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

The period that follows.

Gu Chen resumed his daily alchemy practice.

After refining pills each day, he would study the soul attack technique that Tang Hong had given him.

Strive to get started as soon as possible and master the wonderful use of soul attacks.

Three days later.

His fourth senior brother, Luo Tianxing, came directly to him.

"Junior brother, your application for merit for those two fourth-grade martial arts techniques has been rejected!" Luo Tianxing said.

"I was rejected? What happened!" Gu Chen was stunned.

This time, they arrested Liu Xun, an undercover agent of the Drowning Cult, and cracked the case of Liu Xun smuggling military supplies to the island nation.

Even the smallest merit should be enough to qualify for the application.

His second senior brother, Gongsun Yuan, should have been able to approve it directly, so why was he rejected?

"Ugh, don't even mention it, it makes me so angry!" Luo Tianxing said angrily, "It was all done by that new Chief of the Night Watch of the Wilderness State, Chen Lei."

"He used the excuse that during his second senior brother's tenure, he failed to supervise effectively, allowing Liu Xun to smuggle a large amount of military supplies from the Divine Dynasty to the island nation, thus increasing the island nation's strength, to erase his second senior brother's merits. As for the mining gang that Liu Xun belonged to, they were from my Yuehai County. As the head of the Yuehai County Night Watch, I bear primary responsibility, so my merits were also erased."

"If we hadn't solved this case, my second senior brother and I would have been demoted by one rank. Now that we've solved it, it's fair to say our merits and demerits cancel each other out, so we've essentially worked for nothing this time!"

"And you, Junior Brother," Luo Tianxing looked at Gu Chen, "before this case happened, although you hadn't taken up your post in Jiuwan City and weren't responsible, you injured Liu Chen afterwards. He used the excuse that you used the Night Watch's name to settle personal scores, wantonly harmed personnel from other top-tier forces, and damaged the relationship between the Night Watch and these top-tier forces, and erased your merits."

"So my second senior brother can't just approve those two fourth-grade martial arts techniques for you directly," Luo Tianxing said helplessly.

"This is blatant suppression of us," Gu Chen said angrily. "Then it's like we've done all this for nothing, without getting any credit whatsoever."

"That's right." Luo Tianxing nodded.

"Doesn't Master care? Does he just let this new Chief Commander bully us here?" Gu Chen asked.

"The situation at the top of the Night Watch in Zhongzhou is more complex than you imagine. There are various factions that check and balance each other. Master just arrived and hasn't yet established a firm foothold among the top decision-makers, so we're also suffering because of it," Luo Tianxing said. "The reason we're suffering is, to some extent, because Master's faction has backed down or exchanged other benefits for it."

"Master sent a message to Second Senior Brother, telling us to keep a low profile for now. If Chen Lei can erase our achievements today with a few ambiguous reasons, he can easily restore our achievements with other reasons once Master's faction recovers."

"Now that Chen Lei has taken office, he's making a big show of things, and you've also crippled Liu Chen. Perhaps the Qingyun Sword Sect gave him some benefits, which is why he erased your achievements. It's a way of ruining your career and making things difficult for you," Luo Tianxing analyzed. "That's how the officialdom is. In many cases, when factional struggles occur, even a small move by the higher-ups can have a lasting impact on those below. Let's keep a low profile for a while."

"I understand." Gu Chen finally understood.

Their master told them to keep a low profile.

They had no choice but to keep a low profile.

Many things are interconnected; a small change can have far-reaching consequences.

When his master, Shangguan Wuqing, arrives there, he will likely encounter a series of problems as well.

Once he's settled in, things will be better over there.

Things will get better here too.

Anyway, no matter how much the new commander suppresses them, all he can do is deduct from their achievements and annoy them.

It won't cause them any real harm.

Just bear with it and it will pass.

In officialdom, there is never a smooth journey.

At worst, he can focus on stabilizing and improving his cultivation level during this period.

"Okay, I'm glad you understand." Luo Tianxing nodded and continued, "By the way, with the arrival of the new commander-in-chief of Huangzhou, some of the power dynamics in Huangzhou will change. I have received news that the Wen family, one of the top families in Huangzhou and one of the nine great families, may have already chosen to ally with Chen Lei."

"As one of the nine top families, the Wen family ranks above the ten major chambers of commerce and below the eight factions. When Master was the governor of the desolate state, he always wanted to win the Wen family over to his own faction, but he failed. Unexpectedly, Chen Lei succeeded as soon as he came. Perhaps this is why Master's lineage was chosen to back down," Luo Tianxing said.

"The Wen family, one of the nine top families, has actually joined forces with the newly arrived Chief!" Gu Chen frowned slightly.

One dynasty, two gates, three outside, four clans, five families.

These top five tiers of forces are all transcendent forces with terrestrial immortals presiding over them.

Six palaces, seven halls, eight factions, nine top streams, and ten merchant guilds.

These are top-tier forces with ranks above First Grade, Earthly Venerable, or even Heavenly Venerable presiding over them.

The nine top-tier families are located in the nine states of the Divine Dynasty, excluding Zhongzhou, with one family occupying each state.

Each of these prominent families is a highly influential and top-tier power in its respective state.

