Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 244: My Family Has Lots of Spirit Stones, Can’t I Just Splurge?

While the tension in the alley outside reached a boiling point, the atmosphere inside the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion was decidedly different.

They were busy packing to run away.

“Attention! Don’t panic, don’t rush!”

“Pack everything securely. Don’t leave a single item behind. The more critical the situation, the calmer we must be.”

“Remember, in our line of work, running away is just part of the job. Safety and stability above all else!”

The experienced Star Shattering Forging Platform was currently acting as the foreman, directing the frantic packing effort. The mountains of heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and spiritual herbs that had previously decorated the courtyard were rapidly being stuffed back into the Mountain and River Remnant Realm.

Despite the urgency, the process was remarkably orderly. The Forging Platform even found the time to impart some hard-earned wisdom to Little Ping’an.

“Listen closely, Little Ping’an. When you specialize in ambushing people with a sap, risk and reward are forever linked. A cunning rabbit needs three burrows. You must always have an escape route and the mental readiness to bolt at a moment’s notice.”

“But timing is everything.”

“Whether you’re swinging the sap or running for your life, your timing must be meticulously calculated to maximize the profit and ensure your survival.”

“…”

Not just Little Ping’an, but the other three spirits were listening to this lecture with rapt attention, soaking up the practical knowledge.

However, despite their focus on packing and learning, all four spirits were perfectly positioned around the broken porcelain shard. They occupied the four cardinal directions, forming an impenetrable defensive perimeter around the shard and Little Ping’an in the center.

There were terrifying enemies outside. They were ready to run, but they couldn’t leave yet. They had to wait for Gu Xiu to finish his cultivation.

Until then, they would not retreat into the Remnant Realm, nor would they allow a single soul to step near that shard and disturb him.

No one was getting past them!

BOOM! A deafening explosion suddenly rocked the main gate. The pavilion’s grand defensive formation had long since been activated, but stray waves of Spiritual Qi from the brewing conflict outside were already slamming into the barrier, causing it to flash violently.

The great battle had finally begun!

The first to move was Ji Qinghan. She led her three Void Refining experts in a synchronized assault against Shi Siling. The clash of five Void Refining powerhouses instantly drained the color from the world. The sun and moon dimmed, and Cloud Firmament City’s automated defensive restrictions began triggering one after another, forcing the combatants to ascend into the stratosphere to avoid leveling the district.

Seeing Shi Siling dragged into the sky, the remaining White Jade Tower forces wasted no time.

“Forward! Slaughter them all!”

“A mere Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion dares to block the White Jade Tower?!”

“A bunch of ants trying to shake a tree! Today, we trample them into the dirt!”

The White Jade Tower boasted an ancient lineage and had lain dormant for millennia. Their sudden re-emergence brought a massive force, saturated with high-level experts. With Shi Siling—the only true threat—occupied, flattening the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion was essentially a free achievement.

As for the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion guards blocking the door? They were nothing but shrimp soldiers and crab generals. Easily crushed. The only ones who required even a modicum of attention were Lu Dongshan and their other Soul Formation expert.

Everyone else was an insect.

At least, that was the consensus among the White Jade Tower elites.

That consensus lasted exactly two steps.

The moment the vanguard charged forward, the sky above the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion formation darkened. A dense, suffocating rain of projectiles shot out, blacking out the sun as it arced toward them.

The White Jade Tower experts paused, looking up in confusion.

Then, cold sweat drenched their backs.

Talismans!

It was a seamless, inescapable tsunami of Talismans!

“Retreat!”

“Fall back! Fall back right now!”

“Stop pushing me, damn it! Move!”

The vanguard scrambled backward in a state of absolute panic. These weren’t low-grade parlor tricks; the sheer volume and quality of the Talismans were staggering. Aside from the three Soul Formation experts leading the charge, who in their right mind would try to face that?! And even those three could only manage to shield themselves—they couldn’t protect the others.

