Pawn Crossing the River

Although the Vientiane Taoist Palace prohibits contact between mother and child talismans during the closure period, some official documents and letters can still be sent in through the "Message Talisman Array".

Early in the morning on July 16th, a Taoist priest from Mingtang sent a letter to Qi Xuansu.

After Qi Xuansu received the letter, he found that it was from Pei Xiaolou.

Qi Xuansu thanked the Taoist deacon who delivered the letter and returned to the study with the letter. After confirming the lacquer seal on the envelope, he used his fingernail instead of a knife to cut the envelope open and took out the letterhead.

The letter only said one thing, and that was about the cases of Pan Cuiqing and Yue Liuli.

Qi Xuansu originally entrusted the matter to Xu Xiaoying, but it happened that Pei Xiaolou returned from Yujing, so Pei Xiaolou and Xu Xiaoying handled the matter together.

Then Qi Xuansu came to the upper palace of Wanxiang Taoist Palace to prepare for further training. In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed, and the case had come to an end.

Pei Xiaolou briefly described the progress of the case. Because the evidence was solid, there wasn't much of a problem.

Logically speaking, Ji Jiaoquan, the master in charge of Wuxu Palace, should be an obstacle, but in the past, the master in charge of Wuxu Palace was Donghua Zhenren until Donghua was promoted to the master of Ziweitang. , was succeeded by Ji Jiaoquan. This real person was only a second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest. He was expected to become one of the thirty-six real people who knew Shen Zhi, but he had not yet put the word "Shen Zhi" on his name.

This is because Master Zhou of the Ancestral Sacrifice Hall has just stepped down from his position as the Head Master of the Ancestral Sacrifice Hall, but has not yet stepped down from his position as Master Shenzhi.

It is true that the Taoist sect will not lower the grade of a Taoist priest due to reasons such as retreating to the mountains and falling into the realm, but Shenzhi Zhenren is not a grade, but more similar to a position. It and ordinary Zhenren belong to the second-grade Taiyi Taoist priests, and because Thirty-six The position of each Master Shenzhi is determined. If you want to go up, one must come down. After retreating into the mountains and forests, it is impossible for an idle person to still occupy a position, so the identity of Master Shenzhi will be cancelled, and will only be retained. The rank and real name of the second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest. In the same way, the same is true for the deputy headmaster Da Zhenren. In the end, he will only retain the rank of a first-class innocent Taoist priest and the name of Da Zhenren.

Zhou Laozhenren has just stepped back to the second line and resigned from the corresponding positions. However, he retains his identity as a counselor and has the power to participate in the political affairs of Jinque and recommend the chief disciple. It will take another one or two years before he completely retires. Go down. At that time, Ji Jiao Quanfang can be promoted to the real person of Shenzhi as a matter of course.

If one can successfully be promoted to Master Shenzhi, his status will naturally be as stable as a rock, just like Ning Ling Pavilion. Even if there are occasional ups and downs, there will still be a chance for a comeback. But the period before a successful promotion is very important. If something happens during this period, it is likely to affect the promotion, so you must be stable during this period.

As a result, what happened to Pan Cuiqing was almost like a bolt from the blue for Ji Jiaoquan.

Compared with the reputation of disciple or master, which one is more important?

For some people, it is a difficult question to decide, but for some people, it is a question that they can make a choice without thinking.

For Ji Jiaoquan, if he loses his disciples, he can still take them in again, but if he loses his position as the real person who is close to him, he will never get a second chance in this life, so there is no need to hesitate.

Therefore, Ji Jiaoquan did not choose to save his disciple, but cut him off decisively, treating Pan Cuiqing as an abandoned son, or in other words, abandoning his pawn to save his commander.

Even Ji Jiaoquan thought about it further. There are almost two hundred second-grade Taiyi Taoist priests in the Taoist sect, but only thirty-six of them can be promoted to Shenzhen Zhenren. There are many people who are jealous that he can be promoted to Shenzhen Zhenren, even on weekdays. There is no conflict. It is logical to set a trap for him at this time. Therefore, whether it is Yue Liuli or Pan Cuiqing, as well as the Longhu Club incident in Wanxiang Taoist Palace, it is just a pretext. This is drunkenness. Weng's intention is not wine, but Xiangzhuang's sword dance is due to Pei Gong.

And he would never have thought that this matter was not that complicated. It was just a cliché story about a boy from the Wanxiang Dao Palace looking for revenge after making some mistakes, and it had nothing to do with the overall situation of Zhizhen Zhenren.

But even if Ji Jiaoquan knew the truth, he would only have one way to deal with it - to protect himself.

Even if he wanted to seek revenge or seek revenge, he would have to wait until he was promoted to Master Shenzhi. The most important thing now was to spend this most critical time smoothly.

