Having a physical office or building for high-level cultivators and organizations is unnecessary; they can communicate and meet whenever and wherever they want. There is no need actually to have an office. Still, just for tradition's sake, the top ten council has a big and impressive physical location.
The council's chairmanship rotates among the members; the current chairman is Lord Wizard of Sharping City.
...
It was a very spacious room, too big to accommodate the ten people who usually sat on the seats placed beside a massive roundtable in the middle. Many famous paintings and artworks were placed around; this room was the place where the top ten councilors met regularly.
The wizard civilization has a few branches: the president, parliament, supreme court, and others. However, those didn't hold true power; the true power of wizard civilization was held by this council. There were many more wizards of the detachment realm than just the ten who held positions in the top ten council; the top ten wizards sitting on these chairs were all selected through the votes of many detachment wizards. In this inheritance, however, there were only around 15 Detachment wizards at one time.
The chairman, Lord Wizard of Sharping City, started the meeting.
"Hereby, we begin the 98th Top Ten meeting of this century. Our first order of business concerns the recent vacancy in the Supreme Court. As is tradition, each member of the top ten council can recommend a qualified wizard as a nominee. The nominee who receives the most votes among the membership of this council will be appointed as the new supreme court judge," he said.
The other nine wizards didn't say anything; they didn't put forward any names. The Supreme Court is not important enough for them to bother to care about it.
"No member of this council having nominated a qualified wizard, the chair will table the matter; the clerk is instructed to send it down to the parliament." He put the related papers aside, and the clerk came and took them away.
Even though judges of the Supreme Court are supposed to be appointed by the Council of the Top Ten, in the last million years, not once have they bothered actually to nominate someone; they always go through the motions and then send it to the parliament to deal with it.
"The second order of business is regarding vacancies in the parliament," said the Lord of Sharping City. As before, they went through the motions and then sent it to the president. Vacancies in the parliament must be filled by the top ten council, but of course, they can't be bothered to waste their time on such unimportant matters, so they always send it down to the president to deal with it.
The Lord Wizard of Sharping City put the papers aside, and the clerk came and took them away.
"The next order of business is a petition signed by the Wizard of Penland City, co-signed by the newly promoted Detachment Wizard of Snow," said the Wizard of Sharping.
This time, the other nine finally showed interest. The Detachment Wizard of Snow practically appeared out of nowhere—it's as if she just came into being with a poof. A petition signed by her was very interesting to all of them.
The Wizard of Sharping opened the letter and read it aloud: "To your highnesses, members of the top ten council: The wizard civilization suffers from stagnation due to a lack of intellectual curiosity among its top leadership. To progress in our path to true immortality, we must find the courage to break taboos, especially related to research on the soul. I propose passage of a law repealing the prohibition of research on the soul."
The faces of the top ten wizards all displayed shock; they had never seen such an open challenge to their authority before.
It is well known that research on souls is prohibited in wizard civilization; this prohibition usually isn't well enforced, and there are wizards who break this prohibition secretly. But it's an unwritten law that even if one engages in these acts, they must not say it out loud, not even talk about it. Yet, a detachment wizard actually wrote it in a petition, which is a public record and would be printed in the WeekWizard newspaper.
The petition process has been set up to keep the top ten council in touch with those they rule; all petitions that meet requirements must be read and responded to. Any petition with a detachment wizard's signature automatically meets the requirement. The content of petitions and those who sign them is public information and would be printed in the official government newspaper; the top ten wizards or any other branch of the government are prohibited from punishing anyone solely for the content of their petition.
However, it is public knowledge that even though the government cannot punish anyone for the petition, if their petition is unpopular, they would be mocked by their colleagues. So, in practice, people are very careful about what they write in them.
But, most petitions are not signed by detachment wizards. If it becomes known that such a heavyweight as Wizard Snow proposed repealing the law prohibiting research on the soul, it would be hard to keep other lower-rank wizards from talking about it. Influential people are important in all societies; once strong people start talking about a taboo, it removes the taboo nature of that topic.
"Do not publish the petition in WeekWizard!" Wizard of Sharping City said to the clerk.
"How can a detachment wizard even suggest such a thing? Doesn't she know?" said the Wizard of Tea Tree Village.
"This matter absolutely cannot be allowed to be known by lower-rank wizards; we should warn her to keep it quiet," said another of the top ten, known as the Wizard of Golden Elephant.
