Faced with Jun Xie's "insistence", Yan Bu Gui was helpless and had no choice but to give in to him. But he secretly instructed the others to keep an eye on Jun Xie and protect him from harm.
Because Jun Xie possessed a rather unique ring spirit, Yan Bu Gui did not give him the usual instructions in the development of his spiritual powers but to just stay by the lotus pond and accompany the recovering Snow Lotus.
Qiao Chu and the others were looking into ways to locate the other six human skin maps. The Twelve Palaces might have seized possession of them, but they did not dare to keep that hot potato in hand. The Twelve Palaces had instead secretly colluded with various powers of the Lower Realm and had given the maps to them to do their dirty job of searching for the Dark Emperor's tomb on their behalf.
Sneaky tactics like this, were commonly employed by the Twelve Palaces.
The treasures in the Dark Emperor's tomb, would grant anyone who found it, power capable of obliterating the Twelve Palaces.
Qiao Chu and the others seeked revenge and Jun Wu Xie's objective coincided perfectly with them as she seeked the annihilation of the Palace of Flame Demons.
On the other hand, Jun Wu Xie's discipleship had also made her aware of Yan Bu Gui and his disciples' painful destitution.
Qiao Chu and the others possessed strong powers, but they were forced to hide them in fear of drawing unwanted attention. Every single mission's objective was very clear, and it was only to pursue the other maps from any clues they had gathered.
Other than that, the five of them in the East Wing of the Phoenix Academy had no other survival skills. At least in terms of earning money, their talent in this aspect was zilch.
It had not been that bad just a few years ago. Yan Bu Gui had pawned some of the treasures he had brought from the Middle Realm, but it did not last and soon they had spent every single cent. Yan Bu Gui did not have anything else he could exchange for money and for the recent few years, the five of them had barely scraped by, living in poverty.
An obvious instance would be that the few of them had not worn any new clothes for at least the past two years.
In contrast, Jun Wu Xie did not understand their quandary as she had never been pressed for money in both her past and present life. In her past life, she might have been young when she left the demon's lair, but with her unsurpassed skills in medicine, she led a bountiful life. And after her rebirth, although the Lin Palace had been plagued by endless dangers, they had nevertheless not faced any shortage when it came to money.
To the extent that when Jun Wu Xie was looking at her brand new Master and fellow disciples squatting in a circle in the courtyard, discussing how they were going to try to raise money to hand over to the headmaster, her mind had, on this rarest of occasion, and for the first time in her two lives, drawn a complete blank.
"Why don't Fei Yan and I make a quick trip out? We can try out robbery?" Qiao Chu suggested innocently.
Without a word, Yan Bu Gui smacked him mightily on the head!
Qiao Chu rubbed the back of his throbbing head and shrugged his shoulders, trying to indicate he was just kidding.
The double headed bone snake is still in recovery, or I might be able to gather some herbs from the hills." Hua Yao was frowning, deep in thought. When they had been extremely hard pressed previously, Hua Yao had sent the double headed bone snake into the hills silently in the night to dig up some herbs to sell for some money several times.
But the double headed bone snake had not recovered from its injuries and Hua Yao could not bear to make his ring spirit suffer the toil at that moment.
"We're really all cleaned out….. Sigh….." Fei Yan wanted to cry at that point.
Rong Ruo was the calmest among them, but his brow furrowed deeply as well.
"Sigh….. Forget it! I'll go see the headmaster and ask him for a few more days' grace again." Yan Bu Gui's heart winced as he saw the forlorn looks on his disciples' faces and he tried to wave it off. As the Master of these poor kids, he felt that these problems should be handled by him alone.
Alas, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Before Yan Bu Gui could go see the headmaster with his plea, the person in charge of the South Wing, He Qiu Sheng, came storming towards the East Wing, his face dark as thunder.
He Qiu Sheng was the Master of the South Wing, and the youth that Jun Wu Xie had beaten to a pulp was his disciple. When his disciple had gone to the East Wing to press for payment of their debt as usual, who would have expected this time that the barbaric disciples of the East wing would blatantly attack his disciple, to the extent that his disciple was still bedridden till now!