‘The trouble Ling’e caused this time will certainly diminish her fortune significantly. Being confined for twenty years without causing more trouble should help make up for some of it.’

In the pill room, Li Changshou sat in a rocking chair, his eyes slightly narrowed, continuously pondering in his heart.

This matter had nothing to do with him as her senior brother, nor did he need to handle the aftermath.

But Ling’e’s personality…

Perhaps he and Master had been too lenient with her daily, and it was time to arrange for her to experience some tempering.

No matter how many times he as her senior brother repeated the four words “The World is Treacherous,” it wouldn’t compare to her experiencing it firsthand.

Thinking thus, Li Changshou’s fingers gently tapped the armrest of the rocking chair;

Nearby he heard the rustling of leaves, and in the distance, the empty whispers of wind.

Suddenly feeling somewhat poetic, he said:

“So poor.”

Maybe he should cultivate his junior sister in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, poetry, and prose, let her ‘accidentally encounter’ some wealthy Great Wilderness family to marry into, get some betrothal gifts, and secretly pocket the sect’s dowry?

Just joking, joking, he was purely frustrated by his little junior sister, but not to the point of throwing her out.

Now that he had become immortal and achieved a level of ascension, he should also lower his junior sister’s level of access to information.

In others’ eyes, he was now an excellent disciple at the Return to Void fourth stage;

In Jiu Wu’s eyes, he should count as a Return to Void seventh or eighth-stage immortal seedling;

In his junior sister’s eyes, he should be a Yuan Immortal…

That was enough.

A secret known only to oneself could truly be called a secret; once another person knows, it should be renamed ‘news.’

Sitting idle for half a day, his immortal sense detected Ling’e continuously copying scriptures under the tree, and Li Changshou’s anger subsided considerably.

This rumor Ling’e told him about Master…

If true, then this matter of Wang, Liu, and Liu was very similar to what happened to his Master eight or nine hundred years ago, but the outcome was completely different.

Back then, Master… had his love stolen by force.

Master’s rival had shattered Master’s foundation, intending to directly cripple him, yet the sect’s punishment was only making that person face the wall in contemplation for a hundred years;

Moreover, during those hundred years of contemplative seclusion, that person achieved immortality through tribulation.

Currently, these are the only details known.

As it was a dishonorable matter, it had been suppressed, and in the nearly nine hundred years since, no one had mentioned it again…

Small Jade Peak had two disciples in Master’s generation—Master had an elder sister, meaning Li Changshou and Lan Ling’e should have had a martial aunt.

Qi Yuan and his senior sister, who would have been Li Changshou’s martial aunt, were also childhood sweethearts;

But before Master was ambushed, this martial aunt had left the sect, saying she was going to find the Ancestral Master, but like the Ancestral Master, never returned…

Who knew what had happened?

Speaking of which, as the prestigious Human Dao lineage, was it really alright for the sect’s atmosphere to be this chaotic?

Had Du Xian Men been deliberately sabotaged by someone?

Could it be that someone had the still-underappreciated Old Man Under the Moon in the Heavenly Court randomly tangled red strings around their Human Dao sect’s disciples?

Among the Three Schools of the Dao, carefully analyzed, each had its “shortcomings.”

Most immortals of the Enlightenment School were good at scheming, giving people a sense of being overly calculating;

The Severing School was a mixed bunch, with lax rules, giving an impression of being disorganized;

And the Human Dao, which should have been free from action and constraints, uninvolved with karma, already had few practitioners, yet seemed as if under a curse, promoting the trend of Dao companions within the sect!

If the sect had something like the “Yin-Yang Heaven Expanding Scripture,” “Merging Flow Heart Technique,” “Like Wolf Like Tiger Zen,” or “Too Hard to Be Single Spell,” that would be understandable.

But for Du Xian Men, which took the “Scripture of Non-Action” as its core teaching…

Shouldn’t normal sect customs have the vast majority of practitioners quietly cultivating on their respective peaks, avoiding all karma, and finding even sect management matters too troublesome?

“If there’s a chance, I should investigate those few Human Dao immortal sects in Central Divine State, and see if they’re all the same.”

Li Changshou muttered, keeping this matter in mind as well.

Of course, he couldn’t manage others too much; being able to take care of himself and avoid such troublesome matters was already quite good.

