The other Faction Leaders around Xi Shen began feeling extremely envious of him. What they would do to get their hands on so much Academy Points, was unimaginable.
Even the Faction Leaders up front haven’t come out of their dumbfoundment.
“Head Elder, could you possibly reveal why you’re willing to give this useless prince so many Academy Points? What kind of contribution would warrant such a reward.”
The person to speak those words were Sun Hua, the granddaughter of the current Patriarch of the Sun Clan, Sun Wu Fen, and the older sister of Sun Donghai, who happen to be standing behind his sister. She was also the current Faction Leader of the Extreme Yang Sword Faction.
Her words were cold and emotionless, and from the way how she blatantly insulted Xi Shen, she seemed to not care that he was the second prince.
Xi Shen’s face remain passive despite the obvious insult since he too wanted to know the reason for the Head Elder’s decision.
“The secret hideout that was reported by the second prince’s Faction member wasn’t an ordinary hideout. It was a mid-level base of the Demonic Cult that was assigned to gather disciples for the Assassin's Guild.”
Hearing that, the refusal to accept Xi Shen’s reward in the Faction Leaders' heart was washed away a bit, and they remained silent.
“You all should know, especially the six of you, given the missions you have taken up,” The Head Elder looked to Sun Hua and the others, except for Ling Xia, and then continued, “That among the forces that make up the Demonic Cult, the Assassins Guild is one of the top three forces. And among all of the forces, they are the ones that are the most troublesome to deal with. Even to this day, the amount of Demonic Cult hideouts relating to them we have discovered is a meager four, or should I say five now. They are too skilled at vanishing into the dark crevices of this continent, so much so it’s like they aren’t even there. Only when they make a move and assassinate one of our Righteous Faction members are we reminded of their presence, and the terrifying threat they bring.”
As the Head Elder spoke a rather solemn atmosphere came over the Faction Hall.
To break the tension he created, the Head Elder waved his hands and said, “Alright, alright, these are problems that you younglings aren’t going to face anytime soon.” The Head Elder said specifically to the other Faction Leaders.
“The Academy will protect you all as you mature, believe in your talented senior brothers and sisters. The resources you gain here might not be substantial, but know that it’s because it is to compensate your senior brothers and sisters' efforts to protect you all. Once you’ve reached their realm, and become seniors of the Academy you all will take up their mantle and receive the same privileges as the ones you think now were unfair.”
The Sword Pavilion has a branch in each section of the academy, the Conclave Academy, the Core Academy, and the Inner Academy. And in these branches are the two types of Factions, the ones like Xi Shen’s own which are created only belonging to the Inner Academy, and the other which is like the seven major Factions which extend from the Conclave Academy to the others.
The resource distributions should have originally been confined to the Factions in the Conclave Academy, but they extend it to all Factions in the Sword Pavilion regardless of which section of the Academy they were in.
This was to allow the lower Faction Leaders to experience the upper echelons of the Academy as they would one day be in the same position. There was also another sneaky reason, and that was to develop a mindset in these disciples, where working for and contributing to the Academy can get you X amount of resources.
So from the Head Elder's words, one can see not only does the Sword Pavilion want to create outstanding disciples and groom them to become strong and capable leaders, but they also wanted to instill a sense of loyalty for the Sword Pavilion as well as the Celestial Academy overall, into these disciples minds.
“All of you can leave, I have already said too much.”
The Head Elder dismissed everyone for the second time, and this time everyone fully left the Faction Hall without any more interruptions.
Before they left, Lin Dong, Yuming, Sun Hua, Lou Fu, and Zhong Shirong, all shot Xi Shen with various looks.
Despite being fellow members of the Sword Pavilion and Celestial Academy, they were still members of the Six of the Seven Major Factions.
Xi Shen's Faction receiving such a substantial reward had drawn their attention. It could be counted as a coincidence that a Faction member of this trashy prince reported a hideout relating to the Assassin Guild, but nonetheless, he had gotten their attention with his performance today.
The only person who wasn’t that upset was Bai Huang Fu, he released a small smile in Xi Shen’s direction.
Seeing this, Lin Dong sneered in contempt at him, but Bai Huang Fu didn’t pay him any mind.
Ling Xia was the other one was reacted differently upon looking at Xi Shen, or rather Yang Su who was behind him.
