This situation gradually improved after William Clark began to carefully consider how to revitalize the Shushan Sect in his mind. Once he had some initial ideas, that obsession slowly faded away—later, William Clark learned that it was because this Master Clark, having had his request fulfilled, was finally willing to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

Of course, at that time, William Clark simply thought that the original owner of his body had forced a command upon him: he must rebuild and revitalize the Shushan Sect, or else he could forget about living comfortably. If he failed, he’d probably be tormented by severe migraines from time to time, to the point where William Clark might just bang his head against the wall to seek release.

So, feeling as if there was a guillotine hanging over his neck, William Clark began to seriously consider how to restore the Shushan Sect. No matter what, he figured he should first establish the sect’s base, at least completing an initial task and giving that bastard in his head an answer.

As for the future?

“I’ve got a cheat now. Once I get my hands on some peerless martial arts and master them, whoever took my stuff will give it back, and whoever ate my things will cough them up!”

He had no doubt that, in the future, he would make those who had wronged the Shushan Sect disappear from this land. If his martial arts progressed quickly, he wouldn’t mind making those bastards vanish from this world entirely. This confidence peaked when even the randomly acquired Three Immortal Swords technique was so effective.

He briefly explained his plan to his junior sister, but no matter how he tried to persuade her, Emily Carter simply refused to agree to William Clark’s approach, which was essentially establishing a new sect.

In the end, William Clark grew impatient and, ignoring Emily Carter’s increasingly displeased and obviously disapproving expression, made the decision on his own.

“I’m the sect leader, so what I say goes! Let’s first find a place to set up on the mountain, and later, we’ll openly reclaim what was taken from us!”

He just didn’t expect that after he said this, Emily Carter’s expression actually softened quite a bit. Perhaps the part about openly reclaiming what was lost suited her temperament, and she ultimately acquiesced to William Clark’s decision.

“So our sect will be called the Shushan Sect?”

“Of course!” William Clark nodded. “Shushan and Shushan sound similar, so it’s not really starting a new sect! Maybe our founder just didn’t know many characters and came up with the name Shushan Sect!”

In William Clark’s view, the name Shushan Sect was far more impressive than Shushan Sect… As for why? Everyone on Earth knows!

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Chapter 8: Sect Headquarters

With the most urgent matter settled, William Clark and Emily Carter now needed to make a series of preparations for this goal.

In fact, the first thing the two of them needed to do was not to make a grand announcement about the sect’s reconstruction, but to find a suitable place as the new headquarters.

Otherwise, if the sect was established but had no fixed location, it would sound good but be hard to explain—even greeting others, they wouldn’t know how to introduce their own sect.

In William Clark’s memory, except for a very few rare sects, all the famous martial arts clans and major sects had their own established bases, even the demonic sects had a fixed place as their headquarters.

Because only in this way could young people who wished to join the sect find a way in. After all, this era was not like the one William Clark originally lived in—if you didn’t leave an address, you could at least leave a phone or fax number to get in touch.

In this era, if you wanted to discuss something, you had to visit in person. Especially for something as serious as becoming a disciple, you had to show up yourself to demonstrate sincerity. Even the children of powerful families who wanted to join a major sect had to do the same.

At the same time, a sect’s headquarters was also its foundation, as many aspects of the sect relied on its base and the surrounding area as their roots.

Whether it was the sect’s income or the main source of disciples, both depended on the headquarters.

From this perspective, running a sect had much in common with a feudal lord managing his own territory—both relied on income from money and grain, as well as sources of manpower.

Therefore, choosing a suitable headquarters was extremely important for a sect.

However, for the Shushan Sect, which was facing reconstruction, they didn’t need to agonize over which mountain to establish their base on. On this point, both William Clark and Emily Carter were in complete agreement: their sect would only be established on Shushan.

The two of them were surprisingly unanimous on this issue, with no disagreement at all.

The only trouble now was deciding exactly where on Shushan to set up the sect…

Shushan was not exactly small. Although it wasn’t the most famous mountain in the world, it was still quite imposing, especially the main peak, Shujian Peak, which soared into the clouds, steep and sharp like an unsheathed sword.

Because of the mountain’s terrain, most sects established on Shushan placed their headquarters on the lower part of the main peak. Even the highest ones didn’t reach a third of the way up. The original Shushan Sect was the same, even being relatively close to the foot of the mountain.

Some other sects, due to their location, often sent disciples to wander around the foot of the mountain. When they saw someone wanting to enter the mountain to seek a master, they would approach—either enthusiastically introducing their sect or forcibly dragging the person in.