This drinking contest was merely an appetizer. Qi Xuansu’s visit to the Wanxiang Daoist Palace did not become any smoother because of it, nor did Qi Xuansu want it to go smoothly.

The next day, Qi Xuansu and the others accompanied the Western Daoist delegation on a tour of the Upper Palace. This was where the Daoist Order trained high-ranking Daoists, and it was also where Qi Xuansu had once studied.

Cultivating high-ranking Daoists was about fostering ideals, beliefs, and loyalty to the Daoist Order.

Huangfu Ji was very interested in this and even sat in on a class. To build the Western Daoist Order, he had to work on two fronts—material and morale. Both must be grasped firmly and developed equally.

During this visit, Huangfu Ji witnessed the prosperity of the Daoist Order. Even Nanyang, a small corner of Daoist territory, had surpassed the Southern Continent. This made Huangfu Ji determined to gradually shift his focus from military affairs to development. He would not aim too high at the start, concentrating mainly on two projects—the construction of a new port and the establishment of a Daoist Palace.

According to the schedule, they would visit the Lower Palace the next day. Both the cultivation of high-level talent and the training of foundational talent were important, and neither could be neglected.

At that moment, Ning Yuqing hurried over.

There had been significant personnel changes in the Daoist Palace. Ning Lingyun had already left. Although Ning Yuqing had not yet taken over, both Great Sage Shi and Sun Hewu valued her and entrusted many matters to her.

Seeing Ning Yuqing’s hurried steps and unusual expression, everyone knew something had happened and instinctively stopped what they were doing.

Ning Yuqing went to Sun Hewu’s side and spoke to him in a low voice.

Not eavesdropping on conversations was a basic etiquette, so Qi Xuansu and Huangfu Ji deliberately dulled their hearing, as if covering their ears with their hands.

Then both of them looked toward Sun Hewu. If it concerned them, the old man would naturally inform them. If not, he would excuse himself.

In the end, Sun Hewu looked at Qi Xuansu and said, “A female instructor has died.”

Qi Xuansu’s mind was sharp. He immediately connected it to a certain incident and blurted out, “The female instructor related to Little Yin? The one Qing Xiao personally apologized to?”

Sun Hewu nodded silently.

Over the years, Qi Xuansu had seen plenty of despicable tricks. He was not particularly surprised. He merely sneered, “So now they’re playing this game on me.”

Sun Hewu signaled with his eyes for Qi Xuansu to hold back for now. After all, Huangfu Ji was present, and one should not air dirty laundry in public.

Qi Xuansu did not undermine Sun Hewu’s position and said, “Very well, I’ll excuse myself for now and go handle this matter.”

However, Huangfu Ji reached out to stop Qi Xuansu. “Tian Yuan, Elder Sun, the Daoist Order and the Western Daoist Order share the same roots. You don’t have to hide things from me.”

These words were abrupt, even somewhat inappropriate, but Qi Xuansu glanced at Huangfu Ji with both surprise and gratitude. Huangfu Ji was helping him by applying external pressure. He had seen that Qi Xuansu did not intend to let the matter pass quietly, so he, as a guest, took the initiative to raise the issue, making it difficult for the Daoist Palace to gloss over it.

In fact, Sun Hewu also leaned toward helping Qi Xuansu. Since Huangfu Ji had spoken, he simply went along with it and said, “Very well, let’s all go take a look.”

The matter involving Little Yin had originated with this female instructor. Zhang Yuelu had apologized to her, and Qi Xuansu had come because of Little Yin. No matter how one looked at it, this female instructor was the key to finding out who was behind it.

Now that this female instructor was dead, the mastermind had silenced a witness and made it possible to pin the blame on Qi Xuansu, killing two birds with one stone.

With a brief thought, Qi Xuansu understood the logic. He did not avoid it. Instead, he proposed handling it personally, intending to confront it head-on.

For Qi Xuansu, this sort of minor scheme was troublesome but not truly difficult.

After all, back at the Poluo Daoist Mansion, Wang Jiaohe had even arrested his secretary, and Sun Heyu had personally captured Chen Jianqiu. Both sides nearly came to blows. That was the real life-and-death pressure. Now, this was merely moral pressure, which meant nothing to Qi Xuansu.

In the end, they were people who had never experienced hardship, so they could not mature. Without setbacks, one remained naive.

Qi Xuansu and the others rushed to the female instructor’s residence, which had already been sealed off. The Wanxiang Daoist Palace also had branches of the Fengxian Hall, Beichen Hall, and Tiangang Hall.

Upon Qi Xuansu’s arrival, the Beichen Hall branch’s superintendent hurried over in trepidation. He dared not show the slightest neglect to the second-in-command of Beichen Hall.

Qi Xuansu asked, “How did she die?”

The superintendent replied, “Chief Deputy, it is preliminarily determined to be suicide.”

Qi Xuansu asked again, “Do we know why she committed suicide?”

The superintendent immediately showed a troubled expression, hesitating to speak.

Qi Xuansu said, “Did you hear something? Just say whatever it is.”

“Yes, Sage.” The superintendent glanced furtively at Qi Xuansu and said cautiously, “There are rumors that the deceased heard of your arrival, became frightened, and couldn’t bear the pressure...so she committed suicide.”

Qi Xuansu remained expressionless. “How long has she been dead?”

“She died at midnight, about 8 hours ago,” the superintendent quickly replied.

