"Senior Brother, do you still remember the Heart-Refining Path from several years ago?"
The usually silent Head of Treasure Pill Valley spoke at last.
"How could I forget?"
At his words, not only Master Green Feather but the other elders and heads nodded one after another.
The crisis on the Heart-Refining Path back then had given them all a terrible headache.
They had finally come up with a solution and, with their hearts in their throats, gone to prepare to seal the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon.
Only to discover that their opponent had vanished.
Just like this time, there had been no signs of a fight.
At first, everyone had worried that the demon had escaped.
But several years had passed, and they still could not find a trace of him.
Given the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon's vengeful nature, after being imprisoned for tens of thousands of years, he hated the Feathering Sect to the bone. If he had truly escaped, he would never have let them off without revenge.
So there was only one possibility: he, too, had been quietly eliminated.
Now that they thought about it, the two incidents were surprisingly similar.
"It seems our sect truly has a Mahayana ancestor secretly watching over us."
"Indeed. It must be so!"
The elders couldn't help but grow excited.
Even Master Green Feather was no exception.
It was only a guess, but it seemed highly likely.
If it hadn't been an ancestor of their sect, who else could have repeatedly saved the Feathering Sect from danger at critical moments?
"Enough. Even if it was an ancestral master, since he has chosen not to reveal himself, we mustn't speak carelessly. This matter must remain secret."
"Another day, I'll personally visit the Founder's Shrine to pay my respects. Whether or not he can hear us, we must still express our gratitude as juniors. We mustn't show the slightest discourtesy."
"Yes, we will obey the Sect Leader's instructions."
The elders bowed.
"That's all, then. You may all leave."
Master Green Feather rose to his feet as he spoke.
But his face suddenly paled, and his body swayed slightly.
"Senior Brother, you..."
"It's nothing. My injuries haven't fully healed yet."
Master Green Feather waved his hand, indicating that it was no serious matter.
But the Head of Treasure Pill Valley furrowed his brow slightly.
He was the weakest among the elders, but he excelled at alchemy and understood medicinal properties better than anyone.
Among them, the Sect Leader had suffered the worst injuries. The demonic qi the enemy had left in his extraordinary meridians clung to him like a parasite in the bones.
It would not be easy to purge.
The Founder's Shrine.
Early that morning, Lin Xiaoyao picked up his bucket, rag, and broom and began his familiar cleaning routine.
Five years had passed. He did this every day, yet he was still perfectly content.
He was so diligent that even the uncle in charge of the Miscellaneous Affairs Yard felt a little embarrassed.
He had asked several times whether Lin Xiaoyao wanted to switch to a different assignment.
Lin Xiaoyao shook his head.
He refused without the slightest hesitation.
As if! Across the entire Feathering Sect, where else could be quieter and less likely to be disturbed than the Founder's Shrine?
Besides, this was a place where he could sign in repeatedly. Why would he want to go anywhere else?
So Lin Xiaoyao refused with righteous conviction.
He bowed solemnly. "Thank you for your kindness, Uncle, but this disciple is dull-witted by nature. Even if I took on a different chore, my cultivation might not improve any faster."
"I'd rather stay here at the Founder's Shrine. For one thing, I'm already used to it. For another, this place honors the successive generations of our sect's ancestral masters. Being allowed to clean here is a blessing for me."
The uncle in charge of miscellaneous affairs praised him without end.
Young people were usually prone to impatience, but Lin Xiaoyao managed to keep his heart as still as water. On the surface, he seemed to lack ambition, but in truth, he knew himself well—something precious indeed.
Such a state of mind was truly rare.
It was just a shame that his aptitude was so poor. He would probably struggle to reach Foundation Establishment. And Qi Refining cultivators, even if they avoided illness and disaster, lived barely a hundred years.
Lin Xiaoyao had no idea that his words had earned him a little renown in the sect.
Many people knew there was a disciple who was content with solitude, sweeping the Founder's Shrine and refusing to move elsewhere, as if he meant to spend his life beside a solitary lamp and an ancient Buddha.
Some laughed at him for being foolish, others called him a fool, and still others thought he had no ambition.
But some took a liking to him.
After all, cleaning the Founder's Shrine was a famously difficult chore.
Yet someone had to do it. Everyone had been trying to shirk the task, afraid it would fall to them. Now they were in luck—someone else had volunteered.
When Lin Xiaoyao found out he had become well known, he had been quite worried at first. He only wanted to quietly remain an inconspicuous nobody, lying low. He didn't want to attract attention.
But as it turned out, he had worried for nothing.
His choice might have surprised the other disciples, but who would be interested in paying attention to an ordinary fellow disciple with mediocre, even somewhat poor, aptitude?
Especially one with no ambition.
So the attention soon faded.
Cultivation was like rowing upstream. Everyone was busy keeping up with their own progress. At most, when they heard about him, they discussed it for a couple of sentences, then quickly forgot all about it.
That let Lin Xiaoyao breathe a sigh of relief.
And so, he returned to his peaceful life as before.
He cleaned every day and signed in. When he had nothing else to do, he wandered around. He stayed out of the world's struggles and seemed to lack ambition, but he lived in comfort and tranquility.
His cultivation also continued to rise.
Lin Xiaoyao was very satisfied with his life.
Until his cultivation matched the Saint Fruit Position, he absolutely would not venture out lightly.
After all, he had heard that the Feathering Sect was a great immortal sect, renowned across tens of thousands of miles. But this world was vast.
Vast beyond measure.
In the far-off reaches, places even the sect's ancestral masters had never visited in their travels, who knew how many powerful figures there were?
Lin Xiaoyao didn't know, and he had no desire to find out.
Curiosity killed the cat.
He liked his peaceful life as it was, and looked forward to signing in each day.
It always brought him new surprises. Of course, it also often gave him things other cultivators would treasure as priceless, but which he had no use for.
Throwing them away seemed a waste, too.
All those useless-but-too-good-to-discard items were tossed in a heap into the System Space.
One morning, Lin Xiaoyao was humming as he cleaned the Founder's Shrine.
Suddenly, his brows lifted.
Someone was coming to the Founder's Shrine?
Aside from important occasions, when the sect's senior figures brought their disciples to pay their respects, hardly anyone ever came here.
Could it be someone from outside the sect?
What did they want?
But Lin Xiaoyao soon realized he had been overthinking it.
The visitor was the Sect Leader himself.
Master Green Feather!
Today wasn't a day for paying respects. What was he here for?
Lin Xiaoyao felt a little puzzled.
But he soon resumed his calm expression.
He acted as if he hadn't noticed a thing.
Of course, he stopped humming, too.
With quick, practiced movements, he continued cleaning the Founder's Shrine, taking great care as he went.
This was work he had done for five years, so naturally he was very skilled at it. When he focused, he was even more meticulous.
Master Green Feather stepped inside and watched him. He couldn't help but nod.
He dealt with major sect affairs every day, while minor matters and tedious tasks were left to the disciples.
But unlike mortals, cultivators had abundant energy.
So even he had occasionally heard an interesting little story from a junior nephew, a steward at the Miscellaneous Affairs Yard.
Before you continue