Jiang Xingjun’s eyes narrowed as he listened. He hadn’t expected this to involve his elder brother as well.
“What exactly happened?”
Jiang Sheng pressed him for an answer.
Xu Mu gave them a general account of what had happened this time.
“So that’s how it is. You think Zhang Que approached you about working together on Jiang Mingzhuo’s orders?” Jiang Sheng asked.
“Most likely. No matter what, he’s still Senior’s son. Naturally, he wants Huihui to be well.”
Xu Mu smiled. “I’ve studied this cultivation technique in general. It’s a body-refinement technique, so it’s perfect for Huihui.”
Jiang Sheng glanced at Xu Mu. “Aren’t you a body refiner yourself?”
“I’m not in a hurry. I can cultivate it after Huihui has mastered it.”
Xu Mu waved his hand. “As for whether I’ll be able to fully comprehend and integrate it later, that will depend on luck.”
“Good! I’ll accept it on Huihui’s behalf.”
Jiang Sheng opened the wine and first poured a bowl for Xu Mu. “I can tell that you genuinely care about Huihui. That puts my mind at ease.”
He then filled bowls for himself and Jiang Xingjun.
Jiang Huihui was still unable to calm down. This was a divine-grade cultivation technique!
She secretly glanced at Xu Mu, who was drinking with her grandfather and father, and her heart began to race.
Xu Mu had originally intended to give her something this precious. That alone was enough to prove how he felt about her.
[Affection +30]
After a few bowls of wine, Jiang Sheng’s face had already flushed red.
He slapped the table. “Damn it! Just mentioning that unfilial son, Jiang Mingzhuo, makes me furious!”
“Senior, what exactly did he do?” Xu Mu asked curiously.
“Back then, I joined the Sanitation Bureau specifically to pave the way for him. He showed exceptional talent from a young age, and after joining the Cleaners, he didn’t disappoint me. In just a few short years, he became the captain of Sequence One.”
Jiang Sheng leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “At the time, which of my old friends didn’t envy me? But then he fell in love with a woman from another race.”
“A woman from another race? Don’t tell me she was from the Great Wilderness Clan?” Xu Mu asked with a frown.
“No. She was a hybrid from a mysterious organization called Eternal Life.”
Jiang Sheng explained, “That organization was the predecessor of the Eternal Life Research Institute.”
“What? She was from the Eternal Life Research Institute?”
Xu Mu was filled with confusion.
Jiang Huihui also furrowed her willow brows. Jiang Sheng had never told her about this.
“No. The Eternal Life Research Institute was the successor to Eternal Life. The organization known as Eternal Life had already existed for a thousand years. And they weren’t limited to our Flame Empire.”
Jiang Sheng explained, “Experts from every race gathered within it, all pursuing the same goal: eternal life.”
Jiang Xingjun, sitting beside them, added, “They were a bunch of lunatics. To achieve eternal life, they resorted to all kinds of vile methods—eating people, refining them, forcibly devouring powerful experts, and so on.”
Only then did Xu Mu understand Jiang Sheng’s feelings. Any father would be furious if his son became involved with a woman from such an organization.
Jiang Sheng took another drink. “However, over the past several hundred years, the organization has almost completely disappeared from view. Perhaps they had already tried every method they could think of and, after finding none of them effective, finally fell silent.”
Xu Mu nodded slightly. That did make sense. There were only so many methods people could come up with. After trying all of them and discovering that none worked, there was naturally no point in wasting more time.
“But more than eighty years ago, Wang Hun founded the Eternal Life Research Institute. He claimed that he came from Eternal Life.”
Jiang Sheng continued, “The reason he appeared was that he had mastered transplantation technology. He shifted the pursuit of immortality from the methods used by cultivators to modern medicine.”
“Transplantation technology?”
Xu Mu thought for a moment. “The timing does line up. The first successful transplant surgery took place roughly seventy or eighty years ago. In other words, Wang Hun had actually discovered it even earlier.”
After all, the human body naturally rejected foreign tissue. Any transplanted organ would be attacked by the body’s own immune cells.
It was the invention of immunosuppressants that truly opened the door to transplantation.
“But I’ve gotten off topic. In any case, that woman came from Eternal Life. I ordered him to cut ties with her, but he refused to listen.”
Jiang Sheng clenched his fists tightly. “There was nothing I could do except hope that she was a good person. But in the end, something still happened.”
Xu Mu narrowed his eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“During one mission into the Inner Realm, Jiang Mingzhuo led dozens of council experts there. In the end, only one person escaped. He claimed that Jiang Mingzhuo had killed everyone else.”
Jiang Sheng’s eyes were bloodshot. “And that woman of his was there too!”
Xu Mu drew a deep breath. “Does Senior know why he did it?”
“No matter what the reason was, he had no right to kill so many of our experts! Several of them were the descendants of my old friends. How was I supposed to face them?”
Jiang Sheng filled his bowl again. “Forget it. Let’s not talk about him anymore.”
Xu Mu drank a little more with him. The original storyline contained no detailed records about Jiang Mingzhuo.
But based on the few times they had met, Jiang Mingzhuo didn’t seem like someone who could be manipulated easily.
Since he had chosen to kill those people, there had to be a reason.
As for what that reason was, Xu Mu had no way of knowing.
…
After they finished the stir-fried chicken, Jiang Sheng headed toward the back mountain of the farm resort with Jiang Xingjun supporting him.
Zhou Shui turned to Xu Mu with a smile. “Are you all right? Otherwise, Huihui can help you back to your room so you can rest.”
“A short rest sounds good.”
Xu Mu nodded. “Huihui, put away the cultivation technique and the pills first.”
Jiang Huihui acknowledged him and stored the items away before helping Xu Mu leave.
She led Xu Mu to the house in the back mountain and helped him inside.
It was a typical red-brick house, standing in the back mountain with only a single room.
“It’s a little messy inside. Don’t mind it,” Jiang Huihui said somewhat awkwardly.
“This is messy?”
Xu Mu looked around. Apart from the unmade bed, everything else was neat and orderly.
He sat down on the wooden bed. With his physique having grown stronger, even wine brewed from heavenly treasures had little effect on him now.
[Affection +10]
Jiang Huihui stood in front of Xu Mu. “Xu Mu, I’ll accept the pills, but as for this divine-grade cultivation technique…”
“Huihui, the technique is only for you to cultivate. It’s not like I’m giving it away permanently, so why are you being so polite?”
Xu Mu smiled. “I’m counting on you to become a powerful expert and help me fight in the future.”
“All right, then I won’t stand on ceremony.”
Jiang Huihui nodded firmly before asking, “Should I get you some water? My grandfather’s wine is very strong.”
“No need. I’ll just lie down for a while.”
Xu Mu lay down on Jiang Huihui’s bed and closed his eyes.
He had nothing else to do, so he decided to spend the Justice Points he had accumulated on a draw.
His top priority right now was still becoming stronger.
Meng Wanyue, Dai Xingluo, and Jiang Huihui were all about to advance to the Transcendent Realm.
Meanwhile, he was still struggling along at the Transcendent Realm himself.
When Jiang Huihui saw Xu Mu close his eyes, she quietly moved to the bedside and gazed at his profile. Her heart began to beat faster.
She slowly extended a trembling hand. Just as her fingers were about to touch Xu Mu’s face, she hastily pulled them back as if struck by lightning.
Xu Mu suddenly furrowed his brows. Naturally, he had noticed what Jiang Huihui was doing.
Could this girl be trying to take advantage of him while he was drunk?
Xu Mu was already a little tipsy.
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.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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.
