Apart from Senior Sister Qing Yue, there had been three other male disciples. One of them wore a dark robe with golden thread and wore a jade crown on his head. He had a handsome face, but there had been an arrogance deeply embedded in his being that showed through his expression, having given off a prideful aura. His cultivation stage had definitely been the highest among them. He gave off a feeling of an authoritative figure that looked down on the rest.
Another disciple in blue and black clothes stood humbly beside him with a subservient attitude. The ingratiating expression on his face caused an uncontrolled feeling of hatred against him. That had been the person that mocked Chu Chen.
Apart from the two that looked like master and servant, there had been another scrawny disciple that seemed meek. He sat quietly in a corner, afraid to have offended anyone.
Chu Chen paid the servant no heed and walked straight up to Senior Sister Qing Yue, and apologized softly, "Senior Sister, I'm sorry for having you wait for me."
"It's fine." Senior Sister Qing Yue nodded. She then looked up at the guy in dark robe and frowned. "This is Senior Brother Li, Li Tian."
The handsome guy in dark robe laughed coldly, then turned away as though he had been too disgusted to have spoken with Chu Chen.
"This is Junior Brother Fang, Fang Yong."
The disciple in blue and black smirked. "Junior Brother Chu, I've heard a lot about you."
Chu Chen nodded and ignored his mockery. Instead, he shifted his gaze to the scrawny and sickly teenager.
Qing Yue's expression eased up. "This is Junior Brother Liu, Liu Bo. He's very talented at harvesting herbs. We'll be heavily reliant on him for this trip to the snowy mountain."
"You're overpraising me." Liu Bo nodded continuously before having cowered aside.
"Junior Sister Qing Yue."
The prideful Li Tian finally turned around and checked Chu Chen out, having given him a disgusted look. "This trip to Taihan Snowy Mountain is to collect frost lotus. I don't need to remind you of the dangers we would be facing on this trip. Although we're cultivators of the Spiritual Droplets Stage, we're still at high risk. If we bring this junior brother that has yet to reach the Spiritual Droplets Stage, we won't be able to take care of him."
"That's right, Senior Sister Qing Yue," Fang Yong immediately chimed in upon having heard that. "The snowy mountain is filled with dangers and we're going to be hard pressed to ensure our own safety. If we bring this burden along, it would only cause us more problems. If we run into any dangerous situations, it would be a lot more difficult."
"That's enough!"
Qing Yue's expression immediately turned cold and glared at Fang Yong. "I'll be taking care of Junior Brother Chu. You just need to take care of yourselves. If you have any problems with that, we can just go our separate ways!"
Having been cut off in front of everyone caused Fang Yong to have held his breath for a moment. Having felt embarrassed, his expression immediately turned dark. Just as he had been about to say something, he had been stopped short by a look from Li Tian.
Qing Yue had been the external disciple that had visited Taihan Snowy Mountain for the most times. She followed Elder Ling Xin there to have harvested herbs before and had been familiar with the geography. That was why Li Tian teamed up with her.
"Taihan Snowy Mountain is populated by demonic beasts, making it extremely dangerous. If we can't save Junior Brother Chu, please don't blame us." Li Tian smirked as he looked at Chu Chen.
Chu Chen returned a smile and kept quiet.
"Since we're all here, let's move." Qing Yue then went through the preparations with everyone before having led the group to the sect's Spiritual Beast Hall.
The Taihan Snowy Mountain had been located over 350 kilometers north of the Crystal Spring Mountain. With such a great distance, even if the disciples decided to sprint their way there, it would have taken them a few days. The only way they could have saved time was to have taken a ride on the sect's flying spiritual beasts.
In most sects, they would have had their own Spiritual Beast Hall that kept their own speedy flying spiritual beasts with good stamina for long distance traveling. These spiritual beasts had been relatively weak in combat but had great stamina, allowing them to have easily travelled great distances much faster than regular horse carriages.
