"It did rise, I suppose."
The Dao Sect Master's lips kept curling upward despite himself. After taking a sip of tea to make himself look less punchable, he lightly coughed. "It only looks prosperous. It's all false prosperity."
"In reality, not many Spirit Stones have fallen into the Dao Sect's hands at all."
"Is that so?"
The Sky Axe Sect Master looked at the Dao Sect Master with a face full of resentment and said hoarsely, "Your sect's expansion has become a little outrageous. Can you really afford to support that many disciples?"
"That's exactly why. All the Spirit Stones have been spent there."
"Forget that. Seriously, can you pull a brother up for real?"
"Well..."
The Dao Sect Master hesitated. "The main thing is that our Dao Sect already sells array discs, so we can use Senior's reputation to expand our influence. As Mister puts it, we already have our own products, while your Sky Axe Sect doesn't really have any products. Your Sky Axe Sect's main source of profit isn't selling products either. How am I supposed to pull you up?"
"Surely you can't... sell axes to the public?"
"Why not?" The Sky Axe Sect Master said anxiously. "Axes are such great things. They can chop firewood and chop people. Maybe Senior made his start by chopping firewood when he was still insignificant!"
"How could that be?"
The Dao Sect Master rolled his eyes irritably. "Do you think someone like Senior would chop firewood? Even in his humble beginnings, he definitely wouldn't have. Most likely, the moment he was born, heaven and earth displayed strange phenomena, with nine Five-Clawed Golden Dragons circling between heaven and earth to announce Senior's birth to the world."
The Sky Axe Sect Master had just been about to retort when he suddenly realized