Zixin ran like he had never run before. All his training paid off as he weaved through the forest, ignoring the pathways whenever they weren’t straight enough. He was getting nasty scratches all over his body and absolutely ruining his newly acquired robes that he had been so proud of, but none of that was important right now; Speed was all that mattered.

When the group of elders had shown up, Zixin had felt straight away that something wasn’t right. Elder Shi had told him that many of the other elders were not happy with the changes Elder Wei had made to the Training Hall. When they had called for a general assembly for all staff members, Instructor Guiren had told Zixin to go get Elder Shi as fast as he could. He had never seen the normally laid back and confident man so tense.

Zixin had no idea what the elders were going to do, but he did know that Elder Wei was currently not in the sect and he was sure that was the reason they were acting now. Elder Shi could fix this. She was strong. She could fix this. But he needed to tell her it was happening.

He and Chonglin had been supposed to meet her at her residence tomorrow morning with a few other disciples. It was located near the foot of the mountain the Training Hall was on, quite nearby. With his usual jogging speed, it took Zixin barely half an hour to reach it. He was much faster right now.

Zixin could only hope that the Elder wasn’t at the Enforcement Hall right now. That would take several hours to get to, even if he could keep up his speed. It would all be too late then. She had to be here.

Banishing all further distracting thoughts, Zixin instead focused on his breathing. He was close now, but it was getting increasingly more difficult to keep up his sprint. Steady. He could do this. He had trained as much as he could. He hadn’t skipped a day since the competition. Two steps, dodge a tree, jump over that bush. It wasn’t far.

He broke through to the clearing. Summoning the last strength he had, he stumbled towards Elder Shi’s pagoda. When he had reached the door, he raised his arm to knock, only for the door to open before he had a chance to. Elder Shi’s momentarily questioning expression immediately shifted to concern as soon as she got a look at Zixin’s state.

“Zixin, are you okay? What happened?”

“Instructor… sent me… Training Hall… elders… they’re doing… something.”

Completely out of breath as he was, Zixin could only try to stammer an answer. Lan Shi’s face hardened.

“I understand.”

Without another word, she disappeared into her pagoda, only to resurface moments later, holding a small bottle in one hand and slinging a massive hammer over her shoulder with the other.

“Drink this, go inside and rest. You did well, I will take care of everything else.”

With that, she handed Zixin the bottle before stepping past him and basically exploding into the air. Before he could blink, she had disappeared behind the treetops.

…

Guowei Li was fuming. He was used to seeing the pillar families overstep boundaries and ignore rules and had to deal with it as much as few others. But this was outrageous even by their standard. This was a blatantly politically motivated move and outright reckless abuse of another elder’s absence from the sect. The kind of behavior that could get people killed in the aftermath.

And most importantly, this was an infringement on his fucking job!

His department had been occupied with this smuggling activity for months and he had been working overtime in an attempt to get a hold of these slimy bastards as quickly as possible. In fact, the only reason he was even here was because he desperately needed to clear his head with a bit of practical combat after three straight days of running from clue to clue, questioning suspects and organizing patrols. And if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that whoever was behind this was damn sure not part of the Training Hall. He had to do something about this.

… what though? Guowei was a cultivator in the high Dao Attunement Realm. The head of a department of one of the most powerful halls in the sect. His family was one of the most powerful noble families far and wide. But before the elders, he was nothing. Nonetheless he pushed himself through the still confused crowd.

What he was about to attempt was potentially extremely stupid, but he would do it anyway. He couldn’t stop the elders, but he could at least try to lay the groundwork for a future challenge to their behavior. He stepped out of the crowd and before the Elder Bai, immediately lowering his head into a bow.

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“I apologize for disturbing you, Honorable Elder. I am Guowei Li, head of the Eastern Criminal Department from the Enforcement Hall. My department has been assisting in the investigation of the smuggling ring.”

“Well, you haven’t been very successful then. What is it you want?”

“In the interest of furthering the investigation, I would ask that you share the evidence pointing towards the Training Hall with my department.”

“I don’t think I feel inclined to justify myself before some department head.”

“That is not…”

Before he could finish the sentence, a booming voice interrupted him.

“…not very convenient.”

With those words, Elder Shi descended from the sky, landing directly in front of him.

“Because I would also like to hear your reasoning behind whatever you are trying to do here.”

