"Elmer, why are you intervening?" Angus said while furrowing his eyebrows. Things started to click in his mind as he turned suspicious. He never understood how Ken slipped under their nose when the secret realm closed, but it might be possible if the Serene Lotus Sect was behind it.
"I was just wondering if you were implying that the Divine Sword Sect used other sects to fight their war against you. After all, Ken Sue must be part of one of the biggest clans of the Phoenix Feather Sect, the Sue clan, and can't originate from the Divine Sword Sect."
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm "We have never done that. I'm afraid that the Four Seasons Sect only uses this ruse to bully a weaker sect into submission. I wonder what made them target a random boy."
Once Elmer said it out loud, an elder from the Divine Sword Sect stepped forward and spoke up, unwilling to let Angus tarnish their good name.
"Maybe he was adopted by the Sue clan or maybe we are wrong. We will know once you let us question him thoroughly." Angus did not badge in and demanded Ken to be handed over.
"We will not surrender our innocent disciples or else everyone would bully us in the Verdant Qi continent, and none of our disciples would feel safe anymore. If you want to take him, come and do it by force." The elders of the Phoenix Feather Sect all vanished and reappeared at the same height as Angus.
"Is that the final decision of your Phoenix Feather Sect?"
"It is."
"I hope you don't regret it later then. Everyone, we are leaving."
"Wait!" Elmer shouted, making everyone look at him again. They all knew that the Serene Lotus Sect loved stabbing others in the back and weakening everyone else. Nobody knew that they even sent disciples disguised as members of the Divine Sword Sect and the Four Seasons Sect to kill the real disciples of those two sects during the sects' war, but it was typical.
"What is it, Elmer?"
"As the leading sect of the continent, we won't allow bullying and murdering the weak. We are righteous cultivators, and I believe I speak on behalf of everyone here that we will not allow evil actions in our Verdant Qi continent. You must adhere to the standards of the top 20 sects and agree on rules for your war to prevent needless massacres. Otherwise, we will see it as an evil scheme to murder innocents; your reason for the war is already dubious as it is."
"I agree. Is the Four Seasons Sect so strong they think they can take over new territories without repercussions?" The cultivators present from the Divine Sword Sect spoke next.
"I think the same as Elder Elmer," next were those from the Infinite Wisdom Sect.
"Clear the mind and find your inner truth."
"I think the Peaceful Demon Sect also agrees with me," Elmer tried to translate the monk's words. He was quite satisfied with the development so far. Ken's plan worked well, and now the only hardship was to keep the kid safe.
"Fine. There's no need to open an all-out war over one person. How about we each send an elder for a duel, and the winner gets Ken?" Angus said with a straight face. Murdo would never agree to this arrangement. They'd lose such a bet at least 9 out of every 10 times.
"We disagree. We want the same rules as you have done with the Divine Sword Sect. You can send your disciples here, and they may fight their peers from the same stage."
While it didn't eliminate the Four Seasons Sect's advantage of having higher quality cultivators, as long as it happened in the territory of the Phoenix Feather Sect, the latter would have the advantage of numbers. There was a limit to how many disciples the Four Seasons Sect could deploy; they still had to manage their own territories.
"Good, good. Have it your way then. The war zone will be every centimeter in the territory controlled by the Phoenix Feather Sect. Remember that you've brought this disaster upon yourselves. I will show my magnanimity and allow you to surrender whenever you want."
While everyone left, Ken turned to Elder Typhon, "Won't they deploy forces of other sects as they had done against the Divine Sword Sect?" he asked.
"They won't. The other top sects would unveil it when done against a relatively low-ranked sect and they'd lose too much face. Besides, they had paid a lot of resources to the sects they hired. It's not something they can afford every day."
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Two weeks passed, and airships from the Four Seasons Sect started coming to the border of the sect's territory. The disciples would land there and walk inside on foot. Some entered the desert, some preferred the mountains, while others lurked in the forest. There were also those waiting at the route toward the central zone.
Nobody went to attack the disciples of the branch sects. It'd be considered too petty, and their sect would lose face.
Missions to kill the black-wearing disciples were issued all over the sect, and battles occurred everywhere.
Ken made another significant contribution, supplying the sect with an improved Concealment pill recipe, allowing the disciples of the fourth stage to have the upper hand in the battles. Since the Four Seasons Sect wanted to pressure them on all levels, they sent disciples from all stages.
The elders rarely clashed; the Four Seasons Sect only sent enough of them to stop the other sect from winning, but not enough to win themselves. The pressure from the Divine Sword Sect and the Serene Lotus Sect forced them to leave many elders at home.
Ken's name as the one who caused the war turned famous, and everyone in the sect got to know the prodigy whom they were getting killed for. Some supported him while others blamed and hated him, but he never cared.
He himself never left the sect to fight, as the sect did not want to risk the very reason they went to war.
'This chaos is what I was looking for, now nobody will notice if my parents slip out of the sect's territory,' Ken mused to himself as he walked among the injured disciples that came back crippled and maimed from the war, giving them some pills to alleviate their conditions.
He was a real saint.
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"Young Master, Henry still didn't come back, aren't you worried he might have got himself killed by the Four Seasons Sect's disciples?"
Ken was sitting at home, eating lunch with Soleil. The maid peeked at him curiously to see his reaction but only got a shrug in response.
"I asked him to perform a few additional tasks this time so he might take a while to return. There's no need to worry, he could fight a peak fifth-stage cultivator when he was still at the lower phase, and now he advanced to the intermediate phase of his stage. Even if he is surrounded, he should at least be able to run away."
Ken normally wouldn't tell her that much, but he knew that soon the threat of leaking information would be gone. She was already exposed to too much information because of her role as an information hub.
Every now and then Henry went out to slay a few enemies before returning, as it was mandatory for the ranked disciples. He didn't kill more than he had to since he didn't want to appear too outstanding. This time, Ken sent the monk on another mission other than killing enemy disciples in the war, so he was taking longer to return.
The war acted as the best cover for Henry's movements, and nobody had time to watch over a random inner disciple in the current circumstances.
Ken was sure that the blind monk was safe; not only did Henry advance to the intermediate phase since they last fought side by side in the central zone, but he also enjoyed Ken's pills for months and practiced an overpowered inheritance alongside Ken.
If they had a rematch against the 10 inner disciples from back then, Henry would be able to take them all on by himself this time. The only problem was that those 10 had already died.
'I should meet with that spy from the Serene Lotus Sect and see if Elmer got any plans to get me out of here. Unfortunately, I can't orchestrate the whole play by myself when there are so many cultivators at the Supremacy Phase involved.'
Ken pondered to himself as he finished eating his meal. It has been 2 months since the war began, and his Nascent Soul kept growing at tremendous speed thanks to his renewed Godly Qi. He also made great progress in his Runology proficiency.
"Hey, Soleil, come over for a moment. Try this new necklace I created, it's one of my first successfully inscribed items."
Ken gestured to Soleil to get closer, and the excited maid stepped forward.
"Aww, Young Master, so you do know how to treat a lady! Let me see- wait, what's that?" Soleil stopped her sentence midway when Ken took out a necklace that suspiciously resembled a collar.
"It's a new trend I want to start, I thought it'd look good. I call it gothic style, try it on."
"What are its effects?" She asked worriedly.
"You'll see, it will help you do your job and be a better maid and subordinate," Ken reassured her with vague words.
Soleil swallowed her saliva in worry but knew she had no choice but to wear the collar her young master presented her with.
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