As Wang Shiqiao spoke, she pulled out her phone.
"Look for yourselves and see how disgusting this guy is. I reported him, and the platform still hasn't done anything about it. Someone like this actually has a horde of followers!"
Wang Shiqiao held up her phone, showing the homepage of the person she had been arguing with to everyone present.
"Just look... Isn't this sickening? It's completely inhumane!" Wang Shiqiao's voice shook with rage.
The others looked at the video, their expressions shifting through various shades of shock and disgust. A few even gagged, clearly feeling visceral revulsion at what was shown.
Arch Star had never known a truly peaceful era. Wars broke out at every moment, across every corner of the globe. It was only within the borders of the Qinyuan Kingdom that life remained relatively peaceful.
These pampered rich kids were physically sickened by the sights in the video.
On the screen, a soldier from the Guiran Kingdom stormed into a civilian's single-story home. What happened in between was unrecorded. The end of the video showed a row of corpses: two elderly people, three young adults, and two small children.
The clothes of this family of seven were torn to shreds, stained with dried blood, showing what horrors and humiliations they had suffered beforehand.
Across the bottom of the video ran a line of text:
*Disrespecting the Lord is the greatest of evils!*
The wealthy youths present had barely ever lifted a finger in their lives. Seeing such brutality, it was hard not to feel fury boiling inside them.
"What an absolute bastard!"
"Don't insult bastards!"
"Dammit, what is the King even doing? If I were him, I'd have sent troops to wipe out the Guiran Kingdom long ago! A trash nation like that—a single combined-arms regiment would steamroll them!"
The Qinyuan Kingdom's combined-arms regiments were somewhat similar to the combined-arms brigades of a certain superpower on Blue Star from Qi Yuan's past life. Beyond modern military formations, the Qinyuan Kingdom's regiments also incorporated gene warriors and mechanized divisions. In truth, a single combined-arms regiment really could crush the Wugui Kingdom completely.
"The Guwu Kingdom is backing Wugui. How could we just enter the fray directly?"
"Both Wugui and Guwu are deeply tangled up with Can Star..." As one of the students brought this up, fear crept into his eyes.
Every citizen of Qinyuan who had received an education had studied that brutal chapter of history. Can Star had backed several nations and ignited a world war, one fought with devastating cruelty.
"In my opinion, we should just annihilate the Wugui Kingdom! So what if we go to war with Guwu? Their military strength is fifty-fifty against ours—who knows who would actually come out on top!"
"A war might actually be good. Our society is too rigid! People like us don't have a prayer of moving up the social ladder!"
"We'd better hope it doesn't happen. In a war, the ones at the bottom suffer the most, and people like us would probably just be slaughtered like fattened pigs!"
The students argued back and forth, divided over whether war should break out.
"What about you, Qi Yuan? Do you want a war?" Wang Shiqiao looked over at him.
"Hmm... It's better if there's no war. If a war starts, the Martial Arts Tournament will be canceled, and then how am I supposed to win the championship?"
If the Qinyuan Kingdom entered wartime status, events like the Martial Arts Tournament would definitely be suspended. Qi Yuan's main quest was to become the Myriad Dao Martial God, so participating in the tournament was a must.
"You're still hung up on that championship?" Wang Shiqiao rolled her eyes at him. "Train for another seven or eight years before you bring that up!"
To be fair, everyone had seen Qi Yuan's hard work. Given a few years to build a foundation, he might genuinely have a shot at making the tournament finals. A championship, of course, was an exaggeration.
"The international situation is looking grimmer by the day," a burly male student chimed in. "I've got a feeling a massive war really might break out within a few years. So Qi Yuan's tournament will probably be canceled long before he can win it."
Whether the Martial Arts Tournament was canceled made no difference to him; he didn't rely on it to make a living.
"Qi Yuan, don't you have your driver girlfriend? Why are you still thinking about making money off the Martial Arts Tournament? If she got you onto some romance variety show, with your looks, you'd blow up instantly! Why take the long way around with martial arts?" Xing Yu smiled brightly, teasing him openly.
The news that the celebrity Wu Qi was driving Qi Yuan to and from the dojo had caused quite a stir among the students. Once they learned that Qi Yuan and Wu Qi had been high school classmates and that Wu Qi was his upperclassman, these idle rich kids quickly concocted a melodramatic soap opera romance.
Clearly, they were childhood sweethearts. After striking it rich, Wu Qi hadn't forgotten her little boyfriend, and Qi Yuan naturally played the role of the kept man.
Whenever asked, Qi Yuan insisted that he and Wu Qi were entirely aboveboard—she was merely his driver. The students, naturally, didn't believe a word of it. What big star would willingly work as a personal chauffeur for an ordinary guy, picking him up and dropping him off every single day?
