Li An stood to the side, watching with a racing heart, his palms sweating.
These people were throwing out hundreds of thousands or even millions of spirit stones at a time. As the biological father of a personal disciple of the Grand Primordium Sect's leader, if he donated too little, wouldn't people talk behind his back?
He quickly stepped forward, forcing a smile as he positioned himself between Yue Ling'er and Chi Ying. “Please, calm down, you two. Everyone is here today out of goodwill to support the Grand Primordium Sect. Fighting over who is superior only diminishes the grace of your prestigious families. Why don't you do me a favor and—”
Chi Ying let out a cold snort and turned her head away. “I can't be bothered to argue with her.”
Yue Ling'er chuckled softly, her tone airy. “If you can't compete, just say so.”
Li An's mouth twitched. He couldn't afford to offend either of these two young ladies.
With a sheepish smile, he turned and ran back to his mansion. A moment later, he rushed back out in a hurry, stuffed a storage bag into Xue Mingzhao's hand, and urged, “This is a small token of my Li family's goodwill. Take it back quickly to heal Buqi's injuries!”
Xue Mingzhao took the storage bag. Sweeping her divine sense inside, the smile on her face deepened. “One million high-grade spirit stones, and healing pills! Thank you, Uncle Li.”
Li An waved his hand with a smile, but his heart was bleeding. One million! How was he going to explain this to that old man when he got back?
Xue Mingzhao put away the storage bag, turned to face the dense crowd of cultivators from the prestigious families, and spoke in a sincere and solemn tone. “Thank you all for your generous support. The Grand Primordium Sect will remember this kindness forever. In the future, if there is ever a time when our sect can be of assistance, we will surely—”
Before she could finish, a cultivator in the crowd loudly interrupted her. “You are mistaken, Fellow Daoist! The Grand Primordium Sect has exhausted its entire strength for the sake of the Eastern Territory. We are merely doing our humble part. If we were to ask for a favor in return for this, wouldn't we become the laughingstock of the world if word got out!”
As soon as these words fell, the surrounding cultivators cast sideways glances at him. Are you the only one who knows how to speak? Had to show off again, didn't you?
Yue Ling'er chimed in lazily, “If you're already thinking about favors after donating a few spirit stones and calculating things so clearly, you might as well not donate at all. Don't you all agree?”
Chi Ying, who had wanted to use the Grand Primordium Sect to get close to the City Lord: “...” Though she cursed a hundred times in her heart, she still had to agree outwardly.
Li An, who wanted to send his son to the Grand Primordium Sect: “...” His heart ached even more now. One million high-grade spirit stones had been thrown into the water, and he hadn't even heard a splash.
The rest of the crowd, who also wanted to secure a favor: “...”
However, everyone quickly chimed in with their agreement.
In any case, this small amount of spirit stones was nothing to them; they could just treat it as a charitable donation.
After all, if the Grand Primordium Sect didn't restore the spiritual energy, they would have to move sooner or later. This money was not spent in vain.
Xue Mingzhao then spoke a long string of polite and sincere thanks to the crowd, repeatedly promising that the monument of merit would be carved and erected in the most prominent position at the Grand Primordium Sect's gate as soon as possible, leaving the members of the prestigious families thoroughly satisfied.
Once the pleasantries were over, she tapped her foot lightly, summoning her Azure Ripple Leaf to support her figure steadily. Waving goodbye to everyone, she flew off into the air on the leaf, disappearing at the end of the mountain path.
The crowd dispersed.
Only Li An stood in place alone, his footsteps as heavy as if they were laden with lead.
Sure enough, the moment he stepped into the main hall, the old patriarch was sitting upright in the host's seat. His face was darker than the bottom of a pot, and the hostility between his brows was so thick it could almost drip like ink.
As soon as he saw Li An enter, he unleashed a torrent of abuse. “Fool! You've lived more than half your life, yet you haven't made a single bit of progress! You let a little girl manipulate you in public, throwing away one million spirit stones for nothing. Do you think our Li family owns a spirit stone mine?!”
Li An shrank his neck, not daring to utter a sound. The woman beside him, Li Qingxin, quickly stepped forward to gently comfort the old man. “Father, you can't entirely blame my husband for this. It was clearly that Grand Primordium Sect disciple who laid a trap step by step. That Li Buqi is nothing but a lowborn wretch, and the fellow disciples around him are not to be trifled with either. They joined forces to scheme against our Li family. My husband was simply caught off guard.”
