Aki clapped his hands on the table in a proper chairman manner and began the discussion.

“Now, let us start with the first matter at hand. Spring Melt, you are currently in charge of the outer sect. Are there any issues with its working right now? Are you satisfied with how it operates?”

“Master, the outer sect is operating as normal, however seeing as you intend to reform the normal, I do have some insights to offer. I believe that the outer sect is not currently allowing disciples the proper chance to get started on the path of pill concocting. Physical might has become overvalued, making the pursuit of it the preferred route for new disciples.”

Aki smiled with approval. This was exactly the sort of thing he wanted his disciples to bring forth.

“A worthy observation, disciple. The issue has been noted and will be the main item of discussion for this meeting. Now, I’ve had disciple Winter Gale gather a report on behaviour in the outer sect. Disciple, please give your report.”

Winter Gale stood up briskly and began explaining her findings.

“The pursuit of physical strength is certainly true currently. In order to secure protection, weaker disciples generally align themselves into gangs under stronger ones, in which they must offer some resources, like spirit stones or pills, as compensation for the protection. These gangs generally centre around powerful individuals, with most of the resources flowing to them. Knowledge, however, is generally hoarded personally and not shared in these gangs.”

She took out a jade slip and began reviewing details from it.

“Disciples generally receive new techniques by using sect points to acquire archive access, then guard their findings fiercely. Some disciples end up finding techniques while on sect missions away from the sect, which are guarded especially zealously. During my monitoring, I did not observe any disciples trade or share any of their findings.”

After a quick pause to gather her thoughts, then moved on.

“Tutoring from inner sect disciples is valued highly, and thus its price in sect points has been rising. The inner sect disciples generally do not discuss new techniques or skills with the tutee, focusing instead on refining the techniques they already know.”

“Thank you for your report disciple. Now, when researching the matter, did you consult with Spring Melt, who as the current manager of the outer sect would have much insight into these matters?”

The satisfied expression on the woman’s face shifted a bit at the question. After an awkward pause, she answered with a bit of a glum voice.

“No, master. I did not.”

Aki nodded at the affirmation, then took a lecturing tone.

“I want all of you to begin working more closely with each other in such matters. As a result of how matters are in the inner and outer sect, the habits of perceiving others as competition are rather entrenched in the sect. You all, however, have no need to maintain them. As core disciples, you have risen past all such challenges already. The only way up for you is to become an elder of the sect, which is a result of personal cultivation. I do not divide resources among you to the detriment of others, so don’t focus on such things.”

Winter Gale sat down, her cheeks colouring a bit. The others looked at each other thoughtfully. Hopefully that will serve to ease the tension between them. They’ve been instilled with the values for competitiveness for their whole lives, so it won’t be easy to shake off. Hopefully this will serve as a start.

“Disciple Spring Melt, was Winter Gale’s report accurate?”

“Yes, master. Though I would add that the leaders of these “gangs” are generally also the ones who win competitions, leading to even more resources going to them personally.”

“Alright, then let us move to the main item on the agenda: Spring Melt’s proposal on the overreliance on physical strength. I wish for you to make proposals on addressing this matter. I will not bring my own opinions in until later.”

If I state my own case too soon, they will not be able to contradict it. This way I can hopefully get them expressing their opinions properly.

“Do we even need to change things? Is physical might not the most important thing for the strength of the sect?” Summer Warden opened the conversation.

Spring Melt seemed downright offended by the question. “That strength is nothing without pills to patch it up after a fight, and pills to cultivate it in the first place!” She answered, voice raising just a tad.

Passionate Seeker carefully offered in her own opinion. “Would it not be simplest to restrict violence between disciples? The focus on strength is because they need to protect themselves from others, so would that not solve the issue?”

“You fool,” Winter Gale dismissed, scoffing coldly. “Pill Concocters have to go search for materials in the Beastwood, which is a prime spot to discreetly settle such matters. Restricting violence inside sect spaces will just move it outside, where it is practically impossible to monitor.”

Spring Melt was not convinced. “But it would surely have some effect, would it not? Making such matters more difficult should at least serve to reduce them, if not eliminate.”

Winter Gale however was ready with an answer. “It would be merely trading quantity for quality. If the spots of violence decrease in number, they would grow in intensity. A matter of little value.”

“Besides, is the securing of power not vital to the path of pill concocting?” Summer Warden broke into the argument. “It’s all about finding gathering spots in the wilds and stopping others from using them. Violence and strength are at the core of pill concocting.”

Hmm, they really get going when I give them the chance to argue. Seems like that competitive spirit is not going to disappear anywhere.

The discussion veered off into a bit of an endless cycle of bickering about whether oversight would be futile or not, so Aki decided to intervene.

“Let us table that discussion for now. So far, the proposals have focused on making it safer to pursue a more non-combat path, but does anyone have proposals for increasing the amount of pill concocting knowledge available?”

That served to cool down the discussion which had been growing rather heated. Everyone paused to think for a moment, before Passionate Seeker offered the first proposal.