If her harsh tone wasn’t enough to deduce that the woman was angry, the massive hammer she was holding loosely at her side and the cracked floor tiles where she had landed certainly were.

…

Now this was inconvenient.

Ning Bai didn’t find Elder Shi’s display particularly intimidating. Aside from the fact that he was two steps of the Dao Contemplation Realm above her, there were three other powerful cultivators just behind him, including Sun Liang who was a truly fearsome opponent.

Nevertheless, he really would have preferred to deal with the other elders later. That was because, unlike anyone else around here, Lan Shi held the same formal status as him and could thus not be easily dismissed. He also couldn’t formally overrule her, since this was neither his hall, nor his halls responsibility. As a matter of fact, from a purely legal perspective, she held the upper hand as head of the Enforcement Hall.

Now, that didn’t actually mean all that much, but she definitely had grounds to argue against their actions and knowing her, she would do exactly that. It would have been much easier if he could just have presented her with a fait accompli.

“Please calm down, Elder Shi. We are merely here to assist in ending the smuggling problem that has been plaguing our sect.”

“Assist? Whom? Because as I remember it, this problem should be for the Enforcement Hall to deal with and I can’t remember asking for any assistance.”

“Well yes, ordinarily dealing with crime like this is the domain of your hall. However, since all of us suffer from this issue, you surely can’t blame us for taking initiative in trying to solve it. The Enforcement Hall, after all, has not been very successful in its attempts to do so, perhaps because it is more occupied with your foolish and needless investigations into our families’ personal affairs.”

Ning Bai could practically see sparks spraying from the woman’s eyes at that remark. He forced down a smile. She would take the bait and forget about her original point; he could feel it.

“Those things have nothing to do with each other. My hall is merely investigating possible cases of corruption. All our suspicions are based on real evidence, unlike this senseless action against the Training Hall.”

“Oh, but our actions are based on evidence. Who do you take us for?”

“And what evidence would that be?”

“I find myself confused. Did you not personally interrogate the previous head instructor, Mei Feng, after he had been caught in the act? Who could be more obvious targets of investigation than the members of the hall he had been part of for half a century?”

“The Training Hall has recently been reorganized. Mei Feng and several others were removed on suspicions of corruption.”

“Sure, but is it a stretch to assume he still had contacts there?”

“You are telling me that merely sharing the same place of work as someone is grounds for arrest?”

“I am someone who values results above all else. I am not going to idly stand by as our sect is robbed of its wealth by outsiders.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you want. Our sect is governed by rules, not arbitration.”

“On that, I concede, though I suspect we have different notions of what that actually means… Elder Shi, in light of your concerns, I will make you an offer.”

The whole point of this ordeal was to deal as much damage to Elder Wei’s plans, whatever they were, as possible. By holding his subordinates as a bargaining chip and ruining his hall’s income, they were going to force him to step back in line with the Pillar Families’ order.

Originally, they had planned to just cart the prisoners off to some depleted mine and hold them there, but with Elder Shi here, that was of the tables. If Ning Bai was right about her, she was more concerned about these people’s well-being, rather than any larger strategical advantages.

While that was annoying in its own right, it did make negotiating with her much easier.

“I understand that you are worried about the proper procedures in dealing with these subjects. To alleviate that worry, I will allow their arrest and interrogation to be jointly conducted by our subordinates and members of the Enforcement Hall.”

“Why should I accept that when their arrest in itself isn’t justified.”

“Well, otherwise we will have to escalate this issue to a council meeting, which would be a huge… inconvenience to everyone involved, don’t you agree?”

Even with the unfortunate recent outliers, the Pillar families had a firm grasp on the council. This was especially true when the one who had caused them was currently absent from the sect. The council could and would justify any action he wanted to take against the Training Hall and Elder Shi was well aware of that. With the Hall Head absent, even the concerns about Hall Autonomy were of the table.

Ning Bai didn’t actually want to involve the council because that would take up valuable time, but Elder Shi had no way of knowing that. With this threat, she had to choose between having at least some oversight over the treatment of the prisoners or being completely pushed away.

Her piercing scowl turned even darker. For a moment, his instincts told him tense his muscles and prepare for an attack, but he kept his relaxed stance. Then she relented.

“All right. I am willing to compromise.”

Ning Bai didn’t hide his satisfied smile. This had been a foregone conclusion.