The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

Lin Du's victory was unexpected, yet perfectly reasonable.

Wu Xi's face was pale. Now that he had calmed down, all his joints were aching terribly. Not only did they hurt, but they also felt a persistent, chilling coldness, as if a river with ice shards in early spring had ravaged his vulnerable spots. At first, he didn't feel much pain, but as he calmed down, he realized that each ice shard had scraped away a piece of flesh.

He couldn't get up immediately.

A pair of spotless silver brocade boots caught Wu Xi's eye, and then that lingering voice rang out again, "A bet is a bet, Junior Nephew Wu Xi."

Wu Xi suddenly realized that, based on experience or the depth of spiritual power, Lin Du's chances of winning were only 10%, but as the fight progressed, it seemed that Lin Du had anticipated the direction of spiritual power at every step.

One possessed reaction speed honed over decades, while the other had a powerful mental capacity for constant deduction and observation during battle. He truly lost.

Lin Du is truly strong.

He clutched his empty lower abdomen. It was clearly May, and he had exhausted himself in a competition. He should have been terribly hot, but his back was already covered in cold sweat.

"Replying to Uncle Lin," Wu Xi said with difficulty, "I posted a request for medicine in Fusifang."

Lin Du clicked his tongue. "What's there to hide from me?"

"Because... after that person accepted the mission in Fusifang, the requirement was that the answer not be leaked."

Lin Du chuckled. "Then why did you say it?"

Wu Xi remained silent; it was wrong to say anything, and it was also wrong not to say anything.

"What if I insist on getting that answer from you?" Lin Du asked, lowering his eyes. "I remember that after a mission is posted in Fusifang, someone accepts it, submits the information, and the ward gives the poster a complete scroll recording the information, right?"

Her voice carried an unusual air of authority. "A useless scroll in exchange for a life-saving ancient herb. The choice is yours."

"You should know that there is only one last ancient herb left in this world. Whether you take it or not is entirely up to you."

The two figures, one kneeling and one standing, were locked in a stalemate, while the adults watching on the other side started making a ruckus.

Ju Yuan stretched out his hand, "Give me money, give me money, give me money."

Pei Qin tried to renege on the debt, saying, "I have no money, but you can take my life."

Ju Yuan sneered, "You want to renege on your debt? Believe me, I'll throw you right back into Qingzhou City. You've already drunk a whole pot of my Immortal Path Guide today, hurry up, the children are watching!"

Pei Qin grumbled, "We sword cultivators are very poor. All we know how to do is fight, but we can't earn money with our own skills."

"Am I the same? I'm poor too. My eldest apprentice's health is failing, and the youngest is still growing. I'm so poor that I can hardly afford to raise him anymore. You need to hurry up." Ju Yuan patted his back, shaking his head and sighing desperately, as if he wouldn't be able to survive tomorrow.

Pei Qin gritted his teeth and pulled out his money, muttering under his breath, "You're just a bandit!"

Ju Yuan took the money, then pulled the man back into his arms, saying, "Good brother!"

Lin Du, his eyelids drooping, looked impatiently at the person whose forehead was also beaded with sweat. "It's time. I should go back to sleep. Have you thought it through?"

She clearly did not release the pressure of the Cloud Soaring Realm, and her aura was completely concealed, but when she stood in front of people, it felt as if she was gazing at an unfathomable misty green mountain.

Pei Qin wanted to step forward and say something, but Ju Yuan held him firmly and he couldn't break free.

Lin Du saw that Wu Xi was still looking down, as if she was struggling with something.

She gave a disdainful laugh, like the first yellow leaf falling in autumn, heralding the end of a season. It landed in Wu Xi's ears and ripped through his precarious defenses.

"Uncle Lin, please."

Wu Xi took out a small scroll, which was made of golden silk and looked quite luxurious.

Lin Du smiled, took the scroll, and then walked towards Feng Chao.

The scroll contained only a few lines of text, written in vermilion ink, which read: "The Supreme Sect's inner treasury contains the long-extinct 'Ten Thousand Year Grass,' which is even more suitable for prolonging life for those whose Golden Core has been shattered than the 'Wuwei Mushroom.' It is currently being used by Lin Du to extend his life."

Lin Du narrowed his eyes, turned to look at Ju Yuan, and a thought inexplicably arose in his mind.

Only a handful of people within the sect knew about Mo Lin's innate spiritual bones, and only a few knew that she drank the Ten Thousand Year Herb to prolong her life.

But these messages will just happen to reach the ears of those who covet it, and the people hiding behind them may be the same group of people.

Feng Chao urged her, "Go back to sleep, leave it to us."

