Silence pervaded the hall after those words were said. A gust of wind even passed through, bringing with it a tumbleweed that danced around them before it exited the hall.

Long Di’s eyes even followed the path the thing took as it made its round. ‘Is that the same tumble—’

****

The elders became enraged at Long Di’s nonchalant response. “Are we a joke to you!?” shouted all the elders at the same time.

“Are we not going to talk about the tumbleweed that just came out of nowhere?” Long Di’s eyes were still glued in the direction the tumbleweed left in.

“Who cares about a tumbleweed, you maddening worm!? Are you trying to make a fool out of us!?” The third elder was the angriest of them all. He hated Long Di, but even he looked like a child thirsty for knowledge in the face of Long Di’s ‘methods.’

Long Di calmly took something out of the storage ring he wore and threw it at the third elder.

Bonk!

“Ow! You little heathen!”

It bounced off the third elder’s head and landed in the second elder’s hands.

‘It’s actually quite surprising how hollow the sound of that impact was,’ thought Long Di.

“I want you out of here! You’re a liar! A provoker! And your every action makes me angry!” The third elder wasn’t going to stand for such blatant disrespect!

“Third elder,” the second elder’s calm voice cut through his tirade.

“Why are you defending him?” The third elder turned to the second elder to address the issue when he paused to look at the object he held.

Silence dominated the entire hall once more. The same wind made its return, bringing with it the same tumbleweed as well.

‘I can’t be the only person who sees this thing, am I?’ Long Di’s head swivelled to the left and right to find everyone not paying attention to the tumbleweed.

“I-I-Is this as a sp-sp-sp-spirit stone.” The third elder’s lips quivered when he saw this.

The disciples, Feng Yu, in particular, smiled when they saw this. They were the same way when they saw the spirit stone for the first time.

The first elder looked at Long Di with a pale face. Obviously, the spirit stone brought quite a shock. “When you said you threw money at them—”

“I’m gonna have Feng Yu explain, since my words seem to resonate too well with your bipolar tendencies.”

Ignoring Long Di’s last words because they didn’t know what they meant, Feng Yu proceeded to explain everything that happened on their trip to Blackstone City.

Meaning the cultivators they were captured by and then defeated, the relic they explored, Long Di’s metaphorical defecation on the cultivators there, the riches he acquired because of said defecation, and so on.

The elders’ eyes widened the more and more they listened. They looked back at Long Di and he suddenly looked like a freak to them!

The disciples didn’t mention the name of the sects the people he killed were from per Long Di’s wishes via spiritual transmission.

They also didn’t mention the Destiny Scale or the orbs Long Di gave them, which caused their cauldrons to jump a few grades in a short period of time.

However, this didn’t fail to keep the look of shock from appearing on the elders’ faces. Their eyes nearly widened to the point of nearly defying the laws of physics when they heard in full detail, barring the Destiny Scale, Long Di’s full methods in helping them during their cultivation.

This meant the meeting with the bandits, what the kids did (courtesy of Long Di), they spilt everything.

The elders went quiet when the matter of the kids killing the bandits came up. They were well aware that such an experience was needed to ready them for the cultivation world, but it was also something that they were reluctant to do.

“Thank you,” was the only thing that the first elder could say.

“I’m sure you’re all tired by this point, right? You can go and rest for a few days.” The first elder was well aware that they had been through quite the adventure and wanted them to relax for now.

“Well, I’m going to the auction in Blackstone City, and they said they wanted to come with me. They are all rich now.”

“Oh, right. You have money now.” The first elder resorted to twiddling his fingers when he heard this as he eyed his disciple. The rest of the elders did the same except the third elder, who was disciple-less.

The atmosphere became awkward. This was the situation of the child being rich and the parents being aware of it.

Long Di was comfortable in this situation. He was just trying to figure out what conditions needed to be met to summon the tumbleweed again.

“Uhm, master, would you like some money to come with us to the auction?” Feng Yu asked timidly.

“Hush child!” The first elder said with a righteous look. “How could I accept that from my own disciple!? I will, however, take you up on your offer to attend the auction. The storage ring, however.”

“Cough…”

The first elder coughed when he brought this up. Let master see what you have gained on this trip of yours.

Before long, all the elders tried to coax the disciples into ‘learning’ what they had gained on this trip.

The only ones left in the hall were the second elder, Jia Yan and Long Di.

Long Di looked at the second elder and asked, “Aren’t you going to passively extort money from your disciple as well?”

The second elder’s expression didn’t change. He simply looked to his disciple Jia Yan and advised him to wait for him at the training grounds.

Jia Yan nodded to Long Di and left just like that. The second elder approached Long Di and said these words to him. “Master told me to bring you to him when you came back. Follow me.”

Saying nothing more, he left the hall with Long Di in tow.

“Thank you.” The second elder said eventually. He was truly grateful for everything that Long Di had done.

“You’re welcome,” replied Long Di.

Getting thanks from everyone was good and all, but now it was time to get Uncle Tian Lu to make true on that bet and impart that so-called forbidden technique of his to him.