The matter in Upper Clarity Heaven was not yet settled. Much as Luo Qian wanted to take his haul straight to the Saint Realm and smuggle it in, he was still uneasy, so he put it off for a while.
The election for president of the Upper Clarity Heaven Autonomous Chamber of Commerce was a wholesale copy of Western democratic elections. Before the vote, candidates had time to canvass, give speeches, and make promises to voters. For days, every candidate was so busy their heels were striking the backs of their heads. Luo Qian had thought that, as this was their first "democratic election," things would not get too ugly. To his surprise, these Immortals who had lived for centuries or millennia showed one another no mercy. They hurled the ugliest accusations they could find. Poor Du Lengning was attacked from head to toe. Even Luo Qian's Third Aunt, the woman who ran Phoenix Facing Phoenix Embroidery and had lived quietly on her own, acquired a dozen or more "rumored boyfriends" after announcing her candidacy!
Listening to his subordinates' detailed reports, Luo Qian burst out laughing. "It's chaos. Total chaos!" Du Lengning scratched his head. "This was your brilliant idea. Upper Clarity Heaven is a giant dye vat now. No one who steps into it can hope to come out clean!" The affair had gone far beyond Luo Qian's control, beyond His Majesty the Immortal Emperor's control, beyond anyone's control. Who would have thought that introducing something as novel as an election to the Immortal Realm would cause such a mess? Luo Qian had badly underestimated the darkness in human nature. He had assumed that, given Eastern temperaments, things could never become as clamorous as Western elections, with every dirty trick brought into play. But these old monsters who had