Becoming a leader of the immortal path begins with sowing the seeds of inner demons.

"Has the intelligence been sent out?"

"We sent messages to all sects, including Qingxia Sect, and they have replied that they will be on high alert."

"That's good, let's get straight to the point."

Three days ago, the sect's great formation was attacked. The senior brother and the sect leader each killed one evil cultivator named Qi Yidao...

"To be more precise, our senior brother said that those two were both puppet avatars and weren't completely killed. Otherwise, why would we be thoroughly investigating Yujiang Prefecture..."

In the spacious stone chamber, dozens of Golden Core disciples and several Nascent Soul disciples sat in a circle, each with a serious expression, staring intently at the human figure formed from spiritual energy in the center.

Lu Ming sat in the corner, silent.

He was not originally qualified to attend the meeting of disciples at the Golden Core stage and above of the Zhilu Peak, but for some reason, his senior brother made an exception and allowed him to attend.

Looking at the specially made identity standee of "Lu Ming: Half-Step Golden Core" in front of him, which was made to avoid violating the rules, Lu Ming was unsure whether his senior brother was being clever or if he was using all his tricks on him.

"Chen Zheng, tell us what's going on." A Nascent Soul disciple suddenly asked, attracting Lu Ming's attention.

Chen Zheng stood up, and as his magical power surged, it solidified into the images of the Zhou family members.

"Today, my junior brother Lu Ming and I went to the Zhou family to capture Zhou Yunfan and Zhou Yunhai."

In the account books submitted by the Zhou family a few days ago, we found traces of concealment and alteration. After being restored by the senior brother of the Calculation Department, it was confirmed that the two brothers had been withholding and concealing the amount of spirit stones since a hundred years ago.

Later, through the investigation by the Surveillance Department, it was confirmed that the two brothers had long-term connections with evil cultivators outside Chenzhou, and the spirit stones were also flowing there to exchange for forbidden pills and cultivation techniques needed for breakthroughs.

Not only that, the two also shared information about the spiritual energy nodes of the earth veins near Jiyun Mountain and the cultivators of the Yujiang Prefecture sect.

It was during this process that they met Chai Yan.

The two sides reached some kind of deal, and Chai Yan was thus able to infiltrate the Zhou family.

"The evidence is conclusive, so why was no action taken today?" Another Nascent Soul disciple said coldly, "The junior brothers from the Enforcement Division said that you secretly signaled to them to cancel the operation, and the explanation given to the Zhou family was because of their relationship with the sect leader."

What kind of relationship? The sect leader said that even if his own father broke the law, he would still be arrested.

How do you explain this?

The atmosphere inside the room instantly became serious, and Lu Ming felt it was difficult to breathe.

Under the watchful eyes of dozens of people, Chen Zheng remained expressionless, waving his hand to dispel the Zhou family's image, leaving only Zhou Qianqian behind.

"I terminated the operation because of her master."

Two hundred years ago, a female cultivator who had just established her foundation came to her for help, saying that her Daoist partner had disappeared and the soul lamp she had kept at home had gone out.

The one who went to investigate was my master, True Lord Chenyang.

At that time, he was also at the Foundation Establishment stage, and his investigation yielded no results. During that period, the female cultivator also disappeared.

This case file is currently stored in the Law Enforcement Peak case file archive.

At this point, Chen Zheng's expression became unusually serious, and he said, word by word, "The missing cultivator's Dharma name was Yin Xuan."

Upon hearing this, Lu Ming, who had intended to keep a low profile, suddenly sat up straight, his face filled with disbelief.

Missing?!

What memories did Feng Zai have at that time?

What about the skeletons in the stone chamber?

Everyone present was an elite member of the Law Enforcement Peak, and they immediately sensed something was amiss, their brows furrowing in disapproval.

After a long pause, a Golden Core disciple asked, "Is it possible that Yin Xuan accidentally entered a secret realm, escaped after a hundred years, and thus turned misfortune into fortune, becoming a Golden Core cultivator?"

"What about the female cultivator?" another person retorted. "Even if it was an accident, there should be traces."

How could such a powerful cultivator simply vanish into thin air?

Those who can do this are at least at the Nascent Soul stage.

But that makes it even more suspicious. Our Chenzhou isn't like the neighboring Liezhou. Why would he risk being targeted by a Foundation Establishment female cultivator for no reason?

The Nascent Soul cultivator from the Enforcement Division suddenly raised his hand to interrupt the argument, "Copies of the records of Yin Xuan Zhenren's establishment of the sect, copies of the entry certificates of all disciples of Yu Hua Sect, and the relationships between this sect since its establishment."

Have you seen them all?

Chen Zheng nodded, "Very clean."

After the establishment of the Yuhua Sect, they lived a secluded life in the Moon Laurel Mountain, occasionally going down the mountain to help the mortals in the vicinity exorcise demons and cure diseases, and there were no abnormalities.

He always attended performance reviews on time and never missed one.

