Chương 71: Chapter 70 – A Charged Gathering

PoV Change: Jian Feng landed in the Jian family's lavish courtyard in the inner sect. The elegant manor had been awarded to their family many centuries ago for some meritorious deed. Along with a few other manors, it was one of the precious few residential buildings in the inner sect. He brushed past the guards and made his way in. Jian Feng preferred not to deal with his uncle. When his father was in seclusion, his first uncle was in charge of daily affairs of the clan.

Perhaps it was his mannerisms or the sly backroom deals, but Feng thought him unreliable. Whether in truth he was or not, Feng found most of his first uncle's decisions to be in a direction his father wouldn't have taken. Yet his father insisted on following tradition and regularly left him in charge. So it was a pleasant surprise when instead of his uncle, he walked into the main hall to see his father, Jian Kui, discussing matters with his elder sister in a serious tone. They paused at the sight of him.

Jian Feng bowed and greeted them. When his father gave him leave to speak, he explained the deteriorating state of the mountain his family had gone to some lengths to reserve for him. To his confusion, his father waved the matter aside. His father spoke with a commanding presence.

"Listen, Feng, Fei was about to accompany me to an urgent assembly with the leadership of the sect. You being here must be fate. You will join us. You will not speak but watch and listen with utmost attention. Learn all you can, and we will talk after." With that, his father rose and swept out of the room. Feng followed half a step behind his elder sister Jian Fei. His elder sister was being trained in the management of the clan by their father.

Her cultivation had stalled in the later stages of the foundation realm, and when it became clear that reaching core formation was fraught with risks, his sister decided to accept her limits and assist the clan instead. When Feng reached core formation and became the official heir, she would be assisting him as his second. He had always respected her for her choice and was grateful for her maturity so that the succession wouldn't be fraught with intrigue and betrayal.

A little lost in his own thoughts and the concerns plaguing his mountain, Feng failed to notice their arrival until they entered a private hall full of people. Immediately becoming alert, Feng started identifying them and their positions in the sect. With each one he identified, Feng's curiosity turned into alarm. These were the 4 other major clans present in the Heavenly Sword Sect. Just what sort of gathering had he walked into?!

'That's why Father told me only to observe and not speak. One wrong word here could start a war!' Jian Feng suppressed a shudder. He recognized the clan leaders of the Cheng, Li, Xi, and Zhen families, each accompanied by 2 or 3 followers. The numbers meant that the 5 clans were practically gathering in secret. Feng finally linked this meeting to the secret his family had revealed to him half a year ago. The sect migration! Only that matter could warrant such secrecy.

"Greetings, Clan Leader Jian. The elders of the sect will be arriving soon." Feng's father was greeted by the black-bellied Zhen clan matriarch. It was no simple greeting. It was a subtle reminder to the other clans of their recent alliance. Jian Feng saw his new fiancé Zhen Bing standing quietly behind the matriarch. Despite being a few years older than him, his family thought it was a good match and that the timing couldn't have been better. Their families had the weakest positions here.

Feng was trained from a very young age to navigate the intricacies of leadership, where a normal conversation came with 3 layers of hidden meanings, and failing to notice any could completely turn allies against each other. Feng observed their behavior and the seats they took at the table in the center of the room. This gathering would be led by the Li family, and it appeared as though the Xi and Cheng families may be in the process of forming an alliance of their own.

Before Jian Feng could look around some more, 3 elders of the sect entered the room. It was the rough-looking elder Sha, the vice-sect leader appearing as a middle-aged beauty, and finally the elderly-looking sect leader. They took their place at the table without ceremony. Immediately, Feng noticed the indications of a rift or discord between the sect leader and the vice-sect leader.

'If even I could notice, then probably everyone has. What could cause them to face the clans while divided?' Jian Feng's stomach twisted at the implications.

"Greetings all. We have some urgent matters to discuss. Patriarch Cheng, please present the expedition's findings." The soft voice of the sect leader rang in his ears despite the distance from where Feng stood behind his father and sister. Feng couldn't see the man's face, but he heard the resignation in his voice as he spoke.

"My son led the expedition to the fallen starmetal causing the special storm. After defeating a beast tyrant, the tests were carried out." Feng nearly scoffed at the blatant lie but remembered his place just in time. The elder had continued speaking.

"… initial success, the artifact ultimately failed to defend against the empowered lightning. Even if we scale it up using exorbitant amounts of resources, it is doubtful anything we design can withstand the levels of tribulation lightning predicted to descend. It is with heavy regret I say that our reserve plan must be halted before we throw more money into the sea." The Cheng Clan leader finished speaking and sat. No one said a word, and the silence grew deeper until a fist smashed heavily onto the table.

Elder Sha's face was red with rage as he shouted, "Those bastards are leaving us no way out! We've done nothing to deserve this! Truly, we've seen nothing but disaster after disaster since that blood moon; what an ill omen." The clan leaders recoiled from an unseen force, and Feng felt the killing intent even through his father's protection. He felt as though he were drowning in a sea of blood. It stopped as suddenly as it started.

If he had faced that bloodlust on his own, his heart would have stopped in an instant. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Many other attendants were gasping for breath like he was, but not the two behind the Li patriarch. Li Xing and Li Feng were both prized disciples of the sect, and their father before them was extremely formidable to have withstood that force without even reacting.

Jian Feng looked at Li Feng out of the corner of his eye as he straightened. A tiger father will not beget a dog son, and Li Feng, the man Jian Feng considered his rival, had already proven his worth as the inheriting disciple many times over. Feng slowly regained his calm. The sect leader was directing Elder Sha to take his seat once more. He then calmly said,"It may not be our fault, but it is the way of things.

