That discreet message, after passing through several hands, finally came to rest without a sound in another hall on the Main Peak—one of austere, imposing bearing.
This was the core council hall of Vice Sect Master Mingxuan's faction.
At that moment, an elder with cold, severe features sat behind the desk, turning the newly delivered jade slip over in his hand.
The contents of the slip were exceedingly brief and not at all complex.
The elder chewed over those few lines in his mind several times.
His first reaction was not to wonder what earth-shaking secret this bottom-rung disciple called Lu Xiaoqi might be hiding.
On the contrary, a flicker of keen suspicion passed through those deeply experienced eyes.
Why would someone go out of their way to deliver this particular piece of news to me?
A body cultivator disciple from Hundred Forging Peak—even if he'd dug up some heavenly treasure in the mountains and come into a bit of fortune—was hardly worth the sect's upper echelons casting a deliberate glance his way.
What actually gave this intelligence value was the last half-sentence: he was Li Hansong's older brother. And Li Hansong was a personal disciple Qing Feng valued enormously.
The elder deliberated for a moment, then summoned several other core figures of the Vice Sect Master's faction into the hall and briefly circulated the jade slip's contents.
"Heh. This counts as intelligence?"
A somewhat hot-tempered steward shook his head dismissively after reading it.
"The last thing the cultivation world lacks is fortuitous encounters."
"Someone with only a Five-Element Waste Spirit Root—so what if he's eaten a few divine herbs and temporarily obtained a body on par with Foundation Establishment?"
"The body cultivation path becomes more of a dead end the further you walk it. The ceiling is right there. Hardly worth worrying about."
"No. You haven't seen the crux of it."
Another elder of finer sensibilities offered a completely different view, extending a finger and tapping lightly on the tabletop.
"Lu Xiaoqi himself truly doesn't matter. What's actually worth pondering is—who wants us to notice this Lu Xiaoqi?"
At those words, the few men in the hall fell silent at once.
"This news arrived far too conveniently, and its contents are far too precise."
The elder continued his analysis. "It doesn't directly accuse this Lu Xiaoqi of any wrongdoing, nor does it provide a shred of substantive evidence."
"It simply lays several 'anomalies'—ones exceedingly easy to draw connections from—in front of us, light as a feather."
"That technique looks exactly like someone hiding in the dark, deliberately wanting us to find out."
Some suspected it might be a smokescreen Sect Master Qing Feng had deliberately released, meant to lure the snake out of its hole.
Others felt it might be someone within the sect harboring an old grudge against Qing Feng, hoping to borrow the Vice Sect Master faction's hand to probe—or even eliminate—Lu Xiaoqi, and thereby disturb Li Hansong's Dao heart.
Still others believed this Lu Xiaoqi might genuinely be concealing some unspeakable great fortune, and whoever released the news merely wanted to muddy the waters and fish in the chaos.
Amid all this disagreement, the intelligence was finally presented before Vice Sect Master Mingxuan.
Vice Sect Master Mingxuan, in a magnificent deep-purple Daoist robe, carried a presence as steady and deep as an abyss.
After reading the jade slip, not a ripple showed on his face. He didn't so much as lift an eyelid.
"Lu Xiaoqi?"
He asked it flatly, almost offhandedly.
The elder below immediately explained with deference, "Replying to the Vice Sect Master, this is the older brother Li Hansong grew up with in the servant village since childhood."
Only with that explanation did the faintest sliver of an impression surface in Mingxuan's mind.
After Li Hansong had shone so brilliantly and been taken in by Qing Feng, their faction had indeed investigated Li Hansong's background and web of relationships in exhaustive detail.
The name "Lu Xiaoqi" had appeared in that intelligence at the time.
But a bottom-rung body cultivator with only a Five-Element Waste Spirit Root, in a great sect like the Azure Cloud Sect where orthodox spell cultivation reigned supreme, didn't even rate as an ant. Naturally, nobody had given him a second thought.
But circumstances were different now.
Setting aside the fact that this person's growth rate was somewhat unreasonably fast, there was a more important point...
Qing Feng's attitude toward this Lu Xiaoqi didn't seem as indifferent as it would be toward an ordinary Outer Sect disciple. At the Dao Asking Palace earlier, there had even been faint signs of him extending protection.
Still, Mingxuan did not let that sliver of curiosity prompt him into immediately ordering a thorough investigation of Hundred Forging Peak.
He set the jade slip casually on the desk and asked in a calm tone:
"Where did this news come from?"
The elder below showed an awkward expression and lowered his head somewhat shamefacedly.
"Replying to the Vice Sect Master... unknown. The news passed through several exceedingly discreet relays, and the technique was extremely practiced. The source has long since been wiped clean. There is no evidence to trace."
Hearing that, Mingxuan didn't grow angry. Instead, he let out a soft laugh.
