gently rapping on her door made her nearly jump out of her seat. Though she wasn’t expecting anyone, she rushed to greet whoever it was. After all, any distraction was welcome at that point.

When she opened her door, though, she almost shut it again immediately. A strange man stood there. Tall, scruffy, and wearing a dirty and torn robe, the man—easily in his early twenties—looked like someone she’d run away from if she saw him on the street.

The only reason she didn’t slam the door was that she didn’t want him accosting any of her sect mates. “How did you get in here? Leave immediately, or I’ll call for the guards!”

Yes. The guards. Calling them. That was exactly what she should do.

Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she found herself reflecting that she was glad she didn’t have to fight enemies like so many of her sect mates did. She couldn’t handle the excitement or the stress.

“What?” From his expression, the man was clearly confused, which made no sense. “Oh. I wanted to test them to see if they’d notice me. They didn’t.”

His words did not calm her. In fact, they made things worse. Was he an assassin? Would he kill her?

He gripped one of his fingers with his opposite hand, and she tensed, fearing that he was about to pull out a weapon. Instead, he … transformed. Instantly, Zou Tian stood in front of her, wearing his normal sect robe.

“Hi,” he said brightly.

She was typically pretty quick on the uptake, but the change from potentially murderous stranger to her boyfriend was too fast for her to process. She simply stood there slack jawed.

“Wan Ai? Are you okay?”

She felt her mouth working, but no words came out.

His face showed worry. “Wait here. I’ll go find a healer.”

He was leaving? But he’d just got there. After so long.

“No!” She grabbed the front of his robe. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Wan Ai pulled him into her bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Her lips found his, and she surrendered to bliss for several minutes before breaking away from him.

“I missed this. A lot.” She felt her face heat at the admission, but she didn’t care.

He grinned. “I did, too.”

“And this is all we’re going to do for now. No more sticking your hands under my robe, either, mister! Not until you make an honest woman out of me. Which you will do as soon as we get back to the village. Understand me?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. Now kiss me.”

Several more minutes were lost to sensations she had greatly yearned for, and she reluctantly pulled away only because she was rapidly losing her resolve to limit their activities solely to kissing.

“You’re back!” she said after they’d both regained their breath. “You are back, aren’t you?”

“One hundred percent. All information streams have dried up. Teng Wuying is keeping his plans to himself. The ambush will happen after Jin LiJuan loses, just before the awards ceremony, or just after. I don’t know which, but my gut tells me the timing is one of those.”

“What does the sect leader think?”

Zou Tian grinned. “I don’t know. I came to you first.”

She slapped his chest, only lightly though. “You should have gone to him before me.”

“Really? That wouldn’t have upset you?”

“No, it definitely would have, but you still should have done it.”

He grinned even wider. “If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of it’s that Master would absolutely have told me to go to you first. He is a man who understands priorities in life.”

Wan Ai knew she wouldn’t win that argument and, frankly, she didn’t want to. “No comment on what I said would happen as soon as we get back to the village?”

His grin disappeared, and his eyes met hers. “I’m ready. Being away from you for so long has made me understand what’s really important. If that’s what you want, that’s perfect.”

“Good.”

Stolen novel; please report.

She’d meant her response to sound resolute. Firm. Instead, she found herself tearing up and sniffling. “I missed you so much.”

He pulled her into his arms. “Not as much as I missed you.”

More kissing ensued but only a little. Wan Ai suspected that he had the same concerns as her about continuing.

“What’s next?” she eventually said.

“While Master will be understanding about a delay, I do have to meet him eventually, and I need to see the other council members as well.” Zou Tian paused. “Actually, can you do me a favor? Can you gather them?”

Knocking on doors wasn’t exactly an activity that an introvert like her relished, but she was glad to have something useful to do. “Sure. Should I bring them to Master’s office?”

“No. This one will be just us sect members.”

Interesting. She couldn’t ever recall a council meeting that didn’t include the sect leader. Something must be going on, and she was tempted to ask about it. In the end, though, she figured she’d find out soon enough.

“Okay,” she said. “There’s a room on the first floor that should do for our purposes.”

Zou Tian felt like he was walking on air as he left Wan Ai’s bedroom. He couldn’t wait to get back to the village. Duty still remained, though, and he was determined to see it through before yielding too much to temptation.

His first stop, as he’d told Wan Ai, was to see Master.

After a cup of tea, Zou Tian gave his report, which didn’t cover any new ground. He’d not learned anything worth his time over the last several weeks, and all that he had discovered, along with his speculations, had been passed to Master through Elder Kang Ya-Ting.

“This lowly disciple apologizes for not revealing any new schemes,” Zou Tian said.

Teng Wuying was far too careful. He moved meeting locations between him and Mao Biya to a different tea shop every time and, since that first one, swept each with a technique to detect invisible observers before the Swift Blizzard branch sect leader arrived.

Zou Tian had made good use of his limited number of bugs, scattering them about back rooms of tea shops throughout the city, but he’d only gotten lucky once when the two not only met using a particular shop but also sat in the exact booth he’d bugged.

