I risked my life, using the butterfly effect to shatter the immortal realm.

The dawn was pale.

The large black pot, which had been simmering all night, was still emitting eerie green smoke.

The ground was covered with gnawed centipede shells, toad skins, and a few unidentified animal bones.

"Junior brother~ just one more sip, just one sip~"

The red peony coiled around Yu Liang like a snake, her bright red robe loose, revealing large patches of her fair skin.

Her face was flushed, her eyes were fervent, and she held up half of a still twitching scorpion, desperately trying to bring it to Yu Liang's mouth.

"This is the essence of elixir that has been refined for three hundred years! Look at its color, it's almost blackish-purple. Eating it will guarantee that scales will grow on your cracked skin, doubling your defenses!"

Yu Liang pushed the scorpion away expressionlessly and casually "torn" the second senior sister off his body.

The red medicine had just been pushed away when it was pressed against him again, and slender fingers traced across Yu Liang's chest.

"Junior Brother's structure is so fascinating... so ethereal, yet it can hold so much medicine... it's practically the perfect dregs of medicine... no, a medicine cauldron." Hongyao chuckled foolishly, "From now on, Senior Sister's 'Ten Thousand Poisons Devouring Heart Pill' will have a home... How about we have a bunch of little babies for testing medicine? The kind that are raised on medicine..."

Not far away, Gu Santong sat cross-legged on a huge wine gourd, picking his teeth with a dry grass stick in his hand.

"Pooh."

The old Taoist priest spat out the straw, his wrinkled face beaming like a dried wild chrysanthemum.

"You drank the poisonous soup of the Red Plum like it was your morning tea, and you still managed to be entangled with her all night without dying. Kid, your fate is tough as nails; you were born to be a child of my Purple Bamboo Peak."

Yu Liang didn't respond.

He pushed away Hongyao's face again and stood up unsteadily.

His face was as white as paper, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.

He stretched out his only remaining right hand, palm flat, revealing a shocking black causal crack in the center, which was frantically devouring his remaining life force.

"Master, now that we're in, we're family." Yu Liang's tone was as self-righteous as a debt collector demanding payment. "Where's the gift? Where are the cultivation resources?"

"My disciple's body is leaking air badly and desperately needs rare and precious herbs to fill the gaps. Don't try to fool me with trash worth a few dozen spirit stones; it has to be at least a thousand-year-old medicine or a longevity elixir. Give me as many as you can."

This is risking your life to renege on a debt.

If he doesn't quickly fill the "sense of existence" in this body, he'll really become a handful of yellow earth in this mass grave within three days.

"Medicine? I have some!"

Before Gu Santong could speak, Hongyao's eyes lit up, and she excitedly pulled out a bunch of bottles and jars that exuded an ominous aura, clattering as she stuffed them into Yu Liang's arms.

"This is an improved version of 'Half-Step Madness with Laughter,' which will make you laugh for three hours straight, causing your heart to burst and leaving you in bliss! This is an enhanced version of 'Yin-Yang Harmony Powder,' just one pill will drive all the sows within a ten-mile radius crazy for you! And this..."

Yu Liang's eyes twitched as he threw those "treasures"—enough to poison an entire city—back at her.

"Senior sister, I need someone to save my life, not someone to kill me."

"This is what will save us!" Hongyao blinked her big, watery eyes pitifully. "Don't you understand the principle of 'placing yourself in a life-or-death situation'? How can new, immortal skin and bones grow if your body isn't poisoned to the point of decay?"

Gu Santong watched this scene, awkwardly rubbing his hands, his eyes darting around: "Ahem, disciple, cultivation emphasizes purifying the mind and reducing desires; all external things are illusory..."

Don't give me that.

Yu Liang pushed his fingers forward, his thumb and forefinger rubbing together rapidly as he habitually did so.

"Qingxuan Sect is a prestigious sect, and Zizhu Peak is one of the seven peaks. Even if their monthly allowance of spirit stones and pills is reduced, there should still be some left over, right? Judging from your appearance, you don't seem like an honest and upright person."

Gu Santong blushed, fumbled in his pocket for a long time, and finally pulled out a crumpled piece of paper stained with old wine, which he carefully handed over.

"This... is a small token of my appreciation, and it is also the only... legacy of our peak."

Yu Liang lowered his head.

It's not a banknote, not a prescription, not a peerless martial arts technique.

It's a payment reminder.

The stamps were densely packed with red marks, the most glaring of which was the last line of bold black text:

Total outstanding amount: 8,420,000 low-grade spirit stones

Yu Liang's hand trembled, and the invisible causal thread at his fingertips almost snapped on the spot.

"How many?"

"Eight million...more than eight million." Gu Santong spread his hands, revealing his bachelor-like nature.

"The fourth brother blew up the weapon-refining hall three times, losing over a million; the second brother..." Gu Santong pointed to Hongyao, who was rubbing against Yu Liang's leg, "In order to refine the 'Beast King Berserk Pill,' she sneaked into the neighboring Ten Thousand Beasts Peak in the middle of the night and poisoned all the spirit beasts on half the mountain. She said it was to test the medicinal properties, but after the spirit beasts woke up, they all went into heat and demolished the cave of the Ten Thousand Beasts Peak Master... losing two million."

