Fu Boren's face turned cold, and the temperature in the air seemed to drop several degrees, yet he did not speak at once!
With so many spiritual plants in the Spiritual Plant Garden having been snatched away, this was something he had never imagined.
After taking a deep breath, he turned and swept his gaze across the people in charge of the other peaks. When his eyes fell on the elders of Tianzhu Peak and Tianyin Peak, they lingered briefly.
In his view, those two peaks were the most likely culprits capable of such a feat.
However, the deed was already done. There was certainly no way to seek trouble over it now.
After pondering for a moment, he accepted the Purple Lightning Sword and said flatly, "Alright, accidents like this are normal. It isn't your fault! You still managed to find so many spiritual materials, so you've worked hard."
"At the sect tournament ten years from now, there will not only be all kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, but also Foundation Establishment Pills. When the time comes, the other martial brothers will need you to lead them in striving hard!"
"Rest assured, Master! When the time comes, this disciple will certainly give it his all!" Ye Liangchuan let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly gritted his teeth as he made a solemn promise.
Fu Boren nodded and signaled for the disciples behind him to continue.
Tianhua Peak had sent the most people, over a thousand in all. More than five hundred returned, and it took nearly an hour to finish tallying everything.
The five hundred-odd disciples had found over forty thousand Second-Grade Spiritual Materials in total. On average, each had gathered nearly a hundred.
Though the Spiritual Plant Garden incident had been unexpected, Fu Boren was still quite satisfied with this result.
So long as he obtained that Hundred Year Cold Jade, he was equally confident of attaining the Golden Core stage. It could be considered compensation for some of his losses!
Turning to Lu Mingshi, he laughed loudly. "Martial Brother Lu, according to our earlier agreement, your Luofu Peak needs to produce at least four thousand spiritual materials to count as a victory."
"Well? Can you bring them out?"
As soon as he spoke, everyone turned to look in Luofu Peak's direction.
This figure made the people in charge of every peak burn with envy! So many spiritual materials could absolutely be called a bumper harvest!
Yet this also meant that Luofu Peak's chances of winning had become even slimmer!
The people of Luofu Peak instinctively held their breaths, not daring even to breathe loudly. They all feared that speaking up at this moment would touch their Peak Master's sore spot.
Lu Mingshi was no exception. His face had darkened into a lump of charcoal, and for a time, he did not even know how to respond.
Tianhua Peak's haul had far exceeded his expectations.
More than three thousand spiritual materials—was that some kind of joke, relying on the few fools behind him?
It would already be impressive if they could scrape together three hundred!
The only one who showed little reaction was Su Shi'er, who was quietly stuffing everything he could into his storage ring.
It did not matter if they failed. But if they somehow won, everything saved would be his. He would not need to hand over fifty percent of this portion to the sect!
"Martial Brother, why have you stopped talking? Are you planning to admit defeat outright? But since things have reached this point, shouldn't you at least tally things up and let everyone see what Luofu Peak has harvested?"
"Otherwise, people might say Luofu Peak cannot afford to lose!" Seeing that Lu Mingshi did not answer, Fu Boren's smile grew even broader.
He and Lu Mingshi had long been old rivals. He would never miss a chance to see the other make a fool of himself.
"Hmph! You old bastard, what are you so smug about?"
With a stern face, Lu Mingshi shot Fu Boren a vicious glare, then turned to the people behind him.
"Alright, take out all the materials you collected. Winning or losing does not matter. Let everyone see them too, so no one can say we cannot afford to lose."
After speaking, Lu Mingshi's gaze fell on Han Yu.
Han Yu raised his head and swept his gaze over the people of Tianhua Peak, looking rather indignant.
With a wave of his hand, a heap of spiritual materials like a small mountain appeared before everyone.
"One thousand two hundred and three spiritual plants?! Not bad. You've done very well. As far as individual results go, you're already the best performer among the Seven Peaks!"
Seeing this, Lu Mingshi reluctantly roused his spirits and patted Han Yu on the shoulder in encouragement.
Such a result made everyone look at him several more times.
But everyone understood that each peak had its trump cards in this trial. It was not surprising for them to have one or two disciples like this.
After Han Yu stepped down, Xiao Yue also brought out her harvest.
She had far fewer than Han Yu, only a little over six hundred Second-Grade Spiritual Materials.
As for the remaining menial disciples, they were even worse off, each taking out their own harvest with dispirited expressions.
The best among them had found thirty. The worst was a Qi Refining Stage third-level disciple, the very disciple who had initially teamed up with Zhu Hanwei. He had not found a single spiritual material and had even lost his Storage Pouch.
This nearly infuriated Lu Mingshi to death. He blew his beard and glared, wishing he could slap the fellow to death with a single palm.
When it was Zhu Hanwei's turn, he swiftly took out ten spiritual materials and received a nod from Lu Mingshi.
After all, it was already quite surprising for a disciple without even a Spiritual Root to find so many spiritual materials.
Very soon, Su Shi'er was the only one left from Luofu Peak.
"Martial Brother, there's only a Qi Refining Stage third-level brat left. Is there any need to tally him?" Before Su Shi'er could take anything out, Fu Boren suddenly called out again.
"This is Luofu Peak's business. Is it any of yours?" Lu Mingshi snapped irritably.
"I'm not meddling. The spiritual materials you've gathered do not even amount to two thousand. With such an enormous gap, what... are you counting on this brat to help you turn the tables? Stop wasting time and hurry up and give me the Hundred Year Cold Jade!"
Fu Boren looked at Lu Mingshi with a beaming smile as he urged him on.
No one found this outcome the slightest bit surprising.
One after another, they turned their eyes toward Fu Boren. Several elders even could not help revealing envious looks.
That was Hundred Year Cold Jade!
Though it was not as valuable as a low-grade Spirit Artifact, it was still an exceedingly rare Third-Grade Spiritual Material, something one could encounter only by chance and never seek out.
Fu Boren possessed the rare dual water-and-fire Spiritual Roots. So long as he refined this Hundred Year Cold Jade, breaking through to the Golden Core stage would be just around the corner.
"Hmph! You old bastard, are you in such a hurry to reincarnate? Even if you want the item, wait until Luofu Peak has finished tallying its things!" Lu Mingshi's mouth twitched as he said irritably.
Though he knew they had lost, he still wanted to drag things out and deny Fu Boren the satisfaction of an easy victory.
"Fine, as you wish!" Fu Boren said with a smile. With victory already in his grasp, he did not get angry.
Lu Mingshi's gaze fell on Su Shi'er. His expression remained unpleasant as he said carelessly, "Brat, take out all your harvest."
Su Shi'er stepped forward. At that moment, everyone's attention was on Lu Mingshi, and no one paid any notice to a minor figure like him.
Lu Mingshi had even shifted his gaze elsewhere. He merely wanted to stall for time and make Fu Boren's victory less satisfying.
Su Shi'er did not care about that either. He took out all the Storage Pouches he had prepared long ago.
There were more than twenty Storage Pouches. He poured true essence into them one by one and took out the materials within. The space in his storage ring was simply limited, and it also contained the corpse of a Second-tier Demon Beast. Otherwise, he definitely would not have brought out so many spiritual materials.
A massive quantity of spiritual materials fell to the ground, piling into a glittering little mountain in the blink of an eye.
Hundred-Year Ginseng, hundred-year astragalus, hundred-year lingzhi... there were no fewer than a hundred of each kind.
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