Peace of Mind

"Senior, what brings you here in such a hurry?"

Su Hao leaped down from the loft and blocked the entrance to the main hall.

Zhao Bai Jiang's eyes flickered. "I heard some commotion up on the mountain. I was worried someone might have harmed Senior Brother Lin. Is he all right?"

"He's fine. Master hurried into seclusion and forbade anyone from disturbing him."

Su Hao stared at Zhao Bai Jiang.

"Su Hao, what kind of lie are you telling? An entire section of the woods by the entrance has been destroyed, and the protective formation is damaged too.

"Besides, I saw Liu Mei from Joy Peak flying away toward the southwest. Was she the one who did this? Why would she trouble Senior Brother Lin?

"How badly is Senior Brother Lin hurt?"

Zhao Bai Jiang's face darkened as he fired off a string of questions. "We're all people of Heavenly Medicine Mountain, sharing honor and disgrace. Senior Brother Lin and I have known each other for decades. Could his trust in you really exceed his trust in me?"

Su Hao's brows knitted slightly. Zhao Bai Jiang seemed like a completely different person. Where had the carefree, secluded mountain-dweller from the other day gone?

"Elder Zhao, why make such a fuss? All I know is that Master asked me to manage Heavenly Medicine Mountain for the time being."

Su Hao glanced at the four burly men nearby. They were all old servants who had followed Lin Zhi Shan for many years, managing the medicinal fields, medicine shops, and other holdings.

Nearly half an hour had passed by now.

"You?" Zhao Bai Jiang laughed in fury. "What kind of joke is that? You've only been here a few days. Your strength came from forcing seedlings to grow by pulling them up, and you lack the experience as well. No matter how muddleheaded Senior Brother Lin is, he wouldn't put a newcomer in charge of affairs!"

"Move aside. I'm going to ask Senior Brother Lin myself."

He reached out to shove Su Hao aside.

Su Hao didn't move an inch. Killing intent flickered in his eyes. "Elder Zhao, out of consideration for the kindness you once showed me by answering my questions, I advise you to obediently return to the bamboo grove and enjoy your old age. Don't meddle in anything else."

"Ha?" Zhao Bai Jiang pushed several times, but failed to move Su Hao. He then drifted backward several meters. "Su Hao, your tone is quite something. When I first saw you, you were trembling like a sewer rat. Perhaps Senior Brother Lin saw some talent in you and gave you a hand out of sheer luck, but do you really think you're half the master of Heavenly Medicine Mountain now?"

Su Hao sighed, having more or less seen through Zhao Bai Jiang's thoughts.

It couldn't possibly be because of some brotherly affection.

He was most likely here to take advantage of the situation.

And Lin Zhi Shan had long since been reduced to a pile of rotten bones inside the incinerator.

"Elder Zhao, don't rush. You're right to lecture me. Then please come with me, and I'll take you to find Master. As for the four of you, stop crowding around. Stay obediently in the courtyard!"

Su Hao suddenly broke into a smile.

The four servants exchanged glances. Seeing this, they obediently followed his orders. They weren't cultivators and had no qualifications to challenge Su Hao.

Zhao Bai Jiang hesitated. What was this boy plotting?

He stared at Su Hao's back and slowly followed. After passing through the small garden in the central courtyard, his hand, hidden inside his sleeve, held an additional short, tubular metal object. "Su Hao, Senior Brother Lin really did fight with Liu Mei, didn't he? Why did they fight?"

They arrived before the detached loft in the rear courtyard.

Su Hao stopped walking. "Elder Zhao, if Master is dead, what should we do? Could the outer-sect steward already have been alerted?"

"Dead?!" Zhao Bai Jiang's voice sharpened. "He's dead? Liu Mei killed him?! This... yes, that makes sense. I always said that slut Liu Mei was a social butterfly. Countless people fought to give her pills and magical artifacts. She had more advantages than Lin Zhi Shan!"

He could barely suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth. "I was wondering why you were acting so strangely. So something happened to Senior Brother Lin. You deliberately claimed he had entered seclusion because you wanted to occupy his inheritance as his disciple, didn't you? Where's his body?"

"Elder Zhao, you still haven't answered me.

