Feng Ning looked at him with an expression of supreme innocence and shook her head.
Mo Xuan let out a sigh of relief. He had said as much—how could their frail Junior Sister possibly manage to offend so many sects single-handedly?
However, Mo Xuan let out that breath far too early.
Just then, Feng Ning poked her little head out from outside the door and indignantly retorted, "That is slander! That is pure defamation! They were the ones who dug out my spiritual root and refused to listen to reason, so I only fought back and wrecked the place. What did I do wrong?"
"How do they even have the nerve to issue a bounty for me?"
"..."
Silence was the Cambridge of this evening.
Wan Chongshan, the Sect Master of the Wanshou Sect, clutched his chest and slumped weakly into his chair.
When he took Feng Ning in, he had been harboring a shred of greed and hadn't paid attention to the finer details, his mind entirely occupied by how many Storage Bags she had.
Now that he thought about it... the person involved wished to state that she deeply regretted it. She had picked up a hard nut to crack.
Wasn't his tiny little sect about to be finished?!
Mo Xuan and the others also felt a deep sense of helplessness. No wonder Junior Sister sought protection the moment she joined the sect... This? Wanted by all the major sects? Who on earth could protect her?
At that moment, only Su Yunfeng was bewildered for a fraction of a second before his face broke into a broad, joyful smile. "Not bad, Senior Brothers, you actually managed to drag Feng Ning back? No wonder you were in such a frantic rush to make me buy roast chicken to celebrate."
Everyone: "..."
When sending the voice message, Mo Xuan hadn't told Su Yunfeng that the sect had taken in a Junior Sister, intending to give him a surprise in person.
Well, now... the surprise had turned into a bounty reward.
"They only put out a bounty of a hundred medium-grade spiritual stones?! They are looking down on me!!!" Ignoring everyone's expressions, Feng Ning continued indignantly, "And you, Fourth Senior Brother, can't you have a bit of ambition? A hundred medium-grade spiritual stones are enough to make your heart flutter?"
Su Yunfeng was frozen in place at her address of "Fourth Senior Brother," looking in utter disarray at his master and senior brothers, only to find that everyone was actively avoiding his gaze.
"What does this mean? The wanted criminal Feng Ning has turned into our Wanshou Sect's Junior Sister???"
Whenever things got awkward, people always managed to look exceptionally busy, scrambling around in a flurry, yet not a single person gave him a direct answer.
Su Yunfeng's mental defenses completely collapsed. "Master!!! You really are willing to pick up literally anything!!"
"Ahem..." Wan Chongshan, thus called out, used a light cough to mask his embarrassment. "Yunfeng, think on the bright side. Didn't Master just bring back a long-awaited Junior Sister for you all?"
"Think on an even brighter side: Master brought back two disciples today. That's two portions of sect support funds, totaling three hundred medium-grade spiritual stones! That's even more than the bounty."
Because far too many disciples wanted to enter major sects, the Cultivation World had initiated a support program for third-rate minor sects, granting a disciple subsidy of one hundred and fifty medium-grade spiritual stones for every new disciple enrolled.
"So... you've already collected the subsidy?" Su Yunfeng's voice trembled, and he wished he could divine a hexagram for himself on the spot to calculate how much longer he had to live.
Courting death shouldn't be done like this.
Collecting the disciple subsidy meant that Feng Ning had already been entered into the Wanshou Sect's registry. From that moment on, her fate and the Wanshou Sect's fate were bound together—they would prosper together and perish together.
"I collected both portions; they've already been transferred to my spiritual stone card." Wan Chongshan had already calmed down, and he couldn't help offering comfort. "Yunfeng, in all matters, we must look on the bright side first. Don't worry about troubles before anything has even happened."
Su Yunfeng ignored him, sat straight down on the ground, and used his Compass to divine hexagrams for his master and senior brothers. The more he calculated, the more solemn his expression grew, and the more complicated his mood became.
The five of them in the master-disciple lineage all shared a mortal tribulation in their destinies; their paths were fraught with hardship, almost to the point of being entirely inescapable.
And now... there was a sudden glimmer of survival in a desperate situation.
