The crux

"What the hell?" Father had his mouth gaping wide open when he saw the procession before the house.

Damn. And here I thought that introducing Guo Ning initially would curb his surprise. However, it seemed as if that wasn't the case. He was even more surprised than before.

"How did they—why are they here?" Father asked. He looked alternatively at me, Guo Guiren and the crowd.

"Well, you said you need over seven. And we ARE over seven people!" Guo Guiren gave out a bright smile. "Will you accept us, sect leader?" He asked.

I looked towards pops. A lot of emotions went through his face in quick succession, which finally ended with him breaking down further into tears.

"I never thought this would happen. I never thought that our sect would ever see the light of the day ever again. But now, it seems like a reality." He spoke as he wiped away the tears from his face. "As for your question, welcome to the Blue Moon Sect. We are a family now." He said with a bright smile.

I could clearly see it. Hell, anyone with eyes could see that he was trying his hardest to hold back the tears of elation. Meanwhile, I was having this weird thought. I'm sure I heard him say that he thought that he thought that our sect would never see the light of the day AGAIN, emphasis on the 'again' part.

What does that mean? Was the Blue Moon Sect pretty big back in the day? Is that where my silver hair skill comes from? Silver hair—Goldy never explained that to me, right?

[Ah, I guess I didn't.]

{Care to explain now?}

[Can't you see the tear jerking moment before you? Just experience it for now. I'll talk about that later.]

{Do you even know what that was? Is that why you're intentionally pushing the explanation behind?}

[Hmm, believe what you want. I'll just say one thing, though. Blue Moon Sect; it wasn't a big thing when I was active.]

So, it might just be a slip of the tongue, huh? However, Goldy wasn't in action for a couple hundred years, right? That's plenty of time for a pretty powerful sect to form and disband. Hmm, I gotta look into it someday. Feels like someone's hiding something from me, just like I'm hiding stuff from them.

#

After that emotional rollercoaster of a moment for the pops, he inducted every Weasel bandits into the family and went to the Blood Moon Sect to report about this recent development to get that money we spoke of.

Since it's the initial members, the Blood Moon Sect would actually be elated of such a development. However, if it was like the final fifty to make our sect to a major one, things would've been so different.

You see, when I read about this rule in that one book, I thought it was stupid. I mean, who in the right mind would fund a minor sect extensively and then even allow them to become a major sect? No one, right? The people here weren't that idiotic as well.

What they do is that whenever a subsidiary sect is so close to completing the criteria on being a major sect, they would entice some of their members with whatever they dream of, whether it be money or the honor of being in a "traditional" major sect rather than an up and coming one or something totally different depending on their preferences. This way, they'll always have a massive workforce under their regime. It's pretty smart, if you think about it.

And that's exactly why, if we are to aim for being a major sect, we'll keep the final few members a secret until we get to that point. I mean, it's clearly written that once the sect reaches sufficient members, the major sect would have no choice but to let the minor sect off their clutches. A weird rule, but it sure benefits us.

Now that dad had gone out, I had a chat with the Weasel—ah, they can't be called Weasel bandits anymore, huh? Well, I went to have a chat with my brothers.

"Yo! Feeling fine in here?" I posed the question before Guo Guiren.

"Well, much better conditions than in the Red Mountain, so yea, younger sister Hua!" He spoke enthusiastically.

No matter the case, we didn't look like brother and sister because of our age difference. I mean, I can consider Guo Ning as my brother, but these guys… They're more like…

"Hmm, maybe I should call you guys grandpas or something. I mean, you're older than my father, right?" I asked.

"Well, if that's what you want, call us that! We're fine with it!" Guo Guiren replied with a bright smile.

This guy! I feel like he'd be happy no matter what I call him—much like someone else I know of. Tch, it's not fun teasing guys like this. It's simply time-consuming.

"Hey, did anyone hear about the rumors recently? About the empress, I mean?" One of the… grandpas shouted it loudly, so that everyone could hear it.

"By empress, do you mean the one at the Imperial palace?" Someone else asked.

"Nah, I mean the empress that wiped out the Weasel bandits yesterday." He started giggling upon saying that.

"Well, is there something wrong about that? She did wipe out the Weasel bandits out of their existence, for namesake at least. But maybe, if those Weasels started acting like shite yet again, she might even wipe them out of existence." I kinda joked about it. However, they seemed genuinely terrified as I spoke.

"Ah, I see. But there are still pretty weird rumors about the empress though." The one who began the conversation gave out a nervous chuckle.

"Weird rumors?" I asked.

I don't remember doing anything weird when I fought with them, though. So, I don't know how this came by.

"Ah, some masochistic bad guys are searching for the empress thinking that she's a dominatrix." He replied.

What the—where did that come from? When did I ever do something like that? But, I mean if someone wants to get whip lashed by me, I'm not against it—oh my, goodness! Do I actually have those kinda tendencies?

I guess he saw my frustrated face, but Guo Guiren interrupted. "There are a lot of good rumors of the empress as well." He spoke.

"Like?"

"Hmm, like how people speculate how the empress is actually Tang sect's rising star Tang Juan is behind the mask. And how Tang Juan added fuel to the fire by neither confirming nor denying the rumor." He spoke.

"But, how is that a good rumor?" I asked.

"Well. Being compared to Tang Juan means that they consider the empress as relatively strong. It's a big deal, isn't it? It might make the empress feel like revealing her identity, don't you think? I mean, someone else is trying to stake claim to her accomplishments." Guo Guiren spoke. He really had a poisonous tongue, capable enough to incite major wars if he wanted to.

"Not yet, elder Guiren. Not yet. Revealing her identity would be utterly stupid, don't you think. Being compared to this Tang Juan, whose name I haven't even heard of—I think that the empress is still weak. Showing off right now would only cause her a lot of problems, especially if she isn't from an influential family like Tang Juan is. So, for now, I guess she'll let people speculate that Tang Juan is the empress. That is, until the right time arrives." I gave out a smile and walked away.

I wasn't kidding. Being compared to Tang Juan meant that I'm still weak. No offense to her, but there's a reason she's just called the rising star. She has potential, but I don't think it's gonna be that big. I mean, she wasn't in—well, the entire Tang sect wasn't in the game, which makes them an anomaly.

I guess something destroyed them so badly that they ceased to exist from this world or they changed their outlook into a different sect in the years to come. Anyway, they're the proof that this world isn't the one from the game for me. So who knows? Tang Juan might actually end up becoming one of the greatest martial artists. But I intend to be much more than her. I intend to be much bigger than anyone in this world!

#

(Third person POV)

The previously named Weasel Bandits, who were currently the members of the Blue Moon Sect, were surprised by the proclamation that their younger sister or their granddaughter—if they were to follow what she asked them to say, did.

"Getting compared to Tang Juan is a big deal, right?" One of them asked.

"Right? I mean, she's the one who dominated the previous rookie tournament, isn't she?" Another person replied.

"Then why is Hua-" Before the person could complete his sentence, the eldest of the squad interrupted him.

"It's good, isn't it? Our granddaughter is right. Being compared to Tang Juan is basically nothing if one's aiming to shake up this world. And it feels like that's her plan. So, why don't we witness what kinda magic our granddaughter shows?" Guo Guiren spoke with that smile from before, still intact. He felt as if following Hua was the right choice. He believed that an enormous change was imminent and his fifteen-year-old granddaughter will be on the crux of it.

#