Fire Spirit Hall had one Left Grand Chief Priest and one Right Grand Chief Priest, each assisted by six priests who handled various affairs. Under the priests were assistant priests who labored diligently.
Furthermore, as a major hall, Fire Spirit Hall's quota of deputy hall masters had already been filled, reaching the maximum of nine.
In addition, the ritual guard commanders of every past Hall Master of Fire Spirit Hall were also counted among Fire Spirit Hall's upper echelon.
By this reckoning, Fire Spirit Hall had a total of twenty-four true high-ranking officials.
Yet after merely glancing over the roster, Ye Zhen found that eight of the twenty-four Fire Spirit Hall higher-ups, including Dongyang Xiao, bore the surname Dongyang—fully one-third of them.
According to Zou Hu, the Hall Master of Fire Spirit Hall who had already thoroughly thrown his lot in with Ye Zhen, six of the remaining sixteen also came from families that looked to the Dongyang Family as their leader.
In other words, the Dongyang Family controlled nearly two-thirds of Fire Spirit Hall's upper ranks, to say nothing of the lower and middle-ranking assistant priests and priests, where their infiltration ran even deeper.
This was only because Hall Master Long Ruo had spent recent years constantly contending with them and weakening their influence.
It was plain to see just how powerful the Dongyang Family was within Fire Spirit Hall.
No wonder Dongyang Jin was determined to obtain the position of Hall Master of Fire Spirit Hall. In truth, more than half of Fire Spirit Hall already belonged to his family.
What he lacked was merely the position of Hall Master of Fire Spirit Hall and the hall's treasured artifact, the Primordial Golden Crow Divine Staff.
Seen this way, Ye Zhen would likely face great difficulty if he wanted