Maria made her intentions known to the rest of the sect the following evening. She would be going to the Zen Gin peninsula to watch over and raise Arc at the same time as increasing her own strength. She left out the part about Arc when she informed the general disciples, but the higher-ups knew about this point and made no fuss over it. They were well aware of the strength a baby born during the Nexus crack of a cultivator of Marlev's level could potentially possess. They too would prioritize protecting that child, the sect could defend itself.
In fact, defense was what the Bloodied Star sect was the best at. Jamie and Maria were oddities amongst the sect as they specialized in attacking. The rest of the sect had built up a reputation of being very good at holding a position, and the healing arts that some of them possessed could be counted among the best in the world.
The star Sanguechi referred to blood, giving those who possessed it very good control over blood, especially their own. The reason that only females passed it along was because the blood of the mother is used to nurture the child in the womb, resulting in the child almost always gaining the star in the process.
This mountain was a fortress even if it had no defensive installations, the centuries of Sanguechi blood spilt on it through training, battle, and bloodletting had made it so the very soil could be considered their blood. Attacking it is suicide, plain and simple.
When defending, the blood they spilled from being attacked would fall to the floor, turning it into their 'territory'. They could then heal themselves and continue fighting with another tool at their disposal, even if it only applied to a certain area. A force that could heal itself and only got stronger the more it was injured was bound to be a difficult opponent.
The point where Jamie and Maria split from this is that they can also control the blood of others, giving them an incentive to attack, not just take hits, in order to increase their strength. Jessica had also inherited the same star, which they were sure was different from Sanguechi but acted similarly, and it's abilities, but her weaker body actually made it difficult to use it in that way. Instead she used other people's blood to heal them, in much the same way their other healing art works.
This newfound ability in their clan would undoubtedly change their future prospects, perhaps allowing them to expand, but for now there was only two people who had the potential to propagate that line. Those were Jessica and Hilda, Maria had long since lost the ability to give birth, not that she wanted a man besides her beloved anyway.
For the time being, it was decided that Jessica would take up positions informally as the sect heads, receiving assistance from those elders familiar with administration. Maria would be on 'retreat' at the Blank Silver sect, watching over Arc and training him for the future. She would be to receive reports every month through the use of the Blackbird Case and emergencies would be made known to her as soon as possible through the same means.
Jamie would take a hundred or so male disciples to the Scattered Stars sect in order to prepare for war. These were mostly warriors as healers were somewhat harder to train, and all of them had either reached roadblocks on their cultivation paths or were in need of combat experience. When the war actually broke out a few detachments would be released to various key defense points, but enough would be left at the mountain to reliably defend it.
"Good luck." Maria hugged her son goodbye. "Not that you'll need it anyway. From what I hear they are still reeling from the effects of the last war. You should be able to go back to Arc soon enough."
"Here's hoping you didn't jinx it. You know my luck when it comes to stuff like this."
"Would you just take my goodwill for once? If you didn't go looking for trouble at every opportunity then you might not find any! Just lay low for once, for me." Once again she found herself in pointless conflict. "For Arc."
Jamie said no more as he gathered up his group and lead them away, feeling angry that his son was used against him, but feeling angrier that he hadn't thought of him in the first place.
"He'll come back alive mom." Jessica comforted the conflicted Maria. "He can't afford to die now."
"I'm not worried that he'll die. I'm just afraid he won't get to see his son grow up. He has lost far too much now, and I can't bear to see him lose more."