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

The Heavenly Grade Five-Colored Stone Flower that Ni Jinxuan brought back was quickly used by Jiang Liang to personally refine the Yuan-Reducing and Bone-Growing Pill.

But Lin Du couldn't eat it while it was still hot; she needed to recover from the deficit caused by the reverse flow of spiritual energy.

Feng Chao was deeply moved as she held the secret realm map that Feng Chao had completed along the way.

"So this is my surprise?"

Lin Du stared silently at the inner treasury token in his hand.

In a sense, the key to this plot has still fallen into her hands.

"Yes." Feng Chao patted her head. "When I'm not around, you can open the inner vault by yourself."

Lin Du pondered for a moment, "Although, Senior Sister, it's one thing to give me a token, but why do you also give me an account book?"

Feng Chao smiled and withdrew his hand, showing no remorse for shifting the blame onto a child. "If anyone needs to take something from the inner treasury in the future, they can come to you. You just need to register it; it's very simple."

"I'm still a child." Lin Du wanted to throw away this hot potato of a ledger. "I don't know how to keep accounts."

"Are you trying to lie to me? I think the 'Ten Books of Mathematical Classics' was among the stack of books I gave you. You didn't study it, did you? Your senior sister even specially recorded my divine sense into it..."

Looking at the senior sister in front of him, Lin Du suddenly thought of his beautiful homeroom teacher from elementary school. Although she was beautiful, she was also very intimidating.

"How could that be? Hahaha." Lin Du chuckled a few times. "Of course I'd learn! Without my senior sister's guidance, how could I have started learning formations? I just..."

"Oh right, you studied formations, so you must be very good at arithmetic and layout planning. Keeping records of the inner treasury will be a piece of cake for you, right?"

Feng Chaoyan's beautiful yet noble face wore an incredibly kind smile, and Lin Du silently accepted the account book.

Stop laughing, she's scared.

Even her sadistic master didn't exert this much pressure on her.

Lin Du silently accepted his new role as the internal warehouse administrator, since the warehouse wasn't opened often.

"Good girl, take good care of yourself, and come to a meeting with me tomorrow."

Feng Chao's smile grew even more amiable. "How much of that lingering power brought from the Lanju Realm remains?"

Lin Du probed it. "Not good. The lingering spirit can only attach itself to the Soul-Nourishing Wood. It's too fragmented; it can't even be called a soul anymore. It can't be nurtured..."

"Then let the sound cultivator, who can benefit the soul, go along. At least let the remnant hold on until it can finish speaking."

Lin Du nodded. One of the important abilities of sound cultivation is to give people a boost of energy, strengthen their current will, and allow them to unleash their final potential.

After assigning out a series of tasks, Feng Chao let out a long sigh, his face showing a hint of fatigue from the relaxation. "If there are no other problems, go and rest first."

Lin Du really does have a problem.

"Senior sister, if a cultivator is not recognized by the Heavenly Dao of this realm, are they unable to appear on the Chongxiao Ranking?"

"That's natural. That's the ranking system of Heaven. If you weren't born from the Heavenly Dao of this world, you wouldn't be ranked."

Lin Du asked again, "Although it is said to be a ranking by the Heavenly Dao, I have checked the historical records. There was no ranking on these two Heavenly Pillars before. There is no record of when those two lists appeared, but it is clearly recorded that six thousand years ago, someone challenged the people on the list for the first time and made it onto the list."

"Yes." Feng Chao didn't understand why Lin Du was suddenly so interested in these two lists.

"From then on, the people on the list were frequently challenged, and many perished or were crippled. There were even people who specialized in studying the characteristics of the techniques and routines of those on the list." Lin Du paused. "I always felt that being on these two lists was not a good thing."

A tree that stands out in the forest will be felled by the wind; this is a truth that everyone understands.

If Heaven truly favors us, then why are there two Heavenly Dao competition platforms descending beside the ranking lists?

Just counting the 100th generation disciples of the Supreme Sect, three of them have already failed along the way.

