Quelling unrest, pruning rotten branches

After Jiang Kui returned to the Airship, he first went to check on Advisor Bai, who was being held under guard.

Seeing the man's injuries up close, along with the wisps of golden-white radiance rising from his body, Jiang Kui felt all the mutated tissue in his own body tremble at the mental power emanating from that spiritual light.

He could not help thinking, Even without the long needle Teacher gave us, surely he couldn't recover from injuries like these?

A companion standing beside him was equally shaken by the sight. He said, "I heard Teacher originally only wanted Council Member Chen to hold Advisor Bai off for a while and keep him from interfering with us. I never expected Advisor Bai to get beaten this badly. Who could have imagined it?"

Jiang Kui's feelings were complicated. He sighed. "You're telling me."

He had accompanied his teacher to meet Advisor Bai several times before. Every time, the man had exuded a cold, distant, utterly unapproachable air, like a god on high. Jiang Kui had held him in absolute awe then, never imagining he could be beaten into such a wretched, barely recognizable state. Council Member Chen really hadn't held back at all.

No, he had held back. Otherwise, Advisor Bai would have been killed on the spot.

His companion grew excited instead. "Senior Brother Jiang, I heard Council Member Chen is the director of the Jibei Province Branch?"

Jiang Kui said, "Yes, he's the branch director over in Jibei Province. But Jibei Province isn't like our Shannan Province branch. According to Teacher, something happened many years ago, and the branch there ceased to exist long ago. Council Member Chen recently brought some fellow members together and rebuilt it."

His companion exclaimed, "That really couldn't have been easy!"

Jiang Kui nodded.