The Miserable Xiao Chen, Senior Jiang of the Jiang Family—Jiang Tiedan

"Come, Xiao Chen, drink this bowl of soup. It's ginseng hen soup, specially made to nourish your body..."

Zhao Li, a woman in her fifties, carried a pot of freshly stewed hen soup to Xiao Chen.

"Auntie... I really can't drink anymore. Please let me go! I beg you!"

Xiao Chen's eyes were deeply sunken, his hair brittle, his lips purple, and his arms trembling. He looked as if he had aged a decade, his cheekbones protruding sharply. Clearly, he had been "drained" relentlessly by his vicious mother-in-law.

Xiao Chen was starting to regret it. Though he had developed some twisted affection after being tormented by Zhao Li, the current situation... might just cost him his life.

A fifty-year-old woman sucking the life out of him—like a dried-up well suddenly gushing after years of drought—was something he couldn’t handle.

And this was despite him being a grandmaster-level martial artist!

Even with the invincible Golden Body technique protecting him, he had still been reduced to this pitiful state. His body felt completely hollowed out.

"Xiao Chen, don’t worry... Young people like you recover quickly. You’ll be fine in no time..."

Zhao Li shoved a spoonful of nourishing soup into Xiao Chen’s mouth, forcing it down his throat.

"Auntie... Auntie, no more!" Xiao Chen pleaded, his voice shaking with fear.

......

"Uh... Ningxue, I might not need to do anything after all."

Jiang Che’s lips twitched as he watched the live feed hacked into the Ji family’s villa by his tech-savvy associate. The sight of Xiao Chen’s miserable state made him shudder.

His mother-in-law... was something else.

Seriously impressive!

She had reduced the so-called "Chosen One" to this state. Even most grandmasters couldn’t compare. At this rate, Xiao Chen wouldn’t last much longer under her "care." Another year or so, and they’d be holding a funeral banquet.

"Huh? What... what do you mean, Jiang Che?" Ji Ningxue frowned slightly.

Jiang Che turned his phone toward her, displaying the live footage.

"Auntie... I really can’t drink anymore..."

Ji Ningxue’s lips parted slightly as she stared at Xiao Chen’s haggard figure on the screen.

"Is... is that really Xiao Chen?"

It hadn’t even been a month. How had he ended up like this?

"Your mom is seriously terrifying. Xiao Chen is a grandmaster-level martial artist, and she’s squeezed him dry—not a drop left!" Jiang Che remarked with a smirk.

"What? My mother..." Ji Ningxue’s face flushed crimson.

But then anger surged within her. That bastard Xiao Chen had actually dared to lay hands on her mother?

It felt like a dog she had raised had suddenly turned on its master and bitten her own mother.

"Of course, judging by the video, your mom looks radiant—like an old dried-up well suddenly brimming with fresh water."

Ji Ningxue rolled her eyes. She wasn’t exactly naive and could easily decipher Jiang Che’s crude implications.

"You little rascal, stop joking about my mother!" She pinched Jiang Che’s waist lightly.

Jiang Che chuckled. "Ningxue, if you end up like your mom at her age... I don’t think I’d survive."

"Jiang Che!" Ji Ningxue gritted her teeth.

Though she wanted to smack him, she held back. After all, she had long since lost any real control over this troublemaker.

......

Jiang Family Residence, Capital City.

"Holy shit, the ancestors have blessed us!"

Jiang Yunhuang, the current head of the Jiang family, nearly dropped the incense stick he was holding in the ancestral hall.

The Jiang family’s ancestral hall housed the tablets of countless ancestors, their lineage stretching back over a thousand years.

Just now, the smoke from his incense had begun to swirl unnaturally, coalescing into a faint humanoid figure—an elderly man in ancient robes.

"You... who are you?"

The smoky figure glanced at Jiang Yunhuang. "Are you a descendant of the Jiang family?"

"Yes, I’m the current family head. Which ancestor are you? I’ll burn more incense for you... Please bless our family from the underworld, but don’t come looking for me! I just took a life-extending pill—I’m not ready to die yet..."

Jiang Yunhuang was clearly terrified of death.

The smoky figure nearly choked on his own rage.

"I’m not dead yet!"

"Not dead?" Jiang Yunhuang had lived over seventy years but had never encountered anything this bizarre.

"Correct. My name is Jiang Langsheng. Check the family records—you’ll find me."

Jiang Yunhuang blinked, then flipped through the ancestral registry.

As he searched, the old man muttered to himself, "Hmm? You’ve reached the Shattering Heaven realm? Has Earth’s spiritual energy revived?"

"But that shouldn’t be possible..."

Before the old man could ponder further, Jiang Yunhuang slammed the registry shut.

"Bullshit! There’s no ‘Jiang Langsheng’ in our records! Tell me—what kind of wandering ghost dares invade the Jiang family’s ancestral hall? I’ll make sure you can’t even stay a ghost!"

Jiang Yunhuang regained his confidence. Though he wasn’t a Taoist exorcist, dealing with a mere spirit was child’s play.

The smoky old man’s expression twisted in fury, but he could do nothing beyond that—no energy fluctuations, no power.

"You ungrateful little—!"

He took a deep breath (metaphorically). "Fine. Look up... Jiang Tiedan instead."

Even as smoke, his face seemed to flush with embarrassment.

"Jiang Tiedan?" Jiang Yunhuang frowned.

Then it hit him.

He hurriedly reopened the registry—and sure enough, there was an entry for Jiang Tiedan.

Jiang Tiedan: A Jiang family head from five hundred years ago, during an era when Earth’s spiritual pathways were still open. A peerless cultivator who dominated his age, vanishing without a trace after a breakthrough.

No way.

Was this really Jiang Tiedan? Their ancestor?

Jiang Yunhuang gulped. Had he actually stumbled upon the real deal?

It made sense. Back then, cultivators weren’t called martial artists but Daoists. Legends spoke of ascension to higher realms—though no one knew where that led.

Realization dawned, and Jiang Yunhuang dropped to his knees.

"Ancestor, your descendant pays his respects."

Centuries had passed without a single ancestral manifestation. Combined with recent events, it seemed the martial world was on the brink of upheaval.

Jiang Tiedan: "......"