Shennong Dao Master

"Two levels achieved? That's really fast." King Heavenly Destiny marveled again at Zhao Xing's cultivation talent.

"But whether it's enough depends on who the opponent is."

"The Soul Extinguishing Bell is a type of soul attack magic technique. If the enemy collects your items, they surely intend to use 'curse spells'. Such spells are very mysterious and can only be performed by high-grade experts."

King Heavenly Destiny pondered, "This matter must be meticulously planned. We've been monitoring this line for some time, and some big fish are not yet in the net."

"Could Your Highness reveal a bit about the situation? I'm somewhat uneasy," Zhao Xing said.

After all, his family was in Dongyang County, and he needed to know to what extent the Heavenly Mechanism Hall had acted.

"For example, the Sea Supervision in Chongming Prefecture, Yin Qi Quan of the standard fourth rank. Over the past few years, he swapped out the archived documents you signed and collected quite a few copies."

"In comparison, what those ordinary spies collected is nothing."

Zhao Xing was slightly startled. The documents he approved are the best medium for curse spells.

Why? Because an approved document not only has his handwriting but also his opinions.

People say that writing is like having a god guiding your hand. Approving documents involves sight, hand, and mind, which are on a different level from other items.

The bowl he used to eat or small toys made casually cannot have the strong mental will imprint like an approved document.

Zhao Xing was the Controller of the Earth God Temple, and the documents he approved were to be in triplicate: one to be issued to lower-level government institutions, one to be reported and submitted to his superiors.

The third is archived for easy review and verification, so even if both the ranking and subordinates change, one can find out what decisions a certain official made in a certain year and month. Also, it forms an important part of official selection assessments.

"This situation is also due to your cultivation in the Military Realm," King Heavenly Destiny said. "Normally, it wouldn't be so easy to swap, but in these past two years, most of the public duties of the Earth God Temple were handled by Chen Shijie, who even used your seal to sign your name."

"I see," Zhao Xing realized.

If Chen Shijie handled this entirely, that would be one thing.

The archives all with Chen Shijie's signature, even if using his official seal, couldn't be used as a medium.

The issue is that in the middle, Zhao Xing, to keep Chen Shijie from being too tired and giving him time to cultivate, personally handled some duties again.

So among the archives, there are genuinely signed documents by Zhao Xing and those signed by Chen Shijie as proxy.

Yin Qi Quan found a chance to swap out some genuine ones to increase those signed by proxy.

Originally, whether the archives are signed by proxy or not doesn't matter, which is a very small thing.

But in the eyes of a Fate Officer, it's different because it can be used to perform curse spells.

Yin Qi Quan can't imagine that a small fifth-rank Zhao Xing has become so important, that even with his extreme caution, there's a Fate Officer keeping an eye on such small matters.

"Wait for me to return the day after tomorrow, and don't act rashly yourself."

"Yes," Zhao Xing nodded.

Right now, all these spies are under King Heavenly Destiny's surveillance. If he kills them, the other side might send more hidden spies, and finding them again wouldn't be so easy.

...

After the conversation with King Heavenly Destiny, Zhao Xing returned to the Earth God Temple.

Although the Heavenly Mechanism Hall had already implemented strong protective measures for the prodigies entering the Dragon Court Ancient Land,

Zhao Xing remained vigilant. One cannot place all hope in others.

So he practiced the Dream Walking Technique daily, covering all of Dongyang County, carefully observing everyone's actions.

Two days later, King Heavenly Destiny hurried back to the Star Palace, summoning Zhao Xing.

On February 7th, in the 33rd year of the Jingxin Calendar.

The two spies deployed in Dongyang County began to retreat.

On the same day, Zhao Xing, in his capacity as the Controller of the Earth God Temple, went to sea to 'visit Dragon Stone Island,' to oversee the sacrificial matters in Dragon Stone County.

That night, a thrilled Yin Qi Quan went to the underground secret altar and burned the news in the message fire pot.

Far in the depths of the East Sea, three sword-like underground peaks stood, with a Crystal Palace hidden below them.

"Poof~"

Four incense sticks as red as blood suddenly ignited, releasing puffs of fragrant mist, as flames burst forth from the fire pot below the Blood Spirit Venerable.

"The Earth God Temple's Controller Zhao Xing departed today at Mao Hour, heading towards Dragon Stone Island to preside over the Spring Festival, expected to arrive by Noon on the eighth."

The Blood Spirit Venerable glanced at this message and nodded.

"After waiting so long, finally, there's a chance."

As the seventh-ranked genius on the must-kill list, the plan against Zhao Xing had been initiated three years ago, but they hadn't found a suitable opportunity.

Because Zhao Xing had the main body and a clone, rendering most assassination methods ineffective.

The Blood Spirit Venerable couldn't commit vast resources to kill a clone.

To do so would make him the laughingstock among his peers.

Physical assassinations are practically ineffective.

That leaves only soul-type spells.

As a result, Zhao Xing was promoted to the Earth God Temple in Chongming Prefecture in the 30th year of the Jingxin Calendar.

This made soul-type assassination plans also have very low success rates.

Because the Earth God Temple is under the divine temple's control.

Even with the backing of Prince Liang's Party, the South Desolate Royal Court, and the Xuantian Sect's foundation, the Blood Spirit Venerable couldn't kill a fifth-rank official residing in the Prefecture City Temple.

Even a first-grade wouldn't suffice!

Unless a civil war broke out in Great Zhou, the prefecture-level temples within the Great Zhou Territory are absolute no-go zones for Outer Sects!

This has nothing to do with Zhao Xing's rank; as long as he's in a prefecture-level temple, even an ordinary person can't be killed by the Blood Spirit Venerable.