Chapter 1372: Ill Winds, Wave upon Wave

At Tiandu Peak, inside Misty Pavilion, Huo Kong sat behind his desk with a dark expression as he studied the intelligence reports gathered before him.

No one knew where the rumors had begun.

They said the Nine Saints were dissatisfied with the recent string of incidents and intended to carry out a bloody purge of the supervisory personnel from the various sects. They even said the Nine Saints were preparing to order the sect leaders themselves to serve as supervisors, along with other such claims.

One could imagine what impact rumors like these had on the major sects.

In the past, who in the cultivation world would have dared discuss the Nine Saints' affairs?

Now the situation seemed to be slipping further and further out of control. Too many people were whispering in secret. They could hardly kill everyone, could they?

The Sacred Realm had also noticed that something was wrong and plainly understood that the situation was beginning to escape control. Orders had already come down for Misty Pavilion to suspend the investigations into Zhuge Chi and Lan Ming and instead concentrate its strength on sorting out Misty Pavilion's own internal affairs. Not a single person was to be missed. Everyone's cultivation had to be verified.

Only after the interior had been thoroughly cleared up were they to devote their full strength to the other investigations.

Huo Kong understood the principle: before dealing with enemies without, first purge those within.

Yet the chaos was worsening by the day.

Misty Pavilion personnel continued disappearing. If they were verifying cultivation, did the cultivation of those missing people need to be verified as well? What if someone had broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm and was using the turmoil as a natural excuse to disappear? Once enough people vanished, how were they supposed to investigate them all?

Even worse, Misty Pavilion personnel kept being killed.

When Misty Pavilion people were murdered, did those deaths need investigation?

They could hardly sit by and watch Misty Pavilion personnel continue being slaughtered. With this many dead, did they need to dispatch large numbers of people to investigate, intimidate, and suppress the killers?

Then how were they supposed to concentrate their strength on verifying cultivation?

When the house was burning, the fire had to be put out first!

With disorder erupting everywhere, Huo Kong was both furious and anxious. He bitterly regretted that Ding Wei had managed to die at exactly the wrong time and leave this rotten mess for him to inherit.

These days, Huo Kong often found himself counting on his fingers to work out how long remained before the Presiding Administrator's rotational term changed hands again.

Right Envoy Yue Guangming strode inside, looking equally haggard. After saluting, he placed a list on the desk and said heavily, "Word came from below. Another twenty-three people have disappeared, and seventeen were assassinated!"

Bang!

Without even looking at the list, Huo Kong slammed the desk and surged to his feet. "Ill winds, wave upon wave! Where the hell are these ill winds coming from?"

Yue Guangming's face tightened. "They're far too brazen!"

Huo Kong snapped, "There has to be an internal traitor! Don't let me drag out whoever it is. I'll skin him alive!"

Yue Guangming tested, "Presiding Administrator, you suspect our own people are doing it?"

Huo Kong said, "Who else would have this kind of nerve? Among cultivators outside Misty Pavilion, who dares show Misty Pavilion disrespect? Who dares lay murderous hands on Misty Pavilion personnel without restraint? Heh. The Sacred Venerables decide to inspect this side, and immediately people start dying or disappearing. How could there be such a coincidence? Someone is obviously trying to obstruct the inspection!"

Then he said meaningfully, "Guangming, perhaps the internal traitor truly isn't inside the Sacred Realm. Perhaps he really is among the Misty Pavilion personnel here in the mortal world. Someone's tail has been stepped on, and now the cornered dog is leaping the wall! Just look. Every kind of bizarre incident imaginable is appearing."

He pointed toward another intelligence report on the desk.

Yue Guangming picked it up and read.

It was the rumor claiming that the sect leaders or senior elders themselves would be ordered to serve as supervisors.

After skimming it, he put it down. "This subordinate has heard the same rumor. According to reports, the sect leaders are already panicking." He glanced around, then abruptly lowered his voice. "Although it's only a rumor, that doesn't mean the Sacred Venerables have never considered it. If the sect leaders themselves became supervisors, they could mobilize far more of their sects' strength. Li Zhengfa mobilized Baichuan Valley's power and intervened forcefully. Misty Pavilion couldn't find Zhuge Chi, yet Baichuan Valley did. The Sacred Venerables should have seen the result. Perhaps they truly have begun considering it."