Naturally, the sect's spiritual beasts had not been free for the disciples to ride. They would have needed to pay the travel fee charged by the sect in spirit stones. In some sense, the Spiritual Beast Hall had been an important source of income for a sect as well.
Chu Chen and company had been a group of five. If they rode spiritual beasts, the return trip would have only cost them one spirit stone. That price had been considered to have been extremely expensive for an external disciple.
"This should be Junior Brother Chu's first time riding such an expensive flying spiritual beast, right? The fee is one fifth of a spirit stone per person. We can pay for Senior Sister Qing Yue's fee, but you have come up with your own. You can't be expecting Senior Sister Qing Yue to pay for you, right?" Fang Yong said in a cryptic voice.
Qing Yue had an unpleasant expression and had just been about to explode but Chu Chen laughed out loud and said, "Indeed it's my first time riding one. Therefore, I'll bear the fee for this trip. Unlike Senior Brother Fang, I don't have a coattail like Senior Brother Li to ride on."
Walking up to the payment counter, Chu Chen generously took out one spirit stone from his 50 spirit stones he gained from having sold the lightning herbs and paid the fee. If it had been in the past, he would have never been willing to part with it. One should know that he could hardly have made a whole spirit stone after working his butt off for an entire year.
However, with a treasure trove like the ancient celestial mountain, he placed a lot less importance on material wealth. Moreover, he paid for all their travel expenses without having hesitated in order to have stopped them from having looked down at Senior Sister Qing Yue.
Fang Yong's expression turned extremely ugly. His initial plan was just to have mocked Chu Chen, but it allowed Chu Chen to have shown his generosity instead. Meanwhile, he had been the one who was mocked for ingratiating himself to Li Tian.
Li Tian remained silently smiling.
Instead, it was Liu Bo that felt slightly embarrassed having watched the scene unfold. "How can we have Junior Brother Chu to pay for us."
"Hehe, we're all disciple brothers. Senior Brother Liu doesn't have to be so reserved with me." Chu Chen patted him on the shoulder.
Having seen this group of people who paid their fees without any hassle, the disciple in charge of the Spiritual Beast Hall also worked efficiently and brought them a huge griffin. The griffin had the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle. The adult griffin could grow up to a length of 20 feet with a broad back. It could have flown at high speed with great stability, having made it one of the most popular flying spiritual beasts for riding.
Even with five people on the huge griffin, it had still been very spacious. Along with a howl, its large wings flapped and immediately took flight, having brought them northward.
"Do you have enough money? One spirit stone is no small amount," Senior Sister Qing Yue lowered her voice and whispered to Chu Chen while the griffin took flight, having masked their conversation with the strong air current. "Do you need me to pay for you?"
"Senior Sister, don't worry." Chu Chen winked. "If we followed Elder Ling Xin, are we afraid of being poor? Hehe…"
Hearing that, Qing Yue rolled her eyes at him and kept quiet. As the best elixir refiner among the elders, Elder Ling Xin's wealth had been well known throughout the entire sect.
Just some time ago, Elder Ling Xin spent over a hundred spirit stones to have purchased Chu Chen's purple cloud grass to have refined 18 purple cloud elixirs. Each elixir could have been sold for over a hundred spirit stones. That meant that she could have earned almost 2000 spirit stones with just one purple cloud grass!
In fact, an elixir refiner's income had mainly been determined by their elixir refining technique. Elder Ling Xin's elixir refining skills were well polished and could have refined 18 purple cloud elixirs from a single portion of the herb. If it had been someone else, they might not have even been able to produce one elixir with an entire portion of purple cloud elixir. After all, elixir refining had a rate of success. If it failed, the entire cauldron of elixirs would have gone to waste. The hundred spirit stones worth of investments would have been gone just like that.
Due to Elder Ling Xin's extreme attention to detail in elixir refinement, her refinement success rate had been extremely high. With the same amount of ingredients, others might have only been able to have produced one elixir while she could have produced over a dozen of them. That resulted in her accumulating great wealth.
With that in mind, Qing Yue had nothing to have retorted with.