Sweetness After Enduring Hardship

After dealing with the former sect master, who had completely descended into madness, the Myriad Clouds Sect could finally sit down and properly discuss matters with its subordinate sects.

At its core, negotiation in the cultivation world was a zero-sum game. Every move made between the parties could have an enormous impact on what followed.

Ye Xiu did not know whether the many subordinate sects would obtain the terms they sought, but at the very least, breaking free from the layers upon layers of past restrictions was now almost certain;

this Life Pact ceremony had been carried out under the watchful eyes of countless cultivators. Once too many people knew something, even if those above wanted to cover it up, it was basically impossible.

No one was a fool.

If a subordinate sect rebelling was something the major sects considered deeply taboo, something inherently impossible to justify, then there was only one circumstance that could completely turn the matter around;

that was when the parent sect had never regarded its subordinate sects as human beings from beginning to end.

Everyone understood the reasoning. Subordinate sects had originally emerged to manage places beyond the parent sect's reach.

The leaders of most subordinate sects came from collateral branches of the great families within the parent sects.

By the broad principles of the cultivation world, although collateral branches were not as noble as the direct line, they could still be counted as one's own people.

A family could distribute resources differently because of differences in talent and preference between those above and below.

But no matter how excessive things became, you could not treat subordinate sects like dogs to be ordered about...

So now, look at what the Myriad Clouds Sect had done.

The proportion of tribute had increased year after year, until