Qi Yuan smiled faintly. "I don't even have a marriage certificate, let alone a Dao partner."
Hearing this, Jiang Ruhua fell into deep thought, his face soon filling with admiration. "So you keep them on the side! Brilliant, truly brilliant!"
He immediately understood that the fellow Daoist before him had simply never formally bonded with anyone.
After a few dozen breaths, the spirit boat finally began to slow to a halt.
Cultivators poured out from the cabins, men and women wearing various expressions.
They disembarked one after another.
Down below, numerous rabbit carriages had gathered to receive the passengers.
"Until we meet again, fellow Daoist," Qi Yuan said softly.
A broad smile stretched across Jiang Ruhua's face. "Don't forget to invite me to your wedding wine!"
"...Sure," Qi Yuan replied casually.
After all, when traveling abroad, one's persona was entirely self-made, and casual promises cost nothing.
Only then did Jiang Ruhua turn his gaze below. Scanning the crowd, he immediately spotted a bright, captivating young woman in a yellow dress.
A flicker of gratification crossed his eyes, accompanied by a touch of smugness.
*Wretched girl, so you still remembered to come pick up your father?*
He decided that the moment he met his daughter, he would give her the cold shoulder.
Putting on a proud, haughty air, he stood in place, waiting for her to come greet him.
Sure enough, delight washed over her face as she dashed straight toward him.
His expression remained stern, though his heart was practically bursting with joy.
"Eldest Senior Brother, you're finally back!"
Jiang Ruhua's face froze.
The daughter he knew so well walked right past him toward the young cultivator he had just been chatting with, casually and familiarly looping her arm through his. Her eyes held nothing but her Eldest Senior Brother.
A spark of fury flared in his chest.
He stared in disbelief.
His daughter hadn't come to pick him up at all. Even just a few paces away, she hadn't noticed him in the slightest.
And worse yet, that brat!
Thoughts raced through his mind, and realization instantly struck.
The fellow traveler he had met on the road was none other than his daughter's Eldest Senior Brother, Qi Yuan!
No wonder!
*No bloody wonder!*
Jiang Ruhua understood everything—and he was furious!
Docile and lovely?
Gentle and considerate?
Was that Jiang Lingsu?
And... the busty junior sister?!
Flames nearly shot from Jiang Ruhua's eyes.
"Jiang Lingsu!"
He ground his teeth and roared!
If a voice could kill, Qi Yuan would have been hacked into ten thousand pieces already.
Worst of all, back on the flying boat, he had actually taught Qi Yuan how to seduce his own daughter!
At the sound of his roar, the smile on Jiang Lingsu's jade-white face vanished. Her arm still wrapped around Qi Yuan's, she looked entirely flustered, her eyes widening as she stared at Jiang Ruhua. "Dad?"
"You still remember I'm your father?!" Jiang Ruhua glared at Jiang Lingsu, his eyes spitting fire at her arm locked around Qi Yuan's.
Qi Yuan paused, taken aback, and could not help asking, "This sleazy cultivator... is your dad?"
Jiang Lingsu froze.
Jiang Ruhua froze as well.
Then Qi Yuan added, "Just now on the boat, this guy was advising me that I ought to cook the raw rice with my busty junior sister to make it a fait accompli."
A crimson blush instantly crept up to Jiang Lingsu's ears, and the corners of her eyes flushed like rouge, radiating an exquisite charm.
"You're talking absolute nonsense!" Jiang Ruhua erupted in fury.
He had never imagined that the young fellow Daoist would turn out to be his daughter's Eldest Senior Brother.
"Not only that, he even asked me how to take multiple wives," Qi Yuan said, looking at Jiang Lingsu with a face full of pity. "Junior Sister, you're about to get a few stepmothers!"
At that moment, every ounce of rage on Jiang Ruhua's face vanished without a trace.
Jiang Lingsu ground her teeth. "I am telling Mother about this!"
"Don't!" Jiang Ruhua was genuinely terrified!
Jiang Lingsu's mother was not arrogant or overbearing in the slightest; she was exceptionally gentle and sweet.
However... she loved to cry.
If she found out about this, she would weep before him for ten whole years! How could he possibly endure that?!
"This isn't over!" Realizing she had seized Jiang Ruhua's weakness, Jiang Lingsu let out a sigh of relief and playfully stuck out her tongue.
Otherwise, running into her father under such circumstances would have been utterly mortifying.
...
About half an hour passed.
Jiang Ruhua felt anxious yet utterly helpless.
He had never envisioned meeting his daughter in such a manner.
Nor had he anticipated that the stranger he struck up a casual conversation with along the way would be her Eldest Senior Brother.
Jiang Ruhua now eyed Qi Yuan with a deeply resentful gaze.
After all, having thoroughly disgraced himself before Qi Yuan, he had lost every shred of his former dignity.
Above all, his grand strategy of advising Qi Yuan to "cook the raw rice" left him choking with frustration.
