She asked for what he wanted and Arthur was quick to reply. He said, "I want formation diagrams. I want all the formation diagrams that your sect has."
Actually, he wanted all the formation diagrams in the world, but he knew that she couldn't give him that. So he limited himself to asking for every formation diagram that their sect owned.
His appetite was clearly too big, but she remained calm as she replied to him. "I can authorize giving you all our formation diagrams except the ones that we use to protect our sect."
"We would like to keep the nature and operation mechanisms of our protection formations secret. I'm sure that you can understand."
Arthur shook his head and said stubbornly, "No. I want everything that you have."
This time, Purple Flower reacted. But her reaction to his unreasonable request was still subdued. She simply froze and stared unblinking at Arthur.
Arthur stared back without backing down.
He knew he was being greedy to ask for so much just for an exhibition match, but he mainly put forth this unreasonable request to test how far Purple Vine was willing to go to make him participate in that fight.
As it turned out, Purple Vine was truly willing to do everything possible to make him participate in that fight and be embarrassed in front of everyone. This is why she put forward the unreasonable request to the patriarch of the sect instead of rejecting it outright.
This is what she was doing when she froze and stared without blinking. She was speaking with the patriarch.
The patriarch also wanted Arthur to participate in that fight. After all, she had promised to give Green Viper an opportunity to beat Arthur up for the probable crime of killing his son.
One of them wanted Arthur to become angry and make the exchange program flop, while the other one wanted to appease an elder of the sect in order to keep the morale high for the upcoming war.
The two of them had different motives, but they both wanted Arthur to participate in that fight. If there was no war and there was no need to foster unity in the sect, the patriarch wouldn't want to expose the diagram of their protective formations for any reason. But there is war coming soon.
She also thought to herself, saying, "Besides, Sword Flash has already broken into the sect many times. If the Blood Skull sect wants to invade us, they won't need to have an elder of their sect ask for the diagram of our formations."
So she gave Purple Vine the go-ahead to accept Arthur's demands.
This made Purple Vine nod to Arthur and say, "You have a deal. But you will only get the formation diagrams of protective formations if you win the exhibition fight."
Arthur asked her, "Who will be my fighter? I hope it isn't you or the Patriarch."
She replied, "It won't be me or the patriarch."
Arthur smiled and said, "Good. I'm looking forward to this exhibition fight."
He still had concerns about the fight, but those concerns have been muted now that he is getting valuable rewards for the fight.
With the formation diagram, his formation breaker won't have to get the permission of the Purple Flower sect to break their protective formation. It will be able to practice with the formation on its own for as long as it wants.
As rank 5 formations, the protective formations were sure to help his formation breaker advance quickly.
He already considered that he would win as long as his opponents were either Pale Shadow or Green Viper. But even if he didn't win, he would still gain a lot of formation diagrams.
The other formation diagrams would be rank 4. They may be lacking in quality, but they will make up for the loss in quantity. So Arthur was satisfied with the arrangement. Purple Vine was also satisfied.
She said, "I will see you tomorrow then. Your opponent will be Green Viper. I hear that you too have some friendship, so the fight tomorrow should be a lovely one."
After saying that, she turned and left the hall. She left quickly too, so it appeared that she was running away before Arthur could raise objections or withdraw from the fight.
By now, Arthur was sure that there was a scheme afoot. If he didn't know before, he was sure about it after the identity of his opponent tomorrow was revealed. But he wasn't concerned much.
He said to himself, "The gap between us isn't wide. I might be able to cross it and defeat him. Even if I can't beat him, the best that he can do is pressure me. He doesn't have the power to overwhelm, so I should be able to last the ten minutes."
He knew that Green Viper had a higher power output than him and was older and more experienced than him, but the difference between them wasn't enough to make him afraid.
If anything, he was looking forward to the fight. This was because this would be his first fight at the fourth mortal coil and because there was a good reward waiting for him regardless of the outcome of the fight.
The planning meeting was ended on that note. The eight junior elders left the hall and went to make arrangements to put their plans into place.
Pale Shadow didn't speak throughout the whole meeting. If not for her passive radiation of power, it would have been easy to forget that she was nearby.
She would have remained silent and done nothing at all if Arthur hadn't bothered her to help him get all the formation diagrams that the Purple Flower sect owned.
He wanted to get all the formation diagrams apart from the ones for the protective formations now as half of his payment. Since Purple Flower had run away and he didn't want to speak with Green Viper, he could only ask her for it.