The Sect Leader System

Chapter 362 - Mobilization

Teng Wuying allowed a small smile to crease his face when he detected the qi burst from the direction of the square. The formation had been activated. The Trials Pagoda would soon be his. That annoying sect leader, Chao Su, would soon be dead.

Sixteen Nascent Soul cultivators had been assembled to ambush him. Sixteen. It had to be the strongest force of cultivators ever assembled on the continent. No matter what power or allies Chao Su possessed, it wouldn’t be enough to defeat so many.

Teng Wuying was quite pleased with himself. The logistics and maneuvering to gather that absurd number of Nascent Souls had been difficult. Only he could have pulled off such a feat.

Just the political wrangling to make available his sect’s two and the Swift Blizzard Sect’s four required him to call in every favor he’d secured over the years. Of course, Chao Su’s own actions, including his members’ performance in the tournament, helped. The older elders became, the more they were motivated by face. Teng Wuying wouldn’t have succeeded without leveraging that factor.

Regardless of how and why, more important was that he had.

After arranging for those six Nascent Souls, he went to work finding more. He’d first argued to his council of elders that supplying the same number as the Swift Blizzard Sect was of crucial importance. Jade Chameleon’s star was already falling fast. If they didn’t contribute equally, they’d be looked down upon by their ally as a charity case.

That reasoning worked well, getting him funding to pay for two mercenaries. Even better, after he’d manipulated Mao Biya to pay for two more, the elders had been forced to add another two as well.

That brought the total number of Nascent Souls to twelve, a force the likes of which even legendary sects would have to consider formidable, a force that probably would have been enough.

Teng Wuying didn’t want to take any chances, however. After Mao Biya’s blunder in revealing the square as the ambush site, he’d tried to get Lei Bohai to move his formation, but the price quoted to do so was ruinous, completely beyond any possibility.

So Teng Wuying was left with a terrible choice. He could proceed with the ambush at the planned location even though any astute opponent—and it was never a good idea to assume an opponent was stupid—would surely have noted the odd behavior of the Swift Blizzards, or he could proceed without the formation. Neither option appealed to him.

Gently over many weeks, he’d talked to the Order’s Formations Master, learning all his foibles. It turned out that the man wasn’t wholly unreasonable. In fact, he was highly motivated to help the ambush succeed in order to punish the charlatan. He simply valued his work quite highly.

Teng Wuying respected that position. When he turned the conversation to the subject of what assistance Lei Bohai could provide, results followed. It turned out that Nascent Souls often needed arrays constructed, and often, members of the Order wouldn’t deign to provide their expertise no matter the spirit coins or favors offered.

All it took was a promise that the Order would look favorably upon future proposals—undiscounted, of course—from those who helped with a minor enforcement matter.

Three additional Nascent Souls volunteered their services. No cost. Volunteered. Three.

Extraordinary.

If one counted Lei Bohai, who wasn’t likely to be of any assistance in a fight beyond initiating the formation, Chao Su had sixteen Nascent Souls arrayed against him.

To say that Teng Wuying was pleased with himself was an enormous understatement.

Motion across the arena caught his attention. Mao Biya waved to him. Their eyes met. She raised her eyebrows, questioning if the qi she sensed was the start of the ambush. He nodded.

She jumped onto her flying sword and took off toward the square.

If he needed any more proof that she was a hotheaded fool, that was it. Did she have no understanding of the amount of power even one of those advanced cultivators could sling around? Just a single attack could destroy an entire sect. And there were seventeen of them about to fight.

As a Golden Core, the last place he wanted to be was within a mile of that square. In fact, he’d prefer not to be on the same continent.

To flee would show cowardice, however, and such would have a negative impact on his ability to gain the access and spoils he sought. No, he would stay at the arena. That would be safe for the moment while remaining close enough to claim his reward when the fighting was over.

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Since returning to Sixth Flawless Flowing City, Kang Lin had been working in her branch sect’s intelligence gathering division. It wasn’t something she’d ever envisioned doing, but the experience was good for her.

Besides, it helped her grandfather.

She wasn’t an agent or anything like that, more a parchment-pusher. When reports came in, someone had to collate the data and summarize it for the manager and eventually her grandfather to read.

If nothing else, the work gave her a real appreciation for Sun Hua and all the clerks who worked for the Poison Claw Sect. Kang Lin was quickly finding out that sects didn’t run on cultivator resources like she had always believed; they ran on parchment.

When Master’s message to Grandfather arrived, the response was fast. Grandfather immediately messaged four of the sect’s six Nascent Souls, leaving out only Yuan Yaozu and the Revered Elder who remained in secluded cultivation. Within a minute or two at most, they’d assemble.

