Chapter 72

With a look of age on his face, Huo Dong gave a glance to stop Lu Zhongji from bowing, and softly said, "Sit—"

Lu Zhongji did not refuse, sitting down directly and respectfully said, "Please give your instructions, Elder Huo..."

The wrinkles on Huo Dong's face slightly relaxed as he said with ease, "Brother Lu, don't be nervous. This time, you and I should address each other as brothers, and we don't need to involve the affairs of the court. If Brother Lu looks upon me, you can call me Brother Huo..."

"Uh... Brother Huo..."

"Good... Hehe, Brother Lu, although I am a few years older, I am not very familiar with the matters in Yunzhou. You are the host, could you tell me about the Qingyun Temple?"

Lu Zhongji pondered for a moment, noticing that although the young man in brocade and the middle-aged eunuch seemed not to be paying attention, their ears twitched slightly. Based on his years of investigative experience, he was certain that these two had already focused their internal strength and were paying attention to his response.

Lu Zhongji's expression turned serious as he slowly replied, "Reporting to Brother Huo, the Qingyun Temple is not a formal sect at present, but just a small local temple. However, it has always been very popular. Due to the local government's financial difficulties, the Qingyun Temple also serves as a charity hall. Most of the orphans in the Qingyun Town area are sent to this temple for support. Therefore, although it is not registered as a formal sect, the government does not restrict its recruitment of disciples..."

"Oh... So the Qingyun Temple is just a secular small temple?"

"Exactly."

"Then, are there any formidable figures in the temple?"

"The Qingyun Temple is only in its third generation. The abbot, Lingxu Zhenren, was previously just a wandering Taoist who settled in the Qingyun Temple seventy years ago. Lingxu Zhenren is a talented manager, and in just a few decades, he has built the Qingyun Temple into a significant local institution. It now has the strength to establish a sect... As for formidable figures... According to the information, the abbot Lingxu Zhenren should have the strength of the 'Diyuan' realm of the 'Postnatal' stage. As for the other disciples, they are generally unknown... I, uh, really don't know their true strength..."

"Oh, unknown... If the Qingyun Temple is so ordinary, how did it provoke the mighty Changkong Zhaojian Sect?"

"This— I don't know."

"Hmm, you may leave—"

Lu Zhongji, confused, got up and left.

Once Lu Zhongji left, the middle-aged man, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes and said in the eunuch's characteristic soft and gentle voice, "This Lu Zhongji is not entirely useless. He can still know a thing or two about this small sect in the wilderness..."

The young man in brocade, who had been looking around, snorted coldly and sneered, "Eunuch Liu, you must be mistaken. If Lu Zhongji were truly capable, could the 800,000 taels of treasure silver have disappeared without a trace overnight? He couldn't even figure out how the silver was transported. He's utterly useless."

The young man's tone was mocking, and the middle-aged eunuch smiled but did not argue. The "Shencefu" and "Yushijian" have always vied for the emperor's favor and have some conflicts, which is quite normal.

Huo Dong smiled and looked at the few small Taoists not far away, but said, "The theft of the treasure silver is a major matter and is by no means as simple as it appears... The whole affair was originally conducted in secret, and only a few people knew the key points, all of whom are of high status, and no one would dare to let them bear the responsibility of treason. This time, our three departments are investigating together, and we might have taken on a hot potato..."

"Not just hot, the involvement is likely to be unexpectedly significant..." the eunuch surnamed Liu added.

Huo Dong nodded in agreement and continued, "Eunuch Liu is right. The three of us secretly received this assignment from our superiors and were not even out of Luoyang City before we were being watched. We were followed by more than a dozen different groups, but the surveillance on us never relaxed for a moment. This shows that the enemy's power is no less than our three departments."

The young man in brocade snapped his paper fan shut and said excitedly, "No matter how closely they watch us, they can't match Brother Huo's brilliant strategy. They think we're just sightseeing, but they don't know that we have already..."

Ahem—

Huo Dong frowned slightly, coughed a few times, and the middle-aged eunuch also showed a look of dissatisfaction. The young man in brocade, realizing he almost let something slip, quickly closed his mouth and put on an embarrassed expression.