Was it because of these two newly arrived junior siblings?
Su Yunfeng glanced separately at Feng Ning and Di Siyu.
Screw it! In any case, at least they didn't have to sit around passively waiting to die.
"Master is right!" Su Yunfeng was pragmatic—extremely pragmatic. "It was just me worrying over nothing. Junior Sister, please bear with my earlier reaction."
As he spoke, Su Yunfeng handed the still-warm roast chicken from his arms to Feng Ning. "This is Fourth Senior Brother's welcome gift to you. Don't look down on it."
Feng Ning took the roast chicken, took a bite, and remained indignant. "Fourth Senior Brother, you tell me: aren't the bounties they're offering far too low? They're actually less than the disciple subsidy. This is outright bullying!"
"True, that's the absolute lowest reward for anyone who makes the wanted list." Su Yunfeng inexplicably calmed down; the Junior Sister was actually quite cute, too. He couldn't help comforting her: "This tiny bit of bounty money is nowhere near enough to attract any true experts to capture you. We senior brothers can still handle it."
Generally speaking, disciples of major sects considered themselves too lofty and disdained that bit of reward money; only tiny third-rate sects would be greedy for such petty gains.
Hearing this, Feng Ning nearly choked on a chicken leg, her appetite instantly vanishing.
She was already so weak that anyone could bully her; how could she possibly be in the mood to eat?
"I'm full." She tossed the chicken leg aside, lowered her little head, and walked away. No! She couldn't just sit here and wait for death; she had to find a cultivation method suited for her.
"Eh? Junior Sister, have a couple more bites." Unable to understand her sudden shift in mood, Su Yunfeng turned back to ask his master and senior brothers, "Did I say something wrong?"
Mo Xuan looked worried. "Should I go check on her?"
"Let her have some quiet time first," Wan Chongshan sighed. "Yunfeng, come with me to the study. The rest of you, go cultivate. In case any real experts actually show up to target your Junior Sister, at least you won't get beaten up too miserably."
Hearing this, the others silently went off to cultivate.
Su Yunfeng followed Wan Chongshan into the study.
As soon as they entered, Wan Chongshan asked straight to the point, "Yunfeng, did you divine something just now?"
Su Yunfeng had no intention of hiding it and replied, "Master, because of the newly arrived junior siblings, our mortal tribulations have caught a sliver of a chance of survival."
"Then protect them well." Wan Chongshan slumped into his chair with a heavy expression. "Let us hope that all of us master and disciples can seize this sliver of life."
***
Deep in the night, Feng Ning lay on her pink bed, tossing and turning, unable to find sleep.
She had only guided Qi into her body for a few hours, and the effect was negligible. Clearly, she had drawn in plenty of spiritual Qi, yet she saw not the slightest breakthrough in her cultivation.
Was her cultivation method wrong, or was it an issue with her spiritual root?
Should she find an alchemist to examine her physical condition?
Wait! An alchemist?
Didn't the sect have one?
With a carp leap, Feng Ning got down from the pink bed, headed out the door, and plunged straight into the dark night.
She remembered that the Fifth Senior Brother had been assigned to the most remote little courtyard.
"Young Master, the items you requested."
In the dim courtyard, an unfamiliar male voice suddenly rang out. Feng Ning halted her steps and cautiously poked her little head out to look inside.
By the faint light, she saw a figure clad entirely in black devoutly kneeling before her little Senior Brother, offering something up to him.
Young Master? This guy really wasn't simple at all.
"Who's there?" The man in black had extremely sharp awareness, and the sudden wave of pressure almost forced Feng Ning to drop to her knees on the spot.
My god! So strong!
Feng Ning clutched desperately at the wall, her legs refusing to bend even an inch.
Sensing the anomaly, Di Siyu instantly cut off his pressure and said in a deep voice, "Withdraw."
"Yes." The dark shadow vanished in an instant like a ghost, as if it had never appeared at all.
Yet Feng Ning's big eyes flashed with the gleam of gossip as she eagerly sidled up to him. "Little Senior Brother, you're done for. Your secret has been discovered by me."