Chapter 976: Sect Leader, Where's My Sword?

"No need. Don't go to all that trouble." Niu Youdao raised a hand to stop them. "I'll change after I get back to the Maolu Annex. Changing only the outer robe won't help. Even the underclothes underneath are red, and wearing the whole set feels awkward. If I change here, I'll still have to change again when I go back. I don't know what the hell Sacred Realm was thinking. The moment we went in, they stripped us completely naked and wouldn't let us keep a single thing we'd brought from outside. Everything we wore, inside and out, was forcibly replaced with this ridiculous outfit."

Since that was the case, Gong Lince did not insist. Instead he asked, "Where are Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie?"

Niu Youdao said, "Still undergoing the tempering inside Sacred Realm. I'm the only one who came back early."

Everyone exchanged looks. Gong Lince asked suspiciously, "Only you came back? Not one of the others returned?"

Niu Youdao said, "I'm not entirely sure. When I came out, I was the only one leaving Sacred Realm. Whether anyone came out afterward, I wouldn't know. But I suspect I'm probably the only one."

"How could that happen?" Gong Lince looked genuinely worried. "You didn't stir up some trouble in there, did you?"

He was hardly the only one with that concern. The others present worried about the same thing. After all, a certain someone had managed to stir up trouble the last time he went to Tiandu Peak.

Niu Youdao said, "I'm an honest, law-abiding man. What trouble could I possibly cause? That was Sacred Realm. I'd have to dare first. The truth is, I'm baffled by this too. Inside Sacred Realm, Luo Fangfei, Pavilion Master of Fangfei Pavilion, suddenly came looking for me. I didn't want to leave, but she insisted on throwing me out..." He then recounted what had happened.

Far from clearing anything up, the story left everyone else just as astonished and uncertain. None could understand what it meant.

Gong Lince asked with considerable caution, "For something like that to happen, there must have been a cause. It couldn't have come from nowhere. Think carefully. Did anything happen after you entered Sacred Realm?"

Niu Youdao sighed. "The moment we entered Sacred Realm, they stripped the whole group naked. Before they even let us catch our breath, the tempering began immediately. Ding Wei, the man presiding over Misty Pavilion, had brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones distributed to us on the spot..." He proceeded to explain how they had been forced to write their submissions.

The moment the others heard this, everyone in the hall grew tense. Forcing representatives of every faction to write such things was truly the sort of demand that could get people killed.

On the surface, none of the factions could possibly have any major problems. If their faults were obvious, Misty Pavilion would have dealt with them long ago. How could they have survived until today? But behind the scenes, whose hands were truly clean? At the very least, who had never privately expressed a little dissatisfaction with Misty Pavilion or Sacred Realm?

If anything they had done genuinely angered Sacred Realm, then probably not one of the people in this hall would escape the consequences.

Yuan An urgently asked, "Did all of you write?"

Niu Youdao laughed and threw the question back at him. "If you were there, would you dare refuse? I certainly didn't. Not one Elder from any faction present dared leave it unwritten."

Gong Lince asked nervously, "What did you write?"

"Everyone can relax about that. However unfairly you people may treat me, I'm still a disciple of Zijin Cave. Naturally, I had to find a way to protect Zijin Cave's interests..." Niu Youdao went on to explain what he had written, saying he had filled the pages with examples of Zijin Cave's senior figures joining hands to bully him.

The others were left speechless, but inwardly all of them felt fortunate. Grudges within the sect were fine so long as nothing touched Sacred Realm's true taboos.

Fu Junrang asked, "Junior Brother Niu, didn't you say Ding Wei specifically required you to write about those kinds of problems within your own factions? Could you really pass with what you wrote?"

Niu Youdao chuckled. "Exactly. Ding Wei read my submission and singled me out on the spot, saying he had no interest in all that chicken-feather-and-garlic-skin trivial nonsense I wrote. But I had a reason. I'd only joined Zijin Cave recently, and this bunch of scum in Zijin Cave won't even give an Elder like me the right to participate in decisions. I know nothing at all about the sect's real affairs. I couldn't just fabricate things out of thin air, could I? Ding Wei didn't say much after hearing that, so I passed."

Everyone let out a breath of relief. As for his calling them "a bunch of scum," they all pretended not to hear it.

Fu Junrang, however, could not resist glancing at Gong Lince and Yan Li, inwardly amused. Niu Youdao had risked himself inside Sacred Realm to shield Zijin Cave's interests, while these people had taken advantage of his absence to make trouble for the Maolu Annex. It was hardly honorable. There would be a show to watch later.

Gong Lince asked again, "Was that the entire tempering?"

"Of course not. That was only the appetizer." Niu Youdao continued, "Two days ago, meaning the day after Sect Leader left Sacred Island, the next part of the tempering came down. They want us to hunt Demon Foxes. I assume all of you have heard about the Demon Foxes in Sacred Realm?"

Everyone nodded, indicating they had.

Niu Youdao continued, "The participants from all the factions are to form one team. Misty Pavilion will send an equal number of people to form another. The two teams will compete. This seems to be aimed at Misty Pavilion. Misty Pavilion's people know the terrain and the hunts, so naturally they ought to win. But if they lose to the tempering team, that's enough to prove Misty Pavilion's incompetence. Some of them apparently have to take responsibility and be kicked out of Misty Pavilion. As a reward, members of the tempering team may have a chance to enter Misty Pavilion and take the posts vacated by those who are removed."

Everyone exchanged looks. Yuan An said gravely, "It seems the purpose of this tempering is far more complicated than we imagined."

Niu Youdao added meaningfully, "First they force the people from every faction to write down things like that. Not everyone has as convenient an excuse as I did to dodge the important and dwell on the trivial. Once someone writes things that make it difficult to explain himself when he returns to his sect, desperately hunting Demon Foxes and trying to enter Misty Pavilion starts looking like an option."

