They did not see any mimics; after all, the patriarch had to maintain appearances, so how could he casually receive a team from a small sect like Xiaoyun Temple?

Fortunately, Jia Zhengyi stepped in. Xiaoyun Temple was under his name and was the young sect leader's first vassal force to develop outside. Naturally, he received them warmly and took the opportunity to convey some secrets about the Immortal Sect Grand Prize.

According to Jia Zhengyi, someone was indeed causing trouble during this Immortal Sect Grand Prize, forcing Xiaoyun Temple to participate.

But this mischievous behavior wasn't really a secret, and the higher-ups at Tianya Mountain didn't care who had dragged Xiaoyun Temple into it.

After all, the interests and conflicts within the Nine Immortal Sects are complex and difficult to uncover. What the Nine Immortal Sects care about most is whether each Immortal Sect Grand Prize is carried out smoothly, as this is related to the overall interests of the sects.

Under this overall interest, none of the nine immortal sects wanted the other to become significantly stronger through the generous rewards.

Therefore, during each grand competition, the immortal sects would engage in battles with each other: such as suppressing the other's vassal forces, secretly harming the talented outsiders that the other had recruited... They mostly used underhanded methods to cause losses to each other.

These losses are nothing to the Immortal Sect; they might cause some annoyance, but they've gotten used to fighting each other for years, so it doesn't matter.

But for Xiaoyun Temple, this could mean the complete destruction of the entire sect.

Jia Zhengyi doesn't know who the Immortal Sect is behind the scheme and is still investigating. Furthermore, he doesn't actually have control over the entire Immortal Sect Grand Prize process.

Even those who mimic the ancestor cannot interfere too much. The entire Grand Prize has established rules that are in the open, and no one can break them at will. Otherwise, they would be challenging the overall interests of the nine immortal sects.

Therefore, Xiaoyun Temple can no longer rely too much on the Mimic and Jia Zhengyi as its protectors. However, the good news is that Jia Zhengyi is actively communicating with the major immortal sects to recruit some of Xiaoyun Temple's members into Tianya Mountain in the name of the Ancestor, implying that the other immortal sects should not compete for the talents in Xiaoyun Temple.

This is the best that the patriarch and Jia Zhengyi can do: if Xiaoyun Temple really has to split some of its members, then they should at least go to Tianya Mountain, how can they go to the outer sect?

This also aligns with Xiao Linlin's expectations. If the losses at Xiaoyun Temple cannot be avoided, then she can conveniently continue to bolster Jia Zhengyi's achievements and also reasonably allocate more manpower to the undercover plan.

From this perspective, while Xiaoyun Temple may appear to have lost talented individuals, it has actually benefited in the long run.

Soon, Xiao Linlin devised more new plans and arrangements to prepare for expanding the undercover operation, while leading her team to actively participate in the Immortal Sect Grand Prize process.

With Jia Zhengyi secretly cooperating and pulling off numerous underhanded maneuvers within the Grand Prize, Xiao Linlin's team progressed smoothly without encountering any unexpected incidents.

The entire award process is not complicated.

The process generally involves the arrival of members from various sects who are then subjected to a series of tests by the nine major immortal sects. These tests consist of over 70 different cultivation trials, designed to assess the talents, aptitudes, and potential of each sect's members, and to determine whether each sect's members are truly their own chosen talents.

After ensuring that no sect sent anyone to fill the ranks, the nine immortal sects took turns testing the candidates, and then took some people away from each sect's team in batches.

According to past practice, most of the people who come from various sects cannot return.

Even if some people do not meet the requirements for recruiting disciples of the Immortal Sect, they will be forcibly taken away, which greatly prevents various sects from playing tricks.

Regardless of whether they are true geniuses or not, as long as they are skilled members of their respective schools, they will all be recruited! No one will be left with too much potential for development!

For an individual cultivator, being able to enter a celestial sect to cultivate is a good thing, even if one remains an outer disciple for life.

For the major sects, this was an unavoidable misfortune; it had been happening year after year, and they had long since become numb and accustomed to it.

The Grand Examination was extremely difficult. Even though Xiaoyun Temple brought many skilled individuals, half of them failed to pass the examination. Especially among the survivors, only Huang Yi passed the examination several times, while the rest failed.

Li Xingtian and Xiao Linlin deliberately concealed their abilities and did not pass the test.

Of course, concealing one's abilities is theoretically impossible; the immortal sects have long been wary of this tactic and have many more methods of verification.

However, rules are made by people, and as long as someone is willing to manipulate them, no one will care even if they are discovered.

At least Xiao Linlin and Li Xingtian didn't encounter any trouble, which is enough to prove that Jia Zhengyi's behind-the-scenes operations were very effective, and the managers of the major immortal sects would still give the young sect leader face on the surface.

After all, they have an ancestor standing behind them. Even in the open and covert struggles between immortal sects, they tacitly try to avoid involving high-ranking personnel.

The young sect leader has already invoked the name of the patriarch. It's just a mere Xiaoyun Temple. Let it go. Anyway, the spoils will all rot in the pot of the nine great immortal sects.

Time flies, and seven months have passed in the blink of an eye. The Immortal Sect Grand Awards are coming to an end.

As the examinations for each sect concluded, batches of disciples from each sect were taken away by the Immortal Sect, but the results of the examination for Xiaoyun Temple were delayed.

At that moment, Xiao Linlin sensed danger; she smelled something was wrong.

The seven-month process went smoothly, so smoothly that Huang Yi and the others completely lowered their guard, thinking that the Immortal Sect Grand Prize was nothing special and posed no threat.

At this moment, the people and forces behind the scenes who had implicated Xiaoyun Temple in the Immortal Sect Grand Prize began to make their move.

Xiao Linlin secretly instructed Jia Zhengyi to keep investigating. Jia Zhengyi was getting anxious, but since he didn't have the authority to investigate directly, he could only keep asking questions.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!