Lin Du obediently went back, and without sleeping, he climbed up Tianrui Peak in the middle of the night and went straight to find Jiang Liang, who was preparing to start refining pills.

Now that she has practiced her footwork, she walks even more silently. Just standing there to the side startled Jiang Liang so much that his hand trembled and he immediately squatted down and shrank back.

Lin Du: ...

"Seriously, old man? How about I kill a turtle for you, give you the shell, and you can hide inside it if you run into someone?"

Jiang Liang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the voice was familiar. Without standing up, he muttered, "I'm sifting out medicine."

"You're already preparing to start the furnace and you're still sifting herbs? Even if I've never refined pills, I've still read books!" Lin Du reached out, grabbed Jiang Liang by the back of his collar, and prepared to lift him up. "I gave away one of the Ten Thousand Year Grasses."

Jiang Liang had originally intended to resist, but upon hearing this, he stood up abruptly, pushed Lin Du's hand back, and swayed as a result.

"Are you crazy? Don't you know there are only ten trees in the sect, just enough for you to reach the hundred-year mark, and you're giving them to someone else??"

He grabbed his whisk and was about to start hitting Lin Du.

Lin Du was beaten so badly that he covered his head and ran away, "No, senior brother, let me explain."

"Explain what? Do you want to die? I went through all that trouble..." Jiang Liang's words were abruptly cut off as Lin Du threw a bottle of pills at him.

"What is this?"

"I don't know, please take a look." Lin Du stopped.

Jiang Liang opened the bottle, and after just one glance, he was stunned.

"Where did you get these top-grade pills?"

The four grades of Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow are each divided into nine levels. The Heaven grade is the rarest and most difficult to refine. Jiang Liang is the leader of the alchemy path because he can refine Heaven grade pills.

"I found it in the secret realm." Lin Du made up a story. He couldn't reveal the system information. He risked showing it to Jiang Liang today because he knew that Jiang Liang, being socially awkward, wouldn't tell anyone else.

Jiang Liang glanced at Lin Du again, angrily put the lid back on, and mumbled, "You're lucky, it works. You won't die. Fine, just give it to him, so he won't have to kneel before me again."

"I was still alive when that person knelt before me; it was really creepy."

Lin Du laughed, "I wanted to personally see my master off; how could he die so soon?"

These words made it sound like she was going to see Yan Ye off at his deathbed. Jiang Liang lifted his eyelids and glanced at Lin Du.

"Yan Ye told me before that when you practiced your footwork, every time you missed a step and fell, there would be a part where you didn't use spiritual power to support you and just kept falling down, as if you had a death wish. He asked me if I could tell anything unusual by taking your pulse."

"I say I am a living judge, not a real Yama, and taking pulses is not fortune telling."

Jiang Liang paused, then turned his head to pack his things, leaving Lin Du with only his back view. "So many of us are holding you back, not so you can die."

Lin Du blinked. "I don't have that plan yet."

Jiang Liang simply snorted coldly and remained silent.

When Lin Du said those words, he genuinely believed that Lin Du didn't want to live anymore.

That last one was originally intended for Lin Du to pass the centennial mark, just in case that one plant was missing.

"Why give him that herb? Just because you didn't want to put me in a difficult position?"

When there was nothing left to put away on the table, Jiang Liang turned to look at her.

Lin Du smiled and said, "They already know that Wu Xi has come to the Supreme Sect several times and issued missions in Fusifang, and that someone has accepted the missions. So this news is no longer a secret."

"If we don't give it to them, it will be difficult for our Supreme Sect to maintain its reputation. What if someone comes asking about it later? After all, I'm still alive and well, so it's hard for us to say anything."

"Let's spread the word that the last one was given to Wu Xi, so that the outside world will give up any idea. If anyone wants it, they can just ask Wu Xi."

Lin Du chuckled at the end, and Jiang Liang scoffed, "You should think less. It's so late at night, why aren't you sleeping and you're thinking so much? You deserve it..."

"By the way, you came here just to tell me this?"

Lin Du shook her head and looked out the window. The moonlight was thin, and thick fog clung to Tianrui Peak, like a gloom that could not be blown away, making it impossible for her to see the way out.

"I just had a fight and gained some insights. Senior brother, let me practice Tai Chi again. Can you tell me if it's still considered exercise this time?"

Jiang Liang's expression stiffened. "Why are you up in the middle of the night, instead of sleeping, asking me to teach you martial arts?"

Lin Du looked like a student calling his math teacher at midnight to ask about a competition problem, his eyes fixed expectantly on his senior.

Jiang Liang resignedly flicked his whisk, "Practice! Practice!"