At the highest peak of the sect, the Elders were having their quarterly meeting in the Grand Elders' meeting chamber, going over the changes and happenings not just within the Hollow Song, but all around its territories that were much larger than their protected mountain grounds. The circular chamber was, as always, open, letting in the mist from the outside, yet unlike how one would expect, it was gently sparkling before being absorbed by the walls, giving it a sheen that regular eyes would miss.

  It was just around dawn, right at the fresh start of another day, as Elder Lin kept going on about recent news from the sect's myriad of elders with posts outside of the sect, mostly concerning yearly tithes, incoming resources, and the offerings of their subordinate sects, who were a tier below the Hollow Song. All of those they ruled over had at least one of their elders serving as the Hollow Song's representative, acting as their extension, placed inside smaller sects and even mortal kingdoms, who kept governing their own little areas that were too far away or too weak to warrant the sect's direct, personal attention.

  Across from him, listening to the way-too-detailed summary, which defeated the meaning of the word, Elder Mei leaned against the table at her side, with an already empty bottle of drink on it, while her expression was way too impatient, wanting to interrupt the old man... but she still had the mind of respecting the oldest of the group. For now, that is.

  As for Elder Yan, she had her eyes closed, her posture greatly relaxed, outright casual, only listening, sometimes nodding her head when something or someone's name came up, who had a connection to her. Watching her, Mei was unsure whether she was really listening or had begun meditating, using the chamber's filtering to help keep a clear mind... Probably the latter, considering her breathing. Heh, cheeky, she thought, smiling a little.

  What Mei couldn't find funny, though, was the fact that Baat was not present. The bastard probably skipped out on the start, knowing full well how Lin was when it was his round to do the reports, and she was angry that she didn't choose the same thing, and dared to arrive late. Just as she thought that, Elder Baat entered the room without ceremony, and he simply walked to his seat and dropped into it with a solid thud, just as Elder Lin finished, raising his cup and taking a sip from his already cold tea to moisten his throat.

  “Well,” Baat said, rolling his shoulders once, “Everyone looks relaxed and awake... Good, then nothing bad happened, hm?" He shot a glance at Lin, who simply shook his head, "Sorry for being late; I had to confirm some news I received, and it was important.”

  "Good excuse," Mei snorted softly, “I will use it next time."

  “It's true,” Baat replied, throwing a slanted look at her, “And it concerns us too and the sect as a whole.”

  "Oh? Does it?" Elder Yan finally opened her eyes, looking at him curiously. “Then let us talk about what is happening inside the sect,” she began, taking over from Lin, who was giving the report on the outside matters, because for this meeting, Elder Yan was the one who had to keep track of what was going on within the sect. It was always a fixed rotation amongst the Grand Elders, who alternated their tasks every cycle, a system that was in place for more than a millennium, since the establishment of the Hollow Song.

  "I was––" Baat began, but Yan interrupted him immediately, making Elder Mei chortle quietly, realizing that the youngest of the Grand Elders could be just as petty as any woman, being very much unhappy with the fact that Baat skipped out on the earlier, very much boring part of Elder Lin's presentation.

  “As for the past months,” She continued, ignoring Baat's twitching mouth, who gulped down his angry response, knowing when to take a step back, letting her continue, "We had lost three inner disciples who died within the forest, overestimating their powers within the Blood Resonance stage."

  "More than the previous cycle..." Lin said with a soft shrug, shaking his head, "So much wasted resources..."

  "It can't be helped," Yan continued, not even flinching, "Better for them to die than to be crippled. As for the good news! Two of the inner disciples broke through and entered the Second Circle, granting us two new elders. I had already tasked them to travel towards the border regions to oversee the winter in the small mortal kingdoms we recently absorbed there. It will be the perfect place to gain some experience and handle their transition from disciple to being a part of our Song."

  "Good." Everyone nodded, as it was the norm within the sect, especially when it came to the newly advanced figures, adding another note to the melody of their ambitions.

  "If it will be like the winter eighty years ago..." Baat murmured, recalling a memory, making the other three look at him.

