Enemies Chapter 44: Critical Secluded Cultivation

Translated by Ceti of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

Chu WuQing never thought that he had the ability to move freely in the den of thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators and a Golden Core cultivator. He raised the speed of his flying boat to the extreme after the release of the signal. In a few breaths, he reached the Green Jade Peak where the Xuan Shan Patriarch was in seclusion.

The female cultivator was let off the boat by Chu WuQing. She was lost in thoughts as she stared at Chu WuQing’s figure that had gone deep into the Green Jade Peak. Only until Chu WuQing disappeared did she suddenly hear the sect’s warning bell ringing.

The sound of the forty nine tolls of the gigantic bell enveloped the whole mountain range. Each toll was extremely heavy as it fell on the female cultivator’s heart. She knew that she had caused a great disaster.

Even abolishing her cultivation and expeling her from the sect was not enough to make up for this great disaster.

The female cultivator’s heart was full of panic and confusion, but it was mixed with indescribable and complex feelings. Her fingers trembled as she touched her waist and felt the white silk that person bound to her waist. It seemed to still carry his body temperature when she touched it. Then, she took back her finger and licked it. What she tasted was that person’s unique and cold fragrance.

The female cultivator’s face was pale, but her nape and ear lobes were covered with a blush that was hard to suppress. Just as she was feeling extremely conflicted, the shackles on her waist disappeared. A strand of silver hair fell from her waist as the white silk disappeared.

The female cultivator quickly grasped the strand of hair, which was so thin that she was afraid to break it by grasping it a little too tightly. The stand glowed with a cold light in the sun and faint flush climbed from her ears to her cheeks. Although she was still flustered, the female cultivator carefully put her hair in her fragrance sachet and wore it close to her body. She turned around and determinedly flew to the main hall where the sect was gathered. She thought to herself that if this happened again, she would still be bewitched by the youngster. No one in the world could resist such bewitchment…

As the Patriarch was a Critical Secluded Cultivation, there was not even a single person guarding the entire Green Jade Peak. Instead, it was full of layers of restriction seals. These restriction seals may be a work of art in the lower realm, but they were extremely common in the middle realm and even Chu WuQing could easily break them.

However, Chu WuQing did not completely break the array. He only opened a space large enough to form an entrance. Then he took out Gu Yu’s restriction seal and placed it at the entrance to seal it off from the XiaoShan Sect members who came running over when they heard the news.

The entire cave was narrow and long, cramped and dark, without any spiritual energy. Even the passageway was covered with spider webs and there was a damp and decaying smell. No one would have imagined that this was the seclusion cave of the Founding Patriarch. 

Chu WuQing took out the luminous Night Peal and walked to the end of the passage. The narrow space suddenly opened up, but the smell of decay became heavier.

There were all kinds of high-level magic items here once and it was full of ingenious decorations. But now they had all decayed and were just scrap iron.

Patriarch Xuan Shan was sitting on the praying mat. The praying mat under him was half-submerged into the ground and the dried grass that made up the mat had scattered. Even his robe was stained with layers of filthy soil.

But all this did not affect the bearing of the Xuan Shan Patriarch at all. Chu WuQing thought he would see an old man covered with wrinkles whose foundation was on the verge of collapse due to a lack of spiritual energy.

However, sitting on the praying mat was a youngster who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. His features were extremely gorgeous. Even though his eyes were closed and he lost the majesty from his Nascent Soul cultivation, the aura from his body was still powerful enough to frighten everyone under the heavens. This caused those who saw his body to kneel on the ground in worship due to their knees weakening, instead of exclaiming in admiration at his appearance.

It was to the extent that they would feel that this dilapidated cave was extremely dazzling.

Chu WuQing was born in a rich and powerful clan. He had seen countless powerhouses and was extremely proud. Naturally, he would not be deterred by the aura of the Xuan Shan Patriarch. However, he also felt momentarily astonished.

This astonishment was only because the appearance and temperament of the Xuan Shan Patriarch was too different from what he had imagined. However, he soon recovered.

A tree is known by its fruit and a man by his deeds. Chu WuQing knew that no matter how powerful he was, there was the Middle Realm above the Lower Realm. Though their Chu Clan was in control of the Middle Realm, it was impossible to make the Xuan Shan Patriarch obey him.

