Book 8: Chapter 85: Awakening (1)

Madeleine gathered together the remaining disciple of the Flaming Lily Sect disciples. Since she had decided to counterattack, it was obvious that she couldn’t do it with just Damaris, Lyla, Zaire and Yandevere alone.“… Now that you all understand the situation, make the decision for yourselves.“70% of our disciple base turned out to be traitors. With a level of infiltration on this level, it’s guaranteed that many of our elders are traitors as well.“Those of the Golden Crow Sect have been oppressing us and our fellow sisters for a long time. I’m sure that many of you have lost close friends and family yourselves. This level of infestation is one that’s been festering for countless centuries and isn’t one that’s going away anytime soon.“The only thing I can promise you all is that everyone here is your fellow sister in arms. There is no traitor amongst us, I am willing to bet my life on this truth.“You all must make this choice for yourselves. Either choose to leave by way of the teleportation array and hide for the rest of your lives, or, you can choose to fight with me and my husband’s Sacharro Clan. The choice is yours.”The group of female disciples looked toward Madeleine with no small bit of hesitation. Seeing two Legatees before them, willing to fight, it was difficult to say no. But, at the same time, who didn’t value their lives?It wasn’t even entirely certain that those here wouldn’t become traitors had they had the opportunity. Many of them simply weren’t good enough to catch eye of the Golden Crow Sect and thus were never approached. There was no such thing as ‘refusing’ that Sect. If they even thought of saying no, their lives would end right then and there. Who knew how many sisters of theirs had fallen in this way?Maybe the only exception to the rule was Fiona, Cheri’s sworn sister. It had been Cheri’s responsibility to approach her elder sister and draw her in. But, Cheri knew Fiona’s personality and had thus dragged her feet in completing the task. Since she knew her sister would say no, wouldn’t she be sentencing her sister to death by leading her down the path she had taken?As such, this group of remaining disciples was pitiful. 70% of them had defected to the Golden Crow Sect, likely taking many core techniques and secrets with them. No, maybe the Flaming Lily Sect’s secrets were never their own to begin with.The issue was that if you believed 30% were remaining, you’d be wrong. They had just been fighting an enemy 2.5x their number. A pitiful few of barely 20% remained, a total that would have been far worse had Madeleine not expelled the traitors so quickly.Among these 20%, there was only 1 pseudo dao expert: Fiona. Of course, there was Yandevere now as well, but she wasn’t a part of their calculations.Madeleine was essentially asking them to fight against an enemy that outnumbered them more than ten to one, for the sake of a future that was rocky at best?Would they be able to erase all of the traitors with their numbers? The answer was no. But, let’s say for the sake of argument that they did and then returned to the Sect. What then? Madeleine just said herself that there were traitors amongst the elders. Wouldn’t they use this as a pretense to punish them?According to Sect rules, killing a fellow disciple was punishable by death.Maybe it was true that these traitors wouldn’t be stupid enough to order the slaughter of all remaining disciples. That would be too blatantly obvious. But, what if, as they suspected, they couldn’t kill all of the traitors? It would definitely be far easier for these traitors to kill them all off then…Still, when they heard the Sacharro Clan’s mention, some of them wavered. Who didn’t know about the majesty of Dyon and his Clan? Stories of Lady Sacharro’s appearance had spread throughout the whole of the martial world. Their Clan actually had a Higher Existence!Since that Higher Existence doted on Dyon so much, how could she allow his wife to die?One of the disciples sighed. “Will True God Sacharro take part?”“My husband cannot, no.” Madeleine shook her head, not making false promises.The disciples seemed to sink into a lower tier of despair. It seemed as though they worked like normal humans and mass opinion did. Madeleine was objectively more powerful than Dyon, so was Yandevere, though his supporting abilities far outshone theirs thanks to his soul. But, these disciples felt that there was no hope if he didn’t participate. It was a bit silly.“I won’t force any of you. But, those who want to leave must also leave their qualifications as Flaming Lily Sect disciples behind. This isn’t me forcing you into a corner. If you believe that we will lose, then such an identity will only hurt you. But, in the case that we win – and believe me, we will win – we cannot allow you all the same status as those who stayed and fought.“The rules of the Flaming Lily Sect state plainly that we have an obligation to protect and fight for the Sect and its Faith. There is no greater threat to that right here and now. Those who break this rule are not qualified to be my fellow disciples.“Please decide quickly. Our enemies will not wait.”