The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Johan didn't know why Isaac wanted to contact his family, but it was a problematic request regardless of the reason,

"I am not currently in contact with the rest of the Friberg family; I want to succeed in the sect without relying on my family background."

"Could you elaborate?"

"I'm the eldest child of the Friberg family leader, but there are still some who oppose me succeeding her as the next family head. I wish to grow and develop in the sect independently so I can prove my worth as a cultivator and silence those doubters, hence why I entered the trials despite not being required to."

The sect only permitted those of Rank 3 or higher to have children, and Johan's parents were both Rank 4. Since he was the child of two official sect members, he was a member of the sect from birth and didn't need to participate in the trials, which were for people trying to 'enter' the sect. This meant Johan had been trying to win the approval of his family since the trials over 2 years ago, but he still hadn't succeeded. This worried Isaac slightly and he asked again,

"But surely that won't stop you from just putting me in contact with them? It's not like you've cut off all ties with your family, and they won't think less of you just for introducing me to them, so can you take a moment to consider it?"

Just like Isaac asked, Johan took a moment to think. But he didn't take any longer than that to reply,

"I'm sorry, I can't do it."

Isaac's smile didn't faulter, but he frowned inwardly.

'If Johan can't even ask his family a favour as the head's successor, the situation must be worse than he's making out. Perhaps his position as the successor is unstable and he has a lot of enemies in the family. That way, making contact with the family might put him in danger. Or maybe he's not the successor at all and he lied to me – his status could be too low to get me an audience with the family higher-ups.'

Isaac had several doubts about Johan, but his chain of thought was interrupted by another question,

"Why are you trying to contact the Friberg family to begin with?"

"I want to join the Sundersen faction."

Isaac had no reason to lie, so he was straightforward. Johan didn't expect such an answer, but his initial reaction was one of ridicule,

"Even if you get in contact with the Fribergs, there's no chance you'll be accepted into the Sundersen faction. The big factions are much different to the small flies of factions buzzing around the new disciples; they don't take in nobodies – they don't even take in people with great potential. Factions like that don't want potential, they want results. You'll need to put together a resume packed with achievements and missions to prove you're worth investing in before they even take a glance at you."

Isaac didn't know much about the large factions since he hadn't come into contact with them, but Johan was extremely familiar with these factions. He knew that they had countless subordinates working for them but few actual members, despite the hordes of talented individuals queueing up to join them.

They had extremely high standards and only picked one or two special talents to nurture each year – sometimes they didn't choose anyone. Plus, they never accepted Rank 1 cultivators since they considered them as children – newbies who hadn't properly experienced the cultivation world. Furthermore, most of the talents they picked were nurtured internally, which is to say they were the children of existing members and were trained by the faction as they grew up. There was utterly no chance the Sundersen faction would accept an unproven Rank 1 from the farm just because he placed 4th in the trials.

First, Isaac would need to show he was worth nurturing by reaching Rank 2 and accomplishing many impressive missions and achievements. Then he could use his connections to try and get a place in the faction.

After Johan finished speaking, Isaac fell into silence for a moment. He wore a contemplative expression as he thought about what to say next, then he made a decision,

"What if I help you solidify your position as the family successor?"

Johan was visibly surprised. He didn't expect Isaac would offer him help – especially when he didn't appear to gain much from it. But then, his surprise faded and he came back to reality,

"That's simple to say but hard to do. If securing my position was so easy, I would've done it a year ago. Forgive me for doubting you, but I fail to see how much of a difference you can make."

"I know I'm not capable of negotiating with the Fribergs and getting them to confirm you as the successor – that's not what I meant. What I'm saying is that working with me will create opportunities for you to showcase your abilities to the Friberg family."

"'Opportunities' is a rather vague term. What kind of opportunities do you mean, and how will they benefit me?"

"I want to form a team of people to accept difficult missions and complete them. Each mission will reap high rewards which will aid our cultivation, and completing enough missions of high difficulty will showcase our appeal to the factions. For me, it can be part of the 'resume of missions' I'll need to join a faction. For you, any missions or achievements will show the Friberg family that you're a worthy successor and will help silence those who oppose you."

Johan didn't trust Isaac's personality, but he strongly believed in the man's ability. He also believed in himself. If the 2 of them tried to form a team, it was going to be one of – if not the – best team out of all the newcomers. Working in an environment such as that would be conducive to proving himself and showing the Fribergs he was a worthy successor. Though, no matter how well he did, becoming the next family head was unlikely...

As for what Isaac had said about helping solidify his position as the family successor, he didn't take that to heart. Solidify what? You mean take back! He was indeed the family head's oldest child, but he had been pushed out of the spot of family successor a few years ago. His younger sister had shown great promise and the family was currently focused on nurturing her rather than him, who had only been deemed as 'good' rather than 'exceptional'. But regardless of the situation in his family, or how (un)likely it was to reclaim his position as successor, he could only focus on growing stronger for now. Joining Isaac's team was a chance to do just that.

"When are you going to form the team? How many people will be in it and do you have any in mind already? Since you brought it up, I assume you wish to be the team leader."

"I don't plan on forming the team right now, but at some point in the near future. I want to form a team of 4 people in the classic composition, but I don't know who could be our defensive specialist or second melee fighter. Of course, whoever they are, the leader shall be me."

Isaac's decision to lead was not made out of pride. It was because most people judged a team's success to be the merit of its leader; of course, they would also judge a team's failures to be the fault of the leader, but Isaac didn't plan on failing all that often. If a faction looked at his mission record and saw he'd led a successful team, it would be much more impactful than seeing he'd simply participated in a strong team.

Of course, this meant Johan was also gunning for the position of leader.

The two of them half-discussed and half-argued for a short while before coming to a decision. Isaac would be the leader while Johan would be listed as the deputy, or vice-leader as he preferred to put it. Johan disliked taking orders, and he usually wouldn't tolerate working below somebody. But Isaac had earnt his respect over the 2 years they'd been acquainted; Johan knew his commands would always be precise and intelligent, and would usually lead to a good result. That was why he finally accepted Isaac as the team leader and compromised for second-in-command.

On the other hand, Isaac got exactly what he wanted as usual. It would only be a team of 4, so vice-leader was more of a consolation prize than a position with actual power. He could overrule Johan's decisions whenever he needed to, so he still retained all the decision-making power in the team.

Now, however, he had somebody to offload responsibilities onto or pass the blame to if things went badly. After securing this optimal outcome, he said a few words of goodbye to Johan,

"We'll need to recruit elite members if we want our team to succeed. I'll be entering seclusion for a while, so I won't be able to contact you for a short time. Meanwhile, you should start keeping an eye out for potential members. I'll get some other people to look for candidates while I'm in seclusion, then I'll find you when I get out and we can discuss the details. I'll see you then."

With that, Isaac left.