They couldn't afford fresh tea leaves at the moment but at their prime, they even had a subordinate Rank 3 kingdom under them despite being rank 3 themselves.
Within their territory, they could sneeze and it could cause a ripple effect the size of a tsunami to all organizations that were within their territory.
Despite their massive power, they had a relatively good reputation within their sect in comparison to others. Yes, they monopolized some of the resources, but they left enough to even promote a rank 4 kingdom into a rank 3 kingdom, while rank 4 organizations were a dime a dozen within their territory.
However, all the goodwill and reputation they had built was destroyed about 200 years ago till they slowly deteriorated into what they were today.
The sect master back then was perfect in all regards. He was a talented swordsman, charismatic and shrewd in managing the sect and its territories.
In all regards he was perfect except for one thing, he doted on his grandson too much which made him blind to his faults.
He only had one son, who rivaled him in terms of talent and character. However that son and his wife died during a war the sect had with a rank 3 underground organization, leaving behind a son.
The sect master out of grief, guilt, and a sense of responsibility, pampered his grandson a lot.
He started off by giving him an astronomical amount of precious cultivation resources, even ones promised to others, giving him a priority in certain areas despite the grandson not earning that spot.
Not many people within the sect had any complaints about it since they knew the sect master was trying to make up to the kid for getting both his parents killed. Other than that, the child was also gifted in cultivation which made it palatable to the rest of the sect, even when he was shown favoritism in a lot of things. Atleast the resources were not being wasted.
Even when he was made a legacy disciple despite not reaching the minimum standard, the higher-ups within the sect overlooked it, since it would only be a matter of time till he was deserving of the title.
However, the attitude of the sect members started changing from accommodation to dissatisfaction when the grandson's habits turned hedonistic and despotic.
Wielding the power that came with his title as a legacy disciple and the sect master's grandson, he started behaving wantonly within the sect.
He continuously suppressed any disciple that showed enough talent to threaten his position. Some were forced into his lackeys, while those that refused, got assigned difficult missions by the sect's mission halls at his behest and if that wasn't enough, he would even use his connections to have their resources reduced or hinder their cultivation time.
When the matter was brought to the sect master, he only offered a soft reprimand, nothing more. After a few weeks of good behavior, the grandson went at it again but this time he was more calculating and insidious about it.
Even if most within the sect knew it was his handiwork, there was not much that could be done if he was not tied directly to those deeds.
But soon, when his cultivation grew to the peak of core formation realm, he didn't bother to hide his vile nature. He became more vicious and open in his actions.
He injured his fellow disciples to the extent that he even crippled some, next he started relentlessly targeting the female disciples of his sect with lewd intentions. Those female disciples ended up with fates worse than death, to the point some risked desertion from the sect while others committed suicide.
Even with the escalation of his habits, the sect master still turned a blind eye to this to the extent that he personally punished some of the elders who admonished his grandson as a scourge of the sect.
Things went downhill from there as the sect master lost the trust of his disciples and even some of the elders. The Clear sword river sect welcomed a decline in their talent pool as the disciples started running away whilst on missions. It got so drastic that they lost a third of them within a few years.
Sect missions got halted because of it and when that became untenable as a solution, the sect master inscribed restrictions on the souls of the disciples to ensure that they came back. Otherwise, they risked a backlash that would heavily injure their souls.
But even with such a restriction, there were still those who risked running away despite knowing the danger. Some talented ones decided to defect to other sects and organizations of the same caliber as the Clear sword river sect and had them remove the restriction.
As for those with no such luck or talent, they decided to embrace death rather than return back.
Soon, with how many disciples were defecting and running away, news spread fast within their territory about how things were within the sect. This added another dent into their talent pool since no talented genius wanted to risk joining a sect where they'd be suppressed for showing their talents. Even worse they would risk being crippled as the sect master turned a blind eye to it. Most of those with talent and no background chose to go to other sects, which even though may not have matched the Clear sword river sect in stature, at least guaranteed their safety.
Things just got grimmer and grimmer as years passed by, with the grandson not correcting his habits and the sect master turning a blind eye to most things. Though he did try to employ some measures, such as increasing the allotted resources given to the disciples to try and placate them. But that was just a drop in the bucket that did little to alleviate their distress.
A few years later, the grandson interrupted the breakthrough of a nephew of a grand elder of the sect. That nephew had been attempting to break through to the palace realm when the sect master's grandson intervened using an insidious technique that caused the breakthrough to fail. That grand elder's nephew ended up with serious injuries that almost took his life.
It was only due to the timely intervention of that grand elder that he was able to live. The grand elder was a palace realm cultivator and he had been in seclusion for quite some time which was why he had not been there to watch over his nephew as he broke through, which was common practice.
Once he had stabilized the situation, he attacked the sect master's grandson only for the sect master to intervene personally as he offered to make amends for his grandson. However, the grand elder was livid at the time and attacked the sect master.
