Chapter 42 (Part 1)

What peerless treasure was this? Yu Yu hugged Yuanyuan and kissed him fiercely all over.

He still had no idea that because of what had happened to him today, the entire Taizhen Immortal Sect had exploded.

Lingbao had scolded every elder and disciple in the Hall of Affairs from top to bottom, and he had even sent his junior brother Lingtong, who usually did not go out much, to take charge of the Hall of Affairs.

In the past, the Hall of Affairs had always been managed by the outer sect, with the inner and outer sects handled separately.

Now that he had sent his second junior brother Lingtong to take charge, it meant the Hall of Affairs had officially been taken over by the inner sect.

At the same time, Lingtong reorganized the Hall of Affairs. He called in several inner disciples to serve as stewards. As for the elders, he felt there were too many, so he removed some elders who either did nothing or had even committed evil deeds, leaving only a few honest elders to act as his assistants.

The disciples were also investigated by the Law Enforcement Hall. Those who had slipped in just to collect their monthly allowance without doing a thing were all driven out of the Hall of Affairs.

With this, the Hall of Affairs’s manpower shrank, but its efficiency increased.

Lingtong sat in the main hall of the Hall of Affairs and sneered at the elders, stewards, and disciples before him.

Although he had not met his little junior brother many times, he cherished this little junior brother just as much as Lingbao did.

Last time, he had eaten a few of the spirit fruits their little junior brother had given their master. After his spiritual root was purified, his cultivation had increased.

This was no small improvement. He was currently in the middle stage of Soul Transformation, yet with only the slightest purification of his spiritual root, his cultivation had been pushed to the late stage of Soul Transformation.

Not only had his cultivation grown, he was now not far from the Tribulation stage either.

As long as he cultivated diligently for another hundred years, he had an eighty percent chance of advancing to the Tribulation stage.

With one little junior brother, all of his senior brothers benefited. He had forcibly shortened the time it would take all of them to advance to the Tribulation stage by a hundred years.

How could senior brothers like them not cherish such a junior brother?

So the moment he heard there were actually people in the Hall of Affairs who dared to watch their little junior brother suffer for entertainment, and that when something happened, they did not call an elder but simply allowed their little junior brother to remain in danger, he was furious.

After the matter spread, all of his senior brothers were livid. Their little junior brother, whom they held in the palms of their hands, had actually been looked down upon like this. Did those people no longer take their direct lineage seriously?

One had to know that Qingyang was the final disciple of the sect master from two generations ago. It had not even been three generations yet. Therefore, Yu Yu and the others belonged to the direct lineage of the Taizhen Immortal Sect. Only after five generations would they be transferred into a collateral line.

That was why, as soon as Senior Brother Lingbao mentioned it, he agreed to come to the outer sect and take charge of the Hall of Affairs.

And Lingbao’s renewed purge of the sect made the outer sect the hardest-hit area.

Everyone knew that wherever there were people, there would be conflict. Even the Taizhen Immortal Sect could not be an exception. After all, in a sect with more than a hundred thousand people, there would naturally be some with poor character mixed in.

And these people became the rat droppings that could ruin an entire pot of porridge.

At least the inner sect was under the eyes of the Supreme Elders and the sect master, so there were limits to the schemes they could pull.

In contrast, the outer sect had become a place of survival of the fittest.

Those with greater strength seized resources from those with lower strength.

Those with lower strength seized resources from those even weaker.

It could be said that if the Taizhen Immortal Sect had not managed things strictly, the outer sect would have long since become a heap of rotten mud.

Because the sect master frequently sent personal disciples to patrol the outer sect and inspect the outer disciples’ cultivation progress, those disciples did not dare go too far when snatching resources.

They only dared take half, leaving the remaining half for the weaker disciples to cultivate. Because once the inspection disciples discovered that cultivation progress was unsatisfactory, they would thoroughly investigate the outer sect. When that time came, none of those who had seized resources would be able to escape.

Last time, quite a few such people had already been dealt with. This time, the Hall of Affairs’s offense made Lingbao feel that the previous purge had not been thorough enough.

From elders to disciples, he dug deep several times. He even brought out the sect-protecting immortal artifact, the Xuanzhen Mirror, the sect’s greatest treasure, to examine the disciples and elders.

The Xuanzhen Mirror could create large-scale illusions, drawing people deeply into them and making them believe they were in the real world. Because of this, it could be used to distinguish identity and character.

At the once-every-ten-years disciple recruitment ceremony, the Xuanzhen Mirror would always appear to test those who wanted to enter the Taizhen Immortal Sect.

As long as they were evil cultivators or spies sent by other forces, none could escape the Xuanzhen Mirror’s illusion without exposing themselves.

At this point, everyone must be asking: since they had such a good thing, why did they not usually use it to monitor the entire sect so bad people could not escape?

People asking that, are you sure you are not looking for trouble?

Look carefully at what the Xuanzhen Mirror is. It is an immortal artifact! Every time the Xuanzhen Mirror was used, it had to be activated with immortal stones sent down by the ancestors of the upper realm.

The problem was that these immortal stones were objects of the Immortal Realm, and their sect did not have many of them. Every use meant one fewer stone. If they used it every day, had they considered the issue of immortal stones?

That was why it was only used once every ten years, and only at the disciple recruitment ceremony. This way, they could eliminate those with malicious intentions or poor character.

If it were used over the long term, it would not take long for the Xuanzhen Mirror to become useless. Once it could no longer be used, its only remaining function would be to sit there and look pretty.

Therefore, judging from the fact that Lingbao had invited out the Xuanzhen Mirror, he was absolutely furious.

He had always believed his Taizhen Immortal Sect was better than other sects. And in reality, it truly was quite a bit better. But once the things hidden in the dark were dragged out, that “better” had to be discounted.

