Lu Qingshan frowned and muttered to himself, then dismissed the thought.
That fellow had not even entered the gates. It probably was not him.
In the past, whenever he wandered through the Inner Sect, a few disciples would always come up to greet him respectfully with a "Greetings, Elder Lu."
But now, he had flown a full circuit without seeing so much as a ghost!
On his second circuit, he finally encountered a few disciples. Yet the moment they spotted him from afar, they turned around and vanished with a whoosh.
It was as though he were some god of pestilence!
"Could it be... they found out I embezzled the Heaven-Tier Magical Artifact? Has my reputation gone rotten?"
"No, that's not it!" Lu Qingshan shook his head again.
It did not look that way. Rather, they seemed to have guilty consciences and feared he would discover something.
As luck would have it, he glanced over and spotted a disciple flying toward him.
The instant the disciple recognized him, his expression changed, and he turned to flee.
Lu Qingshan immediately flashed after him, reached out, and snatched the disciple up like a little chick.
"Why are you running?!"
"I... I'm not!" The disciple hurriedly shook his head, coming up with an excuse in desperation.
"E-Elder Lu! I... I suddenly remembered I haven't put out the fire beneath my pill furnace. I need to hurry back and check!"
"If the furnace explodes and blows up my Cave Abode, I couldn't afford to pay for it!"
"Uh..." That excuse left Lu Qingshan completely dumbfounded.
How... how can this disciple be so careless? Lu Qingshan muttered inwardly. If the furnace really exploded, it would indeed be no small matter.
The moment he loosened his grip, realization struck him-this brat might well be pulling the