During the days when Lin Mo was leading the team on their training expedition, various incidents occurred at Qingzhu Peak.
First, it was the time for the disciples of Qingzhu Peak to receive their stipends.
Normally, Lin Mo personally handled this task, but since he was away, the disciple in charge of managing the warehouse had to consult Master Yuehua.
“Master, how should we distribute the disciples’ spirit stone stipends this year?” the warehouse disciple inquired.
“Distribute them as usual,” Master Yuehua said casually while sipping her spirit tea.
“Well… Master…” The disciple hesitated, showing a troubled expression. “We don’t have enough spirit stones in the warehouse to cover this round of stipends!”
“How could that be?” Master Yuehua asked, surprised.
“Senior Brother Lin has always managed all of Qingzhu Peak’s expenses, ensuring that our food, clothing, and accommodations were of excellent quality. However, our peak’s expenditures far exceed its income.”
“Then why hasn’t this issue arisen in previous years?” Master Yuehua raised an eyebrow.
“Well… in past years, Senior Brother Lin would go hunting in the Great Continent Mountain Range to supplement our food supplies. Any extra spirit plants and spirit beast meat would be sold to exchange for spirit stones to support our expenses. Most importantly, every year when the Xuanbing Fruits were harvested, Senior Brother Lin would even sell his own share and use the earnings to cover the peak’s costs…”
As he spoke, the disciple’s voice grew quieter. “But for some reason, lately, Senior Brother Lin has stopped hunting in the Great Continent Mountain Range and is focusing solely on cultivation. Even during the Xuanbing Fruit harvest, he didn’t contribute any spirit stones…”
Master Yuehua was momentarily stunned.
She had always known that Lin Mo contributed significantly to the sect, but she had never realized just how much…
Thinking it over carefully, Lin Mo had taken on so many responsibilities and still managed to keep up with his cultivation progress. He must have endured quite a lot in secret.
As his master, she had always been immersed in her own cultivation, unaware of any of these matters.
Now, reflecting on it, she felt a deep sense of guilt toward her eldest disciple.
“In that case, how many spirit stones are we short?” Master Yuehua decided to pay out of her own pocket.
“Eight thousand eight hundred lower-grade spirit stones!” the disciple replied.
Master Yuehua opened her storage ring, preparing to take out the spirit stones, only to awkwardly realize that she didn’t have enough.
She suddenly remembered that she had spent most of her spirit stones on cultivation resources just a few days ago.
By all accounts, as the master of a peak, she should have had considerable savings.
However, she was an absolute recluse—unlike other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators who traveled the world, gathering resources. She lived by a “spend what you have” philosophy, pouring everything into her cultivation.
At this moment, Master Yuehua finally understood the frustration of being “a hero brought down by a lack of funds.”
The disciple, seeing that his master hadn’t taken out any money for quite a while, gave her a look that practically screamed: “You, a mighty Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, don’t tell me you can’t even produce this small sum of spirit stones?”
Master Yuehua was mortified, wanting nothing more than to disappear into a crack in the ground.
But to maintain her “aloof and untouchable” image, she calmly said, “Isn’t it about time to harvest the spirit fields in the back mountain? Sell the surplus spiritual rice and plants first.”
The disciple was stunned by this suggestion.
Still, there was no better option.
After bowing and taking his leave, he went to the back mountain to inform Yuan Li about the harvest.
When Yuan Li received the news, his expression darkened.
He hadn’t been tending to the spirit fields for some time, and he had no idea what condition they were in.
“I understand. I’ll have the senior and junior brothers come to the back mountain to collect the harvest in a few days.”
After dismissing the reporting disciple, Yuan Li hurried to the back mountain.
What he saw nearly made him collapse on the spot.
Over a hundred acres of spirit fields—two-thirds of them had withered or been ruined.
“This… how could this happen?!” Yuan Li fell to the ground in despair. “Why are there so many pests?!”
Normally, even if neglected for a while, pest infestations would amount to no more than a fraction of what he was witnessing now.
Yuan Li truly couldn’t understand—why were there so many pests this time?
Thinking carefully, he suddenly recalled that his Senior Brother Lin frequently visited the back mountain for seemingly no reason.
In the past, he had assumed Lin Mo was merely supervising him. But now, looking back, it was likely that Lin Mo had been secretly helping with pest control and fertilization.
Now, with the spirit fields in such a state, even if all the pests were eradicated, the withered spiritual rice and plants wouldn’t miraculously return.
Cursing Lin Mo in his heart, Yuan Li fumed. How could he be so heartless? Ever since Yuan Li had been punished, Lin Mo had completely ignored the spirit fields.
But there was no use complaining now.
