Chapter 36: The Possibility of an Inside Betrayal

  Every sect has its own secrets, and the Luofu is no exception. As one of the strongest orthodox sects, it naturally has more secrets than ordinary small schools. Kong Zhao understands this very well, so he also knows the rules. He doesn't ask about things he shouldn't know, and he doesn't pry into things that aren't his business to know. Therefore, everything has been going smoothly for him all along.

  Discussing seniority in a cultivation sect is a very troublesome matter.

  Because cultivators generally have very long lifespans, some lucky ones may live for over a thousand years, or even several thousand years.

  It's fine, people say that the thousand-year-old turtle and the ten-thousand-year-old tortoise are not special cases for cultivators who live for a few thousand years, but if you add another characteristic of cultivators to this, then the problem becomes complicated.

  What characteristics?

  Having a way to stay young and beautiful!

  Living long and staying young, these two things combined have made the cultivation world a mess.

  Because in many cases you can't tell the other person's seniority, it's very common for someone who looks like a 70 or 80-year-old man to bow deeply to a 14 or 15-year-old kid. This is normal.

  Only when a cultivator's strength surpasses that of another can he see the other's true age, and this is the same principle as seeing the other's cultivation.

  Of course, the premise of seeing through the other party's age and cultivation is that one's own strength must be higher than the other party by a notch.

  And as for the opponents who can't see their age and strength, it doesn't necessarily mean that their strength is higher than yours by much. It's very possible that their strength is only slightly weaker or stronger than yours.

  One move, it doesn't sound like much, but in the cultivation world, it's a huge concept and a rather vague one. Having a difference of one move in strength with your opponent can only mean one thing: you can completely overpower them, or be overpowered by them. In a fight, there is basically no chance of turning the tables.

  In other words, if you can clearly see a cultivator's strength, you can spit on his face and even shit on him. However, if you can't see it clearly, don't panic, maybe he is just a paper tiger with similar or even lower strength than yours.

  The most troublesome thing is the generation gap.

  It was just said that practitioners who have lived for thousands of years do exist, but the growth cycle of practitioners is the same as that of ordinary people. Even if both parents are practitioners and their child starts practicing from birth, the growth cycle of this child in the first twenty years is still the same as that of an ordinary person.

  In other words, a cultivator who has reached the age of twenty is considered an adult, so what about those old guys who have lived for thousands of years?

  The simplest and most straightforward example is the change of leadership in a sect.

  For example, the leader of a sect, at the age of fifty, took over a cultivation sect. For another example, if he could live to be five hundred years old, then in the four hundred and fifty years from fifty to five hundred, if this sect did not perish, would the position of leader necessarily be his?

  In theory, it works; in practice, it doesn't.

  Although there is no rule, the longest-serving head of all cultivation sects has only been in office for a hundred or so years, and most heads of cultivation sects generally serve for only fifty or sixty years.

  It's not that there are any hard and fast rules, but if you become the leader of a sect, you have to take care of many things, and you have to manage all sorts of things within the sect. This way, it will delay your cultivation. Cultivators aren't ordinary people, ordinary people's lives are short, with power comes money, with money comes women, and with power, money, and women, one can basically live a high-quality but brief life.

  But practitioners are not like that, their lives are long, and their ultimate pursuit is to be immortal, to explore the secrets of heaven, to attain the Tao of the gods, and to shine with the sun and moon, so their views on power are much more indifferent than ordinary people.

  Due to the many worldly affairs that can affect one's state of mind during cultivation, a sect's leader will often voluntarily step down and yield to others after serving for a period of time. There are only two exceptions: one is when the leader has an extremely strong desire for power, but such individuals progress very slowly in their cultivation and generally do not possess the ability and qualifications required to become a leader; the other reason is when the sect or the cultivation world is in a state of prolonged turmoil and abnormality. At such times, changing leaders would have a significant impact, even affecting the survival of the sect, so the original leader must continue to serve.

  The example of the person who had been in charge for over a hundred years that I mentioned last time was due to this second situation.

  Apart from this, there is no third possibility.

  Then it's a matter of seniority.

