The Sect Leader System-Chapter 187: Fear of Failure

Zou Tian waited outside all night next to the Contribution Points Shop. Yang Xiu and Yang Ru had taken only a few hours each inside the Trials Pagoda. Kang Lin, on the other hand, had entered before sunset and, as of dawn, had not exited.

There was no cause for concern. Probably. Master had been in the area working throughout the night installing roads and piping, and he hadn’t given the building a second look. If Kang Lin were in any peril, surely he would have appeared anxious at the very least if not tearing the place apart to get to her.

So Zou Tian merely waited, observed, and cultivated.

Finally, mid-morning, Kang Lin came out of the pagoda and walked right past him. Which made him feel good. He was hardly even hidden, barely in the shop’s shadow, but his Hide Presence technique did such a good job that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator didn’t detect him.

“Good morning, Kang Lin,” he called out from behind her.

The girl spun, surprised. “Zou—” She glared at him. “Stop doing that!”

He shrugged. It wasn’t like he’d really even been trying. “How did the trial go?”

Kang Lin grimaced. “Okay. I passed in the end, getting my shield to Large Success, but it wasn’t easy. I almost gave up many, many times before finally figuring out the trick.”

As he’d suspected, she’d struggled, and if someone as talented as she was with spiritual roots more than a full major rank above his barely passed, how was he supposed to complete his trial successfully? “Any advice?”

She hesitated for a moment. “Just be persistent. It didn’t feel like there was a time limit or that the pagoda would kick me out. Each time I died, it asked me if I wanted to continue. Just keep saying yes until you figure it out.”

He nodded. That made sense. If there was a trait all three of the Foundation Establishment cultivators shared, it was a certain degree of stubbornness. His determination didn’t match theirs, but maybe it would be enough. Maybe.

His face must have showed his doubt because she said, “Hey, you’re the smartest one of us. If you can’t figure it out, no one has any hope. Trust in yourself. You can do this.”

Zou Tian cupped his hands. “Gratitude, Senior Sister.”

She smiled at him and turned to continue on her way.

Since Kang Lin had finished, the Trials Pagoda was empty, and he was next up. With no ready excuse to put his task off, he went inside the shop and paid his contribution points to Peng Zhen.

Zou Tian’s heart pounded in his chest like one of Xun Wu’s hammers hitting an anvil. The stakes just seemed so high. Since Zou Tian already had Hide Presence already at Mastery and his dagger technique at Large Success, advancing his weapon skill would open up an opportunity for him to study a perception technique. As he as nearing Qi Gathering minor realm seven, he didn’t have a lot of time to master whatever new skill he learned before reaching Foundation Establishment. It was pretty much obtain the new technique now or never.

Combined with really wanting a perception technique to enhance his ability to be the sect’s head scout, fear of failure was also hitting him hard. Sure, someone had to be the first to exit the pagoda having failed, but he really didn’t want it to be him.

He’d been accepted as a kind of leader in the sect, but he really didn’t feel like he brought nearly as much to the table as some of the others. The twins were much better fighters. All the guards had more experience than him. Wan Ai had figured out how to do the baths for Body Cultivation and would surely discover even more miraculous things in the future.

What special talent did he provide? The ability to stand in an alley and watch people come and go from a building? How would the sect ever survive without that unique skill?

He stepped up to the pedestal with the white orb, placed his hand on it, and requested a trial to improve his dagger technique. Seconds later, permission was granted, and everything went black.

When light returned, Zou Tian was in what appeared to be a large cavern. The ceiling glowed in patches, and large stalactites growing down from above blocked portions of that light, creating many shadows. On the other end of the cave were five creatures.

They were humanoid in size and shape with large bug eyes and four arms each. Zou Tian couldn’t help but wonder if they were real or if the pagoda had created them. And if they were created, were they based on something real or had the pagoda made them up?

Either way, the creatures were obviously part of the trial, and while it wasn’t a given that his objective was to kill the creatures, he needed to be prepared for that eventuality because it was the most obvious course of action. He drew both of his daggers and settled into a fighting stance.

