"Back then, Tianjian Peak had four elders. The four of them were senior and junior fellow disciples."
"My master becoming Chief Elder didn't bother them at all. After all, he was the strongest of the four."
"Back then, Tianjian Peak was growing rapidly. Within the Profound Sword Sect, it was the strongest sword peak after the main peak, Xuanjian Peak."
"Everything was moving in a better direction, but who could have guessed that those three former elders would suddenly choose to leave Tianjian Peak and the Profound Sword Sect?"
"At the time, my master couldn't understand why they'd suddenly do that."
"Only after he pressed them repeatedly did they finally explain the real reason."
"It was to... become stronger!"
"They chose to join the Evil Sword Sect!"
The Evil Sword Sect?
Yeah, even the name reeked of villainy.
"In other words, the Evil Sword Sect had a way to help them improve their strength, but that method ran counter to their previous cultivation. You could even say it overturned everything they'd believed."
"But everyone considered this method heretical, a path the world wouldn't accept."
"If they wanted to learn it, they had to leave their original sect and join the Evil Sword Sect."
"And in the Southern Region, the Evil Sword Sect was a sect everyone wanted to see destroyed."
"Yet, as it happened, they were genuinely powerful. So much so that none of you could do anything about them."
"Am I right?" Chen Changan asked with a smile.
"More or less. Elder Chen really is exceptional, and remarkably perceptive," Xiao Yubo said admiringly.
"It's nothing. I've seen so much that there's not much left to surprise me."
"So that's why he never promoted another elder on Tianjian Peak?"
"What is it, is there a curse on the elder's position?