Planting an Qi Sea Realm sleeper agent in the sect's outer court for twenty years was no simple matter.
Faking a background and concealing one's cultivation were both exceedingly difficult.
Bai Qiming's influence within the sect might have run deeper than he had imagined.
Fu Qian was now over six hundred years old.
The Empty Mountain Sect cultivators of his generation who were still alive had all reached at least the Spirit Passage Realm.
Yet of those still active on the front lines of the sect, holding positions of power over its peaks, only Fu Qian remained.
In truth, sects rarely let any one cultivator hold real power for too long.
It was all too easy for trouble to arise.
After centuries of careful planning, Fu Qian had woven a dense web of connections throughout the sect.
Even Chu Chen, the current Sword-wielding Elder of Qingchan Peak, was almost completely bound to Fu Qian.
In fact, Fu Qian had always performed well and faithfully in his position as Martial Suppression Elder of Qingchan Peak.
That was precisely why the sect had allowed him to remain in power for so long.
It was only when a challenger emerged to threaten his authority that Fu Qian finally bared his fangs.
Yet even someone as shrewd and calculating as Fu Qian found Bai Qiming's handiwork terrifying.
What alarmed Fu Qian even more, however, was that Bai Qiming had exposed a sleeper agent he had buried for twenty years over Song Mingde's affair.
That meant there were only two possibilities.
First, Bai Qiming had planted many more sleeper agents in the sect. Zhang Xishun was far from the only one.
Second, what Song Mingde had uncovered was so important to the Qingchan Zhengfa faction that they had to kill him to silence him.
And