161: Chapter 161: What is Money Power? Is a Box of Spirit Stones Enough?

In front of the Qingyun Sect mountain gate, over a dozen people were blocking the way, and the atmosphere was incredibly tense.

These people were wearing the uniform attire of the Money Gang, each of them looking roguish and dissolute, twirling Dharma artifacts in their hands as they blocked the already dilapidated mountain gate completely.

The leader was a fat man named Manager Qian Tong, a manager in the Money Gang who specialized in collecting bad debts, with a cultivation base at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.

"Sect Leader Lu Yun, oh great Sect Leader Lu!" Manager Qian Tong thrust his greasy belly forward and shouted sarcastically, "Stop acting like a coward in there, the time has come! If you can't gather three thousand low-grade spirit stones today, this Qingyun Peak will have to change its name to Qian!"

Inside the mountain gate, Sect Leader Lu Yun and the remaining thirty-some disciples of the Qingyun Sect all looked grim, feeling both angry and helpless.

Sect Leader Lu Yun's face was pale, and his lips were chapped. He felt he was too pathetic as a Sect Leader; the foundation passed down by his master was actually going to be snatched away under his watch, and he wouldn't have the face to meet the sect's founder after he died.

"Manager Qian," Sect Leader Lu Yun bit the bullet and cupped his hands, "Could you... give us a few more days? We still have a few mu of spirit fields that are about to ripen, and by then..."

"By then?" Manager Qian Tong chuckled, his fat shaking all over, "Sect Leader Lu Yun, oh Sect Leader Lu Yun, you said that last month! Your few mu of crappy land is so sparse in spiritual energy that even rabbits wouldn't go there to take a dump; how much can the stuff you grow be worth? Stop talking nonsense! Either pay the spirit stones or get lost!"

"You..." A young disciple couldn't take it anymore and wanted to rush forward, but was held back firmly by Sect Leader Lu Yun.

"We can't beat them, don't be impulsive." Sect Leader Lu Yun shook his head, his mouth full of bitterness.

He knew that they wouldn't be able to get past this hurdle today.

The entire Qingyun Sect was deathly silent, leaving only despair.

Just then, the little Taoist boy who had been sweeping earlier ran in stumbling, crying and shouting as he ran, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement.

"Sect Leader! Sect Leader Uncle! She's back! She's back!"

Sect Leader Lu Yun's heart skipped a beat, thinking it was some unlucky disciple who had gone out to find a way to survive and had just happened to bump back at this time—wasn't that just throwing their life away?

"Who is back? Why are you panicking like this? What kind of behavior is that!" He suppressed his anger and reprimanded.

"It's... it's Junior Aunt-Master Jiang Ning! It's the legendary Junior Aunt-Master Jiang Ning who is back!" The little Taoist boy panted heavily, pointing outside the mountain gate, and shouted with all his might.

"Jiang Ning?"

As soon as this name was mentioned, the crowd of the Qingyun Sect immediately became agitated.

"Which Jiang Ning?"

"Who else could it be? It's that Junior Aunt-Master Jiang Ning who single-handedly took down the Blood Evil Sect back then, helped us modify the Spirit Gathering Array, and then disappeared!" An old disciple shouted excitedly.

"What? It's her? Hasn't she been missing for several years? I thought she had long since..."

"Oh my god, is she really back?"

Everyone's gaze turned in unison toward the outside of the mountain gate.

Even Sect Leader Lu Yun's body stiffened when he heard this name.

Jiang Ning... that Junior Sister who was always calm-faced, yet could always pull out all sorts of strange things, pulling the sect back from the edge of the cliff time and time again?

She was back?

His heart was a mix of complicated feelings—happy, yet ashamed. When his Junior Sister left, although the sect was poor, everyone was still holding on. Now, as the Senior Brother, he had almost squandered all the sect's assets.

Manager Qian Tong and his group heard it too and chuckled.

"Jiang Ning? What kind of thing is that?" Manager Qian Tong curled his lips, "What, you called for reinforcements? Let me tell you, even if the Heavenly King himself came today, he'd still have to be reasonable! Paying debts is only right and proper!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a woman's voice drifted in from outside the mountain gate.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Everyone looked over and saw a woman dressed in black, tight-fitting martial arts attire, walking over unhurriedly.

She didn't walk fast, but that aura made everyone present feel flustered. Even though they couldn't sense any spiritual energy on her, the pressure was real.

The smile on Manager Qian Tong's face froze instantly.

He couldn't see through this woman.

But his intuition, honed from licking blood off the blade, told him that this person was not to be trifled with!

The person who arrived was none other than Jiang Ning.

