120 War and Records

"As many ingredients as the alchemy gardens?" Alex was shocked. If that was true, then there would be more than a mountain of ingredients there.

"Have you been to the alchemy gardens before, master?" Alex couldn't help but ask.

"Not, really," said Wen Cheng. "I've only ever seen it from afar. But even then I can tell that the place we are going to has as much alchemy ingredients as the alchemy gardens."

Wen Cheng seemed to be confident in his assessment, so all Alex could do was wait.

"By the way, master. What did you mean by war? Was there a war in the crimson empire?" he asked. To him, war was something that took place ages ago where one country would attack another country.

"No, not the empire. War in the sect. Although it might be better to call it infighting, it was too big to be called something so simple. So, we just call it the war. It's appropriate since more than 4000, 80% of the sect members at that time died in that war." Wen Cheng seemed to be getting a little emotional saying that.

"Were you there master?" he asked.

"Yes. I was but an inner sect disciple at the time. I bore witness to the death and destruction in the sect. Elders of two factions, fighting each other, each dying to the other's hands." Wen Cheng didn't seem to like remembering about the past.

"What was the cause of the war master?" Alex asked. He was getting interested in the history of the sect he joined.

"The 2nd Elder at that time was a powerful, but greedy man that wanted the sect all to himself. However, he couldn't beat the sect leader who was much stronger than him at the time. So, the 2nd Elder was never able to become the Sect Leader."

"Until one day, when the sect leader returned back to the sect from an outside visit, all bloody and weak. The 2nd Elder took the chance to launch a rebellion against the sect master."

"The ones that believed in the 2nd elder fought against the ones that defended the sect leader. It was an all-out war that resulted in huge destruction." Wen Cheng said.

"Was that what made the giant crater in the sect?" Alex asked.

"Crater? No. We still don't know what the crater was since most if not all records were lost. Although we do believe it was the black stele, We are not sure, however."

"The destruction I was talking about was more so the buildings and the lives we lost that day. Plus, we lost most of our history and records that day. It was truly a devastating event." Wen Cheng shook his head as he remembered more.

"Did the sect leader or the 2nd Elder die?" he asked.

"The sect leader died, unfortunately. His wound was just too severe. The 2nd elder was also heavily injured and was sent away to the southern forest at the time. We can only assume he died a few weeks later."

"It was actually at that time we came up with the idea." Wen Cheng said with a smile. "We made the rules on how sect leaders were chosen in the sect from that point forward."

" Do you know how sect leaders are chosen in the Tiger sect?" he asked Alex.

"No?" He wondered if this was common knowledge that everyone knew about.

"In the Tiger sect, the sect leader is based on the ranking of their respective students. The person whose student is the prime disciple gets to be the sect leader. As such, I have been a sect leader for nearly 10 years now." Wen Cheng said.

"hmm... Is it okay as long as it's a disciple? no other requirements?" Alex asked.

"Oh, no. The disciples must be below the age of 25, and not in the True realm yet. For now, your senior sister is the prime disciple, so I will be a sect leader for a little while more."

Alex thought and asked, "And what about after senior sister has crossed those limitations? Do you leave the sect leader's position?"

"Yes, that is how the sect works now. All I can do is rear another disciple to the same strength and hope they are the strongest. Otherwise, the first elder becomes the sect leader, while I turn to whatever rank my newest disciple is among the other elder's disciples."

"Oh…" Alex fell into contemplation after having been dumped such a huge amount of information on. He tried processing all he had just heard and thought of something.

"What is the Sacred land you talked about master?" he had remembered Wen Cheng saying the Sacred Land as they had been searching when they found this mysterious place.

"I don't know either," Wen Cheng said. "If we still had the records from the old times I could tell you, but we don't. Most of our history and information was lost during the war and no one knows what had happened in the sect before the war. All of the elders died so we don't even have hearsay."

"However, there are 2 pieces of information that we managed to find from what records still remained."

"The first information we have is that the Tiger sect actually moved to the current location around 150 years ago or so. We don't know where the Tiger sect was situated before it was shifted to the new location. Only that it was near the Sacred Land"

"The second thing is that the elders and disciples of that time didn't dare step in the sacred land. We can only assume that it was holy to them by what it was called. The records say the sacred land looked over a great landscape of blue, but we haven't found a river or lake matching this description yet."

"I will be honest. I don't know if you can even call those records trustworthy. We don't know how much of it is true and how much of it is just something we misunderstood. So you better take these with a bit of doubt in your heart." Wen Cheng explained a lot.

"I understand Master" Alex nodded seriously.