“This can’t be real—”

“So many elders signed it, who is this person?”

“More importantly, the handwriting isn’t right. When elders sign, aren’t their signatures usually bold and flowing? The more scrawled, the more extravagant, the more personal, the better. Signing so neatly, is he afraid people won’t recognize it?”

“Could this be signed by an elder of my Taixu Sect?”

The two Stewards shook their heads, but as they flipped through, they realized something was off.

“Wait—not just elders? This is—” The two looked at each other, “The Sect Leader also signed?”

Zhuge Zhenren sighed, “Look further back—”

The two flipped a few more pages, and their expressions instantly changed drastically. This time they genuinely gasped: “Even the Ancestor’s name is there?!”

“How audacious!!”

“The elders would be one thing, but to dare to impersonate the Sect Leader’s signature? And even forge the Ancestor’s signature? This is going too far! This kid’s audacity is truly outrageous—”

Zhuge Zhenren shook his head, “Look closely, it’s not just one sect’s Ancestor.”

“The Ancestors of Taia and Chongxu Sects also signed—”

“And even before that, there are many Sect Leaders and elders from Taia and Chongxu mixed in—”

“Hiss—” The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward frowned, “This is a Tri-Sect jade token? This isn’t even a Taixu Sect jade token—”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward sighed, “Have you been so busy you’ve lost your mind? The three sects merged. More than a hundred years ago, when we graduated, it was still separate. But about ten years ago, the three sects—Taixu, Taia, and Chongxu—merged. Now it’s the largest sect in Qianxue.”

Tian Quan Pavilion manages the systems and rankings of aristocratic families and sects, so he paid more attention to such matters.

“Oh—” The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward nodded, a little emotional, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Taixu Sect. I’m a bit out of touch.”

Sect cultivation and the Foundation Establishment Grand Competition were all “childhood” matters.

They had graduated years ago, each busy with their own cultivation and the affairs of their pavilions, striving for the Golden Core, for Empyrean Ascension, and for the position of Steward, which was mentally and physically taxing.

They were indeed a bit estranged from the past affairs of the sect.

Moreover, the cultivation world’s Nine Provinces are vast, and people and events are as numerous as the sands of the sea. The Seven Pavilions oversee all affairs under heaven, and they, serving in the Pavilions, were each responsible for news from different provinces. Affairs in Qian Province were not their concern.

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized: “So, that means I am now considered a disciple of the largest sect in Qianxue?!”

Back then, he had struggled just to get into one of the Four Great Sects.

Now, in the blink of an eye, his sect origin was a whole tier higher than the Four Great Sects?

Taia Sect and Chongxu Sect, which were only “friendly sects” back then, could now truly be considered “fellow disciples”?

Changes in the world and in personnel truly made him feel both pleased and bewildered.

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward rolled his eyes at him, “At least pay some attention to your own sect. I remember mentioning these things to you before.”

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward waved his hand, “Too busy. You mention too many things, sometimes I subconsciously filter you out.”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward’s face darkened.

Then the Tian Shu Steward frowned, pondering, “So, this kid isn’t a complete outsider? He at least knows about the three sects merging, and even the names of the three sects’ elders, sect leaders, and even the Ancestors’ titles? Where did he hear all this? This isn’t right—”

“Yes—it’s not quite right?”

“Then is there a possibility—that this jade token is real?”

All three were stunned.

If it were real—that would be a little—

Terrifying—

The three were stunned for a long time, then couldn’t help but laugh, “Don’t joke—”

“It’s not like we haven’t been sect disciples and haven’t seen the world. We wouldn’t lack this basic common sense, would we? Whose jade token looks like this?”

“Whose jade token has so many signatures?”

“How many elders signed your jade token?”

“Six. Yours?”

“Seven.”

The two Stewards looked at Zhuge Zhenren.

Zhuge Zhenren suddenly felt a little sour, “I don’t have a single one—”

The two Stewards chattered on, “Back then, you were too lazy in your cultivation, skipping classes all the time. The elders didn’t even like you—”

“But your family background was good, and your talent was high. With the surname ‘Zhuge,’ no elder dared to truly discipline you.”

“Only Old Mr. Xun didn’t indulge you; he would reprimand when needed and punish when deserved.”

“But he’s an Ancestor and an instructor, serious and meticulous, with many responsibilities. He had to manage the sect’s overall situation and teach array formations. How could he have time to look after you every day? Many times, he could only sigh in frustration and let you muddle through—”

“So not giving you a jade token was right.”

“No one signed for you, you can’t blame the sect elders at all.”

“Furthermore, you’re from the Zhuge family. Whether you have a jade token or not doesn’t really matter.”

