Volume 4, Chapter 115 – Emergence

With a loud bang, Daoist Fengxu slammed his palm down on the square table. The whole table was instantly soaked through by the demonic power coursing through his hand, and the teacups set upon it shattered into dust in midair along with it.

“Wang Xiu! What exactly do you mean by this!”

Daoist Fengxu was truly furious.

Wang Xiu was the chosen successor of this generation within the sect. Among the countless personal disciples, he was the only one qualified to rank on the Heaven’s Pride Rankings.

Under normal circumstances, even if Daoist Fengxu’s line was not especially close to him, things should never have escalated this far.

A power grab?

Fine, grab it then.

That had been arranged from the very start by the head of Daoist Fengxu’s line, namely Ji Bu, the dojo lord of Taixu Monastery. The moment Wang Xiu arrived, he took the seal and sash and removed Daoist Fengxu from overall command. In truth, Daoist Fengxu had had little to say about that.

With legitimacy on his side, a sect-favored Immortal Venerable disciple taking over an administrative post from someone who had not yet entered the Venerable ranks was not something anyone could object to.

But what Daoist Fengxu could not understand was how Wang Xiu dared to behave so willfully and recklessly the moment he took power.

So that Fang Wenyuan was actually one of his people?

And he had ties with the Great Yu Crown Prince, Yao Quan, as well?

The moment he took charge, he wanted to unify all the remaining Dao lineages in Qizhou. Over here he was launching major construction and erecting towers and terraces. Over there he was mobilizing manpower, intending to gather hundreds of thousands, even several hundred thousand people. What exactly was he plotting?

Did he not know that Qizhou lay close to Maozhou, that the official factions here were most likely tied by countless threads to that Shenming Immortal Venerable, and that before the final outcome emerged, one must not touch them lightly?

“Manager Feng~”

All eyes shifted upward to the seat of honor, where a strongly built young man with sharp, chiseled features sat.

This man was Wang Xiu. He drank a leisurely sip of tea before turning a slanted glance toward Daoist Fengxu below him and drawling, “I think you’ve been scared out of your wits by that Bai Zhixing, to the point that you’ve forgotten the bearing our dojo ought to display…!”

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By the end, his tone had turned harsh. He was clearly moving toward questioning Fengxu’s conduct.

But Daoist Fengxu would not swallow that.

Everything he had done had been for the good of the dojo. Even if Wang Xiu relied on his status and cultivation to kill him outright, if the matter were brought before Ji Bu, Daoist Fengxu would still be the one in the right.

“Wang Xiu! You…!”

“All right, all right.” The young man waved a hand. “I did want to respect you, Manager Feng. But let’s settle an account here.”

“My Taixu Monastery holds sole command over one fragment belt, with small Void-realm planes numbering in the hundreds. Quite a few of them are nearing their limits and will collapse on their own before long.”

“So let me ask you this. In the face of such a situation, what do you think the sect should do?”

“Should we keep transferring the populations and resources of these planes elsewhere, then move them again once those places near their own limits? Or would it not be better to move them directly into the main world and solve the problem once and for all?”

This…

Daoist Fengxu frowned, his uncertainty deepening. “When I left, the migration plan was clearly still far from being placed on the agenda…”

“This was a decision reached after discussion by the dojo lord and the various elders,” Wang Xiu cut in. “‘Starting immediately, begin moving refugees into the main world, while secretly deploying forces and holding them on standby.’ What, does Manager Feng intend to defy a Venerable decree?”

“Of course not!” Daoist Fengxu’s momentum weakened, but he still persisted. “But even so, there is still no need…”

“Order between high and low,” Wang Xiu interrupted again.

“Those refugees are only called that because they have lost their homelands. In truth, they are still subjects of the dojo. For many years they have provided the lower-level materials the dojo depends on, laboring diligently without the slightest slack.”

“Since we’ve occupied this Qizhou territory, how can there be any logic in letting the native Yu people live in the city while forcing those people to dwell in the wilderness?”

“If we really did that, how would others regard Taixu Monastery?”

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“Wouldn’t that chill the hearts of all our followers?”

Daoist Fengxu fell silent.

He wanted to say that even so, they could still proceed gradually. The land and resources of the main world were far more abundant than those of the small Void-realms, and every part of it was extraordinarily stable, without any need to fear sudden anomalies. They could absolutely use the resources of the Qi lands to build new urban districts while constructing and relocating at the same time. There was enough time.

But clearly, compared to that approach, Wang Xiu’s methods were much better at winning hearts. The moment those words were spoken, not only did many lower-ranking disciples respond enthusiastically, even several of Daoist Fengxu’s own servants relaxed their brows and wore expressions that said this was only natural.

Seeing the situation, Daoist Fengxu gave up on speaking further.

The shape of things was already wrong. If he continued, it would not merely be a matter of losing influence. He might be branded a traitor outright and punished for it.

After the meeting dispersed, Daoist Fengxu summoned the servant-disciple he trusted most.

This man was named Feng Ping. He had nearly half human blood, and was one of the war orphans Daoist Fengxu had personally taken in. He practically regarded Fengxu as a father.

