Seeking Immortality

Hearing Zhang Hualing's words, the elders of the older generation stood up and said goodbye. Many of them glared at Xu Qingfan before leaving, which made Xu Qingfan's bitter smile even more intense.

Or, this world is really not as simple as Xu Qingfan imagined. As Xu Qingfan understood more and saw more, this feeling became stronger in his heart.

The crowds are bustling, all for profit, and all for profit. Nothing is like this in the world.

In these years, the most important thing Liu Huaxiang taught Xu Qingfan was to learn to analyze the flow of interests.

According to Liu Huaxiang, everything in the world is mostly controlled by interests. Loyalty is for interests, betrayal is also for interests, fighting is for interests, and peace is also for interests. This point is more obvious as people's positions become higher and more prominent.

If one day, when you can clearly see the gains and losses of interests, then you can easily see the purpose and direction of people's actions, and control them.

After this meeting of elders, Xu Qingfan felt that he had understood Liu Huaxiang's meaning.

As the elders of the older generation left one after another, the younger elders showed expectations and excitement in their eyes.

Elders are a very special position in the various sects of the cultivation world. They usually don't care about anything in the sect, have great autonomy, and are willing to make any contribution to the sect except teaching disciples.

But at the same time, being an elder of a sect is also a person with great skills and an extremely important deterrent force for the sect. In fact, the number of elders in a sect can also show the strength of the sect in some ways, so the sect cannot ignore them just because the elders ignore things and concentrate on cultivation.

Because of this, the sects in the cultivation world have the saying of "offering". Every sixty years, each elder will receive a certain amount of offerings from the sect, and these offerings include high-level spirit stones. There are natural treasures, various elixirs, and even high-level magic tools, which vary in quantity according to the elders' skills and influence in the sect.

This is why the elders of both the old and young generations reacted so strongly when Xu Qingfan proposed the establishment of three courtyards.

Jiuhua Mountain's savings are limited now. Once the influence of the young elders increases greatly, the offerings they receive will also increase, and the offerings of the older elders will inevitably decrease.

Interests determine positions, that's exactly the case.

Although the offerings that the younger generation of elders can receive were greatly suppressed in the elders' meeting just now, facing the first time to receive offerings as an elder, even a steady Jin Qinghan's eyes fluctuated with excitement.

In fact, even if their offerings are far less than those of the older generation of elders, the offerings they received this time are far more than all they have received before.

Moreover, this time they can also receive several high-level magic tools, which makes them very happy. As their skills have reached the stage of forming a pill, the previous human-level magic tools are no longer suitable for their use.

After Zhang Hualing finished speaking, he stood up and walked to the back of the "Hualing Hall".

When the young elders saw Zhang Hualing standing up, they also stood up. But they did not follow Zhang Hualing to the back of the hall. Instead, they looked at Xu Qingfan, as if they were following Xu Qingfan's lead.

If there were still people who were dissatisfied with Xu Qingfan becoming the deacon elder, then as Xu Qingfan had just won the control of the three courtyards for them, this dissatisfaction had been greatly reduced.

Noticing the young elders' gazes towards him, Xu Qingfan shook his head unnoticed, but smiled at everyone, and then followed Zhang Hualing to the back of the "Hualing Hall", while the young elders did not stand up until then. Among them. Jin Qinghan, Lu Qingshang and other people who were familiar with Xu Qingfan walked quickly to Xu Qingfan's side, obviously to congratulate Xu Qingfan for becoming the head deacon.

"Ahem, but just when Jin Qinghan and others came to Xu Qingfan and were about to say something, Xu Qingfan suddenly coughed abruptly."

In the past six months, Xu Qingfan's cough seemed to have become a habit of hitting him with his hands. It has always been with him. Basically, he would feel chest tightness every few words and need to cough once or twice. Just now at the elders' meeting, in order to respect and try to say his own suggestions, he had been holding back his chest tightness, but at this time he finally couldn't help coughing.

Seeing Xu Qingfan like this, Jin Qinghan and others were all surprised. They saw Xu Qingfan coughing half a year ago, but they didn't expect that it was still not healed. Obviously, things are not as simple as Xu Qingfan explained.

Jin Qinghan asked first: "Senior Brother Xu, is your cough still not healed?"

