The dead silence on the high platform continued, as if even the air had solidified into something tangible.
The power-holding elders, who just moments ago were arguing red in the face with spit flying to snatch Shen Qiu, were now all staring at their noses, and their noses staring at their hearts.
Wishing they could turn themselves into the pillars of the grand hall.
But the whispers below the stage were growing louder, buzzing like a swarm of flies.
"What's going on? Why is no one speaking?"
"What else could it be? Disdain!"
"What does it matter if a pure body cultivator without a Spirit Root made it into the Top 8? Azure Cloud Sect is an orthodox immortal sect."
"Which main peak would be willing to take in a brute who only knows how to swing a stick and worship him like a VIP?"
"Shh, keep your voice down. At the very least, he's the Sect Master's personal disciple's brother."
"The elders are probably stressing over how to decently send him packing."
Listening to the increasingly undisguised discussions below, the expressions of the elders on the high platform grew uglier. Their faces flushed to the color of boiled pig liver.
As grand Golden Core mighty figures, the upper echelon of the Azure Cloud Sect, to actually be put in such an awkward position by a servant where they couldn't step down gracefully...
If word of this got out, it would simply be the annual joke of the cultivation world.
Meanwhile, situated at the center of this awkward storm, Mo Fan kept his head lowered.
In the shadows where no one could see, the corners of his mouth were rising crazily, his heart blooming with absolute joy.
"Yes, yes, yes, exactly that expression! Please, whatever you do, don't pick me!"
However, to make this act look more realistic, and to force these old fogeys to make a decision quickly, Mo Fan decided to add fuel to the fire.
He abruptly raised his head. His somewhat tanned face was written with "trepidation" and "longing."
He bent his waist even lower, almost touching the ground. He shouted in an extremely loud, extremely sincere voice, even carrying a hint of a sob:
"Disciple Lu Xiaoqi! Begs the elders to take me in!"
"Although this disciple has no Spirit Root, I have brute strength! I can endure any hardship!"
"Whether it's sweeping floors, chopping wood, carrying water, or emptying chamber pots, this disciple is willing to do it!"
"I only beg for a place to stay in the inner sect; I will absolutely not cause trouble for the elders!"
This shout, full of breath and mixed with his consummate, abundant Qi and blood, instantly echoed throughout the entire inner sect plaza.
Silence.
The elders on the high platform, whose faces were already the color of pig liver, now wished they could rush down and sew Mo Fan's mouth shut.
Why are you yelling so loudly?! Are you afraid people won't know our Azure Cloud Sect despises the poor and loves the rich, burning the bridge after crossing the river?! The brother of the Sect Master's personal disciple is willing to empty chamber pots—if this reaches the Sect Master's ears, how are we old folks supposed to survive?
With Mo Fan's shout, this hot potato had thoroughly transformed into a ticking time bomb about to explode.
The head examiner sitting dead center had nowhere to hide. He felt countless gazes—pleading for help, blaming, and watching the drama—all concentrated on him.
He braced himself and coughed dryly twice, attempting to play hot potato and toss this bomb away.
"Ahem... Well, Junior Brother Li, isn't your Thousand Mechanisms Peak currently lacking a few strongmen who can carry Profound Iron Heavy Armor? This kid's physical body isn't bad, how about..."
"Aiya, Senior Brother, you are unaware!" The elder addressed as Junior Brother Li waved his hands frantically, acting like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"The heavy armor of my Thousand Mechanisms Peak requires Divine Sense micro-management to carve array runes! He is a mortal without even a sense of Qi; if he goes there, he'll break things with a single touch!"
"It won't do, it absolutely won't do!"
"Then... Junior Sister Zhang, your Sunset Peak..."
"Senior Brother must be joking. Sunset Peak is full of female cultivators with strict rules. Taking a grown man in, what kind of decency is that?"
The head examiner went around in a circle, only to find everyone playing dumb, pushing and declining.
The ball rolled a massive lap and surprisingly rolled back to his own feet, completely untouched.
He tugged anxiously at the beard on his chin.
His brain spun rapidly, trying to come up with a destination from the sect's vast sea of departments that wouldn't lose the sect's face, yet could logically send this piece of scrap material packing.
