Liu Xiu: There's Always Someone Out to Harm the Emperor!

Inside the Yizhuang. *Which wicked peasant wants to harm this emperor?* The moment Liu Xiu stepped through the main gates of the Yizhuang, the thought crossed his mind unbidden. In his system settings, a favorability rating below 50 indicated hostility, while anything below 20 signaled murderous intent. A favorability of absolute zero was a first for him. What, was this person from Chengdu or something?! Even that crowd of cultivators who had projected their Thousand-Li Dharma Eyes to spectate the battle earlier had held at least a thirty favorability toward him. *Still, no name is displayed... A cultivator who arrived a step too late? Surely it can't actually be that feng shui master, can it? What a pity, not knowing his name!* Liu Xiu felt a pang of regret. When all was said and done, his favorability system was merely a Daoist version he had jerry-rigged using Daoist techniques. It lacked the overpowered perks of a true system-genre novel, where one could directly view the other party's name and full profile. To know their name, Liu Xiu either had to know it beforehand or have his narrator cheat calculate it automatically. Otherwise, just like the string of notifications that had popped up when the cultivators spectated via the Thousand-Li Dharma Eye earlier, names simply wouldn't show. *The battle is already over, and you suddenly pop out with a favorability of zero. Feng shui master, aren't you a bit late to the party...?* To be frank, Liu Xiu doubted it was the feng shui master. If it were, the man had exercised inhuman patience. Twenty whole years had passed! Rather than that unseen feng shui master from *Mr. Vampire*, he was more inclined to believe this zero favorability belonged to Vice Minister Zha's lackeys plotting against him. *Don't tell me that feng shui master couldn't stomach the way he was coerced and bribed back then, which bottlenecked his cultivation breakthrough, so he set this whole trap for Ren Fa's family?* Liu Xiu mused subconsciously. For some reason, he felt it was far more plausible that the rats under Vice Minister Zha were scheming in the shadows. *Just you wait. The first chance I get, I'll go dig up your master's grave!* The thought flashed past in an instant. Plotting to find an opportunity to moonshine as a grave-robber, Liu Xiu followed Four-Eyed Daoist and Wencai into the ritual room. Four-Eyed Daoist wasted no breath. Picking up the ritual basin from the table, he cast the Thousand-Li Voice Transmission to contact Ninth Uncle remotely. *The number you have dialed is currently out of the service area...* Liu Xiu provided silent internal dubbing for Ninth Uncle's unanswered line. The caster, Four-Eyed Daoist, curled his lip and recast the Thousand-Li Voice Transmission. This time, however, he was not calling Ninth Uncle, but Daoist One-Eyebrow, who resided in Jiuquan Town eighty li away from Ren Family Town. It was business after all; if they could take it, they should, and if not, only then would they turn it down! Liu Xiu noticed Four-Eyed Daoist's expression turn remarkably stern—or rather, cold—which stirred his curiosity. *Is there bad blood between Uncle Simu and Daoist One-Eyebrow?* Though the thought crossed his mind, Liu Xiu kept quiet. Just as he watched the unanswering transmission and prepared to do another mental voiceover, the water screen in the ritual basin rose and expanded. Yet the face that appeared within was not Daoist One-Eyebrow, but Shi Jian. Well then, Daoist One-Eyebrow had also gone up the mountain! "Something the matter?" The instant Shi Jian saw Four-Eyed Daoist, his brows furrowed. Four-Eyed Daoist opened his mouth to speak, but Liu Xiu stepped forward first. "Master!" "Mm." A stiff, unnatural smile immediately broke across Shi Jian's usually stern, poker-faced visage. Four-Eyed Daoist poked his head forward in bewilderment. Greeting his eyes was once again that stern, unsmiling old face! Four-Eyed Daoist withdrew his head in silence. The moment Liu Xiu's face took his place, Shi Jian's face relaxed back into that stiff smile. *Am I really that repulsive?