Chapter 51

  Declaration of War (I)

  Alarm bells rang at the crack of around 4 P.M.

  It was my first time hearing them, but Lu Qi's memories did have a few instances of them ringing. They were remarkably loud, almost as loud as those city-wide sirens that would warn of impending doom or such things, and they lasted a whole ten minutes.

  Me?

  Well, I just stayed in place, wondering what kind of cloaking art I should make for Long Tao and what other arts I could make with the now 350 Creation Points that I had.

  I was rich!

  Rich with Spirit Stones, rich with Creation Points, rich with--

  "ELDER LU, GET OVER TO THE ELDER HALL RIGHT THIS INSTANCE!"

  Wow, how embarrassing, to have your name called out by Elder Qin for the entire sect to hear--

  Wait a goddamn second, I'M Elder Lu!

  As though there was a colony of fire ants crawling up my ass, I immediately started running, all the while posing a very particular question: why the hell was I being summoned?!

  This guy hasn't attended the meeting of Elders not once, and now I'm being forced to?! Too unfair!

  Khm.

  Anyway, I had to endure, ah, what the hell, let's call them strange for the sake of my sanity, looks all the way down the mountain and then all the way up the other one where the meeting was held.

  It took me about fifteen minutes, full sprint, and even using Qi (which I didn't use often, to be honest, as I am still quite unadjusted to it; it's like, imagine if you grew three extra arms and legs and even a few eyeballs and a few other residual organs overnight, it'd take you some time to figure out what the hell is happening, right?!), and by the time I got to the hall... I was sweating not bullets but missiles.

  "I--I'm here," I heaved out, trying to catch my breath as I walked into the Elder Hall. A square room with a few dozen prayer mats lined on opposite ends of each other and the central one at the far front where the Sect Master resided.

  There was one empty seat currently--the one furthest away from the Sect Master, so I headed over, ignoring... ah, what the hell, strange looks being shot at me.

  "A-apologies for being late..." I was still heaving, feeling as though my lungs were on fire. Honestly, the shape of this body is just... wow. Just... wow.

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  "Did you not hear the bell ring, Elder Lu?" one of the elders asked as the others laughed.

  "No, I grew deaf counting my newfound wealth out loud," bite me, old farts. My little quip shut them up, and before they could quip further, Sect Master interjected and stopped it.

  "The reason I called for an emergency meeting," though I feared the man, I also liked him a bit; unlike all other old farts, he dispensed with the speeches and long-winded word vomit and just got straight to the point. "Is because another one of our Core Disciples was felled, Qu Haitan." A hubbub broke out immediately, and even I couldn't help but frown.

  While the previous news of the... uh, some-or-another Core Disciple dying was quite shocking, she... I think... was still relatively new and mostly had potential. Qu Haitan, though? From my memories, he had already broken through the Spirit Manifestation Realm almost a decade prior, and most assumed he'd reach the Revolving Core Realm before age 150, in line with more talented Elders of the Sect.

  Losing him was... destructive, honestly, in every meaning of that word.

  "Was it the Fire Sun Sect again?" one of the Elders asked.

  "They deny it," Spirit Sage said. "But have left behind enough evidence that points to them."

  "... they are taunting us!"

  "Do they think there is nobody under the heaven that can stand up to them?!"

  "We should declare a war, Sect Master! We have to uphold the dignity of the Sect!"

  Chatter immediately broke out, though I remained small and silent. I had no business actually chiming in; I'd only been here for six months, and the level of attachment I had to the place wasn't exactly great.

  "Quiet," Elder Qin spoke up, causing the back-and-forth to stop. "We have to consider deeply if we want to declare a war. We are not yet at the point of extermination, so it would have to be Generation War. While our Elder Generation is probably stronger than theirs, what about our disciples? Qu Haitan was one of the strongest Core Disciples, and with him gone, I am doubtful that we can win. As much faith as I have in our disciples, they are, generally, fifteen to twenty years younger than theirs.

  "Same thing with the Youngest Generation. Our new batch has just started cultivating, with very few being under thirty and at the Foundation Establishment Realm. We practically stand no chance."

  "..." It was like somebody poured cold water over them, bringing them to reality.

  I also grew a bit curious; there were two kinds of wars (at least broadly) when it came to Sect Warfare--there was the extermination war, which was, well, just war. Two sects go all out to destroy each other by any means necessary. No bars held, no moral quandaries, go and destroy everything kind of war.

  Then there was the Generation War, as they called it--which was a tournament of sorts. A third party, usually of a higher rank, would oversee the three competitions of three distinct generations of the sect's cultivators, and whichever sect scored two out of three victories would be a default winner of the war.

  Usually it meant receiving a whole bunch of resources, promises, and other knickknacks from the loser, but at least it preserved the sect from annihilation, which was why it was a 'favored' way to wage the war.

  "Even so," one Elder finally spoke up; he was the one nearest Elder Qin, meaning he probably had just about as much authority. Strangely, however... I didn't recognize him. "The war must be waged. This is twice now that they went against our core, Elder Qin. How many more kids do we need to lose to justify paying back the debt?"

  "Hm, I agree."

  "I concur." Quite a few voiced their agreements, but just as many were still on the fence.

  Going to war, after all, was a massive thing, whether we won or lost... and especially if we lost. The balance between the two sects was already quite delicate and teetering on the edge of collapse, and if one sect got absurdly stronger in a short span of time, war for annihilation wouldn't really be that far off.

  "To war we will go," Spirit Sage eventually voiced. "Open the vault immediately and start accelerating the cultivation of the Middle Generation as much as possible. If even one or two manage a major breakthrough, our chances will increase slightly. Dismissed."