Chapter 695 464: Congratulatory Gift (Part 2)

"If you do this… even if we disciples keep quiet about it, won't the Golden Core Ancestors like Qiqi harbor some resentment?"

After Liu Xun said so much at once, he lowered his head, waiting to be scolded. But Fang Qingyuan just patted his shoulder and said:

"No matter how difficult things are for us, it's nothing compared to what the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect is going through. For us, sending these supplies is like skipping an extra dish at a meal, while for them, it's a matter of having no food at all. How about this: just deduct the cost of the extra provisions from my own stipend."

"That's not what I meant. It's just… a sect must have its rules. If you act this way, it sets a precedent…"

"Alright, alright. Just this once. It's the Music Master's 420th birthday. I can't attend personally, so the gift should at least be generous. We can't have others looking down on the Music Master. He needs our support now more than ever."

Fang Qingyuan managed to placate Liu Xun and send him on his way. He couldn't bring himself to speak harshly to Liu Xun, who was so devoted to the sect's welfare; he had no choice but to appeal to his emotions.

After Liu Xun took the gift list and left to prepare the supplies, Fang Qingyuan let out a soft sigh in the now-empty room.

Things were difficult for everyone. Nothing was easy.

But the Qingyuan Sect had grown. Though not yet a towering tree, it could at least provide some shelter for the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect.

This was part of the reason Lechuan had let Fang Qingyuan leave and forge his own path all those years ago. If Fang Qingyuan were still in the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect, he would now be ordered to fight the demonic beasts of Awakening Lion Valley to the death. He would never have achieved what he has today.

Currently, the disciples of the various Beast Taming Sect branches, including the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect, were trapped in a brutal war of attrition against the demonic beasts of Awakening Lion Valley. With the two Divinity Transformation Cultivators, Yue'e and Jade Rabbit, refusing to act, every single Nascent Soul Level Wilderness Demonic Beast in the valley had to be brought down with the lives of countless Cultivators.

Wars of expansion are incredibly cruel. People died every single day. The fall of a single Qi Cultivation Cultivator wasn't just the death of one Cultivator; it was the collapse of the heavens for thousands of mortals—the pillar of their clan, their hope for the future.

So far, in this war of expansion unilaterally launched by the Beast Taming Sect, Yue'e's faction had already sacrificed the lives of nearly two thousand Cultivators.

Yue'e and Jade Rabbit could have easily suppressed that Variegated Mountain Monarch with a casual move, yet these two Divinity Transformation Cultivators simply watched as the low-level Cultivators fought and died. They remained outside Awakening Lion Valley, their senses firmly locked onto the aura of that Old Lion.

Perhaps it was because in Yue'e's eyes, the two thousand Cultivators who had died were merely a number. In her long, ten-thousand-year life, she had seen far too many Cultivators perish. Even if these two thousand hadn't died here, they would have certainly died long before she did.

Therefore, Yue'e spared no thought for their inevitable deaths. Her eyes were fixed on a single target: the Yuanhou Lion Dance.

But five years had passed, and the Yuanhou Lion Dance remained in deep slumber, completely oblivious to the great war raging outside. Compared to Yue'e, the Yuanhou Lion Dance had lived even longer and cared even less whether these ants lived or died.

Sometimes, the Yuanhou Lion Dance felt that in the time it took to take a nap, entire generations of life in the outside world had been replaced. Only those ancient beasts of the Nascent Soul Level seemed vaguely familiar, but that was all.

This was due to the difference in their lifespans. Outsiders might see these Divinity Transformation Cultivators as otherworldly and detached, but they didn't understand that a century of mortal life and its concerns was all too brief from the perspective of a Divinity Transformation Cultivator.

And Lechuan was currently trapped in this very war—a conflict that, in the eyes of Divinity Transformation Cultivators, was merely a series of changing numbers. Times were tough for the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect. They still hadn't paid for the last shipment of supplies from the Qingyuan Sect, and now Fang Qingyuan was using Lechuan's birthday as an excuse to send another huge batch. No wonder Liu Xun was practically hopping with anger.

But Fang Qingyuan just couldn't let go of his attachment to Lechuan. He couldn't make a clean break. While his own philosophy may have diverged from Lechuan's, he held no prejudice against the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect as a whole.

The White Mountain Beast Taming Sect wasn't just Lechuan; it represented thousands of Cultivators and hundreds of thousands of mortals. Fang Qingyuan had come from there and had even served as the Vice Sect Leader for many years. After parting ways with Lechuan, how could he simply turn a blind eye to the entire White Mountain Beast Taming Sect?

The predecessor of the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect had its foundations in the Tianshan Villa of old. These were the roots from which Fang Qingyuan had grown. How could he possibly forget?

Fang Qingyuan couldn't personally lead a team to fight alongside the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect now, but he could support them with a batch of supplies. That, at least, was within his power.

Besides, this support wasn't purely an act of charity. The Qingyuan Sect could take in the various spoils of war acquired by the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect, process them through its own production systems, and in turn, convert them into new war materials. Through this cycle of receiving and giving, the Qingyuan Sect stood to gain a fair bit as well. It wasn't the complete, one-sided handout Liu Xun made it out to be.

After sending Liu Xun off, Fang Qingyuan mused quietly for a while. In the blink of an eye, Lechuan was already 420 years old. He was only a few decades away from the lifespan limit of a Golden Core Cultivator.

'Time flies,' Fang Qingyuan thought. He recalled the first time he met Lechuan and how he never would have imagined that he would one day share a master-disciple bond with that refined Golden Core Cultivator. If someone had told him back then that he would one day become this man's disciple, Fang Qingyuan would have surely beaten them senseless and thrown them out.