The flying sword sped like lightning, arriving at Zhang Sheng's immortal cave residence in the blink of an eye. This was the first time Wei Yuan had ever visited Zhang Sheng's dwelling. The courtyard was rather cluttered, with strange, eclectic tools and materials strewn about here and there—bearing none of the celestial elegance Wei Yuan had envisioned, and far from the profusion of prized treasures in Bao Yun's courtyard.
Zhang Sheng had Wei Yuan take a seat in the study, then brought out a chest. Upon opening it, inside lay a thick stack of jade paper. Gazing at the jade sheets, even Zhang Sheng lost himself in thought for a brief moment.
"To think ten years have passed..." Zhang Sheng sighed, closed the lid of the chest, and picked up a blank sheet of jade paper resting on the desk, setting it down before Wei Yuan.
"Sign your name, then add three drops of fresh blood," Zhang Sheng said expressionlessly.
"What is this?" Wei Yuan felt a faint stirring of unease.
"These are the cultivation resources you consumed over the past ten years. Now that your Dao Foundation is at hand, it is only natural that you repay them. Your rightful share as a disciple of Sky Azure Hall has already been deducted."
Wei Yuan also felt this was only proper. According to the conventions of the Palace of Grand Beginning, disciples of the same cultivation realm received roughly similar stipends; while each hall had minor differences, they were largely comparable on the whole. The stipend consisted primarily of monthly silver, which could hardly be called lavish—at best, it merely sustained basic cultivation needs. If a disciple wished to quicken their progress beyond that baseline, they had to rely on subsidies from their own clans, such as the aristocratic Bao Yun and Xiaoyu.
Another path was reserved for genius disciples chosen for special nurturing, where each hall would dip into its own coffers to supply a portion of their resources. Zhang Sheng, for instance, received a monthly stipend so exorbitant it rivaled that of a True Person of the Dharma Idol realm.
Repaying one's debts was an unalterable principle. Though the jade paper was entirely blank, Wei Yuan trusted Zhang Sheng, so he signed his name and dripped three drops of fresh blood onto the sheet. The moment the blood touched the jade paper, it was absorbed, recording the aura of Wei Yuan's primordial spirit and completing the contract.
Zhang Sheng pointed a finger at the jade paper, and lines of writing gradually surfaced across its face. Then Wei Yuan saw a long string of numerals, and darkness instantly swam before his eyes.
Debt of immortal silver: 23,770,000 taels...
Whether he looked at the trailing change or not was meaningless; only the first two digits mattered. In his wildest dreams, Wei Yuan had never imagined he would end up owing over twenty-three million taels of immortal silver! As an entry-level disciple, even if he went without food or drink, it would take him two hundred thousand years to pay it off—and that was without factoring in interest. Achieving a Dao Foundation would hardly change anything. An ordinary Dao Foundation disciple received a hundred taels of monthly silver, which meant Wei Yuan would still have to go without food or drink for twenty thousand years. Even ten True Persons of the Dharma Idol realm did not possess such a long lifespan.
Fortunately, Zhang Sheng remarked that this debt bore no interest; otherwise, Wei Yuan wasn't sure if his Dao heart would have collapsed right then and there.
It took Wei Yuan quite a while to regain his composure. It was hardly his fault; back when he owed Bao Yun a mere two hundred thousand taels, he had already acted against his conscience on multiple occasions. Suddenly saddled with such a monstrous debt, even a True Monarch would find it difficult to keep their heart tranquil as still water.
Once he calmed down, Wei Yuan began to carefully reflect on his ten years of cultivation. In truth, the consumption of pills alone already amounted to a staggering figure. Back then, choking down pills every day had made him wish he were dead; how could he have had the spare thought to calculate how much money he was actually swallowing?
Apart from pills, cleansing and tempering his foundation seemed to have cost a fortune as well. Of the herbs Ji Liuli used, Wei Yuan recognized only a handful, yet those few were already worth tens of thousands, falling just shy of being heavenly treasures. The real trouble was that heavenly treasures were used only once in a while, whereas these medicinal herbs were consumed every seven days.
Having weathered the initial panic, Wei Yuan actually began to settle down. His heart grew tranquil—calmer, even, than back when he had owed merely ten thousand taels. In those days, he had been so anxious that he couldn't sleep all night, felt guilty whenever he ate a bit too much rice, and nearly suffered qi deviation during cultivation several times.
Wei Yuan suddenly recalled a saying he had heard as a child: when one is covered in lice, they cease to itch; when one is drowning in debt, one ceases to worry.
The sages truly did not lie.
Zhang Sheng took the jade paper, gingerly placed it into a hidden compartment in the wall, and sealed it with several strands of sword qi.