Just as he felt he was about to rip all his beard hair out...
A fat elder responsible for logistics and miscellaneous affairs, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, suddenly slapped his thigh hard!
SMACK!
This slap was incredibly heavy.
In the fat elder's tiny eyes—originally squeezed into slits by fat—burst forth an astonishing light, as if he had grasped a life-saving straw.
He didn't speak aloud.
Instead, he rapidly separated a wisp of Divine Sense, excitedly transmitting a telepathic message to all his colleagues on the high platform:
"Senior Brothers and Sisters! How could you forget him!"
"That person! That madman exiled to guard the abandoned spirit vein mine in the back mountain!"
The Divine Senses of the elders shuddered collectively.
A taboo name unanimously surfaced in their minds—Lin Dong.
The biggest weirdo since the founding of the Azure Cloud Sect, the "fringe science madman" who terrified the cultivation world.
This guy clearly held the official designation of an inner sect elder, yet scoffed at orthodox cultivation. He didn't refine pills, he didn't draw talismans.
He spent his days obsessed with extremely radical, even arguably treasonous topics like The Great Hypothesis on Mortals Defying Fate to Change Destiny.
The research projects he came up with back then still gave these elders the creeps just thinking about them:
The "Bone Reading Pulse Interception Spirit Testing Art" that required no Spirit Root;
The "Bloodline Atavism Theory" that attempted to extract Spirit Beast essence blood and inject it into human bodies;
And even the inhumane "Physical Spirit Root Grafting Method," which involved digging out the Spirit Roots of the dead and sewing them into the dantians of the living!
He turned a perfectly fine place of secluded cultivation into a foul-smelling hellhole echoing with ghostly wails.
Finally, due to a large-scale experiment attempting to forcibly fuse spiritual Qi of different attributes, he directly blew half the inner sect alchemy lab sky-high.
The higher-ups were furious. Only then was he thoroughly stripped of his power and exiled to the most desolate abandoned mine in the back mountain to be a mountain guard.
Although exiled, nominally, the godforsaken peak he stayed on still retained an official department designation of the Azure Cloud Sect—Hundred Forging Peak.
The fat elder's telepathic transmission continued, carrying an almost manic excitement:
"Think about it, everyone! Back when this Lu Xiaoqi was a servant in the outer court, wasn't he the one whose bones were read and who was highly regarded by that madman?"
"Moreover, the fact that he was able to fight his way into the Top 8 today relying purely on brute muscle without any spiritual Qi—doesn't this exactly fulfill that madman Lin Dong's heretical theory that 'Mortals can also defy the Heavens'?!"
"What is this called? This is called Karmic Cycle, a profound destiny!" > "Shoving this waste Spirit Root onto that madman is simply a match made in heaven, the most perfect pairing among perfect pairings!"
A single sentence woke the dreamers!
The elders on the high platform first looked weird, glancing at each other in dismay.
Shoving the brother of the Sect Master's personal disciple onto a notorious madman? Was that appropriate?
But immediately after, when they realized this might be the only way to toss away this hot potato while still making it sound grand and legitimate...
On everyone's faces emerged a sanctimonious look of approval.
Brilliant! It was simply a 200 IQ, 5D-chess, galaxy-brain masterstroke! Absolutely brilliant!
"Ahem!"
The fat elder in charge of logistics volunteered and stood up from his chair.
He cleared his throat. The fat on his face piled up into an extremely amiable, kind, and even strongly appreciative expression of "I see great things in you." He strode to the edge of the high platform.
Shady middleman, officially online.
"Xiaoqi, my boy."
The fat elder's voice, amplified by Mana, became resonant and highly infectious.
He began a frantic sales pitch to Mo Fan and the surrounding melon-eating masses stretching their necks, reaching a pyramid scheme level of hype.
"Please, rise quickly! Your words simply humble our Azure Cloud Sect!"
"With a mortal body, you practiced external physical techniques to the bone, shining brilliantly in this Outer Court Grand Tournament."
