"What?" Sect Leader Su was stunned when he heard the last part, "Their own disciples!?"
"Yes, their own disciples were exploding," Grand Elder nodded with a grave expression, "Not all of them, but there would be someone who would explode any time."
"There was chaos all around. And before the elder could recover, one of the disciples beside him shouted 'those' words and exploded."
"The elder then lost consciousness and was somehow saved by the debris."
Grand Elder took another pause and said, "That is not the end. From the disciple's shout, everyone investigating the incident was sure that there was some relation between the assassins and these disciples who exploded."
"There wasn't a definite confirmed answer to this relation. However, someone proposed a theory which almost everyone agreed on."
"What did the theory say?" Sect Leader Su asked.
"It was said that the words, 'Thousand souls slain for the Demon God,' were not random nonsense but, in fact, they were actually the triggers. Triggers or, in better words, a switch to make the disciples suicidal. But since not all the disciples exploded, it meant that these disciples were somehow related to these assassins."
"As absurd as it sounds, this was the only valid reasoning they could think of. The investigators then termed those disciples as 'Sleeper Cells'."
"Sleeper Cells?"
"Yes. To define them, Sleeper Cells refer to an isolated group of sleeper agents, that lies dormant until it receives orders or decides to act."
"None of them even know if each other existed because the disciples who exploded had no common relations with each other. All of them were random. They most probably only have a common leader, who is the only link between them. They were most probably brainwashed, and 'that' line was most probably a switch, trigger, or a signal for them to wake up and do what they are supposed to do."
"Fuu…" Sect Leader Su let out a long breath, "This theory sounds very hard to believe and there are many assumptions in this. I would be surprised if no one questioned it."
"Some did, but the further investigation only leaned towards this theory. Though I don't know much about the next results, but this theory became a fact by the end of the investigation."
"So, are you trying to say that we have sleeper cells in our sect?" Sect Leader let out the question that was bumping in his head non-stop.
"Yes, I am." Grand Elder nodded.
"But we check everyone's background. It is impossible for someone from an unknown or suspicious background to be a disciple of our sect. This rule was personally made by you."
Grand Elder nodded his head, "It was indeed me who proposed this rule and even forced the sect to follow it. This rule didn't strike me for no reason, but it was after the Yin Yang Sects massacre that I was forced to think about a way to prevent such an incident from happening in our sect."
He then let out a sigh, "Clearly I have failed to stop such a thing."
Sect Leader Su pursed his lips, "If you had told everyone the truth of that incident, you wouldn't have faced any opposition, especially my opposition. I had thought this was just a waste of our resources."
"I wish I could," Grand Elder let out a wry smile, "The Crimson Pavilion and the Xu Royal Clan had made everyone bind fate lines to make us never reveal this secret."
"Then why did you reveal now?" Sect Leader Su was confused.
Grand Elder however just smiled and didn't give any reason.
He changed the topic, "The elders will soon arrive here, we don't know who has collaborated with the enemies."
"Yes," Sect Leader Su suddenly frowned at those words, "WE will definitely find out who the perpetrators are. These scheming scum must be forced out in the open and have their heads removed from their body."
Grand Elder nodded his head and said, "I do have some suspicions on the current infighting going on in the sect, but I just don't want to accept such a thing."
Sect Leader narrowed his eyes, "This infighting has gone on for too long now. These elders have started to disobey rules, and those leagues, those damned leagues have gotten too much out of hand."
"It was you who gave them the power, why complain now?" Grand Elder shrugged at his words.
"I wanted to see their leadership qualities, however, these kids are already thinking of themselves as above the laws and rules of the Sect. They don't even consider my words."
"And today, things have gone too far. Only I knew where Jiang Yun was going tonight, but just when he got out of the Heavenly League headquarters, he was ambushed by not one but six assassins. Clearly, they came prepared."
"But how could they know about Jiang Yun's whereabouts? His own members leaked it? No, if that was true, then they would still be alive, or they would still be a part of the assassination."
"It was most likely that someone tipped the assassins about his whereabouts when they saw him in the Heavenly League's Headquarters."
"Someone could have seen him enter that building?" Grand Elder interrupted him.
"No, that's impossible, because I personally asked Jiang Yun to go in disguise. He removed his disguise in the Heavenly League's building and that was where someone most probably saw him."
"And considering his enmity against Yuan Shuchun, I can't help but be suspicious of her."
"After all, her enemy gets ambushed just after she met with him in front of everyone. Even if she isn't directly responsible, someone from her league is. And she will also have to shoulder the blame."
Just then.
"That's quite far-fetched logic you have, Sect Leader Su."
A young voice rang out from behind while a fray of footsteps buzzed in the hall as many people entered the hall.
Sect Leader Su turned around and his eyes fell on the very person he was blaming.
Yuan Shuchun.