None of them held weapons, but as Zou Tian watched, a blade formed in the hands of the one closest to him. The creature threw it.

He’d had enough practice that he’d gotten pretty good at blocking both melee and ranged weapons with his knives. Senior Sister’s arrows were way too fast to even dodge, much less parry, but he regularly deflected ones from other sect archers. The blade launched by the creature was slow in comparison, and Zou Tian easily knocked it to the ground.

With no more projectiles having been sent his way, he took an instant to examine the first one.

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Ice. It was a shaped chunk of ice with a wickedly sharp edge. He was positive the thing would slice into him as easily as steel would.

Interesting.

When he looked at the creatures again, all five of them were holding blades in each of their four hands, meaning he faced twenty total ice shards.

Blocking one was easy. Two would be fine. Three or four or five? Possibly. Twenty? No way.

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He found a nearby shadow and disappeared into it.

The creatures launched their projectiles in a wide spread, but it was clear they had no idea where he was exactly. Considering that he wasn’t stupid enough to stay in one spot, none of the shards came close to hitting him.

Hopping quickly from shadow to shadow, he approached the creatures.

Fatty Ren was nervous. Sect Leader Chao Su expected him to recruit two hundred members for the Rising Tide Sect, and he expected that task completed quickly.

Two hundred people were a lot of people. Granted, Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town had a population in the thousands, probably less than twenty thousand but more than ten. The new Town Manager was in the process of conducting a census, but those results would take a while.

Regardless, Fatty Ren didn’t know nearly two hundred people. Besides his fellow sect members, all he really came in contact with were the servants and guards at the palace, and those didn’t number nearly enough.

They did represent a start, though. The guards, at least.

Actually, the real start were his three sect brothers and his sect sister who were with him in his cultivation room. He was so thankful he didn’t have to complete the task alone.

“Brother Song Yongliang, how many guards does the palace have?” Fatty Ren said.

“Fifty, Senior Brother.”

Wow. That many? Fatty Ren had always thought that having mortals guard him, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was pointless, but whenever he’d voiced any objection, he’d always been told that it was important to keep up appearances. His desire not to rock the boat might be about to pay dividends.

“Are they loyal, Brother?” Fatty Ren said. “Can we trust them to be good sect members?”

The last thing he wanted to do was be the reason his new sect was infiltrated by spies from the sect leader’s enemies.

“We have no way to test their talent, Senior Brother. They’re most likely all trash. Unless the Esteemed Sect Leader left you a testing device?”

“Did you not hear him, Brother? He does not care about talent level, only quantity.”

“He was serious about that, Senior Brother? Surely not. If we deliver a bunch of trash to him to be inducted, surely we will be punished.”

Fatty Ren understood why Song Yongliang thought that way. Had either of them even suggested to the Righteous Rain Sect Leader that anyone with spiritual roots rated below a C- be inducted into the sect, they would have been punished. Severely.

“Sect Leader Chao Su is unfathomable, Brother,” Fatty Ren said. “Do you know of anyone else who carries around top heaven grade Soul Cultivation methods in his spatial ring, has access to a Trials Pagoda, and somehow, raises the spiritual roots of everyone who joins his sect?”

“No, Senior Brother.”

“He is something unlike anything we’ve experienced, Brother. If he wanted talented recruits, he would have told us to recruit only talented individuals and given us a method to do so. We don’t have a way to test, and there are not likely to be two hundred citizens of this town who are even at D- and above. Even if there were, it would be almost impossible to find them all in the timeframe that Sect Leader Chao Su demanded.”

“It just feels wrong to induct trash into our new sect, Senior Brother.”

For the first time in a long while, Fatty Ren felt anger toward his sect brother. “Do not let the sect leader ever, ever, ever hear you say such a thing! He has given you a chance to continue your challenge to the heavens. You owe him everything. If he wants low talent recruits, I will not gainsay him. You will not gainsay him. None of us will. Understand?”

All four of the Qi Gathering cultivators immediately kowtowed. He didn’t use his authority often, but when he did, they knew to obey immediately, as was expected for a sect member responding to a senior.

