Shen Qingci heard the word “extra pocket money” and forced herself to suppress her laughter.
A rare Foundation Establishment spirit beast running to the Azure Cloud Sect to steal male cultivators' underpants—if word of this got out, it was hard to say who would be more embarrassed.
“It just so happens that Junior Brother Lu went to the black market a few days ago and brought back a spirit beast. The outside world only knows that he brought back an ordinary tracking beast, and no one would suspect it was a Void-Crevice Sable.” Gu Qingyi tapped the table.
“But a single search of his cave dwelling will reveal everything. Windfalls don't fall from the sky for no reason, and it remains to be seen if Junior Brother Lu can stomach it.”
Shen Qingci took the opportunity to chime in, not holding back her emotional support at all: “The sect rules state, ‘If there is an urgent matter, one can apply to the Deacon Hall to enter accompanied’... This chain of schemes is brilliantly executed.”
Having received her senior sister's praise, Gu Qingyi's eyes suddenly lit up, knowing she had hit the mark right on what her senior sister wanted.
“Now, we're just missing the evidence from the cave dwelling.” She lowered her voice and leaned a bit closer to her senior sister. “The underpants stolen by the Void-Crevice Sable are all hidden in a secret compartment under his bed. Eighty-seven pairs, folded neatly.”
“He himself is still completely in the dark. After Senior Brother Qian was scratched, the Deacon Hall already locked onto the spirit beast's aura, and they will conduct a search at his door today at the third quarter of the Xu hour.”
“If Senior Sister is free, why not come along to the scene to watch?”
“Eighty-seven pairs???”
“Folded neatly!!!”
Shen Qingci's eyelids twitched slightly.
【As expected of someone from the merchant alliance; her execution is truly meticulous.】
Of course she wanted to watch.
Just thinking about the look on Lu Beichen's face when eighty-seven pairs of underpants were dragged out of his room was deeply satisfying.
But after the thought spun around in her mind a few times, she suppressed it.
Her senior sister was entering the Sword Tomb for seclusion next month, and these days, she wanted nothing more than to stay by her side every single second. Moreover, she had been maintaining her persona as the Eldest Young Lady all over the sect for nearly a year. If she ran to the Deacon Hall to watch a male cultivator get his underpants confiscated, it would sound incredibly bizarre if word got out.
“No need. I'm going back to the cave dwelling to accompany Senior Sister today. She is entering the Sword Tomb next month for a five-year seclusion, so just giving me a few recording stones when the time comes will be enough.”
Hearing this, Gu Qingyi finally found the source of Senior Sister Shen's recent gloomy mood.
How could she comfort her?
She didn't have a Dao companion herself, so she didn't understand the pain of being separated from one's wife.
Gu Qingyi said solemnly, “In that case, Senior Sister, I will send a transmission to Junior Brother Yin after class and tell him to prepare a few more high-grade recording stones.”
Shen Qingci agreed, adding at the end, “If the Sect Master steps in, remember to call me.”
Gu Qingyi immediately sat up straight and said with certainty, “Don't worry, Senior Sister. Even if the Sect Master is biased, he won't rashly intervene in person. Ultimately, this is just a rivalry between juniors. Lu Beichen falling into the trap was purely due to his own greed.”
“If he can't even see through such a simple scheme, what's the point of him cultivating? He might as well go home and raise plump pigs.”
“Most cultivators of the older generation treat disputes among juniors as a form of tempering. As long as it doesn't threaten lives or damage their Dao foundations, they generally won't intervene. If the Sect Master plans to stick his head out for his beloved disciple, he will definitely have to weigh the consequences carefully.”
“Junior Brother Yin is backed by the Furong Merchant Alliance, Junior Brother Chen has the Great Chen Dynasty behind him, and I have the Gu family's support... With the five of us joined together, even if the Sect Master can suppress one, he cannot withstand all five.”
“Even if we take ten thousand steps back and the Sect Master actually dares to completely shed all pretense of cordiality, I will be there at a moment's notice.”
Shen Qingci naturally understood this logic.
The cultivation world had its own rules.
High-ranking cultivators did not take action against juniors. Once this unwritten rule was broken, no one would be able to bear the chain reaction of retaliation from various forces.
No matter how foolish the Sect Master was, he wouldn't personally intervene over a mere case of stolen underpants.
But she wished nothing more than for him to step in.
