At Xiao Qiao’s age, she was still far from fully developed. Even the slightest stimulation to her brain was enough to cause her unbearable pain.
“Little Qiao, what’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
Zhong Ci watched her daughter’s suffering, feeling as though her heart were bleeding.
Xiao Qiao was still so young, yet Xiao Gui had been taking her everywhere in the Inner World, constantly putting her on display.
“Could this be… your Blood Mark?”
Xiao Gui pointed at Yue Menglong and shouted.
“That’s right. At least you’re somewhat knowledgeable. I already told you—did you really think I brought her here just to slap her a few times? I carved my Blood Mark into her brain long ago.”
Yue Menglong revealed a radiant smile. “So what if you rescued her? All I need to do is move a finger, and her life will be over.”
Only then did she lower her hand. Xiao Qiao, who had been suffering, gradually recovered.
“Mommy! My head hurts so much… It hurts so badly! Boo-hoo…”
Xiao Qiao’s eyes were red, and her face was as pale as paper. She looked as though her soul had been torn from her body.
Zhong Ci hugged Xiao Qiao tightly, pulling her into her arms and lifting her up.
She looked at Yue Menglong in the distance and said seriously, “Please let my daughter go! From this moment onward, Xiao Gui and I are officially divorced. I’ll never have anything to do with him again!”
“Mommy! What are you talking about?”
Xiao Qiao widened her eyes in disbelief. “No! I don’t want to leave Daddy!”
Xiao Gui also frowned. “Honey, don’t get worked up. Leave this to me! I’ll definitely resolve it!”
“Hahaha! That’s right, you can resolve it. Xiao Gui, I can let your daughter go, but you have to agree to two conditions.”
Yue Menglong’s smile was slightly deranged, as if she were watching a magnificent performance unfold.
“What are they?”
“First, give me the Boundary Flame in your possession. Second, kill Xu Mu. As long as you complete these two tasks, I’ll let her go. I’ll keep my word.”
Yue Menglong smiled as she spoke. What she wanted was to make these deeply devoted brothers turn against each other.
Xiao Gui fell silent. Killing Xu Mu would be a wonderful opportunity. He had been searching for an excuse to kill Xu Mu anyway.
That bastard was trying to steal his wife, and she seemed to have some interest in him.
If Xiao Gui made a move, Zhong Ci would certainly try to stop him.
But now he had a reason. He would be killing Xu Mu to save his daughter. Even if his wife tried to stop him, he could still make his move.
After Xu Mu died, he could explain that everything had been done for the sake of their daughter. He was certain Zhong Ci would forgive him.
But the Boundary Flame concerned his future advancement. How could he possibly hand it over to someone else?
“Unwilling to do it? Looks like you two really are good brothers.”
Yue Menglong continued, “Forget it. Since she’s only a child, I’ll take a step back. You don’t have to kill Xu Mu. Just give me the Boundary Flame.”
She stretched out her hand. With Xiao Qiao as a hostage, she could force them to do many things.
Xiao Gui remained unmoved. At that moment, he only stared at Yue Menglong in the distance. He did not even look toward Zhong Ci, but he knew exactly what expression she wore.
“Aren’t you being a little heartless?” Chen Xuan curled his lips. “It’s just a Boundary Flame. Why are you still hiding it? Is it really more important than your daughter’s life?”
“Don’t you understand? They may all be human, but the gap between an ordinary person and a ninth-tier expert is greater than the gap between a human and an ant!”
Xiao Gui coldly swept his gaze over Chen Xuan. “Mine is a high-grade Boundary Flame. It’s essential for crossing the ninth tier and entering the Earth Vein Realm!”
Xu Mu and the others all looked solemn when they heard this.
The Earth Vein Realm?
Xu Mu had heard before that reaching the Earth Vein Realm was equivalent to becoming an immortal.
The previous storyline had never gone into detail about how one became an immortal. After all, Ye Chen had only reached the fourth tier of the World-Breaking Realm at that point.
He never expected that this thing would actually be essential to becoming an immortal.
He suddenly thought of Wang Hun from the Immortality Research Institute. When Redemption had taken away his Boundary Flame, Wang Hun had become extremely agitated. That Boundary Flame must have been of considerable quality, or he would never have reacted so strongly.
Then Xu Mu suddenly remembered the Boundary Flame Chen Xuan had found last time.
The other party had clearly hidden that item away. If it had been an ordinary Boundary Flame, there would have been no reason to conceal it so carefully.
It seemed that the one in his own space was no ordinary Boundary Flame either.
“Xiao Gui! I’m so disappointed in you. Are you saying that our daughter’s life isn’t worth as much as the thing in your hand?”
By the time Zhong Ci finished speaking, tears had already begun to well up in her eyes.
She had never imagined that Xiao Gui valued so-called power this highly.
Even if the treasure was extremely precious, he could always become stronger and take it back in the future.
But if Xiao Qiao lost her life, she would truly be gone forever.
Xiao Qiao’s gaze had also grown somewhat vacant. From the very first moment she met Xiao Gui, she had adored him.
Xiao Gui had even told her that nothing in this world was more important than she was.
But now, a crack had appeared in her feelings for him.
So his words had all been lies. She wasn’t even as important to him as the round object in his hand.
Xu Mu took everything in. It seemed that Hat Bro was desperately obsessed with power.
“Xiao Gui, are you really that girl’s father? How laughable! A Boundary Flame is actually more important to you than your own daughter’s life.”
Yue Menglong could not help laughing from the distance. “Still, I understand. It’s only one life. You can always have another child with your wife. At most, it’ll take a year.”
“You stinking woman! Shut up!”
Xiao Gui let out a low growl. “Of course my daughter is important! But you’re a treacherous bastard. How do I know you’ll keep your word? If I give you the Boundary Flame, will you really let my daughter go?”
[Destiny Power -30]
Xu Mu was stunned when he saw this. He immediately checked his Destiny Power, and sure enough, it had increased by thirty points.
It seemed that whenever an event related to him caused the protagonist to lose Destiny Power, those points would belong to him.
“Of course I will! I’ve always been a person who keeps her word.”
Yue Menglong smiled as she spoke.
“Fine! Since that’s the case, remove the mark from my daughter’s head first, then let her go. After that, I’ll give you the Boundary Flame!”
Xiao Gui’s expression darkened.
“You’re being too greedy. Removing the mark and letting your daughter go are two separate things.”
“I knew it!”
Xiao Gui roared angrily. “Even if you let my daughter go, you’ll still use the mark to threaten me!”
“So you’re refusing to give it to me?”
Yue Menglong slowly shook her head. “You’re truly heartless.”
At that moment, Xu Mu took the initiative and walked over to Zhong Ci. He placed his hand on Xiao Qiao’s head.
Under the current circumstances, he still needed Xiao Gui’s help to deal with Yue Menglong, so naturally he had to eliminate the latter’s worries.
“Xu Mu…”
When Zhong Ci saw Xu Mu, she initially wanted to say something. But after noticing the look in his eyes, she said nothing more.
With Xu Mu’s current perception, he did not need to send a little gu worm into Xiao Qiao’s body to see everything inside her clearly.
There was indeed a red mass of energy, roughly the size of a soybean, inside her head.
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."
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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.”
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.
