In the desolate mountains, several cultivators paused their work to stare at their increasingly agitated senior cultivator. The man was pacing in circles like a lost ant, his expression shifting between anger and frustration. Finally, the youngest cultivator could stand it no longer and said, “Please make a decision soon, Big Senior Brother.”

The senior cultivator stopped in his tracks and said slowly with a face as dark as storm clouds, “Could I have been deceived again?”

“It wouldn't be the first or even the second time, Big Senior Brother,” the youngest cultivator replied. “Everyone knows about your penchant for falling for schemes at this point. After so many years, the only ones who haven’t deceived you are the Skyblue Hall.”

The senior cultivator let out a long sigh. Glancing at the desolate mountains and wilderness around them—surrounded by poisonous plants and venomous insects with no one in sight—he said sorrowfully, “I’m afraid I’ve truly let you all down….”

His senior and junior brothers immediately waved their hands. “It’s no big deal. As long as you pay us our...