Huo Kong lowered his own voice. "I don't rule out the possibility that the Sacred Venerables have thought about it. But even if they have, they wouldn't announce anything beforehand. They would certainly wait until the moment arrived and then make the decision suddenly. They wouldn't stir everyone into panic in advance at a time like this."

"Yes. Presiding Administrator speaks reasonably." Yue Guangming nodded. Then he pointed to the list again and lowered his voice even further. "Sir, you should still look at this list."

The change in address made Huo Kong realize there was something hidden behind the words.

He picked up the list again and examined it closely, but he could see nothing unusual. Frowning, he asked, "What's wrong with this list?"

Yue Guangming looked left and right, climbed the steps to Huo Kong's side, and whispered in his ear, "Gu Zhengxing, one of those listed as missing, is one of ours. Back then, he was the one who handled the matter of killing that woman. Now he's suddenly disappeared. This subordinate is worried something may have gone wrong."

Huo Kong abruptly understood.

Alarm flashed across his face. "Fool! What have you done?"

Yue Guangming hurriedly said, "Sir, don't worry. This subordinate has already arranged for someone to silence his handler. I only wanted Sir to be mentally prepared in case something happens."

Huo Kong relaxed slightly, yet his worry only deepened.

People inside Misty Pavilion secretly belonged to one faction or another. Over all these years, who knew how many people had carried out how many shameful affairs that could never bear exposure?

Now, with one casual sweep, even Huo Kong himself had been implicated.

If matters continued developing this way, the people who had disappeared might leave countless others unable to sleep or eat in peace.

This incident made him understand all the more clearly how unprecedented the present situation was.

Large numbers of Misty Pavilion personnel were suddenly being assassinated. Large numbers were suddenly disappearing. Nothing like it had ever happened before. The scale and speed were probably beyond what many people had ever imagined.

"To strike this many people in such a short time, without leaking the slightest rumor and without even a single survivor escaping to report what happened... whoever is hiding behind this possesses considerable power. This is no ordinary force." Huo Kong sighed with feeling.

Yue Guangming reminded him, "Sir, there were twelve Wuliang Fruits! If twelve Nascent Soul cultivators really made the attacks, it would hardly be strange that no survivors escaped to report."

Twelve Wuliang Fruits!

Huo Kong's heart itched at the thought.

Unfortunately, there was no chance for him to get even one.

He had no idea who possessed such extraordinary ability that they could actually steal the fruits from heavily guarded Wuliang Garden. Every time he thought about it, he still found the feat unbelievable.

...

In the Yan capital, at a branch of the All-Under-Heaven Money House, Hong Gaitian, Third Master of the South Sea, sat at a desk wearing Misty Pavilion robes. He stared at a ledger, bobbing his head as though reading.

In reality, he could not take in a single word.

Auditing accounts was not something he was skilled at.

Not only could he not read the ledgers, he also kept sighing from time to time.

Back when lots had been drawn in the Sacred Realm and he drew the All-Under-Heaven Money House assignment, he had thought himself fortunate. Looking at the situation now, it seemed that supposed good fortune had instead become a curse.

What sort of problems could there be inside a money house?

Nothing more than money and accounts.

And once someone balanced the books cleanly, it became extremely difficult to dig out a real problem.

Every time Hong Gaitian wanted to find trouble here, he had to face another pile of ledgers. The whole thing was driving him half-mad. By now, he thought the investigations outside, with all their fighting and killing, were far easier.

And this was a period when a blade was already hanging over his neck.

Rumors were everywhere. Whether the rumors were true or false could be set aside for the moment. Pressure from the Sacred Realm was real.

The Dharma King of the South Sea, Hong Gaitian's own boss, had panicked as well and was pressing him mercilessly.

Hong Gaitian understood what his boss was thinking.

