Chapter 53: The Gracious Sword Sect's Cold War

Elder Lai Chang laughed and shrugged at this remark, "Ha-ha, this is too far fetched. I can guarantee that this won't happen, after all what made me bring Mu Xing here was not his talent in sword, but his will power and determination."

He then looked at Zheng Xiang and said, "I was impressed by your talent too. Don't wander away, keep focused in your future path."

"I will, Elder."

Elder Lai Chang nodded and asked, "So, what are your thoughts about the new environment you are going to have in the Inner Court? Are you excited?"

Zheng Xiang nodded, "Yes, Elder. Brother Fang Chen even gave me an introduction of the Inner Court."

"Oh?" Elder Lai Chang then looked at Ye Tian Yun as he asked, "Are you familiar with Inner Court structure? Usually Outer Court Disciples don't have knowledge about how things work in the Inner Court. Did you guys discuss about the leagues?"

Ye Tian Yun and Zheng Xiang nodded in response.

"That's good. So, what are your plans on the coming future, which leagues do you have in your mind?"

Zheng Xiang replied first, "Elder, I don't currently have any league in my mind. I want to understand the situation on my own first. Though the Nine Supremes sound pretty cool."

"Ha-ha, Nine Supremes are indeed one of the most eye-catching leagues. But, a few disciples can't stand against a thousand member league. You should choose wisely, and in my honest opinion, Heavenly League is the most stable and strongest among all the leagues." Elder Lai Chang made subtle hints.

Ye Tian Yun smirked inwardly when he heard this. He knew what Elder Lai Chang's main aim was and why he was promoting Heavenly League whilst he is supposed to be a neutral party.

Currently, Gracious Sword Sect was on a delicate balance. From outside it might look very strong organization, but from inside, it was slowly crumbling. Ye Tian Yun knew why all this infighting was happening, and he even knew who the main players of this game were and who were the pawns.

The players were the Sect Leader and the Grand Elder.

Both were top powerhouse cultivators who had half of their foot in grave and were desperately looking for new ways to prolong their life.

And the one thing that could extend their lives was one of the prizes in the Grand Spirit Hunt. But it could save only one person. This became the main reason of cold war between these two top leaders of the sect.

They didn't worry about not getting the prize, since in the sect was Jiang Yun. His presence alone assured them of getting the panacea. But what troubled them was the fact that this panacea was only one, so who was going to get it?

It was not going to be upto Jiang Yun to decide, but on the elders. The elders will have to choose who the panacea will go to.

So, both, the Sect Leader and the Grand Elder, were now in an intense cold war, trying to get as many elders to their side as possible.

And the best way to get them under the wing was by supporting the leagues those elders were indirectly part of.

Except for the Nine Supreme and Jade League, the other two from the Big Four, World League and Heavenly League were the ones who had most elders directly or indirectly supporting them. So, they became very important to these two players.

To them, these leagues were the baits. Baits to trap the elders, who were the fishes in this situation.

In the end, whoever traps the most fishes will become the winner.

However, after some time the two players noticed something weird. The support of elders to these leagues was not unconditional and permanent.

If any league suffered big losses on mission, or wasn't performing well, the elders would shift their favour to other leagues who were going well.

It turned out that the elders were like investors. They were investing in these leagues for hidden benefits.

This made the two players fall into a delimma of what to do next. And what they ended up doing was giving unconditional support to one of the top leagues.

Sect leader now supported the World League while Grand Elder was supporting the Heavenly League.

They started making the leagues stronger. Added new blood to the leagues. Helped these leagues grow in power through every way possible.

With Sect Leaders support, World League now had the most members. This league focused more on character than the disciple's cultivation talent.

And with Grand Elder's intervention, the Heavenly League was now recruiting all new talented disciples joining the Inner Court. This league focused more on individual power of the disciples.

Both, Sect Leader and the Grand Elder had pawns to make the new Inner Court disciples join their leagues.

Elder Lai Chang was one of the Grand Elder's pawn in this game. Albeit a powerful one. He was a pawn for the Heavenly League. And Ye Tian Yun knew that in the coming future, this pawn was going to play a major role in destroying the current balance within the sect.