Lang Jiuchuan had driven off the two Daoists from the Enforcement Hall. Turning around, she caught sight of Gong Shiliu staring at her with undisguised awe — which prompted her to blink once, then gesture for them all to follow her into the side room that had been arranged as a reception area and sit down.

Gong Qi looked at Lang Jiuchuan and said, “Why do I get the feeling you were specifically targeting that Daoist Yangming Zi — is it because he comes from the Rong Family?”

“Yes. The Rong Family and I have a grievance.”

Gong Qi paused briefly.

“A deadly one,” Lang Jiuchuan added.

Gong Qi’s pupils contracted slightly. She had said this with a smile on her face, but the smile did not reach her eyes — which meant she was serious. She and the Rong Family truly had a mortal enmity.

Was that rumor spreading everywhere about the Rong Family connected to her?

Since things had come out into the open anyway, Lang Jiuchuan did not try to conceal anything. She asked directly, “The marriage proposal your Young Lord declined — was it the Rong Family’s Young Lord who proposed it?”

“Our Young Lord had no interest in any marriage arrangement to begin with. The Rong Family…” Gong Qi glanced at her and said, “There is a rumor circulating in the Dao community that during the Rong Young Lord’s closed-door cultivation last year, he went astray and lost his Dao foundation and Dao heart. They pushed for this marriage alliance now because they wanted to use the good news to drown out the rumors.”

“Oh? Is this actually true?” Lang Jiuchuan looked at him, their eyes meeting. “This Rong Young Lord — has he truly gone astray in his cultivation?”

Gong Qi said evenly, “Without evidence, it’s hard to say definitively. However, the Rong Young Lord has indeed been in closed-door cultivation for quite some time. But with closed-door cultivation and profound contemplation, the length of time is never fixed — a year is not long, and three years is not short either. You yourself practice cultivation, so you understand that there is simply no set measure to it.”

“In any case, your Young Lord has refused the marriage. Now that the Rong Family and your Gong Clan can’t form that alliance, they’ll simply have to court a better one elsewhere.” She lowered her gaze. An alliance through marriage was inevitable for them — if not the Gong Clan, then perhaps the Feng Family? Or the Imperial Family?

Still — seeing the Rong Family suffer was a good thing.

“You said you and the Rong Family have a deadly grudge — if our Gong Clan had agreed to this marriage…”

Lang Jiuchuan let a faint smile pull at the corner of her lips. “Don’t worry. I deal with specific people, not entire families. I may have a mortal grudge, but it is aimed at certain individuals. As for everyone else — as long as they don’t come looking for trouble with me, I won’t bother wasting energy going after them. But if they get in my way, then I’m afraid there is nothing I can do.”

If anyone blocks the path — cut down gods when gods block the way, cut down Buddhas when Buddhas block the way.

Lang Jiuchuan then asked, “By the way — you mentioned earlier that the Xuan Alliance’s Enforcement Hall is on its way out. What did you mean by that?”

Gong Qi composed his expression. “The Special Affairs Surveillance Bureau is about to be established. They are currently looking for a site for the office and selecting personnel. Going forward, the Xuan Alliance’s Enforcement Hall will be merged into it, though not many from the Hall will be retained.”

Lang Jiuchuan understood. “So the stage for the Imperial Family and the Xuan Clan to pit themselves against each other has been officially set.”

Gong Qi smiled bitterly. Indeed, that was the shape of it.

“But once this Surveillance Bureau is established and both sides send people into it, the Xuan Clan, who fancy themselves superior by virtue of their cultivation, will surely look down on the ordinary civil and military officials. And the officials, in turn, won’t think much of the Xuan Clan’s lofty airs — there will be no shortage of friction. The river water and the well water keeping to their own sides: to work in harmony will require endless adjustment. In the time ahead, there will be quite a bit of theater to watch. If they can’t find common ground, the so-called Surveillance Bureau will become a mere decoration.” Once it became a mere decoration, the Imperial Family and the Xuan Clan would become completely opposing forces — and then it would be a matter of which wind would prevail over the other.

Lang Jiuchuan frowned. When those in power struggled for dominance, it was always those below who suffered — she could only hope it would not injure innocent common people when that time came.

She lifted her teacup and took a small sip. It was rather bitter, so she set it down and lightly tapped the rim.

