Chapter 270: The Unique Warmth of Taichu

“That’s not for a large group to go to. Just two people will do. Bring him along,” Elder Quan said, a satisfied glint flashing in his eyes. He then pointed to Qin Haoxuan and added, “You all can decide.”

Xuanji was the first to speak. “Sect Master, I am Qin Haoxuan’s master. This matter was discovered by him, and he is a disciple of my Nature Hall. As his master, it is my duty to go.” Having his disciple earn him so much face, Xuanji had never been so proud since taking charge of the Nature Hall. His voice was full of vigor.

“No,” Guyun’s voice came.

Qin Haoxuan looked at him with surprise. In his heart, Guyun was the epitome of sinister and selfish. Although he also didn’t want his aging master to take the risk, he wanted to hear his reason for not letting him go.

Guyun looked at Xuanji. “Hall Master Xuanji, you cannot go.”

Xuanji frowned. “Hall Master Gu, why not?”

“This matter is very strange. Since the person behind it dares to risk universal condemnation, he must have made sufficient preparations and be very confident. Your Nature Hall has always had few talents. Right now, it is supported by you alone.

If any of us were to die in battle, it would not matter; a Spirit Tree Realm elder would immediately take our place. But if you were to die, the Nature Hall would collapse.” A hint of concern could be heard in his words. “And you are also getting old…”

Hearing his words, Qin Haoxuan was incredibly surprised. Although he tried his best to suppress his astonished expression, his mouth still hung open wide enough to fit an egg. A selfish person like Guyun would actually be so concerned for my Master?

Su Baihua of the Hundred Flowers Hall also said, “Yes, Hall Master Xuanji. The Nature Hall cannot be without you. We can take the risk because we have no worries. But you cannot.”

Bizhu and the elder representing the Summer Cloud Hall also nodded in agreement.

Sect Master Huanglong, sitting high on his throne, looked at the five Hall Masters’ conversation, a look of gratification on his face. He also said to Xuanji in a pleasant tone, “Since that is the case, then you need not go. The Nature Hall indeed cannot be without you.”

Hearing these words, Qin Haoxuan secretly pinched himself hard. The pain still made him unable to believe it. Is this really not a dream? The five halls were normally engaged in open and secret strife with each other, and the Nature Hall had always been looked down upon by the other four.

He had originally thought that if his master said he wanted to participate, the other four Hall Masters would have been more than happy to agree. He never expected this outcome.

He once again cast an incredulous look at Guyun. This insidious fat man who wanted to turn me into a corpse soldier, is he really Guyun?

At the same time, a trace of warmth gradually grew in his heart. Originally, he had only felt a sense of belonging to the Nature Hall, but now he had developed a lot of goodwill towards the Taichu Sect as well.

The people sitting in the Taichu Grand Hall, besides himself, were all the core high-level members of the sect.

Although they might scheme and compete with each other in normal times, at a critical moment, they were very united and even showed a rare concern for each other.

He couldn’t help but look at Huanglong a few more times, and he no longer felt such a strong aversion to this Sect Master, for whom he had originally had little goodwill.

Selfishness was human nature, but to fight amongst themselves behind closed doors was their own business.

To be able to unite against an external enemy, it was no wonder that such a sect could become the guardian sect of the Soaring Dragon Nation, and no wonder it could stand for a thousand years without declining.

While he was lost in thought, the debate among the Hall Masters had already been settled. Su Baihua and Bizhu would go, while Guyun would remain to guard the sect. As for the Summer Cloud Hall, Xia Yunzi had already been dispatched.

After the candidates were decided, Elder Quan said to the two of them, “When will you depart?”

The two of them thought for a moment. Bizhu had a difficult expression. “Tomorrow. The pills I am refining are still in the furnace. I need to cool it down.”

Elder Quan nodded in agreement. The matter of cooling down a furnace was something his Senior Brother Pu had told him about.

For a cultivator to refine pills or artifacts often took a very long time. If one needed to leave in an emergency, they had to cool down the furnace, which also took a full day.

If one were to just rashly pull it out, not only would the refining time be wasted, but the weapon might also be damaged. So, although the matter was urgent, he also agreed to let them depart the next day.

Sect Master Huanglong made the final decision. “Then let Hall Master Su, Hall Master Bizhu, and Junior Brother Yu depart with Qin Haoxuan tomorrow. As for Junior Brother Yu and Qin Haoxuan, return to the battlefield as soon as possible.”

