"This... uh..."
Faced with Nian Chaoxi's questioning, Chen Elder glanced at the Zongzhu, Guan Xuelan, on the main seat, then lowered his head to the floor, stammering and unable to speak.
"What's going on?"
"Why are you looking at me?"
"Gu Xiu may be a cripple, but he is a personal disciple. Such a meager stipend... did you embezzle it?"
Guan Xuelan pressed, her brows furrowed in disbelief.
Chen Elder immediately dropped to his knees in terror, his voice loud. "This subordinate would never embezzle! Even if I had the heart for it, I would never dare! I implore the Zongzhu to see the truth!"
"Then tell me, why is Gu Xiu's monthly stipend so small?" Guan Xuelan demanded.
"This..."
"Speak!"
"It... it was you, Zongzhu... you who set it..." Chen Elder stammered.
The words struck Guan Xuelan like a bolt of lightning, and Nian Chaoxi, standing beside her, instantly furrowed her brows.
"Nonsense! When did I... when did I..." Guan Xuelan began to rage, trying to refute the claim, but her words trailed off.
She was a Great Ascension Stage cultivator and had long possessed a perfect memory. She hadn't recalled it at first, but now, with Chen Elder's reminder, she was starting to.
She vaguely remembered something and found herself unable to continue.
But the damned Chen Elder, in his haste to prove his innocence, continued.
"Two years ago, Martial Uncle Gu was punished by you, Zongzhu, for damaging Spirit Stones. His stipend was halved..."
"Even if it was halved, how could it be only ten Spirit Stones?" Nian Chaoxi frowned.
"Well..." Chen Elder glanced at Guan Xuelan again, then said hesitantly, "Three years ago, when Martial Uncle Gu had just returned to the sect, the deacons didn't recognize him. They saw him sweeping the Zongmen Hall every day, and he had no cultivation."
"So they classified him as a menial disciple. The monthly stipend for a menial disciple is twenty Spirit Stones. Halved, that's exactly ten."
"Such a major issue, and you didn't think to ask?" Nian Chaoxi gritted her teeth.
"We... we did ask..." Chen Elder glanced at Guan Xuelan again, lowering his voice. "At the time, this subordinate asked the Zongzhu about it. Seventh Martial Aunt Lu Qingyao was also present. She said that Martial Uncle Gu was just a menial disciple. At the time... the Zongzhu was right there and didn't object, so... so..."
What?
Nian Chaoxi exploded with rage. She shot a look at Guan Xuelan, then glared at Chen Elder. "And after that? In three years, you still didn't know Gu Xiu's identity?"
"Of course we knew. It's just... once a sect stipend is set, changing it requires an order from the Zongzhu. At the time, the Zongzhu... the Zongzhu..."
"Continue!" Nian Chaoxi urged.
"At the time, the Zongzhu said that Senior Brother Gu was just a cripple, and there was no need to waste too many Spirit Stones on him. That amount was good enough, and there was no need to make any special changes."
What???
This time, Nian Chaoxi couldn't hold back. Her gaze toward her master turned cold.
"I..."
"I thought he was being given the stipend of a regular Inner Disciple. How... how could I have known they were treating him as a menial disciple?"
Guan Xuelan's eyes darted away. She thought for a moment and added defensively, "Besides, Gu Xiu is just a cripple with no cultivation. The sect provides for all his daily needs. He has no use for Spirit Stones."
Her words did seem reasonable.
But...
"He is your personal disciple!"
"A personal disciple, no less! Even though he's lost his cultivation, his monthly stipend is less than even a menial disciple's!"
"It's true that daily necessities in the Qingxuan Holy Land don't require Spirit Stones, but that's *only* for daily necessities! If he needs anything else, or even gets sick and needs medicine, he has to spend Spirit Stones or barter with other disciples to buy it!"
"You can't deny that, can you, Master?"
Nian Chaoxi questioned her, word by word.
Her heart was already ice-cold, and she was overcome with sorrow.
She knew.
She had always known.