If the Sect Master didn't step in, how could she use this as a pretext to make a fuss? Her master had been setting up this scheme for half a year, and someone had to light the first spark.
“That's fine too,” she said. “It would be best if he does step in. The bigger the commotion, the easier it will be for me. Some cards have been kept in my hand for too long; it's about time to air them out.”
Gu Qingyi caught a different scent from these words, but she didn't pry.
The two of them chatted a bit more before Shen Qingci glanced at the incense seal burner. It was the end of the Wu hour, less than a cup of tea's time before the spiritual plant identification class.
“Junior Sister, let's head back to class first.”
Gu Qingyi stood up and complied.
She planned to go near the Deacon Hall after class dismissed in the afternoon to carefully review the process with Yin Ruozhuo.
Now that they had reached the final step, they couldn't afford to let anyone turn the tables on them.
One after the other, the two left the private room and headed toward the Dharma Academy.
...
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
Ever since those eighty-seven pairs of underpants were searched out of his cave dwelling that day, Lu Beichen had not shown his face at the Dharma Academy again.
At first, Deacon Jiang had even flipped through the register with a stern face to confirm she wasn't seeing things.
A disciple actually dared to skip her class!
But when her divine sense swept over Junior Sister Shen, who was sitting in the front row with her head lowered, flipping through a jade slip, the anger blockaded in her chest dissipated.
Fortunately, they had Junior Sister Shen holding down the fort for this generation of disciples.
Her schoolwork was Grade A every single time, she never made mistakes in her spell assessments, and just sitting there, she was like an anchor.
If they had to rely on someone like Lu Beichen to be the face of this generation...
He was arrogant but incompetent, devious, and even capable of underhanded deeds like stealing underpants.
As a deacon of the Dharma Academy, she would probably be driven to the point of developing inner demons out of sheer anger.
Did the Sect Master close his eyes when recruiting disciples?
Looking only at the grade of their spiritual roots without considering their character, he only recruited people who couldn't even present themselves in public.
No matter how high their aptitude was, if their character was rotten, raising them for a hundred years would only yield an ungrateful, disloyal wolf.
Sometimes, looking at Shen Qingci in the front row and then thinking of Lu Beichen's empty seat over the past few days, she felt that putting these two in the same generation was simply an insult to Junior Sister Shen.
For the Eldest Young Lady of a prestigious hidden family to be ranked alongside an underpants-stealing rascal as the “outstanding figures among the new disciples”—who wouldn't find it absurd?
Jiang Rui closed the register and stopped thinking about it.
She tapped the lectern and continued teaching.
After class dismissed, Shen Qingci had just stepped out of the Dharma Academy's main gate when she ran straight into Yin Ruozhuo.
“Senior Sister, Senior Sister, something has happened!”
“Something happened?”
“No need to rush, take your time,” Shen Qingci replied.
“These past few days, I went to return the Void-Crevice Sable. My mother missed me dearly, so I stayed at home for an extra two days. On my way back to the sect, about three miles from the mountain gate, I ran into a female cultivator with a three-year-old child. She explicitly demanded to see the personal eldest disciple of the Peak Master of Wanjian Peak.”
“As soon as I heard that, wasn't that Senior Sister Ji?”
Yin Ruozhuo panted heavily. “I didn't dare let her into the sect. I had the guards stop her first and settled her in my small courtyard in the market town.”
“Senior Sister, I've seen Senior Sister Ji's portrait. That child's eyes and brows look exactly like Senior Sister Ji's.”
For a moment, Shen Qingci couldn't help but think of conspiracy theories.
Senior Sister Ji was obsessed with the way of the sword and was currently doing a mission in the Desolate Ancient Ruins. Even their master barely saw her.
How could a three-year-old child suddenly appear out of thin air?
For this to happen at this critical juncture, it was clearly targeted at Wanjian Peak. Her master was currently locked in a struggle with the Sect Master, and her senior sister was about to enter the Sword Tomb for seclusion. Someone wanted to throw mud to disrupt their ranks.
“What is that female cultivator's cultivation level? Did she say anything else?”
“Early Golden Core stage, a rogue cultivator. Aside from wanting to see Senior Sister Ji, she won't say another word,” Yin Ruozhuo said. “I was afraid she would start shouting publicly at the mountain gate and throw mud at Senior Sister Ji, so I had people keep watch over her first and didn't spread the word.”
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