  "That period did give us some good disciples," Elder Mei clicked her tongue, remembering that after a very harsh winter, many of the mortal kingdoms collapsed, resulting in multiple civil wars, which, of course, dragged cultivators in, causing a bit of headache to everyone. But conflict also lets people shine... “Didn't we raise about ten elders from the batch that came from that period?”

  “And many more failed ones,” Yan reminded her, “We need stability amongst the mortal lands we govern, especially now that the turn of the millennia is approaching. We can't let anything go awry and screw up everything... not now.”

  "That's true," Baat let out a low grunt, “We only need one idiot, and the Sect Master's plan may fall through...”

  “Speaking of that...” Mei glanced at them, one by one, “How are our top disciples doing? We have accumulated a good amount of strength in the number of Second Circle elders we have, but besides Yan here,” she spoke honestly, acknowledging her talents, "We haven't cultivated anyone close to her level since then."

  “Can't do nothing about that,” Baat replied, shaking his head, knowing that Mei was right, “Half of the disciples we accept into the sect should spend less time trying to brute-force Blood Resonance and entering the inner disciples' ranks, and more time tempering properly, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Even if I try to hammer into them, every time we accept new people, that foundation is the most important part, because it will determine how high you can build; they don't get it. I can't break their ambitions but... It also ruins many of them.”

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  “Ambition is not the enemy here, impatience is,” Elder Lin agreed, "and sadly, the generations that appeared after Yan are more impatient than ambitious. Still, from the core disciples, there are some bright ones whose potential has been nurtured well and could reach our level."

  "It just needs time," Elder Yan nodded, agreeing with his assessment. “We can't cheat with that, but we can try to maximize our and their chances... Which is why I’ve approved tighter allocation controls for inner disciple resources going forward. Priority will go to those with stable progression records, and we will see what comes of that. If it doesn't work out, we can still revert; we won't lose more than a decade or so.”

  "That's acceptable..." Lin nodded after quickly doing the math in his head.

  "That will drive up competition," Mei smirked at her, but she wasn't against the idea.

  “We are not here to coddle them,” Yan replied evenly, "When the Heavens appear, and the Heralds come, we all know that the chance for us will be there. If we want to become the next Fourth, we have to be ready. We must..."

  When she finished, a brief silence followed, as everyone just looked at each other, exchanging glances, their fingers tightening, balling up into a fist, including even Elder Lin.

  "As you said," Elder Lin added, breaking the silence and nodding at Yan, "Time is of the essence, and we still have it. So... Let's focus on utilizing it well. Anything else?"

  "Yes, the issue I was trying to bring up first," Elder Baat said before Yan could interrupt him a second time, "We have to talk about the boy.”

  "Hm?" Mei’s head turned slowly toward him. “Which boy?” She asked, but of course she knew.

  "Please, don't start it," Baat sighed, glancing at her, “Don't be petty because I wasn't here at the start; this time, it wasn't intentional.”

  "This time?" Even Elder Lin asked, holding back a smile, making Baat shrug.

  "What did you learn?" Yan asked, suddenly her eyes more open and alert than before, as it was evident she valued the boy and wanted him as a disciple. And true enough... if things kept playing out as they were, he may very well be their closest shot to have another talent like Yan, joining their ranks.

  “I heard him speak about his past,” Baat replied while smiling.

  “You eavesdrop on outer disciples personally now?” Mei laughed, teasing, but he wasn't even ashamed of it. "If they knew, they would feel honored! Or creeped out."

  “I do listen now and then,” He admitted, “But with him, there’s a difference, because we all did suspect him of hiding things.”

  "But we also agreed on an approach collectively," Yan said at once while she tilted her head slightly.

  "That's enough," Elder Lin raised a hand while speaking, “What did you hear?”

  “A simple conversation,” Baat explained slowly, “between him and another disciple. I could tell it was sincere, but I still needed some time to look into it, so I contacted my disciples and sent them to quickly look around and confirm his words.”

