Chapter 634 - 424: Smooth Sailing
"Maybe the Celestial Cloud Sect is just making a plan. The day the Blood Spirit Sect stops paying attention to us will be the day they strike."
"You're all overthinking this. The Celestial Cloud Sect doesn't even know what the Blood Spirit Sect needs us to do, so how could they possibly have such a plan?"
The two sides went back and forth, one remark after another, until the argument became utterly deadlocked.
Just like every time before, any discussion about taking action against the Celestial Cloud Sect would devolve into this situation.
"Silence!" the Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion shouted. He then looked at the three Supreme Elders, led by Yin Qiangwei, and said, "If you want to push your agenda, you must secure a majority vote."
The Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion played his final trump card.
This was a long-standing rule of the Purple Blood Pavilion.
Every Supreme Elder of the Purple Blood Pavilion has one vote. If one breaks through to the Late-stage Core Formation Realm, they gain an additional vote. The Pavilion Master himself starts with one and a half votes.
The Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion, being already in the Late-stage Core Formation Realm, therefore has two and a half votes.
So, even if Yin Qiangwei were to break through to the Late-stage Core Formation Realm, it would still be very difficult to push through the plan to attack the Celestial Cloud Sect.
"The rules of our Purple Blood Pavilion really need to be changed," Yin Qiangwei remarked.
The Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion replied, "Elder Yin, to alter the rules, you need a two-thirds majority vote."
"This voting system is a useless rule."
"Elder Yin, you need to calm down." This time, it was a Supreme Elder who had originally sided with Yin Qiangwei who spoke.
They did agree to move against the Celestial Cloud Sect, as it was an order from the Blood Spirit Sect, but they had to stop Yin Qiangwei if she intended to break the rules.
Without rules, the sect would descend into chaos.
"Sect Leader, we aren't trying to attack the Celestial Cloud Sect, we just want to find the mysterious Spirit Refiner," this Supreme Elder of the Purple Blood Pavilion said, trying a different angle.
The core of the Blood Spirit Sect's directive was to find the hidden, mysterious Spirit Refiner. Ideally, they were to discover his specific identity to smooth the way for the Blood Spirit Sect's future plans.
"We absolutely cannot go looking for the mysterious Spirit Refiner." Speaking of this, the Purple Blood Pavilion Master's brows furrowed. "I suspect the information the Blood Spirit Sect gave us about the mysterious Spirit Refiner is incomplete. They're hiding something."
The Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion felt that the destruction of the Dragon Demon Palace was not so simple.
This was the fundamental reason he had been holding back.
He seriously suspected that the Blood Spirit Sect, in their quest to find the mysterious Spirit Refiner, wouldn't care if they lived or died.
"Pavilion Master, you dare to suspect the Blood Spirit Sect!" Yin Qiangwei bellowed.
"Are you a Supreme Elder of our Purple Blood Pavilion, or an Elder of the Blood Spirit Sect?"
The Pavilion Master of the Purple Blood Pavilion had only voiced a simple comment, yet it provoked such a massive reaction from Yin Qiangwei. If he were to lay out the full extent of his suspicions for her, the consequences would be unimaginable.
He knew that if he spelled out his doubts in detail, it wouldn't be long before word of his suspicions reached the Blood Spirit Sect.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Then just calm down."
...
...
「Celestial Cloud Sect, Main Sect.」
In a cave residence, a disciple in seclusion was breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Zhao Xiuyuan, having just turned fifteen, had just completed his Foundation Establishment.
To break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage in only five years was not just because of his Celestial Spirit Root, but also due to the resources the sect provided him.
A disciple with a Celestial Spirit Root was worthy of the sect's full support, starting from their time as an Outer Sect disciple. This was the best treatment the Celestial Cloud Sect offered.
Within the sect, a disciple with a Celestial Spirit Root would receive abundant resources even without having a master.
With the combination of his talent and these resources, Zhao Xiuyuan had already broken the sect's record for the fastest breakthrough to Foundation Establishment.
Over these years, Zhao Xiuyuan had not spent all his time on cultivation; he had also dedicated a considerable amount of time to the Hundred Skills of Cultivation.
Learning the Hundred Skills of Cultivation was a way to test where one's talents lay.
No one knows where their own talents lie, so the sect's advice was to start with what interested them most.
Among the Hundred Skills of Cultivation, what interested Zhao Xiuyuan the most was talisman crafting.
Fortunately, he had a considerable talent for talisman crafting.
Thus, over the five years, he spent much of his time on it.
Now that he had successfully reached Foundation Establishment and become a Sect Elder, he naturally decided to become an Elder of the Spirit Talisman Institute.
'I still haven't used up all the Upper-Grade pills the sect gave me.'
Zhao Xiuyuan glanced at the contents of his Storage Pouch. He planned to return all the remaining Upper-Grade cultivation pills to the sect.
There was no sect rule stating that any leftover pills given for cultivation had to be returned after breaking through to the next realm, but Zhao Xiuyuan insisted on doing so.
'After all, I'm destined to reach Core Formation in the future and become a Supreme Elder of the sect. I can't be greedy over such trivial things.'
After emerging from seclusion, a revitalized Zhao Xiuyuan first went to exchange his token.
Not long after, news of Zhao Xiuyuan's breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage reached Fang Yun.
He had given instructions about this matter before, that he was to be informed once Zhao Xiuyuan successfully reached Foundation Establishment.
Fang Yun paid close attention to the sect's Celestial Spirit Root Cultivators.
"He made good time," Fang Yun nodded. "It shouldn't be a problem for him to break through to the Core Formation Stage by the time he's sixty or seventy."
Fang Yun was also estimating the time Zhao Xiuyuan would spend cultivating in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
During the Foundation Establishment Stage, Zhao Xiuyuan would continue to receive the sect's full support in his cultivation. From the early stage to the Peak of Foundation Establishment, the sect would ensure that all cultivation pills he used were Upper Grade.
After taking in the news, Fang Yun returned to his own cultivation.
As for the matter of the pills for Zhao Xiuyuan's cultivation, he didn't need to worry about it. Dan Cloud Peak would handle the distribution appropriately.