Chapter 143: Observing From the Shadows

Beside the venue, inside an RV with several signal receivers mounted on its roof, Wang Sheng sat on a small stool in the corner. He continuously swiped across the tablet in his hands.

The tablet allowed him to watch real-time footage of the matches taking place in the eight arenas. His task now was to identify any corrupt cultivators who could be hiding among the participants as early as possible.

Naturally, it was not part of his official duties as a referee. Wang Sheng was simply looking to keep himself busy. An entire team, made up of over ten Special Investigation Unit veterans, was specifically put in charge of this task. They had even already identified six suspicious individuals early on in the preliminary rounds.

The Special Investigation Unit would closely monitor every “dark horse" at the Immortal Dao Conference. Upon finding a suspicious participant, regardless of how strong the suspicion was, a background check and detailed comparison would immediately be conducted. Even disciples from renowned sects would be thoroughly vetted if they reached the top ranks. No one, not even someone as famous as Shi Qianzhang, would be exempt.

They absolutely could not allow any corrupt cultivator to make it into the top eight.

“

Hmm...

" Wang Sheng frowned.

Mou Yue quickly leaned over and whispered, “Daoist Master Wang, did you find something?"

Wang Sheng jerked his chin toward the screen. “Take a look at this."

In the footage, a sword cultivator was dueling a participant who was waving a banner to channel their Daoist art. The images captured by the drones were extremely clear and steady.

“That sword cultivator seems to be a disciple of Mount Lao's Daoist heritage, and the one wielding the banner looks like an unaffiliated practitioner. What about it?" Mou Yue asked.

“Something seems off with that unaffiliated practitioner. His banner looks like a conduit for a five-element Daoist art, but the techniques he's activating are not of the five elements at all. We should investigate."

“Got it. Thank you, Daoist Master Wang."

Mou Yue immediately took a photo with her phone and turned to arrange for a background check on the unaffiliated practitioner. Before the duel had even ended, results had come back: the unaffiliated practitioner's registration and identity details didn't match. Clearly, something was wrong.

Wang Sheng continued switching through the screens. Being able to help made him feel more energized. After a while, he noticed even more odd behaviors. The Special Investigation Unit had now identified over ten suspicious cultivators.

It seemed quite a few corrupt cultivators were gambling on luck. Even if only half of the suspicious individuals were actually corrupt cultivators, based on the ratio of those discovered to those who had already taken the stage, there were easily over a hundred corrupt Daoists at the event.

They were truly bold, daring to show up in public and compete right in front of several Golden Core Realm experts, over a hundred Illusory Core Realm cultivators, and practically half the elites of the righteous path.

Wang Sheng couldn't understand what the corrupt cultivators were thinking. To avoid disrupting the Immortal Dao Conference, the suspicious individuals who managed to advance would not be touched for now. Those who failed to advance would be quietly “invited" for questioning.

Mou Yue approached with a paper cup. “Coffee, Daoist Master Wang?"

Wang Sheng thanked her and took the cup. After taking a sip, he focused back on the screen.

Mou Yue sat beside him and watched for a while, too. She then whispered, “Daoist Master Wang, do you think

that

group will show up? Based on how they operate, I feel like they'd find it too risky to make a move amid so many righteous experts. They probably wouldn't dare appear."

“That depends on how much they want the celestial tablet," Wang Sheng replied. “Even if they don't come, if we can arrest all the corrupt cultivators trying to sneak into the Immortal Dao Conference, your arrangements won't have gone to waste."

“Operations like this, where we just sit and wait, often waste a lot of effort without getting results," Mou Yue said as she stretched.

Wang Sheng thought about it for a moment. “

That

group has been lurking for a long time and has secretly built up an alarming amount of power. They won't be content with just hiding forever. Besides, they are ruthless and have many tricks up their sleeve. Who knows, maybe they're already planning how to wipe out all the righteous cultivators here today using poison, arrays, or something else."

Mou Yue tensed up. “Really?"

“I was just speaking offhand—"

Mou Yue quickly replied, “I'll go have the mountain searched again right away!"

She turned and hurried out of the RV, immediately making arrangements and contacting the Special Warfare Unit and helicopters.

Wang Sheng was rendered speechless.

You really can't joke around with a woman who's in work mode, huh?

The Special Investigation Unit had started laying out surveillance all over Mount Sanqing half a month ago. They had even installed numerous detectors underground to guard against earth-based spells like the Earth-Escape Technique. If the Yin-Yang Cult really managed to hide in the area and launch an ambush, the Special Investigation Unit would suffer a crushing defeat.

Well, better to be safe than sorry. Letting her launch another search isn't such a bad idea.

Wang Sheng lightly swiped across the screen, switching through the cameras, until he saw a familiar face: Liu Yunzhi of Mount Mao.

