“Are you trying to tell me that those twenty thousand level one spirit stones just went missing overnight?” Qingge burst out at the older cultivator. This was a major breach of etiquette as the man was her senior both in age and position, but she just couldn’t contain herself anymore.

After that eventful council meeting that she was still trying to fully wrap her head around, she had been given the grueling task of organizing the transfer of the financial assets of the entire enforcement hall over to the training hall. The first part had been comparatively easy as she had stayed behind at the palace to work out a timeline for the transfers and checked which of their owned assets overlapped and as such could just stay where they were. It had been a long night but at least it was only paperwork.

Unfortunately, that was where the real work started. The Enforcement Hall had incomparably more wealth stored up than the other two, which meant that it was now her job to track all of that wealth down to prepare it for transfer.

She understood that the custom of swapping all assets alongside the hall leaders was set in place so that it wasn’t possible for one elder to just plunge his hall into crippling debt and then sneakily swap themself out of it before it came crashing down on them, but the rule didn’t account for the headache it was to have to work with hall departments who really didn’t like having their funds taken away.

Or for the fact that some members of those departments took certain liberties when it came to the proper usage of their department’s funds. Members like Zemin Bai, head of the southwestern department of the Enforcement Hall.

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that. Who do you even think you are to accuse me of anything?”

Qingge bit her tongue. Of course he would react like that. She was just a junior member without any significant background or connections after all. She couldn’t allow herself a lapse in judgement like this. The stress truly was getting to her.

Seeing her remain silent, the lanky man seemed to get even more emboldened. “That’s right! You really thought you would get through with this, didn’t you? Maybe it is actually you who at fault in this matter. You should look through your own subordinates, maybe one of them stole those spirit stones. Don’t bother me with the matter again at least.”

Qingge felt another flare of anger at the man rise up. How could someone be so bold about his own dishonesty? He was seriously trying to shift the blame onto her! She couldn’t just let that happen, but what could she do about it?

Suddenly an idea began to form in her head. She had never dabbled into this kind of powerplay herself, but in her time at the council meetings, she had seen enough of it to write an entire book. It was time to imitate some of the tactics she had witnessed.

“I am truly sorry for overstepping my boundaries like that.” She could see the mans self-satisfaction grow even further at this.

“It is truly not my place to make judgements like these, I shall report this matter to Elder Wei at once.” Glancing up from her lowered head, she could practically see her words impact his face like a thrown brick would impact a glass pane.

His overconfident expression shattered in a single moment, leaving behind nothing but a hint of panic. Elder Wei’s reputation was well known among the members of his hall and they truly feared him for it.

Qingge straightened her head and gave Zemin Bai a smile. A simple polite gesture, but just wide enough to signal him that she knew exactly what she was doing. His panic only grew at that.

“Now, now, I don’t think we should bother the elder over something as trivial as this!”

“I see no other solution, since we need to find an answer as to what happened.”

“Okay please hear me out. I might have… borrowed some of those funds. Not with the intention to steal them or anything like that, I assure you. I… I had every intention of returning them of course. I thought I would just get it done with quickly, that’s why I didn’t report the whole thing.”

Qingge didn’t respond, she just kept smiling and holding eye contact.

“I… please just give me a couple of days and I will return them to you in full. No need to report anything to the elder.”

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“Alright, that would be perfect. I am sure the elder has better things to do anyways.”

The man let out an inaudible sigh of relief.

“Yes, of course. Very well, I will return to see to my duties if you don’t need me anymore.”

“Of course, Senior Bai. Have a nice day.”

Without further words, the man turned around and left, leaving Qingge alone with her thoughts.

That worked even better than expected. She had surprised herself with how easy it had been to keep her act up as she had delivered her hollow threat. She hadn’t felt the slightest amount of pity at watching the man squirm in fear before her. He had started the whole thing after all.

Goddamn, the amount of time and headaches I could have saved myself if I had done things this way from the start. Well, whatever. I’m done now either way.

The southwestern department had been the last one she had needed to take care of. The only thing left before she could finally take a well deserved break was writing up a report for the elder, which she estimated would only take her about half an hour. Tired but satisfied, she started making her way back to her office.

