"Reporter?" Zhao Yumei looked puzzled for a moment before nodding. "The kind that puts people on TV?"
"Right." Fang Zhiyi calculated that the time was almost up—he needed to remind the old lady soon.
Life or death hinged on how they handled this hurdle. If things went south, he’d have no choice but to wander off as a drifter.
Zhao Yumei waved her hand dismissively. "Let her come! You think I’m scared of her? I knew she was a fox spirit the moment she married your dad! Your father was blind, going off to work and bringing back trash like her!"
Listening to her freely insult her own dead son, Fang Zhiyi could only stay silent. This ally was reliable, but her attacks were indiscriminate.
Sure enough, the next day, Lin Meilan arrived with Wang Tao, the host of True Emotions, a reality TV show. This time, she didn’t bring her lover—probably afraid the bald-headed man would mess things up.
"A father dies unexpectedly, yet his child refuses to acknowledge the mother. Why is that? Today, we’ve come to this small village at the request of Ms. Lin Meilan..."
After a pointless introduction, Wang Tao glanced at Fang Zhiyi sitting on the doorstep and gave Lin Meilan a meaningful look. Lin Meilan nodded, signaling she was ready.
"Zhiyi, come with Mom. I’ll give you a better life." Lin Meilan forced a fake smile and reached out to grab him.
Fang Zhiyi dodged, and a cane suddenly shot out from above his head, jabbing into Lin Meilan’s chest. Zhao Yumei had dressed neatly today, knowing TV appearances required presentability. "Who the hell are you? Trying to kidnap my grandson?"
Lin Meilan froze momentarily, realizing the old woman was her biggest obstacle. "Mom, it’s me—Meilan."
"Pah!" Despite her tidy outfit, Zhao Yumei’s manners hadn’t improved. She spat at Lin Meilan’s feet. "You damn fox spirit, don’t call me Mom! You ran off with my son’s hard-earned money and some other man! You abandoned your own child, and now that my son’s dead, you’re back for his money? Listen here—as long as I’m alive, you won’t lay a finger on my grandson!"
Lin Meilan was speechless. Wang Tao quickly stepped in to mediate. "Ma’am, please calm down. Blood ties can’t be broken. Ms. Lin is the child’s birth mother—"
"Blood ties? What good are they? So we should ignore right and wrong just because of blood?" Zhao Yumei sneered. "Aren’t you filming for TV? Go ahead! Show the whole country this greedy fox spirit! Let everyone see how she abandoned her husband and child, only to come back for a dead man’s money!"
"Ma’am, that’s not how you should speak. Our program’s motto is—" Wang Tao tried to maintain professionalism.
Zhao Yumei cut her off ruthlessly. "What program? You’re just her accomplice! Here’s my warning—anyone who tries to take my grandson from me, I’ll die right in front of them! My worthless life is a fair trade for his future!"
"Ma’am, you’re being unreasonable!" Wang Tao was losing patience.
"So what if I am?" Zhao Yumei seemed fully committed now. She plopped onto the ground, wailing and slapping her thighs. "My son died so tragically! Now his poor mother and son are being bullied! Even the TV crew is helping an outsider steal my grandson! Where’s the justice?"
Wang Tao was flustered. Her show relied on emotional manipulation, but that only worked if the other party had morals. This old woman was threatening suicide and throwing a full-blown tantrum.
The villagers arrived quickly, some even bringing sunflower seeds. They’d noticed the Fang family had been quite entertaining lately.
Soon, people recognized Lin Meilan. Her reputation in the village was worse than Zhao Yumei’s—while Zhao was just stubborn, Lin was outright immoral. The crowd swiftly turned against her, hurling accusations.
Wang Tao sensed trouble and signaled the cameraman to leave. The moment the camera shut off, Zhao Yumei sprang up from the ground and lunged at Lin Meilan, yanking her hair and slapping her face. Dazed, Lin Meilan wasn’t about to hold back—she shrieked and fought back. Fang Zhiyi suddenly shouted, "Don’t hit my grandma!"
He grabbed Zhao Yumei’s cane and swung wildly, though every strike landed precisely on Lin Meilan’s joints.
Wang Tao hesitated, then ordered the cameraman to start filming again. But Fang Zhiyi timed it perfectly—one sharp strike to the back of Lin Meilan’s knee sent her stumbling into the cameraman. Both tumbled into the roadside ditch, the camera smashing on impact.
The equipment was ruined, though the cameraman was fine. Wang Tao was furious—this would cost them! She started demanding compensation, but Zhao Yumei glared. "That fox spirit crashed into them. Everyone saw it. Why yell at my grandson?"
The villagers nodded in agreement.
Wang Tao didn’t care. Faced with the unyielding Zhao Yumei and the hapless Lin Meilan, she chose the latter instantly. And so, the dazed Lin Meilan found herself saddled with an unexpected debt.
Watching them flee in disarray, Zhao Yumei dusted her hands and spat. "Worthless trash."
Fang Zhiyi helped brush the dirt off her clothes. She looked at him approvingly. "You’ve grown up. Even know how to help your grandma fight now. Good."
Fang Zhiyi understood—the old woman truly saw him as family now.
Back in her rented apartment, Lin Meilan nursed her grievances. Her face was swollen from the old hag’s slaps, her body aching all over. And that little bastard had helped the hag!
Her lover, Ma Tiao, lounging on the couch, gaped at her. "Damn, where’d you get your ass kicked like this?"
Lin Meilan, already in a foul mood, shot him a glare.
Ma Tiao frowned. "So? Didn’t you bring the reporter?"
"It didn’t work!" Lin Meilan fumed. "That old hag hit me! That little brat hit me too! And I ended up breaking their camera! They’re making me pay!"
Ma Tiao bolted upright. "What? How much?!"
He didn’t care if she’d been beaten—only the money mattered.
Lin Meilan’s heart sank. She turned and stormed into her room.
This wasn’t over.
"Here we are..." Zhao Yumei led Fang Zhiyi around until they stood before a towering building.
Fang Zhiyi looked up, then at Zhao Yumei. This old lady must’ve been something in her youth.
"The old bastard’s address was definitely here..." She took Fang Zhiyi upstairs.
Fang Zhiyi was thoroughly impressed. Even someone like Zhao Yumei had friends? Then again, even history’s worst villains had a couple of close allies.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