The old man slammed his hand heavily on the table, causing the teacup lid to rattle and bounce. “The money has already been sent! What is the use of saying all this now?! Tomorrow, you will personally make a trip to the Grand Primordium Sect and send Lingxiao there to take a master and cultivate.”
Li An's face fell, and he said cautiously, “Father, you also know that the Sect Master of the Grand Primordium Sect has always held a grudge against our Li family. If we go this time, he will definitely not accept Lingxiao.”
The old man's eyes turned sharp. “It is precisely because it is difficult that I am sending you to handle it! Otherwise, what is the use of keeping you as the family head? Are you just a freeloader?!”
Li An lowered his head in embarrassment, resentment and grievance swirling in his eyes.
Li Qingxin quickly stepped between the two to smooth things over. “Father, the Grand Primordium Sect was holding a massive donation drive right outside our mansion gates today to scrape together resources. They are dirt poor. Lingxiao is exceptionally talented. If he stays there, he won't get many cultivation resources at all, which would only waste his potential. Why don't we wait another month for the Heavenly Origin Sect to open its selection for new disciples? At that time, we can directly send Lingxiao to join the Heavenly Origin Sect. That is the true number one sect.”
The old man let out a cold snort, threw down the words, “Two short-sighted fools! Go when I tell you to!” and turned to leave with a flick of his sleeves, leaving Li An and his wife to look at each other in silence.
Li An forced out a smile that looked uglier than crying. “Wife, I will pay another visit to Sect Master Su tomorrow.”
Li Qingxin adjusted his collar for him. “Father has always had that temper. You don't need to take it to heart, husband. In my opinion, Father is also getting senile. Go tomorrow just to go through the motions and satisfy him. Next month, I will personally take Lingxiao to the Heavenly Origin Sect. How could a trashy place like the Grand Primordium Sect be worthy of accepting my son?”
...
On the other side, Xue Mingzhao flew to a hilltop and stopped. She put away the Azure Ripple Leaf and leaned against a tree trunk. After waiting for a short while, Su Ye arrived silently on his spirit boat.
This donation drive today had been directed by the two of them from start to finish.
The first person who stood up and shouted “The Su family donates five hundred thousand” was actually Su Ye in disguise, using the Formless Art.
There were as many prestigious families, big and small, in the Eastern Territory as there were hairs on a cow. No one would ever look too deeply into where a “Su family” had suddenly come from.
Later, when Xue Mingzhao mentioned in front of everyone, “In the future, if there is ever a time when our sect can be of assistance,” she had secretly shot a glance at Su Ye in the crowd.
Su Ye immediately caught on and stepped forward with an impassioned speech, saying, “If we were to ask for a favor in return for this, wouldn't we become the laughingstock of the world if word got out.”
His single sentence put everyone on the spot, forcing those who wanted to secure favors to swallow their words and nod along in agreement.
Their cooperation could be called seamless.
Xue Mingzhao held up her fingers to make a nine.
Su Ye gasped. “Ninety million?!”
Xue Mingzhao pulled her hand back, her expression unchanging. “Nine million high-grade spirit stones. Those two young ladies contributed six million, the Li family gave one million, and the rest was scraped together by the other prestigious families.”
Su Ye stared blankly for a long time, scratching the back of his head as he grumbled, “So all those other prestigious families added together only gave two million...”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he paused, silently despising himself for using the word “only” for two million.
After hanging around his junior sister for just a short while, his view of money had been completely turned upside down.
“Those who showed up today were just the younger generation of each family, and what they brought was merely pocket money they could freely spend. The real family heads, who hold the keys to the family treasuries and can shell out massive sums, didn't show up at all.” Xue Mingzhao gathered the pile of storage bags and tucked them away, her movements swift and clean.
“We need to rush back to the sect now. First, we'll deposit and register the spirit stones in the treasury, then go report this donation to Master, and hurry to make the monument of merit.”
“Who knows, maybe more people will come to donate tomorrow.”
Su Ye: “There are still people coming to deliver spirit stones???”
Xue Mingzhao patted his shoulder and gave a mischievous smile. “Senior Brother, just wait to count the spirit stones.”
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