Mu Qingying thought she must be seeing things. Ye Tong staying silent was understandable since Ye Yu was just joking around. But her nodding along? That felt off.
"Ye Yu! Asking for a beating, are you? How dare you tease your teacher like that?"
Xu Mu could clearly hear the sarcasm dripping from Ye Yu's words.
He then turned to Mu Qingying and said, "If anything really happens to the Xu Family in the future, I’ll come to you. But for now, let’s not worry over nothing."
Mu Qingying wiped her eyes with her sleeve and gave a small nod.
"If there’s nothing else, I should head back now," she said, standing up.
"Teacher Mu, it’s getting late. Why not stay for dinner?" Ye Tong invited with a smile.
"No need, I don’t want to impose."
"Stay. It’s the perfect chance to try my cooking," Xu Mu said, getting up.
Mu Qingying was stunned. "Xu Mu, you can cook?"
"Of course! If it weren’t for Teacher Mu visiting, we wouldn’t get to enjoy brother-in-law’s delicious dishes," Ye Yu chimed in, shooting Xu Mu a playful glare.
Xu Mu sighed at Ye Yu’s antics.
Is she feeling uncomfortable seeing me and Mu Qingying like this?
"Don’t listen to her nonsense," Xu Mu said before heading to the kitchen to get started.
The rhythmic sound of chopping from the kitchen made Mu Qingying’s heart flutter. Just from the precision of the knife work, she could tell this wasn’t amateur cooking.
Before long, Xu Mu had Ye Yu bring out the dishes.
Mu Qingying’s eyes widened at the feast before her—each dish looked mouthwatering.
Honey-glazed char siu, sweet and sour carp, braised prawns, stir-fried shiitake greens, and a bowl of West Lake beef soup.
"Just some home-style dishes. Don’t hold back," Xu Mu said casually as he joined them at the table.
The four sat down, and the moment Mu Qingying took a bite of the char siu, an explosion of flavor filled her mouth.
"This is amazing! So delicious!"
She’d dined at plenty of high-end restaurants, but none compared to this.
[Affection Points +20]
She had assumed Xu Mu could only whip up simple dishes, but now it was clear—he was better than professional chefs.
"If the Xu Family ever goes under, we can just make brother-in-law a chef to support us," Ye Yu teased with a grin.
Mu Qingying silently agreed as she sampled the other dishes, each one just as exquisite.
……
After dinner, the family saw Mu Qingying off at the door before returning inside.
Ye Tong went to clean up in the kitchen while Ye Yu and Xu Mu lounged on the sofa.
"Brother-in-law, I’m doing you a favor, right? Helping you find another wife," Ye Yu said, nudging Xu Mu’s stomach with her elbow.
"Pushing your luck, huh? Keep mocking me like that."
Xu Mu wrapped an arm around her neck and used his free hand to tickle her sides.
"Ahahaha! Stop! I surrender!"
Ye Yu squirmed uncontrollably, but she was no match for Xu Mu.
Her struggles only made things worse until she collapsed against him, wriggling helplessly.
Then—sudden silence.
Ye Yu was now perched on Xu Mu’s lap, their position a little too intimate.
Flush!
Her cute face turned bright red, and she bolted upstairs. "I’m going to bed!"
Xu Mu was equally flustered. He’d only meant to teach her a lesson, not end up like this.
"What happened? Why did Xiaoyu run off?" Ye Tong asked, stepping out of the kitchen.
"She’s scared of me now," Xu Mu said, taking Ye Tong’s hand. "Let’s get some rest."
Ye Tong lowered her head shyly. At times like this, she couldn’t help but wish for someone else to share the burden.
That night…
Xu Mu and Ye Tong engaged in a deep yet accessible discussion on current global affairs.
They seemed particularly passionate about the topic, losing themselves in conversation until neither could pull away.
……
Xu Mu checked his Justice Points and saw he had enough for two consecutive 10-draws.
He tapped the roulette to start spinning—no point in sleeping now anyway.
As the wheel turned, rewards began appearing.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained 20 Cultivation Points.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained the title: Novice Alchemist.]
No way!
Xu Mu sat bolt upright. An alchemy skill?
This ability was something even the Dragon King in the story only unlocked much later.
For Xu Mu, this was huge.
Thanks to his Medicine Mastery, he could analyze pills—but without the technique, he couldn’t actually make them.
In short, his brain and eyes knew what to do, but his hands couldn’t execute it.
Until now, his "pills" were just boiled-down remedies, losing most of their potency.
But with alchemy? He could maximize the effects of rare herbs and materials.
Though this was only Novice-level. There had to be higher tiers later.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained a Grade-4 rare herb: Black Vine.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained a Grade-3 rare herb gift box.]
"What’s this?"
Xu Mu frowned. A Grade-4 herb was given solo, but Grade-3 came in a box?
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained another Grade-3 rare herb gift box.]
Another one?
If he remembered right, this was the first time he’d drawn identical items back-to-back.
At least with cultivation manuals and techniques, there were differences.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained 20 Attribute Points.]
……
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained a Grade-2 rare herb gift box.]
……
Once the 10-draw ended, Xu Mu couldn’t help but marvel. Maybe because of the alchemy skill, he’d gotten tons of rare herbs.
Out of eleven rewards, the guaranteed Cultivation Points totaled only 70, and Attribute Points just 50.
He then focused on the Novice Alchemist title, feeling a flood of knowledge enter his mind.
Basic pill recipes and methods were now second nature to him.
Opening his storage space, he found several gift boxes the size of washbasins.
Inside were various rare herbs.
After inspecting the Grade-2 and Grade-3 boxes, he noticed most could replenish his energy.
A smile crept onto his face as two pill names surfaced in his mind:
Body Tempering Pill and Qi Gathering Pill.
Now, he didn’t need to rely on Heaven’s Mandate energy to elevate those around him to martial artist levels.
Xu Mu stored everything away and initiated the second 10-draw.
The wheel spun again, revealing more rewards.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained 30 Cultivation Points.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained 10 Attribute Points.]
……
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained a Grade-3 rare herb gift box.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained a Grade-2 rare herb gift box.]
"Seriously? Again?"
Xu Mu felt like rare herbs were haunting him today.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve obtained 20 Cultivation Points.]
……
After the draws concluded, Xu Mu shook his head. With so many herbs, he couldn’t just use them on his inner circle.
It’d be a waste not to expand.
And he already had someone in mind.
Combined, the two 10-draws gave him 180 Cultivation Points and 120 Attribute Points, all of which he allocated immediately.
Finally, he checked his updated stats:
Name: Xu Mu
Identity: Villainous Saint Body, HR Manager of Xu Corporation
Realm: Late-stage Gang Qi
Physique: 570
Spirit: 570
Cultivation Points: 360/400
Destiny Power: 177
Xu Mu nodded to himself. He decided to get a good night's sleep—tomorrow would be a busy day. He had plans to elevate those around him.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
