He was playing with an orb of life mana that he infused with his ruinous aura. The recent fight with the disciples of the Heavenly Crane Sect had given him more insight into the technique than weeks of meditation and practice.

The orb was sectioned into several dozen sectors, each of them painstakingly managed by his will and mind. It was actually much harder to keep control of compared to when he used the technique with his body. The external factor was a limitation that he found hard to overcome.

Still, it was great practice, and he would need to keep practicing if he wanted to master this technique.

“I’m surprised you left them alive,” Cassandra noted idly while she sat beside him. They were both relaxing at the Sunfire Pavilion, drinking some tea she had received as a gift.

He looked up from his orb. “You think I should have killed them?”

“I think that they would have gotten what they deserved.”

“What about their sect? Wouldn’t they have retaliated? I can’t imagine they would take the deaths of their inner disciples so easily,” he pointed out.

She placed her teacup down. “I don’t think you understand the pettiness of sects. Many of them don’t care if you leave their disciples alive. They will want to hunt you down just because you embarrassed them. And these people don’t take embarrassment well. They will lash out like children.”

“So you think they will try to attack me again?”

“I’m not sure. I would just be aware that it’s a possibility. Corvus is different from your Empire. People hold grudges and often act out of pride rather than rationality.”

Perhaps he should have killed those people. Then again, he would rather make a mistake out of mercy than start killing everyone who slighted him. He had a feeling it would only become easier if he started now. He sighed and decided to change the subject.

“Speaking of the Empire. I never asked what you were doing there. I assume that you weren’t just there for a vacation.”

She looked at him for a few moments. “If I tell you, I can trust that you will keep this to yourself, right?”

He nodded. “Of course. I don’t exactly have many other people to gossip to.”

She smiled. “Good point. In that case, the reason I was attending the tournament was to seek out an audience with the Emperor and various organizations within the Luminous Empire.”

“Just to establish a relationship? Or for something more specific?” He asked with a narrowing of his eyes.

“Something more specific,” she replied with a slight smile.

“What could the Empire help you out with that you feel the need to seek them out?”

“As you might already guess, the Burning Sun Sect is trying to work its way up the list of the Ten Great Sects. And as you might have heard, the top three sects have never been displaced since the list was founded. In fact, almost all of the power within Corvus is concentrated within the Nine Peaks Sect, the Azure Sky Sword, and the Golden Cauldron Sect. Each controls a specific part of the country. Even our so-called “king” is merely a puppet for these three sects. Everyone, from their grandfather to their grandchild, knows of this.”

“Is there an actual benefit of holding a top-three slot on the list? Or is it just for appearances?” He asked curiously.

“Oh, there are some major advantages. The reason the top three are so important is mainly due to these privileges. For example, not only do they have the most valuable rifts and regions, they have an even more valuable resource.”

He scrunched his nose. “What resource?”

“Are you aware of faith?”

“Sort of. But I have never been a religious sort,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Well, faith is a special kind of magic that relies on the belief and intent of the populace. And while Corvus isn’t a religious state like the Alliance of the Morning Sun or the Kingdom of Valde, we use similar properties of faith magic.”

Julius frowned before his eyes widened. “The Ten Great Sects,” he said in realization.

“See, this is why I like you. I don’t need to explain everything to you,” she said with a wide grin before continuing.

“Yes, the Ten Great Sects are essentially our representations of faith for the people of Corvus. The Seers and founder of Corvus created a system where instead of funneling all faith into a singular entity or god, they decided to focus on a list that would last for centuries.”

“And even if the sects that make up the list get destroyed or replaced, the same system would remain in place for a long time. And as long as the people believe in the list itself, the faith will continue to gather.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“Yes, though I guess it isn’t quite considered faith magic to the truest of terms. We still have no idea how the Seers or the Founder created such a thing, but it is a marvel of magic.”

“And I’m guessing that all of this faith gets channeled into the top three sects?” he theorized.

She nodded. “That would be correct. All of this immense magical energy is used to fuel the system itself and by the top three sects as they see fit. The leftovers are left to the other Ten Great Sects.”

“What can they use such energy for? Why do they need something of such power?”

“They can use it to enhance their rifts. Use it to fuel cultivation chambers, whatever they want. The energy itself is incredibly flexible. It’s nothing like the fire mana source the Burning Sun Sect is built on, which is relatively rigid in how it can be used. Our allocation of the energy is quite large, but we mainly use it for specialized training chambers and our sect’s protective enchantments. The energy is really quite effective and efficient when it comes to protection-related applications.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So you want to depose one of the three sects and gain access to their source of power for yourselves?”

She laughed. “I guess that isn’t an entirely inaccurate way of putting it. But we aren’t the only aggressors. The system is fair; our spot as the fourth sect on the list is well-earned. The Seers used some advanced divination magic to calculate which sects are the most powerful. This means that if any of the top three sects stay complacent, they can be removed from their positions and can do nothing about it.”

He nodded and was beginning to understand what she was telling him. “So these sects make sure that nobody can encroach on their position. They will sabotage and hinder any sect that threatens their position.”

“Correct, and since they can rely on the energy gathered by the faith of the people, it is even more difficult to root them out. It is why they have never been removed from the top three throughout the list's entire history. In fact, only a few sects in history have rivaled them, and all were brutally crushed. You know one of them,” she said to him.

“Really? Which one?”

“The sect that murderous maniac belonged to.”