* Annoyed, Four-Eyed Daoist poked his head in again. Alas, Shi Jian's brow furrowed the second he caught sight of him. Watching from the side, Wencai felt an itch to try. In the end, he and Four-Eyed Daoist both cried out in agony as arcs of searing white electricity reached across the water screen, blasting the two of them right out the door of the ritual room. "Uh..." Looking at the two who had brought suffering upon themselves, Liu Xiu decided against mentioning the zero favorability. He hadn't sensed any imminent danger anyway. Instead, he simply explained Master Ren's situation to Shi Jian. Truth be told, he felt asking was pointless. Shi Jian would never let Ninth Uncle leave! "Turn it down. Your Second Martial Uncle has no time right now!" Shi Jian spoke flatly as the view in the water screen shifted. What came into Liu Xiu's sight was a massive hall. Inside, a flock of Daoists of all ages sat at aged desks, scratching their heads in agony as they did a silent dictation of English letters. Not only was Daoist Zhaixing among them, but Ninth Uncle was seated there as well, biting the end of his writing brush with a completely dazed expression. Beside Daoist Zhaixing and Ninth Uncle, Liu Xiu spotted a man whose features were about seventy percent similar to Ninth Uncle's. The space around this man was entirely empty, making him look rather unpopular. That was probably Daoist One-Eyebrow! *So, One-Eyebrow and Four-Eyed have a grudge?* As Liu Xiu pondered, he caught sight of Mamadi from the movie *Musical Vampire*, who also sat in a wide swath of empty space. However, that empty space was mostly due to Mamadi's terrible hygiene. In fact, the man was currently engaged in a rather disgusting habit. "That is your Martial Uncle One-Eyebrow!" Shi Jian pointed at the Daoist bearing a seventy percent resemblance to Ninth Uncle and spoke flatly. Even though Shi Jian spoke, most of the Daoist students in the hall didn't dare look up, acting as though they neither heard nor saw anything. Or rather, they didn't dare look up! Only a handful of visibly senior Daoists seemed to notice Liu Xiu's gaze and looked up, offering him smiles that looked thoroughly forced. "Uh, right, right..." *Looks like you're all having a wonderfully painful time studying!* Feeling inexplicably amused, Liu Xiu nodded with a smile. Seeing Liu Xiu gloating, Shi Jian rolled his eyes, tossed out a curt reminder to cultivate diligently, and dispersed the water screen of the Thousand-Li Voice Transmission. "Well then, we'll just have to turn down this business. Ah Xiu, you and Wencai go to the Western restaurant together. I won't be going..." Having heard everything from the doorway, Four-Eyed Daoist spoke up. He had Liu Xiu accompany Wencai to decline the business because he felt the matter was tied to Liu Xiu; after all, Ninth Uncle had been dragged back to the Maoshan Main Altar by Shi Jian. Liu Xiu nodded. Curiously, his intuition suddenly told him that he might still end up taking on Ren Fa's commission. "All right, I'll go with you in a bit!" Liu Xiu told Wencai. Wencai nodded hastily. "Great, great..." "Martial Uncle, we'll be on our way then." Liu Xiu took his leave from Four-Eyed Daoist. Since the appointment was for tea rather than a meal, it was best to arrive early. Seeing Four-Eyed Daoist nod, Liu Xiu led Wencai out of the ritual room. Just as he wondered where Shi Shaojian had run off to, he saw Shi Shaojian staggering out of the mortuary—his face literally blackened with soot, sporting an avant-garde hairdo. "..." *Why did you have to go provoke Master for no good reason?!* Knowing Shi Shaojian had undoubtedly been electrocuted by Shi Jian yet again, Liu Xiu sighed inwardly. Seeing his senior brother struggling to walk straight, he hurried over to support him. "Senior Brother, wash your face first. Uh... there's no need to rush your cultivation of the thunder arts!" "Mm..." *Junior Brother is the best after all!* *Old bastard, just you wait!* *Once my Hegemon Body fully awakens...* Shi Shaojian seethed with inward fury. After glaring at Wencai, who was watching him with undisguised schadenfreude, he let Liu Xiu support him to the well to draw water and wash his face. Once he finished washing up, Shi Shaojian regained his ability to move normally. Liu Xiu gave him an odd look, thinking the same thing as before: His senior brother was getting more and more resistant to electricity! *Could it be that he really possesses a Hegemon Body?* Watching Shi Shaojian recover so quickly, Liu Xiu couldn't help wondering. Wencai, lacking such complex thoughts, urged them along: "Junior Brother, let's go! Master Ren must be getting impatient!" "Master Ren?" Shi Shaojian raised an eyebrow. Upon learning that the two were heading out for foreign tea, he declared on the spot that he was coming along too. As for the fact that Liu Xiu and Wencai were going there to decline the commission, he dismissed it entirely. As far as he was concerned, Liu Xiu would handle it. Liu Xiu didn't object to Shi Shaojian tagging along. Worst case, he could simply get a separate table for him later. And so, the trio set off from the Yizhuang toward the Western restaurant on the north side of Ren Family Town. Four-Eyed Daoist, left behind in the Yizhuang kitchen to brew his own medicine, scratched his head in confusion. "Strange. I'm clearly the patient here, so why have I been the one brewing my own medicine for the past two days...?" Having already walked a hundred meters from the Yizhuang, Liu Xiu had no idea of this complaint. At that moment, he was popping cinnabar as he walked. "Uh... is that cinnabar?" Wencai gave the label on Liu Xiu's bottle a bizarre look and asked tentatively. Liu Xiu washed it down with water and nodded. "Yep!" "Can you actually eat cinnabar?" "I can. You can't." "???" Wencai froze, still at a loss as to why Liu Xiu would eat cinnabar. Liu Xiu chuckled. "Can't be helped. Earlier, Brother Wencai, you said I didn't look human. I don't want to terrify the townsfolk!" *...Strange. Why do I feel like Master never even left?!