Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

Chen Lei's face was grim.

He glared angrily at Shangguan Wuqing.

He tricked me again.

"Lord Chen, I don't care what your intentions were in concealing this matter before. When I return this time, I will report it truthfully. As an official of my Night Watch, anyone who is willing to do practical work, capable, and meritorious should receive the reward they deserve." Shangguan Wuqing said, "Of course, I will also report Lord Chen's actions truthfully."

"A month ago, you secretly submitted an application to dismiss my junior disciple Gu Chen from his official position. I don't know who approved it for you. My junior disciple has done nothing wrong. On the contrary, he made great contributions before, but you did not reward him. Now he has made great contributions again, but you have dismissed him. Meanwhile, your disciple He Teng, who is disloyal to the Divine Dynasty and has not made any contributions, was promoted by you to be the director of the Night Watch Division of a prefecture."

"Your actions will be judged by the higher-ups of the Night Watch. Just you wait!" Shangguan Wuqing looked at him coldly.

"Shangguan Wuqing!" Chen Lei broke down immediately, saying, "Your disciple failed in his investigation. I gave him full authority to oversee the matter of an unknown expert injuring my Night Watch officers, but he paid lip service to it and failed to find any clues for months. Afterwards, as an officer of the Night Watch, he did not uphold the image of my Night Watch officers, but instead went to collect challenge fees from other challengers on the Heavenly Pride Ranking. How can such a snobbish and opportunistic person be qualified to serve as the head of a city's Night Watch?"

But his rebuttal.

This argument is clearly untenable.

aside.

An official from the Wasteland Surveillance Bureau spoke up: "What do you mean, that the Night Watch officers were attacked by an unknown powerful figure? It's just that your treacherous disciple was useless. He went to fight for the treasure but couldn't win. He got beaten up and his things were stolen. You were furious, so you mobilized the entire Wasteland Night Watch Bureau and even asked our Surveillance Bureau and the Divine Garment Bureau to help investigate the mastermind behind it all. In the end, we still couldn't find the mastermind."

"You use this matter to make things difficult for a junior; your behavior is truly disgusting."

"As the chief of the Night Watch of a state, you couldn't find any clues even with the full strength of the Night Watch of the entire Wasteland State. What can you expect the chief of the Night Watch of a small city to find out? To judge someone's ability based on this matter, are you implying that you are incompetent and that you are the good-for-nothing? And then you dismiss him from his post because of this? Why don't you resign from your position as the chief of the Night Watch of the Wasteland State first!" He showed no mercy.

He was the Deputy Chief Inspector of the Wilderness Prefecture, a fourth-rank official.

They were not afraid of Chen Lei.

Chen Lei couldn't control him. He was unhappy about Chen Lei using their supervisory department to investigate a case some time ago.

It's exhausting everyone's energy for a useless sixth-rank disciple like him. If it weren't for giving him face...

The Inspectorate will not intervene.

He's still bringing this up here, so I can't help but want to come out and give him a piece of my mind.

"Fine, fine, so you're all on Shangguan Wuqing's side, huh?" Chen Lei said angrily.

He finally understood.

Shangguan Wuqing has been operating these divine dynasty institutions in the desolate state for many years.

Many high-ranking officials are biased towards him.

Having only been here for half a year, my foundation is insufficient, and because of my previous alliance with the Wen family to try to gather all the powerful families in the desolate state, I have threatened the interests of some people in these organizations.

Now that the higher-ups in these organizations have seen that his disciple has been found to be a spy and have been given leverage, they have all started targeting him together.

"We don't favor anyone; we only favor reason. We side with whoever is right," said an official from the Divine Garment Division. "Although Gu Chen is the head of the Night Watch Division of a city and represents the dignity of the Night Watch Division, his collection of challenge fees from other prodigies is a private matter. If the other party doesn't want to pay, they don't have to challenge him. It's a matter of mutual consent, there was no coercion, and it won't have any connection with the Night Watch Division. You are simply making a mountain out of a molehill over such an insignificant matter and dismissing him from his post."

"In our Divine Dynasty, the appointment of officials at all levels is subject to strict evaluation standards and cannot be taken lightly. But here, you appoint whomever you want and dismiss whomever you want. Is there no rule at all?"

"With such practices, hard work goes unrewarded, meritorious individuals are not promoted, and treacherous and wicked people hold high positions. How can lower-level officials be expected to do practical work?"

His words resonated with many officials.

They all agreed with his point of view.

"You didn't recognize the merits of an official like Gu Chen, who was capable and hardworking, but instead dismissed him without any reason. Meanwhile, He Teng, who was disloyal to the Divine Dynasty and had not made any contributions, was directly promoted to the position of Director of the Night Watch of a prefecture. It's simply absurd!"

