In a secluded room accessible by only a handful of people in the entire sect, two people were talking.

Both looked incredibly young and if not for their snow-white hair and aged demeanor they would be mistaken as incredibly handsome young men.

In truth, they were in the second millennia of their life, and heavens willing they would have many more.

In this time they had seen countless cultivators rise and fall, many of whom could even boast power stronger than themselves. But all of them had fallen their names and deeds lost in legend. And across all that time, these two have stood, happy in their current position and with no motivation to move either up or down.

It did not mean either of the men was weak by any measure.

The man in green robes had once split open the sky with a mere chop of his arm and was the person responsible for the floating islands that make the core sect.

The man in dark gold flattened the land, and created and shaped the sect mountain by hand. And if that was not all, he had made the original city over a thousand years ago which was the foundation for the current one by himself.

But they would not flaunt their power, they did not need to. No, they had found that quiet was the most effective for their purposes especially if they wanted their eternal life to be eternal.

Which made the current situation particularly irritating.

There would always be irregulars, that was the way of things.

Recently, however, there were too many of them being extremely active at the same time.

"This old man has it up to his neck in how much he can tolerate in his beloved sect." said the man in green in a very grumbly tone, yet there was a melodic edge like the wind itself refined his words.

"Inner sect elder Belial is being a particular thorn on this old's man side. Pruning his demons has become particularly annoying." said the man in dark gold, his voice as steady as stone.

Both of them sat across from each other on a low table having a cup of tea and playing a game of Go. From the casual way everything was set on would not think they were currently judging the lives of the heaven's chosen masters in the sect

"This impotent Belial and his delusions of grandeur. Honestly, if not for the valuable knowledge on demons he was unwittingly providing to the sect, this old man would have flattened him years ago." said the man in green as he took a sip of his tea and made a move.

"Ah, yes... We can only thank the heavens that Lucia has yet to discover him... This old man does not want to know what shenanigans that whore come up with." replied the dark gold man.

Given the norm of the cultivation, calling anyone a whore was like calling water wet. But the woman was an arch-succubus in a woman's skin. Just recently she was using a contraband spatial product to send her breasts and genitals into the heart of a bandit camp to get used and abused.

Even that would have been okay, after all, she was the head of the inner sect, and she was allowed some freedom. What was not allowed was the way she influenced their disciples.

Both men never kept any disciples or even Dao companions higher than a nascent soul, or heaven forbid, a cauldron. This allowed all their disciples to have an expiry date and be beneath them which both men preferred. Problem was that seeing Lucia made their disciples particularly brave and seek more freedom than they were allowed.

When they had learned both grand elders could not do much outside of threatening, they had taken even more advantage. The youngster sect master had put both of them under an aegis, a form of spiritual contract that enforced compliance. This forced them to keep and train a minimum of six disciples at a time of at least the nascent soul. So, they had been using the ignorance of the younger generation to their advantage.

Lucia came in and blew that door open. If her meteoric rise to the top, where she surpassed even the current sect master in her breakthrough speeds, they would have her squashed. As it was, they had her under their sway... Both the men's groins ached in fear at the she-demon's insatiability. But tag-teaming the monster had been worth it as, under their command, she was much more 'mellow' than before.

"How did this new prodigy pass by unnoticed?" asked the man in green, for the umpteenth time.

Samuel was the newest headache they had to deal with. Because he also empowered their disciples especially since they had yet to squash the effects Lucia had on their disciples.

The man was idiotic and oblivious. Even recently he had invited a demon into his home and was so green behind the ears that he could not tell the difference.

"If only this old man had caught him sooner..." lamented the dark gold man.

If they had caught the problem sooner when the man was far weaker, they would have enticed him to join a better sect and even given him treasures to move that process along. That was how they kept the status quo.

The men would never harm a righteous cultivator, that would be beneath them not to mention that the 'Great War' always needed more able bodies. But he had become so strong that removing him from the sect would run counter to their aegis.

So they tried some underhanded tactics to make his cauldron feel unwanted and depressed. They might have even added slight mental suggestions to the mix, courtesy of the knowledge gained from the demons. Given how much the man seemed to dote on the disciple, they thought it at least stirred the heaven's chosen.

But nope, the man was too stupid to realize even that. How could someone so great in cultivation be so naive in everything else... Maybe it was because of it? They did not know and it did not matter.

It had gotten to the point that they sincerely hoped the demon could corrupt him(something they knew was very unlikely to happen) or make him grow up. That was the only reason she was not being 'pruned' at the moment.

"That demon wench, why not make them sign a contract?" said the green man thinking.

"Hmm?!" asked the dark gold man shocked at his words.

"It would make heaven's chosen 'stronger'. An objective in line with our leash. Then we can use the excuse of him being a demonic cultivator to kick him out." continued the green man.

"Ahh! Hmmm... This old man thinks he can do you one better. Why not have them bind souls? Like how the cauldron system works?" asked the dark gold man.

"What?! No!!! His future in our sect should be the only thing hurt. This old man will not destroy the future of one with so much potential. If anything, this old man thinks we should guide him to one of the elite righteous sects. If he foolishly falls in love with the demon and wishes to stay with the demon. Only then should we wash our hands of him. Maybe then we give him the soul binding and allow his transition into a demonic cultivator to be more smooth." answered the green man.

Even now, the thought of killing the rising cultivator did not cross their minds.

Even if Samuel becomes a demonic cultivator, they would not get in the way of the birth of another soul formation. This realm always needed more of those, regardless of their inclinations.

Demonic cultivators were not 'evil', their cultivation simply could be self-destructive.

Belial was evil because he was a megalomaniac, not because he kept demonic entities under his sway. Even demons were not strictly 'evil', they were just too beholden to their desires which often made them seem 'evil'.

Both men simply wanted a steady life where they would be free to do whatever they wished but they needed to make good of a bad situation since they had a leash.

And do it they shall, because their path was, is, and always will be one of personal freedom.