"He participated in the merit examination?" The Nascent Soul cultivator's expression was clearly off. "Even the people from the Azure Cloud Sect didn't notice anything unusual?"

Chen Zheng took out the jade token, glanced at it, shook his head slightly, and said seriously, "If I hadn't remembered that file, I wouldn't have connected the two together."

"Similar Buddhist names? This has happened before," someone asked.

"Then we'll need True Immortal Yin Xuan to come in person," the Nascent Soul cultivator said softly. "Whether it's true or false, we can tell by examining the primordial spirit with the Mirror of Clear Mind."

"I'll go," Chen Zheng volunteered.

"No, if there really is a problem, the Golden Core cultivation level will easily arouse his suspicion." The Nascent Soul cultivator shook his head and muttered, "The Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment level is too low; we can't see any clues there."

If only there were a disciple whose cultivation level was no higher than the Golden Core stage, yet surpassed that of the Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining stage...

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone instinctively looked at Lu Ming.

Lu Ming remained expressionless, silently adjusting the "Half-Step Golden Core" identity plaque in front of him, and slightly puffed out his chest.

Who says a half-step Golden Core cultivator is useless?

Doesn't that highlight its effectiveness?

......

evening.

"Senior brother, there's no need to go to such lengths. Hey, that's enough."

At Yuhua Sect's Gourmet Valley, seeing Chen Zheng constantly ordering the big dishes on the menu, Lu Ming quickly tried to stop him.

It wasn't that I couldn't eat, but eating like this right after taking on such a big task felt like eating my last meal before I was executed.

"That's all for now," Chen Zheng instructed the servant, then turned to Lu Ming and smiled, "How does it feel?"

"It's alright, but it's a bit strange." Lu Ming said truthfully, "Senior brother, shouldn't cultivators burn incense and drink tea every day, invite three or five friends to enjoy the scenery and play chess, or travel around and comprehend the way of heaven and earth?"

"Why do you guys seem so busy?"

Lu Ming put it very tactfully. In his view, only Golden Core cultivators could handle the workload of the Law Enforcement Peak without dying suddenly.

Just after the case analysis meeting (as Lu Ming felt), Chen Zheng took him back to Yujiang Prefecture City. This time, instead of playing the good cop/bad cop, he registered all the major families in the city with cultivators.

After emptying one jade slip, he took him to three more places.

First, I listened to the fox spirit crying and sobbing for half an hour, telling me how her husband had fallen for the snake demon next door and gotten tired of her.

After calming down the fox spirit, they witnessed a full-blown fight, simply because the male and female Daoist couple both wanted to sleep on the side with more spiritual energy at night.

After scolding them all and setting a sleeping schedule for them, Chen Zheng encountered a pair of childhood sweethearts who were breaking up.

The woman felt that the man had changed his mind simply because the two were at different stages of cultivation—one had just entered the Qi Refining stage, while the other had reached the Great Perfection stage.

Lu Ming talked until his lips were dry, and finally, an unintentional remark enlightened the woman, causing her to instantly achieve mastery of Qi cultivation.

The two reconciled immediately, embracing and crying in front of Lu Ming, vowing never to be separated again.

Lu Ming's face immediately darkened. If Chen Zheng hadn't been there, he would have definitely planted the two of them like ginseng in the east and west of the city.

You guys are so stupid, you summoned a half-Golden Core cultivator for such a trivial matter? Don't you have any sense of crisis in the cultivation world, where there are three realms: senior, fellow cultivator, and ant?

Although his true qi wasn't depleted much by the end of the day, Lu Ming was physically and mentally exhausted.

"You'll get used to it. I'm not usually this busy," Chen Zheng said with a smile. "I hope you don't hold a grudge about what happened this morning."

I didn't mean to hide it from you, but every disciple at Zhilu Peak takes this lesson to teach them that cultivation is not always smooth sailing.

At this point, Chen Zheng scratched his head awkwardly, "Unfortunately, the situation has changed, so I can only tell you directly."

Lu Ming hadn't taken the matter to heart, but hearing this made him even more curious about Chen Zheng's experience, so he asked, "Senior brother, what was your situation back then?"

Chen Zheng's eyes froze, his beard trembled a few times, and then he said woodenly, "Back then, my master didn't lie to me. He clearly told me that I was going to catch evil cultivators."

The person was hiding inside the house. Being young, I volunteered to rush in.

As soon as I entered, they used water magic to try and trap me.

"Water magic?" Lu Ming laughed. "Isn't that exactly what you wanted, Senior Brother?"

"That's what I thought at the time too." Chen Zheng's voice trembled slightly for some reason. "Relying on my expertise in water magic and the fact that the other party was just a Qi Refiner, I rushed in directly."

But...but..."

Just then, the food was served. Chen Zheng glanced at Lu Ming, who was picking up his chopsticks to eat, and said in a deep voice, "Eat first."

"No problem, Senior Brother, please tell me." Lu Ming was also starving and wolfed down his food.

Chen Zheng sighed and said slowly, "But that bastard used gold juice."

I didn't even use any protective barrier at the time..."