Julius had to think about what she meant.

“Come on. You should know who I’m talking about.”

“To be fair, there are a lot of murderous maniacs in this world. It doesn’t exactly narrow it down.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re learning one of his signature techniques.”

“Ohhh. The Verdant Willow Sect was once that powerful?”

“Oh yeah, they were absolutely brutal and climbed up the ranks with the Undying Revenant leading them.”

“Aren’t they still a part of the Ten Great Sects?” He could have sworn he saw their names on the list the last time he saw it.

“Yes, they managed to crawl their way back to the ranks after all of these years. But they are still nothing compared to what they were.”

He chewed on his lip in thought and asked her, “Do you think the other three sects were the ones who killed him or got rid of him?”

She shook her head. “It’s possible, but I highly doubt that. From what I heard, Tezuko was already insane by the time he reached Tier 6. The Verdant Willow Sect was more of a demonic cult rather than a sect at that point, and was taken out soon after he died. If they wanted to get rid of him, there were a lot better ways to do so than sacrificing an entire city full of millions.”

Julius frowned, but ultimately, it didn’t really affect him. He wasn’t about to go down the same path, not that it was possible either. He wasn’t even using death mana, and if he went south, then he would likely destroy stuff rather than kill innocents.

Not that’s much better, he admitted to himself.

“So they don’t fight amongst one another?” He decided to change the subject away from Tezuko.

She shook her head. “They have a mutual agreement not to undermine each other’s position. It doesn’t always work that way, but it has allowed them to strengthen their position over the many years.”

“And what will the Empire contribute to your sect?” he asked.

“The Burning Sun Sect has a lot of Tier 6s. We have as many as any of the other sects, but our numbers of disciples and Tier 5s are significantly lower. If it comes to a fight between sects, our Tier 6s can counter theirs, but with the disadvantage of Tier 5s and Tier 4s, we will lose. It will be even worse if any of them were to form an alliance against us. They are already making moves with sects like the Heavenly Crane Sect and are even openly backing the Frost Moon Palace.”

“So you want the Empire to send Tier 5s and to help back the Burning Sun Sect?”

“Not necessarily send Tier 5s, but resources are always needed. Ones we can’t get our hands on in Corvus. Your Empire has a lot more control over rift distributions than any sect in Corvus; even the top three sects can’t compare. If we need something rare and valuable, we hope to go to the Empire for their help. Look at that Dimensional Shard you got as a reward. That thing is ridiculously precious, and I would have thought your Empire was cracked in the head for giving it one as young as you. That is, if I didn’t know how strong you were.”

“Is part of the reason you brought me to your sect to help you fight these other sects on your behalf?” he asked warily.

“Perhaps in the beginning,” she admitted with a laugh. “But as many of our elders are learning, you hold even more value as a teacher. Your willpower training has been fruitful and done wonders considering the time spent.”

“I thought people were complaining that I was torturing the disciples?”

“Yeah, maybe don’t be so hard that they get sent to the Medical Hall for soul healing. But in spite of that, almost all of the Grand Elders agree that it's more beneficial than dangerous. Your aura is unusually suited for resilience training. Sect Leader Kaelor has also stated his support for your lessons. He even suggested that you help the other inner disciples too, though that might be hard since you are younger and at the same tier as them.”

He shrugged. “I don’t care either way. It has been great training for me. I can handle a couple of bitter Tier 4s.”

“Good, I’ll let the others know that, so be prepared if you get a flood of new disciples to teach.”

“Can’t wait,” he said with a smirk. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was enjoying these lessons. He could see why Edwin had enjoyed teaching him and beating him up. There was something oddly satisfying about pummeling people while still being considered as ‘help’.

He looked back down and resumed his efforts on a new life mana orb. “You mentioned something about the Scorched Wastelands. Is there an expedition heading out soon?”

“Yeah, I thought you might be interested. In a few weeks, we are going to send out an expeditionary force to handle the overflow of monsters. They have been attacking the towns and cities around the region. If you are willing to help out, you would be taking care of these monsters and healing whoever you can find. Healer Gui made a report of your healing abilities, and he had some nice things to say about you.”

Julius flinched back and narrowed his eyes. “He did?” From what he had experienced personally, the man basically told him he was a disgrace to all healers and that he should go back to learning the basics with the toddlers.

“Yeah, he said you were a hard worker, kindhearted to the patients, and had phenomenal mana control.”

“Are you sure you are talking about the same Healer Gui?”

“He did say you had a lack of foundational skills for normal healers, but your mana control should be able to brute force past whatever limitations it might bring, and he suspects your healing skill or Life Concept to be very powerful.”

He frowned even deeper. “I haven’t used it in front of him. How does he know?”

She looked at him flatly. “What do you take my sect to be? Full of blind old men who don’t know the difference between their head and ass?”

Julius decided that it was better not to respond to that question.

She let out a huff. “Not everyone is incompetent. People like Healer Gui know what they are doing, and an old dog like him would definitely be able to sniff out your Life Concept from your mana, no matter how hard you tried to hide it.”

“He told me that I was no better at healing than a newborn monkey with a hammer and some raggedy bandages.”

“I said he wasn’t incompetent, not that he wasn’t a grumpy old man,” she said with a sigh.

Julius snorted and reminded himself to drop by later today to give Healer Gui some cookies. He heard that grumpiness was often cured with sweets and delicious treats.