Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Inside the Zhaixing Hall, Tang Zhao's roar drew the attention of several people around him.

The deacon remained expressionless, simply pushing the ledger forward and pointing his finger to a line of small, vermilion characters—

"On the eleventh day of the fourth month of the Bing Shen year, Zhao Wu received the mission of the Yi character eleven, Lei Tanmu Xin, and the merit points have been credited to his account."

The next day, Zhao Wu and Tang Zhao traveled together to Qingxia Town, the thirty-fourth of the Bing character, to escort the spiritual herb...

"According to Article 372 of the sect regulations, if a fellow disciple goes missing or dies, the sect's debts shall be borne jointly by the fellow disciples until the cause of death is determined or the body is found."

Tang Zhao stared intently at the account book, veins throbbing on his forehead.

"Zhao Wu clearly died at the hands of bandits, what does that have to do with me?"

"Where is that bandit now? Is Zhao Wu's blood on his blade?"

The steward looked up, and Tang Zhao was speechless after being asked the same question for two consecutive years.

The bandits who appeared at the pass had long been killed by him, leaving no trace of their bodies. Where would there be any evidence?

The deacon stopped looking at him, picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and added a line to the ledger—

"Tang Zhao owes the sect 300 merit points, which is overdue..."

Just as the pen was about to fall, Tang Zhao hurriedly grabbed the deacon's hand, his voice slightly pleading:

"Deacon, is there any room for negotiation regarding this matter?"

"No, rules are rules. If you disagree, you can appeal to the Internal Affairs Hall."

Tang Zhao gritted his teeth, suppressing his reluctance, "I only have one hundred merit points left. Perhaps I can hold off?"

He had recently spent some money and had very few merit points left. These 100 points were truly all the wealth this formal outer disciple possessed.

The butler feigned difficulty and, after a long pause, finally spoke:

"Alright, don't say the sect is heartless."

You are to pay the full amount by tomorrow evening. If you fail to do so, you will be exiled to the back of the mountain.

Since things had come to this, all I could do was pay the 100 merit points and leave helplessly.

After leaving the Zhaixing Hall, he felt a tightness in his chest and his vision went black.

Three hundred points! After deducting daily expenses, he would need to save for a while, how could one day be enough?

At this moment, Tang Zhao felt remorse. He had struggled in the outer sect of the Holy Sect for nearly three years, working his way up from a nominal disciple to a formal disciple, but he had never been as miserable as he was today.

In order to vent his anger, his plan to break through to the Golden Core stage during this period also came to naught...

"Zhao Wu...you deserve to die!"

Tang Zhao was filled with hatred, feeling that Ye Xuan had died too easily, yet he was helpless.

"The most urgent task is to find a way to get two hundred merit points."

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and his gaze swept across the distant back mountain. Suddenly, he remembered someone.

Elder Sun.

The Elder Sun that Tang Zhao mentioned was an old man who managed the outer sect's weapon-refining workshop. He was eccentric but had a penchant for collecting strange and unusual materials.

I had run errands for him a few times, so I had some influence with him.

"If we could borrow some merit points from him to tide us over..."

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Tang Zhao immediately headed towards the weapon-refining workshop.

In contrast, at this time, in Qingxia Town, there were only ruins of the altar.

After the green light faded, only a few skeletons and the dim bronze statue remained on the platform.

The townspeople had already scattered and fled, leaving the square deserted, with only the lingering scent of bewitching flowers drifting in the wind.

The space around the statue was slightly distorted.

Ye Xuan stepped out of the void, his Taoist robe flowing with blue and white patterns, completely devouring the remaining green light around him.

"As expected, it was Yu Chenzi who did it."

He looked down at his palm. The moment he touched the statue, the emerald beam of light was not an attack, but a pure life force that surged into his body through the meridians in his palm and rushed straight to his dantian.

I was then drawn into the interior space of the statue.

At this moment, within Ye Xuan's dantian, the illusory image of the immortal willow swayed gently, its roots unfurling to absorb all of this power.

On the willow branches, a few new leaves had appeared, their veins flowing with the same emerald light that flowed from the crystal in the statue's eyes.

Inside the statue's interior, when he released the "Longevity Willow" technique, it could suppress the spiritual energy within the statue. However, when he released Yu Chenzi's skeleton, it resonated frequently.

