Inside the main hall of the Sanqing Sect, a group of people were sitting there obediently.
Tang Xiaoyu stood above them, looking down at the people below.
"I'm so heartbroken! A heart-wrenching pain. Today I spent all of my wife's savings to pay off the external debt, but then someone tricked me tonight."
"I feel utterly humiliated by this, and I'm also extremely furious with the person who deceived me."
"Little Ling'er, come and explain this to me, explain."
"Sect Master, Little Ling'er was wrong."
Xiao Lan also quickly stood up: "Sect Master, Xiao Lan was also wrong."
"If saying 'I was wrong' could resolve things, what would we need laws and sect rules for?"
Tang Xiaoyu felt that he was becoming more and more irritable. In order to not die young, he suppressed his anger: "Tomorrow, you two will follow Shi Tou to reclaim wasteland."
"Yes, Sect Master."
Tang Xiaoyu lamented: "I thought only people like Department Head Zhou would like to lie. I didn't expect that you, Xiao Lan, also like to lie."
"You have disappointed me greatly."
With an expression as if she would cry at any moment, Xiao Lan said: "Sect Master, I will never dare to do it again. Please forgive me!"
"This is not your fault, it is because your master did not teach you well."
He turned to look at Zhou Ruiqing: "Department Head Zhou, don't you have anything to say?"
Zhou Ruiqing shook his head vigorously like a rattle drum: "No, no."
"You don't, but I do."
What followed was a half-hour long lecture, with yelling echoing throughout the entire Sanqing Sect.
The next day, Tang Xiaoyu took Xiao Hei with him and started a busy day.
"Are the incense burner, candle holders, and offerings ready?"
"Ready."
Inside the main hall, a deity statue as tall as a man stood on a high platform.
After Tang Xiaoyu bathed and changed into formal attire, he led his neatly dressed disciples into the main hall.
Tang Xiaoyu first lit three sticks of incense, then knelt to pay respects, and started stating his requests.
Zhou Ruiqing, who was hosting to the side, stared blankly: [How boring, I don't know what he was thinking. Asking for a rock? Do you think the ancestral statues enshrined by our sect were carved randomly? Ignorance is frightening.]
Tang Xiaoyu spoke for more than ten minutes. He described his misery, his future plans and aspirations - it was hyperbolic.
Seeing his pious manner even made Zhou Ruiqing secretly click his tongue.
"As an unworthy disciple, I also fear that I would fail to live up to the holy one's reputation, so I am forced by circumstances with no other option but to invite out the holy statue to Sanqing Sect, hoping that the holy one will agree."
After speaking, he knelt down and did not dare to get up.
The disciples behind were not as devout as him. All of them were just going through the motions.
Because Zhou Ruiqing was already yawning over there.
Who would they believe? Tang Xiaoyu who had zero cultivation? Or their own master? The result was self-evident.
Half an hour later, all the disciples had long stood up, only Tang Xiaoyu was still kneeling there to worship.
Just as Zhou Ruiqing was about to go over to dissuade him, suddenly the colors of heaven and earth changed. A golden light enveloped the statue. The statue suddenly opened its mouth and said: "Good!"
With just this one word, it made everyone feel awe in the depths of their hearts. They hurried to kneel down and pay respects. The one who felt it most deeply was Zhou Ruiqing.
He was directly pressed by the aura contained in this word, kneeling on the ground, unable to move a bit.
Tang Xiaoyu respectfully said: "Thank you, Your Holiness." Then he bowed three times again.
When the sky returned to normal, Tang Xiaoyu dared to get up. Looking up, he saw a cultivation technique manual placed on the incense altar, while Zhou Ruiqing had collapsed straight on the ground.
Tang Xiaoyu quickly picked up the manual: "Alright everyone, you can get up now! The Holy One has acknowledged us. From now on, everyone must come every morning to burn incense and bow down. You are dismissed!"
The disciples had never been more respectful: "Sect Master, this disciple takes his leave."
Tang Xiaoyu looked again at Zhou Ruiqing: "Elder Zhou, we must always maintain an awe-inspiring heart."
From now on, Tang Xiaoyu knew that he could no longer randomly call out titles, so he called Zhou Ruiqing Elder Zhou.