This was the pride and aloofness of a genius, and also an indelible enmity.

Other cultivators may not know, but how could the Patriarch Xuan Shan, who was unable to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, fail to realize that the loss of spiritual energy in the lower realm was not due to the permanence of the heavens? How could the spiritual energy be unable to support the people forming their Nascent Soul all of a sudden? It must be because someone deliberately broke the balance and stole the spiritual energy gathered in the lower realm.

When Xuan Shan was breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, even the world’s consciousness was in agreement with him. The Lower Realm wanted Xuan Shan to recover everything on its behalf and wanted the Lower Realm to return to its former prosperity.

It used the power of the realm to create a descending propitious cloud in the sky to let Xuan Shan form his core, wanting to let Xuan Shan walk out of this environment that had been invaded, yet it still resulted in a failure.

The world’s consciousness resonated with Xuan Shan and all the truth was obtained by him.

An intense and deep-seated hatred that continued from generation to generation. The Lower Realm had no Nascent Soul cultivators and even heaven-sent geniuses could only cultivate up to the Golden Core stage. It had to look on helplessly as their life ran out and their cultivation collapsed.

Perhaps Xuan Shan would kill him the first moment he woke up and offer the Chu Clan’s blood to the lower realm in sacrifice.

Chu WuQing patted Xuan Shan’s cheek, “It’s a pity that you can’t get revenge in this lifetime.”

Xuan Shan had not died. It was only because the spiritual energy was cut off when he was half a step into the Nascent Soul stage and his rate of absorption could not keep up with the rate of consumption of spiritual energy. Thus, his body fell into a state of suspended animation and he still had a trace of consciousness, but was unable to move his physical body.

He could only helplessly watch the spiritual energy drain away day after day and look on helplessly as the organs in his body failed. Hundreds of years had passed and Xuan Shan’s life was almost at an end…

His consciousness was clear at times and hazy at others. No matter how much hatred he had, it was grinded down to dust while he was absolutely helpless, leaving only infinite regret. When he was clear-headed, he wanted to have a look at the sect he founded himself and see whether his eldest disciple had already formed his core…

He wanted to know whether his sect was flourishing or dying out, and whether the traditions were passed on or cut off. However, his divine senses that were in the process of Critical Secluded Cultivation were trapped in the cave and he could not see nor hear anything.

When he was feeling hazy and his mind was filled with chaos, small flashes of his memories of his life would flash through his mind. From the high-spiritedness in his youth, to the feeling of the world in his hands when he was middle-aged; of the time when he thought that immortality was within his grasp. He thought that he could change the fate of the whole cultivation world when he formed a Nascent Soul. Then the spiritual energy suddenly disappeared and his half Nascent Soul stage was shattered. He then had to enter Critical Secluded Cultivation to prolong his life.

He was extremely weak at that time, and relied on his great willpower to continue on. He wanted to leave a glimmer of hope for the sect, to leave a facade of his promising breakthrough in the realm.

Only in this way could he protect the XiaoShan Sect from invasion. Then, he let his body gradually decline.

Recently, the times when he was clear-headed was becoming lesser and lesser. What he saw in the chaos was not only the scenes of worship, but also occasional flashes of the future of the XiaoShan Sect. In a trance, he saw the emergence of the Immortal Abode, and saw countless people rush into the Lower Realm to fight and kill over it. Then, one by one, he saw the disciples of the XiaoShan Sect fall into a pool of blood…

His eldest disciple blew himself up.

The moment Chu WuQing came in, Xuan Shan almost thought that it was a hallucination and he was still in a chaotic illusion. He could not see WuQing’s appearance, but could feel that it was an extremely young body with a sunny and spirited vitality, which was the complete opposite of his declining and decaying body.

He still could not see his face when he got closer, but he could clearly see his temperament. It was a temperament that Xuan Shan had never seen before. It was like moonlight shining into a dense forest as it broke the eternal silence in the darkness and illuminated his defeated heart.

It’s like an Immortal from a folklore who came down from his lofty cloud to lead him to another nation.

He himself was a cultivator aiming for immortality. This type of legend was ridiculous, but it moved his lonely and exhausted heart at this moment. He even felt that it was good to die under such an illusion.