"News whose very origin can't be traced, and they still dare send it to this seat."
There was an unreadable depth beneath his laughter.
Yet despite saying so, he did not destroy the jade slip.
Because whether the news was true or false was one matter.
And why the person hiding in the shadows had gone to such painstaking lengths to do this was another matter entirely.
After a brief silence—
Mingxuan slowly rose to his feet and swept a wide sleeve.
"That Lu Xiaoqi—don't touch him for now."
At that, Mingxuan's gaze turned toward the magnificent hall at the very summit of the Main Peak, as though something had occurred to him.
"As it happens, there are a few trivial matters to discuss at the Evergreen Hall."
He straightened his sleeves, tone indifferent. "This seat hasn't had a proper talk with Senior Brother Qing Feng in quite some time."
Half an hour later.
Evergreen Hall. A side chamber reserved for the sect's upper echelons to confer.
Tea fragrance curled upward; cloud vapor hung thick in the air.
Qing Feng and Mingxuan—the two most powerful men in the Azure Cloud Sect—sat facing one another.
They spoke of the scheduling arrangements for the Outer Sect disciples' annual assessments, then of the spirit stone income and expenditures of the sect's recent enterprises, then of the preparations and slot allocations for the upcoming trials.
The entire exchange was exceedingly smooth.
Between them lay profound ideological divides—they even guarded against each other and wrestled covertly over the balance of power.
But at the same time, they were the two highest helmsmen of the great vessel named "Azure Cloud Sect."
Many decisions bearing on the sect's survival had to be made with the two of them sitting down together, compromising together, and signing off together.
Once the sect's proper business had been more or less covered and the tea had been changed out for a fresh round—
Mingxuan lifted his teacup, nudged the lid lightly, and steered the conversation toward the younger generation with perfect naturalness, as though making idle small talk.
"Speaking of which, how has Senior Brother's newly taken personal disciple been progressing in his cultivation lately?"
Qing Feng's expression remained unchanged, the hand holding his teacup perfectly steady.
"Hansong is gifted and pure of heart. His progress has been smooth enough."
Mingxuan smiled faintly, blowing on the steam rising from his cup, and added what seemed an utterly casual remark:
"That's good to hear. Although..."
"I've heard that older brother of his on Hundred Forging Peak has been making quite a name for himself down below lately."
The instant those words left his mouth—
The curling tea fragrance in the side chamber seemed to stall for half a breath.
Qing Feng slowly lifted his eyelids and leveled a deep look at Mingxuan across from him.
"Lu Xiaoqi?"
"That's the name."
Mingxuan met Qing Feng's gaze, his smile gentle, like an elder genuinely concerned for a junior.
"I hear he has only a Five-Element Waste Spirit Root, yet his physical cultivation has grown remarkably fast—ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples can't get the better of him. For the body cultivation path to be walked so smoothly is rather interesting."
Not a trace of change showed on Qing Feng's face.
He set his teacup down lightly.
"The child simply has fortunes of his own."
Qing Feng's tone was so flat it carried not a single ripple.
Then, rather than letting it end there, he returned a question with perfect composure:
"Why?"
"Junior Brother Mingxuan, you have ten thousand affairs to attend to each day. Since when have you taken such an interest in some junior from Hundred Forging Peak?"
Faced with that probe—seemingly bland, needles hidden in cotton—
Mingxuan merely laughed heartily.
"Senior Brother overthinks it. I merely asked in passing."
"I simply happened to hear some rumors going around outside and found them a bit curious."
The two exchanged a smile, and neither pursued the subject any further.
On the surface, it had been nothing but an exceedingly brief and utterly substanceless bit of chatter.
But in truth, within those few tightly restrained exchanges, both sides had already obtained the information they wanted.
Mingxuan had confirmed one thing:
Qing Feng was not only fully aware of Lu Xiaoqi's recent surge in strength—his words carried an exceedingly subtle note of protectiveness.
And Qing Feng had likewise realized something exceedingly important:
The name Lu Xiaoqi.
Had recently, and quite abruptly, entered the core field of vision of the Vice Sect Master's faction.
But the question was—
Why?
Mingxuan was ambitious, but his sense of scale would never sink so low as to deliberately fixate on some backgroundless body cultivator from Hundred Forging Peak.
Behind this, there had to be an unseen hand stirring something in the dark.
A short while later.
This meeting of the sect's upper echelons concluded smoothly.
Mingxuan rose and took his leave; Qing Feng inclined his head slightly in farewell.
As the side chamber's doors closed once more—
Qing Feng stood alone in the empty hall, quietly watching the boundless sea of clouds churning endlessly beyond.
For a long while.
Then, in the deserted Evergreen Hall, an exceedingly soft murmur sounded.
"Lu Xiaoqi..."
The look in Qing Feng's eyes deepened, bit by bit.