“The ratio in which the resources will be split is 4:1. Your seven Faction gets 4, while the rest get 1.”
‘They aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're being biased.’ Xi Shen thought upon hearing this Head Elder’s words.
The “rest” of the Factions, which were the Puppet factions as well as the other Factions in the Core Academy, were all sporting ugly expressions.
This was no different from the year before, or even the year before that, but it still dealt a heavy blow to them every time. It wasn’t like there weren’t some of them that were contributing to the Sword Pavilion and the Academy as a whole, but upon comparing their contribution to these behemoths, it was easily dismissed.
To compensate these seven Factions the Academy decided to unfairly cut their portion of the shares.
The argument previously between them was how the amount reserved for them would be shared. Even until this moment they never once paid attention to these lowly Factions. To these Conclave Disciples with the backing of their Major Clans, the other Factions should be glad they even got to sit in on this meeting.
They just didn’t put them in their eyes.
The Head Elder’s voice sounded once again, “For the Divine Sword Pavilion, 45% would go to you.”
“What?!!”
All the six Faction Leaders cried out, Lin Dong, Sun Hua, Luo Fu, Shirong, Huang Fu, and even Yuming, who was always like a peaceful lake calm and composed, had her expression change drastically.
“Thank you, Head Elder.” Ling Xia replied.
“Wait! How could this be?! How can 45% of the resources go to the Divine Sword Faction, what would remain to split between the six of us is meager scraps!!”
Lin Dong stood up and yelled in rage, a violet glow shining in his eyes.
“That’s right Head Elder, how could this be the case? I implore Head Elder to rethink this decision, 45% is just way too much.”
A scholarly Shirong said in a pleading tone before the rest voiced their disapproval.
Placing down the tea cup he held in his hand, the Head Elder sighed and said, “The decision to distribute the resources the Sword Pavilion receives from the Academy is usually my responsibility, but this time the decision was made personally by the Vice Headmaster.”
“???!!”
The Six Faction Leaders all had stunned looks on their faces, and even the other Faction Leaders in the Faction Hall couldn’t believe what they were hearing. The Vice Headmaster himself had made this decision, but why? Was the question everyone had in their minds.
The Head Elder continue to speak, “The Vice Headmaster was fulfilling one of Ling Tian’s requests for him to take on an important mission. The originally share disciple Ling Tian wanted was 75% but the Vice Headmaster convinced him to settle for 45%.”
Hearing this, Lin Dong gritted his teeth and sat back down, since this was a decision made by the Vice Headmaster there’s no way it could be reversed.
Ling Xia was calmly sitting in her seat, making it obvious she had known about this arrangement.
Now thoughts started to whirl in the Faction Leaders' heads as to what kind of mission Ling Tian had been assigned to complete, for the Vice Headmaster to grant him 45% of all the resources.
But more importantly, what pissed them off the most is knowing that Ling Tian actually wanted to take 75% initially. He was showing no face to them, but merely treating them like he was above them all.
But they have no choice but to accept it, now, they’re wondering how the resources between them would be shared.
After taking a sip of his tea once more, the Head Elder quickly announced the shares for the other Factions, “The Flowing River Sword Faction will receive 15%, the Extreme Yang Sword Faction will receive 10%, the Stormy Violet Sword Faction will receive 5%, the Wealthy Sword Faction will receive 5%, the Sovereign Faction will receive 5%, and the Scholar Sword Faction will receive 5%.”
Hearing this Lin Dong's blood boiled in rage. His Faction had only gotten 5%, compared to the contributions his Faction made, this little amount was absurd.
Though that was the case for him, the actual amount being shared up between the six major Faction and the lesser ones was an astronomical amount.
Just 1/5 of that could reasonably be shared between the numerous smaller Factions in the Sword Pavilion. Now even with that decrease, Lin Dong getting 5% of what remained was by no means a small amount. But since he had always gotten a percentage in the teens, by his standards this amount was extremely low.
And that was all because of Ling Tian.
Lin Dong's eyes shot across the Faction Hall to land on Ling Xia but only snorted before turning away.
“Now that concludes the meeting.”
After saying that, the Head Elder swished his sleeves and numerous storage bags flew out to come to a stop, floating in mid-air in front of all the Faction Leaders. Seven storage rings had also appeared in front of Ling Xia and the rest.
One had stopped in front of Xi Shen and he took it from mid-air before examining it curiously.
What he saw in there was a ten-meter space filled with bottles of various types of medicinal pills inside, as well as a few cultivation manuals off to the side, and two mid-grade Spirit Weapon Artifact.
After examining the contents again Xi Shen looked up with a strange expression on his face.
Looking around at the other Faction Leaders, he saw that their expression was filled with excitement as they examined the contents of their own storage bags.
‘Surely this must be a joke, maybe that old man made a mistake and perhaps forgot to give me more. Like what the hell am I supposed to do with this? If I wasn’t the Second Prince then I would have had to rely on these resources to fund my Faction, but what is this? There is barely anything inside, are they measuring what I would need based on the number in my Faction? But even so, this is nothing!’
Xi Shen scanned the bag once more, thinking that this old man was maybe trying to mess with him by hiding a secret compartment inside of it, but as he scanned even more thoroughly, he still found nothing. There was no secret compartment, this was it.
Xi Shen was speechless.
It wasn’t that he was desperately in need of the resources from this meeting, but it was just the principle of the thing. And plus, it wouldn’t hurt to have some more resources in his hands.
Even though his Faction was indeed just formed and hadn’t contributed much, there was still the fact of Mu Fan reporting the Demonic Cult’s mid-level base in his City.