“Indeed—”

“Indeed.”

“However—on the other hand, even after graduating, failing to even get a sect jade token is indeed a bit—”

“Indeed—”

Zhuge Zhenren’s face was stern. He tapped the table, “That’s enough. I’m an Empyrean now, a Zhenren. Show some respect.”

“Yes, Zhuge Zhenren—”

“My apologies—”

The two said nonchalantly.

Zhuge Zhenren was an Empyrean realm cultivator, a revered figure in the Qin Tian Jian.

The two of them were peak Golden Core cultivators, Stewards of the Seven Pavilions.

In terms of cultivation realm, family background, and position, there was a significant disparity.

However, the three had studied and cultivated together in Taixu Sect during their formative years.

Often, the younger they were, the more carefree and ignorant, the more precious their friendship.

As they grew older and their cultivation deepened, they met people of higher status and cultivation, but there were also more intertwined interests and schemes, leaving little room for true sincerity.

Moreover, the path of cultivation is long and arduous. Towards the end, fame and fortune fade, and family ties thin. One must face loneliness alone. Having one or two “Daoist friends” who can sit down to drink tea and discuss the Dao, regardless of status, is often the most precious thing.

Although the three had different cultivation realms, based on their camaraderie as fellow disciples, they interacted as equals, without too many worldly formalities.

In fact, many times, Zhuge Zhenren was the one who was disliked.

Because he was too idle.

Stewards, who were busy and overwhelmed every day, most disliked idle people who just wandered around.

“I told you—with so many elders signing, how could this jade token be real—”

“This isn’t a jade token, it’s clearly a roster of sect elders.”

“Don’t forget, it’s not just elders; it includes sect leaders and Ancestors. It’s almost equivalent to a sect’s family tree.”

“It’s preposterous—”

“Indeed—”

As the three chatted, they suddenly fell silent, thinking of something.

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward remained indifferent for a moment, then slowly said, “It seems—something is still not quite right—”

A sect’s family tree is not something an ordinary person can get their hands on.

If one were to forge it, it would be even more impossible for an ordinary person to do so.

And a person capable of forging such a “list” would definitely not be an ordinary person.

The key was, the signatures of those sect leaders and Ancestors had an elusive charm, a kind of—

It didn’t quite look fake.

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward asked, “Whose jade token is this? Is there a name?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward painstakingly searched for a long time among a string of names.

Originally, in a sect’s jade token, the disciple’s name was the most prominent.

But in Mo Hua’s jade token, there were too many names of elders, sect leaders, and Ancestors, densely packed. The disciple’s name was squeezed into a small corner. So the Tian Quan Pavilion Steward searched for a long time before finding those two characters in the small corner: “—Mo Hua?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward frowned.

Zhuge Zhenren thought for a moment, but couldn’t recall anything. He had a lazy disposition, letting everything go with the wind, paying little attention. So he asked, “Have you heard this name before?”

The two Stewards thought for a moment, then both shook their heads.

Being a Steward of the Seven Pavilions was a strenuous and complicated job, with high pressure and easily causing anxiety.

Over ten years, the number of dossiers, names, and events, big and small, important and unimportant people that passed through their minds was easily in the millions.

“It seems—I have no impression—”

Zhuge Zhenren said, “Which of you has the authority to investigate?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward said, “I have important matters. The war is urgent, and I have a pile of official duties to handle—”

Zhuge Zhenren pointed to the long list of elders, sect leaders, and Ancestors on the jade token, and asked, “Can it be more important than this?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward sighed, knowing he would have to work late reviewing documents that night. He scratched his hair, took out his Steward’s token, and through a secret door, entered the adjacent Privy Archives. After a search, he returned with an indescribably strange expression.

“Didn’t find anything?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward nodded.

Zhuge Zhenren was slightly taken aback, “What’s the situation?”

“No dossiers. There’s no match in the Nine Provinces’修士籍贯 (monk household registration). He’s not in the disciple roster submitted by Taixu Sect to Tian Quan Pavilion either—”

Zhuge Zhenren frowned, “Is this name fake?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward said, “According to custom, it’s very likely—”

Zhuge Zhenren’s eyes flashed: “—It’s been sealed?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward nodded.

Zhuge Zhenren said, “You used your authority to check?”

“Yes,” the Tian Quan Pavilion Steward said, “It didn’t work.”

“Even a Steward’s authority isn’t enough?”

“Mm, at least with my Steward’s authority, I can’t find him—I estimate it would take at least the authority of a Supervisor or higher to find him.”

Zhuge Zhenren’s expression changed slightly, “Only a Supervisor or higher might be able to find him, so the person who sealed the dossier—”

“—Is it a阁老 (Gelao, Grand Secretary)?”