However, the youngster did not lead him away after approaching. Instead, he rudely patted him on the cheek in a frivolous manner. After such a long time, he had forgotten the sensation of having a foreign object touching his face.

He only felt the cool fingers of the youngster. The pads of his fingers were extremely fine and smooth, and he could tell that this person had come from an influential family the moment it touched his skin. This person had grown up with a myriad of people doting on him and had never suffered nor experienced the slightest wearnieness.

The chilly and delicate fragrance wafted off the young man’s finger and sank down. This touch was not painful. Instead, it seemed to contain an electric current and brought about a strange itching sensation in his heart, so much so that he did not feel that this action was rude. On the contrary, he hoped that the youngster’s movements would be larger and let Xuan Shan feel that he was truly alive.

Xuan Shan got a fright once this thought surfaced. This was not an illusion. Finally, he understood what the youngster was saying.

“You can’t get revenge in this lifetime.” The outsiders who controlled the Cultivation World, that group of people who was above the Cultivation World!

Xuan Shan was still aware despite his body being in a state of suspended animation, He could clearly feel that the cultivation of this youngster was just at Foundation Establishment. A Foundation Establishment cultivator could be so rude towards him and even say such contemptuous words.

He could imagine what those people viewed the Cultivation World as. They were just like animals raised in captivity. Who would care about an animal’s cultivation or its life and death?

So much so that even a low-level cultivator could insult them at will.

Just as Xuan Shan was thinking about whether to mobilize the last traces of his life force to self-destruct and kill the arrogant young generation from the higher realm, Chu WuQing’s voice sounded again, “In fact, I also hate the Chu Clan. But who asked me to be a member of the Chu Clan? Now is not the time, don’t worry, your vengeance will be carried out by someone three hundred years later and the whole Chu Clan will perish.”

Chu WuQing’s attitude was no longer casual and reckless when he said this. His tone was full of hatred and cruelty that he did not realize. He certainly loathed Lin Yi.

How could he love the Chu Clan who personally handed him over to Lin Yi in exchange for peace for the clan in his last life? Those were his relatives, the family he trusted all his life, yet they personally handed himself over to his enemies to humiliate him.

Even if Chu HuanZhi came out from his cultivation and exterminated the whole Chu Clan with a single sword afterwards, it could not offset this hatred.

The resentfulness was so vivid that it caused the voice of the young man to shake, scattering all his arrogance and willfulness. Xuan Shan’s heart wrenched uncontrollably, he wanted to smooth the youngster’s brows and pull him into his arms to comfort him.

How, how could someone have the heart to smash that pride that was as high as a cloud in the sky?

Chu WuQing did not know that Xuan Shan’s consciousness was still present. He was just talking to himself. After patting Xuan Shan’s cheek, Chu WuQing touched his storage bag and a Lin Jade box appeared in his hand.

A pill was placed inside the box when it was opened. Extremely dense spiritual energy fluctuations came off the pill and even the dilapidated abode glowed with a trace of vitality.

However, it was a poison pill.

Chu WuQing felt somewhat distressed. There was only one pill of this poison and it was something that Chu HuanZhi had paid a huge price to get. Once it was used, there would be no such pills left. He would be able to control the soul of a Nascent Soul cultivator if it was ingested by one, even if he was just at the Foundation Establishment stage.

But this pill had to enter the Nascent Soul cultivator’s Dantian before it could take effect completely. One might well ask, which Nascent Soul cultivator, who was not a subordinate, would submit to a Foundation Establishment cultivator and swallow such a drug? Killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator was just like killing ants even for a seriously injured Nascent Soul cultivator.

It was because of this reason that Chu HuanZhi was able to get him one pill. Otherwise, even Chu HuanZhi would not be able to snatch it.

Chu WuQing put the pill into Xuan Shan’s mouth.

The youngster’s fingertips touched Xuan Shan’s lips. Xuan Shan didn’t know what this youngster wanted to do. He just felt a boom in his mind. He had been cultivating his Path for three hundred years and no one had ever done such an intimate act to him.

The nerves on the lips were originally dense and sensitive. There was a strange feeling in the lips teased by the youngster, just like someone had scratched them with a feather. The feeling slowly spread from his lips to the itchiest part of his heart, producing a kind of indescribable throbbing.

