Chapter 1097: Surreal
The history of the Qingping Society went back a long way, even earlier than the Holy Xuan’s revitalization of the Daoist Order. Back then, the Daoist Order was fractured into countless pieces, while the Confucian School was the ruler of the world. It maintained equilibrium by exploiting the conflicts among the Daoist sects. Thus, during that era, the Qingping Society became a secret organization that opposed the Confucian School and the Wei Dynasty.
The Taiping Inn and the Qingping Society were originally one entity. The Qingping Society was the core, while the Taiping Inn was the periphery. Both were established by the Holy Xuan and later dissolved by him.
Before the Holy Xuan passed away, some people had already reformed the Taiping Inn and simply renamed it The Inn. It was no longer tied to the Qingping Society. Instead, The Inn was closely affiliated with the Green Phoenix Guard.
After the Holy Xuan’s passing, the third Earthly Preceptor rebuilt the Qingping Society.
After the Daoist Order was restored, the first Earthly Preceptor was Shangguan Wan, the second was Elder Yao. From Elder Yao onward, the position of Earthly Preceptor remained firmly in the Yao family, marking it as the third greatest Daoist family after the Zhangs and Lis.
Across all three sects, the Holy Xuan Era was the only time when all Deputy Grand Masters were not from the Zhang, Li, or Yao families.
Even during the tenure of the fifth-generation Grand Master, when he replaced all three Deputy Grand Masters, the replacements were still drawn from the three great families, young members of the Zhangs, Lis, and Yaos replacing their elders. It was just like how Zhang Yuelu could replace Zhang Jucheng or Li Changge could replace Li Wugou. The Heavenly Preceptor remained a Zhang, and the Imperial Preceptor remained a Li.
That was because this was the only way to minimize resistance within the Three Sects. Even the three replaced Deputy Grand Masters had little will to resist, ultimately choosing to yield their personal interests for the benefit of their families.
Had the fifth-generation Grand Master attempted to replace the three Deputy Grand Masters with outsiders, it would not have been so easy. To put it bluntly, those three would never have stepped down quietly, and the fifth-generation Grand Master might end up getting deposed himself.
From then on, an unwritten rule formed within the Daoist Order. Only families capable of holding one of the Three Deputy Grand Master positions for generations could be considered true elite clans; hence, the structure of the Three Great Daoist Families was established.
However, in this seventh generation, the Zhang family was running thin on descendants, and it appeared likely that a second non-Zhang Heavenly Preceptor would arise, namely, Sage Cihang.
It was the same for the Yao family. If Sage Donghua failed to win the Grand Master position, he would almost certainly assume the Earthly Preceptor’s seat.