Chapter 233: The Buck Stops With ... Me?
Sun Hua had settled into her role as the sect leader’s head administrative assistant, relishing the purpose the position had brought to her life. The whole situation was quite unbelievable, really. Before the founding of the sect, she’d given up hope of ever being more than a spinster who performed odd jobs around the village.
Since the founding, not only was she quite gainfully employed and using all the skills Mother had taught her, but her work mattered. She helped keep the sect running happily and efficiently. It was she who organized the move-in and she who resolved minor annoyances the members had so that those complaints never reached the sect leader’s ears.
Of course, the former villagers who were now sect members were all on their absolute best behavior. Their new status as cultivators was quite the upgrade from their previous mundane lives, especially given that they’d basically been locked inside the village walls for several years with no hope of escape while facing starvation.
Despite a vague threat from a rival sect, everyone was optimistic about the future. Their personal power was improving seemingly by the day, and they trusted the sect leader to take care of any enemy who dared to attack. No one wanted to risk drawing the sect leader’s ire by being anything less that the picture of a perfect sect member.
Thus, the main problems she had to deal with were minor things such as issues with arrays in the houses and pavilions. The sect leader had warned everyone that he had not personally built the houses and, for the most part, had not inscribed the arrays. Though he’d given everything a once over to ensure basic functionality and safety, he told them to expect malfunctions due to degradation from age.
Everyone was supposed to report any issue no matter how small. His plan was to use the repairs to teach the members of the Formations Pavilion how to perform maintenance.
To that end, Sun Hua was given instructions to evaluate the severity of each reported problem. If it didn’t have an impact on the “standard of living” of the occupants and didn’t represent a “safety hazard,” she was to note the issue on a “punchlist.” Anything that was major or seemed dangerous, she was to bring to him immediately.
Luckily, she had deemed everything registered thus far to be of trivial concern. Which was really fortunate because the sect leader was busy with a project. The entire sect was abuzz with speculation on what he was doing since his work was outside in plain view where the main gate was to eventually be placed.
With him being so obviously consumed by the project, she definitely didn’t want to bother him unless she could not avoid it.
The day after Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and Esteemed Kang Lin left on their gliders to go to Sixth Flawless Flowing City, though, a problem occurred that required the sect leader’s attention. The previously perfect behavior of the villagers turned sect members experienced a disruption.
Two young men notorious for being rivals got in a fistfight. Not in the arena or in the Martial Pavilion or any other location where such activities would be proper. No, they fought in the cafeteria.
One of them threw the other onto the buffet, ruining a great deal of food and causing actual damage. Two of the arrays that kept pans warm were broken. A portion of the buffet was cracked. Several serving dishes were destroyed.