It was precisely because Pei Xiaolou had grasped Ji Jiaoquan's mentality that he took over him. Otherwise, it would be extremely troublesome for a real person in charge of the palace to intervene. After all, Pei Xiaolou is not a real person from Donghua. Just an assistant.

The specific processing results have been reported to the Earth Master and approved by the Earth Master.

Pan Cuiqing was removed from his position as the Assistant Manager of Wuxu Palace due to charges of harboring and conniving, and was demoted to the rank of a fourth-grade wine-sacrifice priest. A fourth-grade wine-sacrifice Taoist priest without a position has almost ruined his future. Yue Liuli was deprived of his status as a Taoist priest and was temporarily imprisoned in the Wanshou Chongyang Palace.

Since the Sixth Generation of Great Masters, the Taoist Sect has advocated careful punishment, especially when it comes to treating its own people. In terms of imposing capital punishment, it has always advocated killing less and with caution. Even the major case in Jiangnan that shocked the Taoist Sect was just death. It’s just a Fang Lin Hou.

Therefore, it is reasonable for Yue Liuli not to die. After all, Qi Xuansu, the person involved, is not dead either, so one life is not worth one life.

However, there is an old saying: "Death can be avoided, but living crime cannot be avoided."

Having escaped death does not mean that you can sit back and relax. The punishment of confinement awaits the sinner.

In this regard, in addition to Yujing, each of the three roads has prisons. Except for some prisons that temporarily hold prisoners, the real prisons all exist in the form of caves, such as the famous Zhengdao Zhenmojing Dongtian, Quanquan The Zhendao Demon Locking Tower Cave and the Taiping Dao Dragon Palace Cave.

These caves are very vast inside, but they are isolated from the outside world and cannot see the light of day. Entering them is equivalent to being exiled. Even pseudo-immortals and their ilk cannot escape.

Among them, Zhengyi's Demon Suppressing Well Cave is the most terrifying. Most of those banned are demons who can cause huge seas of blood in the world. Therefore, there are formations specifically designed to kill people's cultivation. The environment is harsh and the guards are the most heavily guarded. , and even the passage is one-way. Once sent into it, there is no hope of being released unless the seal of the cave is broken. Above the cave of the Demon Suppressing Well is the more famous Demon Suppressing Platform and "Execution Pillars". This place is an execution ground. The so-called "Execution Pillars" are two huge magic pillars that attract sky thunders, which are replaced by sky thunders. The guillotine is used to execute all kinds of extremely high-level criminals.

Yue Liuli is still detained in the Wanshou Chongyang Palace in Difei Mountain at this time. After he is formally convicted, he will be escorted to the Demon Locking Pagoda Cave in Tiancang Mountain. Compared to the terrifying Demon Suppressing Well Cave, the Demon Locking Tower Cave is slightly better. As the name suggests, this place was originally a place where the Taoist sect was specially used to imprison demons. It corresponds to the Demon Suppressing Well, but as the demons become more and more Over time, the geniuses in the Demon Locking Pagoda Cave gradually transformed into prisoners. Many of the restrictions were aimed at demons. After people entered, except that they were not free, everything else was fine.

It has to be said that this is already the maximum punishment under the current framework of Taoist laws.

The reason why Pei Xiaolou wrote the letter was just to inform Qi Xuansu of the results, and not to seek Qi Xuansu's opinion. This was something Qi Xuansu had known for a long time. After he handed over the voice note, the outcome of this matter would be different. It doesn't depend on his will at all.

After Qi Xuansu read it, he put down the letter in his hand and sat on the chair in silence for a long time.

Regarding the whole matter, Qi Xuan was suspected of being narrow-minded and repaying every penny spent, which he did not deny. Qi Xuansu once wavered, hesitating whether to let it go, but every time he thought of the helplessness, despair, and pain before death, these waverings would be swept away, leaving only hatred.

He almost died.

After death, everything becomes empty.

The key point is that he almost died inexplicably. He neither died calmly nor died well. He was not even a sensible person. He was like a funny buffoon, the kind that was used as a source of conversation and ridiculed by others.

Then why doesn't he hate it?

Why should he be tolerant?

After all, he is not Xuan Sheng, he cannot laugh away his grudges when meeting each other, and he cannot forgive his enemies for the sake of the overall situation.

Besides, Yue Liuli and Wan Xiuwu have nothing to do with the overall situation.

"That's fine." Qi Xuansu said to himself, "There is no way to bring about blessings and misfortunes, they can only be brought about by oneself."

At this point, Qi Xuansu paused and laughed at himself: "Why pretend to be generous? You are not a generous person at all."

He tapped the table with his fingers: "There are still monks Yanxiu and Zhao Fu'an left."