Song Shuhang nodded his head in agreement. The ‘White Family’ was super rich, and could do whatever it wished!

　　“Even if no one steps inside those immortal caves in the span of a hundred years, I will still keep them full of spiritual qi since I have spirit stones to spare!” This was basically Senior White’s logic.

　　On the other hand, how was the cost of the ‘spiritual qi bill’ calculated? If the price was reasonable, Shuhang might give it a thought.

　　If he wanted to look for a place to close up in the future, he could just look for a random place and then contact a company that sold spiritual qi— wait, not a company, but a sect! Anyway, he could just look for a specialized sect and buy the spiritual qi he needed from them, pouring it into the place he was going to close up in. This plan was much better than going through a lot of trouble to find a suitable place with ample quantity of spiritual qi.

　　Still, how would spiritual qi be transported over? Through pipes like water? Or were they going to use some type of black technology belonging to cultivators? For example, they would engrave a formation, and the spiritual qi would automatically gush out of it from the ‘spiritual veins’ on the other side?

　　Just as Shuhang was in deep thought, Venerable White added, “Just now, Fellow Daoist Yellow Mountain sent me a message and told me that one of the leaders of the Rising Sun Spiritual Qi Sect was participating in this event of the White Cloud Academy as well. Then, this leader met True Monarch Yellow Mountain by chance, and they started chatting. While chatting, he brought up the fact that I still owed the money for several decades’ worth of spiritual qi. Therefore, the leader asked True Monarch Yellow Mountain if he knew when I was going to make the deferred payment. Since I’m a large customer of theirs, they didn’t stop providing the service in those ten or so immortal caves even though I didn’t pay up until now. Ahaha.”

　　Song Shuhang nodded in agreement. It made sense. The competition was very high nowadays, and rich and generous customers such as Venerable White were hard to find. Therefore, regardless of the price they had to pay, it was for the best if they could keep such a customer.

　　Even if they paid a steep price, they were unlikely to suffer a loss if they hugged the thigh of such a customer!

　　“Anyway, Shuhang, you can keep attending the opening ceremony of the scholarly faction. As for me, I’ll head to Fellow Daoist Yellow Mountain’s place, and will immediately come back after I’m done settling the deferred payment of the spiritual qi bill,” Venerable White said in a low voice.

　　“Sure!” Song Shuhang replied.

　　Venerable White waved at True Monarch Eternal Fire and bid him farewell. Then, to avoid disturbing the scholarly disciples, he quietly left the world of the golden lotus and headed to True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s place with his flying sword.

　　After Senior White left, Song Shuhang took out his mobile phone and prepared to go online to look for a few jokes and note them down. That way, he wouldn’t only have dirty jokes in his mind the next time he met Senior White Two…

　　In addition, he had to look for jokes that were easy to understand. Senior White Two had never got out of the Netherworld Realm, and wasn’t familiar with the modern world. There were some modern jokes that he would definitely not understand, and if he didn’t understand, he wouldn’t like them!

　　Song Shuhang unlocked his phone and discovered that he couldn’t connect to the Internet.

　　Let alone connecting to the Internet… the mobile phone didn’t have any signal in the first place. One had to remember that it was a mobile phone that Venerable White had magically modified, and it could get a signal even at the bottom of the sea.

　　As expected, the world of the golden lotus had its own special properties.

　　…Wait a moment!

　　Wasn’t Venerable White’s mobile phone able to get a signal before? He even received True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s message! From the looks of it, the enhancement of his phone wasn’t strong enough. Later, he would have to ask Senior White to give his phone an upgrade.

　　The screen of my phone is also cracked. I can replace that too while I’m at it, Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　Since he couldn’t look for jokes, he could only put his phone away and keep True Monarch Eternal Fire company as they were listening to the speech of the ‘old principal’ of the scholarly faction.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The speech of the principal seemed infinite, and had hypnotic properties. Song Shuhang started to feel sleepy after listening to it.

　　“Sigh… Venerable White was really lucky that he had that spiritual qi bill to pay. He managed to dodge the boring speech of the principal!” Song Shuhang said in a soft voice.

　　In the next moment, all his hair suddenly stood on ends!

　　Due to his incredible luck, it was very difficult that calamities would befall on Venerable White, and even if something bad happened, it was very likely that it would affect only the people next to him.

　　Such being the case… was it possible that Venerable White had left the place due to his incredible luck suddenly manifesting, which led him away from the imminent calamity?

　　The more he thought about it, the more Song Shuhang felt that it was possible!

　　Hypothetically speaking, if Venerable White had really left the place due to his luck… it meant that something not too good would soon take place in the world of the golden lotus!

　　After thinking up to this point, Song Shuhang became restless.

　　I also feel a sudden urge to go to the toilet!

　　In addition, I’m just a small cultivator of the Third Stage, and there is nothing I can do here.

　　Song Shuhang said to the nearby True Monarch Eternal Fire, “Senior Eternal Fire, I urgently need to pee. I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a second.”

　　“Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber, no need to be impatient. The speech of the ancestor is about to finish. There are only five sentences left. He follows the same pattern each time he gives a speech, and I already know the contents by heart by now. After the ancestor is finished with his speech, I’ll bring Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber to the treasure house of the White Cloud Academy and let you choose a magical treasure from there as a sign of my gratitude,” True Monarch Eternal Fire said with a smile.

　　Fifty lotus seeds weren’t enough to compensate Song Shuhang for the kindness he showed by teaching them the ‘marking dance’!

　　Anyway, it seemed that the speech was going to end in just five sentences.

