The Fine Tradition of Great Spiritual Mountain's Mountain Lord Lineage

The broth bubbled away in the medicine cauldron. Standing atop a Lion-Moving Ladder, Ye Kong stirred the water with a large ladle, occasionally tossing in spirit pills to hasten the spread of their medicinal effects.

Seeing green mist rise from the broth, Ye Kong nodded in satisfaction and said to Wen Qingxuan, who was below with her head down, feeding firewood into the flames:

"All right, the heat's right. You can get ready to get in the pot... the cauldron."

Wen Qingxuan raised her soot-blackened face, her expression full of unease as she gritted her teeth.

"Teacher, are you sure this thing won't go wrong?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course it won't. Wouldn't I know whether this stuff works?"

Ye Kong slid down from the ladder. Together with Jinjiu Master, who released the ladder, he stepped aside. A flame lit up in his palm, which he tossed beneath the cauldron. Then, pointing with his index finger, he explained vividly:

"Look, this cauldron of medicinal broth is worth over a thousand portions of Supreme Spirit Liquid. If you don't get in, I'll add some Spirit Beast seasoning later and serve you up as Brother Lion's dinner. Don't you trust your teacher?"

"Awoo~ Roar!" Jinjiu Master, lying nearby, had eyes that shone brightly.

"Don't! Of course I trust you, Teacher. I'll get in. Just... make sure you keep a close watch. As a teacher, you should understand a teacher's responsibilities."

Wen Qingxuan resentfully wiped the soot from her face, continuously rubbing her hands together as she barely dared to look at the cauldron body that she had personally heated red.

"Ah, that's more like it. We'll be leaving first. Take your time removing your armor and getting in. I'll have Xiuling put the lid on for you, and you can report your condition to me whenever needed."

Ye Kong waved a hand, making it clear that he had no interest in women at all—only in their IOUs. After calling Xiuling over from the distance, he turned and left with the Lion Dog.

Driven aside by Ye Kong's reasoning that she could not freeload the temple's secret arts without paying, Xiuling clutched the hem of her clothes and walked over to Wen Qingxuan, her voice as soft as a mosquito's hum.

"Sister Qingxuan, are you really going to jump in?"

"Jump in? Of course I am. What is there for a cultivator to fuss over? He's such a money-grubber that he'll definitely want to squeeze even more benefits out of me."

Having made up her mind, Wen Qingxuan did not hesitate. After giving Xiuling a few instructions, she removed her armor and jumped in. Her diving technique was not particularly impressive, sending up a splash of water.

Before long, waves of agonized screams, desperately suppressed, came from within the cauldron. Xiuling, who had personally put on the lid, felt her skin crawl. Knowing the prideful nature of her big sister, she dared not imagine just how unbearable the pain inside must have been.

Jinjiu Master and Ye Kong walked to a patch of grass and lay down. Unable to bear the loneliness, Jinjiu Master shook his head and swayed his tail, propping up the Heavenly Mystery Umbrella with his forepaws as he laughed.

"Hehe, I'd long heard that our Mountain Lord's eldest disciple was a regular at the Medicine King Institute and Bodhi Institute, skilled at everything from stealing pills to pilfering peaches. Looks like you, the second disciple, are no less accomplished than those before you."

"If those monks at the Medicine King Institute find out you stole so many pills, they'll probably be furious."

At that, Ye Kong's eyes became incredibly world-weary. He put on a profound smile and said:

"You don't understand. To them, my eldest brother and I are both extremely important and utterly irreplaceable. Of course, more than ninety-eight percent of that importance comes from Eldest Brother."

"Huh? What does that mean?" Jinjiu Master froze for a moment, blinking his question-filled eyes.

Ye Kong lay on the grassy slope with both hands behind his head, looking completely carefree.

"You've only been at Great Spiritual Mountain for a few decades. Your experience is too shallow; you don't understand the ins and outs yet. My eldest brother comes from the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe, a top-tier Divine Beast race. His combat power is unparalleled, and he calls himself the Great Sage of Heaven. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do. Great Sage of Heaven Lu Shengjun, the Red-Eyed Buddha Ape riding the Green Cloud. He's the biological grandson of the Great Ape King of Heaven, the current patriarch of the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe. With one Purple-Golden Mace, he swept through countless foes. He's recognized across the Sacred Buddha Continent as the strongest beneath the Heavenly Sovereign realm."

"Three years ago, with Half-step Heavenly Sovereign cultivation, he fought a Heavenly Sovereign for two days and one night—and won! It drew the attention and amazement of countless people, and his fame spread across the endless continents."