As soon as he took the stage, the handsome Mount Mao disciple attracted the attention of participants from two neighboring arenas. His path of combining talismans with lightning techniques was solid and well-practiced. Compared to his performance during the event at Mount Mao years ago, he now looked far more composed.

Liu Yunzhi's opponent was an early-stage Seed Formation Realm cultivator. Though they were equal in cultivation realms, Mount Mao's lightning techniques quickly took away the opposing Daoist master's ability to resist.

With a gloomy expression, the opponent lowered his head and left the arena. Despite holding seniority, his Daoist arts were clearly inferior. His defeat undoubtedly dealt a blow to his Dao Heart.

Wang Sheng did not pay much attention to Liu Yunzhi. Instead, he continued searching for traces of corrupt cultivators while also keeping an eye out for when Shi Qianzhang would make his appearance.

He kept searching until close to noon. However, by the time the preliminary round was about halfway through and the conference entered a midday break, Wang Sheng had only identified two other suspicious individuals.

The team dedicated to the task, on the other hand, had made significant progress; they had confirmed that over thirty cultivators had issues with their registered identities. Taking advantage of the break, the Special Investigation Unit and Special Warfare Unit coordinated to thoroughly check each suspect.

If any of them had existing charges, their fate was easy to imagine.

“Lunch time!" someone announced from outside the RV. The scent of the meal boxes quickly filled the vehicle.

Having long since stopped relying on food, Wang Sheng naturally did not need to eat. After getting permission to control a drone through his tablet, he piloted it slowly across the venue, observing the scenes from above.

A dozen food trucks rolled into the venue and parked along the sides, offering free meals. Cultivators below the Seed Formation Realm began to gather, while those who had already stopped relying on food mostly stayed put, opting not to take advantage of the free food.

Wang Sheng circled half the venue with the drone, but he didn't spot anything particularly useful. Soon, however, he blinked a few times. He gently slid his finger across the touchpad, guiding the drone toward the food truck that served vegetarian meals to Buddhist sects.

He had caught sight of his senior sister helping out in the truck. Her job was to open the empty meal boxes and hand them over to the young lady who was serving food.

It could be considered “hard work."

After watching her for a while, Wang Sheng guided the drone away. However, as the feed turned, he froze. He could not say what exactly felt wrong, but among the dozen or so middle-aged monks receiving their food, one or two gave him an odd feeling.

Not wanting to startle anyone, he did not pilot the drone back immediately. Instead, he made it circle the area once before returning to the food truck where his senior sister was working.

By then, the monks had already returned to their seats and were eating their vegetarian meals with lowered heads. They just seemed to be slightly low-ranking cultivators.

Wang Sheng remembered chatting with his senior sister on YouChat earlier in the morning. She had complained that the Buddhist sects had far too many rules. Not even a trace of oil or seasoning could be used to prepare their meals out of fear of violating any high monk's dietary taboos.

Right now, one of the monks who had given him a bad feeling was simply eating with his head down.

Wang Sheng turned his head. “Come take a look!"

A few members of the Special Investigation Unit immediately ran over with their lunchboxes in hand. They looked confused for a moment, each one glancing at Wang Sheng with puzzled expressions.

“Is something wrong, Daoist Master Fei Yu?"

“The ones still eating must be Buddhist cultivators who haven't stopped relying on food yet, right? Is something off with him, or is the machine malfunctioning? I can help you recalibrate it."

Wang Sheng shrugged, slid his finger a few times, and zoomed in on the monk in question.

“How many times does a normal person chew before swallowing?" Wang Sheng asked calmly.

The members of the Special Investigation Unit were quick to catch on, immediately noticing the anomaly that he was referring to. The time it took for the monk to chew and swallow was unusually long. Even then, he still had to force the food down with some difficulty.

The drone then shifted its view back to the inside of the food truck before flying off again.

Wang Sheng handed the laptop back to a staff member. “I'm going to check it out."

A girl with twin ponytails quietly said, “Daoist Master Wang, how can you conclude someone is a corrupt cultivator just from that? What if he just has a sore throat... Um, I didn't say anything."

“I'm not drawing a conclusion. I'm just saying that he's acting very suspiciously," Wang Sheng replied. “Normally, only elderly people have trouble swallowing. Since he is a cultivator, it should be safe to rule out health problems. It's statistically unlikely.

“His way of eating suggests two possibilities: either he's already stopped eating for a long time and isn't used to food anymore, or he's finding the oil-free Buddhist vegetarian meal very hard to swallow. Either way, we should do a background check on him. I'm going over there to see my senior sister. If anything comes up, notify me through YouChat."

Wang Sheng grabbed his treasured sword, which he had placed somewhere nearby. He then jumped out of the RV, leaving the others staring at each other.

The twintailed girl softly muttered, “Can't it just be because the food tastes terrible... I didn't say anything."