The square-faced child hesitated, then looked up at the menial disciple. “Senior Brother, weren’t we supposed to get three bottles of Essence-Nourishing Pills each—thirty pills in all? I… I only have twenty-seven.”
“Twenty-seven? I filled those bottles myself. There’s no way I made a mistake!” the menial disciple declared.
“But there truly are only twenty-seven in here. If you don’t believe me, count them!” the square-faced child murmured softly.
“Count them? Can’t you see I’m busy? Take them or leave them. If you don’t want them, hand them back and get lost!” The menial disciple glared, slammed his palm onto the table, and roared.
The violent outburst made the square-faced child jump. Staring up at the towering menial disciple, he hesitated before sullenly lowering his head, not daring to utter another word.
Seeing this, the other children shrank back, the smiles freezing on their faces.
Soon after, another square-faced child received his three bottles of pills.
Stepping to the side, this child hurriedly checked the contents. At a single glance, his face turned the bitter color of dried plums.
But after glancing up at the menial disciple, he silently placed the pills back into the bottle and swallowed his complaints.
Su Twelve stood at the back of the crowd, quietly taking all of this in.
Su Twelve clearly saw that the second child had poured out only twenty-five pills. Two were waste pills, and the rest were dull gray—all low-grade spirit pills.
Su Twelve frowned but said nothing. The man’s behavior reminded him of Er Gou’s father, who would mix inferior grain with the good and shortchange the villagers whenever tax collectors came to collect grain.
Soon, all six children had received their pills.
Yet after checking their shares, all six wore miserable expressions. They kept their heads down, daring to be angry but not daring to speak.
The worst-off of the six children received only twenty Essence-Nourishing Pills, three of them waste pills.
At this point, it was the turn of the second-to-last person in line, Zhu Hanwei.
The menial disciple glanced at Zhu Hanwei’s identity token, then casually grabbed three bottles of pills.
“Senior Brother, I am Zhu Hanwei, son of the mayor of Huilong Town. You’ve worked hard distributing the pills. A small token of my appreciation, hardly worth mentioning.” Before the menial disciple could hand over the bottles, Zhu Hanwei nimbly pulled a silver ingot from his robes and placed it onto the table with a wide smile.
The silver ingot was about the size of an infant’s fist, carrying significant weight—a full fifty taels.
Seeing the silver, the menial disciple’s eyes gleamed with sharp light.
Squinting, he waved his hand, tucking the silver ingot into his sleeve with practiced ease.
For a menial disciple like him, advancement in cultivation was already out of reach. All he could do was accumulate mortal wealth, so that when he eventually returned home, he could still enjoy an opulent life. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Looking back at Zhu Hanwei, the menial disciple wore a bright smile, his attitude suddenly turning warm and close.
“Junior Brother, there’s no need for such courtesy. The Peak Lord entrusted this important task to me, and I won’t let him down.”
“You’re a good kid. Work hard, and you will surely achieve great things in the future.”
After offering a few words of smiling encouragement, the menial disciple pulled three porcelain bottles from his own robes and handed them to Zhu Hanwei.
“Rest assured, Senior Brother. If I ever make something of myself, I won’t forget you,” Zhu Hanwei said, nodding eagerly.
With that, he took the bottles and walked to the side, quickly inspecting them.
Among the Essence-Nourishing Pills in Zhu Hanwei’s bottles, two were exceptionally smooth and round—high-grade pills. The rest were bright and lustrous, all middle-grade. There were exactly thirty in total, not one more or less.
Watching this, the other children’s eyes widened, turning red with envy.
Su Twelve was not envious. The Essence-Nourishing Pills refined by his mysterious furnace were all top-grade, immeasurably more precious.
Still, even a little was better than nothing. These pills had been issued by the sect and rightfully belonged to him.
He had every right to collect them.
Gripping his identity token, Su Twelve stepped up to the menial disciple.
By now, the menial disciple had resumed his impatient expression. His gaze swept over the identity token, and he cast a disdainful look at Su Twelve, curling his lip as he muttered.
“Su Twelve? The kid who took over from Chen Xi to guard the Waste Pill Room?”
“You really are lucky to be alive. To think you’ve survived this long in a place like that! Here, these are your pills.” Rolling his eyes, he grabbed three bottles from the corner of the table and roughly tossed them to Su Twelve.
Su Twelve frowned in displeasure, but since he was not here to cause trouble, he suppressed his temper.
Catching the bottles, he hesitated before opening one to inspect its contents.
At a single glance, a surge of blazing anger rose in his heart.
Across the three bottles, there were only fifteen Essence-Nourishing Pills.
Worse, all fifteen were pitch-black and reeked foully.
In the courtyard, the others who were preparing to leave saw what Su Twelve had received, and gloating smiles broke out across their faces.
Initially, they had felt envious of Zhu Hanwei. But now, seeing someone countless times more miserable than themselves, their sour moods instantly lifted.
“Senior Brother, what is the meaning of this?” Su Twelve stared hard at the menial disciple, slapping the waste pills in his hand onto the table.
He had the mysterious pill furnace, so he did not actually care whether they were waste pills.
But he could not let this insult pass.
If there had been only one or two waste pills, or if two or three had been missing, he could have let it go.
But now, half the quota was missing, and the rest were all waste pills.
He was fortunate to have the mysterious pill furnace. Without it, these ruined pills could have ended his path to immortality.
“What meaning? Kid, what are you doing bringing these waste pills to me?” the menial disciple snorted coldly. Crossing his arms over his chest, he threw the question right back.
“These waste pills—didn’t you just give them to me?” Su Twelve frowned, questioning him coldly.
“What do you mean I gave them to you? Kid, I think you’ve gone crazy! This is the Pill Pavilion, not the Waste Pill Room! Trying to frame me? This isn’t a place where you can stir up trouble!” The menial disciple’s expression turned hostile as he immediately resorted to threats.
He would not dare shortchange the other disciples too badly, but he had no regard at all for Su Twelve, a nobody assigned to guard the Waste Pill Room.
However, he truly never expected that Su Twelve would dare to resist and question him in return!
He had handed Su Twelve the waste pills moments ago, and now he was denying it outright.
Su Twelve was stunned by the brazen act.
Wasn’t this just shameless bullying?
“Stir up trouble? Since you put it that way, then I have no choice but to seek out the Peak Lord to judge what is right!” Su Twelve said coldly.
“Seek out the Peak Lord to judge? You think the Peak Lord has the time to bother with you?” the menial disciple sneered, looking as though he had Su Twelve entirely figured out.
“The Peak Lord may not have the time, but I imagine Senior Sister Xiao Yue should have the time,” Su Twelve replied, his expression calm and unyielding.
He did not want to waste any more time here. Asking Xiao Yue to step in was by far the simplest solution.