…

Elder Ning Bai, patriarch of the powerful Bai family and the great Lunar Peaks Sect’s leading strategist was at a total loss. The way recent council meeting had went had not only totally blindsided him, but continued to elude any explanation he could conjure up in his mind.

The fact that Liu Wei hadn’t let himself be bought by the pillar families wasn’t enough to shock him. Sure, it had been what he had expected, based on the man’s prior behavior. But as an experienced politician, Ning Bai knew full well to never assume he could fully predict the behavior of another cultivator his age. Someone this old and experienced was almost sure to have experienced their fair share of politics and to have learned never put all of their cards on the table.

As such, Ning Bai had made sure to fully prepare himself for every eventuality. Or at least he had until the meeting had proved him wrong.

He had considered the possibility that Liu Wei might challenge the patriarch and even that he might join the reform faction. He would, after all, never have a chance to truly be part of the pillar families’ faction. No matter his strength, in the end he was just a single elder. The families would never truly treat him as one of their own. As such, going with the faction that he could not only join as a true member, but that he actually had a solid chance of becoming the leader of, had at least some actual merit.

But why in all heavens would he want to give away the Enforcement Hall? It just didn’t make any sense. Why would he want the training hall? It didn’t have any value.

Ning Bai resisted the urge to slam his fist on – and through – the table he was seated at. He had completely forgotten how it felt not to know what was going on.

He sent a sliver of qi into one of his rings. This would trigger an enchantment which would alert his servants that he had an order he wanted fulfilled. It was one of the many pointless novelties that his family had collected alongside other more useful treasure throughout its long history.

A few moments passed until a servant knocked on the door. Ning Bai loudly gave him permission to enter.

“Oh, supreme patriarch of our esteemed family, how may I serve you?”

“Send a message to the Zhong family. Ask them to set up a meeting with Elder Zhong. Dismissed.”

“As you command, honorable patriarch!”

With that, the servant hurriedly exited the room. The conversation with Yue Zhong was something urgently needed to get done. All of the families conducted their own espionage, but just as no other family could match the Bai Family’s scholars, the practitioners of the Dao of Shadow from the Zhong family were unmatched in the art.

Yue Zhong herself was quite the scary personality, quiet and reserved but supernaturally perceptive. Well, that and the fact that she was an assassin who, if it came down to it, was probably capable of killing almost any elder in the sect before they even noticed.

Ning Bai stopped himself, before he could get lost in pointless thoughts again. He had better things to do, many of them. For now, he decided to brief the family’s leadership about the recent developments. It wasn’t his favorite activity, but it needed to be done nonetheless so that his family could function at full capacity. He left the room and went towards the room used for discussions.

Before he could get there though, he stumbled upon one of those he was going to meet.

“Yi. What are you doing here?”

The visibly aged woman was one of the Bai Families strongest members and a possible candidate to archive the Dao Contemplation Realm in her life. Before her kneeled a middle-aged man of far lower cultivation.

“Patriarch! What a pleasant surprise. I was just thinking about what to do with this pathetic bug over there.”

“That’s quite the insult coming from someone as calm and benevolent as you. What did he do to earn your ire like that?”

“This sad byproduct of some side branch of our family decided it would be a good idea to steal from the Enforcement Hall and get caught. Now he came with his tail between his legs begging us to bail him out.”

“Our family doesn’t have use for someone like that. If he got caught, it should be his punishment to take. Send the Enforcement Hall a reimbursement and an apology. He can work his debt off in one of our mines. We really don’t need to give Elder Wei any reason to go after our family right after his breakthrough.” The man let out a silent whimper at that.

It was his own fault and only his own. The Bai family gave its members a lot of freedom and invested great amounts of resources into them. In return they were expected to assist the family, not drag it down. If someone stole without the skill to hide it, they would need to take the fall.

“Very good, that’s the perfect way of dealing with this stain of a man.”

“Anyway, once you are done here, please come to the meeting room. I want to brief the leadership on the events of the council meeting.”

“As you wish, patriarch.”