Dark undercurrents in the Chaotic Star Sea: pulling the firewood from beneath the cauldron

Han Li stayed in Tianxing City in the Chaotic Star Sea for three whole months.

During those three months, he did not spend his days in harmonious companionship with Ling Yuling or secluded in arduous cultivation, as outsiders imagined. Instead, under the title of "Guest Elder," he quietly visited the Seven Great Halls and Thirty-Six Branch Altars under the Star Palace, even secretly infiltrating several "Starfall Sea Eyes" designated as forbidden grounds.

What he saw and heard was far graver than Ling Yuling had described.

The Heavenly Pivot, Heavenly Jade, and Heavenly Balance Halls nominally obeyed the Palace Master's commands, but in reality, they had become independent kingdoms. The Three Halls Masters were all at the peak of the nascent soul middle stage, each commanded more than ten thousand elite troops, and together they monopolized over seventy percent of Star Core mining and trade in the Chaotic Star Sea. Their immense wealth even exceeded the Star Palace's treasury.

The twelve nascent soul elders were either old and muddleheaded or occupied their posts while doing nothing to earn their keep. Three or four had long been secretly colluding with the three halls, enjoying the "annual stipends" they provided while outwardly obeying Ling Yuling's decrees and inwardly defying them.

Although Ling Yuling was at the nascent soul late stage, his cultivation had not yet reached its peak. Moreover, the psychological scars left by the struggle for power years ago made him reluctant to forcibly suppress his fellow disciples. He feared even more that driving the three halls into rebellion would plunge the Star Palace into civil war, allowing the Outer Sea's demonic beasts and hostile factions to reap the fisherman's reward.

"It is not that he does not wish to, but that he cannot." Standing atop Tianxing City's highest Star-Gazing Platform, Han