Seeing her master give her a look to continue, she sighed in defeat.

“Junior sister bet that master would lose his pants twice. Of course, I would bet against her…”

The three elders paused for a moment to understand her words.

“Hah, shove that up your trap hole!” Ariyoshi Miji mocked Gao Diao, extremely pleased that Kenja had not actually bet on his victory but, rather, on his defeat. Kondo was smiling happily for the same reason.

Gao Diao was a bit ruffled, but he looked at Hikaru bemusedly. “How did you know I was wearing more than one pants? And how did you know I’d lose them?”

Kenja was at a loss.

The entire procession had already stopped moving to wait for his answer, and he had no clue how Snail knew about the pants. He hoped Snail would tell him what to say, but the unreliable invertebrate was still preoccupied…

“BWAHAHAHAA, the pills—the pills—pfffft—very good—MWAHAHAHA!”

The darned Snail was still laughing over the pills Hanabi had gifted him.

There was one thing Kenja was sure of at this time: he was definitely not going to consume that pill until he was certain of its properties.

The silence dragged too long to the point of becoming uncomfortable, so Kenja made something up, “How I knew…if you wear more than one pants, wouldn’t you naturally look wider from the bottom? As for losing them, I had no clue. It was just luck.”

The faces of Gao Diao and the other two elders twitched when they heard his explanation.

“Ho ho ho ho, that does sound reasonable. I guess it’s true that women pay attention to those little details concerning appearance,” Second Elder Inazuma laughed as he pulled his head and hand out of the armlet.

What was reasonable?

No one would believe that “wider from the bottom” nonsense.

Don’t just gloss over it like it was normal, you old cyclops!

On top of that, saying it was just luck that he lost two pants and yet willing to wager such vast wealth on luck…

“Speaking of which, Little Mizu, you should have your master settle accounts for you. For the most part, it is his fault after all,” the Second Elder suggested while giving Shimizu Mizutani and the Sixth Elder a blatant wink.

Shimizu Mizutani’s eyes watered over as she cursed her toolhead uncle, ‘When did I offend you? Stop making things worse!’ Although she desperately wanted a solution to her situation, having her master settle such a huge debt on her behalf would make her future bleak.

Unlike Mizutani, the Sixth Elder instantly understood the hint and nodded gratefully. “Mm, since I am partially responsible, I’ll settle accounts on behalf of my cute disciple.”

Miji and Kondo scowled in secret at Inazuma.

He gave their Sixth Brother the opportunity to display his virtues as a master to Hikaru whom they were presently vying for. Generosity, kindness, forgiveness and even wealth—if he played his cards right, he would definitely leave a favorable impression on the young disciple.

“Venerable Sixth Elder is magnanimous and righteous. We can treat this little business as some fun between new friends, right, senior sister? Let’s just forget the debt.”

Kenja did not want to risk offending an elder to satisfy Snail’s greed.

Moreover, he was eager to end the matter and continue on their way to the meeting place.

The sect was supposed to be in a state of emergency, with various vice elders and countless disciples scurrying around everywhere in a hurry.

Why were the elders acting like everything was normal?

“Very good pills—HAHAHA—wait a second!” Snail had suddenly returned to Kenja’s earlobe and pinched it. “What do you mean forget the debt? That’s my money, disciple!”

Kenja was peeved that Snail had ignored him earlier when he was clearly listening to everything they were saying.

“You’re the almighty, omnipotent, ever-generous Snail, right? Obviously, for one of your stature, such a tiny number of stones is equivalent to the grains of sand littering the desert or the random breadcrumbs fallen at one’s feet. Worthless. Or am I wrong? Are you a petty, little snail who takes pocket change from little children? If so, you can just take the stones from me. Even though I have never heard of a master take away the small amount of money their disciple had gained…”

Kenja did not believe that the amount wagered was ‘worthless’ nor that the wealth that he had gained was a ‘small amount of money’, but he was certain Snail’s ego would not disagree with his claims.

This snail was a show-off before anything else.

“This…” Kenja’s words were ruthless, leaving him with no way to refute his words without ruining his glorious image.

Shimizu Mizutani was about to jump up in celebration and agree with Kenja, but her master raised his hand to stop her.

“Che che che, your intentions might mean well, Little Hikaru, but it’s not good for one’s cultivation if they reneged on their promises so easily, no matter how small. I taught Little Mizu better than that, so she will certainly not agree with you.”

Little Mizu panicked.

Nuuuuuu, Master! I agree! I agree! We were just having a bit of fun! It isn’t good for my cultivation if I’m stripped, broke and homeless!!!’

But she dared not correct her master.

“Yes! Disciple should listen to Little Sixth Brother. If we don’t take her spirit stones, her future cultivation will be at risk! Thus, it is my responsibility to care for the next generation by taking her things!” Snail somehow yelled into Kenja’s ear without anyone else hearing him.

“Come now. How mu-che? What were the stakes?”

Gao Diao’s calm and resolute demeanor evoked a sense of reliability and seniority that would make the casual disciple revere him.

Ariyoshi Miji had to resist ripping out those little strands above Gao Diao’s smug lips.

Inazuma had truly presented Gao Diao with such a great opportunity to show off, and the weasel was milking it for as much as he could.

Because Kenja was only at the Qi Flourishing stage and had already tried to waive the wager, Gao Diao was assured that the amount owed was small relative to a Nascent Soul cultivator.

The logic was similar to how a child might view several copper coins as a fortune while rich adults dealt with dozens of gold coins like they were nothing.

“T’was just twenty-eight stones, Sixth Brother,” Inazuma answered his question while twirling the bracelet in his hand around to look for any possible peculiarities that he might have missed earlier.

He had already deducted the two stones Mizutani had produced earlier.

The other elders were taken aback by the amount. While twenty-eight low-tier spirit stones were considered a small amount for Shimizu Mizutani and next-to-nothing for them, Qi Flourishing cultivators would not have such wealth without a strong backing.

Then again, they remembered Hikaru had cleared two of the elders’ challenges that contained an extravagant amount of sect credits, so that number of spirit stones should be well within her spending range.

Gao Diao pulled out the low-tier stones with an air of nonchalance.

“Ho ho ho ho ho.” Inazuma laughed at Gao Diao.

“Why are you laughing, Second Brother?”

“Because of your joke. You pulled out low grade stones instead of middle grade. Ho ho ho ho.”

“Che, che, che. Your joke is even funnier, Second Brother. Why would I take out mid-tier stones?”

“…Master…we wagered mid-tier stones,” Mizutani’s whisper was barely audible, but everyone still heard it.

Gao Diao’s smile cracked.

The three elders and Rin were shocked.