Chapter 856: Appointed Deputy Master of the Hall of Justice

After Venerable Cheng Xuan emerged from seclusion, the Dancing Instruments Dao Academy had its leader, so Chen Mobai no longer needed to stay there.

Before leaving, he left Zhuang Jialan there.

Ming Yihua and Yun Yangbing had both successfully formed their Golden Cores last year, one after the other. However, Zhuang Jialan, who had received the Golden Elixir and Jade Reversion Pill at the same time as them, had been delayed until now due to Chen Mobai's matters.

Although a significant portion of the Myriad Treasures Cave's spiritual ley lines had been absorbed by Venerable Cheng Xuan when he took that half-step, there was still enough left for cultivators to form their Golden Cores.

When Chen Mobai explained the situation, Venerable Cheng Xuan immediately agreed, even offering to send her into the Jade Peace Minor Realm.

After arranging a suitable cultivation spot for Zhuang Jialan's Golden Core formation, Chen Mobai then inquired about Meng Huang'er.

After more than two years of recuperation, her injuries had completely healed.

However, due to her previous failure, she still had some lingering psychological trauma. Even though she now possessed both the Golden Elixir and Jade Reversion Pill and the Water Elemental Golden Core Pill, she still lacked some confidence.

"Take this. If you have any questions while forming your Golden Core, I will answer them for you."

Chen Mobai also considered that this might be Meng Huang'er's last opportunity for Golden Core formation, so he gave her one of his Formless Puppets. He had left a trace of his divine sense within it, allowing him to guide her at any time.

Generally speaking, when cultivators form their Golden Cores, they usually prefer to be alone in peace.

But Meng Huang'er was the opposite; having Chen Mobai's Formless Puppet accompany her was a great surprise and delight.

"Your arrangements are truly thoughtful."

As she spoke, she happily opened and closed the box containing the Formless Puppet.

Only after having this did she dare to go to Danxia Mountain to form her Golden Core.

After seeing Meng Huang'er off onto her flight, Chen Mobai took his private chartered flight and returned to Wangwu Grotto-Heaven.

Upon his return, he felt the atmosphere was completely different.

Among the three main halls, people from the Dancing Instruments lineage were now somewhat arrogant and swaggering.

Meanwhile, those from the Sky Patching and Kunpeng lineages, facing this situation, pretended not to see it, allowing them to be self-important.

Chen Mobai knew this was because Venerable Cheng Xuan had emerged from seclusion, and the news of his significant cultivation advancement had spread.

Although he hadn't successfully ascended to the Soul Transformation stage, Venerable Cheng Xuan was already considered to be on the same level as Qi Yuheng, as he was the Immortal Sect's second cultivator capable of mastering fifth-tier body tempering techniques at the Nascent Soul stage.

Both were considered the strongest below the Soul Transformation stage in the Immortal Sect.

There were even many blind followers who exaggerated Venerable Cheng Xuan's prowess, claiming he was superior and Qi Yuheng was inferior.

Chen Mobai felt this kind of atmosphere was unhealthy, so he summoned Wang Shuye and other trusted core members from the three main halls. He instructed them to provide ideological lessons to their subordinates, emphasizing that arrogance and complacency inevitably lead to downfall.

Such actions were very necessary, because Chen Mobai later learned from Hua Zijing that a small number of people from the Dancing Instruments Dao Academy had already begun to look down on their ally, the Jumang Dao Academy.

After severely dealing with some arrogant young individuals, this unhealthy trend was finally curbed.

The Sky Patching and Kunpeng lineages found this quite regrettable.

They had hoped for the Dancing Instruments lineage to become even more arrogant, preferably leading them to part ways with the Jumang lineage. Who knew Chen Mobai, despite his youth, was so steady and cautious? As soon as he detected such an undesirable tendency within, he immediately took action to rectify it.

All the way until the end of the year, Chen Mobai was busy with disciplinary rectification.

He showed no mercy, expelling several of his own people from Wangwu Grotto-Heaven and reassigning them to local areas.

Following a vote by the Kaiyuan Hall, Chen Mobai, head of the Enforcement Department, was elected as the new Deputy Hall Master of the Zhengfa Hall!

On this day, the Kaiyuan Hall's council meeting was held as scheduled. Gongsun Jielü, citing health reasons, chose to resign, and then, in a democratic vote, Chen Mobai was elected to succeed with almost unanimous votes.

This matter had actually been arranged long ago.

It was just that for the previous two years, Chen Mobai had been guarding Venerable Cheng Xuan's seclusion in the Myriad Treasures Cave, so it was delayed until this year.

However, this way, it became even more secure.

During these past two years, Zhongli Tianyu had also completely taken control of the Enforcement Department. He had even repeatedly led teams to solve many major cases, gaining considerable renown within the Immortal Sect and being hailed among his peers as a supernova second only to Chen Mobai.

Most of the credit for Zhongli Tianyu's case-solving achievements certainly fell to Chen Mobai, the head of the Enforcement Department. With these illustrious achievements and the passage of time, Chen Mobai's promotion to Deputy Hall Master of the Zhengfa Hall was a natural progression.

This was unlike Nangong Xuanyu's situation, where he took over the military department immediately after forming his Nascent Soul, a direct "airdrop" into the position that caused widespread discussion and considerable controversy throughout the Immortal Sect.

Seeing Chen Mobai take the stage to succeed her, Gongsun Jielü, who had voluntarily resigned, felt a sense of relief.

Finally, she wouldn't have to work overtime anymore!

Narcissus didn't involve herself in affairs, and Chen Mobai didn't like to manage them either. Nangong Xuanyu, under Chen Mobai's suppression in recent years, couldn't even fully control the military department, so he adopted an "out of sight, out of mind" approach and rarely showed up.

