(Sect Master Feng POV)
I believe it wouldn't be a wrong thing to say that most of the Grand Sects had thought the Queen was bluffing.
Sure, she had started purging a few of the Noble Houses for treason, but there was no way she would dare lay a finger on the Major Houses right? The backlash from such a decision should have been too big for a young girl like her to bear.
A few of the Grand Sects even had a secret meeting to discuss her actions, the consensus being that she definitely wouldn't do anything drastic.
Still, a number of us decided to play it on the safe side and sent gifts to Master Lin. Of course, we all thought it wasn't worth it to send anything valuable since nothing was going to happen anyway but having options is always better.
In the end, I decided to send two Phoenix Embers and used one of the letters embroidered with a Phoenix feather to Master Lin.
On the surface, this might look extravagant, but considering how I have a pet Phoenix to obtain the feathers from and its presence already cultivates the growth of Phoenix Embers, it was absolutely no loss on our part.
Of course, the fact that a Phoenix existed within our Sect was a closely guarded secret to maintain the illusion that these gifts were worth much more than they actually were.
I thought it was unnecessary, but a few Sects and Major Houses had conspired together to assassinate the Queen, ending the line of Royals and instill a new government in its place.
Apparently, on the day of the assassination, they found the Queen's chambers empty and the monarch nowhere to be found, as though she knew of the plan.
Some thought she had escaped out of fear or even went into hiding, but we had been too naive.
That should have been our first warning.
All our expectations of her were ripped to shreds when the Queen returned with her own uncle in tow.
In front of the public eye, she personally judged her own relative of treason and executed him with her own two hands.
As though that wasn't enough, she had brought up the Family Heads of three Major Houses who were involved in the assassination attempt and also summarily executed them. One of the Houses refused to submit and were also purged as well.
We had been so sure that the people would call the Queen a tyrant then, but for some reason they had cheered for her instead.
Did the people really hate the nobles that much? Or were there external factors?
It can't be purely because of the fact she won the war with the Dongs right? There must be something that we were missing but we don't know what.
With the knowledge that prestige did not hold the Queen back from her slaughter, most of the Sects who did not take her seriously began to panic.
We should be relatively safe since our gifts are normally quite valuable so Master Lin might have thought ours to be sincere gifts.
I had heard Hawk Sect had sent a fake founding manual to Master Lin. Unless they have something to fix that blunder, they aren't going to receive any favours from Heaven Sect any time soon.
At that point in time, everyone in Phoenix Sect knew we were more or less screwed. No one had left the Sect yet but it was mostly out of fear of being ostracised than a genuine want to stay.
I had called for an emergency meeting between the core members, trying to figure out our next course of action.
We had quickly settled that there was absolutely no way we could go against Master Lin.
Despite our non-participation in the war, we had gone ahead to watch how it had unfolded as had most of the other Grand Sects.
All of us had been paid off by the Dongs to remain neutral after all, so we were all in the same boat.
The war had started out as we had expected, Guiying's army was pushed back against the wall and looked to be on their last legs.
Unexpectedly, they actually had reinforcements swoop in to rescue them at the last moment, turning the entire momentum of the war in an instant.
Machines we had never seen before rolled down a hill and unleashes destruction only Elite Practitioners could cause.
Additionally, we had thought Master Lin had been put out of commission for the war but he had appeared after destroying an entire mountain, locked in combat with some other godlike being that we later learned was the Dark Sect's doing.
Just as we thought things couldn't get any worse than that, a dragon had appeared out of nowhere and obliterated the entire mountain range before disappearing.
None of us knew that Master Lin had a pet dragon of his own, a dragon that was strong enough to blast a hole through the entire Death Mountains with a single blow.
That was also ignoring the fact that Master Lin had tried to bring down a meteor that could have flattened the mountains during his fight as well.
Even if everyone in our Sect was called forth to battle, we stood absolutely zero chance of winning against Master Lin in an all out fight.
In the end, we decided that a merger might be the only way we could survive the purge if it happens, but that would be left as a last resort. We would visit Heaven Sect and scope out Master Lin's attitude about the current events before making a decision.
"I apologise for not visiting Phoenix Sect. I have been quite busy these few months."
I managed to keep my face passive, but when Master Lin said those words, I knew a few of us flinched.
There was no doubt about it. The fact that he was 'busy' meant that he was the one carrying out the executions, maybe he was already preparing to take Sects like ours down.
"Oh don't worry about it. The issue was really too big for anyone else to handle without losing their lives, honestly."
He knew… He knew we were watching the war and chose to do nothing… He knew we had stood by and watched our own countrymen lose their lives in the war…
"Mmm… I was kind of tethering in between life and death during that time, I will admit. It was only through a stroke of luck that I returned safely. It was an oversight on my part to not prepare for that calamity better."
That was the final nail in the coffin.
He was definitely upset by the turn of events and he wished he had made preparations for our betrayal sooner. There was no doubt about it, he was prepared to purge us all if we resisted.
We have no other choice but to go through with our plan if we want to survive.
Steeling myself, I stared at Master Lin straight in the eye and said the words that would seal our fate.
"Master Lin… As the Master of Phoenix Sect, I hereby formally propose, with the assembled Elders and Masters as witness, a merger between the Phoenix Sect and Heaven Sect..."