“The Imperial Family is committed to pushing for this bureau’s establishment and will naturally protect the weaker side. If any Xuan Clan member uses Daoist arts to harm a colleague, and it comes to light, the punishment will be determined by the severity — serious cases will result in their cultivation being stripped. Oh, and — I’m going to be entering the Surveillance Bureau as well.”

Lang Jiuchuan looked at Gong Qi with surprise. “You?”

“Since the Surveillance Bureau will carry the responsibility of overseeing the conduct of Xuan Clan and Daoist cultivators, cases involving demons, evil spirits, or ghosts harming people will also fall under its jurisdiction going forward. In a sense, it is establishing a public official body for Dazheng — so that people who need help are no longer left without recourse, or forced to spend enormous sums of money and effort to hire Xuan Clan cultivators to handle things for them. Once a case is brought to the Surveillance Bureau, it must be investigated and resolved.”

Lang Jiuchuan listened and then said, “In that case, the ordinary officials working alongside Xuan Clan cultivators will need to have strong constitutions, a sufficiently forceful and unyielding spirit, and be bold, thorough, and sharp-minded.”

Solving cases was not something one could manage by pinching one’s fingers and divining the answer.

Gong Qi nodded and looked at her. “Would you have any interest in joining?”

“Do I look like I have nothing better to do — going out of my way to shackle myself?” Lang Jiuchuan gave a scoffing laugh. She would have to be foolish to willingly chain herself down.

Gong Qi tried a more enticing approach. “I’ve heard the remuneration inside is quite generous — there are life-prolonging elixirs, protective talismans, and for significant meritorious deeds, even ritual implements. For truly exceptional merit, you might even receive a Foundation Establishment Pill…”

He trailed off. She would hardly be lacking in any of those things.

A single flash of inspiration and she could produce a talisman — what would she need those for? As for elixirs, she was capable of refining them herself, probably — someone as quick-witted as she was, who grasped everything at a single hint.

Lang Jiuchuan’s attention snagged on “Foundation Establishment Pill.” “How many Foundation Establishment cultivators are registered at present? Are there even people who can refine those pills?”

Gong Qi shook his head. “Spiritual energy grows more scarce with each passing year. Rare and precious natural treasures are increasingly difficult to find. Refining pills is no easy matter, and succeeding is even harder — just the tribulation that descends upon the pill’s formation alone may not be surmountable, all because one’s cultivation lacks sufficient precision. Of course, this is the Xuan Clan’s current reality. As for whether there are truly great hidden masters somewhere who can refine them — that is unknown. Those people conceal themselves deeply. From what I know, the Foundation Establishment Pills that exist now are what our ancestors accumulated and left behind.”

“If they don’t even have enough for themselves, how can they afford to offer them as compensation?” Lang Jiuchuan said. “Even if not quite at the Foundation Establishment level, a pill of that kind would still be superior to a life-prolonging elixir, wouldn’t it?”

“Xuan Clan cultivators are said to have entered the Dao, but they all cultivate within the mundane world. As the saying goes, wealth moves the heart — without a good piece of meat dangling in front of them, who would be willing to risk life and limb?” Gong Qi sighed. “Once this kind of Surveillance Bureau is set up and cases come in, does anyone have to go investigate? Once they investigate, if they find evidence, do they have to actually confront the offender? Does confronting them use up cultivation? What happens if they lose — do they forfeit their life? I’m not belittling the Xuan Clan, but among the various great families, how many of the cultivators are truly willing to set aside self-interest for the greater good? The battle against the corpse-demons last time proved it — those who fled the field, who clung to their own survival — you couldn’t count them on two hands.”

Lang Jiuchuan fell briefly silent.

“With material incentives in front of them, this Surveillance Bureau can survive. So those rewards come largely from the Imperial Family’s treasury.”

In other words, the Imperial Family cared more than anyone about seeing this office succeed. And that made sense — to maintain the position of the supreme power at the top without being toppled by those below, one had to exert tremendous force to hold things in place. Only then would there be no upheaval.

Wealth moves the heart. That applies to everyone.

Gong Qi shed that melancholy expression and shifted back to his usual carefree, shameless manner, grinning as he said, “From now on I’ll be making my way in Wu Jing — please look out for me, Proprietress Lang!”

Lang Jiuchuan’s heart stirred slightly. She blinked and said, “If the Surveillance Bureau ever encounters something it can’t handle — as long as the pay is right for outside consultation, the Everything Shop’s doors will always be open to you.”

When there was profit to be made, cooperation was certainly not out of the question.