Pawn Crossing the River

Qi Xuansu listened to the oath with a solemn face.

This oath was definitely not read by Xuansheng, nor by the second-generation Grand Master. However, it was the second-generation Grand Master who first created it, so the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations all read it, all the way to the seventh generation.

In fact, it was not only Qi Xuansu who was serious, but everyone else was. Even Xiao Yin knew to read the wind direction and did not dare to act weird in such an occasion. He had a stern face, which was quite true.

After the oath, Donghua Zhenren saluted the portraits of Taishang Daozu and Xuansheng, then turned around, faced everyone, and sat on the Grand Master's throne.

At this point, the enthronement was completed.

Everyone in Zixiao Palace said in unison: "Congratulations to the Grand Master for ascending the throne."

Everyone saluted together, in unison.

There were more than 3,000 people inside and outside the palace, as if they had rehearsed in advance. So many people said the same thing in unison, and they were all highly cultivated. It was not an exaggeration to say that it resounded throughout Kunlun, and even the clouds in the sky were shaken and scattered.

Qi Xuansu's thoughts gradually drifted away, and he began to consider the power structure after Donghua Zhenren became the Grand Master.

To put it more directly, Zixiao Palace and the Nine Halls.

Donghua Zhenren was the Master of Ziwei Hall. After becoming the Grand Master, he had to resign as the Master of Ziwei Hall. After all, no emperor personally served as the Minister of Personnel.

The head of the Nine Halls was vacant.

The same was true for Cihang Zhenren. She became the wife of the Grand Master, assisted the Grand Master in handling government affairs, represented the Grand Master in the Golden Palace, performed the duties of the Grand Master at critical moments, and led the affairs of female Taoist priests in the world. However, she was not suitable to be the Master of Tiangang Hall anymore, so she also had to resign.

Two positions in the upper three halls were vacant at once.

Who should be replaced?

Donghua Zhenren and Cihang Zhenren certainly hoped that Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu would be replaced, but these two were too inexperienced. Let alone Zhang Yuelu, even Qi Xuansu is still far behind. With his qualifications, he can only be promoted to the ninth hall to participate in the Golden Palace Conference, which is not enough to enter the upper third hall in one step.

Qi Xuansu is like this, let alone Zhang Yuelu. Her next step is to be promoted to the position of the assistant master, starting from the palace, then the house, and the hall, instead of seeking the position of the upper third hall now. Maybe in another twenty years, it will be almost the same.

Before Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu can take over, there must be a transition candidate, and it cannot be left vacant.

There is a ready-made plan for this, which is to transfer Ning Lingge and Li Changlu back. When Qi Xuansu first entered Tiangang Hall, Zhang Yuelu had just been promoted to deputy hall master. The head of Tiangang Hall was Ning Lingge, and the head of Beichen Hall was Li Changlu.

As for Qingwei Zhenren, of course he cannot return to Qizhou Daofu to be the Zhenren in charge of the Mansion, but he will take over as the Zhenren in charge of Ziwei Hall, and let Taiping Dao occupy two seats in the upper three halls, which can be regarded as a comfort to Taiping Dao.

The reason is simple. If Taiping Dao really has the strength to rebel and secede, then it has to unite.

On the contrary, if Taiping Dao does not have this ability, then what awaits them is a reckoning. Even if Donghua Zhenren does not have this intention, people from Quanzhen Dao and Zhengyi Dao will do it.

As for the vacant position of Zhenren in charge of Qizhou Daofu, it can be given to Li Ruoshui to fill it.

In this way, Taiping Dao will definitely not be able to say anything. Li Ruoshui is not only capable enough, but also has the surname Li and is a core member of the Li family. However, Li Ruoshui is from Qingwei Zhenren's faction. This move is intended to ensure Qingwei Zhenren's control over Taiping Dao, so as to maintain the stability of the Dao.

If this plan is implemented, the last two vacancies will be changed from the head of Ziwei Hall and the head of Tiangang Hall to the head of the Temple Hall and the head of the Imperial Capital Daofu. These two positions are more suitable for Qi Xuansu and Li Changge.

Qi Xuansu can participate in the Jinque meeting, and Li Changge can become the assistant to the real person, which makes a balance and everyone is happy.

However, Donghua Zhenren has not made up his mind yet. After all, it involves a lot of things. He has just ascended to the throne and his foundation is unstable. He has to discuss with the three masters before making a final decision. Although Donghua Zhenren has become the headmaster, the three masters have not ascended yet. They are deep-rooted and respected, so one must be respected.

In addition, there is another plan. Let Zhang Jucheng take over Cihang Zhenren's class and become the head of Tiangang Hall, and let Yao Yi take over Donghua Zhenren's class and become the head of Ziwei Hall. Lay the ground for Zhang Jucheng to take over as the Heavenly Master and Yao Yi to take over as the Earth Master.

It is foreseeable that there will be differences among the three masters. The national master approves the first plan, while the heavenly master and the earthly master approve the second plan, which is still quite controversial.

In addition to the ownership of Ziwei Hall and Tiangang Hall, there is also Zixiao Palace.

The problem of Zixiao Palace can be divided into two parts.

The first part is the issue of the selection of the Grand Master of the Palace, that is, the issue of Grand Master Jiang.

The three masters are about to ascend, and Grand Master Jiang is also running out of time. Now the three masters have arranged their successors, but Grand Master Jiang has not yet made a clear successor.

If it is said that in the past, Zixiao Palace was indeed not that important, and the Grand Master of the Palace was more like a fire captain. But that was because the sixth generation of Grand Masters were weak and the position of Grand Master was vacant later.

