"This is outrageous! To think that those devils could sneak someone in to the sect. Thank god we had contingencies in place." An old man scoffed.
His face was dark with fury.
"I know how you feel, Gu Jian. But we must be patient. Now is not the time to act without thinking." Another spoke.
Twelve sat at a table, with the seat at the head missing its occupant.
The room was well lit, and none of them had a smile on their face.
"Why let them come in. We can have the test at the very beginning." The middle aged man at the very back said.
"And put more in danger? At least these ones are moderately strong and they survived. The commoners who never touched Qi before, would Elder Jiang and Shi Hou stop one mad woman from killing everyone there?" a much elder man stood up, glaring at the one who spoke.
"That is not what I meant…" the middle aged man mumbled, trying to defend himself.
"I know what you meant, Elder Zeng, but in times like these, we must be very careful. Be very careful so that her words never come true. Never, ever should we become hypocrites. We are the righteous path. And righteous we must be." The elder said.
"But that does not mean that we will sit still in times of crisis such as this." The elder sitting opposite of him spoke.
The old woman was one of only two in the room. But judging by how close she sat next to the head of the table, it was obvious that she was someone of significance.
"Those devil bastards were ready to kill our young. Kill off the future of our sect. And it was clear why they targeted us out of everyone else." She looked to her right.
The two old men sitting to the left and right of the head of the table looked older than everyone else in the room.
Their skin wrinkled like paper and their eyes drooped down.
And yet when everyone glanced at them, their eyes were filled with respect.
"There is a reason those two troublesome youngsters came here in the first place. They expect us to open it up for the outer sect as well." The woman scoffed.
"And this was the devil sects' pathetic response. Send cannon fodder." She shook her head.
"We can never be sure. We must be very careful when preparing to scale the cave." The elder opposite to her hurriedly said.
"That may be true, but Elder Cai's words have some truth to them. Those two must be included, and to include them, they must either come to the Inner Sect immediately, or we need to allow all of the outer sect to have a chance." Finally, in the second row from the head seat, a familiar face stood up.
If Li Feng were here, he would recognize who was speaking.
"I am sure the first elder and Elder Cai will know very well how strong those two are. They can enter the Inner sect and disrupt those rankings today if they wanted to. But there is a reason we open these Inner Sect challenges yearly." The Second Elder said.
"And the date will be upon us before we know it. Nine months is very little time. But regardless of whether they can and will enter the inner sect or not, we will limit the cave slots to the inner sect." The elder opposite to the second elder finally spoke.
"Their parents will be furious if they are not going to the cave." One of the elders sighed and said.
"That does not matter. If they can't even become Inner Sect members and earn their spot after having saint level talents and the resources of their family, then they do not deserve to enter the cave. Those two slots better be given to someone who worked hard for it." The first elder scoffed.
"I will warn every one here now before you get carried away." His gaze swept over everyone in the room.
"If you dare try to tinker with the Inner Sect trials, or with the Cave Seats, I will be sure to send you to the punishment hall myself!" He barked.
"You will only give resources to your disciples if he or she deserves them. And any extra from the allotted limit will come from your pocket. Cai An! Do you think I don't know how some medicines from your hall disappear from time to time?"
The Third Elder looked away while the other elders didn't dare say a single thing.
"The sect has been waiting and preparing for this since before I was an elder. If anything goes wrong, we have failed our forefathers and the elders before us." He coldly said.
"We are all elders here, first elder. We understand the stakes." The second elder sighed and stepped up.
"This is a sect defining event, and we will be sure to prepare well for it. All be sure however, that your disciples are vetted once more. There is no place for greed and envy in this trip. For this, I will…." The second elder bit his lip for a second.
"… I will let you borrow my mirror of sins for a short while. I will lend it to the sect, but powering it will be geared by you." He said.
All the elders' eyes widened, the surprise visible in them.
But in the very end of the room, next to the head seat, the two ancient elders stirred finally.
"That is a good sacrifice, Elder Bai. However, that is not why we are here. We are here to talk about a slightly more serious issue. The patriarch is currently outside, as you all know…"
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