* Watching Liu Xiu's beaming smile, Wencai felt as if the youth's demeanor was overlapping with Ninth Uncle's. A twinge of dread made him instinctively take a step back. Then he noticed the pale, sickly tint of Liu Xiu's face flush with a bit of healthy color. It no longer looked like the white of a corpse! Paired with his shoulder-length white hair and cyan Daoist robes, he truly carried the air of an immortal transcendent. *Should I cultivate an immortal aspect too?* Seeing Liu Xiu's transcendent bearing, Shi Shaojian couldn't help thinking about it, while casting a frown in Wencai's direction. However, he suddenly felt the most pressing matter was taking a bath and washing his clothes. Sensing that his garments smelled somewhat funky after the past couple of days of travel, he knit his brows. Then he leaned in curiously and sniffed Liu Xiu. How odd—why didn't his junior brother smell at all? "Senior Brother, after we finish morning tea, I'll buy you a new set of clothes. You've been wearing that outfit for days!" Noticing his behavior, Liu Xiu spoke up, quietly taking half a step back. Nothing personal—he was just a little unnerved. "Mm..." Once again, his junior brother was truly a good brother! *And old bastard, just you wait!!* Shi Shaojian clenched his fists tightly. In this moment, he no longer cared for brothels or sing-song houses; he genuinely wanted to track down a set of neutral and live wires to cultivate his thunder arts. Once his Hegemon Body fully awakened, he would make that old bastard regret everything!! Shi Shaojian's suddenly darkening expression spooked Wencai into putting some distance between them. He was beginning to feel that bringing these two along to turn down the business was a grave mistake. As luck would have it, thirty minutes later, upon arriving at the Western restaurant, Liu Xiu had the exact same thought. And so, for that matter, did Shi Shaojian. Facing the waiter's greeting, Wencai delivered his classic line just as he always did: "What, Ren Fa didn't reserve a table for us?" Wencai's attitude was so arrogant that even Shi Shaojian couldn't help scowling, thinking to himself that Lin Fengjiao truly had no idea how to educate his disciples. The waiter paused, then hurried to say, "Oh, so you're Master Ren's guests! Upstairs, please, right upstairs—" As he spoke, he quickly gestured respectfully toward Liu Xiu. It wasn't that he was a cultivator who could gauge Liu Xiu's strength; rather, Liu Xiu, clad in Daoist robes with snow-white hair and a youthful face, looked extraordinarily capable—clearly an expert of high standing! "..." ×2 *No discerning eye whatsoever!* ×2 Shi Shaojian and Wencai, who had just stepped forward, glared at the waiter with darkened faces. Liu Xiu suddenly felt that letting Shi Shaojian tag along had also been a blunder, so he chuckled and gestured. "Senior Brothers, after you!" "Mm!" ×2 "???" *So you're not the leader after all?!* The waiter blinked. He then watched as the second-most handsome of the three bumped the ugliest one aside and took the lead toward the stairs. "No respect for your elders!" Being the ugliest and lacking any respect for his elders, Wencai followed with a sour face. Feeling thoroughly embarrassed, Liu Xiu flashed a somewhat awkward smile to the patrons who turned to look at them. In a brief daze, he suddenly understood how a master felt. He resolved to exercise extreme caution when taking disciples in the future. At the very least, he would never accept either of these two types! Pondering this, Liu Xiu climbed the stairs to the second floor. Before he even saw Master Ren—the father who feared fire—he saw a snowy-white pearl necklace tinged with faint pink against the backdrop of a pink Western-style dress. To be fair, it was indeed quite sizable. And the pearls were remarkably blush! "Old Daoist, are you all righ—huh?" Ren Tingting had assumed she had accidentally bumped into an old Daoist priest. Yet when she got a clear look at his face, her delicate features froze in sheer bewilderment. He wasn't ugly at all—he was breathtakingly handsome, far better-looking than any of the school