"It seems that this so-called herb immortal was nothing more than an experiment by Yu Chenzi back then."

Ye Xuan squatted down and carefully examined the statue. The patterns on the statue's body had completely dimmed, and the crystal in its eye had shattered into powder. Clearly, that attack had exhausted the last bit of spiritual energy remaining within it.

He stood up, his senses spreading throughout the entire Qingxia Town.

Throughout the town, the hidden array nodes had collapsed as the statues' spirituality dissipated, and the bewitching floral fragrance that permeated the air was also rapidly fading away.

"This place is no longer of any value."

Ye Xuan took out a travel talisman from his storage bag; it was the one Fang Zhengge left behind after his death.

As spiritual energy was injected, the talisman transformed into a stream of light that enveloped him, soaring into the sky and piercing through the remaining smoke above Qingxia Town, but it did not head towards the Holy Sect.

……

As the sun gradually set, the weapon-refining workshop, located in the southeast corner of the outer gate of the Holy Sect, was a three-story black stone pavilion, from which the sounds of forging iron and the roar of furnaces could be heard all day long.

Tang Zhao stood outside the neighborhood, straightened his robes, forced a smile, and then stepped inside.

A wave of heat hit the lobby on the first floor. Several disciples were busy in front of the furnace. When Tang Zhao came in, they only glanced at him before continuing their work.

Tang Zhao went straight up to the second floor, stopped in front of a stone chamber filled with ores and semi-finished products, and bowed, saying:

"Disciple Tang Zhao requests an audience with Elder Sun."

"Come in."

Pushing open the door, one sees an old man in a gray robe sitting behind a stone table, playing with a crimson crystal in his hand.

"Tang Zhao, is something the matter?"

Elder Sun didn't even look up, his fingertips gently stroking the surface of the crystal, as if sensing its spirituality.

Tang Zhao took a deep breath, cupped his hands, and said:

"I am currently short of funds and owe the sect three hundred merit points. I would like to borrow some from the elders to tide me over. I will definitely repay the principal and interest next month."

Elder Sun was somewhat surprised and doubtful when he heard this. He finally raised his eyes, and his eyes were so bright that they were frightening.

"Three hundred points? How could you, a formal outer disciple, owe so many?"

Tang Zhao's face stiffened, and his tone became somewhat hesitant.

"Yes... I paid some of the money for a junior brother."

"Which junior brother?"

"It's Zhao Wu!"

Elder Sun paused, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

"Zhao Wu? That disciple who accepted the Thunder Sandalwood Heart quest?"

He remembered Zhao Wu for no other reason than that he himself had issued the task, and it was delivered by a registered disciple, so it was hard not to remember it vividly.

"Exactly."

"He's dead?"

"Yes, he died at the hands of bandits in Qingxia Town, and his body was never found."

According to the sect's rules, I will bear the debt...

Elder Sun was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed, "Tang Zhao, Tang Zhao."

"Do you think I, an old man, am oblivious to what's happening outside, spending all my time in the weapon-refining workshop?"

Tang Zhao's heart tightened, and Elder Sun continued:

"The Hundred Herbs Gathering in Qingxia Town... I went there when I was young. Where would bandits come from?"

Even if they existed, they would have been wiped out by the major families long ago.

Even though his lie had been exposed, Tang Zhao still refused to tell the truth.

"Everything I have said is true!"

"That's enough."

Elder Sun waved his hand, took out a jade token from his robes, and threw it on the table, saying:

"Here are fifty merit points. Take them. Figure out the rest yourself."

Tang Zhao looked at the jade token. Fifty points weren't enough. He had come here hoping to borrow two hundred... So he gritted his teeth and said:

"Elder, could you lend me more? If I don't pay it back by the deadline, I'll be exiled to the back mountains!"

That's your problem.

After saying that, Elder Sun continued to play with the crystal in his hand, his tone indifferent.

"Our friendship is only worth this much. If you think it's too little, you may simply refuse it."

Tang Zhao stared intently at the jade tablet, and finally reached out and picked it up. "Thank you, Elder."

As he turned to leave the weapon-refining workshop, the smile on his face vanished completely, and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.