"Chen Lei, we will report your actions in the past six months as the Chief of the Night Watch in Huangzhou. We will see how the higher-ups in your Night Watch will deal with your behavior. Is the Huangzhou Night Watch the Night Watch of the Divine Dynasty, or is it your personal Night Watch?"

Everyone was targeting him.

Shangguan Wuqing sneered: "My disciple Gu Chen has made another contribution this time. He was the one who uncovered the case of He Teng's collusion with Japanese pirates. He is the one who should be promoted to the position of Director of the Night Watch Division of a prefecture."

"As for what you did, Chen Lei, and your suppression of the Night Watch officials, I will report it to the Chief and ask him to deal with you." Shangguan Wuqing looked at Chen Lei.

"You can all unite against me if you want. I have my reasons for doing all this. I'm not afraid of your lies. Once this matter is settled, I have other matters to attend to at the State City Night Watch Headquarters. I don't have time to argue with you here. Farewell." Chen Lei turned and left.

Seeing this, Yan Xiu also left with several people from Chen Lei's faction at the headquarters of the Wilderness Guard.

By now.

They are neither in the right nor in the advantage in any respect.

Continuing to argue with Shangguan Wuqing and the others here will only make us more and more humiliated, giving them more ammunition against us.

It's better to just leave.

As for this matter...

What consequences will this have?

That's beyond his control.

We can only wait for instructions from headquarters.

However, both Chen Lei and Yan Xiu knew the truth.

They lost this factional struggle.

Shangguan Wuqing's side has gained the upper hand, having grasped their weaknesses and many of their failed decisions.

Upon returning to Zhongzhou, I will surely use this as grounds to impeach him.

In addition, there was the involvement of three major troublemaking agencies: the Censorate, the Divine Garment Bureau, and the State Government.

In Zhongzhou, it's highly likely that, considering various factors, he will be removed from his position as the Chief of the Wilderness Guard.

The next person to be dispatched to serve as the chief of the Night Watch in the desolate state will likely be someone from Shangguan Wuqing's faction.

Because the Crown Prince's side could only be given one chance, and that chance failed.

The Second Prince will definitely not send any of his men to serve as the Chief of the Night Watch of the Wilderness State.

Furthermore, in order to counterbalance the power of the Wen family and stabilize the overall situation.

The higher-ups of the Night Watch will definitely send people from Shangguan Wuqing's faction to regain control of the Wilderness Night Watch, achieving a balance of power.

Chen Lei was unwilling to accept this.

But there's nothing we can do about it.

In fact, many of the decisions he made were not wrong.

It's radical, but within a tolerable range.

With the Crown Prince backing them up, they can handle many things.

The turning point came with Gu Chen, that rotten apple.

If he hadn't led the Cheng family in open rebellion, the other aristocratic families wouldn't have followed suit.

Afterwards, he defeated Wen Wushuang, who was sent by the Wen family, freeing the Cheng family from control and completely opening a breach, allowing all the powerful families to openly oppose him.

Then he solved a major case and asked someone to suppress him. After that, he defeated two of his disciples in succession, which finally led someone to use the method of dismissing him from his official position to suppress him.

Who knew that he would discover his own disciple was a spy?

It made him completely unresponsive.

Ultimately, Shangguan Wuqing combined a series of his decision-making errors to take action against him.

Get him down.

Gu Chen is a person.

He's no pushover.

If he is eliminated this time...

Upon returning to Zhongzhou, it is essential to ensure that the Crown Prince pays close attention to him.

If possible, it would be best to kill them directly.

Otherwise, he always felt that Gu Chen would cause them a lot of trouble in the future.

This is the central square.

Chen Lei left in anger.

The other officials from the Desolate State Divine Dynasty present looked at Shangguan Wuqing, and then glanced at Gu Chen.

He praised Gu Chen to Shangguan Wuqing, saying, "Lord Shangguan has taken in a fine disciple. Not only is he exceptionally talented and capable in tracking and investigating cases, but he is also reliable and hardworking. After this incident, he should be promoted to the head of the Night Watch Division of a prefecture, a sixth-rank official."

Congratulations!

Gu Chen has been very popular lately.

Now they can take this opportunity to praise Gu Chen and become familiar with him.

If Gu Chen becomes successful in the future, I can make connections with him.

"You all flatter me. Gu Chen is still young and needs more experience. He should learn more from you all," Shangguan Wuqing replied humbly.

This incident has come to a satisfactory conclusion.

Next, once he goes back and completes the formalities, it should be a done deal for Gu Chen to become the head of the Night Watch of a prefecture.

It just so happens that He Teng, the head of the Night Watch of Li Huo Prefecture, was killed, leaving a vacancy. It would be perfect to bring Gu Chen there.