Xu Mu shrugged. There were plenty of protagonists who wanted him dead, and he didn’t mind adding one more to the list.
Although the man before him was incredibly powerful—far beyond anything Xu Mu could contend with in the short term—he did have one fatal weakness: his wife and child.
“Who started this?” Xu Mu asked coldly. “You wanted to search us, and I said we should search you first. Is that really an unreasonable demand?”
“Not at all!”
Chen Xuan called out from a distance.
“You were about to kill me just now. Is it unreasonable for me to grab your daughter?” Xu Mu continued.
“Not at all!”
As Chen Xuan spoke, he was already approaching Xu Mu with his woodcutter’s knife in hand.
Li Hongdou and the others, standing farther away, secretly nodded as well.
Xu Mu was absolutely right. It was clearly the man before them who had been pressing them at every turn, and yet he still had the nerve to threaten to kill Xu Mu’s entire family.
That was simply outrageous!
Nalan Shisan clenched her fists. If she weren’t weaker than the other man, she would have rushed over and hacked him to death already. What a disgusting man!
“To put it simply, you’re relying on your superior cultivation to bully us,” Xu Mu said calmly. “Well, let me tell you something: I’m not going to indulge that stinking habit of yours!”
Xiao Gui remained silent.
He had to admit that Xu Mu was indeed a threat to him.
He could disregard the lives of everyone else, but the person in Xu Mu’s hands was his daughter.
Even if every other person present died, none of their lives could compare to a single hair on his daughter’s head.
“Fine! I’ll take a step back this time. You can inspect my spatial ring first.”
Xiao Gui had no choice.
The cultivation technique Xu Mu used happened to counter his daughter perfectly. It seemed to be some kind of technique that allowed the user to exchange positions with another person.
If he stayed together with his daughter, Xu Mu could use that technique to switch places with him and capture her.
If he separated from his daughter, that would be even worse. Xu Mu wasn’t alone, and any one of the others could still capture his daughter.
“What happened before is one thing, and what’s happening now is another,” Xu Mu continued. “Divine medicine belongs to whoever finds it. We never should have handed it over to you in the first place.”
“Now that things have reached this point, I won’t agree to let you search everyone.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
Xiao Gui’s expression grew increasingly ugly.
“There are five of us. I’ll only allow you to inspect three.”
Xu Mu’s expression remained calm. “That’s the greatest concession I’m willing to make.”
Xiao Gui pondered for a moment before nodding. “Fine! I agree!”
He wasn’t sure whether these people had truly obtained the divine medicine, but at present, his daughter’s life was indeed in their hands.
Compared with the divine medicine, his daughter’s life was obviously more important.
Xu Mu lowered Xiao Qiao, whom he had been carrying over his shoulder, onto the ground.
“You stinking old bastard! I’ll remember you! Just you wait!”
Xiao Qiao wiped away her tears with her sleeve, clutched her butt, and ran toward Xiao Gui.
“Tell me, then. Which three people do you want to search?”
Xu Mu asked lightly.
“Obviously, you’re first!”
Xiao Gui pointed at Xu Mu, then shifted his gaze to the others.
He could rule out Li Hongdou. When he had just said that his daughter would search them, her expression had clearly shown that she was willing to cooperate.
That meant she definitely didn’t have the divine medicine on her.
He then looked around at the others.
Chen Xuan was also easy to rule out. His appearance was unremarkable, and besides a ring, he was even carrying a woven fertilizer sack.
If the divine medicine were really in his hands, he would have been making far too much of a show of it.
That left only Nalan Shisan and Lin Ruoshi.
Like Xu Mu, neither of them wore a spatial ring on their fingers. Perhaps that was precisely because they were trying to hide it.
“Then those two women.”
Xiao Gui pointed at Nalan Shisan and Lin Ruoshi in turn.
“Fine!”
Xu Mu extended his hand first. “Let me see what treasures you have in your spatial ring.”
Without hesitation, Xiao Gui removed the ring worn on his thumb and tossed it to Xu Mu.
He did have many treasures inside, but he didn’t believe Xu Mu would dare keep it.