Master’s matter needed long-term planning, but now that there was a clue, there was no need to guess blindly in the dark as before.

If Master truly had such a mortal enemy, he as a disciple must plan well.

Avoiding karma wasn’t fearing karma;

This matter, Li Changshou had been planning for many years.

A thousand years ago, the opponent had about the same cultivation as the Master;

And he had heard people say that Master Jiu Jiu was the most talented of the Master’s generation…

For now, treat the Master’s enemy as late-stage True Immortal level, and if they had hidden their cultivation, consider them a Heavenly Immortal.

Now, if he could get his hands on some powerful poisonous herbs, he could refine pills capable of poisoning even Heavenly Immortals…

In the future, prepare billions of such poisonous pills for Master’s self-defense, and when the time is right, let Master deliberately appear more active; if the opponent couldn’t resist striking at Master again, then let Master counter-attack, which would also justify matters to the sect…

The opponent’s backing was probably some peak within the sect, and he needed to consider how to handle the aftermath;

His advantage lay in operating from the shadows, and the opponent probably looked down on their Small Jade Peak.

As for how far he would go, it all depended on Master’s wishes.

If Master wanted revenge for the past, he as the senior disciple would provide full assistance from the shadows;

If the Master didn’t wish for revenge, then he would fulfill his minimal duties as a disciple and just destroy the opponent’s foundation for cultivation.

The opponent had already achieved the Heavenly Immortal path, while his Master could only become a Mundane Immortal in the future.

Calculating carefully, Master had suffered some loss.

After all, they had also lost a martial aunt…

This karma, Li Changshou didn’t want to avoid and was willing to expose some of his cards for it.

If not moving then stay still, if moving then leave the opponent no chance to retaliate.

Closing his eyes to continue pondering and calculating;

Gradually, layer after layer of arrays outside the pill room silently activated;

Small Jade Peak, silent for over three years, once again began gathering primordial energy…

After copying the “Scripture of Stability” three hundred times, Ling’e went to Small Spirit Peak to apologize to Liu Yan’er and ask for forgiveness.

When Ling’e came to the pill room, Li Changshou reprimanded her again, gave her the second version of the Turtle Breathing Technique, taught her two days of cultivation lessons, and formally began her twenty-year punishment of not leaving Small Jade Peak.

“I hope you’ll take this incident as a warning.”

“I understand, Senior Brother,” Ling’e bit her lip, “I’ll copy the scripture once every day from now on.”

Li Changshou handed over a treasure pouch, sighing: “It’s not that your elder brother is being strict with you, but that you’ve grown up in the sect since childhood, and in your early years lived among secular nobility, truly not knowing the hardships of the world.

Take my recent journey outside, for example, I… never mind.”

“Hmm?” Ling’e blinked, curiosity filling her eyes, “What happened to you, Senior Brother?”

Li Changshou stood with hands behind his back, looking up slightly, giving a bitter laugh: “Go back to cultivating… Ling’e?”

“Yes!”

“Focus on cultivation, don’t think about other things.

Strive to reach the Returning to Dao fifth stage before the next mountain-opening ceremony, that way you can gain the sect’s attention.”

Li Changshou rubbed his brow and sighed softly: “This way if I disappear one day, you can still receive the sect’s care in cultivation.”

Ling’e asked softly: “Senior Brother, are you going to… run?”

“What would I run for? Go back and rest, I need to start refining pills.”

Li Changshou laughed lightly, leaving Ling’e somewhat confused.

Coming out of the pill room, Ling’e tilted her head thinking for a while, then turned to look at the pill room…

Why did it feel like Senior Brother was acting strange?

In the pill room, Li Changshou skillfully started the furnace to refine pills, making ‘Clear Mundane’ immortal pills for Master. Since the materials used had no toxicity, he didn’t need to wear safety equipment.

Once the furnace fire stabilized, Li Changshou began contemplating another major matter in his heart.

Making money.

“Small Jade Peak, Small Jade Peak, truly making the younger generation go crazy from poverty.”

He needed large quantities of precious materials and spirit stones, otherwise everything would be restricted.

He wasn’t looking to make a windfall but rather wanted a stable ‘income’ stream beyond the monthly allowance for sect disciples.

Hiding in the mountain…

Ahem, staying stable in the mountain had the great advantage of safety, with the drawback of being unable to obtain precious materials and spirit stones.