　　If that was the case, there shouldn’t be any problem in waiting there for a little longer.

　　Thereupon, Song Shuhang nodded, and said, “If that’s the case… fine.”

　　True Monarch Eternal Fire smiled like a true scholar.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Just as True Monarch Eternal Fire had predicted, the old scholar concluded his speech after another five sentences.

　　The cultivators of the scholarly faction celebrated with a round of thunderous applause.

　　“Let’s go. Little friend Shuhang, come with me,” True Monarch Eternal Fire said as he made a ‘please’ gesture.

　　Song Shuhang faintly smiled and followed behind.

　　Perhaps I was just overthinking it earlier, and Senior White didn’t leave this place to dodge a calamity, but just to pay his spiritual qi bill…

　　Just in this fashion, little friend Shuhang followed True Monarch Eternal Fire, heading toward the entrance of the world of the golden lotus.

　　One step, two steps, three steps…

　　The distance between the duo and the entrance of the world of the golden lotus was getting shorter and shorter.

　　But right at this time, the whole ‘world of the golden lotus’ violently shook.

　　True Monarch Eternal Fire—who was in front of Song Shuhang, leading the way—directly fell to the ground. There was currently a deep connection between him and the world of the golden lotus. As such, when the world of the golden lotus suffered from that attack just now, True Monarch Eternal Fire felt as though he had experienced it personally.

　　He struggled to get up; his face was deathly pale, with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

　　Behind him, Song Shuhang forced a smile.

　　It was over… when Senior White left earlier, it was to dodge a calamity!

　　Now that the world of the golden lotus had suffered this sudden attack, there was no need to guess whose work it was… it was surely the doing of that existence in the Netherworld Realm that wasn’t any weaker than Senior White Two. That entity was likely already done taking control of the ‘world of the black lotus’ and found the passage connecting the worlds of the two lotus flowers, sneaking into it and ultimately launching an attack against the ‘world of the golden lotus’.

　　If True Monarch Eternal Fire had been one step late and hadn’t left his mark in the world of the golden lotus, the attack just now would have perhaps allowed that creature of the Netherworld Realm to directly barge into the world of the golden lotus!

　　“What’s happening?” The old scholar furrowed his brows and used a special method to communicate with the Virtuous Golden Lotus.

　　The Virtuous Golden Lotus that had created this world had a consciousness of its own. As such, the old scholar could communicate with it.

　　Very soon, the Virtuous Golden Lotus transmitted a piece of information back to the old scholar: [There is a terrifying entity that launched an attack against the world of the golden lotus from a neighboring small world in an attempt to break into it. The world of the golden lotus has been created not too long ago, and it has yet to properly take shape. It’s very vulnerable at the moment, and can’t withstand the power of that terrifying entity.]

　　The complexion of the old scholar immediately changed.

　　If even the Virtuous Golden Lotus was calling that entity ‘terrifying’, it meant that the strength of the opposite party definitely surpassed the Eighth Stage Realm. Was their enemy a Ninth Stage Tribulation Transcender?

　　The old scholar grabbed once again the page of the golden book. Hopefully, this method the Sage left behind would help them deal with this situation.

　　“Boom, boom, boom~”

　　A series of earth-shaking explosions echoed throughout the surrounding area. It felt as though the whole world of the golden lotus was about to get overturned and smashed to pieces.

　　Soon after, a finger made of metal pierced through the world of the golden lotus.

　　“Aaaaah!!!” True Monarch Eternal Fire’s face became purple as he screamed in pain. At this time, he was one with the world of the golden lotus. Therefore, he felt a sharp pain when the world of the golden lotus was pierced through.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　In the sky, the metallic finger moved slightly.

　　The world of the golden lotus had yet to thoroughly take shape, and the ball of liquid metal didn’t waste time, exploiting this weakness.

　　The only problem was that it was currently unable to barge into this place with its main body. Therefore, it had no choice but to mobilize a portion of its energy and transform it into this gigantic finger made of metal that then pierced through the world of the golden lotus to get an idea of the situation on the other side.

　　But as soon as its energy managed to pierce through the world of the golden lotus and get on the other side, it discovered something—someone had already left a mark inside the world of the golden lotus, and this place was now someone else’s property!

　　Just what was happening?

　　“:angry_smile:, Why is there a mark in this world? Who was it? Who stole my treasure?!” The angry roar of the ball of liquid metal echoed throughout the world of the golden lotus.

　　After hearing these words, Song Shuhang was a little more at ease. Just as Senior White Two had guessed, now that the world of the golden lotus had a master, this fearsome entity would be unable to directly barge into it.

　　In the next moment, Song Shuhang activated the healing technique on his ‘ancient bronze ring’ and used it on True Monarch Eternal Fire’s body. “Senior Eternal Fire, try to hold on.”

　　The level of the healing technique was rather low, but it should alleviate True Monarch Eternal Fire’s pain a little.

　　“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber,” True Monarch Eternal Fire said as he gritted his teeth. His vision was concentrated on that finger of metal in the sky.

　　Was this the calamity that little friend Song Shuhang had mentioned earlier?

　　It was just a finger, but it made him feel as if it had enough power to destroy the entire world. He, who was a Sixth Stage True Monarch, felt that he didn’t have any chance to fight back against this finger.

　　What was the origin of the opposite party?

　　“Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber, you should immediately leave this place. Everything that happens next is related to our scholarly faction, and you don’t need to get involved in it,” True Monarch Eternal Fire said to Song Shuhang with a gentle smile on his face.