She looked at the scene before her, which was both familiar and strange, looked at those fellow sect members who were so thin they were unrecognizable and wearing tattered clothes, and then looked at her Senior Brother, Sect Leader Lu Yun, who looked guilty and haggard, and sighed in her heart.

It seemed the situation was even worse than what Wu Xiangtian had said.

"Junior Sister... is it really you?" Sect Leader Lu Yun looked at Jiang Ning, his voice trembling slightly.

"Senior Brother, I'm back." Jiang Ning nodded, shifted her gaze from him, and landed it on Manager Qian Tong's fat face.

"From the Money Gang?" She asked.

"So what if I am?" Manager Qian Tong felt uneasy under her gaze, but relying on the fact that he had many men, he still stiffened his neck and retorted, "We are here to collect debts, it's only right and proper! This fellow Daoist, I don't think you look like someone from the Qingyun Sect, I advise you not to meddle in other people's business!"

"Collect debts?" Jiang Ning seemed to have heard something amusing, "How much does the Qingyun Sect owe you?"

When Manager Qian Tong heard that she was asking for the price, his courage grew again. He held up three fat fingers and said triumphantly, "Not much, principal plus interest, three thousand low-grade spirit stones!"

Three thousand low-grade spirit stones!

This number made the hearts of the Qingyun Sect disciples go cold.

For the current Qingyun Sect, this was simply an unaffordable amount.

"Three thousand?" Jiang Ning didn't even twitch an eyebrow. She turned to look at Sect Leader Lu Yun, "Senior Brother, is this the amount?"

Sect Leader Lu Yun was too ashamed to lift his head and nodded with difficulty: "The principal... was only one thousand, the other two thousand is the interest they rolled up over these six months..."

"Loan sharks." Jiang Ning understood, her tone as flat as if she were asking about the weather today.

She looked at Manager Qian Tong again.

"Three thousand low-grade spirit stones, I'll pay it for them."

This sentence left everyone stunned.

The Qingyun Sect disciples all raised their heads, unable to believe their ears.

Three thousand low-grade spirit stones!

Junior Aunt-Master Jiang Ning... just said it like that? Did she make a fortune in these past few years?

Manager Qian Tong was also stunned, and then greed appeared in his eyes.

He sized Jiang Ning up from head to toe, his heart blooming with joy.

Who would have thought, this Qingyun Sect, which was dirt poor, actually had a rich relative come! This trip today was worth it!

"Good! Straightforward!" Manager Qian Tong clapped his hands, "Since this fairy is willing to be a sucker, we in the Money Gang certainly welcome it! Bring the money! Once the spirit stones arrive, we will leave immediately!"

He bet that even if the other party had money, it was impossible for her to carry so many spirit stones with her. When the time came, if she couldn't produce them, he would have more excuses to manipulate the Qingyun Sect.

However, Jiang Ning's next action left everyone dumbfounded.

She didn't take out a Storage Pouch, nor did she take out any Dharma treasure.

She just raised her hand and snapped her fingers at the empty space in front of her.

The next second, under everyone's terrified gaze, a silver-white iron box over a meter high slammed heavily onto the ground with a "clang".

The moment the box appeared, an alarmingly dense burst of spiritual energy suddenly dispersed!

Everyone present, whether from the Qingyun Sect or the Money Gang, felt the true essence within their bodies excitedly coursing around upon smelling this spiritual energy!

All eyes were fixed tightly on that strange-looking iron box they had never seen before.

This... what kind of treasure is this?

A spatial Dharma treasure? A spatial Dharma treasure that can hold so many things?

Jiang Ning ignored them, walked forward, and pressed a few times on a place on the box that looked like a screen.

After a "beep" sound.

One side of the box slowly opened.

Everyone was stunned.

They saw that inside the opened box, neat, full, and packed, it was all...

Mid-grade spirit stones!

Pieces of mid-grade spirit stones, the size of pigeon eggs and crystal clear!

Densely packed, impossible to count!

The spiritual energy rushing towards them was so dense that it made people almost unable to breathe!

Manager Qian Tong's eyes turned red on the spot, his breathing heavy and ragged.

In his entire life, he had never seen so many mid-grade spirit stones! Let alone seen them, he had never even heard of anyone going out with such an iron box, carrying a whole box of mid-grade spirit stones!

"This... here... how much is there?" His voice was trembling.

Jiang Ning glanced at him, her tone as indifferent as if she were talking about a trivial matter.

"Not much."

"Just ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones."

"Converted to low-grade spirit stones, that's one million."

"Three thousand low-grade, is that enough to pay off your debt?"