Theo's gamble

"I don't think the lies that you uttered befit the honor that comes along with your post!" Theo concluded his litany with not an insult, but a challenge.

A challenge to the honor of the man who held the third most important position within the entire sect.

A challenge, that the other party wouldn't be able to ignore.

'Still nothing?' Theo thought, desperately peering into the details of his system.

A few seconds passed, but no change to Theo's system came. It was still stuck in the installation phase.

And in those few short seconds, the elder managed to come back to his senses.

'The time on my gamble is running short, come on!' Theo desperately wished upon his system, hoping for some sort of a triumph card activating at the very last moment.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Theo uttered in an extremely tiny voice. It was his reaction to the elder standing up from his pillow… and his system refusing to finish this damn installation!

'Do I really have to go through with this?' Theo nearly uttered this question out loud.

"Those are some pretty harsh words for you to throw around," the elder said in a low, guttural voice.

He no longer brushed his long, white beard with his hand. He now held both of his arms locked behind his back and his chin raised high up.

He stepped forward with the full weight of the authority that sat on his shoulders. As he looked down, the might of the entire sect gazed from the heights upon Theo's lowly existence.

'There is no other choice,' Theo gulped his saliva down. 'Let's go all fucking in!'

"You never did any of the things you claim you did," Theo uttered right into the elder's face.

'First, agitate,' the young man thought, moving over to the next phase of his last-ditch strategy.

"You decided that I would never make it back to the top, so you didn't give me even a single chance to do so," Theo explained his grievances in the calmest voice he could muster.

The hints of his rage and desperation flashed in his eyes… but kept away from his throat, allowing him to score some discussion points.

"You didn't stop the daily beatings that would often leave me in the infirmary. Half the time I spent in this sect I wasted lying in the sickbed rather than training!" Theo raised his voice a little, trying his best to show intense agitation.

'And now, a suggestion,' Theo thought.

He received close to no information about his system. And yet, after analyzing it hard enough, he realized this system told him something.

And right now, stuck in the absolute corner, what else could Theo use if not the stop-gap measure?

'I prepared the ground and set everything up for this play,' Theo thought, taking a deep breath as he prepared himself for the next moment. 'If it won't work, then I won't be able to hold anything against myself.'

Theo accepted the possible fate that would come in just the next moment. Because he did everything he could, to the extent that his intelligence and wits allowed.

"What the…" the elder managed to utter two words. And from the looks on his face, he was genuinely shocked by Theo's ranty confessions.

"You want to cut me loose after taking the most of my talent?!" Theo asked in a now fully raised voice. And by bringing up the way in which the elder exploited his early achievements, he now ensured the elder wouldn't just deny the entire situation.

After all, stealing Theo's private resources was a crime of corruption that the sect wouldn't allow to pass.

It was one thing if an unknown, low-level disciple was bullied within a division. But it would be a whole different thing altogether if someone dared to indulge themselves too much!

'Keep the emotions constant, bring a satisfying conclusion to the situation,' Theo thought, taking another deep breath as he prepared to deliver the final strike.

'I won't let you force me out before giving me a chance to prove myself.'

A sentence appeared in Theo's mind.

He didn't come up with it. It was a clear invasion, a stray thought that suddenly materialized itself in his thoughts.

"I won't let you force me out before giving me a chance to prove myself!" Theo's lips involuntarily uttered the words out loud.

And by some miracle, all of Theo's expression, his voice, his mimicry… All of them perfectly matched the words.

The elder's face froze.

His hand moved up only to start slowly combing through the long, white hair of the elder's beard.

Something clicked in Theo's soul. As if a certain piece of his soul finally fell into its place.

The look behind the elder's eyes changed a little.

It was a small, insignificant twitch.

But with how focused Theo was, this detail didn't escape his eyes.

The elder's hand moved up his beard only for the man to end up massaging his chin instead.

"It so happens the sect got too many disciples this season," the elder slowly muttered. He kept looking up, somewhere into the sky, clearly refusing to look down into Theo's eyes.

"And we don't have enough seniors to train them," the elder added, developing his story a bit.

Then, the old man finally looked down. And this time he didn't avoid Theo's dark stare.

"I will send you a batch of a hundred freshlings," the elder spoke in a calm, composed voice. "Go through with the selection and bring at least five of them to the first stage in the next three weeks!"

The elder's voice filled the room.

One of the elder's direct disciples gulped his saliva down.

Those orders… were as far from common as they could be!

Normally, once one would be summoned to the elder's abode, they would either get promoted, demoted, or kicked out of the sect. When Theo came here, everyone expected him to be presented with the last of the three options.

And yet, the elder now… gave him a chance?

The rest of the elder's direct disciples started blankly at Theo's still enraged face.

They gave HIM… a chance?

Theo tensed up. He had to bite down on his teeth to keep his mouth from trembling.

'I just bought myself three weeks,' Theo thought, gritting his teeth to the point his jaws started to rattle. 'And I got myself into a way deeper shit,' he thought, raising his eyes to the elder.

The old man had misinterpreted the meaning of Theo's look. Surprisingly, his expression softened a little as he stopped abusing the aura of authority.

"You did well in the early stage of your training," the elder said, sparing the first word of praise Theo heard in years. "If you can at least pass your cultivation method to the next generation, I will approve your worth to the sect," the elder said, raising his eyes and looking directly into Theo's face. "If you succeed, I will give you two more years. But if you fail…"