The next day, the Celestial Pivot Divine Palace ushered in the strangest upheaval in its history.
It was not that they had lost their sect master. Their sect master was Xi Yue now. This inheritance of the sect master's position did not even require a succession ceremony. After all, she had been running things for ten thousand years; every token and credential was on her person. If she said so, then so it was. Everyone was used to it.
That change was nothing. Everyone accepted it and was happy enough to do so.
But this Daoist sanctuary, devoted to ascetic cultivation and the renunciation of emotion and desire, had actually begun pairing people into Dao Companions.
And it formed two pairs at once, with only three people between them.
The new sect master Xi Yue, the Young Master Minghe, and the same man had become Dao Companions.
This was not merely a violation of Daoist asceticism. It violated the ethics of the world itself—the sort of thing that would become a laughingstock if word got out.
The expressions throughout the Celestial Pivot Divine Palace were as though they had swallowed shit. Even their most loyal confidants and disciples refused to attend the ceremony. They had been beaten into submission, sure, so they would not say anything—but could they not simply refrain from looking, asking, or knowing?
Yet beneath the sect master's wide, phoenix-like glare, they could only droop their heads helplessly and attend the ceremony.
Once they actually attended, though, they discovered that the scene was not quite what they had imagined... It was not the eye-searing spectacle of one man dragging two women along. In truth, Xi Yue still sat high in the seat of honor, while Qin Yi and Minghe stood facing each other before her.
"As for