Pan Long's approach gave everyone an idea. A monk immediately offered to chant sutras and perform rites for the Immortal Peach Tree to help awaken its spirit.
Ren Changsheng smiled. "Buddhist arts can indeed awaken the mind, but young monk, your cultivation is far too shallow. Never mind ten years—chant for a lifetime, and you still wouldn't awaken its spirit. But if you can invite a Golden Body Arhat to do it, every peach the tree bears from now on can go to your people."
"Where am I supposed to find a Golden Body Arhat right now?" the monk asked with a pained expression.
"All you need to do is make a promise," Ren Changsheng said kindly.
The martial artists' eyes reddened with envy. Pan Long's offer to avert a calamity in exchange for a peach had already smacked of catching a white wolf with empty hands. Now Ren Changsheng was willing to give the monk every future peach for a mere promise. He might as well have been giving them away.
The crowd broke into discussion, their words full of doubt.
But the monk everyone envied looked miserable. He thought and thought, then let out a long sigh, shook his head, and withdrew behind the crowd. He sat down and chanted sutras in silence, abandoning his bid.
More than one person in the crowd sighed or laughed at him, but Pan Long saw the two peach recipients beside him nod slightly. The arrogant young man even said, "Senior Ren is generous indeed. That monk tried to play a trick on him, yet he handed the man a chance to better himself."
"What do you mean?" Pan Long could not help asking.
The arrogant young man gave him a puzzled look, as though he could not understand how Pan Long