Who Let Him Cultivate?!

Seeing the Fifth Elder taken aback, Lu Yang continued, “Aside from the above-mentioned foundation, Heaven’s Court will be expanding its recruitment soon. They already have two candidates. One is born with an Immortal body. It was because of this Immortal body that Immortal Jiuchong, the first immortal of ancient times, was able to achieve Immortality.”

“The other enjoys the luck of the entire tribe and has an overwhelming fortune, excelling in both savagery and Confucian cultivation practices!”

“Fifth Elder, what do you think? Would you like to join us?”

“Initially, our Heaven’s Court’s planned to grow slowly to gain an advantage in the Great Era’s competition. However, we have caught the unwanted attention of the Nine Nether Sect. We need a protector to deal with the Nine Nether Sect!”

Lu Yang bowed, solemnly saying, “If the Fifth Elder would extend a helping hand to our Heaven’s Court this time, we would be deeply grateful in the future!”

The Fifth Elder was silent for a moment. Just as Lu Yang thought he was about to agree, he heard him slowly ask:

“Has your Heaven’s Court registered itself with the Imperial Court?”

Lu Yang paused, “Registered?”

“Yes, the laws of Great Xia state that any established faction must register with the local government. Those that do not register are considered illegal and are strictly targeted.”

“The previous Four Great Demon Sects and the current Three Great Demon Sects have not registered.”

Lu Yang: “…”

Seeing Lu Yang and others fall silent, the Fifth Elder began to laugh, “All right, just say it, stop beating around the bush. What exactly happened?”

As a well-known disciple of the Seek Dao Sect, the Fifth Elder naturally wasn’t easily fooled by Lu Yang.

What does the inheritance of ancient Immortals and the support of influential families refer to if not you guys?

After the downfall of the Eternity Sect, Lu Yang received the inheritance of the Immortal Eternity.

As the eldest son of the Meng Family, Meng Jingzhou’s expenditures could be considered as support from influential families.

In his past life, Li Haoran was Qin Haoran, who had reached the Half Step Transcendance Tribulation Stage.

Qin Yanyan’s father was Qin Haoran, so naturally, she is the first successor.

With no further option, Lu Yang told the whole story. The Fifth Elder found it fascinating, his eyes shining with interest.

“You guys are quite resourceful, creating an entirely nonexistent Heaven’s Court, deceiving the Nine Nether Sect, establishing cooperation, and if you’re lucky, could even locate the Yaoyang Sect and the Ruthless Sect.”

The Fifth Elder’s face held a look of remembrance: “Back then, the nine of us also did something similar.”

“What happened?” Lu Yang and the others looked at the Fifth Elder with curiosity.

The Fifth Elder picked up a stone and casually refined it into a chair, instructing Lu Yang and the others to sit down.

The chair looked thin, yet after being refined by the grandmaster of refining, the Fifth Elder, it was sturdy enough to withstand several hits from a Golden Core Stage cultivator.

“This happened around nine hundred years ago. The Eighth Brother pretended to be a low-ranking cultivator and traveled the world, dealing out justice. He happened upon a follower of the Nine Nether Sect. Instead of raising an alarm, he went with his nature and joined in their debauchery, whoring and gambling day and night. Most of the time it was Eighth Brother who paid for these vices. This quickly won over the trust of the Nine Nether Sect member.”

The Eighth Elder. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou didn’t have much interaction with him, but they were left with a deep impression.

After all, the Eighth Elder had dared to sell the admission exam questions to Meng Jingzhou twenty years prior, assuring him they were the real deal.

“What happened next?”

“The Nine Nether Sect member then asked where the Eighth Brother, being a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, was getting all his Spirit Stones from. The Eighth Brother replied that they discovered a pill formula that could extend lifespan. The improvement might not be significant, but it was enough to drive those cultivators nearing the end of their lifespan into a frenzy.”

“The Eighth Brother also said it was inside information from their organization and he wouldn’t have told him if they weren’t such good buddies.”

“However, the Lifespan Extender Pill had a low output, and its demand far exceeded its supply. Therefore, a substantial amount of Spirit Stones was needed to buy the ingredients and increase production.”

“The Eighth Brother said their organization was short of funds. He asked if he could borrow some. It wouldn’t be a free loan; he assured that the capital would be returned after a year, plus twenty percent interest.”

“The member of the Nine Nether Sect was tempted, but still skeptical, and initially only invested tens of thousands of Spirit Stones. After a year, the Eighth Brother returned the capital right on time, along with the twenty percent interest.”

“The Nether Sect member continued to test for three years, and each year saw the same results.”

“Eventually, this matter was discovered by the member’s superior, who also wanted to invest. He asked the Eighth Brother if it was possible. The Eighth Brother said he needed to ask his superiors, then brought out Old Nine, who is your Master.”

“Your Master agreed to the investment, and subsequently, the member’s superior invested for five years, doubling his assets, much to his delight.”

“There is no wall in the world that blocks all winds, and this matter was eventually discovered by the Master of the Nine Nether Sect. The Master didn’t inform anyone else but cautiously proposed to observe the pill refining process. Old Eight and Old Nine called us over to fake the pill refining scene, and our oldest brother pretended to be a tester using the pill.”

“After the Master’s observation, he thought our group of nine was quite trustworthy. He first threw his own Spirit Stones into the mix and made a lot of money.”

“Even though he made quite a lot of money, the Master felt it was not enough. He set his sights on the treasury of the Nine Nether Sect. He planned to use the funds from the treasury for investments and return the treasury’s Spirit Stones after obtaining the profits a year later, keeping the profits for himself. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”

“The Master used a portion of the treasury and made more money. Still unsatisfied, he decided to use almost half of the treasury for investment.”

“And then we ran away with the money.”

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Even your grandmaster doesn’t know about this matter,” the Fifth Elder reminded them.

Qin Yanyan was puzzled, “The Spirit Stones you returned to the Nine Nether Sect as bonus, come from the Seek Dao Sect, didn’t they? How can grandmaster not know about it?”

The Fifth Elder shook his head, “There’s no need to use the Seek Dao Sect’s money. In the whole process, only the Eighth Brother’s Spirit Stones were used, and that was only in the beginning when he was scamming the member.”

Qin Yanyan was even more puzzled.

The Fifth Elder had a lot of patience for this disciple, “Think about it, when we handed out the bonus, weren’t there other members from the Nine Nether Sect investing in us?”

Qin Yanyan nodded her head.

“So, couldn’t we just return money borrowed from new investors to the previous investors?”

Enlightened, Qin Yanyan exclaimed, “Wait a minute. This is a scam, isn’t it?”

“I also asked the Eighth Brother the same question. The Eighth Brother said how can it be a scam? We simply failed in the business, the invested capital was lost, which is normal in business.”

“If anyone felt wronged, they could report us to the imperial court. We’ve done nothing wrong, so we have nothing to fear.”

“Besides, if there are any crimes to be committed, it’s the Master of the Nine Nether Sect misappropriating funds.”

Qin Yanyan: “…”

Lu Yang noticed that Li Haoran, standing to one side, looked strangely troubled. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Li Haoran, with a conflicted expression, looked at his Master, “The Master who was scammed was so angry he died from heart failure. Then Qin Haoran took over as Master and found that the Nine Nether Sect’s finances had significant issues.”

“The Master who died didn’t know who had tricked him until his death.”