Seeing that Jin Qinghan's worried look was definitely not fake, Xu Qingfan felt warm in his heart, and his mood, which had just been depressed because of the matter of the Elders' Council, was slightly relieved. He thought to himself: "At least, the relationship between me and Junior Brother Jin is not based on interests, right?"

Thinking so in his heart, he smiled and said: "It's nothing serious, don't worry, it will be fine after a while."

At this time, Zhang Hualing, who was leading the way in front, also noticed Xu Qingfan's cough, turned around and asked: "Deacon Xu, what's wrong with you?"

Xu Qingfan said: "I just hurt my vitality by practicing. Don't worry, Master."

Zhang Hualing nodded, and then said to the elders: "Elders, wait here first, Deacon Xu, follow me."

With that said, Zhang Hualing took Xu Qingfan deeper into the back hall of Hualing, and came to a huge stone gate. Zhang Hualing said to Xu Qingfan: "Deacon Xu, this is my Jiuhua's secret treasury. From now on, it will be yours and mine." , Elder Gongsun and the other three are jointly in charge. There is an extremely powerful seal on this stone gate, and you need to remember it clearly if you want to open it."

After Xu Qingfan nodded, Zhang Hualing opened the stone gate of the secret library with his command. In order to let Xu Qingfan remember it clearly, Zhang Hualing performed it very slowly. Xu Qingfan couldn't remember it clearly after reading it once.

After Zhang Hualing pointed Liao to finish the exercise, the gray stone door in front of the two people suddenly glowed with dazzling colorful glow, and began to slowly open. As a gap was revealed between the stone doors, a burst of glow was accompanied by extremely powerful spiritual energy fluctuations. came from the stone door.

When the stone door was fully opened, Xu Qingfan was stunned by the scene inside.

I saw that inside this inconspicuous stone door, there was actually a hall covering an area of ​​nearly 100 square meters. The interior is densely packed with stone shelves, numbering no less than ten thousand. On the stone shelf, there are high-level spiritual stones, high-level elixirs and elixirs, or rare magic weapons. It is covered with every stone shelf, and every object is glowing with spiritual energy and glow. When mixed together, it becomes extremely powerful, making it impossible to look at it.

Even though Xu Qingfan had always been calm-minded, he was stunned after seeing this scene.

Xu Qingfan knew that what he saw in front of him was the Jiuhuashan sect's savings for thousands of years.

"Can you remember clearly?"

Just when Xu Qing was shocked, Zhang Hualing's voice suddenly sounded in his ears.

Xu Qingfan woke up from the shock and took a deep breath. He said slowly: "I remember clearly."

Zhang Hualing nodded, and then said: "Have you seen the huge green slip next to the stone gate? It records all the information about the items in the secret warehouse. From now on, every time you receive items from the secret warehouse, you must put them on this green slip. It’s clearly documented.”

Xu Qingfan said respectfully: "Junior understands."

Zhang Hualing nodded, but then led Xu Qingfan deeper into the secret vault. After a while, Xu Qingfan discovered that there was a stone door in the secret vault, but it was much smaller than the one just now.

But I heard Zhang Hualing say: "My Jiuhua Secret Treasury is divided into three levels. The first level contains some high-grade stones and relatively permanent elixirs and magic weapons. The second level contains some relatively rare items in the world of immortality. For example, magic weapons that are above the earth level, elixirs that are more than three thousand years old, or eggs of high-level monsters, or some books that record important or secret information. At this level, if you want to take something out of it, you must You need my consent, do you understand?"

Xu Qingfan nodded again.

Then, Zhang Hualing opened the second stone gate in front of Xu Qingfan. By the way, he taught Xu Qingfan the instructions for opening the second stone gate.

Compared with the first stone gate, the scene at the second stone gate is obviously much more ordinary. The first station covers an area of ​​only about ten acres, and there are only a few hundred stone shelves. There are some sparse utensils placed on the stone shelves. , compared to the radiant and aura-filled scene on the first floor, the items on the stone shelves on the second floor seemed much more ordinary and plain, but Xu Qingfan knew that these seemingly ordinary items were actually sealed. . Otherwise, the aura and glow they emit will be far greater than the first layer.

Then, Zhang Hualing did not lead Xu Qingfan into the third floor of the secret vault. In fact, after looking around the second floor of the secret vault for a week, Xu Qingfan did not find any other stone gates. Looking at Zhang Hualing's appearance, it was obvious that only the head of Jiuhua could enter the third-level secret vault.