Huo Dong coughed, smiled, and changed the topic, "The Changkong Zhaojian Sect is truly domineering, going to such great lengths to deal with a small temple that takes in orphans..."

"Humph, the Changkong Zhaojian Sect is ungrateful. As the largest sect in Yunzhou, it does not serve the court or be loyal to the emperor, but instead acts for its own interests, engaging in petty schemes and suppressing fellow practitioners... When the court's treasure silver was stolen, the court immediately invited the Changkong Zhaojian Sect to assist in the investigation, thinking that as the largest sect in Yunzhou, it could provide reliable and useful information... But the Changkong Zhaojian Sect was so defiant, just going through the motions and not putting in full effort. Privately, the four elders even dared to mock the court's incompetence and even said something about the emperor... Humph, they deserve to die, truly deserve to die..." The middle-aged eunuch's eyes flashed with a hint of ruthlessness.

Mentioning the Changkong Zhaojian Sect, the young man in brocade could not suppress his anger and said in a deep voice, "I think Ling Zhaokong is old and confused, cowardly and fearful, not daring to face the 'Tianjue List' experts for decades, and the sects under him are no different, brave internally but cowardly externally... A few days ago, I received news that the southwestern barbarians had massacred a village of our people, resulting in the deaths of hundreds... The Changkong Zhaojian Sect only cowers in the northwest of Yunzhou, not daring to move south at all, watching our people's blood stain the homeland without giving any help... The court has been meticulously planning for over a decade to reclaim the homeland, but the Changkong Zhaojian Sect is worried that the court's influence will affect its power. They are two-faced and treacherous, truly despicable... Their actions are a world apart from the Kunwu Sect, which once stood on the front lines of the border... Alas—"

Mentioning the fallen Kunwu Sect, "Golden Eagle with Divine Eyes" Huo Dong also sighed deeply, "Alas— The Kunwu massacre, the court was helpless, and a large sect was destroyed overnight... The old martial minister at the time even spat out three pints of blood and resigned. The successor even forged a large sword named 'Kunwu Vindication' and hung it in the main hall of the 'Xingtingwei' to remind every constable of the unresolved case from a hundred years ago... Alas— We are incompetent, and for a hundred years, several generations of famous constables have investigated without any leads, truly regrettable and lamentable..."

The three had a long conversation, revealing their attitudes and perspectives.

Huo Dong, who was a court constable by origin, had always been in the martial world and often saw things from the perspective of a martial person. He viewed the conflict between the Changkong Zhaojian Sect and the Qingyun Temple from the perspective of a normal martial person, hence his sympathy for the Qingyun Temple and his dislike of the Changkong Zhaojian Sect.

The eunuch surnamed Liu, on the other hand, was from the emperor's personal attendants, the "Yushijian," and was always the most loyal to the emperor. He was indifferent to the Qingyun Temple but extremely resentful of the Changkong Zhaojian Sect's private mockery and insults to the court and the emperor, even harboring murderous intent... The fact that the "Yushijian" could know the private words of the high-ranking figures in the Changkong Zhaojian Sect indicates that there were spies of the "Yushijian" within the sect, showing the strength and influence of the "Yushijian," which could even know the words of the sect leader, truly terrifying.

As for the young man in brocade, who was from the "Shencefu" with a military and aristocratic background, he was young and passionate, with a strong sense of patriotism, and was extremely resentful of the Changkong Zhaojian Sect's actions...

The three, with different backgrounds, had the same attitude towards the Changkong Zhaojian Sect, truly showing how detested the Changkong Zhaojian Sect was within the court.

Unfortunately, even if the court was extremely resentful of a local sect, it could not destroy the sect. This was determined by the political system of the Divine Martial World.

In the Divine Martial World, the authority to issue an order to destroy a sect lies with the "Twelve Elders' Council," composed of representatives from the major sects. Each of the ten major sects has one representative, and the two supreme sects have two representatives. This is the most powerful institution in the Divine Martial Continent, with the power to even depose the emperor.