"That's because they're too weak!" Hongyao suddenly looked up, her voice full of righteous indignation. "I'm helping them evolve! Don't you understand survival of the fittest?"

In the corner, Su Xiu had just woken up and vaguely heard the number "eight million".

His eyes widened suddenly, rolled back, and he fell straight down again.

Yu Liang stared intently at the payment reminder.

The excruciating pain from the cracks in my palm was nothing compared to the chill in my heart.

They thought they'd latched onto a powerful patron, but instead they'd stumbled upon a massive debt black hole. What kind of cultivation sect is this?

This is clearly a fraud gang that's about to go bankrupt and is trying to drag others down with them!

"Is this why you took me in?"

Yu Liang raised his head, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Do you need a scapegoat? Or do you need a sucker who can make money off you? The so-called 'Innate Dao Embryo' is actually a 'Innate Debt-Bearing Sacred Body'?"

"That's not how it works." Gu Santong chuckled, his former air of a reclusive master completely gone, replaced by a complete old rogue.

"Yesterday, witnessing your methods of framing and killing Huanglong, I was utterly astonished. This brain of yours, this filthy heart, it's as if you were born to pay off your debts!"

He grabbed Yu Liang's shoulder and said, "Disciple, this is a matter of life and death. In three days, we must first pay back the 100,000 in interest. If we can't get the money, we'll have to go to the Nine Netherworld Prison to pick up soap."

"I won't do it."

Yu Liang turned and left, grabbing Su Xiu from the ground: "Xiu'er! Wake up! Stop pretending to be dead! Let's go! Let's go back to the mortal world, even begging is better than being in debt here!"

"We can't leave."

Gu Santong didn't stop him, sitting on the gourd swinging his legs, his tone gloating.

"Although the main peak hasn't fully investigated Huang Long's death yesterday, some people are already watching you. Once you leave the Purple Bamboo Peak formation, within ten miles, you'll be chopped to pieces and fed to the dogs by Huang Long's faction. At that time, no one will be there to collect your corpses."

Yu Liang suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Su Xiu bumped her head against his back, clutching her forehead and crying out, "Liar! Didn't you say that clinging to a powerful figure would make us safe? What do we do now?"

Yu Liang did not turn around.

The thumb gently rubs against the pad of the index finger, the speed increasing until the fingertip almost sparks.

Dead end.

Going out would mean certain death.

Staying means taking on huge debts, facing a mental hospital that could collapse at any moment, and a crazy woman who wants to turn him into a specimen at any time.

But at least... that old madman Gu Santong can fight, and that madwoman's poison skills are indeed terrifying.

As long as we stay on Purple Bamboo Peak, those who want to kill us to silence us won't dare to do it openly.

As long as I can live, what does shame matter?

Yu Liang turned around, his gloom vanished, replaced by a bright smile that sent chills down one's spine.

"Master."

He walked back to Gu Santong, folded the payment reminder slip, and solemnly put it into his pocket.

This is the new bargaining chip.

"One hundred thousand spirit stones, for three days, right?"

Gu Santong felt uneasy at his laughter and instinctively shrank back: "You... have a solution? Our peak has been ransacked, even the rat holes have been cleaned out, we really have no money."

"Purple Bamboo Peak is poor because you are too honest. Or rather, you haven't gone completely mad yet."

Yu Liang pointed to the group of crazy senior brothers and sisters around him who were still sleepwalking and drooling, and finally his gaze fell on Hongyao, who was hanging on him and trying to cut a cut on his neck with his fingernail to taste the blood.

"To beg for food when you have mountains of gold and silver is a complete waste of resources."

"Jinshan?" Gu Santong looked around the desolate, mass grave, his face blank. "These buried human bones can actually be sold for money?"

Yu Liang turned around and pointed his finger into the distance.

There, shrouded in mist and resplendent in gold, was the core of the Qingxuan Sect's power—the main hall on the summit.

"Isn't that it?"

Gu Santong followed the finger and nearly fell off the gourd in fright: "You want to seize the main peak?! No way! Although our sect leader has a good temper, the protective formation can kill!"

"Robbery? That's vulgar."

Yu Liang straightened the collar of his tattered Taoist robe, letting Hongyao play with the hem.

He stood tall, his eyes burning with fervor, yet radiating absolute rationality.

"We are the victims. We are a vulnerable group."

"We're going there to reason with them and seek humanitarian aid."

"I want things to be the way they are—for example, reputable sects should help their fellow disciples who are 'unable to take care of themselves,' right?"

He turned to look at Su Xiu.

"Xiuer, grab your weapon and make Pig's eyes swell up."

"Let's make a big deal today."

Pig Grandpa approached Yu Liang's broken limbs, opened his mouth, and swallowed that void.

Yu Liang hurriedly dodged, shouting, "No rush, if you want to open for business, you have to suffer."

Holding Pigsy in her arms, Su Xiu was both terrified and bewildered, stammering, "Open...open what?"

Yu Liang uttered two words, each one resounding.

"Stealing an accident to extort money."

He faced the rising sun, arms outstretched, his voice carrying a brash, unbridled air.

"As long as you're bold enough, Master can take maternity leave."