A couple of days later, the monastery.
Thirty-five priests gathered in the spacious hall. It was not a modern conference room with a long table, but felt more like the Grand Assembly Hall of the ancient time. The nineteen Quanzhen priests sat on the left side in two rows, while the sixteen of Zhenyi took up the right side and were also arranged in two rows.
Set in the middle at the top position was a big chair.
They were here today to answer to the government's call for a meeting and everyone reached the same conclusion by the look of the hall: someone was baring his fangs!
Zhang Shouyang and the others from Zhengyi looked miserable—they could not expect what humiliation would be upon them in a while. Yet they could not leave, for that would be equivalent to a declaration of withdrawing from the monastery system, which would make them even more excluded.
