Backlash Part 2

Chapter 228: Baifeng Mountain - Self Respect

The hunt on Baifeng Mountain had been announced at the end of the war. The LanlingJin sect invited all of the sects to participate, sending out official invitations before the sects had even finished dividing up territory. Hosting it was expensive at any time, but in the wake of a war few sects would have been able to afford to hold such a large competitive hunt. The expenses of organizing and hosting such an event, in addition to the expense of corralling sufficient prey was a significant demand on a sect's resources.

Baifeng Mountain was naturally abundant in creatures worthy of nighthunting. The mountain had long been reserved as a private hunting ground for the Jin Clan. The creatures on the mountain were carefully monitored and sometimes restocked. Creating an optimal environment for young Jin cultivators to get their earliest practice nighthunting while close to all the resources of their sect.

Even if they did not need to gather more prey for the hunt itself, hosting the nighthunt competition would significantly deplete their private hunting grounds. At minimum the LanlingJin sect would have to work hard to replenish the hunting grounds for their own use. Not to mention that the creatures hunted in the competition would be claimed by the sect which eliminated them.

Jiang Yanli had never nighthunted herself, but she was a cultivator. Something that had technically always been true because of her birthright and education, but only felt true once she found the courage to stand with a sword in her hand. There would be the prestige of successfully killing creatures in the competition, but any Yaoguai would have the benefit of providing materials from which spiritual tools could be made. Jiang Yanli wasn't familiar with the details of what materials were used or exactly how. She knew that not every creature would yield anything useful, but she also knew that some of them absolutely would.

Hosting all the other sects for such a competition was... Well, Jiang Yanli supposed the polite thing to say was that it was generous. It is what she might say if asked about it publicly, but Jiang Yanli had spent more time in the thick of the politics of the cultivation world than she had ever planned to.

Sect leaders were selfish. It was not an inherently bad quality to be selfish sometimes. To put yourself and your sect first was an important part of taking care of yourself and the people you loved. If you never acted in your own self interest... Well, that was her A-Xian wasn't it? Never putting himself first until it broke him. Kind to the point of self-sacrificing. Sect Leaders, however, were often more selfish than Jiang Yanli felt they should be. Selfish to the point of disregarding morality. Selfish to the point of greed, while pretending to be selfless.

Jiang Yanli had found, much to her disappointment, that the way her mother would often rant and rave about the intentions of others was shockingly appropriate to the politics of the cultivation world. It had often seemed like her mother was fabricating ulterior motives where there were none. Jiang Yanli still believed that to be mostly true. However, after the exhausting process of dividing up the spoils of war, Jiang Yanli had realized that her mother may have learned that behavior in order to navigate the politics involved in leading a sect.

The LanlingJin sect had spent most of the war keeping to themselves. Jin Zixuan had led a relatively small force of cultivators to join, but Jiang Yanli wasn't certain that Jin Guangshan had actually approved this. Later, as the Sunshot campaign began to gain ground, Jin Guangshan finally allocated some cultivators to the war effort. It was more cultivators than many of the minor sects could contribute, but an insignificant fraction of the total cultivators the LanlingJin sect had at their disposal. Just enough to give the appearance of being honourable while still ensuring that the LanlingJin sect wouldn't suffer any meaningful losses.

Jiang Yanli held back the sigh that had risen in her chest. Jiang Yanli had never enjoyed watching hunts. She hated to see those she loved get hurt, and he had never been fond of violence. She'd been through a war now. She knew violence had its place, but that hardly meant that she would wish to seek out observing it for entertainment.