What?
The Purple-Robed Grand Elder was beside himself with rage. He stepped forward and grabbed Elder Li by the collar.
"What did you say? Say it again!"
"I... I drove... Lin Chen... away!" Elder Li expended all his strength just to force those words out.
He wasn't regretting it anymore. He was terrified.
The news about Lin Chen had clearly spread throughout the entire Scripture Depository, yet he'd somehow overlooked it.
Lin Chen was a menial disciple!
Who else could the menial disciple who came here have been, if not him?
"Heavens! Was that the recently initiated Lin Chen?"
"No wonder! He's a menial disciple at Sect Leader Peak. In terms of actual status, he outranks even us Outer Disciples."
"How ridiculous. We actually looked down on him—we were completely blind!"
The surrounding disciples all regretted it, too.
If they'd made friends with Lin Chen just now, or even stepped forward to put in a good word for him, they might have gained a friend at Sect Leader Peak.
Who knew whether it would be useful? Just making that connection might bring them rewards in the future.
Unfortunately, not a single person had spoken up for Lin Chen.
They'd even stood by and mocked him.
There was, however, one exception: the Duty Disciple.
At that moment, his heart was practically bursting with joy.
Thank goodness he hadn't offended Lin Chen!
Besides him, there was also Liu Xinzhi. She stood to one side, her beautiful eyes gleaming as she gazed in the direction Lin Chen had left, lost in thought.
"You're fucking fired!"
Just then, the Purple-Robed Grand Elder's fury finally erupted.
He flung Elder Li to the ground and kicked him.
Elder Li spat blood three feet into the air, then fainted on the spot.
Before losing consciousness, he was still thinking: I'm finished!
Sure enough, the next moment, the Purple-Robed Grand Elder announced loudly, "Elder Li is dismissed from his post and demoted to the outer sect."
Right after that, the news was sent to everyone through their Sect Tokens.
Lin Chen had just returned to Sect Leader Peak when he felt the Token at his waist vibrate.
He picked it up and took a look, then immediately laughed.
"Is this your way of showing me goodwill? There's no need. I'm just a menial disciple!"
Before he could put the Token down, a second message arrived.
"Effective immediately, the Scripture Depository is open to everyone in the sect, including menial disciples."
If the first message had been meant for Lin Chen's benefit, to let him know that the Scripture Depository hadn't been targeting him and that only one person had made a mistake,
then this second one was an unmistakable show of goodwill.
They were simply telling Lin Chen that he could come whenever he wanted and do whatever he liked.
Lin Chen said nothing, but he was quite pleased.
"Fine, I forgive you. Once my cultivation improves, I'll come help out at the Scripture Depository."
He wasn't thinking of helping the Scripture Depository. He was thinking of himself.
If he learned a thousand skills and mastered ten thousand techniques, who in this world could stand against him?
But before that, he had to make a fortune.
As the sun sank in the west, Lin Chen brewed a pot of tea, then settled back into his reclining chair and basked lazily in the sunlight.
Somewhere between awake and asleep, he drifted off.
This time, he didn't dream of those purple eyes.
But he had the feeling that someone was standing beside him.
That person simply watched him in silence, neither speaking nor moving.
The longer it went on, the more terrified Lin Chen became.
He trembled uncontrollably in his sleep, cold sweat soaking his body.
Gradually, the figure moved.
It came closer and closer, until it soon reached out to choke him.
Lin Chen struggled violently and suddenly woke up.
He opened his eyes and saw a faint figure beside him, rapidly fading away.
"Who are you?"
He cried out in terror, springing straight up from the chair.
But in that brief moment, the shadow had already faded completely and vanished.
"A ghost?"
Lin Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead and activated Flame Primer, drying his clothes.
He was certain that what he'd just seen hadn't been an illusion.
A moment later, Lin Chen had calmed down completely.
Rather than trying to harm him, the Soul Shadow seemed more likely to have been trying to convey some message.
"Who could it have been?"
Lin Chen couldn't figure it out.