From then on, Qi Yuan earned the nickname "Driver Bro," and Wu Qi became his "Driver Girlfriend."
Wang Shiqiao teased him as well. "Your driver girlfriend is probably waiting downstairs for you right now."
Dusk was approaching, and the dojo's daily training session was coming to an end. It was time for Qi Yuan and the others to head home.
***
Meanwhile, on the street outside the dojo, Wu Qi stood on the sidewalk answering a phone call, a frown creasing her brow.
"My dear lady, that Qi Yuan is almost certainly a con artist! He swindled Viscount Carnival! In reality, what kind of powerful elite is he? You've been acting like his servant for days on end, neglecting your work—what have you actually gained?"
Her manager's shrill voice grated through the receiver.
Over the past few days, the manager had run a brief background check on Qi Yuan. What they turned up was totally ordinary: he was the orphan of a martyr, with a history of mental illness. As for his connection to Viscount Carnival, there appeared to have been some sort of transaction. According to what the manager had quietly dug up, Qi Yuan was a fraud who had tricked Viscount Carnival with some bizarre nonsense about "immortal arts."
Wu Qi gripped her phone, irritation flaring at the ceaseless nagging. Thinking of Qi Yuan, she said in a heavy voice, "He's not a con artist. He's special."
Whenever she was around Qi Yuan, she could feel how unique he was—he was completely different from everyone else. Even the other high-ranking elites she had met didn't exude a fraction of the pressure he gave off.
"Oh, he's special, all right. What lunatic isn't special?" The manager's voice was laced with mockery.
"If you keep talking like that, there's no need for us to continue working together," Wu Qi said, her tone hardening. She and her manager were partners, not master and servant.
Hearing her sharp tone, the manager choked on her words. After a long pause, she said, "Clinging to him like this... won't get you anywhere. If you really want to latch onto him and charm alone isn't cutting it, you can always drug him. He's a man anyway—it's not like he loses out on something like that, right?"
"What era do you think we're living in? You dinosaur." Seeing that the manager had softened her stance, Wu Qi decided not to escalate the tension further.
"Right, Xiao Qi, Young Master Fang from the Fangzheng Group wants to meet you. He invited you to a gathering. Going aboard that cruise ship last time caught their circle's attention." The manager sounded slightly nervous. "I heard Young Master Fang and Viscount Carnival don't get along too well."
"I'm not going." Wu Qi refused flatly.
It was clearly the dirty politics of the upper crust. Since she had chosen to align herself with Qi Yuan, she had no intention of looking for another master. Even if she was going to be a lapdog, she ought to pick a handsome master, wouldn't she?
A few minutes later, a smile broke across Wu Qi's face.
The rear door opened, and Qi Yuan slid into the back seat.
"Mr. Qi, would you like to eat out before heading back today? My treat!" Remembering her manager's advice, Wu Qi resolved to take the initiative and create opportunities to draw closer to him.
"No thanks. The robot at home knows how to cook." Qi Yuan declined without a second thought.
Eating out was far too expensive. He only had a hundred million; he had to spend it conservatively. Times were unsettled, and war could break out at any moment. Once war started, commodity prices would skyrocket.
"Food cooked by robots is usually hard to swallow. How could it compare to... a professional chef?" Wu Qi couldn't help saying.
Generally speaking, robot-cooked meals were not only simplistic, but also relied on pre-packaged meal kits. Wu Qi had eaten plenty of them in the past, and once she became wealthy, she had sworn off robot cooking entirely.
"My Zero-One is different. Its cooking is delicious." A flicker of pride showed in Qi Yuan's eyes at the mention of Zero-One.
Over the past month, besides cultivating both the martial path and the immortal path, he had been upgrading the robot at home. He had infused advanced puppetry into Zero-One's chassis. Combining modern technology with advanced puppetry meant Zero-One was no longer an ordinary machine.
The only regret was that Qi Yuan's current strength was too low to awaken Zero-One's spiritual intelligence directly. Otherwise, Zero-One would already have developed self-awareness, akin to an artifact spirit.
Even without a direct awakening, Zero-One's spirituality and consciousness were gradually growing over time. As for how long that would take, Qi Yuan had no idea. Speeding up the process would actually be simple: he could just walk it like he walked the kitchen cleaver back on Seven Colors Peak. If he walked the robot like a pet for several dozen laps, spiritual intelligence would definitely emerge, making it even smarter than that cleaver.
As it stood, Zero-One was already an anomaly. Forget about cooking—it could even handle simple pill refinement. Qi Yuan had toyed with the idea of opening a factory to industrialize and streamline pill production. Of course, it was just a passing thought.
"A robot's cooking can actually taste good?" Wu Qi said in surprise as she steered the car. "How about I come over and try some?"
"Don't try to freeload!" Qi Yuan refused.
