Yan Duan’s heart tribulation could be summed up in a single sentence: Yan Duan knew he was terribly wrong, was filled with regret, and after his rebirth did everything he could to make amends. Yet his son, who did things even worse than him, seemed to pay no price at all—killing his own parents and still ascending the throne and wielding great power? The worst part was, Yan Duan couldn’t even take revenge on this ungrateful wretch.
Qin Jingzhou didn’t feel Yan Duan was beyond redemption. In fact, Yan Duan’s decision not to have more children sprang from his own inability to lay a hand on his biological son.
The system laughed. “Yan Duan found out that white-eyed wolf was also reborn, and ended up in the body of Emperor Yongning. Suddenly, he wasn’t so miserable anymore. He must have thought, I don’t know what will become of me later, but seeing you suffer now really puts my mind at ease.”
“That’s exactly it.”
Later, when he was at an imperial meeting, he overheard a trusted advisor say, “Emperor Yongning was barely able to move toward the end, wailing and suffering retribution every day.” He knew that Yan Duan would come around eventually.
As things turned out, after Qin Jingzhou had unified the land, he spent fifteen more years with Ling Jing, solidifying the foundation they’d built—greatly increasing food production, sparking the first stirrings of capitalism, and ushering in the Age of Exploration.
He and Ling Jing both firmly believed that the best way to resolve internal conflict was to make the pie bigger, not let factions and classes spiral into endless internal strife and competition.
When they were planning to leave, Yan Duan wasn’t exactly keen or ambitious, but he was at least peaceful and content, without any trace of his old twisted gloom.
By the way, after their marriage, Yan Jun and Yan Yun had both a son and a daughter. As for Yan Duan and Guo Wanping, they really didn’t have any children of their own, but instead adopted Yan Jun’s son and a young orphaned girl from the clan, thus also achieving the status of having both a son and a daughter.
With his task complete, while waiting for the system to settle accounts with World Will, Qin Jingzhou even offered special thanks, “Many thanks to Your Excellency for making it possible.” If not, Yan Duan and Guo Wanping’s son from their previous life might not have just “happened” to end up in Emperor Yongning’s body.
World Will replied through the system, “Helping others is helping yourself.”
Ling Jing, who finished settlement before him, said with delight, “Even in the least optimistic scenario, after two more tasks, I’ll have saved up enough resources to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.”
Qin Jingzhou congratulated her with a smile, “With your mindset now, you’ll breeze right into the Divine Transformation Stage.”
This time, Ling Jing was truly elated, “That’s wonderful, then I can just focus on stockpiling resources for a while.” As she finished, she gave Qin Jingzhou a quick hug, “Thank you, big boss!”
Soon after, Qin Jingzhou also received his own reward. Just like in the previous world, he gained a special blessing. With two blessings stacked, he had a feeling he’d soon get a chance to try out their combined power.
After saying goodbye to Ling Jing, Qin Jingzhou asked the system to help him select his next mission.
The system browsed the list of assignments. “Brother Zhou, the World Will of this upcoming world is in the middle of a spiritual energy recovery. She’s willing to offer a generous reward of spiritual stones.”
Qin Jingzhou agreed readily, “Changing things up sounds good.”
No need for further chatter, just head straight there.
On the way, the system introduced the basic scenario: upon contacting this world’s World Will, the first thing she said was, “I must have been blind.”
The moment he heard that, Qin Jingzhou knew there was a good chance he would run into Ling Jing again.
This world was at the beginning of its spiritual energy recovery; the child of fate chosen by World Will had received his innate golden finger. At first, his conduct was passable, but when he finally got his footing, instead of “helping the world when successful” as World Will hoped, this child of fate became fixated on using his own power to become emperor.
Of course, had the child of fate actually managed to buck the trends of the era and succeeded in becoming emperor, and then set about eradicating inequality and zealously promoting scientific cultivation, World Will wouldn’t have had an issue.
Qin Jingzhou gave a knowing smile, “What, is he pulling one of those ‘the law is not passed down to the six ears’ routines?”
“It’s even worse,” the system replied. “When interstellar pirates discovered this planet, the child of fate was still stuck at the early Golden Core stage. As for people truly cultivating, there were only about ten of them, and five had nothing to do with the child of fate. This child of fate, far from helping his fellow cultivators, kept suppressing and assassinating them. The interesting part? He kept more than fifty lovers alive, and his children easily numbered in the hundreds.”
Qin Jingzhou was genuinely amused, “Well, well.”
“I’ve never seen a child of fate so selfish. If the World Will had a physical body, she’d have burst a blood vessel... Whenever she mentioned him to me, she had to tack on a curse word afterward, nearly going out of her mind with fury.”
Qin Jingzhou laughed out loud.
In most timelines, interstellar pirates were notorious, committing every imaginable crime. When they found a planet in its period of spiritual energy recovery, there was no way they’d help the native sentient beings advance. If anything, they were happy to pose as slavers.
So the fate of this planet and its people was clear to anyone.
One thing must be said: World Will could cultivate and advance as well, and her cultivation realm was bound up with the state of the sentient beings on her planet.
If all her people ended up enslaved, there was no hope for World Will either.
After a good laugh, Qin Jingzhou asked, “So, the World Will wants me to teach and enlighten others?”
The system replied, “That’s right. World Will was so infuriated, she activated time reversal. She’s determined to go all in this time...”
Qin Jingzhou nodded lightly. “Good, teaching is my specialty.”