He was terrified that he might be dragged in to take over this miserable supervisory duty himself. If the work was done well, there was little glory in it. If it was done badly, the result was losing one's head. Everyone wanted to stay as far away from such a task as possible. Who would volunteer to come?

And Hong Gaitian's current position was even worse.

The deadline was six months.

If he could not produce results within six months, the Sacred Realm would kill him.

If he did produce results, he would have to continue doing the job. Otherwise, his boss would not let him off either.

"Ah, getting saddled with this rotten business must mean I've had eight lifetimes of bad luck!" Hong Gaitian suddenly covered his face and sighed.

His trusted subordinate Su Gongye, with his shifty eyes and rat-like face, entered from outside. Moving furtively, he handed Hong Gaitian a sheet of paper. "Third King, someone secretly slipped us another intelligence lead."

Hong Gaitian picked it up and read. Then he laughed. "Who sent this? They're even feeding me news about someone stealing another man's wife. What the hell are they trying to do?"

Su Gongye held up three fingers. "Third King, this is already the third intelligence lead we've received out of nowhere. Are we going to investigate or not?"

Hong Gaitian frowned. "How do we investigate clues when we don't know where they came from? What if someone dug a pit and is waiting to bury us in it?"

Su Gongye bent closer. "Since we have a lead, what's the harm in checking? What if it's real? That's still better than sitting here without the faintest clue. If it turns out to be wrong, at worst we honestly report that we don't know who sent us the information. Third King, six months. We've only been given six months. If we have nothing to show by then, all of us are losing our heads."

Hong Gaitian's eyes flickered.

He was clearly tempted.

After thinking it over again and again, bang, he slapped the desk and shot to his feet, hands planted on his hips and chest thrust out. "Fine! Investigate!"

...

Inside the secret chamber at Maolu Annex, Yun Ji entered and tossed several more sheets of paper onto the desk.

Niu Youdao, leaning back in his chair, bent forward, swept the papers into his hand, and read through them. Then he chuckled and shook his head with a look of deep amusement. "Again. Quite a haul this time!"

When he had previously ordered the various sides to move against Misty Pavilion personnel, his purpose had been to dig up a little useful information he could exploit as cover.

He had never expected that one sweep of the rake would produce such an unexpected result.

It truly was an accident.

Without meaning to, he had suddenly gathered a strong hand of cards.

Gong Lince and the others had all sent messages praising him, telling him his methods were brilliant. It was not empty flattery. They were genuinely convinced by his ability and said his command of strategy truly deserved its reputation.

In truth, that was not what had happened at all.

No one had ever attacked Misty Pavilion like this before. Even Niu Youdao himself had not known what result it would produce. He certainly had not expected that there would be so few hard bones among the normally lofty Misty Pavilion personnel. One strike had dug out secret after secret he had never imagined.

Only now did he discover how riddled with holes Misty Pavilion truly was.

They had not even moved against that many people, yet this much dirty business had already surfaced. If the net were cast wider, there were probably very few people inside Misty Pavilion whose asses were truly clean.

The structure beneath the Nine Saints had rotted to this extent.

It was enough to amuse him for quite a while.

No wonder the Nine Saints wanted to rectify it.

He had already sent word: when moving against Misty Pavilion personnel from now on, capture them alive for interrogation whenever possible.

Seeing him happily reading through other people's secrets, Yun Ji pointed at the papers in his hand. "There are letters inside asking you what to do. Some sects' supervisory personnel still can't find anything worth investigating. Should we feed a few clues to every sect?"

Niu Youdao did not even raise his head. He continued reading and shook it slightly. "No. Release only a suitable number of clues. Once some people produce results and save their lives, the ones who still can't save themselves will grow anxious from comparison. We need the people from the other sects to become desperate. Misty Pavilion personnel keep dying and disappearing. Those supervisors aren't fools. In time, they'll begin wondering where these clues are coming from. Don't you think it would be interesting to drag all the sects into the water and have them start hunting for leads that might save their own lives? We shouldn't be the only ones doing the dirty work."

[End of Chapter 1372]