"How serious the things they wrote actually are isn't even the important part. The important part is that leverage has fallen into Sacred Realm's hands. Whether Sacred Realm treats any given problem as large or small is entirely up to them. This tempering was probably planned in advance."

Everyone fell into thought. Put that way, the shape of the matter was already becoming obvious. The deeper implications were not difficult to imagine.

Gong Lince asked, "And after that?"

Niu Youdao spread both hands. "There was no 'after that.' We'd only just received the notice about the Demon Fox hunt when Luo Fangfei arrived and forcibly sent me out of Sacred Realm. Who the hell knows what happened afterward?"

Everyone looked at one another. The matter truly was strange enough to leave them without a clue. No one could tell whether what had happened was good for Niu Youdao or bad for him.

"That's everything. Things I should have said, things I perhaps shouldn't have said—I've reported it all honestly to the sect. I don't have the right to participate in decisions anyway, so you can slowly discuss what to do next yourselves. I won't disturb you. I'm going back first." Niu Youdao dropped the words and turned to leave.

Gong Lince seemed to wake from a dream. He hurriedly called, "Junior Brother, wait."

Niu Youdao turned back. "Does Sect Leader have any other instructions?"

"You handled yourself well on this trip to Sacred Realm." Gong Lince walked over beside him. Taking advantage of the moment when his shifted position put him outside Niu Youdao's line of sight, he quickly shot Yan Li a look.

At first, Yan Li did not understand what he meant. Only when Gong Lince signaled again and tilted his head toward the rear mountain did realization dawn. Yan Li quietly slipped away, leaving through the rear hall.

Yuan An, Fu Junrang, Yin Yide, and Mo Lingxue exchanged glances, each clearly understanding what had just happened.

Within Zijin Cave, Yuan An and Fu Junrang were broadly aligned, while Yin Yide and Mo Lingxue tended to stand together. The latter two were relatively neutral, and at times all four would support one another.

Sometimes banding together for warmth was simply unavoidable. Almost every position of real power in Zijin Cave had been brought under Gong Lince's control. Shen Baochun, stationed at the Yan imperial palace; Yue Yuan, stationed in Gongzhou; and Qiao Tianguang, stationed in Bozhou—all were Gong Lince's people.

Gong Lince personally held the sect itself, while his people held the great levers of secular power outside. The one opening the others could still exploit was that, in the sect's ordinary internal decision-making, Gong Lince's faction did not possess enough strength to dominate everything outright.

At this moment, Gong Lince was doing his best to keep Niu Youdao there, dragging him through one irrelevant topic after another.

Niu Youdao was no fool. Suspicious by nature, he sensed something was wrong. After patiently considering Gong Lince's intention for a while, he asked, "Sect Leader, what exactly are you trying to say? If something happened, just say it directly. You suddenly being this attentive toward me feels very abnormal."

The words were straightforward to the point of bluntness, without the slightest attempt to soften them. Yuan An and Fu Junrang exchanged glances, secretly amused. Gong Lince usually wielded the sect's authority with ease and handled its affairs effortlessly. They had not expected to see a day when even he would find himself unable to maneuver.

Gong Lince sighed. "Junior Brother, what I'm trying to say is that you're an Elder of Zijin Cave. Sometimes, with certain matters, you have to consider things from the sect's position."

Niu Youdao said, "Sect Leader, now I don't understand you at all. I've honestly reported the tempering and everything Ding Wei made us write. If I hadn't been considering matters from the sect's position, would I have needed to take the risk of gritting my teeth and filling those pages with petty trivialities? Do you really think I couldn't find any genuine fault with Zijin Cave?"

Gong Lince said, "That intention is exactly what matters. In truth, some things aren't such a great matter. If everyone looks past them, they pass. Don't think too much."

Niu Youdao's brow lifted slightly. Then, without warning, he said, "Sect Leader, don't tell me that I was gone for only a few days and something already happened at the Maolu Annex."

Now that the man himself had returned, some things could no longer be concealed. Gong Lince had no choice but to reveal the truth. "Something did happen, but it wasn't anything serious. Your people at the Annex had a minor conflict with some disciples of the sect. It has already been resolved."

"A conflict?" Something in Niu Youdao's tone changed. "Did anyone at the Maolu Annex die?"

Gong Lince said seriously, "You're thinking too much. A small conflict like that did not reach the point of anyone dying."

Hearing that no one had died loosened the string drawn tight in Niu Youdao's heart. "Sect Leader, what exactly happened? You may as well explain it clearly."

"It truly wasn't anything major. One disciple had an argument with Hongniang, and that led to a bit of conflict..." Gong Lince gave a rough account of what happened. Naturally, he softened the nature of the dispute considerably, lest the truth make Niu Youdao flare up.

After hearing it, Niu Youdao chuckled, though there was no humor in the smile. "Now that's interesting. I know exactly what kind of person Hongniang is. Even when I was there, she wasn't the sort to speak wildly and arrogantly. Once I left, she should have been even more careful, keeping her tail tucked between her legs. For her to say something like that doesn't sound much like the Hongniang who's followed me all these years."

He nodded faintly. "No one died. Good. Then it's a small matter, easy enough to settle. Sect Leader, where's my sword?"

Gong Lince froze. "What sword?"

A trace of ferocity surfaced on Niu Youdao's face. "The sword I use to kill people. Sacred Island wouldn't let me bring anything inside, so I entrusted it to Sect Leader at the time. Now that I'm back, shouldn't you return my things? Sect Leader is far too lofty a man to embezzle this little possession of mine, surely?"

[End of Chapter 976]