Lingbao was unwilling to let the Taizhen Immortal Sect become like other sects, so he invited out the Xuanzhen Mirror.

Clang—

Clang—

The great tolling of the bell resounded through the entire Taizhen Immortal Sect.

“What happened? Why is the bell ringing?”

Yu Yu put down the little bear cub in his arms. Ever since they had returned from the Hall of Affairs a few days ago, they had stayed on the mountain cultivating and raising the bear while they were at it.

He did not even know about the sect’s great purge, and now the sect’s Warning Bell was ringing.

The Warning Bell, which never rang unless there was a major event, required all disciples to gather at the plaza beneath the main peak once it was struck.

More than a hundred thousand disciples flew out from their cave residences or living quarters one after another, heading toward the plaza.

“Little Martial Uncle, are you going?”

Liu Le hurried over from the spiritual field to ask. They were menial disciples and could not intervene in sect affairs, so they did not need to go to the plaza. But Little Martial Uncle was a personal disciple.

“I…”

Just as Yu Yu was about to answer, his jade slip suddenly rang.

“Little junior brother, you do not need to come to the plaza. Stay peacefully on Holy Sun Peak and do not go out for the next while.”

Lingbao’s voice came from the jade slip.

“All right.”

Yu Yu put away the jade slip, then looked at Liu Le with an expression that said, you understand.

“Then this disciple will continue catching insects in the spiritual field.”

Liu Le naturally understood what he meant. This was telling him to go do whatever he was supposed to do and not worry about it.

“Mm.”

Yu Yu was very satisfied with his tact. This was also why he had always kept Liu Le around. He never asked what he should not ask, and he never pried into what he should not meddle in.

After Liu Le left, Yu Yu muttered to himself.

“This couldn’t have something to do with me again, could it?”

Thinking of what he had encountered in the Hall of Affairs a few days ago, he could not help feeling that the timing of this bell was a little too coincidental.

All the disciples gathered in the plaza. This was a scene that even the once-every-ten-years disciple recruitment ceremony did not have.

More than a hundred thousand people gathered together. Honestly, just counting heads would be enough to make a person dizzy.

But in the immortal cultivation world, there was no need to count one by one. As soon as the disciples entered the plaza, aside from those who were outside training and had not returned, the number of people would automatically appear above the plaza.

The names of those who had not come would also be displayed. This was the wonderful use of arrays and the Identity Jade Token.

Because of this, disciples from every peak desperately flew toward the plaza. Those who could not fly paid spirit stones to have flying birds send them over.

Most disciples could not afford to feel distressed over the spirit stones, because once the sect bell rang, any disciple inside the sect who did not appear in the plaza would be considered to have violated sect rules and would be punished by being sent to Reflection Cliff.

As for Yu Yu, he did not count as a disciple. By status, he should belong among the elders. But because he was too young, Lingbao had not given him an elder’s status.

This time, Lingbao exploited a loophole in the rules and did not make Yu Yu go to the plaza.

Although there was a reason for the incident, his little junior brother was the trigger. He did not want everyone’s attention and hatred to fall on Little Martial Uncle.

No matter how one put it, this matter had touched many people’s interests. Even with him suppressing them, those elders might not say anything openly, but they would definitely hate his little junior brother in private.

If his little junior brother came to the scene, would that not simply draw everyone’s hatred onto him?

As for why they did not dare resent Lingbao himself, it could only be said that everyone knew how to pick on a soft persimmon.

Compared with him, a Zhenjun who was only one step away from Tribulation Transcendence, his little junior brother, who was only at Foundation Establishment, was the easiest to bully in their eyes, even with Little Martial Uncle Qingyang as his backer.

It did not matter if they could not do anything to his little junior brother for the moment, because no one could guard against them forever.

That was why this time, he did not let Yu Yu appear in front of everyone. He did not want that sensitive and thoughtful little junior brother to be targeted by everyone, nor did he want him to feel guilty because of this matter.

Although the cause had indeed arisen because of his little junior brother, he had not done anything wrong. Therefore, he did not need to feel guilty over something he had not done wrong.

“Senior Mirror Spirit, you may begin.”

After all the disciples and elders in the sect who were not in seclusion had arrived at the plaza, Lingbao spoke to the immortal artifact in his hand.

“All right.”

The mirror spirit flew out of Lingbao’s hand and finally stopped above the plaza. Before the people in the entire plaza could react, their vision went dark, and then they collapsed unconscious onto the ground, including Lingbao, the sect master himself.

All of them entered the illusion created by the mirror spirit. At the same time, their performances would also be recorded by the mirror spirit. Those with problems would be marked for special attention.

Not long after, Lingbao woke up and gave the mirror spirit a bitter smile.

“Senior, I did not expect you to drag me in too.”

He naturally had no problems, so he woke up very quickly.

“Hmph. I treat everyone equally. Speaking of which, why didn’t you let that boy called Lingyu come to the plaza too? Don’t tell me none of you suspect he might be a spy from another sect?”

Although the mirror spirit had created a vast illusion, it split its attention in two, controlling the illusion on one side and talking with Lingbao on the other.

“No. The entire sect, myself included, could possibly be spies from other sects. Only my little junior brother cannot be.”

Lingbao explained Yu Yu’s origins to the mirror spirit. Only then did it understand why Lingbao dared speak with such certainty.

“No wonder. You gathered every disciple and elder who was not in seclusion in the plaza, yet deliberately did not let him come. So that was why! Also, why didn’t you make the menial disciples come either?”

According to previous rules, menial disciples indeed did not need to come. But this time was different. It wanted to test everyone in the sect, and that naturally included the menial disciples.

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