"Fellow Daoist, don't take that 'cooked rice' business to heart! I don't fall for that nonsense!" Jiang Ruhua blurted out the moment Jiang Lingsu stepped away.
Qi Yuan merely smiled. "You've misunderstood, fellow Daoist. My relationship with Junior Sister is completely innocent.
"Everything on the Divine Flower Society's forum was purely fictional, and I... have no senior sister.
"As for the Sect Master's daughter, she is Kang Fulu's Dao partner and has nothing to do with me whatsoever."
Had Qi Yuan kept quiet, it would have been fine, but his explanation only deepened Jiang Ruhua's misunderstanding.
*This guy... is into married women too!*
Back on the flying boat, when he didn't know the young man was Qi Yuan, he might have called him a kindred spirit.
Now, he could only call him morally bankrupt!
"Heh, sure, I totally believe you," Jiang Ruhua scoffed coldly.
Qi Yuan shrugged, feeling quite helpless.
Seeing Qi Yuan's innocent expression, Jiang Ruhua felt as though he were looking at his younger self.
He suddenly recalled back then, when he brought his junior sister to meet his father-in-law, only to be thrashed within an inch of his life.
Glaring at Qi Yuan, he could not resist saying, "Hmph, aren't you Great Shang's number one Divine Infant? This old man might as well challenge Great Shang's number one Divine Infant to a match!"
Rather than a challenge, it was an excuse to give Qi Yuan a thorough beating.
Having suffered beatings and endured the rain in his youth, he naturally had no desire to let Qi Yuan carry an umbrella.
Besides, he was a Divine Infant cultivator from the Eastern Lands. While Qi Yuan wasn't an old fogey and was still young, he hailed from Great Shang; his strength would surely lag far behind.
"I have always respected the elderly and cared for the young. I never bully old men," Qi Yuan refused decisively, before asking with an expectant look, "How about letting Junior Sister fight in your place instead?"
Hearing that, Jiang Ruhua nearly coughed up blood.
This Qi Yuan's skin was far thicker than his own.
In the days that followed, Seven Colors Peak gained an additional resident as Jiang Ruhua took up lodging on the mountain.
As usual, Qi Yuan stayed alone in his room, adapting cultivation arts.
However, due to the Divine Flower Society and the Origin God Sharing Society, his seclusion was far from quiet.
From time to time, Shen Wushen would visit Seven Colors Peak.
Occasionally, Purple Mansion cultivators from the Blood-Robed Alliance would come as well.
At times, even the Yin Gods who had subsequently pledged allegiance to the Origin God Sharing Society would travel to Seven Colors Peak to seek an audience with Qi Yuan.
Ever since the divine art was announced, more and more people came seeking audiences.
Sitting inside his concrete flat, Qi Yuan wore a profound expression.
"Adding the cultivation arts Shen Wushen delivered this time, I now have six divine arts and over two thousand Heavenly arts... Sure enough, Pinduoduo is a massive success in the Canglan Realm as well."
Qi Yuan felt quite thrilled.
Going out to exterminate sects in search of white moonlight could never compare to this.
Just lounging at home brought a relentless stream of cultivation arts straight to his doorstep.
Now, he could truly claim to have compiled the martial methods of the entire world.
He even had countless mortal martial arts manuals.
"These arts will be more than enough to last a very long time."
Qi Yuan inspected his inner condition.
Then he looked at the game jade slip, a glint flashing in his eyes.
"The game has finally finished loading.
"Still... what was the deal with me dying?"
His in-game avatar, formed from the Innate Seed, had inexplicably died.
This puzzled Qi Yuan greatly.
"When I enter the game now... what will my state be? A skeleton?"
He was curious.
He had already instructed everyone beforehand that he would be entering secluded cultivation for a period.
The Divine Flower Society, the Origin God Sharing Society, and even the Blood-Robed Alliance were to carry on as usual.
He had mentioned this to Jiang Lingsu as well.
"Enter game!"
...
Late night fell.
Amidst the grave-strewn hills, moonlight filtered through the forest canopy, casting a pattern on the ground that resembled a bird.
Mottled shadows fell across a gravestone ahead, lending the scene an unusually bleak and eerie chill.
Weeds grew thick around the stone tablet. A black beetle was gnawing on a grass stem when a centipede-like creature abruptly lunged and crushed it in its jaws.
*Crunch!*
A heavy footstep landed, squashing the centipede-like creature flat.
"Hurry, seal off Lost Path Mountain! No unauthorized personnel are permitted inside!" ordered a middle-aged man wearing a military cap.
His face was sharply chiseled and his build imposing, harboring immense latent power.
Though his expression was resolute, a faint trace of bewilderment about the future flickered within his eyes.
More and more soldiers appeared—hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands.
Armored vehicles multiplied on the ground while fighter jets circled overhead in the sky.