Gu Xiu was not well-liked in the Qingxuan Holy Land. Her master and junior sisters didn't treat him well.
But she had never imagined...
...that this was the life Gu Xiu was living in the sect!
A personal disciple, treated worse than a menial one!
"Why would his ten Spirit Stones a month change?" Nian Chaoxi suddenly recalled what Liu Elder had said earlier.
Gu Xiu's monthly Spirit Stones could be even lower!
"Well..." Liu Elder began to stammer again.
"No need to ask. I did it." Guan Xuelan admitted this time. "Gu Xiu is reckless and often makes mistakes, so I frequently punish him by halving his stipend again."
At that moment, Nian Chaoxi felt a bone-chilling cold. "He is your personal disciple! The disciple you raised with your own hands, Master!"
"I... I am usually busy. How could I be bothered with such trivial matters?" Guan Xuelan said, a bit unnaturally. "Besides, he's a mortal. If he's not seeking pleasure, Spirit Stones are useless to him. What does he need them for?"
"What's more, when he first returned to the sect, we spent a vast amount of the sect's resources to treat and save him. That was no small amount of Spirit Stones!"
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"Well..." Chen Elder hesitated, then said with his head bowed, "Actually, when Martial Uncle Gu was healing back then, the Spirit Stone resources consumed were at most one thousand..."
"What???" Nian Chaoxi was stunned.
Guan Xuelan frowned even deeper. "Nonsense! How is that possible? At the time, I..."
"Zongzhu, you personally treated Martial Uncle Gu at the time. After seeing he had no hope of cultivating again, you gave up on him, though you did order that he be nourished with medicinal herbs."
"But..."
"But at that time, Junior Martial Uncle Jiang Xun was at a critical moment in his breakthrough, and many of the resources overlapped with those needed for Martial Uncle Gu."
"Because of this, Third Martial Aunt Xu Wanqing specifically went to speak with Martial Uncle Gu. I don't know what was said, but after that, Martial Uncle Gu never requested any more medicinal herbs."
"Actually..."
"Actually, saying it was a thousand Spirit Stones... was an overstatement on my part..."
At this moment.
Nian Chaoxi was still standing in the Zongmen Hall, but she felt a bone-piercing chill wash over her.
Her back went cold.
And then came the rage!
"Master!"
"Gu Xiu... He is your personal disciple, and a hero of the sect!"
"You..."
"By treating him this way, are you not afraid of disheartening all the disciples of the sect?"
Being questioned like this by her own disciple, Guan Xuelan was naturally displeased. She said coldly:
"This again?"
"Gu Xiu is just a cripple with no cultivation, and his injuries are irreversible. By not wasting the sect's resources, isn't he just showing that he knows his place?"
"The sect shelters him and gives him a place to stay. That's more than most people could ever hope for."
Nian Chaoxi was stunned. She gritted her teeth and demanded:
"Then what about him being a hero of the sect?"
"Five hundred years ago, Junior Brother Gu ventured into the Forbidden Land for the sake of the sect! For the sect's Boon!"
"Boon? Can you even say for sure if this 'Boon' you speak of even exists?" Guan Xuelan frowned.
"Of course it exists! Ever since Gu Xiu entered the Forbidden Land, the sect's Boon has been gathering, and the sect has prospered. That is the best proof! Can you still deny it, Master?"
"On the contrary, I feel this matter has nothing to do with some so-called 'Boon'."
"Master!" Nian Chaoxi was completely taken aback. "Do you not even believe me, your own disciple?"
"Chaoxi, of course I believe you. You have divined the sect's path with Heavenly Secrets more than once. But this matter of the Boon is too ethereal. To this day, no one can prove it..."
The so-called Boon.
It had always been an extremely mysterious and unpredictable thing.
Even a Mahayana cultivator could not be certain what this Boon was, nor could anyone explain how it came and went.
Seeing that even now, Guan Xuelan still doubted the existence of the Boon, Nian Chaoxi felt at a loss for words. After a moment's hesitation, she said:
"Master, I cannot convince you on the matter of the Boon's existence."
