Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life-Chapter 131: Settling Accounts?

"Yes, junior disciple Su Ming." Su Ming bowed and answered, neither servile nor arrogant.

"You claim that with a third-stage Qi Refining cultivation, you perished together with a Foundation Grand Perfection cultivator?" Elder Ma's voice remained calm, yet carried an undeniable pressure.

That question had come again.

Su Ming had already prepared for it, and he repeated that statement again, measured and unhurried.

He emphasized Zhao Qianshan's practice of forbidden arts, the backlash of murderous aura, and his own desperate, lucky survival.

Every detail matched exactly what he had told Qingfeng and Liu Jing before.

Elder Ma listened quietly, his cloudy eyes betraying no emotion.

When Su Ming finished, Elder Ma was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"Show me your so-called health-preserving technique, run a full cycle for me to see."

Su Ming's heart tightened.

Here it comes!

He was going to test his foundation!

Without hesitation, he sat cross-legged, slowly closed his eyes, and began circulating the Greenwood Longevity Art that Lin Yu had modified.

A faint, herb-scented spiritual energy started to flow through his damaged meridians at an extremely slow, even sluggish pace.

The process was painful and arduous.

But Su Ming's face remained focused.

Elder Ma's divine sense, like an invisible net, enveloped Su Ming.

He could clearly sense every tremor and every current of spiritual energy within Su Ming.

The technique's pathway was crude and makeshift, with several key meridians circumvented in the clumsiest ways.

It was plainly a patchwork method with no proper lineage, something cobbled together by someone experimenting.

Moreover, the technique's grade was extremely low; its efficiency at absorbing spiritual energy was outrageously slow.

Compared to the sect's most basic introductory mind-methods, it was worlds apart.

"Hmm."

After a while, Elder Ma withdrew his divine sense and made a faint sound of acknowledgment.

Though garbage, the method was peaceful and orthodox in its essence; indeed a health-preserving technique, with no hint of demonic cultivation.

Su Ming's story was once again corroborated.

"I have no interest in your mundane experiences."

Elder Ma's tone remained cold.

"Cloud Hidden Sect does not keep idlers, nor does it keep useless people."

He looked at Su Ming and said slowly, "Your body and meridians are damaged; your foundation is ruined. There is no inch of progress left on the path to immortality."

This verdict matched Liu Jing's earlier judgment.

Su Ming's heart sank.

He knew the moment that would decide his fate had arrived.

He was about to plead his prepared case again, begging to be allowed to serve as a menial.

But Elder Ma shifted course.

"However, Qingfeng says you were a scholar?"

Su Ming blinked, then nodded. "Yes, junior served as a Compiler at the Hanlin Academy."

"Hanlin Academy Compiler?"

For the first time, a trace of interest flickered across Elder Ma's ancient-well-still face.

His cloudy eyeballs rolled slightly, as if a thought had occurred to him.

"Very well."

He rose and shouted toward the door, "Bring me the inbound inventory ledgers from the pharmacy that have been piled up for three months."

The middle-aged steward outside paled as if he had heard something dreadful.

"Elder... those ledgers..."

"Bring them here." Elder Ma's tone brooked no argument.

"Yes."

Soon, two outer disciples struggled in carrying seven or eight heavy wooden boxes into the quiet chamber.

When the lids were opened, a mixed stench of old ink and medicinal herbs rushed out.

The boxes were crammed with towering stacks of bamboo slips and account books, in chaotic order, some already mildewed.

"These are the inbound inventory ledgers for a batch of medicinal materials delivered by the sect's medicinal garden three months ago," Elder Ma said, pointing at the mess and looking at Su Ming with a flat voice.

"The disciple responsible was suddenly transferred and no one took over. It's been in complete disorder."

"You said you were educated and could handle accounts?"

"Now I give you one hour."

"Sort these ledgers out for me."

"If you sort them correctly, I will allow you to do menial work."

"If you cannot sort them..."

He did not finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.

Be thrown off the mountain.

Qingfeng and Mingyue were stunned.

They knew these ledgers were notorious trouble from the External Affairs Hall.

Supposedly the entries were numerous and complex, with several mismatched bad accounts. The two disciples who had been responsible for the paperwork had spent half a month trying to reconcile them and ended up feigning illness and taking leave.

Now they wanted Su Ming, a mortal, to reconcile them in one hour?

Wasn't that impossible?

It was blatant harassment!

"Elder Ma, this..." Qingfeng couldn't help but speak up for Su Ming.

"What?" Elder Ma glanced at him, "Do you object?"

Qingfeng swallowed his words immediately.

Su Ming's face, however, showed no trace of fear.

He looked at the boxes and his expression brightened.

For him, this was not harassment but an opportunity!

The only chance to prove his value!

When he had worked at the Hanlin Academy, he had organized stacks of old paperwork far more complicated than this.

This was nothing.

"Junior disciple, I will obey." Su Ming bowed deeply to Elder Ma.

Outside the chamber, the disciples standing by the door wore openly mocking or pitying expressions.

This mess of ledgers had been a festering tumor between the pharmacy and the External Affairs Hall for three months.

Whoever touched it was jinxed.

Asking a mortal scholar to sort it within an hour?

This wasn't just harsh.

Qingfeng's face tightened; he felt Elder Ma had gone too far.

Mingyue was so anxious she stamped her foot, clutching her senior's sleeve with worry.

"Su Ming, you—" Qingfeng started.

Su Ming gave him a slight smile and shook his head.

His gaze was calm and confident, as if the pile in front of him was not a mess at all.

He walked straight up to the heap of ledgers.