#504 - Council of Five Elders
From disdain to shock.
When the remnant soul asked this question with incomparable excitement, Wei Changtian instantly realized that the Kui Dragon jade pendant, including the meaning represented by that message, was definitely extraordinary.
Otherwise, the remnant soul would never have reacted this way.
This jade pendant... could it be an item that only the Kui Dragon high-level members can possess?
But it's just someone sending a message, is the reaction really that intense?
...
"Senior, I did receive a message."
Wei Changtian replied slowly after a moment of contemplation: "However, please answer my question first, and then I will truthfully tell you what this message is."
...
"It... it's actually true."
"Finally found it..."
The strange voice was intermittent, with some disbelief and some unspeakable excitement in its tone.
The remnant soul didn't immediately pay attention to Wei Changtian, but muttered to itself for a while, and then slowly regained its composure.
"Boy, you don't need to tell me, I already know what you received."
"Someone said they have important matters to discuss with you, and set a time, right?"
...
Huh?
You can even guess that?
Wei Changtian narrowed his eyes, and after a long silence, he softly uttered a word.
"Yes."
"As expected..."
The remnant soul paused for a moment.
"Boy, that token of yours is not something that ordinary Kui Dragon people can possess."
"Although I don't know how you obtained it, I can kindly remind you."
This sentence is undoubtedly full of the condescending attitude of a superior towards ordinary people.
However, it is reasonable coming from the remnant soul.
On the one hand, he doesn't know Wei Changtian's background, and probably only thinks that the latter is an ordinary young master from a somewhat powerful family.
On the other hand, the secrets involved in a mysterious and ancient organization like Kui Dragon should indeed be far beyond the comprehension of "ordinary people".
Curiosity killed the cat, "knowing too many things that shouldn't be known" is inherently a very dangerous behavior.
What's more, the origin of Wei Changtian's token is unknown.
Wei Changtian didn't know whether the remnant soul's reminder was truly out of kindness, or if it had other purposes.
However, he keenly noticed a problem in the latter's words.
"They?"
Lowering his head, Wei Changtian stared intently at the Xuantian Sword hanging in front of him.
"Senior, wasn't this message only sent to me alone?"
...
Seeming to realize that he had let something slip, the remnant soul's reply was noticeably slower.
He hesitated for a moment, and then slowly explained:
"Yes."
"There are five such tokens as yours, and they should only be possessed by members of the Kui Dragon Council of Elders."
...
For general gangs, sects, religions, and countries, there will definitely be a "supreme leader" in their organization.
Even if some "leaders" are nominal and their power has been hollowed out by their subordinates, such a "position" must exist.
However, Kui Dragon is not like that.
It may be because there are too many outstanding masters with extraordinary strength in Kui Dragon, and no one is convinced by anyone else, making it difficult to elect an absolute leader who can convince everyone.
It may also be because the internal strife between the "steadfast faction" and the "abandonment faction" made everyone realize that only "democracy" can allow an organization to develop in the right direction.
In short, since the internal strife between the two factions of Kui Dragon came to a temporary end a thousand years ago due to the appearance of those two First-Rank and True Immortals, Kui Dragon has no longer had any "leader" in the literal sense.
Of course.
Although there is no "leader", Kui Dragon still definitely needs to be "led", and someone must stand up to make decisions when important matters arise.
And the "Council of Elders" is the "supreme decision-making body" born under such circumstances.
A total of five people, never increasing or decreasing.
And in order to ensure the neutrality of the Council of Elders, the initial selection of these five people was actually done using a somewhat childish "all-member lottery" method.
According to what the remnant soul said before, Kui Dragon has a total of twenty-two branch strongholds in the world, with over ten thousand people under its command, including no less than a thousand experts of the Upper Three Ranks alone.
And the earliest five members of the Council of Elders were randomly drawn from these tens of thousands of people.
Even the inheritance of the Council of Elders seat is extremely confidential.
If an Elder is about to pass away, then he needs to secretly transfer the Kui Dragon token to someone he trusts the most before his death, and it must not be known to anyone.
In other words, the true identities of the five members of the Council of Elders are not known to anyone, including each other.
They may be the master of a certain branch stronghold of Kui Dragon, or they may be an ordinary loose cultivator, or even just a fledgling kid—as long as he is a member of Kui Dragon, then he may be a Kui Dragon Elder.
And it is these five people, whose true identities, positions, strengths, and even genders are unknown, who will jointly decide all the most important matters of Kui Dragon.
What's even more exaggerated is.
No matter how unreliable their decisions sound, all Kui Dragon people must still strictly implement them, without any room for negotiation.
In this way, the power of the Council of Elders cannot be said to be small, and each of its decisions is indeed neutral enough.
As for whether any Elder attempts to privately win over other Elders to jointly influence the decisions of the Council of Elders...
Not to mention whether he can find out the identities of the other Elders, even if he can, this move would carry huge risks.
This is because every Kui Dragon person must never violate the only three iron rules.
[1. Do not interfere in any secular disputes]
[2. Must abide by all decisions of the Council of Elders]
[3. Must not inquire about the intelligence of the Council of Elders; Elders must not reveal their identities to anyone other than the sole "successor"]
[Anyone who violates the above three rules, any Kui Dragon person has the obligation to kill them as soon as possible]
There was no wind and no sound in the dark room, only the death row inmate who had died from excessive blood loss in the corner, and a faint candlelight.
It took about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn for the remnant soul to generally tell Wei Changtian about the matters of the Council of Elders.
And the latter fell into a long period of contemplation after listening.
The current situation is very obvious, the token that Old Zhang gave him is undoubtedly the token of the Kui Dragon Council of Elders.
In this case, there are only two possibilities.
First, Old Zhang is actually one of the five Elders of Kui Dragon.
Second, Old Zhang accidentally killed a Kui Dragon Elder, and picked up this token from the latter's body.
In Wei Changtian's view, the possibility of the first situation is extremely low.
After all, Kui Dragon people are strictly prohibited from interfering in secular affairs, and Old Zhang's previous act of "slaying Yama" has undoubtedly violated this rule.
Moreover, if he was really a Kui Dragon Elder, then he should have told himself about the Council of Elders when he handed over the jade pendant, instead of just leaving like that.
So, it is likely the second situation.
"Senior, you said just now that the inheritance of the Kui Dragon Elder is done by the Elder himself secretly transferring the token to others before his death..."
Thinking of this, Wei Changtian suddenly asked:
"But what if an Elder dies suddenly due to an accident?"
"Wouldn't he be unable to transfer the token, and his identity as an Elder would be exposed because of this?"
...
"Boy, listening to what you mean..."
Without directly answering Wei Changtian's question, the remnant soul only asked faintly:
"You didn't kill a Kui Dragon Elder, did you?"
...
"Not me."
Wei Changtian shook his head, as if hearing the remnant soul breathe a heavy sigh of relief.
However, before the latter could speak, he quickly added in a hurried breath:
"It was my master who killed him."