For millennia, our branch has grown unchallenged in this remote land because of the prestige of the Azure Mountains Sect. Just as we have reaped the rewards, we must now pay the price by accepting some of the main sect's debts." The sect leader's voice was resigned but still firm. Then he addressed the clan leaders.

"I have received word that the main sect's maneuvers have failed as well, and they will not intercede any further. The calamity is a foregone conclusion. The indicators we have already observed mean that person has already initiated the breakthrough. We have but one chance now. We begin the first wave of the migration after the selections for the Golden Dharma trials. As for those selected, they will fly to the monastery and enter the trials, but instead of returning, they will continue on towards the main sect.

The rest of the sect, over two thirds of the disciples, will be disbanded before our sect falls."

"If they don't already know, we may as well inform our ally. We may have been targeted, but they weren't. The monks are unlikely to be as affected by this disaster. Not to mention they have their own backing to rely on." Elder Sha added. Jian Feng's head was aching from trying to piece together exactly what was happening. So the Heavenly Sword Sect was being targeted by some rival of the main sect? And the disaster they sent was in the form of lightning? Who was ' that person'?

And what did the sect leader mean by 'this remote place' being the home of the Heavenly Sword Sect? Wasn't the Heavenly Sword Sect known to be established in one of the best places to cultivate? But to his lament, the sect leader demanded everyone other than the clan leaders be sent out for the following discussions. He could only stiffly bow and step back, hoping his father would have some answers for him later.

He made a final note of how the vice-sect leader still hadn't said a single word throughout the assembly. Outside the hall, he saw Cheng Lei, the one bragged about by his father. The fool was trying to talk to the youngest daughter of the Xi clan. Feng forced himself not to think of her as just Xi Yao's younger half-sister. That man was already a top-tier talent, but somehow the Xi clan had been blessed with another heavenly genius!

Even though she had been raised outside the sect in the Xi clan's ancestral home, she didn't lose out to the top heirs of the clans. And that same heavenly genius was looking at the Cheng Lei like something foul she had stepped in. The little girl made no effort to hide her dislike as the fool tried to ingratiate himself to her. Feng smirked at the interesting development. If the Cheng and Xi families were trying to build an alliance on the foundation of these two, then it had a high chance of falling through.

The information would help his father decide future actions around those clans. His sister turned to him.

"Xiao Feng, I'll return first. I'll send word when Father calls for you. As for your mountain, you've heard for yourself the scale of the problem. It is unlikely we can spare the resources to identify and fix the issue with your mountain, especially since our clan plans to migrate to the main sect. We will have to abandon many of our investments here and establish ourselves in new territory. So just bear with it for now." She looked sympathetically at Jian Feng.

Feng had almost forgotten how he had gotten involved in today's matters to begin with. Naturally he agreed with his sister that his mountain was one of the investments that would have to be cut away, so it made no sense to pour in more money. He clasped his fists and bowed. He left after telling his sister not to worry about him. On his way home, flying on his treasured flying sword, his thoughts were so preoccupied that he didn't even notice entering dark storm clouds.

The boom sounds of thunder finally brought him out of his contemplations, and he realized just how abnormal the storm was. The qi in the air was crackling, present in large quantities. More importantly, Jian Feng realized just how close the center of the storm was to his mountain.

"What now?! Dammit, my security formations might not be enough to deal with this storm. I should hurry back." He increased his speed to rush home, noting in passing some of his other neighbors would be just as severely affected. A mild vindictive feeling rose when he thought of that frivolous disciple facing some righteous comeuppance. PoV change: Ren's preparations were complete. In the 6 months since Yu Ran hatched, the dragon veins beneath his mountain had stabilized for the most part.

But the natural flow of such vast quantities of qi was not to be diverted so easily. The chaotic storm of qi had grown in strength all while being held back by his central formation. The 5 elemental treasures had long since merged into the formation and become a natural part of the mountain. But like a pot that built too much steam, it was about to blow past his formation's limits.

'It has already begun. The first barrier is holding well.' Ren had set up 3 layers of defenses around his home. Ren's initial preparations to defend against the breaking storm had included many types of qi. A storm powered by impure qi was exceedingly unpredictable, from firestorms to hail, but in the past months, something had influenced it. Now the storm had settled into mostly one type of qi. Lightning. That had rendered some of his preparations a waste, but Ren was still glad.

It allowed him to maximize his defenses against lightning. Now, he was going to turn misfortune into fortune! For the initial stages of the storm, Ren had set up lightning gathering arrays in 9 places all over the mountain, each with a seed of Seven Sparks Orchids. The orchids grew well in soil struck by lightning and even flourished when directly struck. This storm was the best fertilizer for them. Soon, Ren noticed the bolts of lightning increased drastically.

He shut off the lightning gathering arrays, which then began to store all the lightning they had attracted. Then Ren let the second barrier take the brunt of the storm. The second barrier was purely defensive. It extended halfway down his mountain, connected to the whole mountain array. The lightning was dispersed over the entire array, reducing the damage. But soon, trees at certain nodes were overwhelmed, and parts of the array were destroyed. The lightning was pouring down like rain.

Ren grit his teeth knowing he only needed to survive a little longer. Then a bolt of lightning split the sky and struck a neighboring mountain, and Ren paled in fear. That bolt was massive, and that mountain was already catching fire. If something like that struck his mountain, the array would collapse. He watched with bated breath as the thin bolts of lightning slowed in frequency but converged into more powerful bolts. Ren's hair stood on end, and a charge filled the air. Ren acted as swiftly as he could.

He shut off the second barrier and focused all his attention on the third and final barrier. A blinding flash of lightning and deafening thunder assaulted his senses as it sprawled across the dark skies.