It was obviously not enough to push the pill past Xuan Shan’s lips. Though Chu WuQing somewhat abhorred it, now was not the time for him to feel this way. He continued pushing the pill and pried open Xuan Shan’s teeth.

In this way, Xuan Shan’s lips enveloped the youngster’s delicate and long fingers, and his tongue slid from the tips to the middle of his fingers because of the youngster’s movements. The skin that entered his mouth was delicate and tender and the cold fragrance tasted more delicious than what he had smelled.

Xuan Shan thought that this was really against the rules in his heart. No matter what this youngster wanted to do, he still shouldn’t do such an act that would be hurting himself. He was really too young and did not know how sinister the hearts of people could be.

Xuan Shan refused this in his heart. He felt that the action was too intimate, but it was hard to restrain a trace of desire that emerged. This desire just arose and he felt it was rude and blasphemous, yet he longed for such desecration. 

When Chu WuQing pushed the pills into Xuan Shan’s throat, he took out his fingers and washed them with fresh water that he transformed before wiping them with a handkerchief. Then he stroked Xuan Shan’s lower jaw with a finger.

Chu WuQing formed the sword gesture with his fingers ¹ and activated his spiritual energy. The pill then went down the Xuan Shan’s throat. When it passed the Adam’s apple, the movement of his spiritual energy became slightly sluggish. Chu WuQing had to press on Xuan Shan’s Adam’s apple, and his fingertip followed Xuan Shan’s Adam’s apple as it made a loop before the pill went down smoothly.

Chu WuQing simply knelt down on Xuan Shan’s body for convenience’s sake.

There was a trace of its effect after the pill passed through Xuan Shan’s throat. Even if Xuan Shan’s body had deteriorated and his consciousness was sluggish, he knew that the young man had fed him poison. At the same time, he felt a stab of pain in his divine senses.

Yes, although he was about to die, the soul of a Nascent Soul was still of great value. If it could be taken out and attached to a Spiritual Item, it would greatly increase the power of the Spiritual Item.

Xuan Shan was suspicious about what the youngster had come here for. He even thought that the youngster was after the things hidden in his storage bag, but he never imagined that the youngster was actually after his soul!

He was the founder, whom even the lack of heavenly law could not prevent from breaking the shackles of a Golden Core cultivator and reaching the stage where he was half a step into Nascent Soul. Yet, when all was said and done, he ended up as a Spiritual Item.

Xuan Shan knew that he was completely incapable of resisting. He also knew that the only way to preserve his final dignity and warn the sect was to self-destruct on the spot.

This self-destruction was actually a type of relief for him. Every minute and second of living was a great suffering. It was only for the sake of the sect he had established that he had survived until now.

But he felt some attachment at this moment, and even forcibly persuaded himself to wait a little longer and see what would happen. To wait until the youngster brought him out of this place where he was in Critical Secluded Cultivation before self-destructing. This could shock the sect and allow him to transmit his dying words.

The youngster was kneeling on his lap and was practically resting all of his weight on Xuan Shan’s body. He was so close that he could feel the youngster’s breath and smell the cold fragrance of his body diffusing through his clothes.

In order to make it more convenient to transport the pill into Xuan Shan’s Dantian, Chu WuQing simply untied his clothes, exposing his entire upper body to the air.

Xuan Shan did not understand what the youngster wanted to do. He wanted to extract his soul… Then…  then why did he need to take off his clothes? 

He berated Chu WuQing for his rudeness in his heart, but his ear lobe was covered with a faint red flush. However, this flush was too faint and Chu WuQing, who focused on the pill, did not discover this at all.

Chu WuQing’s ice-cold finger trailed down his neck, following the meridians to guide the scattered medicinal energy to the Dantian. The pads of his fingers rose and fell along the muscles of Xuan Shan’s chest. Sometimes, he even drew a circle because of the sluggishness of his spiritual energy, before finally stopping three finger widths below the navel.

Xuan Shan only felt that every minute of Chu WuQing’s fingers trailing on his body was an exceptional torment. A strange feeling, akin to an electric current, was transmitted through Chu WuQing’s fingers to his nerves, his limbs and the numerous bones in his body. It brought an itchiness that intoxicated his entire heart but made it feel empty at the same time, and even his scalp became numb.

Then, it finally stopped at that kind of shameful place.