This led to many matters of the Zhengfa Hall being managed and coordinated by Gongsun Jielü, the Deputy Hall Master.

Caught between three Nascent Soul Venerables, she was truly exhausted mentally and physically.

So, the day after the council meeting ended, she called Chen Mobai over, handed over everything she had already prepared to him, took only the Nascent Soul Nurturing Pill, and happily left Wangwu Grotto-Heaven.

Chen Mobai was not a diligent person; he immediately called Hua Zijing to take over.

"Jialan is still forming her Golden Core, so for now, Zijing, please take on these tasks."

Hua Zijing naturally had no objections; she had long been prepared for this.

"Venerable One, what about the Sky Patching Group? Will I still be concurrently managing it?"

Hua Zijing wasn't afraid of hard work, but rather feared her capabilities and energy might be insufficient. After all, the matters a Deputy Hall Master of Zhengfa Hall has to handle are far more numerous than those of the Sky Patching Group.

Especially since Narcissus wasn't taking charge, almost all documents of the Zhengfa Hall would be sent to her.

"I'll ask Ming Yihua and Yun Yangbing if they are interested."

As newly advanced Golden Core Perfected Ones, Chen Mobai's two good friends both attended this council meeting, but could only sit in the back row.

Ming Yihua had quite a few complaints about this, saying how positions could be arranged by seniority...

During the evening gathering, Chen Mobai also called Zhongli Tianyu over.

This was considered his core team.

"Count me out then," Ming Yihua said. "The factory director treats me very well and even wants me to take over his position. If I were to take over the Sky Patching Group, it would be somewhat disloyal to him."

Ming Yihua, after hearing what Chen Mobai said, shook his head and refused without thinking.

"If there's truly no one else, I can leave the Heavenly Curtain Geographic Network Bureau," Yun Yangbing offered.

Yun Yangbing said with great loyalty.

But Chen Mobai thought carefully and still felt it was better for Yun Yangbing to stay in the Heavenly Curtain Geographic Network Bureau. After all, although that place wasn't high-ranking, it controlled the Immortal Sect's only sixth-tier grand formation. If a pioneering war were to break out in the future, having one of his own people there would put his mind at ease.

"Then let Lin Yin come back; she has been in the Extreme North Grotto-Heaven for a while now."

Chen Mobai said to Hua Zijing, who was beside him. Hua Zijing immediately nodded and arranged the matter the next day.

After dealing with both the Enforcement Department and the Sky Patching Group, Chen Mobai then turned his attention to the military department.

As the Deputy Hall Master of Zhengfa Hall, theoretically, he had no authority to govern the military department. However, he couldn't stop the various factions within the military department from wanting to defect to him.

Moreover, for many years in the Immortal Sect, the Zhengfa Hall had been under the control of the Dancing Instruments Dao Academy for more than half its time. Therefore, within the military department, Chen Mobai, as the leading figure of the Dancing Instruments lineage, enjoyed profound prestige.

Nangong Xuanyu soon discovered that only two factions originating from the Sky Patching lineage were still willing to support him.

The rest had all defected to Chen Mobai, the Deputy Hall Master.

Given Nangong Xuanyu's temper, if he encountered such a situation, even if he couldn't win against Chen Mobai, he would stubbornly remain in the military department to make the latter uncomfortable.

But Nangong Xuanyu no longer had the inclination for this, because he had received an order from Ancestor Qianxing to lead a group of Immortal Sect members in six years as an advance force, to be deployed into another world through a realm gate to ascertain the background and origin of the other side.

This was definitely the Immortal Sect's most dangerous mission.

If the other world was like Pluto or the Three-Eyed Race, even if he was a Nascent Soul Venerable, his chances of survival would likely be slim.

But this was an order from the Ancestor; unless Nangong Xuanyu wanted to defect to the Ascension Sect, he could only obediently accept it.

Under these circumstances, Nangong Xuanyu no longer had any inclination to contend with Chen Mobai.

Because he needed to enhance his own strength in the shortest possible time to increase his survival rate when entering the other world.

However, the improvement of cultivation was not something that could be achieved overnight.

Thus, magic artifacts became Nangong Xuanyu's objective.

Because within the Immortal Sect, there happened to be the Primordial Yang Ancestor's Pure Yang Set, which could greatly increase his strength.

The matter of Nangong Xuanyu submitting an application to refine the Pure Yang Set soon reached Chen Mobai's ears.

If he had only wanted one or two pieces, Chen Mobai probably wouldn't have minded. But Nangong Xuanyu actually wanted an entire set, and Chen Mobai couldn't tolerate that.

The Immortal Sect's high-tier magic artifacts all fell under the jurisdiction of the Immortal Artifact Department of the Immortal Affairs Hall, which was unusually bustling today.

"Nascent Soul Venerables can at most sustain one fourth-tier magic artifact. Even with financial department allocations for spirit stones, they can only add one more. Minister Nangong wants to refine all six pieces of the Pure Yang Set, and I find this inappropriate."

As the ancestral ground for artifact refining in the Immortal Sect, the Dancing Instruments Dao Academy naturally had Chen Mobai's people in the Immortal Artifact Department. Under his instruction, one of the deputy ministers stepped forward first and rebutted Nangong Xuanyu's application.

Jiang Shaopeng, the head of the Immortal Artifact Department, was from the Sky Patching lineage. However, he couldn't resist the fact that most of his core subordinates were graduates of Dancing Instruments, and he didn't dare to forcefully push through Nangong Xuanyu's application.

Because he was very clear that although those currently opposing were his subordinates, standing behind them was the Pure Yang Venerable of Zhengfa Hall!

"Then let's discuss it again!"

Jiang Shaopeng could only sigh and table the application.

This was the only thing he could do.