The next day.
Early morning.
A voice suddenly rang out.
It startled everyone in the Qingyun Dao Sect awake.
“B-bad news, b-bad news, Master! S-something huge happened!”
The voice rang out.
Daoist Taihua, who had only slept for two hours, leapt out of bed at once. Subconsciously, with astonishing speed, he packed up all his luggage, preparing to flee at any moment.
But the next instant—
The door was pushed open.
It was the sect’s Third Senior Brother. He was holding a sheet of xuan paper, his expression ugly.
“Sect Leader, don’t run just yet. It’s not creditors at the door. It’s something else.”
Wang Zhuoyu’s voice rang out. Drenched in sweat, he hurriedly spoke to steady Daoist Taihua.
He was Daoist Taihua’s third disciple, and also Ye Ping’s Third Senior Brother, Wang Zhuoyu.
He was skilled in talismans and formations.
“It’s not creditors at the door? Zhuoyu, it’s not that your master wants to criticize you, but why are you so unsteady whenever something happens? Learn from your Eldest Senior Brother. Look at him, then look at yourself!”
Hearing that it was not creditors at the door, Daoist Taihua immediately let out a breath of relief, then scolded him in an annoyed tone.
Daoist Taihua felt a little dizzy. Ever since learning that Ye Ping was a genius, he had laughed until the Mao hour yesterday before finally falling asleep. Now it was the Chen hour, meaning he had only slept for two hours, leaving him feeling rather awful.
The moment he heard that something serious had happened, Daoist Taihua’s first thought was that creditors had come knocking.
Over the years, in order to develop the Qingyun Dao Sect, he had borrowed an unknown amount of money outside. As a result, creditors often came to demand repayment, leaving Daoist Taihua constantly anxious and afraid.
“Sect Leader, although it’s not creditors at the door, it’s about the same. Please look at this. This is the latest notice issued by the sect administrative office within Qingzhou.”
Wang Zhuoyu was also somewhat helpless. He did not want to be like this either, but something major had indeed happened.
“What notice? Are they going to demolish and relocate us?”
Daoist Taihua was very agitated. He took the xuan paper and skimmed through it rapidly.
Soon, Daoist Taihua’s expression turned somewhat ugly.
No—it grew uglier and uglier.
“This is outrageous!”
“This is outrageous!”
“This is simply outrageous!”
Daoist Taihua said “outrageous” three times in a row, his face flushed red with anger. The good mood he had yesterday vanished in an instant.
There were not many words on the xuan paper, only a few hundred.
The content was also very simple. The general meaning was as follows:
Because Qingzhou was rich in spiritual energy, fertile in land, and densely populated, countless new sects had emerged.
To prevent sects from passing themselves off as legitimate, deceiving and swindling others, all unranked sects within Qingzhou would be subject to an inspection.
The method of inspection was simple.
After the notice was issued, within two months, each sect was to pay ten low-grade spirit stones to prove its innocence.
Those who failed to pay the spirit stones within the time limit would all have their qualifications to establish a sect revoked, and their sects disbanded.
If any refused to obey, the use of military force to suppress them would not be ruled out.
This resolution had already been approved by the three great sects within Qingzhou and the Jin Kingdom’s imperial court.
“Extorting spirit stones for no reason at all—this is simply lawless, bullying the weak! I’m going to the capital to file an imperial complaint!”
Daoist Taihua clenched his fists tightly in rage.
He was furious.
This notice was adding frost to snow for a sect that was already far from wealthy.
Ten spirit stones.
Perhaps to other sects, it was nothing.
But to the Qingyun Dao Sect, ten low-grade spirit stones were simply an enormous sum.
In the mortal world—
One copper coin could buy one baked flatbread.
One hundred copper coins equaled one tael of silver.
And one hundred taels of silver equaled one tael of gold.
One low-grade spirit stone equaled ten taels of gold.
Ten low-grade spirit stones were equivalent to one hundred taels of gold.
It could be said that the Qingyun Dao Sect had not seen what a spirit stone looked like for several years already.
The Qingyun Dao Sect’s annual income was roughly around ten taels of gold.
And that was considered fairly normal.
What kind of concept was ten low-grade spirit stones?
Everyone in the Qingyun Dao Sect, from top to bottom, would have to go without food or drink and not spend a single coin for ten years before they could save ten low-grade spirit stones.