Xu Mu caught the thumb ring and infused it with qi, opening it. He discovered that it was filled with top-grade natural treasures.
There were three stalks of divine medicine alone.
Once he grew stronger, he could use Xiao Gui as a supplier.
After inspecting the ring, Xu Mu tossed it back to him.
Xiao Gui caught it and said calmly, “Sweetheart, go search those two women over there.”
“Okay, Daddy!”
Xiao Qiao came over again. As she passed Xu Mu, she glared fiercely at him.
She first walked up to Nalan Shisan, raised her head, and said, “Stepmom, why don’t you become my mother? I’ve never had enough to eat in my whole life. I want you to feed me.”
Nalan Shisan ignored her completely and said impatiently, “Cut the nonsense and search me.”
“Then squat down. I can’t reach.”
Xiao Qiao tilted her head back.
Nalan Shisan said nothing more and squatted down.
Qi appeared in Xiao Qiao’s hands, followed by a small formation.
The formation had a radius of only about half a meter and remained within her palms the entire time.
Xu Mu was secretly astonished. It was actually a fifth-level detection formation.
Although it was still immature, it was more than sufficient to search for a spatial ring.
He hadn’t expected this little girl to be a formation genius. She was so young, yet she was already capable of using a fifth-level formation.
She searched every inch of Nalan Shisan’s body before turning around and saying, “Daddy, she doesn’t have a spatial ring.”
“Then move on to the next one,” Xiao Gui said.
“Okay.”
Xiao Qiao walked over to Lin Ruoshi.
Lin Ruoshi took the initiative to squat down.
“Mommy! Will you be my mommy? You’re so pretty!”
Xiao Qiao’s opening line left Lin Ruoshi completely flustered.
Lin Ruoshi shook her head vigorously. “No, I won’t.”
Although she wasn’t very good at refusing people, she still understood that this was not something to be careless about.
After carefully searching Lin Ruoshi, Xiao Qiao turned around again and said, “Daddy, there’s nothing here either.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Gui’s brows gradually knitted together. He then walked over to Xu Mu himself and placed a hand on his shoulder.
He used a complete detection formation. In an instant, it scanned Xu Mu’s entire body, but there was no sign of a spatial ring.
Xiao Gui was confident that a mere ant like Xu Mu couldn’t deceive him.
Had he guessed wrong?
Could it be that they weren’t the ones who had taken it, and someone else in the ruins had stolen it while taking advantage of the confusion?
From the moment he caught up with them until now, he had witnessed every action of everyone present.
They hadn’t made any physical contact with one another, so there was no possibility that they had secretly hidden the treasure on someone else.
Thinking back to their earlier conversation, perhaps the divine medicine truly wasn’t with them.
“Sweetheart, let’s go!”
Xiao Gui immediately picked up Xiao Qiao and transformed into a streak of light, leaving the area.
He needed to return to the ruins and search them again.
When Li Hongdou saw him leave, she finally breathed a little easier.
The other man was indeed extremely powerful, far stronger than she was.
Even with the cultivation technique Xu Mu had given her, she felt they still wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Xu Mu! As expected of you! I nearly surrendered just now and let him search all of us.”
Li Hongdou gave Xu Mu a thumbs-up. “Thank goodness you saved our dignity.”
[Affection +10]
“That’s right! Dignity affects one’s state of mind. Even if we didn’t take the divine medicine, we still couldn’t let him search us whenever he pleased.”
Nalan Shisan nodded along.
“But what if I’m the one who took it?”
A ring suddenly appeared in Xu Mu’s hand. “I already checked. There really is a divine medicine inside, and there’s enough for all five of us.”
“What?”
Everyone present was utterly stunned.
A moment later, however, their faces were filled with emotion.
“Xu Mu, you… you idiot! If you hadn’t said anything, the divine medicine would all be yours!”
Li Hongdou didn’t even know how to express herself.
Xu Mu was such an adorably foolish guy.
He was not only brave and resourceful, but also willing to share. Wasn’t he exactly her type?
[Favorability +30]
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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."
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.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
