Seeing Lu Lihong react like this, Deputy Hall Master Xu was not surprised. He said in a low voice, "What? This is only the first matter, and you are already making excuses. Then can this old man treat everything you just said as fart?"
Lu Lihong's face shifted between green and red as he said with difficulty, "But... the rules of the Incense-Passing Cult..."
"Bullshit rules! If we followed the rules, would an outside disciple like you still be staying on my Baiyue Peak, obediently serving as a disciple of my herb division? But what is the reality? Aren't you living free and easy in the outer sect, striving to enter the inner sect?"
"This..." Lu Lihong's face turned pale again, and he sank back into his chair in a daze.
Seeing this, Deputy Hall Master Xu struck while the iron was hot. "Everyone thinks you are a man blessed with great fortune, and indeed, you are. Others enter You Lan Grand Canyon and gather at most a few decades' worth of herbs. But you? You picked several-hundred-year-old ginseng in one go. Everyone says you are a genius. Mm, this old man does not deny it—you truly are gifted. Relying solely on the cultivation method bestowed by the inner sect, you have cultivated to quite a high realm. Unfortunately, how could the threshold for becoming an inner sect disciple be so easy to cross? If it were that simple, forget others—even Chen Fengxiao and Wu Zhouxu were no worse than you back then. Why did they still break their halberds and sink into the sand? I need not say more, do I?"
Lu Lihong's face was now ashen. In this brief span of time, the expressions on his face had changed rapidly, showing just how deeply stirred he was within.