Sect Leader Su had a difficult life.
This simple sentence is an understatement to what he had gone through to reach where he is today.
Being a disciple with no background, it was hard for him to even get into the top brass of the Gracious Sword Sect, and being its Sect Leader was never in the equation.
His full name was Su Ming, an orphan.
And, when he first became a part of the sect, he wasn't even an outer Court disciple. He was one of the servants in the sect.
However, unlike his fellow servants, he was hellbent on changing his fate. He didn't just wish to be a simple servant of a sect; he wanted to be its disciple.
But how could this be easy? He had no background, so there were no cultivation resources for him. Neither was there any guidance for him on how to cultivate.
One day, out of pure coincidence, the Previous Sect Leader of the Gracious Sword Sect saw him cleaning Ferghana horses. And no one knows what came to the Previous Sect Leader's mind that he made Su Ming his disciple.
But this single decision by the previous Sect Leader not only changed Sect Leader Su's fate, but it also affected the future of the whole Gracious Sword Sect.
Su Ming rose to become one of the most renowned sword disciples of the Xin Kingdom.�
He made a name for himself when he proved himself the best and became the number one disciple in his Second Grand Spirit Hunt.
And after that day, he was unstoppable. He was going to be the first core disciple who was going to directly become the Sect Leader of the Gracious Sword Sect.
But one day, he met someone who turned his life in a new direction.
He met a girl.
That young beautiful girl had charmed him. As a sword cultivator, he had trained his heart and mind to always be calm and focused; however, when their eyes met for the first time, everything was chaotic.
They soon fell in love and decided to live happily ever after.
However, life isn't a fairytale. And before they could even settle down, they were ambushed, and the love of his life was taken away from him.
He had thought that the assailants were mere bandits, but in fact, they called themselves to be guards of the Fang Clan. And his wife-to-be was their princess.
Before he could even digest this shocking news, he was beaten to half-death. Barely surviving, he somehow reached his Sect.
His master was shocked to see his state, but when he came to know it was the Fang Clan who did this, he chose not to do anything and even warned Su Ming not to do anything stupid.
But Su Ming couldn't bear it, and when he tried to go for revenge after he had recovered, his master put some sense into him.
A clan whose guards were alone enough to kill him, how was he going to go against them?
Then his master warned him not to think about his revenge or else the Gracious Sword Sect would remove him from its sect records. And exile him from the sect.
This was very disheartening for the young Su Ming. After all, the sect gave him everything. The sect was his home. How could he let himself get exiled?
But how could he let his wife be in any more danger?
His master then told him that she was the princess of the Fang Clan; there was no way anyone would dare to mistreat her in her own home.�
Su Ming calmed himself down. But soon came a piece of news which despaired him even more.
The Princess of the Fang Clan was going to get married into the Xu Royal Clan.
He could only watch as fate played the joke on his life, and finally, with no hope, he decided to commit suicide.
But on that day, he heard another news which put back some life in him.
It was his master who came running to him to give him this news.
The marriage which the whole kingdom was looking forward to was suddenly annulled.
And when he asked why?
His master smiled and said, "Because the princess of the Fang Clan is pregnant."
These words shocked the to-be-sect-leader to his core.�
He couldn't believe those words. He asked, "Is that really true, Master?"
The previous sect leader laughed and said, "Yes, it is the truth. You're going to be a father, ha-ha."
Su Ming finally saw a reason to live. His future child became his hope.
After a few months, the Fang Clan announced the news about their clan head's wife giving birth to a son, who was named Fang Chen.
But very few people knew the real identity of Fang Chen.
He was the son of the princess of the Fang Clan and the Sect Leader of the Gracious Sword Sect.
Su Ming once tried to meet this son of his but was ambushed.
That ambushed had changed his life, but that's a story for another time.
After that ambush, he had gone missing for about seven years, and when he returned, he was at the Peak Of Nascent Soul Realm.
Unfortunately, that was not enough for him to get back his son and wife.
This was why he focused on becoming the next Sect Leader of the Gracious Sword Sect.
He didn't care about the rumors that the Fang Clan spread about his debauchery.
He had learned his lesson. In front of true power, everything was useless, just like how even a prestigious sect like the Gracious Sword Sect couldn't do anything to the Fang Clan.
He had now waited for fifteen years, and one day, he received a letter.
It was from his wife.
And it stated that their son was coming to the sect. To become a disciple. But he had suffered Qi Deviation for an unknown reason.
Sect Leader Su didn't hesitate even a single bit and allowed Fang Chen to cultivate in the sect even though he had failed the sect entrance exam.
He even secretly protected Fang Chen from any possible schemes and problems. He felt very proud when he heard about the�
Even when he got to know about the sleeper cells, the thing that worried him most was his son's safety.
And today, when he saw Fang Chen up close for the first time, he couldn't help but want to caress his son.
His son looked so much similar to him and his wife.
He was overwhelmed with emotions and tried his best to control the urge to hug Fang Chen.�
And when all the elders doubted Fang Chen's words, he was the first one to come forward and proclaim, "I trust him."
The room suddenly turned silent when they heard his voice.
Grand Elder Xuan was the first one to ask, "Sect Leader Su, how can you take such a big risk? Please think before saying anything. The whole sect is in danger; we can't take any chances."
"Do you have any other option?" Sect Leader Su frowned at him, "We at most have only two hours left, and there are more than four thousand disciples who we need to investigate."
"Do you think we will be able to accomplish this?"
Grand Elder Xuan didn't have an immediate response to this. He pursed his lips, and after a moment of silence, he said, "But Sect Leader, the whole sect is in danger."
The Sect Leader gave him an ugly look and said, "You can't even come up with a better argument. Just move aside and let others do the work. If you don't like my decision, you may leave this room and go back to your cultivation abode."
He then looked at Grand Elder Li and said, "Grand Elder, I trust Fang Chen's words. And I don't want to waste any more time on chit chat."
"Alright," Grand Elder Li nodded his head, then after a moment of thought, he said, "I will now propose a plan. First of all, I will maintain the illusion for the next hour or so, and in that time, everyone here will check the fingernails of all the disciples present on the first peak. Also, don't forget about the bulging veins behind the left ear of the disciples."
Sect Leader Su asked, "Where should we keep the disciples who turn out to be Sleeper Cells?"
Grand Elder scratched his chin as he said, "How about rounding up all the defaulter disciples near the ravine edges? If they turn out to be the Sleeper Cells, we won't face any big losses, and one more problem will be solved."
Sect Leader Su smiled and nodded his head, "Let's do this then. We will kill two birds from one stone. The problem at the endless ravine edge won't need sect resources and will now be solved by our enemies."
He then looked around at the elders and said, "Let's head out. We need to take out these damned Sleeper Cells before it's too late."
...
A/n: Guys, unfortunately, something came up all of a sudden, so I could only write one and a half chapter, which is now published as one chapter.. The next two days will have an unstable release schedule.