Chapter 33 Ye Li was not greedy for money

"Senior Brother?"

After talking for a while, Su Ying'er saw that Lu Ziting still looked dazed, so she playfully waved her hand in front of his face and asked, "Senior Brother, what are you thinking about?"

Lu Ziting snapped out of his reverie, suppressed the nameless emotion welling up inside him, and shook his head with a smile. "It's nothing. By the way, you've been taking care of Xiao Liu these past two days. How is he?"

Su Ying'er sighed, "Sixth Senior Brother is still the same. He keeps clamoring to practice swordsmanship every day, but after practicing for a while, he collapses from exhaustion. It really breaks my heart to see him like this. I don't know how Second Senior Sister could be so heartless as to ruin Sixth Senior Brother's future."

Upon hearing the mention of Yuan Ce, the longing that had just arisen in Lu Ziting's heart vanished instantly. "Ye Li's actions were indeed too vicious, and it is truly pitiful that Yuan Ce suffered such an undeserved calamity."

He suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, today is the day to distribute spirit stones. I'll go and collect those hundred high-grade spirit stones later and buy some pills for Yuan Ce to nourish his body."

"That's wonderful! When the spirit stones come back, we'll not only buy pills for our sixth senior brother, but also some gifts for our third and fifth senior brothers, and of course, for our eldest senior brother."

Lu Ziting felt a warmth in his heart and pulled her into his arms. "Look at you, always thinking of others like this. And what do you want?"

"Ying'er doesn't want anything, Ying'er only wants..."

She leaned close to his ear, her voice sweet and cloying, "Senior Brother."

Lu Ziting's heart fluttered, and he tightened his grip on her arm, then pressed his head to her lips, lingering for a while before almost losing control.

Su Ying'er leaned into his arms, her fingers tracing patterns on his chest. "Senior Brother, you said before that no matter whether Second Senior Sister comes back or not, you would become her Daoist partner."

Lu Ziting was in the throes of passion and agreed without a second thought.

"Alright, after we retrieve the spirit stones, I'll start preparing the marriage certificate. Ying'er, you are so beautiful and kind, I can't wait to marry you."

The two went together to retrieve the spirit stones, and on the way they encountered Mo Hannian and Wen Yao.

Upon hearing that Lu Ziting and Su Ying'er were going to retrieve spirit stones, Wen Yao's brows relaxed.

"Both Xiao Liu and Lao Si need pills. With spirit stones, we can buy better medicinal materials, and they will recover faster."

Although Wen Yao was born into royalty, he could not use earthly gold and silver items here, and could only rely on spirit stones.

Su Ying'er smiled and said, "A full one hundred high-grade spirit stones, that's enough to buy any kind of pills."

Mo Hannian sneered and echoed, "One hundred high-grade spirit stones. Does Ye Li actually take out twenty spirit stones a month? If she embezzles seventy or eighty a month, over the past ten years, she'll have accumulated tens of thousands. She's probably living a carefree life with those spirit stones right now!"

Wen Yao wanted to say something, but everyone in the inner sect knew that Ye Li collected the allowance every month, and it wasn't enough to cover their expenses, so he couldn't say anything.

The group chatted as they lined up, and their conversation attracted the attention of the other disciples.

"Ye Li is greedy for spirit stones? Really?"

"Really? Doesn't Ye Li usually take good care of her fellow disciples?"

As the discussion grew louder, Su Ying'er kindly came to Ye Li's rescue, saying, "Everyone, please stop talking. Senior Sister probably just wants us to be more frugal; she's not deliberately after money."

These words, seemingly meant to exonerate Ye Li, actually confirmed her guilt.

Sure enough, a disciple immediately exclaimed indignantly, "For cultivators to have such despicable conduct is a disgrace to the sect!"

"Yes, it's a shame that Ye Li always puts on a show of being devoted to the sect. It turns out it was all a lie."

Su Ying'er was extremely anxious, "No, everyone, please don't say that..."

She looked at her senior brothers, her eyes brimming with tears, "Did Ying'er say something wrong?"

Lu Ziting comforted her, "Ying'er, don't cry, it's not your fault."

“Yes.” Mo Hannian said with a dark face, “If you don’t want people to know, then don’t do it in the first place.”

Because the Lotus Sect didn't have enough spirit stones, he didn't dare drink more than one bottle of Immortal Dew, which cost one spirit stone.

Ye Li only gave him two bottles a month, and he would only drink a small sip when his cough was extremely severe.

If she hadn't been so greedy, perhaps his poison wouldn't have been so severe.

Thinking of this, Mo Hannian raised his voice slightly and said, "Ye Li has been greedy for the spirit stones in the Lotus Sect for more than ten years. During this time, we brothers and sisters have lived frugally, while she alone has been living a carefree life. Although the spirit stones cannot be recovered, everyone must see her true colors! Don't be deceived by her again!"

"Xiao Wu!"

Wen Yao grabbed his arm to stop him, "If you say that, how will you face people if A-Li comes back?"

Mo Hannian forcefully shook off his hand, "Do you expect me to lie through my teeth? I can't do that!"

Wen Yao sighed helplessly, "We need to find out more before we talk, otherwise we'll be wrongly accusing A-Li."

"What injustice is there? The spirit stones are being distributed right here. Every inner disciple receives one hundred high-grade spirit stones. How is she being wronged?"

"this-"

Wen Yao was speechless.

As they were talking, the group arrived.

Lu Ziting said calmly, "If Third Junior Brother has any questions, he can come and see for himself whether we will receive one hundred spirit stones later."

His eyes were filled with mockery, ridiculing Wen Yao for being blinded by lust and failing to recognize true character.

At the table, Su Ying'er said in a clear voice, "Greetings, Elder. The Lotus Sect has come to collect spirit stones."

The elder distributing the spirit stones didn't even look up, just said, "The token."

Lu Ziting handed over the Lotus Sect's plaque, and the elder immediately pulled out a bag of spirit stones from under the table.

"Ten high-grade spirit stones, sign here."

Upon hearing the amount, everyone was stunned.

Lu Ziting thought the elder was old and had made a mistake, so he emphasized again, "It is the Lotus Sect that came to collect the spirit stones."

The elder looked up impatiently, "I heard you, I'm not deaf."

Mo Hannian frowned. "Since the elder heard this, he should know that our monthly allowance is one hundred high-grade spirit stones. Why did you only give us ten?"

"It's alright, Elder."

Su Ying'er said sweetly, "Elder, you have to distribute so many spirit stones every day. We won't blame you for making a mistake once or twice. Just take out our spirit stones now."

To her surprise, the white-bearded elder not only didn't buy into her act, but instead narrowed his eyes, his beard twitching with anger, "Who are you saying made a mistake in the accounts? Let me tell you, I have never made a single mistake in the accounts since I started doing them!"

After saying that, he pointed to the ledger, "Look carefully, your Lotus Sect only has ten high-grade spirit stones, that's right!"

"Ten yuan?"

Lu Ziting and the others were dumbfounded. How did the promised 100 high-grade spirit stones become 10?

It's all written clearly in black and white, so where exactly did the problem go wrong?

Just as everyone was looking at each other in bewilderment, Wen Yao stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, “Elder, we had no intention of disturbing you. This is our first time here to collect our monthly allowance. Could you please tell us why our Lotus Sect’s monthly allowance is different from that of other inner sects?”

Perhaps seeing that Wen Yao was still polite, the white-bearded elder put down his pen and said impatiently, "Your Lotus Sect has always used ten high-grade spirit stones, don't you know that?"