Late at night, an isolated man and woman under one roof would look terrible. The only thing he coveted was the blood inside her, not her body.
Remembering something, Qi Yuan adopted a solemn expression. "Wu Qi, you've been driving me for a while now. Should we talk business?"
Hearing his solemn tone, Wu Qi's heart skipped a beat. She gave a cautious nod, her chest swelling with anticipation.
Could it be that her sincerity had finally moved Mr. Qi?
"Since I ride in your car every day, could you give me a discount?"
Qi Yuan spoke with earnest sincerity, his voice carrying a slight plead.
As the saying went, buy in bulk at the store, and the merchant gives a discount. Rent a hotel room for a month straight, and the daily rate drops significantly. Wu Qi had been driving him every day for over a month—shouldn't the per-trip rate come down a bit?
Wu Qi froze, completely caught off guard. Her smile looked more painful than weeping. "Sure."
"In that case, how about twenty-five yuan per trip?"
"Sure." Wu Qi nodded, a million curses stampeding through her mind. Naturally, she didn't dare voice any objection aloud.
Doubt flickered in her heart. Could her persistence... have been a mistake all along? But having committed this long, the sunk cost was far too high. Asking her to give up now was out of the question.
The car drove swiftly, soon arriving at Qi Yuan's residential complex.
Qi Yuan stepped out of the vehicle and pulled out twenty-five yuan, preparing to hand it to Wu Qi. Then, struck by a thought, he gave a slight flick of his hand.
A sheet of joss paper transformed into the shape of a little bird.
"Consider this interest for keeping your blood stored in your body."
The little bird was something he had folded casually, yet it contained a measure of power—such as protection, or tracking.
The reason he gave Wu Qi the paper-money bird was that as his strength grew, he had become increasingly curious about her blood. Leaving her hanging without drawing her blood, keeping it stored inside her for so long, made Qi Yuan feel a bit embarrassed.
Wu Qi accepted the paper bird, surprise and delight shining in her eyes. "Your skills are incredible! How did you fold this? Can you teach me?"
She had seen with her own eyes that it took him less than twenty seconds to shape the paper-money bird. It was completely unlike traditional paper cranes or other origami—it looked startlingly lifelike.
"You won't be able to learn it. If you want to fold this, you have to cultivate immortality," Qi Yuan said with his usual honesty. "Carnival gave me ninety million before I was willing to teach him immortal cultivation."
"Immortal cultivation?" Wu Qi's eyes went wide, baffled.
Did immortal cultivation really exist in this world?
Her manager had claimed that Qi Yuan's deal with Viscount Carnival involved immortal cultivation, something she hadn't believed for a second. But hearing it directly from Qi Yuan left her rooted to the spot in shock and bewilderment.
By the time she snapped out of it, Qi Yuan had already vanished from sight.
She lingered on the street, dazed.
*Was it a joke... or the truth?*
If it were true, wouldn't the worldview she had held for all these years come crashing down?
Clutching the paper-money bird tightly, countless thoughts flashed through her mind.
If what Mr. Qi said was true... that would be wonderful.
***
"I'm done for! I'm stuck in a manhole!"
Inside the Jun'an Community, Xie Xinsu let out a pitiful wail.
Right now, sheer panic consumed her.
Her head was wedged inside a sewer opening, where total darkness reigned alongside a nauseating, sour stench. Her lower body and rear end remained stuck on the outside of the cover. She looked like an upside-down green onion, an utterly pathetic sight.
Her entire body looked scruffy and battered, smeared with leftover food scraps.
*I'm finished! What if some guy comes by from behind? What do I do?*
The thought sent a jolt of terror through her. In her current state, she had no power to resist. If she ran into some creep...
The very thought was horrifying.
*Wait, no—I'm a cat right now! What if I run into a male cat in heat?!*
Rage and indignation surged through Xie Xinsu. Compared to a tomcat, she would honestly prefer a man.
*Boohoo... I'm an esteemed fairy of the Xuantian Sect, carrying the grand duty of reviving our sect! How can my luck be this rotten? After three hard years undercover on Can Star gathering classified intelligence, the world rebooted and threw me ten years into the past!*
*Being sent ten years into the past was bad enough, but turning into a cat?!*
*Turning into a cat was bad enough, but my brain isn't even working properly anymore!*
*And now... I'm stuck here!*
Xie Xinsu's grievances ran too deep for words.
When other people experienced a world reboot, they returned to their original timeline. But her? She had turned into a cat.
Her sect members must be frantic with worry after discovering she was missing.
*Meow! Meow! Meow!*
Xie Xinsu let out pitiful cries.
Her strength dwindled by the second, her consciousness fading into a blur.
*Someone come save this fairy! This fairy will teach you... immortal cultivation methods, the art of longevity!*
Clinging to that desperate thought, she finally slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 295