The Assassins Take Their Positions: Hundred-Foot Horizon (Part Two)

"Indeed, Instructor Zhong has already set out from Five Elders Peak. He should arrive today."

Yuchen could not hide the delight on his face.

Yue Luan said nothing. He merely nodded.

The Three Demons of Mystic Mountain, meanwhile, looked as though someone had suddenly pulled out their spines. They exchanged glances, at a loss for words.

Third Young Master Su regarded White Deer Grotto as a mortal enemy of his household, so he had naturally learned all he could about its members. After taking up the post of Deputy Judicial Thousand-Householder at the Ci Prefecture Imperial Demon Hunters' Judicial Inspectorate Office, he had drawn on their records and every resource available to probe White Deer Grotto's secrets.

White Deer Grotto Academy was rooted in Five Elders Peak in Jiangzhou. More than a thousand years had passed since its founding, yet its lineage remained unbroken and flourished. It possessed thirteen foundational arts said to lead straight to the way of the sages, known as the White Deer Thirteen Absolutes. The academy's head was called the Headmaster. Appointed for a ten-year term, the position was generally held by a Martial Confucianism master who had reached Fourth Grade.

Beneath the Headmaster were several instructors, each an expert in a particular discipline. Their cultivation was not necessarily profound, but in their chosen fields they had unquestionably reached the summit. They helped the Headmaster handle the academy's affairs and oversaw the teachers below them.

The teachers who actually passed on knowledge were respectfully called "scholars" within White Deer Grotto. Most had risen from among its accomplished disciples. They taught classes and took on the vast majority of the academy's other work.

A Headmaster served for ten years. Upon retirement, he joined the Worthy Academy, the body that truly held power in White Deer Grotto. It