Of course, a minute in a fight between Nascent Souls was basically an eternity, and Kang Lin couldn’t help but worry. Just because Master was the most powerful cultivator she’d ever met didn’t make him invulnerable or unbeatable.

The plan for the fight was, of course, well known to the members working in the intelligence gathering division. Master had already completed the first step—messaging the Poison Claw Sect to let them know the ambush was about to begin. The second step was also already underway, mobilizing reinforcements.

As much as Kang Lin wanted the Nascent Souls to rush to the scene of the fight as soon as they each received word, arriving one by one could lead to them being picked off by the force assembled against them. It made more tactical sense for them to arrive as a group.

Of course, that left Master to fight by himself until he could get there.

He apparently had every confidence that he could do just that, however. In fact, he insisted that the third step of the plan was for the reinforcements to wait until he signaled for them. If the Nascent Souls arrayed against him numbered eight or less, he wanted to handle them entirely on his own.

Fortunately, the fight was too important to the Poison Claw Sect to leave anything to chance. As soon as the four Nascent Souls were ready, they’d move to the site of the ambush. If Master had things under control, they’d simply observe.

That move wasn’t completely in line with his wishes, of course, but Grandfather felt that Master would understand. Kang Lin agreed.

Grandfather was permitted to monitor the fight in whatever manner he felt was safe, though, and he had talismans to retrieve Yuan Yaozu if needed. Other than that, all allied sect members were to stay far away from the fight. Which made sense. There was no distance that was too far away from the power that would be launched.

Master would want her and her fellow disciples safe, which meant staying inside either the Rising Tide Sect’s shielded compound or, for her, the Poison Claw Sect’s branch location.

The thought of Master fighting while she did nothing was unbearable, though. There had to be something she could do. But what?

Absolutely nothing while stuck within the sect grounds was the answer. Which meant she had to go against Master’s wishes if she wanted to be useful.

But did she really? His desire was only that she remain safe. With the stack of talismans he’d given all his disciples, surely it would be fine to take a gander from far away. She even had shield pylons to protect her.

Her mind made up, she left to make her way carefully toward the site of the ambush.

In an instant, Zou Tian went from watching Jin LiJuan win her division of the tournament to observing Sun Hua. The assistant sect leader had just received a message dragon, and after reading it, her face went pale. He immediately knew what happened—the ambush was triggered.

“Everyone!” he yelled. “Eyes on me!”

He wasn’t used to taking command, but Sun Hua, for all her virtues, was not the one to be in charge during a stressful situation. Normally, he’d have left matters to Senior Brother or Senior Sister, who were both more than capable of getting everyone moving in the right direction, but they were both still obviously not one hundred percent recovered from whatever had happened to them.

Besides, Zou Tian simply had a better understanding of the situation than anyone else.

“Sun Hua, what are Master’s instructions?”

“For us all to go to the compound immediately and stay there or evacuate to the sect if necessary.”

Zou Tian nodded. “Everyone, use your talismans to Teleport to the compound. Huang Yimun, make sure that Jin LiJuan does the same. Combatants, get ready and wait for me there.”

Once he’d received acknowledgement, he envisioned the roof of a building far from the square but that had a view of it and ripped a medium range Teleport talisman. An instant later, he stood atop that building.

Master was facing Lei Bohai and fifteen other cultivators. They hadn’t started fighting yet, but if all those were Nascent Souls, Master was in trouble.

Zou Tian ripped another talisman, taking him back to the compound. Senior Brother, Senior Sister, Huang Yimun and five of his guards, Zi Delan, Jin LiJuan and her menagerie, Xun Wu, Shi Long, and about two dozen other sect members stood waiting.

“The plan is active!” Zou Tian yelled before ripping another talisman.

The next part of the plan was the most dangerous. He’d chosen a location close enough to the square to join the fight, but that meant he could be attacked. If he would have had time, he would have landed far away and used the protection of his Shadow aspect to make him invisible to their enemies’ spiritual sense.

With Nascent Souls, fractions of a second counted, though, meaning he didn’t have that much time. Instead, he had to Teleport to the building a floor down from the roof. The wood and stone wouldn’t conceal the small qi signature from his arriving Teleport, but it would help. Unless a Nascent Soul was paying close attention to that particular area, they might all miss it.

If they didn’t, the plan and his life would likely be forfeit.

Zou Tian didn’t have time to play it safe. Wrapped in Shadow, he rushed up the stairs to the roof, expecting to be wiped off the face of the planet as soon as he emerged.

No attack came, though, and he sensed none heading for him. Quickly, he sprinted to the edge of the building and set up four pylons, all facing the square. A moment later, he activated the beacon. A second after that, the first of his sect mates arrived.