As the sun sank in the west, he stopped thinking about it. "No matter how big the world is, food comes first."
He went into Blaze Defense.
Half an hour later, he brought out a basin of Hand-Torn Lamb.
The ribs were marbled with fat and lean meat, giving off a milky aroma.
The leg meat was firm and tender, with an even richer meaty fragrance.
"If only I had sesame sauce, ginger, and liquor to go with it."
Unfortunately, he had none, so he had to make do with a little salt.
He'd barely taken a few bites when the Cloth Rabbit suddenly popped up from behind the basin.
Its blood-red eyes were fixed intently on Lin Chen.
Lin Chen was startled, and the meat in his hand nearly fell to the ground.
He immediately remembered that he'd left the Cloth Rabbit in the Kitchen.
When he'd just gone to cook, none of the ingredients inside had been touched.
"Rabbits don't eat vegetables. Could it want meat?"
Lin Chen tentatively held out the meat in his hand.
Chomp!
To his utter surprise, the Rabbit Doll leapt up and sank its teeth into his arm.
A piercing pain shot through him. Lin Chen dropped the meat at once and reached for it with his other hand.
Thankfully, the little thing clamped down and didn't dodge, so Lin Chen grabbed it and yanked it off in one go.
At that moment, he finally remembered Second Senior Sister's warning.
When rabbits got hungry, they bit people.
So the Doll was alive. It really could bite people.
Lin Chen stared at the bloody wound on his arm, startled.
He'd tempered his body through cultivation. His Body Forging Art had reached the entry level, enough to withstand attacks from a Low-Grade Artifact without being hurt.
Yet a Rabbit Doll had bitten him until his flesh was mangled.
"Could this be a Magic Artifact too?"
Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak...
As he was pondering this, the Cloth Rabbit in his hand suddenly let out a strange cry.
Its four little paws waved back and forth, and its eyebrows stood on end.
It looked furious.
"What do you even eat?" Lin Chen asked, utterly exasperated.
Second Senior Sister had told him to feed it, but hadn't told him what to feed it.
Lin Chen was at a loss. He stared at the little rabbit for a long while, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
He reached into his ring and took out a Spirit Stone, placing it in front of the little rabbit.
It immediately stopped struggling, clasped the Spirit Stone between its two little paws, and hugged it.
Crunch!
It opened its mouth and bit down. In no time, it had eaten the entire Spirit Stone.
"You fucking eat Spirit Stones?"
Lin Chen was planning to return this thing.
He didn't even have enough Spirit Stones for himself. Where was he supposed to get extra to feed it?
The little rabbit seemed to understand what he meant. With a powerful twist, it broke free from Lin Chen's grip.
It landed on the ground with a splat.
Then, right before Lin Chen's eyes, it transformed.
In the blink of an eye, it became a two-meter-tall Violent Savage Rabbit, its muscles coiled like steel cables.
The Savage Rabbit opened its mouth and let out a furious roar. It stood upright and pounded its chest with its two forepaws.
The blows boomed like war drums, shaking the soul.
"Hold on, what are you trying to do? You ate one of my Spirit Stones, and now you want to fight me?"
Lin Chen hurriedly got to his feet.
He could feel the terrifying aura radiating from the Violent Savage Rabbit.
It was countless times stronger than him.
He no longer saw a rabbit. He saw a towering mountain.
The next moment, the rabbit vanished from where it stood.
Relying on his keen mental strength, Lin Chen immediately gauged its trajectory.
He rolled to the side.
By the time he got back to his feet, the spot where he'd just been standing had become a massive crater.
Lin Chen bolted without hesitation. As he ran, a Flying Sword appeared out of thin air beneath his feet.
In the blink of an eye, he shot into the sky.
Before Lin Chen could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the rabbit push off with its hind legs and leap straight up.
Then a tremendous force came crashing toward him.
"Holy shit!"
Lin Chen and his sword went flying in a parabolic arc, right out of the courtyard.
Before you continue