"Ah?"
Li Mo scratched his head, lost in thought.
There was a time when relatives would visit, and during meals, Old Li would pat the back of his head, urging him to greet them.
This was one of the rare moments when Li Mo felt socially awkward.
Meanwhile, the little "ice block" would hide in her room during lively gatherings, making her presence nearly undetectable—like a wary little cat.
Yet now, she had effortlessly gone along with his parents to meet their relatives and friends?
If memory served, wasn’t he the biological child here? The ice block hadn’t even officially married into the family yet...
"Little Mo." Shang Qinqing suddenly spoke up.
"Ah?"
"That family of three looked quite harmonious heading out. Hope you can join them soon."
"Sure thing... Wait, huh?"
Li Mo, now feeling like an outsider, twitched at the corner of his mouth. He wondered if the ice block had caught onto something—like how a certain immature brat had grown bolder lately, even daring to transform into a wolfman to bully his elder sister, becoming harder to control.
So, had the ice block cleverly secured the entire Li family’s favor, cutting off his support and leaving him no choice but to obediently listen to his elder sister?
Damn it! That sly ice block was truly unpredictable!
"Meeting relatives and friends? Where?"
Shang Wu sat down, her drowsy eyes suddenly sparkling with interest.
Don’t misunderstand—Shang Wu simply loved such lively gatherings. During holidays, relatives and friends would never show up empty-handed, often bringing gifts like fine wine.
"Next time, next time."
Li Mo didn’t dare entertain the idea.
If they went, the scene would likely end with Shang Wu drunk and everyone else beaten up.
"It’s not even mealtime yet."
Little Shang Li glanced at the sky and carefully wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth.
"Almost forgot."
Shang Qinqing chuckled. "Seems like our daily four-dish-and-soup meals are all thanks to Little Ice, huh?"
But that wasn’t entirely true. Today, Chef Li’s mind was simply elsewhere.
Promotion in the sect... the impending engagement... whether the aloof ice block would adapt to the enthusiastic relatives... how much money he even had in his pockets... the headache of figuring out how to spend his uncountable wealth...
See? Even an immature brat had plenty to worry about!
While lost in thought, he whipped up a few dishes and a pot of Qinghe clam soup.
"Hey, why are these clams just shells?"
Shang Qinqing cracked a few open and frowned.
"Look." Li Mo tilted his chin.
Sure enough, little Shang Li scooped up spoonful after spoonful of clam meat, the shells having magically fallen away, as if willingly offering their flesh to him.
"Big sis, you eat." Shang Li piled all the meat into someone else’s bowl.
"Such a good boy. If only Shang Wu had half his sense..." Shang Qinqing muttered.
"I’ve never heard of the Life-Death Reincarnation Array transferring temperament too..." Qin Yuzhi also found it odd.
"Eh? What are you two implying?"
Shang Wu, who had just returned with a bottle of wine, raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, nothing. You’re the most sensible, absolutely." Qin Yuzhi waved her hands dismissively.
"Uncle, where’s Auntie?"
"She went to... uh, meet some not-so-close relatives and friends."
Li Mo’s mind drifted to how the little ice block used to hide nervously during New Year’s visits:
"Don’t let her cold, all-knowing demeanor fool you. She’s actually terrible at socializing. Whenever guests came, she’d hide in her room and wait for me to bring her food."
"In that regard, Sister is definitely better." Shang Li nodded sagely.
"At least family sticks together."
Shang Wu felt her efforts in rescuing her little brother weren’t wasted—but her joy was premature.
"Remember that one New Year when Sister arm-wrestled Great-Grandpa over drinks, then grabbed him by the collar and poured wine down his throat? Great-Grandpa was so drunk he called her ‘Granny’!"
Shang Li’s recollection plunged the room into silence.
Shang Wu scowled. "He was the one who bragged about eating more salt than I’d eaten rice and drinking more wine than I’d drunk water!"
"......"
Glancing at Shang Qinqing and Qin Yuzhi still cracking clams, then at the "slightly sensible" Shang Wu and the half-pint Shang Li, Li Mo suddenly wondered if the fall of the Shang Dynasty had less to do with fate and more to do with... this.
Before long, Old Qian dropped by for a meal.
The engagement banquet and Qingyuan Sect’s promotion ceremony were set for the same day—an almost absurd notion, pairing a major sect advancement with two disciples’ betrothal.
But to many, including Qingyuan Sect’s elders, the latter was far more significant.
After all, the sect’s current reputation rested on being "the home of Li Mo and Ying Bing."
Most of the visiting factions—from the distant Heavenly Mountain Sword Manor and Prosperous Trade Guild of the capital to the nearby Crimson Whale Gang and Blazing Jade Forest of Purple Sun Prefecture—were coming specifically for them.
Qingyuan Sect would be packed, surpassing even the bustle of Great Shang Kingdom’s capital.
But.
With the ice block away at the Li family, the sect’s event seemed lacking in prestige.
Setting aside the "Blade Sovereign of the Profound" and "Frost Fairy," Qingyuan Sect was, at its core, just a prefecture-level power—one that had nearly been overtaken by the Crimson Whale Gang not long ago.
Their foundation was weak, but they couldn’t afford to appear lacking in grandeur now.
"I’ve tallied our reserves: 77 spirit crystals, 63,000 taels of gold, and... exactly 3 million taels of silver. Wait—no."
Old Qian removed his boot and fished out a silver note.
Plus two small silver fragments.
"3,050,000 taels and 2 mace."
Even the loose change is accounted for.
"Our sect..." Li Mo inhaled sharply. "This poor?"
The sum sounded substantial, but for a sect meant to dominate a region, it wasn’t even enough to "fake it till you make it."
Old Qian said nothing, his gaze shifting to Shang Wu, who was gulping down wine.
Shang Wu whistled innocently, eyes fixed on the ceiling, pretending ignorance.
Li Mo: "......"
Suddenly, everything made sense.
His master’s extravagance wasn’t in food or drink—it was in troublemaking. As a peak master, she’d mellowed slightly, but in her youth, even stray dogs gave her a wide berth.
When she bit—er, caused trouble, reparations followed: medical fees, lost wages, emotional damages... all per Great Yu’s legal code.
"It’s not all bad, right? Old Xue’s medical skills and Old Qian’s lawyer license came from those incidents. Silver linings!"
Shang Wu’s defense was uncharacteristically weak.
"I’ll cover the shortfall," Li Mo sighed.
"That’s hardly—"
"It solves my dilemma too. After all, it’s my wedding."
"Right. Let’s budget carefully—it shouldn’t cost too much."
By evening, the quiet of Autumn Water Pavilion was broken as Gu Xueqin and Li Dalong returned, bringing along the ice block they’d proudly paraded all day.
Spotting Li Mo fresh from training, Ying Bing lifted her chin slightly, exuding the aura of a phoenix empress returning to her moonlit palace.
As if to say: This immature brat? A mere flick of my wrist is enough to subdue him.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
spital. Good news: I've bound a system. Bad news: I'm still a baby. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not bully the middle-aged for being poor — Divorce Comeback System." "Your marriage may have failed, but your luck in love has never run dry. Your childhood sweetheart, out of contact for twenty years, reappears. Her beauty remains, yet her eyes are brimming with tears." [Listen to the childhood sweetheart's sorrowful story.] Chen Zhi looked down at the diaper he was wearing, then at the little childhood sweetheart crying her heart out beside him, and fell into deep thought. Can anyone relate? I'm having a midlife crisis at an age where even rolling over is a struggle.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
