Chapter 3958: An Old Man’s Flurry Of Rants

The Junior Elder Zhenyu clearly had no intention of stopping there. The moment he finished cursing the Hopeful Star Pavilion, his expression changed again, as if another old grievance had suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory.

Lin Mu had initially assumed the mention of the Hopeful Star Pavilion would lead to some important information about the sect, perhaps a conflict between the Wild Peak and that faction, or some hidden reason behind his decision to enter the Mad Demon Depths.

Instead, Zhenyu took a completely different direction.

"And that reminds me of the Admin Hall," Zhenyu muttered.

Lin Mu blinked as the old man’s expression had become increasingly annoyed.

"There was an Admin Hall disciple who came to deliver a form to me. Do you know what that idiot did? He brought the form without the proper brush."

Lin Mu stared at the recording, dumbfounded, while Zhenyu continued as if this were an event of immense historical importance.

"The form required a specific brush for the authentication seal. Everyone knew that. Even a newly recruited disciple knew that. Yet this fellow walks into my residence, puts the form on my table and tells me to fill it out."

The elder shook his head with deep disappointment. "I asked him where the brush was. He said he had forgotten it." Zhenyu paused. "He forgot the brush."

Lin Mu’s lips twitched.

"Do you know what happened next?" Zhenyu demanded, despite the fact that there was nobody in front of the recording who could answer. "He told me I could use my own brush."

Lin Mu’s expression became strange.

PACK!

Zhenyu slapped his thigh. "My own brush! Why would I have the Admin Hall’s authentication brush? If I had one, why would I need him to bring the form in the first place?"

The recording continued for several minutes as Zhenyu described the incident in increasingly unnecessary detail. He remembered the disciple’s expression, the color of his robes, the exact place where the man had stood and even the words he had spoken after realizing his mistake.

Lin Mu initially listened because he assumed there had to be some hidden significance.

There wasn’t... It was simply something that had irritated Zhenyu. And apparently, several thousand years had done nothing to erase the memory. When Zhenyu finally finished complaining about the Admin Hall disciple, another grievance immediately appeared.

"There was also that female disciple."

Lin Mu’s brows rose as Zhenyu’s expression became gloomy. "She liked my junior brother more than me."

Lin Mu’s mouth twitched again.

"Why?" Zhenyu asked rhetorically. "Because he had a slimmer build." He looked deeply offended by the memory.

"I had already reached the point where my physique was stronger than his by several levels. I could lift things he couldn’t even move. I could endure attacks that would send him flying. Yet she said she preferred someone with a more refined appearance."

Zhenyu’s hand moved through the air as if he were still arguing with that woman. "Refined appearance! What does that even mean? Cultivators should care about strength and talent. What’s wrong with having a broad frame?"

Lin Mu stared silently at the old man’s image. He had expected a profound recording left behind by an ancient elder of the Wild Peak. Instead, he was listening to a several-thousand-year-old grievance about a woman who preferred a slimmer man.

Xukong suddenly laughed. "Interesting."

"Senior," Lin Mu said mentally, "don’t encourage him."

"I didn’t say anything. Besides, he doesn’t even exist anymore. This is just a recording." Xukong replied while trying to suppress a giggle.

"You are still laughing." Lin Mu raised a brow,

"Because this is amusing." Xukong finally let it out while Lin Mu sighed and returned his attention to the recording.

Zhenyu had already moved onto another subject: Money.

Apparently, the elder had been deeply concerned with debts throughout his life.

"I lent three spirit stones to that fellow disciple because he claimed his family needed medicine. He promised to return them within a month. He never did." Zhenyu’s expression darkened.

"And then there was another person who borrowed twenty seven spirit stones." He paused. "That one also never returned them."

Then came another. "Forty three spirit stones."

Another. "Two hundred and eleven."

Lin Mu’s eyes slowly widened as the list continued.

Some debts were small enough to be meaningless to an immortal elder. Others involved cultivation resources, immortal stones, pills, weapons and favors. Zhenyu remembered every one of them in detail.

He remembered who had borrowed something, why they had borrowed it, when they promised to return it and how many times they had avoided him afterward. At one point, Zhenyu even started calculating interest.

Lin Mu rubbed his forehead. "He’s far too much of a miser than I thought."

The elder had spent thousands of years trapped in the Mad Demon Depths, and apparently one of the things he had done with that time was mentally revisit every unpaid debt in his life.

"That person owed me twelve spirit stones," Zhenyu said bitterly. "He later became an elder. He probably thought becoming an elder meant the debt disappeared."

Zhenyu snorted. "I remembered."

Lin Mu almost laughed, then the debt list became even stranger as Zhenyu began discussing life debts. Someone had once saved him from an ambush while someone else had helped him acquire an important cultivation resource.

Another disciple had protected his junior brother during a dangerous mission and Zhenyu remembered all of them. Some of those debts had already been repaid while others remained unresolved.

He even categorized them according to how important they were. "Three minor favors. Seven ordinary debts. Two major debts. One life debt."

Lin Mu could only stare as he witnessed, the elder keeping accounts in his head with frightening precision. After what felt like an eternity, Zhenyu finally seemed to run out of people who owed him something.

Lin Mu thought that perhaps the recording would move toward something important again. But he was wrong...

"Speaking of that fellow, I also remember the rumor about his wife."

Lin Mu’s expression froze as Zhenyu leaned closer to the recording array. Apparently, the old man had now entered the gossip portion of his memories.

The information ranged from harmless rumors about disciples secretly competing over cultivation resources to stories about relationships between members of different factions. Some were merely amusing. Others involved complicated romantic affairs that had apparently caused entire groups of disciples to turn against one another.

Then came stories involving elders and Lin Mu’s expression gradually became more uncomfortable.

Zhenyu remembered who had been seen entering whose residence, which disciple had supposedly been courting which elder’s granddaughter and which cultivation couple had supposedly separated after one of them became interested in someone else.

Some of the stories were so detailed that Lin Mu wondered whether Zhenyu had personally witnessed them. At one point, the elder described a scandal involving two disciples who had apparently been caught sneaking into a secluded cultivation chamber together.

Lin Mu looked away for a moment. "Is this really an elder or some gossiping female disciple?"

Xukong burst out laughing. "Old people like gossiping more than youngsters after a certain point."

"That cannot possibly apply to everyone."

"It does."

"Senior."

"Perhaps they don’t show it. That doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy it."

Lin Mu decided there was no point arguing and the recording continued.

Zhenyu moved from romantic scandals to sect rumors, then from sect rumors to the wider Eastern Immortal Court. Apparently, his sources had included disciples from different factions, merchants, traveling cultivators and even a few elders who enjoyed talking too much when they were drinking.