The system said nothing, though it thought, You’re clearly the least interested in meddling in other people’s business, Brother Zhou.
On this run, Qin Jingzhou’s identity was... the youngest son of the richest man in Hua Country. Not only did he have a set of convenient children, he also had a set of convenient parents.
When he met the original host, Xiao Jingzhou, in soul form, even Qin Jingzhou had to admit, “What a rare beauty.”
The original host’s request was simple: he wanted Qin Jingzhou to make his name known, so that he would be remembered for more than just his looks.
Qin Jingzhou agreed, and sent him off.
Pulling on his body double, Qin Jingzhou first tested the local spiritual energy level. It felt only slightly lower than Xuan Qing’s world.
He examined the original host’s physical condition and chuckled, “The original host’s emotional troubles developed into organic brain changes, or else he wouldn’t have failed to call for help after getting stabbed.”
He quickly used spiritual energy to heal the still-bleeding, hideous wound, made some minor adjustments to the abnormality in the brain, then walked to the bathroom and examined his appearance in the mirror. “This one meets Spiritual Realm standards.”
Cultivation was, after all, a self-evolving process, and one’s appearance would improve along with their realm. By ordinary human standards, the Spiritual Realm was full of strikingly good-looking people, barring a few cultivators training in special techniques.
The original host, as an ordinary person, had a face on par with the Spiritual Realm average. In this world, that could be considered a crushing advantage. On top of that, his great-grandfather and grandfather had bankrupted themselves supporting the revolution, and the prestige and goodwill had been passed down to this generation. His father became the richest man in middle age, and had remained in a solid position since. The original host had never, from childhood, encountered any “forceful oppression,” but he had been kidnapped as a child. Though rescued quickly, it left significant psychological trauma, and ever since, he had been in therapy for years.
Mental illness is notoriously difficult to treat. The original host had chosen another outlet for his pain...
Qin Jingzhou flipped through the host’s memories. “The kid’s life sure was eventful.”
The system picked up, “The one who stabbed the host was someone tormented by unrequited love... pitiful soul. Brother Zhou, you’d better get moving and rescue this convenient daughter of yours.”
The original host lived alone in a villa, though his parents and older brother had stationed numerous employees around as a precaution.
To keep up the act, Qin Jingzhou followed the system’s prompt, opened Hua Country’s largest video website on his phone, and looked up the commercial for a certain notoriously trashy drama. Sure enough, in a corner easy to miss, he spotted a girl with a pitiful air and a face seventy percent similar to his own.
“Brother Zhou, this time your children are a pair of twins, one taking after dad, the other after mom,” the system explained. “According to the storyline I have, your convenient daughter gets lured by her agent into a club tonight where several big shots... well, I won’t spell it out, you know what I mean. In the end, she dies of asphyxiation on her own vomit. Not one of those big shots paid a price. They shoved all the blame on a bartender. Worse, they bribed the twins’ adoptive father to sign a letter of forgiveness, so the bartender only got three years in jail. Your son went mad with rage and started a desperate campaign for revenge.”
Qin Jingzhou frowned slightly. “And how do my children relate to the child of fate?”
“Your daughter has a crush on him. The child of fate comes with a golden finger bestowed by World Will, basically a complete cultivation manual akin to the Daoist Canon. But even with talent, in the current environment he couldn’t even take the first step to guide spiritual energy into his body. The thing that allowed him to achieve that was... the bracelet your daughter gave him, which happened to contain a spiritual stone.”
Qin Jingzhou could guess where this plot was going. “So I’m set up as the villainous dad, and my convenient son is locked in a life-or-death struggle with the child of fate... who repays goodness with treachery?”
“The child of fate helped those big shots cover up the truth behind your daughter’s death. Later, your son gradually uncovered most of what happened. Fearing exposure, the child of fate sent people to assassinate your son just as he was making a name for himself.”
Qin Jingzhou continued, “What about the original host—no, they’re my family now—how did they react during all of this?”
“The family acknowledged your convenient son, but the child of fate and your son fought bitterly, and so the child of fate had your elder brother’s whole family and your biological mother killed. Your father bore it as long as he could, but in the end, he couldn’t take it. He was finally forced to expel your son from the family.”
Having heard the summary, Qin Jingzhou gave a cold little smile, “Interesting. I’ll show the child of fate what despair feels like.”
He immediately contacted the original host’s elder brother, Xiao Jinhai. “Brother, get me a driver and some bodyguards. I’ll also need the services of your prize assistant and lawyer.”
Elder brother Xiao Jinhai knew his little brother was having one of his episodes and didn’t dare ask questions, only agreeing readily before instructing the assistant and lawyer on the details.
Qin Jingzhou picked out a suit from the wardrobe full of dress clothes. When the assistant and others arrived, he slowly rose to his feet. “Come with me. We’re going to find my daughter.”
The assistants were momentarily dazzled by the young boss’s stunning looks. Upon hearing his intention, they barely managed to hide their resignation. It was as if they were all thinking, “Of course this day has come.”
On the way to the club, the system asked curiously, “Brother Zhou, do you plan to deal with the child of fate this round?”
Qin Jingzhou didn’t play coy. “I realized this world’s crystal wall is very thin, and that gave me some inspiration. I want people with talent here to learn and cultivate in new, interesting ways...” He paused, his expression softening. “On the other side of this crystal wall, I have a feeling I’ll meet an old friend.”
The system spammed a string of “6”s. “Whoa, this is going to be a huge project... and a dream crossover?”