"It can be said you have pioneered a new path for our Azure Cloud Sect's outer court! Such perseverance and disposition are exactly the treasures the cultivation world lacks the most!"
The fat elder opened his arms, his tone rising and falling rhythmically, as if describing a utopian paradise.
"To tell you the truth, in our Azure Cloud Sect's inner sect, there is a mountain peak with extremely profound heritage and highly secretive lineage, named—Hundred Forging Peak!"
"The ancestral motto of this peak focuses exactly on 'Tempered a thousand times, breaking to rebuild'!"
"It is the most suitable place for a body cultivation genius like you, who is not bound by a Spirit Root and only cultivates oneself!"
"Although this peak is located in the back mountain and is slightly remote, its advantage lies in being quiet and elegant, undisturbed by anyone."
"It is an absolute holy land for secluded, bitter cultivation!"
The fat elder hyped it up more and more enthusiastically, almost believing it himself.
"The Peak Master of Hundred Forging Peak, Lin... ahem, the Peak Master is an otherworldly expert who focuses entirely on researching human potential and ignores worldly affairs!"
"If you go to Hundred Forging Peak, aside from the Peak Master and your fellow disciples, you will be the entire mountain's greatest treasure!"
"Do you understand what concept this is?"
The fat elder threw out his final killer move, his voice full of temptation.
"This means that all the novice resource quotas allocated by the inner sect to Hundred Forging Peak will be enjoyed by you alone, without needing to fight anyone for them!"
This extravagantly embellished packaging made the eyes of the outer court disciples below, who didn't know the truth, turn red.
An otherworldly expert! Exclusive resources! Secluded cultivation!
How did this sound like exile? This sounded exactly like a legendary hidden class and a hidden map!
And at this very moment, standing below the stage, an entirely different scene was playing out in Mo Fan's mind.
The fat elder was spouting a torrential flow of hype up above, even vaguely glossing over the name "Lin Dong."
But Mo Fan... wasn't listening at all.
After all, what he wanted was merely the clearance of an inner sect disciple. Give him all these flashy resources, and he wouldn't be able to use them anyway.
As for whatever Peak Master, as long as it wasn't a Golden Core peak or Nascent Soul old monster sweeping him with Divine Sense every day, who cares what kind of potential researcher he was?
At worst, he'd just go back to the outer court and rely on Mo Yan and the others to get by.
"A free massive base just dropped from the sky!"
Mo Fan roared frantically in his heart, terrified that the elders on the high platform would suddenly change their minds and back out.
Thud!
Without any hesitation, Mo Fan dropped to his knees again extremely smoothly. He even rubbed his eyes hard with his sleeve, forcing out a trace of "tearful" emotion.
"Many thanks to the elder for granting my wish! Many thanks to the sect for this great kindness!"
Mo Fan's voice trembled, perfectly performing the ecstasy of a bottom-tier servant meeting his destined patron.
"This disciple is willing to go to Hundred Forging Peak! Even if it's just sweeping floors and chopping wood, I will absolutely not let down the cultivation of the sect and the Peak Master!"
"This disciple will go report immediately!"
Seeing Mo Fan agree so readily.
The fat elder on the high platform also froze for a moment, terrified that Mo Fan would back out once he found out Hundred Forging Peak was just that abandoned mine.
To thoroughly lock in this indenture contract, the fat elder waved his hand extremely generously.
"Good child! Truly ambitious!"
"These twenty mid-grade Spirit Stones will count as my personal, private sponsorship to you as a welcoming gift! Take them and cultivate well, and do not fail the prestige of your younger brother!"
A cloth bag landed precisely in Mo Fan's arms.
Hugging that bag of mid-grade Spirit Stones radiating rich spiritual Qi (equivalent to 2,000 low-grade Spirit Stones!), Mo Fan kowtowed repeatedly in excitement.
The fat elder looked at the discarded baggage, his eyes narrowing into slits with a smile.
Mo Fan, hugging a massive sum of money and his dream hidden base, grinned so wide the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears.
Separated by the high platform, like a shady middleman and a black-hearted peddler...
Under the witness of everyone present, the two of them extremely happily concluded a "win-win" fraudulent transaction.