The Murong family of Yunzhou, the Chu family of Qingzhou, the Su family of Luozhou, the Xuanyuan family of Donghaizhou, the Helian family of Lizhou, the Dugu family of Xuanzhou, the Baili family of Cangzhou, the Shangguan family of Nanhaizhou, and the Wen family of Huangzhou.

They were able to win over a top-tier family.

The factional struggles involved likely extend beyond the Night Watch.

There may be factional infighting within the upper echelons of the Divine Dynasty in Zhongzhou.

"Hmm." Luo Tianxing nodded: "You haven't been in the Night Watch for long, so you may not be aware of the succession struggle in the Central Divine Dynasty. Our master's faction, including the deputy director of the Night Watch behind our master, Qin Ming, a half-step terrestrial immortal, has chosen to support the Second Prince."

"Your Fire Profound Blade was a gift from the Second Prince, wasn't it?" Luo Tianxing asked.

"Yes." Gu Chen nodded.

"Do you know who the other deputy chief of the Night Watch, the one behind Chen Lei, the newly arrived chief of the Night Watch in the desolate state, supports?" Luo Tianxing asked Gu Chen, keeping him in suspense.

"Crown Prince?" Gu Chen asked tentatively.

He didn't know much about the struggle for the throne.

All he knew was that when the eunuch Li, sent by the Second Prince, presented him with the Fire Profound Blade, Tie Yangtian advised him to accept it. He knew then that Tie Yangtian had definitely chosen to support the Second Prince.

Among the many princes of the current Divine Emperor.

The second prince has the best chance of winning the struggle for the throne against the crown prince.

The two deputy chiefs of the Night Watch have two factions: one supports the Second Prince, and the other definitely supports the Crown Prince.

"Yes, it's the Crown Prince," Luo Tianxing said. "So the Wen family's decision to get close to Chen Lei this time might be a signal that they have chosen to side with the Crown Prince."

"This means that the Second Prince's control over the desolate state is weakened," Luo Tianxing said. "Moreover, the mining gang's actions this time, smuggling military supplies and rare minerals to the island nation, are serious crimes that have violated the taboos of the Divine Dynasty. The Body Sect's control over the mining gang may be stripped away, and the mining gang will probably be taken over by the Divine Dynasty to mine and manage itself in the future."

"I wonder which prince the Emperor will entrust with the mining and management," Luo Tianxing said. "The Yuehai County area may be quite turbulent for a while, so let's keep a low profile to avoid getting involved." Luo Tianxing reminded them.

"Mm." Gu Chen nodded.

If the Divine Dynasty were to use the mining gang's smuggling of rare minerals to the island nation as a pretext to seize the mining rights from the Body Sect, the Body Sect would have no choice but to swallow this bitter pill.

The mining gang will be handed over, and the Divine Dynasty will arrange for someone to supervise and operate it from now on.

If the God Emperor were to directly distribute it to one of his princes, that would be fine; but if he were not to distribute it directly to one person...

Let the princes take it by force.

At that time, another fierce battle will inevitably break out within the territory of Yuehai County.

Of course, none of this concerns him.

He just needs to continue doing his job as the head of the Night Watch.

The most important thing is to focus on developing your strength first and then play it safe.

No matter how powerful the external force or background, it is not as reliable as one's own strength.

If he continues refining pills for another ten days, he should be able to save enough to buy pills to break through to the Perfect Breaking Aperture Realm.

Rush.

At this time.

Outside Jiuwan City, on the Qingdao side of the sea.

The other experts from the Yamamoto family who had been waiting here with Yamamoto Okamura and several other powerful members of the Yamamoto family to rebuild the family finally arrived.

There were more than a dozen people in total.

Six seventh-rank experts, five sixth-rank experts, and two fifth-rank experts, a group of thirteen people, descended on the island.

The Yamamoto family sent a powerful member, Yamamoto Okamura, to investigate the death of Yamamoto Eleven some time ago. He then sent a message back to Yamamoto Okamura.

They said that all of the Yamamoto family's strongholds in Yuehai County had been destroyed, and the family needed to send new strongmen to rebuild them.

The agreed-upon location was this Qingdao Island.

There has been no news from Yamamoto-oka Village to their family in the past few days.

They felt very strange.

I don't know if he has already met with misfortune.

We've come here for two reasons: first, to confirm the situation of Yamamoto-oka Village and others; and second, to discuss opportunities for reconstruction.

But after they saw the corpses of Yamamoto Okamura and several other masters of the Yamamoto family, the dozen or so of them...

His face looked pale.

The last few people, including Yamamoto Okamura, were also killed.

The Night Watch of the Divine Dynasty has been surprisingly ruthless this time.

"Check all available intelligence around here, take stock of the current situation of my Yamamoto family members here, see if they have all been killed, and find out who the Night Watch is behind it all. We must avenge Yamamoto Okamura-kun!" The fifth-rank expert from the Yamamoto family said in a cold voice.

The experts who could kill Yamamoto Okamura were at least at the peak of the Breaking Aperture Realm or even the fifth-grade Transformation Sea Realm.

The Night Watch really put in a lot of effort to wipe them out this time.

It's best if they don't find out who in the Night Watch killed these members of the Yamamoto family.

Otherwise, I definitely won't let him get away with it.