"But I must remind you of one thing."
"The moment Junior Brother Gu left the Qingxuan Holy Land, the Boon that the Holy Land has accumulated for five hundred years began to dissipate!"
She hadn't dared to say this before, as it was a Heavenly Secret that could not be revealed.
But now, to awaken her master, she couldn't care less.
But...
Guan Xuelan clearly didn't take it seriously. Instead, she said:
"Since you say this Boon is dissipating, then let's just watch and see what happens to the Qingxuan Holy Land after it's gone. I, for one, would like to see what this so-called 'Boon' really is."
"Master, a lasting Boon accumulates fortune for the sect over time. But if the Boon dissipates, the sect will be plagued by endless disasters! This is no joking matter!" Nian Chaoxi warned.
"I never should have let you cultivate the path of Heavenly Secrets," Guan Xuelan said, paying no heed to Nian Chaoxi's earnest pleas. She shook her head.
"You must understand."
"Cultivators walk a path against the heavens. Relying entirely on a so-called 'Boon' is ultimately like grasping at flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water."
"What you must believe in is that man can conquer heaven!"
Guan Xuelan spoke these words with absolute confidence.
Nian Chaoxi wanted to say more, but stopped.
In the end.
She just shook her head. "This disciple takes her leave."
She understood that her master was completely deaf to her words now. Arguing further would be pointless.
She left the Zongmen Hall in a daze.
Glancing up at the sky.
The Boon was still rapidly dissipating. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the five hundred years of accumulated Boon vanished completely.
But...
What was she to do now?
"Senior Sister, how are you?"
"Senior Sister, I heard you argued with Master. Are you alright?"
"That Gu Xiu is so despicable! Even after leaving, he still causes discord within our Qingxuan Holy Land. Why isn't someone like him struck down by Heaven's Retribution?"
"Yeah, that damned Gu Xiu!"
"..."
Just then, a few of her junior sisters gathered around.
The warmth that had just begun to bloom in Nian Chaoxi's heart instantly turned to a piercing chill upon hearing them curse Gu Xiu.
"Junior Sisters, you..."
"Since when did you harbor such hostility toward Gu Xiu?"
Her words made them all pause for a moment, but then they dismissed it.
"Gu Xiu has always been despicable. Is it wrong to be hostile toward him?"
"We were just too naive five hundred years ago."
"That's right, Senior Sister. You just haven't seen through Gu Xiu's sinister nature."
The junior sisters all spoke at once, and in their mouths, Gu Xiu had become an utterly evil villain.
Nian Chaoxi listened in a daze.
She now understood.
Her master and junior sisters were far too prejudiced against Gu Xiu. If she wanted to convince her master, she first had to find a way to convince her junior sisters. At the very least, she had to make them understand.
Gu Xiu was not as bad as they claimed!
But...
How could she prove it?
...
While Nian Chaoxi was pondering how to clear Gu Xiu's name, in a deserted forbidden area of the Tianqi Mountain Range, a faint ripple of Spiritual Power flashed and vanished in an instant.
Inside a cave dwelling, Gu Xiu opened his eyes, a look of pleasant surprise in them.
He'd broken through!
After a full month, he had finally broken through to the Lianqi 3rd Level!
To be honest, if one only looked at the time it took to reach the Lianqi 3rd Level, Gu Xiu's speed was not particularly fast.
But in reality.
This was only because Gu Xiu's Dantian Sea was simply too vast, making his realm advancement seem slow.
In fact, the Spiritual Power currently stored in Gu Xiu's Dantian Sea was already no weaker than that of a cultivator at the Lianqi 7th Layer of the Lianqi Late Stage!
From this perspective.
Gu Xiu's cultivation speed was already astonishingly fast!
However.
Gu Xiu wasn't overly excited about this. After all, he had easily reached the Lianqi 3rd Level in the past. Such a small improvement was nothing to celebrate.
There was only one thing that truly mattered to him.
His Green Bamboo Rod could now be used
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