From his commanding seat on the dais, Su Yunhai, Sect Master of the Jade Harmony Sect, penned a delicate letter to the royal family of the Country of Jiang, formally announcing the union between his sect and the Lin family. As a Rank 4 cultivation country, Jiang relied heavily on its Nascent Soul cultivators as its peak strength during wartime, and the Jade Harmony Sect undeniably commanded a sizable portion of that power. Su Yunhai, currently at the peak of the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm and approaching the late stage, was a profound cultivator whose every word carried significant weight in the royal palace.
Setting down his writing brush, Sect Master Su Yunhai wore an expression of pure worry. His concern was twofold, the immediate damage to his sect's reputation, and the sheer, painful truth of the situation. His promise to the late Great Sword Elder of the Lin Clan—his close friend on the Dao—had been made long before Lin Ming's birth. Had he known of Lin Ming's complete lack of spiritual roots, he would never have agreed to this arrangement for his daughter. He had naturally expected the offspring of such a powerful cultivator to possess talent, but it seemed the heavens were truly partial.
The quiet contemplation was broken by a rough voice. "Greetings, Sect Master!" Elder Mu—a middle-aged man with a bald head, known throughout the sect for his somewhat unpleasant features and dubious intentions—bowed and respectfully sat on the dais facing Su Yunhai.
The Sect Master looked up, with pure tiredness on his face. "Elder Mu," he sighed, "have you come again to voice your disdain for the marriage, and at this late hour?"
"Sect Master, with all reverence," Elder Mu began, his voice surprisingly smooth despite his appearance. "Wouldn't it be far more profitable for our sect—and for the country—if this alliance were forged with a formidable lineage from a Rank 5 Cultivation Country, rather than with a clan that cannot boast even a single Nascent Soul cultivator?"
"Talking of Nascent Soul," Su Yunhai interrupted, the faint glimmer of a smile—part pride, part exhaustion, touching his lips. "I heard you finally broke through to the early stage of the realm. Congratulations, Elder Mu."
Elder Mu's somewhat unpleasant features momentarily softened into genuine pleasure. "It was all thanks to your teaching, Sect Master, and the sect's resources."
"Indeed." Su Yunhai leaned back, his deep crimson robes pooling around the jade seat. "Now that you are a Nascent Soul, your status in this country and your duty has changed."
Su Yunhai's words were a delicate but deliberate redirection. He was subtly reminding Mu that his new rank demanded a wider view, one that superseded personal vendettas or simple strategic greed. Mu, however, was not so easily persuaded. The honor of the Jade Harmony Sect was, in his mind, intrinsically linked to the status of its members and its alliances, and this marriage was a direct affront to both.
"My duty is precisely why I speak, Sect Master," Elder Mu countered, his voice losing its congratulatory softness and hardening into the tone of a zealot. "The entire cultivation world will hear of this shame! A direct disciple, a genius on the Dao, bound to a rootless mortal! The other great sects of Jiang—the Five Mountains Alliance, the Shadow Pavilion—will murmur and laugh, questioning the stability and judgment of the Jade Harmony Sect. A marriage to a Rank 5 country lineage, perhaps to the Heavenly Glacier Sect, would have bolstered our resources, cemented our stability, and ensured our dominance for centuries!"
He rose slightly from his seat, the subtle spiritual pressure of a newly-minted Nascent Soul cultivator unintentionally pressing down on the space between them. Mu represented a substantial faction of the Sect Elders who viewed the marriage not as an unfortunate necessity, but as a fatal strategic error. They saw Lin Ming not as a person, but as a vessel for the late Great Sword Elder's vow, a vessel they wished to see discarded and broken.
"And what of the vow, Elder Mu?" Su Yunhai's voice, though quiet, was absolute. The pressure from Mu's Nascent Soul aura vanished instantly, subsumed by the Sect Master's own peak mid-stage aura. "Do you suggest that the Jade Harmony Sect, renowned for its integrity and stability, should openly betray the promise of a departed Sword Dao Master who single-handedly defended this peak during the last Great Chaos? Such an act would secure us not a strong alliance, but the scorn of every righteous sect in the realm. It would demonstrate that our vows are weak, and our foundations can be bought or easily broken."
The Sect Master paused, his gaze boring into Mu. "Stability, Elder Mu, is purchased not just with pills and spirit stones, but with unshakeable honor. Our power is known, but our word must be inviolable, especially a vow made to a brother of the Dao."
Elder Mu deflated, sinking back onto his seat, his bald head gleaming under the cooling light of the remaining Night Pearls. "But the boy is nothing! He is a burden to Su Yueru's Dao! His inherent mortality will only serve to interrupt her training, perhaps even creating a weakness that could threaten her breakthrough to the Golden core realm!" His voice was a raw expression of the fear that gripped his entire faction: the fear of seeing their sect's future dimmed by a mortal attachment.
A sigh escaped Su Yunhai. He knew the argument was true on a cultivation level. Lin Ming was, by all metrics, a poison to Su Yueru's pursuit of the Heavenly Dao.
"I have not forgotten my duty to my daughter, nor to the sect, Elder Mu," Su Yunhai stated, his tone shifting from political defense to parental authority. He knew that Mu's faction saw only strategy, never the complex, painful history that tied him to the Lin family. The late Elder had saved his life, and the promise was his way of repaying a debt too large for any single treasure.
"The vow has been paid. The ceremony is concluded. Lin Ming will be provided with the basic resources required to maintain his life in a new environment, but his path will not cross Yueru's without need." Su Yunhai's eyes, deep and tired, reflected the inner turmoil of a man who held absolute power yet was constrained by honor.