"What's going on here?" Nai asked with a dark expression. Xiao Hua was the hope of his Myriad Thunder Valley—how could he let Xiao Hua suffer such grievances?
Xiao Hua was visibly startled, then immediately understood. Xiangyang had not mentioned his punishment—nor even the matter of East Ridge Medicine Garden.
Just as Xiao Hua was about to speak, Xiangyang hurriedly smiled and said, "Master, this is what happened!"
"What happened?" Nai glared at Xiangyang. "You brat made your own decisions again, didn't you?"
"Hehe, yes. I hope Master can forgive me." Xiangyang recounted everything, then said at last, "This sort of matter was nothing much, so this disciple did not report it to Master. I merely said that Junior Brother was in secluded cultivation!"
"Dammit!" Nai laughed and cursed. "That brat really was in secluded cultivation, so you weren't wrong!"
"Heehee." Seeing Nai in good spirits, Xiangyang was pleased as well. "Martial Ancestor Zhen Ye didn't even make things difficult for Junior Brother. Isn't the matter over, then? What does a year's regular tribute amount to? How could it compare to Junior Brother reaching the eleventh layer of Qi Cultivation in just two months?"
"Exactly!" Nai looked at Xiao Hua and asked, "Martial Uncle Zhen Ye truly didn't make things difficult for you? That elder's temperament is... somewhat inclined to repay every slight with the utmost vengeance!"
"No. How could he make things difficult for this disciple?" Xiao Hua shook his head with a smile. "This disciple had only just entered the sect. Isn't it normal to occasionally make a few mistakes?"
"That's good!" Nai glanced at Zhuo, then said to Xiao Hua, "Your Martial Mother had always been thinking of giving you a meeting gift. She went to great trouble to obtain some pills from a familiar senior sister