The Five Sects region, officially known to the empire as region number 11276, was sending in numerous reports.

Mo Whe read them all. He was annoyed but somewhat pleased. Lots of the regions he governed had immortals within them, one even had a seventh rank ruling the place. But from region 11276, he would have expected nothing but degradation.

Yes, that place had been a battlefield. Most of the areas out here were. A million years ago, there had been a small skirmish here between cultivators and demonic beasts.

Well, he called it a small skirmish, but billions had died. The Void Blade Sect had been in the midst of political turmoil, and so they had ignored the cries for help coming from some backwater set of regions.

Billions died, but so what? Billions die every day on Ah-Marin. To the Void Blade Sect, it would have been wasteful to send resources over here for something like that. It was cruel but common, and because it was common, it became less cruel.

But now that dried-up backwater region has started to blossom. To think that within a year they would have themselves not one but two immortals? What strangeness.

Mo Whe himself had seen the fight between the two fifth ranks, the dual tribulation as that old immortal had called it. It was a rare experience, something that not even immortals got to witness, and in that, it was a delicacy.

The old man himself was just as bad as the reports had described him, if not worse. He was at the ninth step of the immortal rank, but he would never venture past that. His dao was crippled and broken and his strength was all but lost.

He’d heard of immortals doing strange things when their path to cultivation shut down, and compared to that this retirement was tame.

He shuffled through the jade slips on his desk, reading through the mass of information surrounding him. Each slip was the equivalent of a house full of books and contained more information than a mortal could read in a decade. But that was the way it was for governing.

With an empire so vast and lands so distant, even the passage of general news took this much information to dictate. That old immortal wasn’t wanted anywhere or by any other empires on Ah-Marin.

Mo Whe shuffled through the rest of the jades. There were approximately five places of congregation within the realm, aside from Ah-Marin. Ah-Marin, the planet, held most of the cultivators within the universe because it was the only one that produced enough resources to support even a ninth or tenth-rank cultivator.

But there were numerous places in space that held cultivators and other sects. Out there at the edge of the universe, there was the Realm Guards, an organization made up of members of numerous sects that watched and monitored the entrance to the realm. It had members from the Void Blade Sect, Divine Devourers Sect, and even the Sun Spears.

Any sect with multiple ninth ranks was expected to send a member over to hold the gate, just in case. But just because only ninth ranks could walk through the void between realms by themselves, didn’t mean that only ninth ranks left.

Numerous inter-realm merchants sailed the deep void with realm ships, moving universes that traveled through the qi streams between existence. They could even move mortals this way, and the old man could have come from them.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

But those ships were vast, it wasn’t like a single immortal would have been reported or even noticed by the Guards, they mainly taxed and looked for threats.

Mo Whe wondered what it must have been like, out there in the grander multiverse.

Dangerous, he thought.

He’d heard tales of monsters in the void. Hordes of eighth-rank insects, beasts able to devour realms, and rogue cultivators who snuff out realms with a blink.

No, it was much safer within the realm. And Ah-Marin, the realm not the planet, had lived through its glory days. It still had resources and treasures, but nothing worth attracting one of those powerful eyes of the multiverse. Mo Whe would never say it to his sect’s face of course, but Ah-Marin had become a backwater sect.

And he liked it that way.

He shuffled through some more jades. They had no conscripts for immortals, there hadn’t been one in over five hundred thousand years. And even if there was, they wouldn’t take from a new immortal of a backwater sect.

Mo Whe looked at the registration protocols. He had to document the immortal local to his register and watch him, but all he should report to the sect was the relative prosperity of the location and explain if it was worth taxing or not.

After a few more minutes, he went off to compile the report. It was short. Unlike the piles of information the sect enjoyed sending to him, the sect’s bureaucracy hated it when he returned the favor.

Probably because the sect sent out mass-produced information to many places and receiving detailed info back would waste their time tremendously.

He was a bureaucrat, he knew the boredom of receiving detailed reports of some backwater village.

It was just that he was the backwater village in this case.

Two hands rubbed down his shoulders and a warm face pressed against his cheek.

“Mo, you’ve been working all day today. Why is that?” A voice asked him.

Gu Xin stared down at the jades with adorable confusion.

Mo Whe smiled.

“There’s been a lot to do today and if I don’t see it through then it might lead to a bigger problem, what with these new immortals and all.”

“Is it really that much work?” Gu asked.

“Well the report is fairly simple, but the background checks and the threats they present to their local regions aren’t. For example,” Mo Whe said pointing at a map on his desk.

“11276 is surrounded by empty wilderness but the presence of immortals might attract beasts, merchants, or even other immortals and fifth ranks. And while the regions here have autonomy, I’m still responsible for disputes and wars between them. I have to send some people to run around the area, see the local politics, and determine if things will stay as they are.”

“Oh,” Gu Xin spoke in genuine surprise.

“And there’s also the Money keepers Sect, they’re going to want to send better-suited merchants through the region. They might even request permits to sell immortal-grade artifacts,” Mo said with a sigh.

“They need permits for such things?” Gu asked.

“In my region they do,” he grumbled. “Otherwise you get sentient weapons filled with old evil spirits of some sort running about. You wouldn’t let children play with knives, after all.”

“Is…is that common?” Gu asked.

“Yes,” Mo replied.

“I didn’t know you had to work so hard,” Gu Xin said with a teasing laugh.

“I don’t,” he replied with a serious tone. “Governing is about making up a bunch of rules and having someone enforce them effectively. I studied all the threats and issues I might face back in the sect and came here with lots of things in mind Gu.”

“And here I thought you were just lazy,” she replied.

Mo turned towards her and laughed.

“I am, my dear. But only because I made sure everything takes care of itself.”

Her hands wrapped around him tightly and her mouth came close to his ear.

“Some things you have to care of personally,” She whispered.

Mo When was tempted and had it been any other day, he would have taken her to bed then and there.

But not today. Mo Whe grabbed Gu Xin, turned her head, and kissed her on the cheek.

“I’m sorry my love, but today there are more worrying tasks I must deal with.”

“There are tasks more important than me?” Gu Xin said with a pout.

“More worrying, my love. Not more important.”

Gu Xin looked at him and then eventually relented, walking off in a tempting way that almost made Mo Whe change his mind.

Ah, the burdens of a bureaucrat.