This news was even more unbearable than creditors coming to the door.
At the very least, creditors coming to the door would not demand ten spirit stones, right?
And even if they did demand ten spirit stones,
that would still count as repaying a debt, right?
Borrow and repay, and borrowing again would not be difficult. They could still borrow again in the future.
But to hand over ten low-grade spirit stones to others for nothing—who could accept that?
The most infuriating part was that you could not refuse to pay.
If you truly refused, they would immediately send people to suppress you.
Qingzhou might lack many things, but it certainly did not lack unranked sects.
His head hurt.
His head hurt.
His head really hurt.
Daoist Taihua felt terrible. Yesterday, he had already planned to save up some money to buy Ye Ping a new sword manual. He had not expected something like this to happen now. It truly made him miserable.
So miserable that he wanted to go seek death.
“Master, what should we do?”
Wang Zhuoyu stood to the side, not knowing what else to say.
What should they do?
What could they do?
Nothing.
Could they really go to the capital to file an imperial complaint?
Don’t you know officials shield one another?
Daoist Taihua’s feelings were complicated to the extreme.
He wanted to cry, but could not.
After quite a while, Daoist Taihua took a deep breath, then said, “Tell everyone to gather in the main hall. I am convening a sect meeting.”
Daoist Taihua sounded listless.
This time, things were indeed troublesome.
This notice was clearly serious.
The three great sects within Qingzhou had jointly approved it, and even the Jin Kingdom’s imperial court had agreed. This was definitely no joke.
“All right. Sect Leader, don’t be too upset. There are always more solutions than difficulties. We believe in you.”
Wang Zhuoyu said with a serious expression.
“Get lost, get lost.”
Daoist Taihua cursed in annoyance.
What did he mean, believe in him?
Wasn’t he just trying to throw the blame onto his head and make him bear it alone?
“Right away.”
Wang Zhuoyu left.
He left very decisively. Although he also felt terrible, he could not think of any good solution either.
He might as well slip away first. In any case, if the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up.
But at the end, Daoist Taihua’s voice rang out again.
“Right, don’t let our new junior brother know.”
Daoist Taihua gave an instruction.
Family shame should not be aired in public.
It was better for only insiders to know about this sort of thing.
And so—
One hour later.
Inside the main hall of the Qingyun Dao Sect.
Four figures had arrived in the main hall early.
There were three others who had gone down the mountain, so they were not in the sect.
At this moment—
Daoist Taihua appeared.
However, his expression was somewhat weary, his eyes faintly red, as though he had cried.
“Sect Leader.”
“Sect Leader.”
“Greetings, Sect Leader.”
Seeing Daoist Taihua appear, everyone rose one after another and respectfully called out to the Sect Leader.
On formal occasions, regardless of whether outsiders were present, they had to address him as Sect Leader and could not call him Master.
Daoist Taihua was somewhat anxious.
He did not reply to them. Instead, he went straight to the main seat, looked at everyone, and said with an extremely solemn expression,
“I will keep this short. The greatest crisis our Qingyun Dao Sect has ever faced has appeared.”
Daoist Taihua’s expression was grave.
As soon as he said this, everyone in the main hall began to look rather uneasy.
Daoist Taihua did not say much more. He took out the notice and let everyone read it.
Very quickly, the main hall fell into silence.
They understood what this notice meant.
But very soon, a voice rang out.
“Ten low-grade spirit stones? Has the sect administrative office gone mad from poverty? They’re harvesting leeks, and now they’ve harvested us? I’m going to the capital to file an imperial complaint!”
It was Xu Luochen’s voice.
He appeared exceptionally agitated, and his words and actions were very much like Daoist Taihua’s earlier.
However, it was not only him. Although the others said nothing, their expressions were also extremely ugly.
Ten low-grade spirit stones.
This was simply adding frost to snow for the already poor Qingyun Dao Sect.
However, within the hall, Su Changyu was the calmest.
He looked at Daoist Taihua with a composed expression and said,
“Sect Leader, how many spirit stones do we still have in the sect?”
Su Changyu asked seriously.
He did not pursue the root of the problem. Instead, he thought about how to solve it, displaying the responsibility and bearing of an eldest senior brother to the fullest.
“Seventy.”
Daoist Taihua slowly spoke.
As soon as these words were said, everyone could not help but let out a sigh of relief.