"Boohoo, thank you, Senior Sister Yuan, for making sure I have food to eat next month. Boohoo, I'm so moved!"
"This is great! I can still go buy new pills tomorrow to advance my cultivation. Thank you, Senior Sister Yuan!"
"Senior Sister Yuan is now a Guest Elder of Yaoyun Peak, we should call her Senior Guest Elder!"
"Right, right! Senior Yuan, thank you, Senior Yuan!"
Voices of gratitude rose and fell one after another within the crowd.
How could Su Lingxi ever compare to such generosity?
Even if Su Lingxi had obtained ten million spirit stones, she would only dare to promise to distribute one million, but Yuan Shu took out a full ten million to distribute to everyone!
With thousands of people present, each person would still get several thousand spirit stones!
That was equivalent to several months of sect allowances for a single person!
How could they not be excited? How could they not be thrilled?
For a brief moment, they even felt that it was actually quite wonderful that Yuan Shu had won the competition.
Xiao Li reached out his hand, and the spirit stones floating in front of him slowly fell into his palm. Under the sunlight, they emitted a finely shattered, dazzlingly brilliant light.
He could not help but raise his head to look at the figure in the crowd.
So, her name was Yuan Shu?
It was a beautiful name, and it suited her perfectly.
Unparalleled in her exquisite beauty!
Yuan Shu was breathtakingly beautiful. From the very first glance, he had been absolutely stunned by her.
Her red dress was like a blooming peony, tender and alluring, yet also like a brilliant flame, dazzling and eye-catching.
As she stood smiling in the middle of the crowd, she formed a world of her own. Everything around her seemed to become nothing more than a background character.
She alone was the protagonist of this world, the only light!
He clenched the spirit stones tightly in his hand, as if trying to press them into his very flesh and blood.
The sharp edges of the spirit stones cut his skin, bringing a slight stinging pain.
Xiao Li finally snapped back to reality. Lowering his head, a sense of inferiority spread through his limbs and bones.
Cao Ning was right about one thing: he was just an ugly freak, a hideous monster despised by everyone.
In Yuan Shu's world, he probably could not even compare to a background character.
He shifted his slightly aching legs and moved his steps, preparing to leave this bustling environment.
A soft and melodious voice came from in front of him.
"You won this, right?"
That voice... it was her!
Xiao Li snapped his head up and met Yuan Shu's faintly smiling face.
On her delicate and beautiful oval face, a pair of long, narrow phoenix eyes curved slightly, carrying a comforting smile.
And what she held in her hand was exactly the gray cloth money pouch he had placed on the gambling table earlier.
The pouch, sewn from coarse linen with sparse stitches, looked excessively out of place when grasped by that fair and slender hand.
It seemed as though that hand was meant to touch silk and brocade, not this rough cloth.
Xiao Li's Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice was hoarse. "Yes."
"Take it. With odds of one to three hundred, you've won a total of fifteen thousand spirit stones this time. They're all inside."
Yuan Shu felt that the young man in front of her had quite a good eye.
In an environment where no one thought highly of her, he had still firmly placed that bag of spirit stones on her.
She had to admit, he had great taste!
That was also why she had specifically stood up for him just now.
Consider it returning his goodwill.
Xiao Li reached out to take the spirit stone pouch, his fingertips accidentally brushing against Yuan Shu's hand.
He opened his mouth, originally wanting to thank her, but Yuan Shu had already turned and walked away. It seemed that to her, everything she did was just a passing convenience.
His fingertips seemed to still retain the warmth of that brief touch.
He withdrew his hand into his long sleeve, gently pinching that fingertip.
Only when Yuan Shu's figure completely disappeared from his sight did Xiao Li turn around. He took one last look at the bustling immortal sect plaza and left.
...
"I heard you placed a bet over at the sect plaza today and won quite a lot of spirit stones?"
On the small path next to the spirit horse stables, Xiao Li's path was blocked by the manager of the Beast Taming Garden.
The pot-bellied middle-aged manager narrowed his small, beady eyes, looking Xiao Li up and down as a gleam of greed revealed itself in the depths of his gaze.
Xiao Li's hands, hanging by his sides, clenched slightly. He looked up coldly at the manager.
"Not speaking? So it's true then?" The manager sneered and directly held his hand out toward him.
"Hand it over, along with the reward that inner sect disciple gave you for taming his spirit horse!"
He spoke with utter self-righteousness, as if those things were meant to be handed over to him in the first place!
Xiao Li pursed his lips. His half-black, half-white face was gloomy, and anger surged in his eyes.
The spirit stones he had placed on the gambling table were his reward for working hard all night yesterday to tame a spirit horse for an inner sect disciple.
The only reason he threw them onto the gambling table was because even if he brought those spirit stones back, the manager would force him to hand them over. He could not protect them at all!
Therefore, he casually tossed them onto the table, betting on Yuan Shu, whom everyone thought the least of.
It wasn't that he had a good eye; he simply never intended to win.
After all, before today, he didn't even know who Yuan Shu and Su Lingxi were!
How could a lowly stable boy who fed spirit beasts in the Beast Taming Garden be worthy of knowing the core disciples of the sect's five peaks?
But what Xiao Li never expected was that Yuan Shu would win.
Over fifty spirit stones leaped to become more than fifteen thousand spirit stones—a heavy, fully packed large bag!
In the past, whenever the manager bossed him around, bullied and tormented him, or stole his belongings, he had always chosen to swallow his anger and endure it silently.
Because he knew he couldn't beat him in a fight!
Ever since he was a child, his spiritual energy would inexplicably drain away during cultivation, making it impossible for him to raise his power level. From then on, he knew he could only suffer in silence.
But after enduring for so many years, all it brought was the manager treating him with increasing arrogance.
Suddenly, Yuan Shu's smiling face flashed in his mind. At this moment, for some inexplicable reason, he didn't want to endure it anymore.
Surely, when Yuan Shu gave him the spirit stones, she wouldn't want him to be unable to protect even that small amount!
A cold sneer tugged at the corner of Xiao Li's mouth. "And if I don't give it to you?"
"You won't? Are you asking for a beating?" Hearing this, the manager glared with his beady eyes and raised a hand, about to strike.
"Since you know I won at the gambling table, you should also know that it was Guest Elder Yuan who personally handed me the spirit stones I won."
"Do you dare to hit me?"
Xiao Li fearlessly raised his head, his cold and sharp gaze fixed firmly on the manager, and also on the manager's clenched fist.
His intimidating look carried a powerful, back-to-the-wall aura that forced the manager to pause his movements, his voice softening by a fraction.
"What did you say? What do you mean?"
Xiao Li laughed coldly. "You don't think Guest Elder Yuan just helped me on a whim, do you? Why didn't she help anyone else, but specifically helped me?"
"You don't think I just casually bet on Guest Elder Yuan, do you? Why didn't I bet on Su Lingxi, who appeared stronger on the surface? Why her?"
His voice was ice-cold, his tone carrying an unpredictable mystery, and his eyes were sharp.
Of course, he didn't know Yuan Shu. However, when out in the world, one's status was self-assigned.
Would a lowly Beast Taming Garden manager dare to go to Yuan Shu to verify this?
And the fact that he dared to say these words today naturally meant he was fearless.
At worst... he would just smash the cracked pot and fight to the bitter end!
Xiao Li's firm attitude and icy tone made the Beast Taming Garden manager in front of him freeze slightly, feeling a bit of apprehension in his heart.
Could it be that this Xiao Li really knew that newly appointed Guest Elder of Yaoyun Peak?