A Gelao sealing a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s dossier?

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward frowned, “It’s possible.”

Zhuge Zhenren’s mind stirred, and he said, “If we can’t find the person, then let’s investigate the event, the Grand Sect Competition. There must be some clues in the relevant records.”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward nodded.

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward also stood up and said, “I’ll go with you to check.”

“Good.”

The Tian Quan Pavilion managed the distribution of power and ranking of aristocratic families and sects, while the Tian Shu Pavilion oversaw array formations and array masters.

Their jurisdictions were different, and some internal information was not shared between them, so checking together with both authorities would reduce oversights.

Zhuge Zhenren didn’t go. He was a revered figure, an honorary official who didn’t handle internal affairs, and didn’t have much authority to begin with.

So the two Stewards “neglected their duties,” putting aside their official business to investigate Mo Hua.

After searching for a long time, the two walked out of the Privy Archives, looking confused.

“Couldn’t find anything.”

“It was also sealed.”

Zhuge Zhenren was startled, completely bewildered, “Even the records of the Grand Sect Competition would be sealed?”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward nodded.

Zhuge Zhenren said, “There must be something left behind, right—”

“Nothing at all,” the Tian Shu Pavilion Steward shook his head and sighed, “It was sealed completely clean—”

“Why?”

“Because ten years ago, a major incident occurred in Qianxue—”

Zhuge Zhenren’s pupils contracted, and he suddenly understood.

The Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice.

This incident had an extremely negative impact. To prevent public panic and worsening public opinion, the Dao Court simply took a blanket approach, sealing all related dossiers.

All dossiers of people and events before and after the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice, including those, were sealed away in the “cold palace,” utterly inaccessible to ordinary people.

“It was sealed so thoroughly—”

“This is the Dao Court’s usual practice, so it’s understandable.”

“But this way, many things become completely muddled.”

“This kid named Mo Hua is also effectively a ‘phantom citizen’—”

“I still think something’s not right. What do you think, was it because of the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice that all records related to the Grand Sect Competition were sealed? Or was it because this ‘Mo Hua’ had a suspicious identity, and his involvement caused these Grand Sect Competition records to be sealed—”

“It’s not that mysterious, is it—”

Zhuge Zhenren asked, “You two, being Stewards after all, haven’t heard any rumors?”

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward shook his head and sighed, “Ten years ago, we weren’t even Stewards yet—after all, do you think being a Steward is that easy?”

“This position, despite not having a high status and being busy and tiring, is actually a position of real power in the Seven Pavilions. It’s not easy to get.”

The Tian Quan Pavilion Steward also nodded and said, “To be honest, if it weren’t for the Great Desolate Rebellion and the Dao Court’s early military setbacks, with an urgent shortage of personnel on the front lines, and our willingness to endure the hardships, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity. Otherwise, with so many noble families eyeing the Steward position, it would never have been our turn.”

“And before becoming a Steward, many past matters simply wouldn’t have passed through our hands.”

Zhuge Zhenren pondered, “How about you ask the previous Stewards?”

The two thought for a moment, but still felt it was inappropriate. “Within the Seven Pavilions, there are many ears and deep waters. If we inquire, and it falls into the ears of someone with ulterior motives, it could easily cause trouble.”

“That’s right, the Seven Pavilions are too complex.”

“At this point, there’s only one way—”

Zhuge Zhenren sighed, “Write a letter and ask the Ancestor back home?”

“Yes, that’s the only way.”

“After all, there’s the Ancestor’s signature on this jade token—at least potentially—”

“If we investigate ourselves, it’s easy to create complications. It’s better to just write a letter directly to the sect Ancestor.”

The two Stewards both looked at Zhuge Zhenren.

Zhuge Zhenren didn’t want to speak.

He had already thought of it, but had been reluctant to do so.

The Tian Shu Pavilion Steward said, “We are Stewards, and we’ve already used our authority to investigate, but unfortunately found nothing. Now, writing this letter to the Ancestor can only be done by you.”

“Precisely,” the Tian Quan Pavilion Steward also said, “You are an Empyrean, you are a Zhenren, your cultivation is high, your status is high, and you are most familiar with Old Mr. Xun. This kind of thing can only be done by you.”

Zhuge Zhenren was still very unwilling.

But at this point, he had no other choice. He had to write that letter to Old Mr. Xun, whether he wanted to or not.

“Alright then—”

The somewhat idle Zhuge Zhenren, like a student on holiday who still had to report homework to his teacher, walked away with a sigh.

Returning to his temporary cave-dwelling, Zhuge Zhenren sat awkwardly at his desk, racking his brains for suitable words, and wrote a letter to Old Mr. Xun.

