60: Unexpected help

“You, Han Meng, can cut off my share and my Low-Grade tasks, but can you really cover the sky with one hand and cut off... all my paths to survival?!”

He had to take the initiative and go to the task stone wall, even if it meant taking on the most arduous, thankless tasks that no one wanted, to slowly accumulate the capital needed to Cultivate the Heaven Burning Heart Sutra!

However, just as he was enduring the stinging pain in his Meridians from the burning true fire, preparing to head to the task stone wall—

“Thump! Thump! Thump!”

A series of knocks suddenly sounded from beyond the heavy stone door.

Lin Ye’s brows furrowed sharply.

Who was it this time?!

He activated the Minor Achievement Breath Concealment Art, perfectly concealing his Qi, which was slightly turbulent from Cultivating the Heaven Burning Heart Sutra, and then slowly pushed open the stone door.

Standing outside the door was a young Disciple dressed in Merit Hall attire, who looked quite unfamiliar.

The Disciple immediately beamed with a fawning, even somewhat fearful smile upon seeing Lin Ye, and bowed deeply to him.

“Disc... Disciple greets Senior Brother Lin Ye!”

This sudden respectful attitude made Lin Ye even more vigilant. He calmly asked, “What is it?”

“It... it’s like this,” the Disciple carefully pulled out a bulging Storage Pouch from his Huai, holding it with both hands and respectfully offering it. “Today... today, when the Merit Hall was inventorying resources, it was discovered... it was discovered that there was a small error in the monthly share previously issued to Senior Brother Lin.”

“Steward Sun specifically ordered this Disciple to bring you... to bring you this replenished resource! We hope Senior Brother Lin... will be magnanimous and not take it to heart!”

He spoke, sweating profusely and incoherently, as if Lin Ye were some man-eating primordial beast.

Lin Ye looked at the Storage Pouch in his hand, then at his face, which was filled with panic. For the first time, a look of bewilderment appeared in his calm, ancient-well-like eyes.

Error?

Replenished resources?

Had the sun risen from the west?

He didn’t take it immediately, only asking calmly, “A small error?”

The Disciple’s heart skipped a beat under Lin Ye’s calm, unwavering gaze, and cold sweat immediately poured down. He stammered, “It... it was Steward Sun... who ordered it...”

Lin Ye felt an increasing sense of strangeness in his heart.

But he still took the Storage Pouch and lightly swept his Divine Sense inside.

The next instant, a tempest surged in the depths of his calm eyes!

Inside the Storage Pouch, lay quietly—

A full thirty Low-Grade Spirit Stones emitting a soft white glow!

And a full bottle of perfectly round, fragrant Medium Grade Qi Condensation Pills!

This was the full, rightful amount of Cultivation resources an Inner Sect Disciple should receive each month!

Seeing Lin Ye accept the items, the Disciple felt as if he had been granted a great pardon and turned to scurry away.

“Wait.” Lin Ye’s calm voice, however, was like a curse, instantly freezing the Disciple in place.

“Senior... Senior Brother Lin... do you have any other instructions?” The Disciple turned back with a mournful face.

“Why did Steward Sun suddenly discover this ‘error’?” Lin Ye’s gaze, like two invisible sharp swords, locked onto him.

The Disciple could no longer bear the pressure. He glanced at Lin Ye, then thought of Su Qingyue’s cold eyes. In a tearful, mosquito-like voice, he quickly said, “It’s Senior Sister Su! It’s Senior Sister Su Qingyue! She... she just went to the Merit Hall, and she told Steward Sun to return the resources to you! Senior Brother Lin, please, please don’t say I told you!”

With that, he scrambled away, disappearing like a fleeing rabbit at the end of the mountain path.

Lin Ye stood alone at the entrance of the cold Immortal Cave, clutching the recovered resources, his heart tumultuous... Meanwhile, in the Inner Sect, at the Merit Hall.

Steward Sun, responsible for distributing resources, was pacing back and forth in his room, restless, cold sweat streaming down his face like a waterfall that he couldn't wipe clean.

In his mind, the nightmarish scene from half an hour ago was replaying repeatedly!

Just as he was feeling smug about successfully pleasing Han Meng and preparing to finish work and go home, a clear, emotionless voice, like a chilling wind from the netherworld, quietly sounded behind him.

“Steward Sun.”

Just three words, and he felt as if struck by lightning, instantly freezing in place!

He laboriously, inch by inch, turned around and saw the stunning figure that all Inner Sect male Disciples admired, and also... feared.

Su Qingyue!

She stood there quietly, her eyes, colder than autumn water, gazing calmly at him.

“Senior... Senior Sister Su...” Steward Sun’s tongue was tied. “Why... why have you come?”

“I heard,” Su Qingyue didn’t answer his question, but spoke faintly, her voice clear and untainted by worldly concerns, “that the monthly share for newly promoted Disciples this month seems... to have changed?”

Steward Sun’s heart sank sharply!

“No... nothing of the sort!” He quickly waved his hand, forcing a smile. “The Sect... the Sect’s resources are tight, so... so that’s why...”

Su Qingyue didn’t let him finish.

She simply took a slow step forward.

Just that one step made Steward Sun feel as if he had been struck head-on by an invisible, ancient ice mountain! A bone-deep chill instantly enveloped his entire body!

“I will speak with Han Meng myself,” Su Qingyue’s voice remained calm, yet every word was like a knife, piercing deeply into Steward Sun’s heart. “But since when did an Inner Sect Disciple get to set the rules of the Merit Hall?”

Steward Sun’s face instantly turned pale!

He never expected that this matter would alarm this favored daughter of heaven, who never bothered with the Sect’s mundane affairs!

He understood even less why Su Qingyue would stand up for Lin Ye, whom she didn’t even know?!

He didn’t know that Su Qingyue didn’t have much affection for Lin Ye either.

She simply couldn’t stand such dirty tactics of using power to suppress people and stifle Geniuses.

More importantly, her brilliant mind had already vaguely guessed that Lin Ye’s rise was probably intricately linked to her father, who was intent on implementing reforms. As the Sect Master’s daughter, how could she sit by and watch a rising star of the Sect be stifled in its cradle by the conservative faction’s lackeys?

“I don’t want to,” Su Qingyue’s clear eyes quietly looked at Steward Sun, who was already scared out of his wits, and slowly uttered the last sentence, “see a second time.”

With that, she turned, her white robes fluttering, like an elusive wisp of cloud, completely disappearing from the Merit Hall entrance.

Leaving Steward Sun alone, slumped on the ground, unable to recover for a long time... Black Rock Peak, Immortal Cave number seventy-three.

Lin Ye looked at the heavy resources in his hand. He didn’t know why Su Qingyue had done this.

But in his heart, an indescribable... warmth flowed through him.

“I owe her this favor.”