  Due to longevity, generation is a very troublesome thing, but it's not unsolvable. All schools are divided into three generations: the current leader is the second generation, the disciples are the third generation, and all practitioners above the current leader are collectively referred to as the first generation. As for how to divide within the first generation, that's an internal matter of the school itself.

  So in Lu Bu's generation, Kong Rong is now of the third generation and also the weakest and youngest.

  Now appearing in his gravity web, these are obviously people who use the Lu Fa Sect's cultivation method. Kong Zhuo can be certain that they are absolutely not second-generation disciples, nor are they third-generation disciples, and it is even more impossible for them to be first-generation disciples.

  They are not actually Luó Fú's disciples, at least not his formal disciples.

  But now, these non-Luofu disciples are using Luofu's cultivation methods, and what makes Kong Zhuang feel even chillier is that although the strength of these people looks very poor in his eyes, but among the third-generation disciples, they are all outstanding, and they can all control their swords with their yuan Shen!

  So, the most likely explanation is that he was a private disciple secretly trained by one of the Luofu Sword Saints.

  Having a personal disciple is nothing new in the cultivation world.

  Sword immortals are also human, they have seven emotions and six desires, and they also have their own private matters. Sometimes, these private matters are inconvenient for them to handle themselves, or there may be too many things to do, so they can't keep up with the work. Therefore, they will select some ordinary disciples from within the sect and use certain methods to rapidly increase their strength in a very short period of time, allowing them to do tasks on their behalf.

  In a sense, they, along with ordinary disciples within the sects, formed the foundation and lowest level of the cultivation world.

  Playing a role similar to that of a private army.

  They may have good qualifications, but for some reason or another, they cannot become inner disciples. Just when hope is lost, they are noticed by certain senior sword immortals in the sect and given the opportunity to peek at even more profound cultivation methods, which can also be considered an alternative path.

  And these private disciples often see a significant increase in their abilities in a very short period of time, and at many times, the speed of this ability increase even surpasses that of inner sect disciples or even core inner sect disciples. This is a means taken by those sword immortals for convenience and ease of doing things.

  Just like these people who are now appearing in Kong Rong's gravity web.

  But their progress is irrational and unconventional, with a bit of an "assisted growth" meaning. Therefore, the space for their future progress is not very large, at most they can only stay in the realm of refining Qi and spiritualizing, unable to make any further progress.

  Kong Zhan had little contact with these private disciples inside the sect, as they were basically following Xian Jian's side and playing the role of servants. They didn't have a good impression of formal, upright and respectable disciples like Kong Zhan, and disciples like Kong Zhan also didn't want to provoke them, because their paths basically had no intersection.

  But now, the intersection has appeared.

  Can Kong Zhan also infer the reason for their appearance?

  Because their actions are very purposeful, without a hint of hesitation, and fast, all rushing in one direction.

  Goodbye!

  Fang Shaobai is just within a hundred miles ahead!

  At this time, Kong Zhuang had also slightly sensed Fang Shaobai's breath. Although it was still far from the range of his gravity web, Fang Shaobai was injured by him, so as soon as he entered a hundred miles away, Fang Shaobai's whereabouts could not be hidden from Kong Zhuang.

  "How did they know Fang Shaobai was here? What do they want from Fang Shaobai?" These two questions almost simultaneously surged into his mind, and then he began to quicken his pace.

  A distance of hundreds of miles is just a matter of several ups and downs for Kong Zhen.

  This is a desolate and abandoned small village.

  It's called a small village because there are only a few scattered houses here, showing that ten or dozens of years ago, this might have been a village. It's said to be abandoned because there is no longer any sign of human life here, except for Fang Shaobai who is currently recovering from injuries in a small courtyard with one corner collapsed.

  Gently, like a willow catkin, it drifted into that small courtyard.

  In the courtyard, Fang Shao had set up several defensive formations under a white cloth.

  This won't stump Kong Yan, nor will it stump those few secret disciples who are about to arrive.

  Kong Zhan's body floated up again and left the courtyard, landing once more a mile away on top of a weeping willow.

  Like a big fat spider, quietly waiting for prey to arrive.