Just when Xu Qingfan was not looking at the second-level secret vault, he heard Zhang Ling suddenly say: "You performed well at the elders meeting just now."

When Xu Qingfan heard what Zhang Hualing said, he couldn't understand what Zhang Hualing meant for a moment. He just replied: "This junior is not thoughtful and behaves recklessly."

Zhang Hualing shook his head and said: "You didn't do anything wrong. The establishment of the three academies is indeed very beneficial to Jiuhua's current situation. Although it goes against tradition, now Jiuhua's top priority is to restore its strength. , but I don’t care about that much anymore.”

After a pause, Zhang Hualing suddenly changed the topic and asked: "What do you think of those elders who oppose the establishment of the three houses?"

Xu Qingfan was stunned again and replied carefully: "These elders are all the elders of the younger generation. The younger generation dare not make more comments."

Zhang Hualing sneered and said: "You dare not say it? Then I'll tell you. You must think that those old guys ignore me, Jiuhua, in order to receive more offerings and maintain their influence in Jiuhua Mountain." The future of the mountain and the restoration of strength, blindly suppressing the rise of the younger generation of elders like you, is completely inconsistent with their status as elders, right? "

Xu Qingfan hurriedly bowed and replied: "Disciple doesn't dare."

Zhang Hualing ignored Xu Qingfan's answer, and just said to himself: "The crowd is bustling, all for gain, and all for gain. The world is like this. I can tell you clearly that except for some conservative and stubborn people, those who oppose The elders you agree with, they do think so, and the elders of the older generation who support you are not just because they are so self-sacrificing in sacrificing their offerings for Jiuhua. If you observe carefully, you will notice , those elders of the older generation who support you have more or less disciples who have become the new generation of elders, so they are so supportive of your proposal."

Hearing Zhang Hualing's words, Xu Qingfan was slightly startled, but he did not expect what Zhang Hualing just said, but because he didn't know what Zhang Hualing meant, he remained silent.

But Zhang Hualing said again: "Have you ever thought about it, since the new generation of elders is the future of Jiuhua, why did I let them reduce the offerings of those new generation elders at the elders meeting just now?"

Xu Qingfan's heart was racing, but he replied: "I don't know, this junior."

Zhang Hualing said: "Have you ever thought about it, are the offerings that the elders of the older generation receive every Jiazi really used by themselves?" In fact, part of the offerings they receive every Jiazi will be passed on to their disciples. , and considering that their skills are higher and they consume more spiritual stones and elixirs, although they receive far more offerings than the younger generation of elders, after deducting these, the amount is actually not that exaggerated. "

Xu Qingfan said in a deep voice: "Disciple understands."

At this moment, Xu Qingfan finally understood the meaning of Zhang Hualing's words. Zhang Hualing's words have two meanings. One is to not let Xu Qingfan think that the elders of the older generation are so miserable. They suppress the amount of offerings from the new generation of elders, but they also have their own reasons. The other is to ask Xu Qingfan to release offerings in the future. When doing so, we must strictly follow the regulations of the Presbyterian Council. We must not give any less to the elders of the older generation, nor give any more to the elders of the younger generation. After all, after Xu Qingfan becomes a deacon and elder, he will be responsible for arranging and arranging these matters. . In fact, even if Zhang Hualing hadn't said anything, Xu Qingfan would not have made a fuss about this. Not to mention that Xu Qingfan himself is a rule-abiding person. Even if he had this kind of mentality, Xu Qingfan would not do anything when facing those elders whose skills were useless to him. Dare to suppress at will.

Seeing that Xu Qingfan understood what he meant, Zhang Hualing smiled slightly, nodded, and said: "Now you go outside and invite the elders in. The offerings of Jiazi on the first floor are high-level spiritual stones. Fifteen hundred pills and thirty bottles of various elixirs. The properties of the spirit stones and the elixirs are chosen by them. Since you are an elder, you have to offer more, two thousand high-level spirit stones. Plant fifty bottles of elixir, and after they receive the offerings, take them to the second floor and let them receive two items at will, while you will receive three items."

Xu Qingfan nodded and said, "Junior, I'll go now."

With that said, Xu Qingfan walked quickly to where Jin Qinghan and others were outside the secret vault, leaving Zhang Hualing alone, standing there looking at Xu Qingfan's back with a serious look on his face.