Chương 4: First Day as a Broke Sect Leader

Morning comes, and with it, the first day of the rest of my life. Dawn breaks cold and clear over Coiling Dragon Mountain. The sun crests the eastern peaks slowly, painting the sky in shades of pale gold and rose that would probably inspire poetry in someone less exhausted. I'm already in the training yard when the disciples arrive, moving through basic sword forms with the practiced ease of forty years. The movements come automatically; legacy of this body's decades of practice. Stance, breath, strike.

Stance, breath, strike. The wooden sword feels natural in my grip, an extension of my arm. With each repetition, the strangeness fades a little. The memories of another world grow quieter. The dissonance between who I was and who I am now softens around the edges. By the time the disciples file into the yard, yawning and rubbing sleep from their eyes, I feel almost... settled. They fall into line behind me without being told.

Twelve bodies moving through the same forms I'm demonstrating, a rhythm as old as the sect itself. For an hour we train in silence. Punches. Kicks. Stances. Breathing. The familiar rhythm steadies me further. Feng leads the younger ones through their forms while I step back to observe. If he never reaches Foundation Establishment, he'll still make an excellent drill master. Mei Lin's water techniques show improvement already. Her movements flow more smoothly than yesterday, less hesitation, more confidence.

Maybe my suggestion about precision over power actually helped. Wei Chen still struggles with fire control. His techniques flare too hot, then sputter out, a classic Earth/Fire imbalance. But his earth foundation is solid, grounded, immovable. If I can find him a technique that emphasizes stability over aggression, he might actually progress. I make mental notes, filing away each observation for future reference. The Gaze isn't active right now, I don't need it for this. But its information colors everything I see.

The Gaze gives me truth. It doesn't give me hope. When training ends, I gather them in a loose semicircle.

"Good work this morning." I let my gaze sweep across their faces; twelve variations of young, earnest, mediocre.

"Feng, continue leading morning practice while I'm gone. I'll be inspecting the mine today. If anyone needs me, I'll be back by evening." Feng nods, his brow furrowing slightly.

"The mine, Sect Leader? Should I accompany you?"

"No. Your place is here, with the disciples. I won't be long." They bow, and I head down the mountain path toward the mine. The path winds downward through sparse forest, past the point where the sect's meager defensive array flickers at the boundaries of my perception. Below the tree line, the air grows warmer, more humid. Birds call in the branches. A rabbit startles from the underbrush and vanishes into the ferns. It's peaceful. Quiet.

The kind of morning that makes you forget you're broke, in debt, and hiding a cosmic anomaly in your kitchen. The mine entrance comes into view around a bend in the path: a dark gash in the mountainside reinforced with rotting timbers that look like they haven't been replaced in decades. Two mortal laborers sit outside on a flat rock, eating breakfast from wooden bowls. They scramble to their feet when they see me approaching, nearly dropping their food in their haste.

"Sect Leader! We didn't expect—""At ease." I wave them back to their meal, keeping my voice calm.

"How goes the mining?" The older one, a grizzled man named Huo with more wrinkles than teeth, shrugs philosophically.

"Same as always, Sect Leader. Three stones this week so far. Vein's getting thinner. Another year, maybe two, and it'll be tapped." I nod, unsurprised. The Gaze was accurate. Again.

"Show me." We enter the tunnel. The air grows cool and damp immediately, smelling of earth and stone and something metallic I can't quite identify. Huo carries a lantern, its flickering light casting jumping shadows on the rough-hewn walls. The tunnel slopes gradually downward, timber supports groaning softly with each step. Deeper in, the tunnel opens into a small cavern where two more laborers chip at the rock face with pickaxes. The sound echoes— clink, clink, clink —a slow rhythm of diminishing returns.

I activate Truth Seeker's Gaze and sweep it across the walls. Common Stone - No spiritual properties. Common Stone - No spiritual properties. Iron Vein (Trace) - Negligible spiritual content. Spirit Stone Vein (Depleted) - 0. 3% remaining. Estimated yield: 2-4 low-grade stones per month for 14-18 months. Just as Huo said. Nothing hidden, nothing overlooked. Just a dying mine and a slow decline into poverty. But the Gaze shows more than just stone. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road.

If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I turn it on the miners themselves. Huo - Mortal (Miner) Name: Huo Age: 48 Spirit Root: None Cultivation: Mortal Verdict: Honest, hardworking, knows these tunnels better than anyone. Loyal to those who pay fairly. Chen Jiang - Mortal (Miner) Name: Chen Jiang Age: 31 Spirit Root: None (Trace Earth affinity — too weak for cultivation) Cultivation: Mortal Verdict: Can sense mineral deposits slightly better than normal humans. Useful skill for mining.

Wei the Younger - Mortal (Miner's Assistant) Name: Wei Wei Age: 19 Spirit Root: None Cultivation: Mortal Verdict: Young, strong, eager to prove himself. Follows orders well. I file away the information about Chen Jiang's earth sense. Useful, if I can keep him. The others are exactly what they appear to be: honest laborers with no hidden talents. But something nags at me. The Gaze shows me what's here, but what about what's hidden? What about the spaces between the stone?

