The Sect Leader System-Chapter 229: Prudence

Yang Xiu didn’t even have time to flinch. After burying an arrow in the chest of one of the two Jade Chameleon Foundation Establishment cultivators charging her, the other swung a sword at her neck.

The blade glowed with white light, signifying that it was imbued with Wind qi. That element was strong against her Ice element, meaning it would hit with up to twice the force of a neutral qi aspect.

As the radiant metal sliced through the air toward her, she was at peace. Unworried. Either the qi shield technique that Master had given her would protect her, or she’d be decapitated. She was betting everything on the fact that Master would not let her down.

Swish!

Thunk!

The blade hit. Qi flashed as Wind-infused metal met a small patch of thick shield made of pure Ice. The sword bounced back.

Yang Xiu was fine. Not even bruised, much less cut. She hadn’t even felt the blow. Her qi reserves barely even moved.

Her brother was already on his way, building Momentum as he ran toward the lone uninjured enemy combatant. The swordman could swing away at her all he wanted. There was no way he was breaching her shield before Yang Ru sent him crashing into the side of the auction house.

“Enough!” the leader of the Jade Chameleon squad, a cultivator in the Golden Core realm, shouted. “Regroup.”

Yang Xiu glanced at Kang Lin, who was still fingering her contingency ring. The other girl shrugged as if to say, “Let’s see where he’s going with this.”

As the Jade Chameleons heeded the call of their leader by jogging toward the wall to regroup, Yang Ru finished his sprint and stood next to his sister. The trio waited to see what would happen next.

Kang Lin wasn’t surprised that the Golden Core cultivator had called for a retreat. Of his five juniors, two had almost been killed and the other two still had arrows sticking out of various appendages. Only one was unscathed, and none of them had so much put a scratch on either of the twins.

Of course, he called for a retreat.

At least, that was what she had thought he was doing. But he’d specifically said “regroup,” not retreat. And as he was distributing healing pills, he didn’t appear to be making any move to leave.

Was it possible that he planned to heal up his juniors and have them try again? If so, that was a horrible idea for a couple of reasons. One, the most likely outcome of another round was exactly what happened in the first, only the twins would not take such care to avoid killing. Two, it would be a horrendous loss of face for the Jade Chameleon Sect.

From his actions, though, it appeared that ordering another attack was exactly his plan.

“What do you hope to accomplish?” Kang Lin said.

“You do not show me proper respect, either, Poison Claw Sect whelp?” the Golden Core cultivator said.

Technically, he was right. It was one thing for Yang Xiu, a combatant, to blatantly ignore calling him by title, but Kang Lin was officially a neutral party. She should have referred to him as “Esteemed” at the very least.

At that point, though, she really had no choice but to forge ahead.

“Do you deserve my respect or are you planning on having your juniors attack again?” Kang Lin said.

“Who are you, little girl, to decide if a cultivator more than a major realm and a half above you is worthy?”

“No member of a righteous sect can respect someone who would be so craven as to interfere in a matter between juniors like you appear to be preparing to do,” Kang Lin said. “If I am wrong about your intentions, I will gladly kowtow before you for my insolence.”

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The man scoffed. “You will kowtow before me regardless, or you will not be leaving this courtyard alive.”

Kang Lin was more than a little taken aback to have someone who could crush her like a bug threaten her death, but she strove not to show it. She didn’t so much as blink. “You seek the enmity of the Poison Claw Sect as well as the Rising Tide Sect? Have your elders sanctioned your actions?”

She was almost positive that the man had to have been given strict orders not to take things too far. Besides, if worst came to worst, she had the ring.

“My orders are none of your business, little girl. Kowtow or else.”

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Decision time. Truthfully, she had no business talking to the man that way. Regardless of the way he was acting, he was her senior, and her sect was not on a war footing with his.

She opened her mouth, unsure of exactly what she would say.

Yang Xiu had never been so proud of her hopefully future sister. Talking back to a Golden Core cultivator like that! Who would have thought she had it in her?

But she was clearly in trouble. To kowtow to the man would destroy all the confidence she was building, but if she didn’t, the man might strike too fast for help to arrive.

Yang Xiu had to distract him. Fortunately, she didn’t think the task would be too difficult.

“Can we get on with the fighting?” she said. “My brother and I already beat your trash sect once. I can’t wait to do it again and without holding back this time.”

The man looked at her and practically snarled. “I will end you myself.”

He pulled a sword from his spatial ring and raised it into ready position.

Yang Xiu grimaced and prepared to trigger her ring. Bringing Master to the city to kill another Jade Chameleon cultivator would only make things worse, perhaps antagonizing the City Lord. Again. But he’d ordered them to sound the alert if their lives were on the line.

With a Golden Core cultivator about to attack, Yang Xiu saw no choice but to send the signal but held her finger for the last possible instant.

Kang Lin was almost positive she would have ended up capitulating to the Golden Core cultivator. She’d been raised to be respectful and cautious, completely the opposite of Sect Master Chao Su and his disciples.

It wasn’t that they were discourteous. No one in the sect would go out of their way to be rude to anyone, not even a peasant. But they were not encouraged to follow the etiquette that was ingrained into the very being of most sect members.

So, yes, she would have given in. Kowtowed. It would have felt terrible, but she would have done it.

Yang Xiu, however, was having none of it, inserting herself into the conversation. She was nothing if not brave. Almost brash. But her heart was in the right place.

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Kang Lin would have snorted at the look on the man’s face. Such a bold insult, calling not just the juniors trash but the entire sect. She would have never had the gall to say such a thing.

The comment had done its work, though. The man’s attention was fully on Yang Xiu. But it had backfired. Rather than sending his juniors back into the fight, the man decided to end it himself.

They were either all about to die or to have to call Master. Kang Lin couldn’t let either of those things happen without trying to turn things around.

“With all the people at the auction house watching?” she said.

The man’s hands clenched tightly around the hilt of his sword. His pride and anger were clearly warring with prudence. The auction house, while not strong enough to be called a faction in its own right, was not weak. They had Golden Core cultivators of their own. They had to just to keep order during auctions.

The man dared not, and maybe could not, destroy all the witnesses. If he personally defeated three Foundation Establishment cultivators when his juniors couldn’t, the loss of face would be catastrophic. Kang Lin hoped for all their sakes that he possessed enough wisdom to reign in his arrogance.

He glanced back at his juniors. The one who Yang Ru had launched into a wall was fully healed. That one and the unhurt one were helping the others remove the arrows that were imbedded in their flesh.

All in all, they made a sorry sight, definitely not a group that would inspire either confidence in their allies or fear in their enemies. The main emotions Kang Lin felt toward them were disdain and pity.

The entire group, including the Golden Core cultivator, had brought more scorn upon their sect, and nothing that could possibly occur in that courtyard from that point on would change that. Nor improve it. Further actions were likely only to bring about an even greater loss of face.

From the man’s expression, he finally came to realize that fact.

“Do not let me see any of the three of you ever again,” he said. “If I do, things will end quite differently.”

He practically threw his juniors onto the sled and flew away.

“Hmm,” Yang Xiu said, probably before he was even out of earshot. “I think that went well.”

Kang Lin at first, naturally, thought the other girl was being facetious. No one in their right mind would think that barely surviving being killed by a cultivator so much higher realmed than them was a good thing. From the expression on Yang Xiu’s face, though, she seemed to genuinely have meant what she said.

Incredulous, Kang Lin looked to Yang Ru for help. He just shrugged.

There was nothing for her to do but shake her head.