Only after completing all this did Zhang Sheng return to stand before Wei Yuan and ask, "Do you think these immortal swords of your master are worth tens of millions of immortal silver?"
Wei Yuan was about to nod, but feeling that such flattery would be far too excessive—and knowing that going too far was as bad as falling short—he answered honestly, "No."
Zhang Sheng glared at him and corrected, "Not right now!"
"Not right now!" Wei Yuan repeated, emphasizing the "now."
Only then was Zhang Sheng satisfied. He asked again, "Then do you think your grandmaster's Skyfire Boiling Sea dharma idol is worth tens of millions of immortal silver?"
Wei Yuan was about to shake his head, but after thinking it over, changed his mind and nodded.
"Of course not! Far from it!" With an expression that said Wei Yuan was rotten wood beyond carving, Zhang Sheng corrected him once more. "That old... Your grandmaster's dharma idol isn't even as valuable as my immortal swords. Besides, he squandered all that money long ago."
Wei Yuan was sharp to begin with, and caught on immediately: "So it was Patriarch's prestige..."
Setting aside how much was owed, being able to borrow over twenty million taels of immortal silver was an impressive feat in itself. Even with his reputation as the top scorer in the unified examination, borrowing a hundred thousand taels had been Wei Yuan's absolute limit. Not to mention himself, even Zhang Sheng's immortal swords couldn't serve as collateral for tens of millions of immortal silver. Only True Monarch Xuanyue's face was worth that much.
As for Zhang Sheng and Perfected Fenhai, their faces were not big enough.
"So, if you dare cobble together a mere Heaven Foundation for me, Patriarch Xuanyue won't even need to lift a finger—I will clean house myself!" Zhang Sheng said with fierce severity.
*Just a moment ago you said you'd only execute a wayward disciple if it were Earth Tier...* Wei Yuan grumbled internally, though naturally he dared not show it on his face.
"Go back and pack your belongings. In three days, the sect will dispatch a flying vessel to Ganzhou. Your master will travel alongside you."
Three days later, Wei Yuan boarded the flying vessel, finally departing Hanging Azure of the Empty Valley where he had lived for ten years.
This flying vessel was completely different from the one Wei Yuan had taken when he first arrived at the Palace of Grand Beginning. The entire vessel measured a hundred and fifty zhang in length and thirty zhang in height, boasting nine tiers of pavilions upon its deck and seven tiers of cabins below. The ship was deep azure throughout, forged from ten-thousand-year spiritual timber. It could carry ten thousand people if configured for passengers, but on this journey to Ganzhou, only several hundred cultivators were aboard; the holds were mostly laden with cargo. It was said that fully loaded, the vessel could hold a million dan.
The giant vessel flew at a much slower speed, requiring seven full days to reach Ganzhou. This offered Wei Yuan a welcome opportunity to appreciate the scenery along the route. Ten years ago, the flying vessel had traveled too swiftly and he had been too small, leaving him with only a blur of fantastical, distorted streaks of light outside the window.
Whenever he had free time, Wei Yuan would run up to the deck. He loved standing at the prow most, watching the billowing sea of clouds surge toward him before sweeping beneath the vessel. Gazing up into the boundless sky and looking down upon all living things, nothing could stir the heart more grandly than this.
Day after day of watching the vast, boundless world, it seemed one's heart would gradually broaden, capable of embracing heaven and earth.
On this day, Wei Yuan stood at the prow once more. Zhang Sheng appeared beside him at some point, also gazing out over the billowing sea of clouds. "We reach the battlefield tomorrow. Aren't you afraid?"
"Could I die?"
"This is a battlefield of slaughter against the alien race. Anything can happen; even those charlatans in the Hall of Heavenly Secrets cannot divine it clearly. In other words, anyone could die—the same goes for you, and the same goes for me. As mighty as the Three Immortal Patriarchs were in their day, even they perished one after another following a great war."
Wei Yuan, after all, still possessed the disposition of a youth. Unacquainted with fear, he was instead rather eager to test his mettle. He suddenly asked, "May I ask you a question?"
Zhang Sheng chuckled. "With a great battle right before us, you're still dwelling on such idle thoughts. Fine, ask away."
"I've noticed that many people in the palace have Dao companions. Master, what kind of Dao companion do you hope to find?"
"You brat..." Zhang Sheng shook his head. Uncharacteristically, he did not lose his temper; instead, he pointed toward the boundless sea of clouds ahead. "Heaven and earth possess great love; the mortal realm possesses great love. What your master holds in his heart is great love—love for heaven and earth, love for the realm of mortals, not the petty romantic entanglements between men and women."
Chapter 63