For the first time, this desolate Lost Path Mountain saw so many people.
Yet they had not come to pay respects or sweep graves.
Muttered whispers drifted among the soldiers from time to time.
"Is it all real?"
"Damn it, it's way too absurd!"
"Is God playing a practical joke on us?"
"The outside world is a total mess right now—it's practically the apocalypse!"
"Old Wang said that just moments ago, no fewer than a hundred people tried to breach the checkpoints. Every last one was shot dead!"
"Hmph, definitely lackeys of those capitalists!"
Li Shenkong's combat boots crunched against the dry weeds.
The soldiers' banter reached his ears, and a complex, brooding look filled his eyes.
"A world reset?"
"Is this a joke played by the Creator?"
"Are you kidding me? This is just..."
"If it's true..."
Countless thoughts crossed his mind.
Just one day ago, every human on Arch Star—whether sleeping, working, or pouring concrete on a construction site—had heard a cold, emotionless voice resonate inside their minds:
*"The world will reset in twenty-four hours. A total of ninety-nine individuals, including An Zhentian, Ashuci... Qi Yuan... and Zheng Xi, will return to ten years ago with their memories intact."*
Indeed, that voice had echoed in everyone's head.
Even the deaf had heard the message.
Arch Star had instantly fallen into utter pandemonium.
The announcement was simply too terrifying.
The world was going to reset?
People would be reborn ten years in the past with their memories?
This triggered massive chaos across every nation on Arch Star.
Some paid it no heed, treating it as nonsense.
Others went completely mad. If the world was about to reset... then couldn't they recklessly indulge in everything they had previously never dared or had always wanted to do?
Order collapsed in an instant.
Murder, assault, looting sprees, vandalism, arson... engulfed what had once been a civilized society.
Meanwhile, the ninety-nine individuals slated for rebirth were swiftly placed under the total control of their respective national authorities.
Within Qinyuan Kingdom, there were thirty-five such individuals.
One of them was right here on Lost Path Mountain.
These thirty-five people were carved up like fattened pigs among the great families of the Seven Martial Stars.
After all, if a family could control someone reborn with their memories, what immense opportunity would that bring?
It could very well reshape the balance of power across Qinyuan Kingdom and alter the entire geopolitical landscape of Arch Star.
Of course, it was also possible that the voice had been an elaborate hoax.
Perhaps the world would not reset, and no one would return to ten years ago with memories intact.
Even so, Li Shenkong had received orders from above to encircle Lost Path Mountain.
According to their investigation, one of the prospective "reborn" was here.
Only, this particular reborn individual was rather special.
"Reporting, sir! The Gongyi family has arrived."
A voice broke the silence.
Li Shenkong's expression turned grave at once.
Qinyuan Kingdom was ruled jointly by the imperial family and the Seven Martial Stars.
Among the Seven Martial Stars were twenty-one powerful families.
These twenty-one families constituted the true core of power in Qinyuan Kingdom.
Although the Gongyi family had declined to the point where even its seat among the Seven Martial Stars was precarious, it remained one of the Seven Martial Stars nonetheless.
At the makeshift airfield, five aircraft touched down.
A group of over twenty people hurried forward, urgency etched across their faces.
Li Shenkong rushed over to greet them. "Elder Cai!"
Gongyi Cai glanced at Li Shenkong and nodded, his face laden with deep fatigue. "How is it?"
"We have located the target's grave, but have not yet excavated," Li Shenkong reported truthfully.
Hearing his response, the men and women behind Gongyi Cai looked thoroughly indignant.
If the message everyone had heard proved true, befriending a reborn individual in advance and forging an agreement would be an extraordinary boon for their family.
Yet the reborn individual allotted to them... was a dead man!
How were they supposed to play this game?
Everyone present wore grim expressions.
Fortunately, the Gongyi family still commanded enough prestige to share another reborn individual with other families in addition to this dead man.
Consequently, the group sent to Lost Path Mountain represented only a marginal, disregarded branch of the Gongyi family.
"Come, take me to see it!" Gongyi Cai said in a heavy voice.
No matter what, they had to see the person's remains first.
The tasks assigned by the family still had to be carried out.
Even if they could not reach an agreement in person, they would place the contract inside the grave.
What if the person in the grave was reborn and brought the contract back with him?
Even if the probability was zero, they had to try.
Before long, the party of over twenty arrived at a desolate grave.
The gravestone appeared neglected for years, choked with overgrown weeds.
Gongyi Cai looked at it, accepted a bouquet of flowers, and placed it before the grave.
The other members of the Gongyi family followed suit, presenting flowers to the mound.
On this extraordinary day, the bleak, forgotten grave received a multitude of blossoms.
At that moment, a man resembling a secretary holding a stack of documents began to read aloud slowly:
"Name: Qi Yuan. Born... Died nine years ago at the age of nineteen.
"Cause of death... cerebral hemorrhage."
Chapter 277