The Journey of the Goddess

Chapter Nine: I Hereby Challenge You!

The moment everyone saw me they bowed down to me together with the elders, whoa, so this is why people try to take over the world, this is not bad, not bad at all. In fact I think I'm enjoying this, I was pulled out of my thoughts when Yun Yin hinted me to tell everyone to rise. Oh! Right, um "Rise" I told them as casually and loudly as I could.

Everyone got up and the one of the elders commented "Sect Leader is young and carrying a heavy responsibility, it makes one admire you" Now what's his problem? That too sweet comment is definitely attracting trouble. "I have heard about your reputation long time ago, today I have the fortune of seeing the Sect Leader of Mountain Zu, I'm glad" the other elder commented.

A long time ago? I just arrived in era not too long ago, who is he mistaking me with? "Could we admire Sect Leader's Mountain Zu Sword Technique?" he continued, I knew trouble was coming with all this sweet talk. Yun Yin gave a nod but I have a different idea "Ahem! I am quite tired from travelling today so I would like to rest, if you want to admire my Mountain Zu Sword technique, you will have to wait until tomorrow"

Yun Yin finally understood my intentions "Oh yes, then Sect Leader, you should head to the mourning hall. After you've paid your respects to Qing Xu, you should rest. As for other matters, we'll discuss it another day. Sect Leader, come. This way" "Oh yes, of course" The elders followed us in confusion and lead us to the mourning hall, ok first trouble, avoided, phew. I kneeled down as I saw in the drama "Taoist Qing Xu, I've returned to see you, I've not disappointed your trust in me, and I've also protected the Sect Leader's tokens well" and bowed three times. Yun Yin helped me up and I turned everyone as Yun Yin made an announcement "Fellow disciples, now I've already brought the new Sect Leader back to Mountain Zu. The inherent ceremony will be held three days later as the plan"

One of the elders stepped up and spoke "The traitor Yun Yi, led the Seven Murder Faction to attack us Mountain Zu and all the disciples of the Mountain Zu were slaughtered. Ariel was the only person left next to Taoist Qing Xu. Ariel took the responsibility in the emergent moment, we're grateful. Now all the disciples of Mountain Zu are back, the position of Sect Leader should be chosen anew. We should let a capable person carry the responsibility" So that's his intention, the nerve. The disciples all mumbled in agreement, this is not good, better think of a plan. The other elder then spoke up next "We, the Mountain Zu Sect owes Ariel a favor, we have to show her our appreciation but she is the disciple of the Chang Liu Sect, it is not appropriate for her to be the leader of our Sect as well" and the disciples all mumbled in agreement once again, this is seriously not good.

"Are you saying that you do not respect Taoist Qing Xu's dying wish?" I voiced it out. One of the elders tried to interrupt but I interrupted him back "Are you saying that you do not trust your previous Sect Leader's decisions?" Then I walked towards the elders as if directing my next words towards them "Are you saying that you intend to disobey Taoist Qing Xu's instructions?" From my strong use of words, the elders were unable to comprehend on what they should do say next, seeing that I was able to silence them I turned back to the disciples and told them "Everyone listen! Taoist has clearheaded intentions and has passed the Sect Leader position to me! Even though I am the disciple of Chang Liu, it is for the benefit of us to rebuild Mountain Zu and together with the help of Chang Liu. This is for the future of Mountain Zu, are you or are you not with me?!"

"We are, Sect Leader!" All the disciples including Yun Yin bowed down to me. "Good" I replied to them as confidently as I could, I hope that ended at least part of the mess. "The Sect leader position of Mountain Zu is very important to rebuild the sect, it relates to the future of the Mountain Zu, we all have to be very careful" one of the elders spoke again, not again. "That's right, the sect leader of Mountain Zu first has to know the sword skill of Mountain Zu but we have not seen her skills at all yet" the other elder supported, looks like no matter what I say they are just looking for excuses to remove me of my Sect leader position.

One of the disciples then agreed the elders "Junior Uncle is right! Not only has the leader needed to know the Mountain Zu sword skill he or she also has to be the most senior one in Mountain Zu. Although seniority is important, it is even more important to be the best in Magic and Kung Fu in our Sect" and the rest of the disciples agreed him, so what happened to you all agreeing to my words just now? Back stabbers "In that case, I challenge one of the elders to compete against me using only Mountain Zu Sword Techniques if I wins, I will continue as the Sect Leader, if I don't I shall relinquish the position" I challenged, yeah it looks like I can only take care of this matter by making their intentions my own. "In that case, I shall be the one to compete" one of the elders volunteered, alright, get ready to meet your maker.

Yun Yin then tried to interfere but all that got us was an accusation of me being the puppet so I interfered them once again "Alright, that's enough Yun Yin! In three days at the succession ceremony elder Qing Yang will compete against me. If I lose, I'll immediately give up the Sect Leader's seat" This better do it, I'm starting to lose my vocal cords. I was finally able to retire to my room where Yun Yin and I had a discussion regarding the competition "Sect Leader, you really shouldn't have challenged elder Qing Yang to a competition, his skill is not below my teacher's and you have to use this sect's martial arts to compete" "You're wrong Yun Yin" I pointed out to which Yun Yin gave a confused look "I challenged to compete one of the elders and elder Qing Yang volunteered, it's not my fault that he wanted to compete with me, it could have been the other elder too" "Sect Leader!" Yun Yin scolded me, Sheesh, I wonder who's the real Sect Leader around here.

'"I know but there is no other way to dissolve this that I can think of in that situation, I mean you weren't doing a good job at it either don't blame it on me" I complained back at him, hey I had to make my statement and that's very important. But when I look back at Yun Yin, he looked like a kicked puppy so I tried again "Yun Yin, I understand how difficult it has been for you but Mountain Zu has already reached this state and they won't unite to fight outside enemies. I don't want to make things harder for you so all that's left for us to do is to face the attack" "Senior Uncle Qing Yang always speaks harshly, he says that I have an ulterior motive, using you as a puppet Sect Leader, although it's unpleasant to hear, he's right. I have actually been using you" Yun Yin spoke sadly. "Don't worry Yun Yin, this is a time where even trusting your own people is difficult so don't take it to the heart on what he said, I know elder Qing Yang and everyone here knows you are doing it all for the good of Mountain Zu" I reassured him.

"Anyways, can you teach me more of Mountain Zu's sword techniques now? I learn fast as you saw before so I'm confident that I will be able to win tomorrow" I told him to which he responded with surprise. It's alright, I know I can do this; I wasn't a Juilliard student for nothing. In the gardens, Yun Yin taught me more of the sword techniques and I know that I'm doing well because we keep moving on to more and more. In fact, this is really fun, it's so exciting and I can't believe I'm practicing swordplay here in real life no matter how many times I try to pinch myself to see if this is real.

I tried sparring with Yun Yin, simplypracticing and sparring are totally two different things so it takes some timeto let my brain and body get used to sparring. When I fell for the fifth time,Yun Yin came over to me and asked me "How can you beat Senior Uncle Qing Yangwho is even better than me?" Hmm...I wonder. Surprise, surprise "Isn't this easyto solve?" A voice called out to us. Who do you think that was?