"And he's also the number one scourge of our Spiritual Mountain. There have been rumors these past few years that he's working hard to raise you into the second greatest scourge of this mountain. He's already taken you to the Medicine King Institute's alchemy rooms several times to steal Elixirs."

"Besides, he's loaded with money and always writes IOUs, making those monks take them to the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe to collect debts. Once, he even angered his grandfather so much that the old man charged up Spiritual Mountain to beat him..."

At this point, Jinjiu Master suddenly realized something. "Don't tell me you learned this IOU trick from him too?"

"Tsk, what are you saying, Brother Lion? My senior brother writes IOUs for other people himself. I get other people to willingly write IOUs for me. How can those be the same? Isn't that called applying what I've learned?"

Ye Kong frowned, feeling that Jinjiu Master was overlooking his capacity to learn.

"Good heavens! What sin did our Mountain Lord commit to take in a pair of monsters like you? It seems Great Spiritual Mountain's ten-thousand-year reputation will sooner or later be ruined by the two of you."

Seeing Ye Kong, who had surpassed his master, treat his disgrace as glory, Jinjiu Master slapped his forehead and sighed deeply for the Mountain Lord.

Sure enough, among all the geniuses on Spiritual Mountain, only he, Jin Xiaoshi, was truly pure and spotless. He merely occasionally craved meat. Lions eating meat was only natural!

"Listen to you, making that old monk sound like some kind of good monk. Who do you think taught me this broth-making skill... Oh no, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Buddha bless me, Buddha bless me!"

Realizing he had accidentally said something he should not have, Ye Kong fiercely slapped himself twice, then pressed his palms together and prayed to the Buddha.

"I didn't hear anything just now, and I don't know anything either. I only know that you were talking about your eldest brother."

Jinjiu Master was so frightened that his calves trembled. His two front paws kept rising as though he were worshipping a Buddha statue, while only his expression remained calm—or rather, so stiff that it did not change in the slightest.

"Yes, yes, yes, I was talking about Eldest Brother! Eldest Brother! Let me tell you, Great Sage of Heaven is what outsiders call him. At places like the Medicine King Institute and Bodhi Institute, everyone privately calls him the Great Sage of Balancing Accounts."

"Great... Great Sage of Balancing Accounts?!" Jinjiu Master's eyes widened into circles, his mouth hanging open in shock as he processed the meaning behind it.

"That's right, the exact kind of balancing accounts you're thinking of. The Medicine King Institute's pill accounts and the Bodhi Institute's heavenly materials and earthly treasures accounts were far too messy. After Eldest Brother visited a few times, he directly balanced all the books."

"Of course, he's also a middleman. Quite a few things were sold to the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe in his name, but the debts were all recorded under his name."

The more Ye Kong spoke, the more relaxed he became, recounting his senior brother's great feats.

"Why does he keep accounts for the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe? Can't those monkeys buy things themselves?" Jinjiu Master could not understand.

"He's the symbolic mascot of the alliance between the two major factions. He has to do something, right? Like being a middleman."

"I understand. Now I understand everything. Looks like his grandfather is quite ruthless too. He acted so convincingly; five years ago, he threw the entire Spiritual Mountain into chaos."

"Uh... that incident really doesn't seem to have been an act."

"That time, he stole his grandfather's treasured Monkey Wine from the Heaven-Reaching Ape Tribe and brought it back to Spiritual Mountain to have Master help him write off the account. He ended up drinking himself unconscious. His grandfather was invited by Master to help him digest the medicinal effects... Divine Beasts have rather special methods of sobering up."

As he said this, Ye Kong's expression became unnatural as well. He had heard that the Monkey Wine's medicinal power was immense. Even to this day, Lu Shengjun had not fully digested it. Until he broke through to the Heavenly Sovereign realm, there was no hope of doing so.

"Hiss, your senior brother really is an unparalleled genius. What a blessing! What a blessing it is for Spiritual Mountain to have the two of you."

Jinjiu Master could not help sucking in a breath of cold air. He was only one sentence away from saying, Terrifying indeed.

"Of course. The Mountain Lord lineage values all-round development. This is called a fine tradition." Ye Kong did not care. He glanced at the white smoke rising in the distance, closed his eyes, and said:

"Wake me when that cauldron opens over there. I'm going to sleep for a while."

Little Meng Xin begs for continued reading, bookmarks, and recommendations, earnestly asking esteemed readers for support.