Xi Shen motioned to Yang Su who still had his head lowered and they both left the Faction Hall.
While walking outside Yang Su turned around to see Ling Xia exiting the Faction Hall, before producing and getting onto a small platform that carried her into the air.
A sad expression appeared on his face, but something was welling up in his heart.
“Go if you want to go, I won’t stop you. Though you should know getting involved with her will bring more problems to your Master.”
Yang Su hesitated upon hearing Xi Shen’s latter sentence, but he clenched his fist before turning around to bow to Xi Shen and say, “Master, this disciple will bring you trouble in the future, however, when I gain the strength to stand up for myself I will pay back all the trouble I caused!”
Smiling, Xi Shen said, “Fine.”
After that, Yang Su turned around and produced his wooden sword before taking off in the direction Ling Xia had gone in.
When Yang Su’s figure became a tiny speck in the horizon, Xi Shen let his head hung before he let out a sigh.
‘Ling Tian, no matter how I detest him, is still someone with an extremely high position within the Academy. Thus, he should be someone I avoid given my current situation. But knowing all of that I still allow Yang Su to approach his little sister, whom he’s very protective of. Maybe his situation reminds me too much of my own that I couldn’t ignore his feelings and say no. Well, any which way, Yang Su has proven to have extraordinary talent, the Academy and Council of Elders would be extremely blind if they didn’t consider him to become a Chosen. With that possibility, Ling Tian wouldn’t dare try anything like before.’
After thinking that Xi Shen turned around, and began making his way back to the Inner Academy.
Though he was still in deep thought.
‘In my Era, power was everything. With enough power, you can gain anything you desire. I came here with that same mentality, and although it’s the same even in this era, at the same time it’s not. Here in this era, or as far as I can tell from how this continent is structured, it has become a web-like structure where different powers on the same level are formed. Due to that, certain things become just as important as having personal strength, and that’s having status within a powerful organization. I never really cared for it, and I still have a slight distaste towards how people in this era put so much importance on it. But, the power dynamics are different in this era. No longer were their beings who hold absolute power, now there were Clans, Sect/Academies with that power distributed among them. So even if a single person has absolute strength in this era, they would likely go on to create a power of their own to join this massive web, or else they wouldn’t account for anything special.”
As of this moment, Xi Shen’s ideals were clashing with this era’s norms. Truly, with personal strength, Ling Tian would have been hesitant to make a move against his disciple Yang Su, but this circumstance wasn’t taking in the fact that Xi Shen was the second prince and Ling Tian was a likely candidate for becoming the next Academy Leader into account.
Both were from a family and institute that were among the top powers on the continent. If it reached a stage where the both of them had a dispute, it would drag the powers behind them into it.
This was where the web-like structure plays into it, and it was all confusing to Xi Shen since if it was in his past life, all he would need is to be stronger and it’ll solve all of his problems. But here, all of a sudden the powerful action become restricted due to responsibilities.
‘Ahh! That’s it, that’s why receiving a status bothers me so much! It comes with a hidden shackle, responsibilities!” Xi Shen cried out internally.
‘I’ve been subconsciously trying to avoid being burdened by it, even when I hadn’t realized it. And now that I think about it, it’s everywhere! Like becoming a Faction Leader, I instantly got hit with the responsibility of attending yearly meetings, and there’s probably more on its way. Sure having the right status in this era is a plus since if Yang Su had been a Chosen, the Ming Clan would have thought twice about attacking him. But since he was just my assistant, they had no qualms about killing him given there history with my Clan. So, having status while having enormous strength comes hand in hand if you want to get anywhere in this Era.’
“Hahh!”
Xi Shen’s footsteps paused, before he let out a long sigh. Maybe he had underestimated the complexity of this Era and overestimated his ability to grasp the nuances caused by the power differences between his two lives. He after all had only been here for thirteen years, fourteen in several days but still, a short time for him to learn the things he needed to know.
‘Even with my age from my past life added to the mix, I would still be considered a greenhorn, huh? Let’s just say I’m playing checkers, while those old monsters are playing chess among themselves.’
As Xi Shen thought that a call transmission came from his Sword Pavilion identity medallion.
Flipping over his palm, he received the call and a miniature figure of Ye Fei appeared before saying, “Second Prince, I’d like to call in that favor you owe me.”
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l