Could those divine statues by the South Sea be used in a bait-and-switch scheme, turned into merit and incense harvesting machines to sell to the Western Religion?

Better forget it, doing that would be practically suicide; better to avoid the South Sea for this lifetime.

How to make money?

‘Currently, what would benefit me most is first entering the inner chamber of the Dao Collection Hall that only sect immortals can enter, though this point isn’t easy to achieve.

Second would be doing some contract pill refining work for the sect, earning extra income through this, using pill success rates to get some medicinal herbs, accumulating day by day, which would be quite considerable earnings.’

He wouldn’t need too much time for closed cultivation in the next few decades, and though he had received insights about ascension, he hadn’t fully digested them yet, so spending a few hours each day refining pills wouldn’t be a problem.

Contract pill refining was something you could get sect-assigned tasks for just by registering at the Hundred Mortal Hall, and people from various peaks did it…

But this matter needed to be planned well with his Master, as he couldn’t take ‘immortal pill’ orders alone;

Why not cooperate with Master Jiu Jiu?

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Master Jiu Jiu, but Master Jiu Jiu was in seclusion now, didn’t understand pills, and had too high a profile within the sect, which would more easily raise suspicion.

Besides, getting Master to become more active could also lure out the old enemy, achieving multiple goals at once.

Li Changshou stroked his chin thinking for a while, noticed the fire in the pill furnace becoming unstable, and casually tossed over a strand of true flame.

But his movement suddenly froze.

Had he just… used the Three-Realm True Flame of his true strength?

Crack, crack…

Bang!

The pill room shook violently, and the roof was instantly blown off!

After a moment, Li Changshou, his face completely blackened, opened his mouth but was speechless, bitter in his heart.

Looking at the pile of iron lumps that had bloomed like a lotus before him, thinking of how much effort he had spent repairing this pill furnace originally…

Ha, haha…

Indeed, doing incense business with the Western Religion would be faster for making money…

We solemnly promise we don’t produce incense, we’re just incense transporters…

“Truly Little Poor Peak ah, now even poorer.”

Li Changshou couldn’t help but laugh at himself, shaking his head as he got up to clean up the ruined pill furnace.

Fortunately, it was just a strand of Three-Realm True Flame earlier; if he had thrown in a whole cluster, the pill room could have been demolished on the spot, ready for rebuilding tomorrow.

…

Where wispy clouds fade in the Nine Heavens, immortal islands connect to clouds encircled by starry seas.

The Heavenly Court, recently established in the Great Wilderness, floated directly above Central Divine State, suppressing the Great Wilderness’s fortune.

At this time, this Heavenly Court still appeared somewhat desolate, with soldiers guarding the five heavenly gates leading to the five continents, but within the Heavenly Court and Nine Heavenly Palaces, precious sites lay abandoned and empty everywhere.

If the Great Pure Sage hadn’t directly created an avatar to be the Supreme Elder Lord when the Heavenly Court was first established, thus protecting the Heavenly Court and supporting the Jade Emperor’s prestige…

Perhaps this vast Heavenly Court would have been occupied by those ambitious old demons from the demon race.

The Heavenly Court respected the Dao School, with the Ninth Heaven reserved as cultivation grounds for the Three Pure Ones, where immortal light swirled, yet there was only a small temple—that was where the Great Pure Sage Laozi practiced daily.

The Crystal Palace was in the Eighth Heaven, magnificent and grand, though at this time it had little presence in the Great Wilderness.

Around the Crystal Palace were numerous garrison areas, as the Jade Emperor Haotian, who had been the Primordial Lord Hongjun’s attendant boy for just a few tens of thousands of years, was worried about his safety.

The Seventh Heaven contained many of the Heavenly Court’s ‘external affairs departments’ and immortal mansions, with the Elder Lord’s Doulu Palace located here.

In an inconspicuous corner of the Seventh Heaven, there was an elegantly styled immortal palace built on a floating island amid the sea of clouds…

The most eye-catching thing about this palace wasn’t its architectural style, but the large red silk hangings everywhere.

Could it be that some heavenly immortal was getting married?

Not so—this was the place in the Heavenly Court specifically managing marriages in the Three Realms, with a gold-plated jade-inlaid plaque hanging above:

[Heaven and Earth Marriage]

The Old Man Under the Moon’s Palace.