"How is the progress?"

Standing behind the wide glass panel that separated the visitor's room from the proper part of the experiment area, the elder directly responsible for the entire matter repeated his daily question.

"So far, so good."

Looking through the window, I could see a man and a dog-like beast. While the boy was cultivating, the magical best was simply feeding on the insanely rare medicinal treasures provided by the sect.

Thinking how the elders agreed to throw more money at cultivating this pair than most of the outer and inner disciples would ever use to groom themselves before joining core sect pained me a lot. Even as someone just a single step away from reaching elder's position in the Dracon's sect, I couldn't help but gnash my teeth in annoyance when the beast swallowed Virtirian Pill, that was far more than enough for me to reach the pinnacle of the spirit realm.

"I'm sorry for such an inquiry, but how is this profitable to waste so many resources on just a beast? It's not like it would ever evolve to the saint realm!"

Observing more and more resources constantly appearing in the bowl before the dog, my heart was tearing apart. If they just gave me those resources, I could easily reach the saint realm and trash whoever they would like me to trash!

"It's not always about profit. No matter how stupid this idiot it, he is still a genius we recruited. If we just let him be trashed by that fucker, all those years of building our prestige will be lost!"

The duel between Veriel and his recently gaining in popularity cousin was publicly known. With this Bart or something joining hands with Heavenly sect, all the elders stressed out how important it was to help our new prodigy defeat him.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just officially accept him into our sect after the duel? It would make us look like a compassionate party while pushing the image of bullies on those heavenly fuckers!"

No matter how many times they would repeat it, I could come up with new and new ways to solve the situation without wasting half of our treasury on this random beast. While I had to admit that its accumulation was great, allowing for swift breakthroughs all the way up to establishing dominion realm, but looking how its constitution stabilised ever since I doubted whether we would be able to make it forcefully reach the pinnacle.

"You see, there are times when pure profit and loss ratio can't be judged by just looking at the amount of money spend. Don't forget that we are just a military arm of Katenaris. Until you will be able to understand the implications of this fact, you will never be admitted as the elder. That position requires not only great personal strength but a keen political sense!"

Leroy Jenekins was the only elder in the entire Draconic Sabre Sect that would risk his own authority by sharing that news with me. If not for the years-long relationship of a master and his student that we shared, I would still be left in the dark, forced to figure out this aspect by myself.

"Even if that's the truth, I can't see how would Katenaris benefit from Veriel winning this duel. I know that their potential bloodline holder was staked as a bet, but that won't give them any right for her, outside of one session of clashing the essences! And let's be honest, just those few days that he spent close to us was enough for me to learn how shitty his character is… At this point, I can't help but cheer for his cousin, especially if what he told was true!"

I know that internal politics required us to support this trash of a man because of all the benefits that him winning the duel would bring us, but it didn't mean that I was forced to like or even respect him by any bit.

When he was first scouted, he was barely at mortal enlightenment level, worse than even the outer disciples of our sect! But despite that, the great elder that found him still invested insane sums to bring him all the way to the enriching essence level! When I heard how much this cost our sect, I couldn't help but curse.

The amount of money we wasted on him was more than enough to groom twenty expanding senses experts or two elders at the peak of the spiritual realm!

At times I wondered whether sticking to the ages long alliance with Katenaris was doing us any good. Compared with our rival, Heavenly Sword Sect, we amounted to nothing. They reached their position with their own effort, while we had to rely on the help of this ancient clan to matter anything!

"Wouldn't it be easier to just scout his cousin up? As long as both of them would be the disciples of our sect, there would be no reason for wasting so much on this entitled kid, no matter how hardworking he is!"

The news about this Bart thinking about not joining any sect was as hidden as the kid behind the curtain while playing hide and seek with his parents. Even if it wasn't common knowledge, it was harder to not know about it rather than to know.

"And how will you convince the others that he isn't double agent? If he is dumb enough to speak about it somewhere where he can be easily eavesdropped, then there would be no point bringing it to our sect, while if he knew about all the listening spells mounted in the walls, all his words are nothing but smoke to our eyes!"

There was a reason why the accommodation near the arena was free for all the challenges and their attendants. Like always, nothing in this world was free. The decision who to accept to the sect depended mostly on the tournament rankings but also on the evaluation from all the things that candidates spoke in their rooms!

"You might be right, but I still believe that offering him enough benefits would still work better than wasting so much on this talentless piece of shit. We could even use his fiance to force Katenaris into a more equal relationship!"

When I said these words, Leroy only sighted. Shifting my attention by pointing his finger at the training grounds behind the glass panel, he replied.

"This beast will evolve in no time. It's not like we can change our approach after all the sacrifices we made to bring it to the collapsing spirit realm. And let me tell you something."

As the elder's eyes reflected the sudden burst of grey light that appeared in the training grounds, he sighed deeply before turning his head around to face me.

"This Bart guy… Just the fact that you were ready to use his fiancee for the benefit of the sect is more than enough to make him your enemy. Make sure to never say those words to anyone else. If my premonition is right, we are in for a disaster."