Zhou Ruiqing quickly nodded in agreement, no longer daring to have his former little tricks.
"What our sect represents now is no longer you and me, but the reputation of the saint. If we damage his reputation, death would be a luxury for us."
"Please be assured, Sect Master. I will definitely not disappoint the Holy One." Zhou Ruiqing promised.
"Very well, go on about your business!"
Xiao Hei, who had been anxiously pacing outside the door, immediately came up to Tang Xiaoyu when he came out.
Tang Xiaoyu stroked his head: "Xiao Hei, you are no longer an ordinary dog. You are now the saint's dog."
"From today onwards, your dog life has reached its climax."
Xiao Hei frolicked happily on the square: [I'm no longer just an ordinary dog, I'm the saint's dog!]
Tang Xiaoyu frowned: "Did you understand? I was just joking with you."
[I was really scared to death today. If I didn't keep maintaining an awe-inspiring heart all this time, I might have to eat dog food today.]
[Do you mean I can cultivate now? Very likely. I'll hurry back and try it out.]
Three days later, Tang Xiaoyu walked dejectedly out of the room.
"Your Holiness, you don't love me! Why can't I still cultivate?"
"Xiao Yan, come over." Tang Xiaoyu waved at Tang Xiao Yan and called.
"Cousin, what's the matter?"
Tang Xiaoyu handed her the cultivation technique: "This was left behind by the Holy One. Take it and let everyone cultivate it! First let your master take a look, see how incredible this technique is."
Tang Xiao Yan took the manual. The title was just three words: Xing Qi Jue (Vital Energy Cultivation Technique).
"How ordinary!"
Tang Xiaoyu looked up at the sky with a grieved expression:
"The greatest truths are the simplest. Do not question what the Holy One has left behind."
"I understand, cousin."
A year passed in the blink of an eye. Every day, the Sanqing Sect spent their time enduring Tang Xiaoyu's yells and scoldings.
During this year, Lin Qingying went from the Xuesha Sect to the Yinming Sect. After finding out at Yinming Sect that Tang Xiaoyu was still alive, the boulder in her heart finally settled.
In order not to disturb his life, Lin Qingying chose to return to the Sky Demon Sect.
When Zhao Siqi stood before Lin Qingying, she felt a sour feeling in her heart, though she didn't know why. But she swore that when she encountered Tang Xiaoyu, she would definitely severely teach him a lesson.
And our Tang Xiaoyu right now was standing on a high platform in the square, loudly scolding the over sixty disciples below him.
"Xiao Lan, Little Ling'er, are you trying to suffocate me?"
"If I didn't go into town today to do business, I still wouldn't know that I had already died."
"What was written on that banner you made? No money left for a proper burial because the sect master was annoyed to death."
"From my inquiries today, I've come to know what stories you've spread about me this past year."
"From having my four limbs broken to my wife eloping with another man, and the most infuriating being that I couldn't pay at the brothel and got held back."
"What is it now! You just can't stand to see me doing well, can you! Starting today, go farm the land. No more begging allowed."
"I'm afraid that later on, I won't even have enough to buy a coffin."
"Did you hear me or not?"
The two responded obediently: "Yes, we heard you."
Tang Xiaoyu then turned to Zhou Ruiqing again: "Elder Zhou, my dear Elder Zhou! After cultivating the Xing Qi Jue, your cultivation base has also recovered to the late YuanYing stage. The senior disciples have also entered the Foundation Establishment stage. But has your intelligence seen any improvement?"
"Why does it show signs of further decline? Can you please spare a thought for my increasingly thinning hair and not let me go bald before I'm thirty? I implore you."
Zhou Ruiqing felt a little embarrassed. He discovered that the Xing Qi Jue was a supreme cultivation technique. At the same time, it could also heal his injuries. So all his thoughts were on cultivating this technique.
"Please be assured, Sect Master. I will definitely strictly discipline these disciples."
"With your words, although I'm still not assured, it makes me feel a little better at least."
Just as Tang Xiaoyu was about to dismiss everyone, he suddenly recalled something.
"Shi Tou, I almost forgot about you. Get to the front now."
Half an hour later: "All of you scram. You're going to annoy me to death."