Qi Xuansu sneered. “In such a short time, rumors have already spread? Isn’t that strange?”

The Beichen Hall superintendent also knew something was off, but he did not know how to respond, so he could only remain silent.

Huangfu Ji had no such reservations and said directly, “I find it highly suspicious.”

Qi Xuansu turned again to the Beichen Hall superintendent. “Have methods like Earth Qi Recall or spirit communication been used?”

The superintendent quickly replied, “We have conducted a preliminary investigation. Earth Qi Recall revealed no issues. But strangely, the deceased’s soul dissipated extremely quickly, and the Three Corpses barely remain.”

Huangfu Ji said, “Clean and efficient. Someone knowledgeable was involved.”

Qi Xuansu said, “Exactly. The absence of anomalies is itself the greatest abnormality.”

Qi Xuansu then turned to Sun Hewu. “Elder Sun, I suspect this is not an ordinary suicide. This female instructor did not kill herself. She was murdered. She may have discovered some secret and was silenced. It’s likely connected to a secret society.”

Sun Hewu was taken aback, clearly not following Qi Xuansu’s line of thought.

Qi Xuansu had to remind him, “Elder Sun, have you forgotten what happened with Zhang Juyan? My senior brother Qi Jianyuan had also died within the Daoist Palace. All this shows that there are people inside the Daoist Palace colluding with secret societies.”

Sun Hewu finally reacted. “But those were events from several years ago.”

Qi Xuansu waved his hand. “What happened years ago is not important. These secret societies are best at laying long-term plans and planting hidden agents. Some even remain dormant for decades. The Golden Tower Council advocates normalizing certain secret societies, but the premise is to crack down harshly on extreme ones. Handling cases from years ago on a case-by-case basis is far from sufficient. We must conduct a thorough investigation and completely root out those hidden cult demons within the Daoist Palace to prevent such incidents from happening again.”

Sun Hewu finally understood.

Some people wanted to pressure and humiliate Qi Xuansu as a warning. Qi Xuansu, however, was flipping the table outright, escalating it to a life-and-death matter.

“Why go this far?” Sun Hewu urged earnestly. “This will create too many enemies!”

Qi Xuansu’s tone allowed no refusal. “Elder Sun, you’ve had little exposure to this sort of thing. I’m quite familiar with it. Aside from Zhang Juyan’s incident, I’ve fought cult demons to the death many times. I’ve nearly lost my life to secret societies several times, so I can recognize their methods at a glance. This is undoubtedly their doing.”

Sun Hewu found himself unable to refute him.

Qi Xuansu was not boasting. This was indeed his record. A third of the credit for his rapid rise could be attributed to his dealings with secret societies. In contrast, although Sun Hewu was older, he had spent most of his time within the Wanxiang Dao Palace and truly did not understand secret societies as well as Qi Xuansu. Even Great Sage Shi was less experienced in this regard. After all, Qi Xuansu had faced figures like Wu Luo and True Lord Siming more than once.

Qi Xuansu continued, “The rapid dissipation of the soul resembles True Lord Siming’s methods. The Wanxiang Daoist Palace is not far from Beimang Mountain, and True Lord Siming has long coveted the Ghost Kingdom. We must not be careless. If necessary, I will have Beichen Hall dispatch a flying ship to temporarily seal off the Daoist Palace and conduct a full inspection.”

“Huh?” Sun Hewu showed undisguised shock. “Tian Yuan, what exactly are you trying to do?”

Qi Xuansu said solemnly, “I am the Chief Deputy of Beichen Hall. This is my duty. I now have reasonable grounds to suspect that some among the Daoist Palace’s upper ranks are colluding with secret societies, and I intend to investigate. If there are any consequences, I will bear full responsibility. Elder Sun, let’s go see Great Sage Shi now and report this matter. As long as he agrees, I will immediately dispatch personnel from Beichen Hall.”

Then, Qi Xuansu turned to the Beichen Hall superintendent and ordered, “Seal off this scene. No one is allowed near it. If anything goes wrong, you will be held accountable.”

The Beichen Hall superintendent had not expected the situation to escalate in this direction and quickly responded, “Please rest assured, Chief Deputy. I will complete the task.”

Did these people really think that Qi Xuansu’s title as Chief Deputy was for show? Did they really think power did not exist?

People kept saying Qi Xuansu held a high rank and great power, yet some seemed not to understand what that truly meant and insisted on provoking him.

So Qi Xuansu would let them see for themselves how wrong they were.

Power and status were not for Qi Xuansu to merely give speeches here or tour places. To put it bluntly, if Qi Xuansu wanted someone dead, he would not even need to do it himself.

There were some things that Qi Xuansu had chosen not to do, but that did not mean he was incapable of doing them.

When he served as Chief Deputy in the Poluo Daoist Mansion, so many people feared him because of the real power he held in his hands.

Even high-ranking figures of the Heavenly Court had to curry favor with Chen Jianchou. That was because many difficult matters could be resolved with a single word from Qi Xuansu. If Qi Xuansu wanted the Heavenly Court to suffer, then it would have no choice but to endure it. There was no point resisting.

Now that Qi Xuansu had been promoted to Chief Deputy of Beichen Hall, it could not be an empty title.

Qi Xuansu intended to let these people see what it meant to make a big deal out of a small matter and how he would seize this opportunity to escalate things.

He would show them that he could truly do whatever he wanted.

If he said this was a case involving secret societies, then it would be determined as such, regardless of whether it truly was one.