When Liang Yi first joined the Eternal Life Research Institute, she hadn't wanted to drink the poisoned wine. However, it was her master's order, and she didn't dare disobey.
Her master had also told her back then that if she ever ran out of poisoned wine, she could ask him for some.
Her master hadn't lied. There were a few times when her missions failed, resulting in her not earning any poisoned wine.
The addiction flared up right on schedule, bringing a kind of agony she never wanted to experience again in her life.
She went to her master, who gave her a little poisoned wine, finally allowing her to recover.
It was from that moment on that Liang Yi began to harbor thoughts of rebellion. She didn't want to leave her life in someone else's hands forever.
But there was nothing she could do. After extensive investigation, she uncovered a cruel truth.
There was no antidote for the Eternal Life Research Institute's poisoned wine. Once consumed, the addiction could never be cured for the rest of one's life.
If she could be cured of this addiction, she would willingly dedicate herself entirely to Xu Mu.
She didn't want to live in anxiety every single day, where the first thing she did upon waking was calculate how many days were left until her next withdrawal.
"I already know the rare natural treasures and synthetic materials contained within the poisoned wine. I believe that given enough time, I can indeed cure it," Xu Mu said to Liang Yi.
Hearing this, Liang Yi's eyes filled with hope. "Xu Mu! What about the time? Roughly how long will it take you to research a cure?"
Xu Mu naturally understood what Liang Yi meant. If he told her ten or twenty years, she probably wouldn't agree.
Stretching out the timeline was essentially just making empty promises.
Who knew what would happen after such a long time? If he didn't succeed by then, she would have done decades of hard labor for nothing.
"Two years."
Xu Mu held up two fingers. "For these two years, you will work for me. If I haven't succeeded after two years, you can leave."
"Are you taking me for a fool? Will I even be able to leave in two years? Other than you and the Eternal Life Research Institute, who else can brew the poisoned wine?"
Liang Yi looked at Xu Mu. "If you fail, do you expect me to go back to the Eternal Life Research Institute to die?"
"The ingredients I need to brew the poisoned wine will be delivered today. Once I succeed, I'll give you a five-year supply first,"
Xu Mu said to Liang Yi. "Besides, by having you follow me, I'm not asking you to make an enemy of the Eternal Life Research Institute. I need you to continue staying undercover there. If there's any secret information, you can inform me."
Hearing this, Liang Yi asked, "You can successfully brew it today?"
"That's right."
Xu Mu nodded.
"Alright! As long as I confirm that the poisoned wine you brew is correct, I promise to work for you."
Although Liang Yi wasn't very familiar with Xu Mu, he had clearly had the chance to kill her before but chose to let her go.
This proved that he was a decent person.
Xu Mu smiled. To put it bluntly, Zhou Guoqiang from earlier could only get in touch with lower-tier individuals.
But Liang Yi was different; she had access to the core members or experts.
Around past three in the afternoon, Xu Mu received a call from Xu Ningbing.
Xu Ningbing told Xu Mu that the company had already prepared the materials he needed and had dispatched someone to deliver them.
Xu Mu gave a sound of agreement and waited there.
Before long, a Wuling Hongguang minivan stopped in front of the villa, and Xu Mu opened the main gate.
Several employees carried woven bags, piling about a dozen bags of materials in the courtyard.
Xu Mu did a rough inspection and found the quality to be quite good.
Afterwards, he took out the rare natural treasures he had prepared long ago and began brewing the poisoned wine.
He didn't brew much the first time; he just wanted to test it out to see if it would succeed.
He had already memorized the proportions of the medicinal ingredients by heart. With the fastest speed possible, he brewed a washbasin full of the wine.
"Come over and taste it, see if it's right."
Xu Mu called out to Liang Yi beside him.
Liang Yi walked over and looked down to observe it. "This is completely wrong. The Eternal Life Research Institute's wine is pale yellow, but yours is dark yellow, and it has so many impurities."
"What the hell do you know! Theirs has no impurities because it was filtered. Would they dare let you see the residue of these rare natural treasures?"
Xu Mu glanced at Liang Yi.