Now that Master Donghua has become the seventh generation of Grand Master, when the three masters were alive, he could still suppress him. The problem of the three masters is that they are running out of time. They cannot undermine the seventh generation of Grand Masters like they did the sixth generation of Grand Masters. After all, time does not allow it. Time is with Master Donghua, not with the three masters.

After the three masters ascend to heaven, Donghua Zhenren will be the real headmaster. Then Zixiao Palace, as the direct subordinate of the headmaster, will surely restore its former glory. It is very important to know who will be the headmaster.

This person has not been decided yet.

Qi Xuansu is definitely not suitable. Regardless of whether he has enough qualifications, it is mainly because Qi Xuansu's positioning is different. He is a candidate for the Grand Master and wants to strive for the position of the Chief Assistant Master of Jinque.

According to this logic, Zhang Yuelu is also not suitable. She can compete for the Grand Master or become the Grand Master's wife.

Of course, the ages of Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, and Yao Pei are not suitable, so they still have to choose a candidate from the seventh generation of disciples.

Donghua Zhenren has several candidates, namely Qi Jiaozheng, the Master of Shuzhou Daofu, Su Yuanzai, the Master of Xiangzhou Daofu, and Yao Shu, the Master of Borneo Daofu.

Two of them are from Quanzhen Dao, and one is from Zhengyi Dao. Because this position must be held by an absolutely reliable confidant, people from Taiping Dao are definitely excluded. The only candidate from Zhengyi Dao is actually his brother-in-law, who is also considered one of his own.

If Pei Shenfu doesn't do those messy operations, then she can also do it, but Pei Shenfu is a bit too much and has been excluded from the core by Donghua Zhenren.

Qi Xuansu judged that Donghua Zhenren preferred Qi Jiaozheng because the two had been friends for many years, which could be seen from Qi Jianyuan's apprenticeship to Donghua Zhenren, and Qi Jiaozheng's seniority was long enough, far superior to Su Yuanzai and Yao Shu.

When Qi Xuansu's son-in-law first visited Zhang's house, it happened to be the time when Zhengyi Dao and Quanzhen Dao formed an alliance, and many Quanzhen Dao Zhenren came to Yunjin Mountain, led by Qi Jiaozheng. This shows Qi Jiaozheng's status in Quanzhen Dao.

In addition, the Grand Master can also serve as the Grand Master of Zixiao Palace in person. This is the only part-time job that the Grand Master can serve himself.

The second part of the problem of Zixiao Palace is the selection of assistants.

After all, there can't be only one Grand Master of Palace, and assistants are also necessary.

Although the Grand Master must pass the Golden Palace to depose the Grand Master or the Grand Master of Pingzhang, the power of personnel appointment and dismissal of the Nine Halls and local Daofu is still in the hands of the Grand Master.

To put it simply, the Grand Master cannot expel a Taoist directly, but can directly dismiss him from his position. This is a death sentence, so who would covet that little bit of silver?

Therefore, the Grand Masters of all generations used the Grand Master's power of personnel appointment and dismissal to let the Nine Hall Masters concurrently serve as the Assistant of Zixiao Palace, and then directly issued orders to the Assistant of Zixiao Palace, thus bypassing the Golden Palace.

Unless the Golden Palace directly promotes the process of deposing the Grand Master, it is impossible to restrict the Zixiao Palace.

It is precisely because of the sharp sword of the Zixiao Palace that the five generations of Grand Masters can truly monopolize power.

When the sixth generation of Grand Masters came to power, under the promotion of the three masters, they "rectified the chaos" and took the initiative to give up the Zixiao Palace, letting all the concurrent assistants return to their positions, but only ordinary second-grade Taiyi Taoist priests served as assistants, and everything was given priority to the Golden Palace, but the three deputy masters used the number advantage of the Golden Palace to undermine the power, and the Zixiao Palace fell silent.

On the other hand, if the three masters want to take charge of the power of the Taoist sect, they must go through Jinque and promote various resolutions of Jinque in the name of the rotating great master. Whether it is the Great Master's Mansion, Wanshou Chongyang Palace or Zhenjing Villa, they can only realize the role of Zixiao Palace within their own Taoist tradition. Looking at the entire Taoist palace, none of them can replace Zixiao Palace.

When the sixth generation of the Great Master ascended to heaven and passed away, the position of the Great Master was vacant, and Zixiao Palace became a mess, leaderless, and fragmented. Its status fell to the bottom of history, and Jinque really became the only one in power.

If the Great Master wants to take back power, the power of Jinque will be reduced, and the three masters will be unhappy.

Master Donghua will definitely restore Zixiao Palace, but there is a lot of resistance to let the nine master masters serve as assistants of Zixiao Palace. First of all, the problem of Master Qingwei cannot be solved. He is one of the nine halls, and secondly, there is resistance from the three masters. To really achieve this goal, it may have to wait until the three masters ascend and Master Qingwei becomes the national master.

Before that, some transitional candidates are needed.

There are also two options.

One is to boldly use new people and treat it as a training of talents.

The second is to use some old Taoist friends who are experienced and can stabilize the overall situation.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. New people are aggressive, have fewer concerns, lack experience, and have doubts about their abilities. The old people are experienced, but they are too entangled in various interests. I am afraid that they will seize this opportunity to make a fortune, whether it is political capital or direct money.

Donghua Zhenren is also considering this issue, otherwise it is better to have half new and half old.

Qi Xuansu has a say in these issues. When Donghua Zhenren was not yet the headmaster, Donghua Zhenren would fully consider Qi Xuansu's opinions on personnel appointments, and almost always respond to requests. Now it is naturally the same.

It can be predicted that after the enthronement ceremony, someone will come to Qi Xuansu to seek connections, intending to seize the initiative through Qi Xuansu in the upcoming power reshuffle.