Chapter 25

Just as Ding Qi was about to immerse himself in his routine cultivation, an unusual visitor came to the medicinal garden.

Hearing the knock on the door, he could only abandon his plans to continue cultivating.

At the same time, he was quite curious to know who would come here.

"Lao Bai, it's you!" Ding Qi opened the door, somewhat surprised.

The visitor to the medicinal garden turned out to be Lao Bai, an acquaintance of Ding Qi, from the Tongfu Inn.

During the most intense phase of the competition for the position of the Qingyun Sect's leader, Lao Bai received a dispatch from the Qingyun Sect and was reassigned back to the sect.

Seeing Lao Bai return to Qixia Town, Ding Qi seemed to understand something.

"Lao Bai, has the position of the sect leader in the Qingyun Sect been decided?" Ding Qi asked, looking at Lao Bai.

Lao Bai chuckled and then said, "Yes."

Seeing that it was as he had guessed, Ding Qi invited Lao Bai into the house.

"Then... the new leader is...?" Ding Qi asked curiously.

Although he was just a temporary caretaker of the medicinal garden, whoever became the leader of the Qingyun Sect had little to do with him. However, this was a significant piece of news, and he wanted to find out from Lao Bai.

"It's Leader Zuo."

Hearing Lao Bai's answer, Ding Qi was taken aback.

"It's actually Leader Zuo! I originally thought it would be Leader Sha who would become the new leader of the Qingyun Sect!" Although Ding Qi was extremely surprised, he did not show it on his face. Instead, he feigned indifference and said casually.

The Leader Zuo mentioned by Ding Qi and Lao Bai was named Zuo Yang, who had been competing with Deputy Leader Sha for the position of the new leader over the past six months.

Previously, Ding Qi did not have much faith in Deputy Leader Sha becoming the new leader.

Ding Qi had learned about the basic situations of the two deputy leaders from Manager Zhao and Lao Bai.

Deputy Leader Sha had been an inner disciple of the Qingyun Sect for several generations. His grandfather was once an elder of the Qingyun Sect, and his father, due to his numerous contributions to the sect, served as a deputy leader in name for a few years before his death.

Relying on the accumulation of several generations, combined with his excellent martial arts talent and outstanding abilities, Deputy Leader Sha had repeatedly made significant contributions to the sect, eventually becoming a deputy leader.

One could say that both his personal abilities and the deep roots of the Sha family in the Qingyun Sect made Deputy Leader Sha the top choice for the new leader.

This was why Ding Qi had been so optimistic about Deputy Leader Sha before.

In comparison, Deputy Leader Zuo was far inferior.

The new leader of the Qingyun Sect did not have the same background as Deputy Leader Sha. He was born into an ordinary mountain family and joined the Qingyun Sect at the age of ten. His only notable feature was his excellent cultivation talent, which quickly made him a core disciple.

Even so, compared to Deputy Leader Sha, who was also a core disciple with excellent cultivation talent, he had no advantage.

However, it was this Deputy Leader Zuo, whom Ding Qi considered far inferior, who ultimately became the new leader, leaving him quite surprised.

For a moment, Ding Qi's curiosity was piqued, and he wanted to know more about the struggle for the position of the leader.

"Leader Zuo becoming the new leader can be considered one of the few cases in the sect's 100-year history where a leader without any background or connections has risen to the position."

Before Ding Qi could ask, Lao Bai sighed.

Ding Qi knew that Lao Bai, like him, had not been optimistic about Leader Zuo. The fact that Leader Zuo became the new leader was also unexpected for Lao Bai. Seeing that Lao Bai wanted to continue talking about it, Ding Qi was happy to let him and did not interrupt.

"Looking back now, it's not surprising that Leader Zuo became the new leader. A year ago, if it weren't for Leader Zuo risking his life to save Nie Changmen and others who were ambushed, the entire sect might have fallen into chaos and been destroyed by the Tianquan Sect. Nie Changmen wouldn't have had the remaining six months to reorganize the sect and restore its vitality," Lao Bai said, as if lost in thought.

"Such a thing happened!" Ding Qi exclaimed in surprise.

Ding Qi only knew that the previous leader of the Qingyun Sect had been struck by the Heart-Crushing Palm. As for the details, he was not clear. This was the first time he had heard about what Lao Bai mentioned.

Lao Bai nodded and continued, "Not only is Leader Zuo highly skilled in martial arts and made significant contributions during the sect's crisis, but his understanding of cultivation techniques is also exceptionally high. It's not an exaggeration to say he is a once-in-a-century talent."

"Cultivation techniques?"

Seeing Ding Qi's puzzled expression, Lao Bai explained, "Yes, cultivation techniques. Over the years, Leader Zuo has improved several martial arts passed down by the sect, making them easier to cultivate and more effective. One of the mandatory martial arts for inner disciples in our sect was personally improved by Leader Zuo."

At this point, Ding Qi could clearly see the admiration in Lao Bai's eyes for the new leader.

After a moment's thought, Ding Qi understood the reason.

As an inner disciple, Lao Bai had clearly cultivated the martial arts improved by Leader Zuo.

Ding Qi had no knowledge of the newly improved martial arts. However, seeing Lao Bai's reverent attitude towards Leader Zuo, he understood that the new martial arts were significantly more effective than the old ones.

Although it was not the Deputy Leader Sha he had expected to become the new leader, Ding Qi was surprised to find that Lao Bai did not show any disappointment on his face throughout the conversation.

It seemed that compared to Deputy Leader Sha, who had deep roots in the sect, Leader Zuo, who came from an ordinary mountain family and had no background, made the inner disciples like Lao Bai feel more connected.

After all, disciples from ordinary backgrounds like Lao Bai made up the majority of the sect.

Perhaps this was also one of the important reasons why Zuo Yang unexpectedly became the new leader.

"Even so, for Leader Zuo to become the new leader without any background or connections is a remarkable achievement," Ding Qi said with a sigh.

"That's true. Leader Zuo is truly a legend in the sect," Lao Bai agreed with Ding Qi.

Mentioning the struggle for the position of the leader, Ding Qi couldn't help but think of another matter and asked Lao Bai, "In this struggle for the position of the leader, Zhang Tao won't be involved, right?"

No matter how intense the struggle for the position of the Qingyun Sect's leader was, it had little impact on him. The few connections he had to the matter were his second uncle and Zhang Tao, who had become a core disciple.

If he had to choose the person he was most concerned about, it would naturally be Ding Shan. However, during this period, the struggle within the sect was mainly between inner disciples, and someone like Ding Shan, who had no martial arts skills, would not be involved. Therefore, he did not have to worry about his second uncle being in danger.

Now, what worried him more was Zhang Tao's situation. After all, they were childhood friends, and he was concerned that Zhang Tao might be involved in something bad.

Lao Bai knew about Ding Qi's relationship with Zhang Tao and smiled reassuringly, "Hehe, you don't need to worry about that. Although this struggle for the position of the leader was quite intense and almost everyone in the sect was involved, the core disciples, who are the future core of the sect, were not involved."

Hearing that nothing had happened to Zhang Tao, he felt relieved.

However, his face then showed a puzzled expression, "Ai, what's going on?"

According to Ding Qi's original thinking, core disciples like Zhang Tao would be the ones both sides would try to win over, making it difficult for them to avoid being involved.

Now, hearing from Lao Bai that the core disciples were not involved, Ding Qi found it quite strange.