I walk deeper into the tunnel, past where the miners are working, into the unexplored darkness. The laborers call after me, warning of instability, but I press on, activating the Gaze continuously, sweeping it across walls, floor, ceiling. For fifty paces, nothing.

Then— Concealed Formation (Ancient) Grade: Low-Mid Status: Active, partially degraded Purpose: Hides entrance to underground chamber Estimated Age: 800-1200 years Breaching Requirements: Foundation Establishment or higher, basic formation knowledge, 5 low-grade spirit stones for key array nodes My heart stops. I stand perfectly still, breathing slowly, forcing myself not to react. Behind me, the miners have stopped calling. They probably think I'm meditating, or inspecting the rock, or having a senior moment.

They don't know. No one knows. There's something hidden in my mine. Eight hundred to twelve hundred years. That predates my sect by centuries. Predates the previous sect, and the one before that. This mountain has been mined for generations, and no one ever found— Wait. If there's a formation here, it means someone put it here. Someone with enough skill to hide a chamber so thoroughly that centuries of miners never noticed. Someone who didn't want to be found. A tomb. A refuge. A treasure vault. A prison.

My mind races through possibilities, each one more tantalizing and terrifying than the last. A Nascent Soul's legacy could lift my sect from obscurity overnight. A demonic cultivator's prison could unleash horrors I can't imagine. A hidden refuge could contain anything from ancient techniques to piles of spirit stones to nothing at all. I need to know more. I press my palm against the stone where the Gaze detected the formation.

Through my spiritual sense, this body's decades of cultivation, I can just barely feel it. A faint hum of old power, worn thin by time. Like a bell that's been ringing for a thousand years and finally fallen silent. The formation is weak now, degraded by centuries, its edges frayed and its core barely holding together. A strong Foundation Establishment cultivator could probably force their way through with enough effort. Smash the array nodes with brute force. Tear the secret from the mountain.

But that would destroy whatever's inside, or trigger traps, or alert anyone who might still be watching. A formation this old might have failsafes. Self-destruct mechanisms. Curses. I've read enough novels to know that rushing into ancient secrets is how protagonists die in chapter four. Better to do this properly. I withdraw my hand, turn, and walk back toward the miners with my heart pounding and my face calm.

I emerge from the mine hours later, having carefully mapped the formation's location and estimated its key nodes in my head. The miners look relieved to see me, probably worried their sect leader had gotten himself lost in the dark.

"Vein's nearly dead," I tell them, keeping my voice casual, like I haven't just discovered a thousand-year-old secret buried in my own mountain.

"But there might be some smaller pockets deeper in. Keep working the main vein, and I'll see about hiring more hands to explore some side tunnels." Huo nods, unsurprised by the assessment.

"More hands would help, Sect Leader. The work goes slow with just us four."

"I'll visit Greenstone Town tomorrow." I clap him on the shoulder; friendly, familiar, the gesture of a sect leader who cares about his people.

"Good work today." They bow as I leave. I don't look back. The walk back to the sect takes an hour. I use it to think. A hidden chamber. Probably a tomb, that's the most common reason for cultivators to seal themselves away. A Nascent Soul who failed their breakthrough and died mid-process, preserving their corpse and treasures for a worthy successor. Or a Core Formation elder who wanted to cheat death. Or a demonic cultivator who trapped themselves inside with their loot. The possibilities are endless.

So are the dangers. But the formation is degraded. At Foundation Establishment, I have a chance. And if there's anything inside that could help the sect: techniques, spirit stones, pills, weapons… I need it. Ling'er's potential means nothing if I can't feed her, protect her, train her. A single Nascent Soul's legacy could change everything. I need to be smart about this. First: hire more miners. Real miners, with real skills, to create cover for my exploration.

If I'm seen digging in that area, it's just another side tunnel. Normal. Expected. If I find the chamber alone, I can seal it back up and no one will know. Second: assess every potential hire with the Gaze. Not for cultivation potential, I don't want cultivators anywhere near this, but for useful mortal skills. Honesty. Loyalty. Mining talent. Maybe even a touch of earth affinity like Chen Jiang. Third: prepare for the exploration. Talismans, spirit stones, weapons.

Basic formation knowledge, which I have a few old texts in the library, dusty and ignored, that might help. And a plan for what to do if something goes wrong. Escape routes. Emergency signals. Contingencies. Fourth: continue Ling'er's training, carefully, slowly. Her mortal body needs time to strengthen before she can handle real qi. A week of basic physical conditioning and meditation. Then maybe we try circulation again. The chamber can wait. She can't. Fifth: keep my face calm and my mouth shut. No one can know.

Not Feng, not the disciples, not even Old Chen. Secrets are like fires: once they spread, you can't control them. By the time I reach the sect gates, I have a plan.