With the arrangements made, the Grand Hall fell into an awkward silence, just waiting for the Sect Master to dismiss them. But it seemed there was still one major matter left undone. The four Hall Masters all knew that this major matter was the reward for Qin Haoxuan’s great merit, which had not yet been decided.

However, since Huanglong did not bring it up, the other four Hall Masters certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to do so. When it came to a matter of benefits, none of them wanted this huge reward to fall into the hands of the Nature Hall, so they all played dumb.

In truth, it wasn’t that they were black-hearted, but that they felt this merit was truly too great, and they simply didn’t know what kind of reward to give him.

Although the Taichu Sect possessed the most cultivation resources in the entire Soaring Dragon Nation, it was not yet rich enough to make every disciple wealthy.

These resources were distributed according to merit; the outstanding disciples were given more, while those with ordinary aptitude were given less or nothing at all.

In terms of resource allocation, the four great halls were on par with each other, while the Nature Hall of the same status received a pitifully small amount.

The reward that Qin Haoxuan should have received for this great merit, if converted into cultivation resources, would have been enough to drive the other four great halls mad.

It wasn’t that Huanglong was reluctant to give the reward to him and the Nature Hall, but that in his eyes, to do so would be a complete waste.

If it had been any of the three Unsurpassed Purple Seeds who had rendered the merit, he would have proactively proposed a reward without anyone needing to remind him. But now…

Sect Master Huanglong felt the atmosphere was not right. He rubbed his nose and said vaguely, “Then let us all disperse.”

With that, he wanted to just gloss over the matter for now and go back and carefully consider what kind of reward to give. After all, the merit of this discovery was truly too great. If he gave it now, and gave too little… that would violate the spirit of the Taichu Sect. But if he gave too much? He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to use it all, and it would be wasted, ruining his seemingly not-bad Dao Heart. That would not be a reward, but a harm.

Just as he was rising, Xuanji, as Qin Haoxuan’s master, could no longer worry about propriety. He stood up directly and said, “Sect Master, please wait a moment…”

Huanglong, whose rear had just left the chair, was stopped by him and was left awkwardly suspended in mid-air before he sat back down. The other Hall Masters, seeing Xuanji’s anxiety and the Sect Master’s embarrassment, had a bellyful of laughter but did not dare to let it out.

Xuanji also knew how impolite he had just been, but for the sake of his beloved disciple’s interests, impolite was impolite. “Sect Master,” he said, not beating around the bush in the slightest, “in this matter, did my Nature Hall’s disciple, Qin Haoxuan, not render a great merit?”

Instantly, not only Elder Quan but also the other four Hall Masters all put on the expressions of watching a good show. It was beyond doubt that he had rendered a great merit, and a shockingly great one at that. Since Xuanji had spoken up to fight for a reward for him, the Sect Master had no choice but to give one. Now, everyone was curious. What kind of reward would he give?

Guyun thought with helplessness, ‘Qin Haoxuan is just a colorless weak seed who has only reached this point by relying on Xu Yu’s Qi-Circulating Pills. To give him a reward is a real waste! I wonder what the Sect Master will give him? Could it be that he’ll just fob him off with a few tens of thousands of spirit stones?’

The other Hall Masters also made their own guesses, and they all believed that the Sect Master would very likely do just that.

In fact, not only them, but Huanglong had also thought of this. But as the Sect Master, even if he had some opinions about him because of the conflict between the Purple Seeds, he could not really do that. A reward was to be good for him, but it also had to protect him, so that he would not ruin his Dao Heart because of an excessively generous reward and thus cut off his path of cultivation.

As for the matter of a few tens of thousands of low third-grade spirit stones… he could truly imagine the scene of being laughed at.

…

‘Did you know? A disciple of the Taichu Sect discovered a formation that opens a spatial passage to the Netherworld and immediately reported it, stopping the possibility of a second Netherworld Demon Abyss from the source.’

‘Wow, that disciple rendered a great merit. The reward must have been very generous, right? I bet it was a life-extending pill, or a pill that every cultivator dreams of.’

‘Hah, neither. The Sect Master of the Taichu Sect just fobbed him off with a few tens of thousands of spirit stones! And they were low third-grade ones at that.’

‘Pfft! So stingy? The disciples of the Taichu Sect are so pitiful. Who would dare to go to the Taichu Sect in the future?’

…

These mocking conversations automatically appeared in his mind. He could not afford to lose this face, nor could the Taichu Sect.

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