Liang Yi thought for a moment and felt that Xu Mu's words made sense. So, she picked up a small bowl from the side and scooped a little.
After all, it wasn't time for her addiction to flare up yet.
She drank it in one gulp and instantly felt a spicy, pungent aura fill her entire body.
Even though it smelled terrible, when this aura rushed into her brain, it made her feel exceptionally comfortable.
Liang Yi felt her body go soft, and she collapsed directly onto the grass, trembling continuously.
It took a full dozen seconds before she recovered. "That's right! It's this wine. I feel like it's even more potent than the Eternal Life Research Institute's."
"Now, are you willing to follow me?"
Xu Mu asked.
"I am! I'll work for you for two years. If you can help me break this addiction within these two years, I will follow you for the rest of my life."
Liang Yi said to Xu Mu with a serious expression.
"Good, with your word, I'm relieved."
As Xu Mu spoke, he checked Liang Yi's Devotion Value towards him and found it was 3. For someone who was originally an enemy, this was quite good for now.
"Alright, you just wait here for now. I need to finish brewing the rest of this wine first."
Since he knew how to brew it, he could speed up the process.
...
Dusk.
Xu Mu finished brewing all the wine.
It filled five waist-high sealed water barrels.
Liang Yi was a bit dumbfounded. Her addiction flared up roughly every twenty days.
That meant she had to take a sip every twenty days for relief. Looking at this amount, Xu Mu's supply was almost enough to last her a lifetime.
"Since you're considered one of my own now, here's a gift for you first."
Xu Mu took out two Qi Sea Pills from his person and handed them to Liang Yi.
When Liang Yi saw the pills, she thought she had seen wrongly.
[Affection +5]
"What do you mean by this? I haven't even done any work for you yet, and you're giving me two Qi Sea Pills?"
"Work for me, and you won't be short of treasures in the future."
As Xu Mu spoke, he used a teleportation formation, taking Liang Yi underground with him.
Along the way, he placed the large barrels in the deepest corner. From now on, he only needed to carry a single barrel's worth on him.
Liang Yi then saw Tong Guoguo here.
Tong Guoguo was eating fruit. As for Meng Wanyue and Dai Xingluo, the two were lying on the ground.
"Lady Guoguo."
Liang Yi walked over in disbelief.
"I remember you. You seem to be a captain in the Disciplinary Department. So you're also Xu Mu's person."
Tong Guoguo said with a calm expression.
Dai Xingluo, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly stood up. "Isn't this my defeated opponent? Why are you here?"
"Starting today, I also work for Xu Mu."
Liang Yi glanced indifferently at Dai Xingluo. "Also, last time it was you and that cleaner fighting two against one. In a one-on-one fight, you are no match for me."
"Interesting. Let's test that out right now. We'll decide the victor, and we'll decide who lives and who dies!"
Dai Xingluo drew her longsword.
"Just deciding the victor is enough. Currently, I still need Liang Yi to stay undercover at the Eternal Life Research Institute."
Xu Mu walked out from the depths. "Everyone here is a good sister."
"Who's good sisters with her."
Dai Xingluo snorted coldly. "Even if I take ten thousand steps back, I'd rather be good sisters with Meng Wanyue than be good with her!"
"Why don't I like the sound of that," Meng Wanyue muttered from the side.
Xu Mu was just about to speak when his phone rang. He took it out, glanced at the screen, and saw that it was a call from Yan Baizhi.
He answered it. "Hello."
"Xu Mu, your Xu family is in big trouble. What you did at the Cui family's estate today has already spread all over Jiangnan. I specifically sent someone to look into it, and I heard that several elders of the Demon Sword Sect are already on the move. I believe they will arrive at your house by tonight."
Yan Baizhi's voice came through the phone. "The strength of the Demon Sword Sect is not to be underestimated. You guys were too impulsive!"
"Then let them come. I happen to have a few people here with bad tempers who are itching for a fight."
Xu Mu said with a smile, completely unbothered.
"Do you think I'm joking? Even if you can escape, what about your family?"
Yan Baizhi's tone was grave. "Hurry up and go hide somewhere."
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
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.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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.”
