To say there's a lack of synergy is one thing—people can adjust over time and gradually smooth things out.
What’s truly concerning is when there’s resentment.
When there are barriers.
Or even personal grudges, with people dragging each other down.
And everyone has their own self-interest—forget about family or nation.
Everything is for personal gain.
If cooperation benefits everyone, fine. But if the distribution of benefits is even slightly uneven, the fallout can be terrifying.
...
Now look at our family.
We do everything ourselves.
It wasn’t like this from the start—who wouldn’t prefer collaboration over starting from scratch?
But there was no other choice.
Bit by bit, we pushed ourselves to become the strongest.
And it’s not just about strength—our vision and ambition operate on a whole different level.
While others are still squabbling over scraps of land,
we’re already looking beyond, toward extraterrestrial life and habitable planets.
Think about it—
If any other family made such claims, you could dismiss it as just another plan, nothing more.
But when it comes to us… when have we ever failed to deliver on our promises?
And our policies are seamlessly aligned.
So while others can only plan for the next decade,
we’re making thirty-, forty-, fifty-year plans… or even longer.
Just consider this:
Sealing off a desert’s borders took forty years—what kind of perseverance and administrative continuity does that require?
On this entire planet, we’re the only ones capable of that.
And the scariest part?
Not only did we persist, we succeeded.
Not only did we succeed, we perfected it.
Not only did we perfect it, we kept it so low-key that even after completion, the hype lasted barely a few days before fading into silence.
The sheer restraint is mind-boggling!
This level of discipline made Cao Cheng, lounging in his chair, admit that even with his "Sleeping Dragon" techniques and the "Slacker System"—no, the "Emotional Slacker System"—his self-control still paled in comparison to our family’s.
No.
He still had work to do.
He needed that discipline.
That’s right… just staying steady like this, and his strength would grow bit by bit.
Discipline!
...
...
Everything was moving in the right direction.
Most matters no longer required Cao Cheng’s direct involvement.
Including the Immortality Club.
All he had to do was periodically provide cutting-edge tech for trade and some barely-effective longevity boosters as rewards to keep the club running smoothly.
And the resources required? Minimal.
Yet the benefits reaped were immeasurable.
Take gold trading, for example.
Normally, countries friendly with certain global powers would need permission to sell their "yellow rocks."
Publicly, those powers held over 8,000 tons.
In reality? More than 20,000.
The details of those transactions weren’t for outsiders to know.
And some nations—well, some families—were just plain foolish, easily spooked into dumping their entire reserves of tens or even hundreds of tons at once.
What else could you call that but stupidity?
Then there were banks needing liquidity, like during the European debt crisis, when Cao Cheng quietly scooped up 200 tons.
All these deals and intel flowed through the Immortality Club.
Profits were shared.
No external channels involved.
Over time, it evolved into a self-sustaining ecosystem. Even though the club’s members included people of all colors—yellow, white, black—initial wariness and mutual suspicion gradually faded.
After a few years, relationships improved significantly.
Loyalty to the club soared, and members increasingly prioritized club affairs above all else.
It was a process.
And it took time.
But Cao Cheng was confident that soon—maybe in a few years, maybe a decade—everyone in the Immortality Club would see themselves as club members first, not as representatives of any family.
That was exactly what he wanted.
As for whether they’d become hard to control…
That was overthinking it.
As long as he held the key to their longevity, rebellion was off the table.
Besides,
given current trends, within fifty years, humanity might discover habitable planets beyond Earth.
And extraterrestrial life.
Exploring those frontiers would require these very people.
They were merchants, after all.
Where there was profit, they’d set sail.
Even if it meant venturing into outer space for opportunity, they’d charge ahead without hesitation—as long as eternal life was guaranteed, they’d do anything. Anything at all.
...
The Immortality Club was managed by the "Old Patriarch."
Cao Cheng just took his cut.
The same went for most of his companies.
Even his sisters weren’t overworked.
Each business had top-tier executives at the helm—even Fourth Sister’s entertainment company had a capable manager in place.
Third Sister? Even less to worry about.
In finance circles, her status now rivaled Cao Cheng’s.
She’d invested in countless industries.
While some credited "Young Master Cao" as the mastermind, most believed Third Sister Ren Yushang was the real driving force.
From the company’s earliest days, she’d been the one running the show.
Every major investment, even overseas expansions, bore her fingerprints.
Early on, she personally oversaw every startup investment over two million.
That’s how Miracle Capital grew under her hands.
Her reputation and standing?
At any financial forum, she was the centerpiece.
Even at provincial-level meetings attended by top officials, she commanded the spotlight—those high-ranking leaders sat as students, absorbing her insights.
That was Third Sister’s clout.
And in public, she carried herself with the untouchable aura of a goddess—not cold like Second Sister, but still celestial, beyond mortal reach.
Her warmth, it seemed, was reserved for Cao Cheng alone.
...
Second Sister had also leveled up.
Climbing steadily, faster and faster.
Whether the Old Patriarch’s connections played a role, Cao Cheng couldn’t say.
But he suspected they did.
No words needed.
Not even a glance.
Just the knowledge of Second Sister Ren Fanxing’s background was enough to rally momentum around her.
When the time came,
that momentum would lift her effortlessly.
Especially since she’d risen from the grassroots—capable, bold, and formidable.
Her promotions were simply the natural order of things.
...
But.
The hardest worker in this family?
That would be Eldest Sister.
Even when ill, she handled everything personally.
After recovering, she still did.
So what was the point of curing her illness?

pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"

iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.

and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”