7. The Lockdown

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE LOCKDOWN

General POV:

Shi Kong was a man of many talents. In order to win the position of Patriarch from his competitors in the Cosmic Path sect, he'd had to be a talented politician with strong connections with every faction within the sect. He also had to be strong enough to hold his own against his peers and come out of top in a battle. He was known as a genius who had no weaknesses. His greatest strength was being prepared before trouble came, so he immediately decided to announce to the entire sect that they would go into immediate lockdown because of an impending war.

"The details are not for disciples to know," his voice boomed over everyone from his perch atop the floating courtyard. From his view, he could see the five mountain peaks that formed the pentagon shape of the sect. Atop each peak, all the disciples stood behind their peak master and listened intently. "Your peak masters and hall elders know of the details and that is enough for now."

Beneath the patriarch's floating courtyard, five roads led from the five mountain peaks into the center of the sect, where a decent sized city was located. Cosmic City as it was known was the only place in the sect where outer sect disciples could live.  On the mountains and halls, only inner and core disciples could live. From his perch at the top, Shi Kong could see everyone, from the five peak masters to the ten hall elders to even the outer sect's overseer who was in charge of cosmic city.

"Our sect will be on lockdown for the next ten years," the patriarch continued, "each and every disciple is required to stay within the sect and anyone who breaks this rule will be considered a traitor to the Cosmic Path, upon which a kill at sight order will be placed on your head."

Some gasps sounded out amongst the various disciples.

"During the next ten years, all outer sect disciples will have a chance to get admitted into the inner sect at least once a year, when a tournament will be held in cosmic city to decide the most improved and deserving outer sect disciples."

A chorus of cheers from the city below could be heard.

"The conditions are a littler harsher for inner sect disciples. The will be a tournament held once a year as well, but the bottom feeders will have to be demoted to outer sect disciples. The top disciples in this tournament will have the chance to get promoted to core disciples."

Without waiting for any reaction, he continued.

"As for the core disciples, the good news is that the winners of your annual tournament will be crowned as a dao child and given access to more cultivation resources. At the end of the ten year lockdown, the sect's goal is to have produced ten new dao children."

This time the collective gasp came from all the disciples.

"Ten dao children, is this even possible?" someone whispered.

"Each dao child consumes a ridiculous amount of the sect's resources, I'm afraid our Cosmic Path will be broke in the future…" someone else added.

"There will be silence when I am addressing the sect!" Shi Kong snapped and the sect became quiet once again. "The sect has amassed enough resources over the centuries to be able to do this much without losing any real wealth. This is not a concern for us. Our only concern is that our disciples will not be on par."

He took a slight pause this time, to gauge their reactions.

"Take note of this, our ten year lock down will not reach its conclusion; war will breakout before it ends. I have already allocated responsibilities to each of the peak masters, hall elders and the outer sect overseer. I will not be addressing you again in the near future."

After finishing his speech, Shi Kong walked back into his courtyard before activating the formations on it and causing it to turn invisible.

On one of the peaks below, amongst the Li clansmen, Li Feng stood there with a determined gaze. Although war was supposedly a scary thing, as a youth he could not help but be excited at the prospect of the glory that would come in hand with it. With a stable plan for the future, Li Feng descended from Li Mountain one last time.