It was a few hours ago so the Academy should have reached there to confirm the reports. And Xi Shen was sure they would find various Clans in support of the Demonic Cult.
So given that, this amount of resources was shorter than what he should have gotten.
‘Well, whatever, I’m really only interested in the Academy Points.’
As Xi Shen said that, he toss the storage bag into his storage ring completely ignoring it.
At the same time, the Head Elder spoke again, “The Academy Points will be transferred to you right about now, and with this, you’re all dismissed.”
With that, Xi Shen felt the Sword Pavilion medallion tugging at his senses. He took it out to see that it was the transfer of Academy Points.
Seeing the amount Xi Shen became dumbfounded.
‘Five hundred? Five hundred Academy Points?! That's it?! This share definitely didn’t take Mu Fan’s reports into account. Is it that Mu Fan wasn't register for my Faction so his report didn’t count as my Faction’s contribution? No, I have the ability to directly make him a member of my Faction using my identity medallion, which I did. Plus, without Mu Fan being registered I wouldn’t have six members, meaning I wouldn’t be here then as a Faction Leader. It seems there has really been a mistake, if that’s the case then I should make this known and solve this situation.’
While everyone was getting up after being dismissed, Xi Shen's voice suddenly echoed out.
“Excuse me, Head Elder! I think there’s been a mistake about my Faction’s share of resources!”
The movements of the Faction Leaders all stopped, and their heads turned simultaneously to look at Xi Shen. Including Ling Xia and the other six Faction Leaders up front.
With the Faction Hall suddenly becoming so silent, the Head Elder’s voice was heard clearly as he said, “Second prince, what do you mean? Your Faction hasn’t formed for long, so the resources you’ve received will certainly not be excellent. In the future when you gather more members and truly start contributing to the Academy, then you’ll obviously see an increase in the resources. Our Academy won’t let its disciple’s efforts go unrewarded.”
The Faction Leaders up front were staring daggers at Xi Shen.
Under these stares, Xi Shen only stood up and bowed respectfully towards the Head Elder before saying, “It’s as I thought. The reason I said there’s been a mistake is that one of my Faction members has indeed made a bit of contribution to the Academy, by reporting the secret hideout of a mid-level base of the Demonic Cult in his City.”
“Oh?”
The Head Elder said rather taken aback. He then flipped over his palm and an ordinary-looking jade slip appeared in his hand. After a moment his expression suddenly changed a bit at the information he received, but he quickly recovered.
However, the Faction Leaders up front saw his change in expression, and they couldn’t understand what would cause someone of his cultivation to have such a visible emotional reaction.
Lin Dong, as well as the other Faction Leaders all suddenly got am uncomfortable feeling in their hearts.
The Head Elder after composing himself placed back the jade slip in his robes but he didn’t immediately say anything. He had on a certain expression, that looked like he was torn between deciding what to do.
After a moment, the Head Elder sighed and said, “It seems there has indeed been a mistake while determining your share of resources. However, the resources have already been split so it would be inappropriate to ask back these Faction Leaders for their share. Instead, I’ll take responsibility and compensate you personally in Academy Points. How about five million Academy Points, is the second prince satisfied with this amount?”
The Faction Leaders up front became stupefied upon hearing this.
Xi Shen himself was equally dumbfounded at the Head Elder’s words. And his brain didn’t even process his question.
Seeing Xi Shen’s silence, the Head Elder sighed again and said, “As I thought, five million is rather a small amount, how about ten million? I might be the Head Elder of the Sword Pavilion but I have moved away from monetary gains so my Academy Points are not that much compared to other Division Head Elders.”
Everyone in the Faction Hall had their mouth to the floor at this moment. They didn’t understand what was going on all of a sudden, and why the esteem Head Elder was going out of his way to give Xi Shen so much Academy Points.
The importance of Academy Points in the Academy was no different than gold to mortals in the outside world. No, it might be even more so because, with enough Academy Points, one can have access to the various cultivation grounds in the Academy.
Each section of the Academy has its own cultivation grounds, especially the Conclave section of the Academy. The Core Academy Disciples and Inner Disciple would kill to enter those high-level cultivation grounds.
There said that most of these cultivation grounds were within a separate pocket dimension. But an astronomical amount of Academy Points was needed to stay even an hour in those cultivation grounds.
However, that wasn’t actually what made Academy Points so precious.
Yes, one can buy numerous cultivation pills, use the numerous services in the Academy and buy all the Spirit Artifacts they want, but nothing could compare to getting the chance to enter the Academy’s Forbidden Grounds.
The Celestial Academy has a long history and has produced this continent's top experts for every generation. When one reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, they can either choose to stay in the Academy or leave to explore the cultivation world and make a name for themselves. However to show their immense gratitude for what the Academy has done for them, and to show they were still part of the it no matter where they end up in life. In the Academy’s Forbidden Grounds, those seniors left their legacies.
Daoist Magic and Martial Arts techniques were there for the generation that came after them, along with their thoughts and understanding of the various realms of cultivations. This was to further help their Academy to grow even stronger disciples and continue to be the number one Academy on the Maple Continent.
There were even rumors of seniors who have left a bit of their Dao and Laws Comprehended behind in the deeper regions of the forbidden area, making it a true legacy on those person’s part.
With enough Academy Points, even an Outer disciple could enter this treasure trove of knowledge.
So one could understand why everyone was so shocked that the Head Elder was giving Xi Shen so many Academy Points. Even compared to what the others up front had receive it was a lot.
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