The Moon Waxes and Wanes

　　"There's no hill. These are all spiritual energy beads."　　Chen Xia spat out the boiled water that he hadn't swallowed yet and explained.　　Pan Da Dao was even more stunned. "You use the spiritual energy beads that cost three thousand spirit stones each for this?"　　"Otherwise?" Chen Xia raised his eyebrows. "Do you have any better use for them?"　　Pan Da Dao was silent for a while and then shook his head slightly. "Not really."　　After all, spiritual energy beads were famous luxury items in the Great Heavens. Ordinary people couldn't afford them and didn't need to use them either.　　Those who could afford them actually didn't really need to use them either. They were mainly valuable for collection and showing off.　　The function of spiritual energy beads wasn't that great. What made them precious was that they were very rare. Things are precious when they are rare.　　Even if it was a pile of dog poop, as long as it was the only one in the world, it would still be worth tens of thousands of spirit stones.　　Chen Xia shrugged his shoulders, straightened his body that was leaning against the threshold, and asked in confusion, "Why are you looking for me?"　　Only then did Pan Da Dao remember the matter and quickly said.　　"Many preparatory disciples have been beaten up, and their spirit stones have been forcibly taken away. Now they are gathered in the central area, complaining."　　Chen Xia frowned. "Are they playing guerrilla warfare with me now?"　　"Go and have a look. They do have some complaints now. Although they don't say it out loud, if too many complaints accumulate, it will be more troublesome when they burst out later."　　Pan Da Dao advised, looking very worried.　　Chen Xia nodded. "Okay, let's go and have a look. I'm bored anyway."　　For a moment, it was hard to tell whether he was going to have a look because he was bored or because something had really happened.　　Quite a number of cultivators had gathered in the central area of the preparatory disciples. Many of them had bruised faces, and the ones in a more miserable state were even lying half on the ground.　　Most of them were complaining to each other and waiting for Chen Xia to come and avenge them.　　After all, Chen Xia had said before that it was protection fees, so he definitely had to protect them.　　However, some of the disciples who had snatched the spirit stones didn't come. Most of these disciples came from wealthy families and didn't care about these spirit stones. If they could spend money to avoid trouble, they would just do that.　　Two extremely fast figures rushed over. The leading one was a figure in a blue shirt.　　The discussions among the preparatory disciples quickly stopped. They looked at the figure in the blue shirt at the front excitedly, but forced themselves not to speak, waiting for Chen Xia to speak first.　　"Who has been robbed?"　　Chen Xia glanced sideways, stood on the platform, and asked the people below.　　"Me!"　　"Me... Me!"　　Hands were raised and shouts came one after another. It was extremely noisy as the preparatory disciples were eager to shout.　　Chen Xia made a downward gesture with his hand to stop the shouts. His usually calm expression became a bit serious as he said.　　"I might usually seem a bit unreliable, but I will definitely do what I promised you. Since I said it was protection fees, then I will naturally protect you."　　As soon as this sentence was finished, the preparatory disciples below excitedly shouted.　　"Brother Xia, my Brother Xia, you're so awesome!"　　"Master Xia, you're so domineering. I love you so much!"　　"So handsome, damn it. Is this Master Xia?!"　　These were rather exaggerated words. Chen Xia didn't say anything after hearing them, but he didn't expect even more exaggerated words.　　"Dad!"　　No one knew who shouted this, but it was full of energy.　　Chen Xia frowned when he heard it.　　"How many spirit stones have you all been robbed of? Register them. I will compensate you for the spirit stones later."　　"Fill in the real numbers. If I find out later that there aren't so many, you'll have to pay me ten times the amount."　　After saying this, the preparatory disciples couldn't hold back anymore and jumped up excitedly shouting.　　"Brother Xia is so amazing. You've made me so dizzy with your handsomeness!"　　"It's hard not to love such a domineering Master Xia!"　　"Master Xia, you're my real father!"　　When this sentence was said, Chen Xia couldn't help but laugh.　　