84 Outside the First Elder's Cave

A vice-elder guarded the First Elder's cave while four other individuals stood in front of him waiting.

Kenja had previously met or seen all of them, including the guard. He was the chubby vice-elder that stopped him when Sakura and Snail were fighting in public.

The others included the arrogant Sora Yu who Kenja had a run-in with at the bazaar, the helpful Hirose Hide who had taught Kenja the [Flowing River Technique] before showing him the way into the Dragon's Basin, and the irritating Matsushita Hizumi who was ordered to enter seclusion for a month.

Since the sect was in a state of emergency, they had received instructions through their communication jades to assemble here.

The final person had the weakest cultivation amongst the five, a Foundation Establishment inner sect disciple.

He was a receptionist from the treasury that the temporary manager Hatanaka Hachiro had sent to report to Hideaki Akiyoshi and the First Elder. In his hand, he clung onto a clipboard while his face wore an anxious and troubled expression.

Kenja's group approached them.

"Vice Elder Du Zhifang greets the elders."

"Disciple greets his(her) elders."

They greeted the elders with curious looks.

It was unusual for three of the four elders to walk at the rear of the procession. Perhaps they could rationalize it if it were just the odd Second Elder, but the Fourth and Sixth Elder were next to him with two Qi Flourishing disciples in between them.

While most of them knew the elders' secret designs on Hirai Hikaru, they would not swallow their pride to the extent of surrounding her and vying for her affections, right?

And why was the atmosphere sullen and awkward?

The three elders waved off their greetings with an air of frustration while Inazuma was still twiddling with the bracelet.

Matsushita Hizumi gave Hikaru and Hanabi a spiteful glare but Kondo returned a warning glance at him, making him turn his face with a huff.

Moving everyone's attention elsewhere, Kondo glanced at the treasury messenger before gruffly asking the vice-elder, "Vice Elder Du, did something happen?"

Only their three disciples were expected to meet them here.

"Reporting to elder, this disciple wishes to pass a report to the First Elder, but I was ordered to prevent all interruptions."

Kondo looked at the messenger, signaling him to talk.

"Reporting to elder, disciple was sent with an important message for First Elder and Senior Brother Hideaki. It is very urgen—"

"If there's a crisis, you have four elders right here to solve it. Now, speak up. What is this about?" Fourth Elder proudly proclaimed.

The short elder's first two, potentially three, disciples were currently present, so he wanted to portray the image of a reliable role model.

"This…" The messenger was unsure how to respond. "It's an inventory update I was tasked to deliver…"

He was still waiting to make the urgent report concerning the sales of the high-tier spirit stones, but such a thing could not be labeled as a crisis or emergency.

In fact, the First Elder had long compiled a list of all possible crises that might occur with the most appropriate responses for each one, and only a few of those responses permitted the disclosure of treasury activities to non-staff members.

This list covered countermeasures for the theft of the high-tier spirit stones as well as petty things such as running out of notebook logs for recording the daily trades.

But it had said nothing about what to do if the high-tier stones were sold…such a situation was unlisted, so he was hesitant to reveal the information to anyone, including the other elders.

Even though the stones were publicly missing from the glass case, he did not have clearance to announce what occurred to anyone other than the First Elder and Hideaki Akiyoshi.

"Che, did Fourth Brother forget? We promised to leave those matters to First Brother. If we stick our noses in it, he will get angry and yell at us."

"Right, right," Miji deflated before frowning at the anxious junior, "If it's just an update, then wait till after the dust has settled. Go, report to one of the other vice-elders and line up with the rest of your brother disciples. Stop making trouble for your elders."

The Fourth Elder was bitter as nothing had gone his way all day.

Starting from the battle with his two brothers to the discussion during the walk over here, and now this random disciple made him look uncool, giving his arch-rival an opportunity to lecture him.

The messenger clenched the clipboard with a feeling of helplessness.

"Disciple obeys."

After bowing, he retreated towards the outer perimeter of disciples.

"Master, Junior Brother Kitamura has yet to return from the Dragon's Basin. How should we handle him?" Hirose Hide reported to Fourth Elder Ariyoshi Miji with a dazzling smile on her face.

She had grown more eager to have Kitamura Bolo worship under her master with each passing hour.

Kenja perked his ears at the mention of his borrowed name.

"He still hasn't left yet? How admirable!"

After everything the young man had achieved thus far, he was still unsatisfied, trying to achieve more before leaving the challenge pit.

"Truly."

Hirose Hide nodded in agreement. She had already marked the boy as her own, so she acted as if any praise directed towards him was also directed towards her.

"Brother Yu thinks so, too, right?"

Sora Yu forced out an affirming grunt while frowning despondently.

These past few days had been dreadful for him.

A Qi Flourishing cultivator had stolen his belongings from right under his nose; a second Qi Flourishing cultivator had attracted the attention of his master and several other elders; a third Qi Flourishing cultivator had begun setting several new records while receiving an endless number of the unobtainable acknowledgments from the legendary Pillars of Will.

Since when were Qi Flourishing cultivators so formidable?

He could only get a single acknowledgement from a single pillar, and it took multiple attempts after several years to achieve.

Those wills must be playing favorites!

Needless to say, he was much less excited to receive Kitamura Bolo than his sister and master as he was worried that his position in his master's heart would be at risk.

Neither was he keen about Hirai Hikaru joining them for similar reasons.

At least, she was a girl who was also a disciple under Fifth Elder Kazane. This way, she could not monopolize all of Ariyoshi Miji's time.

Plus, her achievements were much less astonishing than this Kitamura Bolo fellow. Taking these things into account, Hikaru was much less of a threat to his current status.

"Hmmm…just let him be for now. He isn't going anywhere. We've kept your First Elder waiting long enough," he said while rejoining Kondo at the front.

"Che, let's just get this over with."

Aracha pushed Inazuma to follow Gao Diao to the front. He was still focused on fixing the armlet, yet none of the elders bothered with him.

After a brief exchange with his communication jade, the vice elder moved out of the way and the First Elder's cave door opened.

The elders entered first with Aracha pushing Inazuma, followed by four of the five Tributaries, Aoi Rin and finally Kenja and Hanabi.