If this situation were discovered, his punishment wouldn’t be as simple as being expelled from the sect…
A bold and reckless idea suddenly formed in his mind.
That night, the spirit fields caught fire.
The fire—naturally, Yuan Li had set it.
He claimed that a disaster had struck overnight and that the fields had been ignited by heavenly flames.
To make his deception more convincing, he had even deliberately burned himself, then dragged his scorched body before Master Yuehua to plead guilty.
“Master, it’s all my fault! I was powerless to put out the fire—I deserve to die!”
Master Yuehua took in the sight of Yuan Li’s burned body, his face covered in soot. She sighed, “This isn’t your fault. You’re only at the Qi Refinement stage—how could you possibly handle heavenly fire? You did your best.”
Yuan Li kept apologizing profusely, but in his heart, he was ecstatic.
It worked!
Just as he thought the matter had been successfully covered up—
Fate had other plans.
As it turned out, a disciple had been training in the back mountain the night before and had witnessed Yuan Li setting the fire with his own eyes.
Master Yuehua wasn’t foolish either. After personally inspecting the aftermath, she quickly noticed the inconsistencies.
The once-lush spirit fields of the back mountain had been reduced to ashes.
All the disciples of Qingzhu Peak wore troubled expressions.
Once the flames were extinguished, the disciples scrambled to salvage any remaining spiritual rice and plants—anything that could still be used.
Although most of the fields had been burned to cinders, some areas had miraculously escaped the flames.
Excited, a few disciples hurried over to harvest the untouched crops—only to freeze in shock.
There was nothing left. Not a single stalk of spiritual rice, not a single spiritual plant.
“How… how could this be?” one disciple stammered in disbelief.
They couldn’t understand why, even in the areas untouched by fire, nothing remained.
“Didn’t you notice? The spirit fields that weren’t burned still have signs of severe pest infestation and withered crops. Yuan Li must have neglected his duties—he didn’t bother with pest control or fertilization, which led to this disaster.”
A disciple finally pieced together the truth, and all eyes turned toward Yuan Li with seething fury.
Hundreds of disciples glared at him with such hatred that it almost became tangible, their collective rage boiling over.
After all, many of these spirit fields were personally cultivated by the disciples themselves.
They relied on their harvests—either selling them for money or using them for cultivation. Now, everything had been destroyed in the fire Yuan Li set.
How could they not hate him?
“I must have been blind! Back when Senior Brother Lin punished him, I thought it was too cruel… Now, I just wish Senior Brother had beaten him to death!”
“That damned Yuan Li—he’s just a useless four-element spiritual root waste! Look at Senior Brother Lin—he’s a dual spiritual root genius, yet he still cares for the well-being of his fellow disciples and works tirelessly. But you? You sit on your ass, hoarding spirit stones while doing nothing, deluding yourself into thinking you’ll become an immortal? To hell with that!”
The disciples hurled curses at Yuan Li, some even resorting to physical violence, kicking and punching him.
Unable to withstand the mob’s fury, Yuan Li turned to Master Yuehua, pleading, “Master, I was wrong! I deserve to die! But I still have a mother to care for in the mortal world… Please spare my worthless life! I will leave the sect immediately!”
Then, someone in the crowd muttered:
“Why wasn’t Yuan Li expelled from the sect in the first place?”
That single sentence ignited a storm of thoughts among the disciples.
If only Yuan Li had been kicked out back then, the back mountain spirit fields wouldn’t have suffered this fate.
One by one, their gazes shifted toward Ye Kai.
Back then, it was Ye Kai who had pleaded with Master Yuehua to spare Yuan Li. He had privately criticized Lin Mo for being ruthless and cold-hearted, insisting that expelling someone over mere negligence in tending the fields was an overreaction.
Now, as they thought back to it, resentment toward Ye Kai simmered in their hearts.
Someone finally pointed at him and accused, “Senior Brother Ye, didn’t you guarantee that Yuan Li would take care of the spirit fields?”
Confronted so directly, Ye Kai was at a loss for words.
Inside, he was cursing Yuan Li to no end.
Who could have foreseen that this idiot wouldn’t just neglect the fields—but would go as far as to set them on fire?!
At that moment, Shen Ke’er stepped forward to smooth things over.
“Let’s not blame Senior Brother Ye. The real problem here is Yuan Li, isn’t it?”
Her words made sense, but the disciples’ resentment toward Ye Kai had already taken root.
Meanwhile, Master Yuehua recalled the words Lin Mo had once whispered to her:
“Even you, Master, think I’m being too harsh and unfeeling for wanting to expel Yuan Li?”
That sentence struck her heart like a thunderclap.
Looking back now, her decision back then had probably broken her eldest disciple’s heart.