After finishing, Zhuge Zhenren hesitated for a long time. Finally, with a grimace, he closed his eyes, steeled his resolve, and finally sent the letter.

The Qianxue Province is very far from the Great Desolate, and the terrain is complex.

Under normal circumstances, a letter would take a long time to transmit, and even more so during wartime when communication is difficult.

But Zhuge Zhenren was an Empyrean, a revered figure of the Qin Tian Jian, and a Zhenren of the Zhuge family. If he truly wanted to send a message, whether by Empyrean methods, the Qin Tian Jian’s signal fires, or the Zhuge family’s own Bagua tradition, it was not difficult.

The difficulty lay only in whether he wanted to.

In short, after much internal struggle, Zhuge Zhenren finally sent the letter through the Zhuge family’s own channels to the Qianxue Province.

Taixu Sect.

Now the largest sect in Qianxue.

Its gates were ancient and majestic, disciples were numerous like clouds, and its aura was magnificent.

In the Elders’ Pavilion, Old Mr. Xun, who had a gloomy and worried expression, also received a letter from Zhuge Zhenren.

Old Mr. Xun was a little surprised.

He hadn’t expected that lazy kid from the Zhuge family back then would actually write to him, as if there was a sense of incongruity, like a lazy rooster suddenly crowing.

Old Mr. Xun wanted to know what the letter would say, so he looked at the jade slip. As he read, his expression changed completely, as if a single stone had stirred up a thousand waves.

“Mo Hua—”

“This child is alright!”

Old Mr. Xun’s emotions were stirred, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

The heavenly secrets of the Great Desolate were obscured, a savage land full of dangers, and that wisp of sinister thought, like a maggot clinging to bone, with a depth of conspiracy that was chilling.

Old Mr. Xun had been on tenterhooks.

A while ago, he suddenly couldn’t sleep for nights, always feeling that someone, many people, and many powerful beings, all wanted to kill Mo Hua.

As soon as he closed his eyes, he seemed to see Mo Hua failing his Golden Core formation, his Golden Core shattered, his meridians destroyed, his face covered in blood.

The thought of this tore at Old Mr. Xun’s heart, making him restless all night.

But the Great Desolate was too far, beyond his reach, and the Tianji Liangyi Lock was also sealed. Old Mr. Xun also had to consider the sect and was stretched thin.

Now, this letter revealed Mo Hua’s whereabouts, knowing that Mo Hua was merely a “prisoner” and not in mortal danger, which truly made Old Mr. Xun feel relieved.

Old Mr. Xun pondered for a moment, and immediately mentally selected several sect elders and inner Empyreans, intending to send them to the Great Desolate.

His original intention was to let Mo Hua gain experience on his own.

But from the obscure causality, Old Mr. Xun could more or less guess that Mo Hua had indeed gained “experience” in the Great Desolate, it was just that the things he experienced might be a little “rebellious.”

If this continued, only heaven knew what else he might experience—

He couldn’t be allowed to mess around anymore.

Moreover, the current Great Desolate was truly a place of great right and wrong, where life and death hung in the balance.

Too many people had extended their hands into it, making the waters murky and black.

This was no longer mere experience; if the situation continued to develop like this, he feared that—

Old Mr. Xun took a deep breath.

“In any case, let someone bring this child out first, at least away from the troubled land of the Great Desolate—”

Old Mr. Xun began to “mobilize troops,” but halfway through, he suddenly stopped.

At this moment, wouldn’t sending Taixu Sect people in also be equivalent to extending his hand and stirring up the waters?

If so, once he alerted the enemy, he might not truly be able to “fish” Mo Hua out of the Great Desolate, and instead, it might harm him—

Old Mr. Xun then reconsidered. In the current Great Desolate, who had ties to Taixu Sect that could act on his behalf to get Mo Hua out?

But after thinking about it, under these circumstances, those old geezers—none of them could be trusted.

Old Mr. Xun frowned deeply.

The more urgent it was, the less he could rush. He still had to proceed slowly, without making too much movement, otherwise, stirring up the black swamp, Mo Hua, trapped within, would be more easily drowned.

“Protect the person first—”

“Zhuge family—”

After much deliberation, Old Mr. Xun wrote a long passage of instructions, but after finishing, he felt it was inappropriate.

Words, especially those written by an Ancestor like him, could easily leave behind karma.

Old Mr. Xun thought for a moment, then erased all the text, simply drawing a picture in the jade slip.

After finishing the drawing, Old Mr. Xun remembered that he shouldn’t show favoritism.

So he wrote a long string of urging and instructive words to Zhuge Zhenren, and sent it along with the drawing to Zhuge Zhenren.