Pavilion Master's dilemma

"Did the students offend them?" Another elder asked.

"Sword of death Assassin guild do not attack an organization or state when a sin is committed by a few people of that organization or state."

"That's right, they kill the students without giving face to where the students came from. Last year, one of our finest students was killed by a sword of death Assassin member because our student wanted to molest one of their recruits. They didn't touch anyone else, only the offender was killed," An elder in a blue robe spoke up.

"Why are we even scared of them? Aren't we poison masters? We have thousands of students and we have been making preparations for this war for a week now. So why can't we win?" An elder who had been feeling angry over the unnecessary meeting finally couldn't take it anymore and voiced out his thoughts

"You are right, Elder eleven. Our greatest advantage is that they are coming to our turf and have given us a week to prepare before attacking us. We should make sure to teach them a proper lesson," Another elder with a white beard added.

Some elders agreed with him while others disagreed. 

An argument ensued in the hall. The Pavilion master glared at them all and hit the table hard when he couldn't take it anymore.

"Have you all lost your mind?! Do you still have the luxury of time to take a bite at each when your roof is on fire?! It seems you don't know who the leader of the sword of death Assassin guild is. Let me explain to you who he is." 

 Nobody outside the sword of death Assassin guild knows that Su Yue is a woman, so for that, the majority of the people decided to see her as a man…only a man could be so formidable, they thought.

There was a medium organization that caught one of the top fifty Assassins after sacrificing more than a hundred men, just to capture one person to extract information about their master. The organization failed to get anything and the person they caught escaped. A day after, the organization was razed to the ground.  

The pavilion master looked at all the elders who were looking back at him like he was a joke.

"Pavilion master, we already know who they are, there's no need to repeat it to us," An elder resting on his walking stick said and the rest nodded In agreement.

"No, you don't. If you do, you won't dare to open your mouth and tell me not to be afraid and make a backup plan. We have poisons, and so do they. Their poisons are far more advanced than ours, it's not like you don't know that. 

The top fifty members do not play by the rules and as for their leader, he doesn't even know what the word 'RULES' are.

They might have sent us a declaration of war letter, but how do you know if their people aren't already hiding in our academy? You don't expect them not to have spies here, do you?" 

The pavilion master looked at the elders, expecting them to answer him, but to his disappointment, some of them were looking stupidly at him. He slapped the table again and this time, the ink slab fell off the table.

 "Don't tell me you couldn't think of such a small thing!! How will the academy continue to exist with you brainless elders?! Can my successor even rely on you all?!" His face turned ashen.

"Pavilion master, we are sorry for ignoring your presence and fighting amongst ourselves at a time like this. However, we understand what you are saying. Over the week, we have caught tens of spies and none confessed who their leaders are until we forced poisons down their throats. Among those we caught, none was from the sword of death Assassin."

"Hmph," the pavilion master turned his head aggressively in the other direction. All of them annoy him. 

"Will a trained and loyal Assassin like the members of the sword of death Assassins reveal or confess to being spies from their guild? We need to be thorough with the investigation to catch them all." The only elder wearing a green robe that hasn't spoken since finally opened his mouth.

"Forget it. It's already late. We only have today as the last day for preparation. We can't waste our time on spies we might not catch. All we need to do is, keep whatever we have to say here to ourselves." The elder with a walking stick suggested.

"You are right," another agreed. 

"We need a backup plan. If our thousands of students cannot fight against them, we need someone to run to the headquarters to get a backup." An elder in white said and immediately regretted it.

Everyone turned to look at him. 

"You are becoming more and more ridiculous by the day, after this war, you shall be demoted. You will only have to be in charge of accepting new students!" Pavilion master said with suppressed anger in his tone. 

"Pavilion master! Please show mercy. I was wrong," the elder in white got to his knees and kowtowed.

"Show mercy? Are you dead or haven't you been in this sect for so long to know that the headquarters banished us when we let poison master Longwei's female disciple escape the slaughter twenty years ago?!! Get out, leave this meeting and return home, make sure to return on time tomorrow for the battle!" The pavilion master dismissed elder two. He was really pissed to the core. If it wasn't for the battle tomorrow, he would have demoted many of them this minute.

Elder two stood up and bowed before he left with shame and anger. 

After Elder two left, the meeting continued with different suggestions for a backup plan until they settled on accepting help from the other Assassin guilds in exchange for poisons.

Black blood Assassin guild and Dark crawl Assassin guild had immediately approached them with a deal seven days ago. They stated that they would be their backup plan on the condition that after the war, they would return the favor with their most valuable poisons. 

The pavilion master had not wanted to accept because those poisons were their foundation. Giving them out means that they'll be sharing their power, but as it stands now, it was better to have other alternatives than to rely on themselves as the strength of their enemy was not known.