It was still possible to pick up future meetings, but since further monitoring could be accomplished remotely, there was no reason not to, as the manuals put it, come in out of the cold.

“Nonsense,” Master said. “You have exceeded my expectations at every turn. You, my boy, are a credit to the Rising Tide Sect.”

Zou Tian cupped his hands, suddenly fighting to keep his eyes from watering.

Master’s face turned stern. “I noticed, though, that you stopped to see Wan Ai before reporting to me. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Zou Tian’s first impulse was to swallow hard and doubt his conclusions. His time in the field, however, had taught him to trust his gut, no matter the circumstances. “I say that reporting to the more important person first was absolutely the right choice.”

Master grinned widely. “I agree. Good call.”

When Zou Tian’s heart stopped trying to hammer through his chest, he returned the smile. “This lowly disciple does request a boon from Master.”

“Name it. Anything that I can give is yours.”

“I wish to meet with the other council members present in the city. Alone. Without anyone using their enhanced senses to eavesdrop.”

Master looked momentarily taken about by the request. “That’s … an interesting ask.”

“It is. One that is important to me.”

“May I ask why you don’t want me to listen in?”

Zou Tian couldn’t help but grinning despite the seriousness of the situation. “Because I’ll be saying some things you won’t want to hear, obviously.”

Master laughed. “Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. That’ll teach me.” He paused. “You know what? I trust your judgement. Boon granted. And I’m not counting that as your reward. When you come up with what you really want, let me know.”

“Gratitude, Master.” Zou Tian cupped his hands and bowed low.

When someone knocked on Sun Hua’s door, the last person she expected to find was Wan Ai. The girl was more excited than Sun Hua had ever seen. Apparently, Zou Tian had openly returned to the sect.

“He wants a private meeting?” Sun Hua said. “Without the sect leader?”

In any other sect from any other person, she would have suspected ill intent, but Zou Tian and Wan Ai were beyond reproach. Right?

Mother would have disagreed. She would have said that literally no one besides the Employer was beyond doubt and that it was the Assistant’s job to keep an eye out for any backstabbing.

Sun Hua believed differently. Besides, even if the two of them turned out not to be trustworthy, it wasn’t like the sect leader’s senses couldn’t pick up everything that went on within the compound, anyway. If he were concerned about it, he’d listen in.

“Okay,” Sun Hua said. “I’ll arrange everything. Give me an hour.”

That hour was, of course, busy for her, but it was the kind of work she relished. Organizing. Planning. Delegating.

Exactly on time, she and eight sect mates—Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Wan Ai, Zou Tian, Shi Long, Huang Yimun, Xun Wu, and Zi Delan—were all gathered around a table on the lowest floor of the compound’s central building.

Zou Tian stood and cupped his hands. “Gratitude for attending today. Master has agreed not to listen to our discussion.”

Sun Hua was surprised that Zou Tian had apparently mentioned it to the sect leader. That was a good thing, though. It lessened the chance that the topic was anything seditious.

“Did he give you an array to block his senses?” Zi Delan said.

“No, and I didn’t ask for one. If we can’t trust Master’s word, who can we trust?”

There were lots of nods agreeing with Zou Tian’s words. Mostly, though, everyone appeared curious as to why he’d called them together.

“The ambush will happen soon. Master surely doesn’t intend to involve us. I’m worried.”

Three short statements. Each hit hard.

The first was the least impactful. All of them, including Sun Hua who could do nothing about it, worried about the ambush. The third round of the tournament’s final division was already complete, meaning there was less than two weeks remaining before the awards ceremony. If the ambush were to happen at all, it had to happen soon.

The second was no surprise, either. Master’s primary concern was keeping all the sect members safe. If he could keep them away from a fight, he absolutely would. Some of the council respected that wish. Some didn’t.

The last carried much more weight. Of all of them, Zou Tian possessed the most knowledge about what level of power the ambush would bring to bear. If he were openly stating that he was worried, the rest of them should be concerned as well.

“The sect leader knows his business,” Xun Wu said. “If he wanted us involved, he would have told us so.”

Several people started to respond to that comment, but Zou Tian talked over them.

“I agree. If he doesn’t want us involved, we shouldn’t be. Unless we’re needed.”

Sun Hua saw faces change between the start of his statement and the end. Even Xun Wu was considering the words carefully.

“I am the last of us who would advise going against Master’s wishes,” Zou Tian said. “The absolute last. What I’m talking about isn’t a circumvention. It’s a contingency. That’s all.”

Everyone, even Sun Hua, was on the edge of their seats, urging Zou Tian to tell them more.

He removed a stack of talismans from his pocket. “These give us power beyond anything cultivators of our level should possess. I’m simply saying that we should monitor the situation and, if Master needs us, use the gifts he bestowed upon us.” After a long pause, he continued. “Should we vote?”

It turned out there was no need, and they ended up talking long into the night as they made and revised their plans.