“For twenty years, we’ve languished,” Fatty Ren said, “not advancing and unable to avenge our former sect. Out of nowhere, an opportunity has been dropped into our laps. I intend to embrace that opportunity with all my being. You four are advised to do the same.”

“Yes, Senior Brother,” the four said.

“Good, now back to my question. Can we trust the guards?”

“Thirty-four of them are veterans who were all investigated and found not to have taken bribes from the old Town Manager,” Song Yongliang said. “The remaining veterans failed the investigation and were executed. Their replacements are unproven but could be considered marginally reliable.”

It was not going to be possible to find two hundred recruits who were all perfectly vetted, so marginally reliable, while not great, would have to do.

The second source of inductees was provided by the sect leader himself.

“What about the orphanage, Brother?” Fatty Ren said. “How many recruits will it provide?”

“There are thirty-one children housed there with five adults taking care of them. Thirteen of the children have not completed growing their spiritual roots, though, so that source yields a total of twenty-three, Senior Brother.”

“That’s all, Brother?” Fatty Ren frowned. He’d been hoping for more.

“If we included the families of the adults the sect leader hired, that adds ten more, Senior Brother.”

Eighty-three down, one hundred seventeen to go. Not even half.

“Any other thoughts on who to recruit, Brother? I’d prefer not to use the palace servants, but I will if we must.” Fatty Ren shook his head. If he recruited all the servants, who would prepare his food and clean the palace?

“Brother Su Cai, Brother Dai Weimen, Sister Sun Jiao and I have made some acquaintances over the years, Senior Brother. Give us a few moments, and we can come up with a list of those we would consider recruiting.”

Fatty Ren gave them leave to retreat to another room to discuss. Meanwhile he called his valet forward. “I am ready for my mid-morning snack.” It was a bit early, barely a half hour since breakfast, but hunger gnawed at him.

The man cupped his hands, but instead of departing immediately, he hesitated. That wasn’t normal. He was usually very prompt, the very essence of efficiency.

“Is there a matter that needs my attention?” Fatty Ren said.

“This lowly one is not qualified to interject in such matters, my lord.”

Well used to overly polite speech, Fatty Ren internally translated his servant’s message. The man felt he had something to contribute to the conversation he overheard but was terrified that he’d be punished for speaking up.

The situation was quite extraordinary. His servants, as a rule, did not offer opinions. Compared to most citizens in the town, they lived well. The pay was good, and they were neither mistreated nor fired from their positions without a serious reason. Given those circumstances, they were not inclined to do anything to call attention to themselves.

Considering that the man had even broached the subject, whatever he had to say must be very important to him.

“Speak,” Fatty Ren said.

The valet hesitated again, which was understandable. He’d only been ordered to voice his opinion. He hadn’t been given any assurance that he wouldn’t be disciplined for doing so.

That lack was not an oversight on Fatty Ren’s part. Avoiding punishment was entirely dependent on the content of the message.

“My lord, this lowly one and the other palace servants have loyally served for years. Some of us decades. This lowly one understands that none of us are worthy of joining my lord’s sect, but this lowly one wonders, since my lord is searching for loyal recruits, if sons and daughters of the palace staff might be a possible avenue if extra numbers are needed?”

That idea was … not horrible. Fatty Ren had always treated the servants reasonably well, and he had to assume that, like the guards, they’d all been investigated after the incident with the previous Town Manager. All who remained were probably quite loyal. It was quite possible, likely even, that their children would have been taught to be loyal as well.

“Compile a list. Include ages and what jobs they have if they’re old enough. There are no guarantees that all or, indeed, any of them will be chosen, but the idea isn’t bad,” Fatty Ren said. “Carry on.”

It took a while before both lists were ready, a time during which Fatty Ren ate his snack, ordered another one, and ate that one as well. Not only did his qi aspect drive his hunger, but he tended to eat even more when he was stressed. And the thought of failing Sect Leader Chao Su’s orders was stressful indeed.