Xuan Shan’s muscles were not too exaggerated. It was the most attractive and smooth muscular lines that only belonged to a youth. Attached to his skeleton was a six-pack on his abdomen that was not too thin or thick. His fair skin glowed with a jade-like luster, but this beauty did not detract from his masculinity, which made Chu WuQing a little jealous.

After his finger stopped on Xuan Shan’s abdominal muscle, Chu WuQing couldn’t resist the urge to press it. When he used his palm to guide the medicinal energy, he put extra force into it, wanting to leave a humiliating red mark on Xuan Shan’s skin.

But he was just a Foundation Establishment cultivator and Xuan Shan was at the Nascent Soul stage. How would he be able to leave the slightest mark? It just infinitely amplified and transmitted the touch of his palm to Xuan Shan’s nerves, Xuan Shan’s mind and Xuan Shan’s racing heart, just like a tease.

When the medicinal energy was completely assimilated, Xuan Shan felt that his soul seemed to have established an inexpressible connection with the youngster. This connection made him unable to fight against the youngster. The youngster could even make Xuan Shan obey his orders through a specific skill.

Xuan Shan withdrew his divine senses and let his perception plunge into darkness. Next, should be the pain of his soul being pulled out.

Chu WuQing stood up and looked at the seated Nascent Soul cultivator whose clothes were in a sorry state because of his actions. Even so, this did not detract from his bearing at all. On the contrary, the damage to his clothes added a different charm, one of unruliness and uninhibitedness.

Chu WuQing thought to himself, this Xuan Shan should be very useful, even just the use of his aura could frighten many enemies.

The reason for the deterioration of Xuan Shan’s body was very simple – it was because there was not enough spiritual energy to consolidate the slowly crumbling foundations of his Nascent Soul. His body was like a black hole that absorbed all the spiritual energy around him, causing the entire abode to become a place with no spiritual energy.

It was easy to save Xuan Shan. Chu WuQing took out a couple top-grade spirit stones and began to set up a high ranking Spirit Gathering Array.

When the first spirit stone was placed down, Xuan Shan felt a vast and enormous energy that rushed into his body and caused a trace of vitality to appear in his decaying organs.

A top-grade spirit stone!

As long as one was a cultivator, they would know the value of the top-grade spirit stones. Even Xuan Shan could only gather eleven top-grade spirit stones in his entire lifetime, but these eleven stones were enough to make the whole Cultivation World feel envious.

Yet, this youngster who was at Foundation Establishment could casually take out one stone. This showed how powerful the clan he came from was and what kind of position he had in the clan.

The youngster did not intend to extract his soul, but wanted to save him instead. Did he want a living Nascent Soul cultivator?

This kind of thinking was really egotistical. He really didn’t know the immensity of the universe, and did not know how to cherish these precious spirit stones. This was a Cultivation World that was lacking heavenly laws, and also a Cultivation World where Nascent Soul cultivators were not allowed to appear.

For five thousand years, it had been so for generation to generation.

In the past, he had staked his life and entered all kinds of dangerous situations in exchange for eleven spirit stones. All of them were spent on his ascension to Nascent Soul. In the end, he still failed. How could one spirit stone be enough?

Xuan Shan could not help feeling his heart ache on this youngster’s behalf. Maybe his clan had protected him too well and he did not know what a high grade spirit stone represented. It was enough to entice the entire Cultivation World to take action and rob him once it was brought out into the open. Yet, he so easily spent it on Xuan Shan.

There were still many times when he had to use spirit stones in the future. He was still young and may be able to rely on the powerful elders in his clan to get a high grade spirit stone, but how could such a precious thing be given to a youngster in the Foundation Establishment stage in the future?

Unless the person in power wanted the whole clan to be ruined because of him doting on the youngster.

It didn’t need to be mentioned that this high grade spirit stone should be used when he was in a life-threatening situation. At the very least, it should be used when he was forming a core. This youngster completely had no idea how much more possibilities a high grade spirit stone could give when forming a core.

“Stop, quickly stop…” Xuan Shan anxiously shouted in his heart, but Chu WuQing could not hear it at all.

Chu WuQing placed the spirit stone that was the keystone of the array down. After measuring and calculating, he quickly took out seven stones and arranged them around the keystone of the array. Extremely dense spiritual energy appeared in the abode in an instant, and it was so rich that it turned into a mist.

