"I'll think about it."
Shen Qingmang discussed government affairs with Shi Mingli for a while, and then the two brothers returned to Wuya Peak. She stayed on the top of the peak, looking up at the sky alone, and saw the sun disappear into the mountains.
The last day is about to end.
Fate was so cruel that when she decided to leave, it made her bear such a heavy burden, making it difficult for her to move forward. It was like Li Shutong's conspiracy.
But Shen Qingmang knew that was not the case. No one wanted her to follow the original plan more than Li Shutong.
When the moon was at its zenith, Shen Qingmang heard footsteps behind her. However, she had been standing there for too long, her whole body was stiff, and even turning her head was difficult.
Fortunately, the other party spoke: "Master, congratulations."
"Sui Han..." Shen Qingmang sighed softly, slowly turned around, walked in front of him, took out the peak master's order, and wanted to tie it around his waist.
"Master." Gu Suihan reached out a hand to stop her. "Every leader of the Taichu Sect has ascended to heaven. I've lost my affinity with the Dao and can't take on this responsibility. You should hand it over to Si Rong or Hao Xin."
"Master once hit a bottleneck, his Daoist resolve wavering. He wanted to forcibly retreat into seclusion to reach the final stage, but I persuaded him not to. At that time, I believed that ascending to the highest realm was not a responsibility that the head of the Taichu Sect must shoulder, and I still believe so now."
As she spoke, she moved Gu Suihan's hand away and continued to tie the Peak Master's Order. This time, it leaned obediently against Gu Suihan.
"Sui Han, you are the one I trust the most." Shen Qingmang let go of his hand, took a step back, looked at him and smiled.
Gu Suihan's Adam's apple rolled. "Master, when you say something like that, how can I...how can I refuse?"
"Wear it. I'll announce the appointment to them in a few days. We need to settle the new elders first."
"After the master ascended to heaven, the spiritual energy of each peak has become even thinner. Today, my disciple was a little exhausted from flying to the Daowen Peak."
"Hey... this is the most pressing issue, much more important than that coronation ceremony." Shen Qingmang observed Gu Suihan's face in the moonlight. "Are you feeling unwell? Like having trouble breathing?"
"No, everything is fine, apprentice. It's only temporary."
"I hope so." Shen Qingmang murmured.
Yiqing looked for her every day in the following days to discuss with her how to hold the enthronement ceremony. She simplified the ceremony a lot and compressed the ceremony that was originally scheduled to take three days into one day.
After officially taking office as the headmaster, she proposed that the monks of each peak reduce their use of magic in response to the current situation of thin spiritual energy. For example, they should walk with their feet instead of magic, and cook with firewood instead of fire spiritual energy. At first, no one was willing to comply and often pretended to obey. It was not until she caught a few negative examples and punished them that everyone obeyed obediently.
Gu Suihan did not encounter much hindrance in taking office as the peak master. Although he had a dark history of using forbidden techniques, he was punished at that time. He had the highest cultivation level among the younger generation of disciples at Wuya Peak and acted calmly, so no one stood up to oppose him.
Shen Qingmang could now freely browse the books on any level of the Asking Dao Peak, so when she wasn't handling government affairs, she spent her time in the library, reading everything related to spiritual energy. The more she read, the more she believed that Li Shutong was right.
Her current series of policies such as "energy conservation and emission reduction" can only slightly suppress the decline of spiritual energy, and the psychological comfort effect is greater than the actual effect.
The Taichu Sect had two great men ascend to heaven in succession within thirty years, and the spiritual energy consumed was incalculable.
Soon, the Taichu Sect's once-a-decade disciple recruitment conference would begin. Simultaneously, the major sects' once-a-century sect competition would also begin. Participation was restricted to disciples at the Jindan stage and above. To maintain its prestige as the preeminent sect, the Taichu Sect staged each sect competition with the greatest fanfare and sent the largest number of participants.
This year's sect competition was held in the Zhige Sect, and the timing just happened to coincide with the day when the Taichu Sect accepted disciples. If the martial arts fanatics in the Zhige Sect were not generally straightforward and only preferred open competition rather than secret fighting, there would definitely be people who conspiracy-theorized that the Zhige Sect wanted to squeeze out the Taichu Sect's resources.
Shen Qingmang said that rules are dead, but people are alive. They sent the invitation to Zhigemen too early and it was inconvenient to change the date, but our enrollment can be postponed, so she postponed the disciple-recruiting conference for one year.
If she were still the head of Wuya Peak, she would definitely lead the children to Zhige Sect to participate in the competition in person, but her current identity is the head of the sect. As the saying goes, "a son of a wealthy family should not sit in the hall alone." Zhige Sect is the sect with the most frequent competitions, and there are too many belligerent monks. She cannot take risks herself, so she has to send three disciples to lead the team.
Gu Sui Han would chat with her through Lian Lizhi every day, telling her about the scenery and things he saw on the road. On the night when he heard that the spiritual energy of other sects was also declining year by year, Shen Qingmang drank a jar of wine alone.
It seems that only that extreme method can save the Taichu Sect. As for other sects, please forgive her for not considering so many things because she is like a clay Buddha crossing a river and can't even save herself.
Shen Qingmang took out her previous notebook and wrote more attentively. She wrote a long letter to each disciple, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses at the current stage and encouraging them to practice diligently. However, she did not send it after finishing it.
"Let's wait until the very last moment to send it off, otherwise they will definitely get suspicious, and some people might even cry."
No one knew about the "last moment" she mentioned except herself.
The sect competition lasts much longer than the clan competition, almost half a year. Shen Qingmang requires the cultivators participating in the competition to save energy on the road and use less magic instead of walking, which results in the time they spend on the road becoming two to three times the original time. The departure time is earlier than in previous years, but the return time is later than in previous years.
When they returned victorious, they were surprised to find that the spiritual energy of the Taichu Sect was richer than any other place on the way. Everyone else was very happy, but Gu Suihan noticed something unusual about Shen Qingmang.
"Master, why have you lost so much weight?" Gu Sui Han asked.
"You must be suffering from lovesickness." Shen Qingmang teased, "I haven't seen you for more than half a year. I can't even sleep well at night."
Gu Suihan's ears turned red, and he lowered his voice. "When did Master become so blunt? I'm still a little uncomfortable with this."
"It's because you've been gone for so long. I've had so much pent-up emotion in my heart that I have nowhere to go. It's been piling up, and now it's pouring out. You should get used to it. I'm afraid it's been like this for the past few days."
"Okay...but Master, is it really because you miss... me?"
"Really?" Shen Qingmang said seriously. "What else could it be? Hmm... maybe it's because the disciple recruitment conference is coming up soon. I've been so busy lately. I have to check every point in the mortal world for spiritual root testing, and any broken points need to be replaced immediately. I've been so busy these days, so maybe that's why I've lost weight. Did you also lose weight when you took on the position of headmaster?"
"Yeah. Indeed." Gu Sui Han had no doubts.
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