Worse still, the moment they broke formation, Lu Dongshan and his fellow Soul Formation expert launched a vicious counter-offensive, pinning the White Jade Tower’s leaders in brutal close-quarters combat.

Left entirely exposed, the remaining White Jade Tower cultivators desperately wished they had been born with an extra pair of legs. Taking a direct hit from that carpet-bombing would peel the flesh from their bones.

“Is the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion out of their minds?! Who burns this many Talismans at once?!”

“That volley alone must have cost 500,000 Spirit Stones!”

“Thank the heavens I’m fast, or I’d be ash right now!”

“Those degenerate bastards!”

Furious curses erupted from the retreating ranks. They were all scholars and cultivators; they believed battles should be decided by personal cultivation, mastery of the Dao, and sheer numbers. Who could have predicted the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion would completely ignore martial virtue and just try to buy a victory?!

Several of their slower comrades had already been reduced to bloody mist.

The survivors glared at the smoking crater separating the two forces, their eyes burning with hatred.

“They are just delaying the inevitable! Once they run out of paper, we’ll butcher them!”

“Hold the line! Let them waste their wealth. External tools are just crutches. We will teach them the true power of cultivation!”

Their morale held firm. No matter how deep their pockets were, the Talismans would eventually run out. When that happened, the slaughter would begin.

However… just as the smoke from the first volley began to clear, the eyes of the White Jade Tower vanguard bulged out of their skulls.

“What… what in the heavens is that?”

“Are those… warship cannons?!”

“They… they wouldn’t dare fire those in a city, would they?!”

As the dust settled, the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion formation had shifted. Aimed directly at the alleyway was a menacing row of heavy artillery muzzles.

“Retreat! RUN!”

The White Jade Tower elites broke into a frantic sprint. They recognized those weapons instantly. They were main-battery ship cannons designed for large-scale Sect warfare! Each one was a gold-devouring beast that required an absurd amount of Spirit Stones to fire, but their destructive output was cataclysmic.

These weapons were meant for sieging mountain fortresses! The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had actually dismantled their fleet and hauled the cannons onto the street?!

“Fire!”

Wan Xiaobei’s voice rang out, cold and clear.

BOOM! The cannons fired in devastating unison. The sheer concussive force threatened to tear the fabric of space apart.

The fleeing White Jade Tower cultivators glanced back, their hearts seizing in sheer terror. The alleyway they had occupied moments ago had been erased, replaced by a scorched, gray zone of absolute destruction. If they had hesitated for even a second…

“Are they insane?! Firing ship cannons in the streets?!”

“That single volley must have burned another 500,000 Spirit Stones!”

“Charge them now! Before they reload! Kill them all!”

“Ants rely on tricks! Crush them!”

Driven by a mix of terror and blinding rage, the White Jade Tower forces prepared to surge forward and massacre the merchants.

But as they took their first step, they froze.

The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had produced another mountain of Talismans, ready to turn the alley back into a sea of fire.

That was another 500,000 Spirit Stones, easily.

But it was what they saw next that truly broke their spirit.

The young girl leading the merchants casually flicked her wrist. With a soft clatter, a literal mountain of Spirit Stones—numbering in the millions—spilled onto the street. Her attendants immediately began shoveling the fortune into the cooling cannons.

They weren’t just going to fire again. They were preparing for a sustained bombardment.

And then, the girl’s voice drifted across the ruined street.

“I have to admit… having money really does solve everything.”

Those words stabbed into the hearts of the White Jade Tower elites like icicles. Their eyes turned bloodshot.

The White Jade Tower was an organization of scholars. They cultivated the path of the gentleman—seeking the Dao, not profit; worrying about virtue, not poverty. They despised merchants for their obsession with wealth, believing that excessive greed tainted the soul and stunted true cultivation.

But right now, Wan Xiaobei was essentially looking down on them and saying, “My family is filthy rich. I can literally afford to blow you away. What are you going to do about it?” The most infuriating part was… it was working.