Damn it, the seniority was all messed up.　　The registration of the preparatory disciples went smoothly later. They queued up quietly and didn't argue. Each of them used their supernatural powers to record a mirror image as evidence.　　After Chen Xia took back the spirit stones, he returned them according to the numbers on the mirror images.　　The whole preparatory area was immersed in a joyous atmosphere. It was really unpredictable since it had been so sad before.　　The preparatory disciples respected and admired Chen Xia even more.　　The term "protection fees" was really right. It was indeed protection fees. Chen Xia would really take care of things when something happened.　　They had been worried before that Chen Xia couldn't handle this matter and would instead beat them up again and collect money from them once more.　　If that was the case, the preparatory disciples would be like ants in the cracks of the soil, and anyone could step on them.　　Fortunately, Chen Xia was really capable and didn't let them down.　　With Chen Xia's promise, this matter came to an end for the time being.　　However, Pan Da Dao was very worried. He kept frowning and sighing from time to time.　　How was Chen Xia going to get back the robbed spirit stones? Was he going to directly ask those formal disciples and elders for them?　　But since both sides had already torn their faces apart to this extent, could he really get them back?　　Then it could only be resolved by fighting.　　But here came another problem. Since the formal disciples were hiding from Chen Xia when they took action, they definitely wouldn't have a direct confrontation with Chen Xia, let alone a head-on fight.　　It would be very difficult to get this money back.　　Even if it was brought to the top level, Chen Xia had collected the most money. No matter how you looked at it, Chen Xia would be regarded as the big villain.　　Pan Da Dao didn't want to cause any more trouble. He found Chen Xia in the night and whispered to him.　　"I'm afraid it's hard for you to get their spirit stones back. I still have a few thousand here. Why don't you take them and return them to those disciples?"　　"No." Chen Xia shook his head as he sat in the pavilion. "Since I've said that I'll get them back, then I naturally have a way."　　"Okay." Pan Da Dao quickly nodded, rubbed his hands together. His hunched body looked a bit restrained under the moonlight. Not knowing what to say, he could only give a dry laugh.　　"Is the money useless to you? Why don't you seem to care when you give it to me every time?" Chen Xia suddenly asked curiously.　　He remembered that when he borrowed money last time, Pan Da Dao, this minor elder, also gave him a lot, and he hadn't asked for it back yet.　　Pan Da Dao lowered his head. Probably, a helpless smile appeared on his face, but Chen Xia couldn't see it clearly.　　"I'm all alone. I only have so much talent, and I can't cultivate supernatural powers and spells. So it's really useless for me to have the money. It's just nice to have it at home."　　"Don't you have anything you want to buy?" Chen Xia asked curiously again.　　"Yes." Pan Da Dao nodded. "I wanted to buy a coffin with green-gold dragon patterns. But green gold is too precious, so I gave up that idea later."　　"I've bought a purple-gold coffin now. The material is also very good. Then I really don't have anything else I want to buy, haha."　　Pan Da Dao smiled, rubbed the corners of his clothes with his hands, still with his head lowered. "Actually, I've lived my whole life just wanting to prove myself. But... but..."　　He paused for a moment and continued in a complicated tone.　　"But instead of proving myself, I've swallowed countless humiliations."　　Pan Da Dao raised his head. His somewhat cloudy eyes looked at Chen Xia under the moonlight. Biting his dry lips, he said with effort.　　"I think... this is life."　　Chen Xia just looked at the moon in the sky. After a while, he said only one sentence.　　"The moon waxes and wanes."　　It was a comforting sentence.　　"But there are also long periods of darkness and incompleteness." Pan Da Dao closed his cloudy eyes, not wanting to see anything.　　Some people do encounter much more hardships on the road of life than ordinary people.　　Going through them might not bring benefits, but if you don't go through them, you'll never get through them.　　On the long road of life, there are thousands of joys and sorrows.