  "..." Yan’s fingers paused for a moment, because she already did that, but she just kept it to herself. Of course, her minute, fractional reaction had already told Baat that he wasn't the first to come across what he was about to reveal. “And?” she prompted as they looked at each other.

  “I looked into what he shared, and he wasn’t lying,” Baat said after a short pause, looking deeply into Yan's eyes. “About any of the things he said.”

  "So... He is cleared of being a spy?" Mei crossed her arms as she asked, looking at the two, smiling, “Or he’s very good at crafting a narrative...”

  “That was one of my thoughts,” Baat admitted, still watching Elder Yan, “But I now can ease my mind about that, because I can see that our dear Elder Yan here had conducted her own investigation into his future disciple... Isn't that true?”

  “I verified what I could,” Yan nodded, not hiding it at all, "Not long after his joining our sect, I sent my disciples to take a look into his journey. I knew none of you would be at ease if I did not present something new in one of our meetings, but apparently, Elder Baat had broke the news before I could." She said simply as she smiled at him.

  "You're welcome." He smiled back, "Don't worry, I am not going to take him from you, if that was what you were afraid of."

  "I appreciate that," She nodded before looking at the others, "He comes from a place that now goes by the name of the Land of the Three Valleys."

  "Never heard of it." Mei shrugged, and it was Baat who continued, showing that he indeed looked into it.

  "There was a documented collapse of a previous sect there, and I confirmed the evidence of overharvesting, with essence depletion consistent with his tale. It is indeed a backwater, dead land; no wonder they would have tried to train a child of his age, ruining a good talent. Luckily, one of the old elders there still had his mind intact, saving the boy from such a fate.”

  "Who?" Mei and Yan both asked, looking directly at him, "I hope you didn't disturb the land there, because we all know that destiny likes to play it close to the chest!" Yan added sharply, "This has the writing on it that it is the boy's future to deal with his past, or we risk him getting stuck and never breaking into the Second Circle because of a mental barrier!"

  "Relax!" Baat raised both of his hands at once, "I haven't done anything! I don't know the man's name either, because I didn't want to disturb anything! I just confirmed the validity of the story. That's all... Haaah... My disciples are just as good as yours when it comes down to discretion..."

  "I'm sorry..." Yan paused, lowering her voice, recollecting herself before she added, “But we can't let this opportunity slip by us.”

  "I know," Baat let out a slow breath, “And now my mind is at peace. He is not a spy, and we need to pay close attention to his advancement.”

  "Three Valleys..." Elder Lin suddenly muttered out loud, furrowing his white brows, "Could it be that valley?"

  "Grand Elder Lin?" All three looked at him as he slowly smacked his lips, recollecting himself.

  "It was news when I was an inner disciple," he explained, drawing on his memory, calling back events that happened centuries ago, "It was about how a sect, close to our current strength, suddenly collapsed. It was a hasty shattering too, splintering into three factions, all blaming the others for the split, trying to conquer the other two in the name of reunification, resulting in utter destruction and the depletion of the land."

  "Did they have a name?" Yan asked, making Lin try to search his mind, sitting there for a few minutes, saying nothing.

  "Harmonic Triumvirate? I think..." He said at last, but he sounded unsure, "I will visit the reclused Grand Elders for an audience; they will know more. If not, I can contact the Sect Master as well. Haaah... We do need to raise a new Grand Elder, because it's my time to finally retire and only concentrate on my cultivation." He added with a smile, half-joking, half-serious.

  "I don't think it's that important to disturb them with this," Baat added, but Lin shook his head.

  "Elder Yan is right," He answered, being deadly serious, "Destiny likes to play it this way. If our Siu is connected to that place, it may reveal something for us all in the future, through him."

  "What else could have remained there?" Mei snorted, shaking her head, "Their collapse happened long ago, and whatever they had, after these many years, had to be ransacked by the locals and other sects already."

  "Maybe," Elder Lin nodded, but he sounded confident, "But sometimes... things won't be found until the one who was destined to find it arrives."