After Fang Shu left, the Five-Viscera Shrine fell silent.
Deer Cart Earth Immortal stood at the doorway, watching Fang Shu's receding back with an expression full of emotion, speechless for a time.
Then, from atop the offering table behind him, a voice rose and broke the shrine's silence:
"A True Immortal seed who has formed the elixir—are we truly letting him go just like that?"
The voice droned. It was Ox Cart Earth Immortal, the ox-headed, human-bodied figure, speaking.
Judging by his tone, he did not object to Deer Cart's decision. It sounded more like idle conversation.
Without waiting for Deer Cart Earth Immortal to answer, Sheep Cart Earth Immortal, who was also atop the offering table, spoke:
"What else could we do but send him away? If we kept him in the shrine, leaving aside the possibility that someone with ulterior motives might discover him by accident.
"Even if he were not discovered, Mount Lu's current fortune looked robust but was hollow within. Going by the old sayings, it would be unable to produce a Spirit-Refining cultivator for at least three thousand years. Even Elixir Formation would be difficult. If one emerged within three hundred years, it would already count as our accumulated virtue."
He shook his sheep's head. "Hard. Following old relics like us will only delay these youngsters."
Upon hearing this, Ox Cart Earth Immortal said no more and sank into silence.
At last, Deer Cart Earth Immortal turned around. Looking at his two fellow disciples, he sighed softly.
"Seeking Gold to prove the Dao... I wonder how the Shrine Master and the others crossed that threshold back then.
"These past few days, I have searched through every kind of record in the shrine. Yet apart from the True Immortal Name Tablet I gave that boy just