"Hiss... You're broke and can't afford alcohol again?"
"Well, well, you've got your eye on the imperial mausoleum again, and you're even using Little Mo as an excuse to fool us."
"I heard Little Li has been thriving in Heavenly Human City, singing little tunes as he ascended the throne. He's right in the middle of a meteoric rise—what could possibly have happened?"
"Mm, she's definitely stringing us along. Eat hotpot, eat hotpot..."
Knowing Shang Wu's habits all too well, the elders quickly recovered from their shock.
They all went back to eating hotpot as though nothing had happened.
Crash—
Shang Wu kicked the table over.
"My beef!" Qian Bufan cried out in grief, rising to his feet and about to point his chopsticks at Shang Wu in accusation.
"This princess... is not joking with you."
Hearing Shang Wu refer to herself that way, Qian Bufan obediently sat back down.
Shang Wu had never been this serious before.
She was usually rather unruly, but even when the Sect Master punished her, though she never admitted defeat verbally, she had never used her status to suppress anyone, nor had she ever treated herself as...
Everyone exchanged glances, recalling an afternoon many years ago.
Back then, Jade Cluster Peak had not yet become one of the Nine Peaks. It had been a place akin to a sacred land of cultivation within the sect, where every statue was an excellent Divine Observation Diagram.
At the time, the Supreme Elder had not yet gone to guard the Ancestral Hall, but had been watching over the stone statues on Jade Cluster Peak.
That day, he had brought out a coffin from Jade Cluster Peak. It was made of Yin-Sinking Soul-Nurturing Wood that had already turned to jade, and inside the coffin was Shang Wu.
It