The White Jade Tower vanguard quickly calculated the odds and realized they were completely pinned down. They weren’t getting anywhere near the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion.

Desperate, they looked to the sky, praying their Soul Formation experts could break the deadlock.

“You two pieces of trash think you can ambush Grandpa Lu?! Come on!”

Lu Dongshan was fighting like a man possessed. Utilizing his Deceiving the Heavens to Cross the Sea technique, he effortlessly held his own against two White Jade Tower Soul Formation experts. Despite their relentless barrage of Calling Talismans and Summoning Registers, they couldn’t land a solid hit.

In fact, Lu Dongshan looked so energized that he seemed ready to drag the third enemy expert over and fight all three at once!

No help was coming from there.

The crowd shifted their hopes even higher, looking toward the Void Refining battlefield in the stratosphere.

“Your White Jade Tower’s arts are commendable,” Shi Siling’s icy voice echoed down. “If I hadn’t touched the threshold of a Supreme, I might actually be in trouble. But as you are now… you are lacking.”

She was even more ferocious than Lu Dongshan. Surrounded by four Void Refining experts, she wasn’t just holding her ground—she was dominating. She had already severely wounded one of them; if Ji Qinghan hadn’t intervened, Shi Siling would have decapitated him on the spot.

It was taking all four of them just to survive her onslaught.

The battlefield was deadlocked.

But for Qin Meran, this stalemate was a godsend. With Shi Siling occupying Ji Qinghan’s full attention, she was free to resume her grand theft.

In that brief window, the colossal Divine-grade Dao Rhyme in the sky had almost fully descended.

Soon! Soon! My Divine-grade Dao Rhyme is finally here! Qin Meran’s eyes burned with greedy anticipation. She was already visualizing the moment she absorbed the Rune, ascending to a level of power she had only dreamed of.

But just as her focus reached its zenith, Yin Wenshu—who had been silent and motionless for so long she assumed he was already dead—suddenly spoke.

“Qin Meran. Do you know what my greatest regret in this life is?”

Qin Meran raised an eyebrow.

“Do not do unto others what you do not want done unto yourself,” Yin Wenshu rasped. “I have regretted it endlessly. I never should have forced the calamity of the Divine Invocation onto Gu Xiu. I made him suffer unimaginable torment. Whether you believe it or not, the memory haunts me.”

Qin Meran scoffed. “So what? Now that you’re dying, you’ve suddenly found your conscience?”

“No.” Yin Wenshu’s head lolled slightly, but his voice carried a chilling finality. “I have no intention of doing a good deed. On the contrary… I want to practice what I preach.”

“Do not do unto others what you do not want done unto yourself.”

Qin Meran’s heart plummeted.

In the next instant, Yin Wenshu’s mangled, burning Nascent Soul surged with a final, desperate burst of energy and slammed violently into her.

His Nascent Soul was too fragile. The impact shattered it instantly, detonating it into a cloud of pale green smoke.

He had self-destructed his Nascent Soul!

Before she could react, the green smoke aggressively swirled around her, clinging to her skin like a second layer of clothing.

Qin Meran stumbled back, confused by the sudden, seemingly harmless attack.

But then she looked up.

The radiant Divine-grade Dao Rhyme she had been so eagerly anticipating suddenly pulsed with an angry, violent red light. Instead of drifting down gracefully, it accelerated into a blinding red streak, rocketing directly toward her!

This wasn’t a blessing. This was the Divine Invocation Backlash!

The Dao Rhyme itself hadn’t arrived, but the karmic punishment for forcing the invocation had triggered early—and thanks to the green smoke, it was locked entirely onto her!

As the red light closed in, Qin Meran felt her scalp turn numb with absolute terror.

She recognized this backlash.

It was the exact same horror she had summoned two years ago when she first attempted a forced invocation.

The “Zha” Character Rune!