"If some people in the outer sect possess Master's Life Token, they'll all know of his death. Then Heavenly Medicine Mountain won't be ours to claim."

Su Hao turned around to face Zhao Bai Jiang.

Before he had even finished speaking—

"Then you're overthinking it.

"Unless forced to do so, any cultivator with even a little experience and status would go to great lengths to avoid placing something containing a fragment of their soul and essence blood in another person's hands.

"If it fell into the hands of a cultivator skilled in sorcery and curses, wouldn't that mean your life and death were both being held in someone else's grip?

"At least most outer-sect cultivators, including Lin Zhi Shan, lacked the qualifications to have the sect forcibly control their Life Tokens. In the outer sect, Life Tokens were mostly kept by masters and disciples, masters and servants, or family members."

Zhao Bai Jiang gave a sinister smile. As he explained, he raised his hand.

Hidden in his hand was an iron tube so fine it was almost impossible to see, without the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power!

The instant spiritual power touched the tube, a black needle as thin as a cow's hair shot out without a sound.

A flash of black light vanished in an instant, and the needle struck Su Hao between the brows.

Crack—

The black needle slammed into an extremely thin layer of crimson protective spiritual power. The needle shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.

"A Soul Extinguishing Needle worth one hundred spirit stones?"

Su Hao withdrew his spiritual power and glanced at the broken needle on the ground. This thing was called a magical artifact, but in truth it couldn't be used as a conventional weapon. The material was far too fragile! "Elder Zhao, you really were willing to use this thing on me."

Zhao Bai Jiang had never imagined that Su Hao would have been on guard. He was instantly dumbfounded. How could a rookie who had cultivated for only a dozen days have such powerful defenses—and even know about Soul Extinguishing Needles?

"Still, after what you just said, I can finally relax. I was on tenterhooks, worried that a steward might come to Heavenly Medicine Mountain. Tell too many lies, and you'll invite disaster.

"Since no third person knows whether Lin Zhi Shan is alive or dead, I can rest easy for the time being."

Su Hao's spiritual power erupted, and he flashed before Zhao Bai Jiang.

"You!" Zhao Bai Jiang trembled all over and took half a step back, but a hand had already seized his head.

"Elder Zhao, Elder Zhao. You're merely at Qi Refining Level 4, your lifespan is nearly exhausted, and you have no potential left. How dare you covet Lin Zhi Shan's possessions? Can you even hold on to them?"

Su Hao sighed.

"I..." Zhao Bai Jiang's face was filled with pleading, but before he could finish speaking—

Surging spiritual power directly shattered Zhao Bai Jiang's protective spiritual power. Part of his brain was crushed, and blood poured from his seven orifices as he collapsed onto the ground.

"In a sect like this, being able to live quietly until the end of your natural lifespan is already rare. Yet you didn't know how to cherish it."

Su Hao spoke with regret.

He had thought Zhao Bai Jiang was one of the few good people in the Golden Light Sect, someone worth befriending—drinking and chatting together now and then.

But what kind of good people could there be in a sect like this?

Those who survived with weak cultivation and lived in a corner were nothing more than people constrained by their own strength and lacking in talent. Once an opportunity appeared, their ambitions would reveal themselves.

Su Hao let the corpse lie on the ground and returned to the front courtyard.

"Master needs to summon Elder Zhao to assist with his treatment.

"He asked me to manage all affairs on the mountain for the time being and told you to cooperate with me. Do any of you object?"

Su Hao swept his gaze over the four servants.

The four vaguely sensed that something was wrong and looked at one another.

"Is it really so difficult?" Su Hao struck across the air with one palm. A ball of spiritual power slammed into the stone stele engraved with the words 'Heavenly Medicine Residence,' shattering it into more than ten pieces that scattered across the ground. "Your benefits will be doubled from their current level."

"We await the Young Master's orders."

A pockmarked, burly man in the middle immediately dropped to one knee.

The others followed close behind.

Their lives and deaths had previously been controlled by Lin Zhi Shan. Now obeying someone else was no great matter. At least Su Hao was Lin Zhi Shan's disciple, so there was no issue of betrayal.

Before long, the four men presented a list of all the assets belonging to Heavenly Medicine Mountain.