"Sect Master!" The Great Elder blanched and lunged to catch the motes of spiritual light, but grasped only air.
"To hell with the Kindling Plan!"
Chen Changgeng roared in fury, his face crimson, the veins in his neck bulging as though they were about to burst.
Pointing at the shattered Jade Slip on the floor, he bellowed at the Great Elder, "You want me to take two hundred people overseas? To live like savages? To fight beasts that can barely speak for spiritual herbs?"
"Our Celestial River Sect's eight-thousand-year legacy, those three supreme-grade spirit veins, a hundred thousand disciples—we're supposed to just throw them all away?!"
Spittle sprayed across the Great Elder's face as he stammered in protest, "B-but staying here means waiting to die! There's no cure for the corruption! The sore on your chest has almost rotted through to your heart meridians!"
"Who says there's no cure!"
Chen Changgeng tore open his robes and pointed at his festering chest, his fingers trembling. "That man named Zhou at the Purple-Gold Immortal Vein can cure it!"
"Zhao Tu's sore was even bigger than mine, and he cured it! I saw it with my own eyes! The moment that dark-gold power entered him, the black qi dispersed! He can cure it!"
"But his terms..."
The Great Elder stamped his feet in agitation, waving both hands in the air.
"He wants our sect's supreme treasure! That damaged Immortal Artifact is the foundation of our Celestial River Sect's foothold in Central Province."
"If we hand it over, we'll fall from a first-rate power to a second-rate one. How will we ever hold our heads high in Central Province again? Once the other immortal veins realize we've weakened, they'll swallow us alive and skin us raw!"
"Second-rate?"
Chen Changgeng laughed in sheer fury. He