“This Wang Xiu is arrogant and self-willed. I fear he’s going to stir up a great disaster.” Daoist Fengxu sighed. “And his demonic power has grown far too quickly. If he were truly such a heaven-sent talent seed, how could no one have valued him back then?”

Wang Xiu had not been discovered in a fragment belt under Taixu Monastery’s rule.

Ji Bu had gone out to visit another dojo, and on his way back he discovered this seedling talent in a fragment belt there. Delighted by the find, he brought him back. From that point on, Wang Xiu revealed frightening talent, leaving the other disciples far behind.

It was not as though no one had raised questions about Wang Xiu’s origins. But Taixu Monastery followed a doctrine of “blending and confluence.” Even the current dojo lord, Ji Bu, had been brought back from the mountains by the previous dojo lord. After they investigated Wang Xiu’s background and found no problem, the matter was quietly dropped for good.

“Go watch their movements for me,” Daoist Fengxu instructed Feng Ping.

“If anything happens, report it to me at once!”

At the same time, Wang Xiu was receiving a guest in private at the rear.

The guest was none other than Fang Wenyuan, the new official Yao Quan had placed in Qizhou.

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The moment Fang Wenyuan entered the room, he dropped to his knees before Wang Xiu.

“This commoner Wenyuan pays respects to the Immortal Venerable…”

“Please rise, Mister Fang.” Wang Xiu courteously invited him to his feet.

Fang Wenyuan was extremely good with words. He had long served the imperial clan and knew very well how to deal with someone like Wang Xiu. The moment he opened his mouth, he said, “The moment I saw the Immortal Venerable arrive, the whole climate of this place was transformed, just like the Cleansing of the Hall under Emperor Lie. It truly inspires awe and admiration.”

“The Cleansing of the Hall under Emperor Lie” was a historical allusion.

Roughly more than two hundred years ago, the then Yu Emperor Yao Lie wished to govern the realm better, but was troubled by the fact that various forms of corruption could not be eradicated. So he summoned the grand secretaries to discuss the matter and asked whether they had any method.

Most of them stammered and dodged, which greatly displeased Yao Lie. At that moment, however, he noticed an aged old man in the crowd with his head lowered, silent from start to finish. This was none other than Liu Xingliu, the old prime minister, who was soon to resign and return to his home region.

Yao Lie then asked that Prime Minister Liu for his opinion.

But Liu Xingliu instead asked Yao Lie, “When Your Majesty relieves himself, have you ever seen the tiny flying insects clinging to the walls?”

Naturally, Yao Lie had seen them. They were small, triangular-winged insects, harmless and without poison, but for some reason extremely difficult to eliminate completely.

He asked Liu Xingliu, “Do you mean to compare these insects to corruption?”

The other man nodded. “Indeed.”

“Your Majesty must understand that these insects are extremely weak fliers. They cannot compare with mosquitoes or flies. Even an ordinary person can crush them easily. Under normal circumstances, they should never be able to cross the height of towers and fly all the way into these palace halls.”

He then went on at length, drawing one comparison after another, until he finally reached his conclusion: the reason these insects were so difficult to eliminate was not because more of their kind kept flying into the palace from outside, but because they were laying eggs directly in the dark corners of the palace itself.

So long as the eggs remained, the insects would never be exterminated.

No matter how diligently one guarded against the insects outside, it would be useless.

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Upon hearing this, Yao Lie was deeply enlightened, realizing that Liu Xingliu was hinting that there were “eggs” hidden within the palace itself.

Later, he put great effort into purging certain trends within Qianyu Palace, achieving an excellent effect. The court ministers could only follow suit, and for a time the atmosphere in many places was thoroughly renewed. Later generations referred to this as the “Cleansing of the Hall under Emperor Lie,” and it even passed down as an idiom.

Wang Xiu was far from ignorant about the main world. Since he knew Yao Quan, it was obvious he had done his homework. Naturally, he understood that Fang Wenyuan was praising him and belittling Daoist Fengxu’s conduct.

It delighted Wang Xiu immensely.

Comparing Fang Wenyuan’s attitude with Daoist Fengxu’s only made the latter seem more hateful.

A thing that hasn’t even entered the Venerable ranks, and yet it still dares speak to me like that.

Look at this man instead!

Hmph!

If not for the ties within the sect, I’d have killed you on the spot!

Wang Xiu granted Fang Wenyuan a seat and asked directly, “Since you’ve come, I assume His Highness the Crown Prince has made up his mind?”

“Yes…!” Fang Wenyuan nodded at once.

“Though this course… does offend the harmony of heaven, for the sake of the long term, for the sake of the peace and stability of all sapient beings under heaven in the future, His Highness has still, with great pain, agreed to the Immortal Venerable’s proposal.”

“Good!”

Wang Xiu was overjoyed.

“Excellent timing. I’ve already gathered some people. Since your prince has agreed, I’ll begin arranging them at once.”

“Let’s see just how much Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi can be extracted from the Qizhou earth-veins!”