“How about something like increasing archive access for the outer sect disciples? Then they would have more access to knowledge on pill concocting.”

“You are yet new to matters of educating, younger sister.” Spring Melt answered. “Disciples at that level would only be overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge available to them, not able to coherently parse insight from it.”

“Learning the ability to parse insights from discordant sources is the point of being an outer sect disciple.” Winter Gale broke in. “If they wish for guidance, they can do sect missions and use the sect points to hire inner sect disciples for tutoring.”

“Indeed,” Summer Warden agreed. “Yet another point on why strength is a necessity, as completing sect missions without it would be a challenge.”

Spring Melt sighed deeply. “Pill concocters generally do not do sect missions, instead contributing their pill quotas for the sect’s usage. The whole issue is that before they have sufficient skill their pills are not worth much. Forcing them on a martial path is a waste of time, as they won’t need it later when they are skilled enough.”

The discussion again began turning into an endless cycle of repetitive arguments. Summer Warden and Winter Gale are getting along surprisingly well here. I wonder how things would change if he learned about those spirit lemons...

Shaking the unnecessary thoughts out of his head, Aki again chose to intervene. He had been getting an idea for at least the beginning of a solution.

“Enough, disciples. It seems that the lack of organised guidance and the need for protection are the two major issues here. I’m not sure how they could be solved once and for all, but I do have an idea for something that could prove useful.”

Everyone calmed down and stopped their arguments, at once paying attention to his words.

Back in Aki’s own university, new students had been placed into tutoring groups led by older students in order to get them easy support. Aki thought the idea could maybe work here, though it would need some testing before it could be refined into something truly workable. Above all, he hoped it would serve as a team-building exercise and build better connections between disciples.

“So far, the outer sect has been mainly focusing on individual competitions, so I have been thinking on the possibility of a large-scale team competition. Participants for the competition would be divided into teams of at least ten, each of which would be led by an older disciple. The competition would comprehensively test that teams possess a versatile set of abilities, as well as the ability to work as a team. The idea behind this would be that the inner sect disciples would strive to improve the skills of their team members in order to secure a win.”

“The team leader’s disciples will not be participating in the final competition itself. The training period of the competition would last for a period of at least a few months, after which the final competition itself would be held. What are your thoughts on this competition?”

Aki turned to look over his disciples, secretly hoping that someone would be brave enough to contradict him.

“Having a more experienced disciple giving guidance for a longer period would surely help increase the abilities of disciples considerably. There is wisdom in this plan.” Spring melt answered.

The other disciples also expressed their agreement with organising such a competition. I guess I couldn’t quite get them argumentative enough to disagree with me directly.

“The details of the competition will be decided in detail later. The main duty of organising it will fall on Spring Melt. I am still undecided on whether the team leaders would be inner sect disciples, or just more experienced outer sect disciples.”

Aki then began on his next decision.

“I also find the idea of limiting violence in the outer sect intriguing, so we will at least experimentally make the rules on that stricter. Winter Gale will be in charge of drafting a plan for this.”

The black-clad woman seemed rather surprised to be chosen for the task as she had been against the whole thing, but Aki had his reasons. She definitely seems the most capable of seeing loopholes in such rules and so should prove suitable to penning them.

Next it was time for phase one of Aki’s plan to make the sect relax more. If he wanted lasting change, he needed to be able to justify it. I have to be careful about this. The values in this world are set rather firm. For a man of science, the road to such justifications was clear. Aki stood up to address everyone and conjured a [PowerPoint] presentation to describe his initiative.

“This is a sperate matter, but recently I have been interested in investigating whether worldly attachments truly affect cultivation speed to the extent that is believed. Therefore, I will be performing an experiment. A representative sample of outer sect disciples will have some changes made to their schedule. For the duration of the experiment, they are to sleep at least 7 hours a day, eat three filling meals, and have at least two hours of free time dedicated to leisure activities. Their cultivation progress will be monitored during the experiment and compared with another sample of disciples attending to the usual schedule.”

The [PowerPoint] presentation had simple figures and images to show what he meant by representative samples and measurements. Aki turned his gaze to Passionate Seeker. I want to turn her into a proper scientific scholar, so this will be the first step for her.

“Apprentice, you will be in charge of organising and monitoring the experiment. I will provide instruction on how to organise such experiments and record their results later. I wish for some experiment participants to also take part in the upcoming contest.”

Aki dismissed his presentation and sat down. He looked at his disciples who had been listening to him attentively. He had managed to get them debating together, but they were not yet truly a team. It was time for the final, and perhaps most critical matter of the council meeting.

To make his disciples behave more casually with each other, he needed to loosen their tongues and break down the barriers they were keeping up. Luckily, he had a secret weapon ready. One of the ultimate social lubricants was about to be introduced to the cultivation world.

“Now, disciple Summer Warden. I believe your experiments have been finding success, and an initial sample has been prepared. Let us all test it.”

Yes, it was time to break out the alcohol and start the council meeting after-party!