However, most of the spiritual energy converged into a long dragon that entered Xuan Shan’s body and made him muddled.

How was it possible? He could let it pass if a youngster in the Foundation Establishment stage had a top-grade spirit stone, but how could he take out seven more? This was totally contrary to common sense. What kind of clan and what kind of elders would let a Foundation Establishment cultivator carry so many high grade spirit stones?

Xuan Shan could not help but surmise that the youngster had secretly taken them away without the permission of his clan.

What a waste, what a waste ah. With eight high grade spirit stones, he would not have to worry about having insufficient spiritual energy when cultivating in the Outer Realm, and would not have to worry about whether he could smoothly breakthrough to the Golden Core stage, and then ascend to the Nascent Soul stage.

Although Xuan Shan was shocked, the eight spirit stones could only extend his life that was on the verge of being extinguished. It was impossible for him to recover, let alone ascend to Nascent Soul and emerge from his Secluded Cultivation with this.

But soon, Xuan Shan felt that there was a new Spirit Gathering Array in the southwest and a large amount of spiritual energy flowed in in an instant.

How could it be?! Sixteen high grade spirit stones?

Before Xuan Shan could digest this shocking news.

Chu WuQing quickly swiped his storage bag with a serious look and several high grade spirit stones rolled out of the storage bag and fell into the array under the guidance of the spiritual energy from his fingertips.

There were a total of fifty six high grade spirit stones at his front and back, and there were seven Spirit Gathering Arrays around Xuan Shan, forming a high-level Spirit Gathering Array. Moreover, the place where Xuan Shan was meditating was the keystone location.

At the moment the Greater Array formed, the extremely dense spiritual energy turned into a storm. Even if there were restriction seals covering his tracks, a portion of the spiritual energy rushed out of the Green Jade Peak and formed a tornado of spiritual energy.

This strange occurrence immediately alarmed the members of the XiaoShan Sect who had assembled.

Elder Yuan gathered everyone to form a Greater Array in the main hall, “Once the array is completed, follow me to the Green Jade Peak immediately. We must not let that thief startle the Patriarch.”

With a wave of Elder Yuan’s hand, the female cultivator kneeling in the main hall was swept out of the hall by the wave of spiritual energy. Her meridians shattered and she vomited a mouthful of blood.

“Her cultivation will be abolished when Chu WuQing is captured.” The female cultivator was immediately dragged down to the Punishment Hall. She was filled with despair as she was dragged away.

She knew that the Punishment Hall would not wait for Chu WuQing to be arrested before punishing her. They would even add on other personal punishments.

It was reasonable if she was pursued by all the male cultivators as a female cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage. As for why she was sent to guard the main gate? It was only because she offended the daughter of the Master of the Punishment Hall.

The reason for this offense was because she had ascended to Foundation Establishment before the spoiled and pampered girl, and was more beautiful than her, which induced her jealousy. Even so, she did not ask any powerful attendants who peered at her beauty for help. Instead, she resolutely chose to guard the main gate and keep her silence.

All of a sudden, a series of explosions was heard and a huge wave of energy appeared at the top of the Green Jade Peak, exposing the whole mountain range. Elder Yuan, who was originally worried, fell into ecstasy, “It’s the Patriarch, the Patriarch is going to break through to the Nascent Soul stage again. My XiaoShan Sect will have joyous news.”

The female cultivator who was dragged away also saw the spiritual energy tornado rising into the sky. Their sect would have the first omniscient existence at Nascent Soul in the Cultivation World. All this would have nothing to do with her who was going to have her cultivation abolished and be expelled from the mountain…

The entire XiaoShan Sect fell into unprecedented excitement the moment the tornado appeared. Just as the XiaoShan Sect was on the decline and everyone thought that the Patriarch would soon die, he actually began to ascend to the Nascent Soul stage.

The XiaoShan Sect had great luck!

 

Elder Yuan excitedly waved his arm, “Quick! Quickly go to the Green Jade Peak. We must catch Chu WuQing. It’s my incompetence to let a thief intrude into the place where the Patriarch is in secluded cultivation. We don’t need to arrest him any more, just hack him into ten thousand pieces. How can we let the Patriarch be startled by such a person and let him be disappointed with our current strength?”