Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 694 What Kind of Immortal Cultivation Can You Do Without Money?
The gaunt Taoist priest drifted silently along the winding mountain path, and wherever he passed, the air seemed to be tainted with a decaying stillness.

Fang Yu gritted his teeth, enduring the tearing pain in his lower back, and followed behind, stumbling along.

His thin, coarse cloth coat, splattered with filth, was thoroughly chilled by the biting mountain wind, making him feel cold to the bone, completely out of place with the "ethereal" atmosphere of this sacred mountain.

At the end of the path, against a bare, cold stone wall, and hidden by the shadow of a mountain peak, stands a solitary courtyard.

Rather than a courtyard, it resembled a few poorly built low stone houses surrounding a small patch of frozen earth, exuding a desolate atmosphere similar to the outer gate of Kinmen, or even more isolated and gloomy.

As soon as the two stepped into the courtyard, Fang Yu's attention was immediately drawn to a figure tending to a few wilted herbs.

She was a young woman, wearing a simple blue cloth robe that had been washed until it was almost white. She had a slender figure and her black hair was simply tied back.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up, revealing a pretty face that was somewhat blank.

She looked at the two people who had suddenly appeared, especially Fang Yu's conspicuously disheveled appearance, and was clearly stunned, her hand holding the hoe also stopped moving.

"This is your junior brother, Fang Yu." The thin Taoist's voice was still that dry and hoarse tone, and he casually dropped an introduction, as if he were placing an insignificant object.

Fang Yu instantly understood; this must be the only one—his senior sister.

The woman looked at Fang Yu, then at the expressionless, thin Taoist priest, her confusion deepening. But in the end, she asked nothing. She simply moved her lips slightly and uttered two words: "Su Su." Her voice was clear and cold, as if she were seeing her ex-boyfriend.

After saying that, she stopped looking at them, as if the pause had never happened, and lowered her head again to focus on the withered herbs.

Her demeanor carried an almost distant indifference, which was less a rejection of her unfamiliar junior brother and more a lack of familiarity or closeness with her master.

The entire courtyard was shrouded in a heavy silence.

The thin Taoist priest didn't care at all.

His cloudy, lifeless eyes turned to Fang Yu, and his withered, claw-like hand pulled out an old booklet from somewhere.

The booklet's pages were yellowed, the edges were worn and curled, and strangely, it had no title or label at all, just like its new owner's current bewildered situation.

"Take it." The Taoist handed the unsealed book to Fang Yu, his tone calm yet unquestionable. "Practice three times a day. You will definitely feel uncomfortable at the beginning." He stared into Fang Yu's eyes as if trying to pierce through his bones. "Bear with it, and you'll get through it."

The moment the word "discomfort" was uttered, Fang Yu keenly caught the reaction of his senior sister Su Su from the corner of his eye. Her fingers gripping the hoe tightened suddenly, and her thin shoulders trembled slightly and uncontrollably!
Despite her best efforts to restrain herself and quickly lower her head to conceal it, that momentary abnormality pierced Fang Yu's heart like an ice pick, confirming his deepest vigilance.

Sure enough! What that old man gave me wasn't anything legitimate!
A chill ran down my spine and straight to the top of my head, even more intense than the previous cold wind.

The ominous premonition she had when she became an apprentice, and the disgust she felt for the other party's withered aura, were now intensified and made more concrete by this "uncomfortable" warning and Su Su's subconscious fear and trembling.

Is it excruciating pain? Is it soul-consuming? Or something even more sinister?

However, Fang Yu showed no emotion on his face.

He took a deep breath, suppressed his turbulent thoughts, and deftly took the strange-looking, nameless old book with both hands.

"Thank you, Master." He bowed deeply to the Taoist priest, his posture respectful. The angle of his bow allowed him to catch a glimpse of Su Su's shoes, which were pressed tightly to the ground, where she seemed to be trying her best to maintain her composure.

The thin Taoist priest let out a short, unintelligible breath, and his gaunt figure, no longer lingering, silently "glided" towards a stone house in the courtyard like a fleeting shadow.

Fang Yu withdrew his gaze and turned to the only senior sister who could possibly offer guidance. Without beating around the bush, he went straight to the point: "Su Su." His voice carried the uncertainty of the new environment, "Where do I live?"

When Su Su heard him call her by her name, her usually cool brows furrowed noticeably, and a hint of displeasure appeared clearly on her wooden face.

But this unpleasant feeling vanished in an instant, almost like an illusion. She didn't even raise her head, but simply pointed hastily at a small house in the most secluded corner of the courtyard, a house that was always shrouded in shadow.

As his fingertips touched the ground, he continued to focus on the few withered herbs in front of him, as if the tiny movement had never happened.

Fang Yu didn't take her almost cold indifference to heart.

Having a definite place to settle down is the most important thing right now.

He strode off toward the small hut in the corner.

Pushing open the creaking wooden door, a musty smell of dust hits you. The room is dimly lit, with stone walls, and the chill is no less than outside.

But at a glance, apart from the thick layer of dust on the table in the corner, which could be blown up into a cloud of gray with a single breath, it was still quite tidy—there was a kang (heated brick bed) covered with an old thin mattress, a wooden table and bench with a missing corner, and even an empty water vat with a crack in the corner.

It was a world apart from that dilapidated woodshed that leaked air from all sides, reeked of the latrine, and resembled a livestock shed.

Fang Yu's tense nerves relaxed slightly.

At least, they have temporarily escaped that situation where they were struggling on the brink of life and death, where even breathing was torture.

Having become an inner disciple, my life was somewhat secure, and I no longer had to spend every day with the chamber pot.

Even if the road ahead is still a perilous abyss, at least the place where we stand now is a place where "people" can live.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when another, more pressing matter suddenly came to his attention.
Monthly fee!

The issue of monthly pay hasn't been resolved yet!

The relaxation on his face froze instantly. Without thinking twice, he immediately walked out of the hut and ran towards the blue-clad figure in the courtyard.

"Su Su!" His voice was urgent, tinged with a barely perceptible glimmer of hope, "Do I still have to pay my bill this month?"

Su Su's hands froze completely.

She slowly straightened up and finally turned around.

Her delicate yet wooden face was now completely undisguised. Her eyes, looking at Fang Yu, seemed to be scrutinizing a foolish freak who had just sprung from a stone and was completely ignorant of the rules of heaven and earth, filled with unbelievable absurdity and blatant mockery.

She even tilted her head slightly, scrutinizing Fang Yu from head to toe, as if to confirm whether he was really that stupid.

Then, her lips, which had been so taciturn, finally parted, uttering the longest sentence Fang Yu had heard from her since she entered the sect—a sentence that was almost accusatory and absurdly reproachful:

"What else?" The last syllable rose slightly. "We're Kinmen! Our rules are ironclad. You're not paying your monthly fee? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

Fang Yu frowned and hurriedly protested, "I'm already an inner disciple! Why do I still have to pay this damn fee?!"

For the first time, Su Su's blank expression underwent a dramatic change, as if she had heard the dumbest joke in the world.

She suddenly put her arms on her hips, leaned forward, and stared at Fang Yu with a look that was a mixture of mockery, pity, and "How could you be so naive?" Her clear voice rose, and she hurled a sharp, soul-searching question at him:

"No money? Ha!" She gave a short, mocking laugh. "What kind of immortal cultivation are you going to do if you have no money?!"

(End of this chapter)