heartthrobs her classmates swooned over! "I'm not old..." Liu Xiu replied. His brows furrowed faintly as a series of hazy, flickering images surfaced around Ren Tingting. "Junior Brother, over here—" "Tingting, over here—" "Oh? Daoist, do you know my father?" Ren Tingting took the initiative to strike up a conversation, but Liu Xiu ignored her entirely. She knit her delicate brows, her curiosity instantly piqued. Liu Xiu ignored Ren Tingting because his eyes had granted him a glimpse into her future. The visions were murky, but tragic. Just like his original body, she would have her estate plundered clean! Then again, it made sense. Ren Fa had only one daughter and no son. Once Ren Fa died, his assets would inevitably be seized by the clan elders. As for Ren Tingting, her fate would be written in sheer misery! With his thoughts settled, Liu Xiu began to understand why he had felt earlier that he would end up taking this commission. He walked over and sat at the table where Ren Fa and the others were gathered, declaring bluntly, "Master Ren, I see a bloody calamity in your near future!" "..." "..." *Just because you look transcendent and immortal doesn't give you the right to talk like that!* Ren Fa choked back his pleasantries. Wencai stared at Liu Xiu in utter confusion. He didn't mean anything by it, except—weren't they supposed to turn down the job?! Why on earth were you taking it on now?! Shi Shaojian was another story. His eyes lit up upon seeing Ren Tingting, and he instinctively glanced back at Liu Xiu. Looking between the two, an enlightened smile spread across his face, and he gave Liu Xiu a sly wink. The message was simple: *Good junior brother, top-notch taste!* And what's more: *a chip off the same block!* "Daoist, what do you mean by that?" Ren Fa asked, bewildered. Having already learned from Wencai and the other that Liu Xiu—despite his snow-white hair and youthful face—was merely of the junior disciple generation, he had assumed Liu Xiu was a fraud... until the youth spoke with staggering precision! Ren Fa shot to his feet the moment Liu Xiu uttered: "Bury your ancestor upright, and your descendants will thrive!" "Daoist, save me!" "I know you're anxious, but don't panic. Answer my questions. Over the past twenty years, hasn't your business grown harder with each passing year? Even when you manage everything diligently and a deal seems assured, complications always arise at the crucial moment. Gossip plagues you, and someone is constantly sabotaging you behind the scenes, leaving your trade obstructed at every turn." Liu Xiu spoke calmly. He didn't understand feng shui, but one shouldn't forget his mastery of qi-gazing, physiognomy, and Lesser Liuren. A single look at Ren Fa told him everything. "Spot on! Absolutely spot on! Daoist, you must save me! For the past twenty years, our family business has worsened by the day. If not for my painstaking efforts, the Ren family would have collapsed long ago..." Ren Fa opened the floodgates of grievance, lamenting how hard it was doing business alone and complaining about running into petty schemers just as Liu Xiu had described. But as he spoke, his tone suddenly shifted into a boastful sigh: "Fortunately, my late father left behind plenty of money. Otherwise, the name of Ren Family Town would have been changed to something else long ago..." "..." ×3 *You're bragging, aren't you?* *You're definitely bragging!* Liu Xiu and the others fell into stunned silence. Ren Fa, entirely oblivious to the absurdity of his remark, continued: "Daoist, you just said, 'Bury your ancestor upright, and your descendants will thrive.' Could my poor business truly be connected to my late father?" Being a businessman after all, Ren Fa was quick on his feet and instantly connected the dots to the Dragonfly Skimming Water Lair where his father was buried. Liu Xiu gave a nod, followed by a slight shake of his head. "There is a connection, but not entirely. I can only say your Ren family brought this upon yourselves. You should understand my meaning—" Liu Xiu trailed off, merely looking at Ren Fa with a knowing smile. Ignoring Ren Fa, who was lost in dazed contemplation, he gestured to the waiter standing nearby as a spectator to hand over the menu. "Sir—no, Daoist, here you are!" The waiter offered it with immense enthusiasm. Liu Xiu glanced at the menu, riddled with Chinglish, and curled his lip. "A glass of orange juice!" With that, Liu Xiu passed the menu to Shi Shaojian seated beside him. Shi Shaojian didn't take it right away; he merely stared expressionlessly at his junior brother, who had dared not to hand him the menu first. Then he glanced at Ren Tingting. He gave it some thought and decided to let it slide this once! Still, there definitely wouldn't be a next time!!