Feng Chao's eyes flickered slightly, as if she had thought of something. Her gaze was distant and sorrowful. After a long while, she spoke softly, "As long as one is strong enough, even if one stands out in the forest, the wind cannot break one's spirit."

Lin Du lowered his eyes and said softly, "Besides the wind, there are also ants that are not easily noticed."

Even a towering tree can be destroyed by an ant hole.

Feng Chao didn't hear her clearly. "What did you say?"

"I'm saying, those two lists from the Heavenly Dao are like targets, practically telling people directly that they're the strongest, and if you defeat them, you'll be the strongest. But what good is being on those lists besides getting beaten up?"

As soon as Lin Du finished speaking, he saw that the woman's phoenix eyes were clear and bright, sharp as a drawn blade.

"You didn't read the Heart Sutra I gave you, did you?"

Lin Du was unusually guilty. "I was so focused on calculating the formation that the mental cultivation technique didn't really help me much."

The main problem is that the text is written in classical Chinese. She can memorize it, but it's difficult for her to understand it.

It was really difficult for her, a science student.

"There's a saying in the core principles: 'Winning without striving.'"

Feng Chao's voice was clear and steady. In the twilight, the robes she wore reflected a shimmering golden light, which caught Lin Du's eye.

"We may not contend, but we must win skillfully; this is the tenet of us disciples of the Supreme School."

Lin Du was stunned for a moment, then silently stood up and bowed her head, "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Sister."

I understand. We don't have to strive for first place, but we must have the ability to win.

The next morning, Lin Du, who was forbidden from using her spiritual power and could only sleep, got off the hard, icy bed. With her eyelids drooping, she instinctively began to tidy her clothes. It wasn't until she got on the ship and met Yuan Ye, who was also sleepy-eyed, that she began to react.

"What, it's you, kid?"

Yuan Ye spread his hands. "My master said that my skills are enough to make a remnant spirit stand up."

Lin Du responded and dozed off next to him with his head down, until Feng Chao came over and pulled them both up.

The leaders of the three sects, six schools, and ten sects have arrived.

Lin Du was still not fully awake. People always feel sleepy in winter, especially now that she can't use her spiritual power.

"That's roughly how things are. I wonder what the sect leaders think."

Feng Chao's words were concise, yet he clearly explained what happened in the secret realm.

"If the willow branch were to transform into a human, it would be difficult for it to continue living without flesh and blood and vital energy after being separated from the branch."

"If there really were evil practices that devour human essence, it's impossible that no one in Zhongzhou discovered it for six hundred years."

"Wouldn't a sudden investigation cause panic among the disciples?"

Suddenly, Jun Qian of the Jishi Sect spoke up, "But the white bones are a fact. All of our elders in the Water Mirror that day could see them. If we go back and ask the disciples who went in this time, they will surely know that there are indeed white bones buried both above and below."

"I'm not saying this to be mean, but I still think it's a bit of an overreaction. There haven't been any unusual occurrences in recent years, so why go to such lengths and even have a soul examination?"

"There's no solid evidence."

"Oh, yes, there are some." Feng Chao said calmly, and seeing that there was still no movement behind him, he called out, "Lin Du, Yuan Ye."

The two sleepy duo, who had been mostly absent from the back, suddenly looked up with a start.

Yuan Ye subconsciously raised his sleeve to wipe his drool, then took out a zither, "I've prepared it, Junior Uncle."

Lin Du took out the Soul-Nourishing Wood from his bosom. The lingering spirit inside was extremely weak. "There is evidence. This is the lingering spirit of the city lord of Lance City in the Lanju Realm, which I brought out from the Lanju Realm."

Many sect leaders had long heard of Lin Du. Rumor had it that she had even carried back the beams and pillars of an ancient city and the iron lions at the gate. Unexpectedly, she didn't even spare the remnants of people's souls. She really picks up everything!

Yuan Ye spoke up, "Please wait a moment, everyone. I'll give it a proper introduction, otherwise this lingering remnant won't have the energy to speak."

The sect leaders choked in unison. "So, the Supreme Sect is really here to put on a show?"