"Should we seal her?" asked the wizard with the smallest posture, known as the Wizard of AntLand; she was the most aggressive among the bunch despite looking like the weakest and most harmless.
"Absolutely not! Those traitors in the east love to see us divided; we should adhere to the advice of Master Blood Sea and keep our unity," said the Wizard of Sword Giant City.
"How can we keep our unity when one among us openly ignores the advice of the lord?" retorted the Wizard of AntLand.
"Division! We take a vote; those who agree with the Wizard of Antland say 'Aye.'"
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Those who disagree with her say 'No.'"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
Seeing this result, the chair, Wizard of Sharping City, sighed and said, "The chair votes 'No'; the results are five Ayes and five Nos. As with convention, in cases of tie votes, the side in which the chair votes in favor of wins; therefore, 'No' wins!"
The Wizard of AntLand sighed. She thought of her colleagues on the council as cowards, but of course, she didn't say it.
"But we know this loss is temporary; the next in line to become chair is Wizard of AntLand; she will become chair in a few short centuries," said Wizard of Magma River, one of the ones who voted Aye.
"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that your side lost the vote. We aren't defending what Wizard of Snow did; it's just that we don't believe violence is the solution. We should invite her and hear her reasons. I put my proposal to vote; those who agree say 'Aye.'"
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Those who disagree say 'No.'"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Ayes have it; the clerk is directed to send an invitation for Wizard Snow to appear before this council no later than the 10th day of the next month," said Wizard of Sharping City.
"The next order of business is …"
...
"Look, they invited me exactly according to the plan!" Daoist Snow showed Jack the letter.
"Great! Once you go in, cast the formation-breaking spell according to plan; once the formation breaks, we will cast the sealing spell from the outside and seal them all," said Jack.
The Wizard Council has a powerful formation guarding it; as long as that formation stands, sealing the wizards inside would be impossible. Jack knows that the true bodies of the wizards are genuinely in the council because of an ancient tradition of attending top ten meetings with real bodies. Therefore, the best time to seal them all at once is when they are sitting in the council. Of course, wizards of the detachment realm can easily teleport away, but even teleportation would be impossible with 12 Peak Perfection realm grandpas outside.
...
Daoist Snow, disguised as Wizard Snow, entered the top ten building exactly on the 10th day of Lava Month. The months of the wizard civilization were named after their major regions; there was Lava Month, Sharping Month, Sword Giant Month, etc.
The top ten council had very few staff and servants; only a few clerks and nothing else. If one were to visit it, they would think of it as an abandoned ancient castle and not a current meeting place for the most powerful wizards in the world.
Daoist Snow walked for a while, then reached a door so tall that even giants would find it ridiculous; she pushed it and went in.
She saw ten people sitting on chairs beside a circular table; she walked up there and sat on the 11th chair they set up for her. Usually, those who are invited to the top ten council can't be allowed to sit. Still, as a detachment wizard, it would have been too disrespectful to have her stand, so the top ten council voted unanimously to set up a temporary chair for her to sit.
"Hello!" Daoist Snow said, then started casting a spell without any explanation.
"What is Your Highness doing?" Wizard of Sharping became cautious as he looked at Daoist Snow.
The Wizard of AntLand was the first to understand what was happening; she cast her spell without saying anything: "Disrupt!"
The Disrupt spell was designed to increase the chance of spell-casting failure of the target.
Daoist Snow felt the energy flow in her body was very slightly disturbed, but then it came back to normal; the spell cast by Wizard AntLand barely broke through Daoist Snow's defense; it couldn't disrupt her casting. Peak Perfection cultivators are stronger than peak detachment wizards; it was evidenced by the fact that even while not defending, Wizard AntLand barely managed to even pass through Daoist Snow's defenses.
"Attack her! She is trying to break the formation!" Lord Wizard of Sharping City shouted; he also knew what was happening by now.
All ten wizards present cast Disrupt spells, trying first and foremost to stop Daoist Snow's spell. But, strangely, Daoist Snow was able to defend against them all!
"Why is she so powerful?" Wizard AntLand was surprised; even one against ten, Snow was defending without even trying.
"She doesn't have the aura of a wizard! She is a Blood Master!" shouted Wizard of Sharping.
Blood Masters were one of the scariest bunch; Master Blood Sea was one of them. Blood Masters are stronger than wizards of the same level.
The top ten wizards looked panicky, but soon, they stabilized.
"Everyone, let's cast the secret technique!" shouted AntLand.
Of course, as powerful wizards, they had their own secret techniques.