To become a live-in son-in-law was originally his own wish, but having Wanwan point it out so directly still stung his pride a little.
Yet, though Su Huaizhen appeared brash and young, he was actually a rather calculating person. After hearing from various sources that the Xiao family's Xiao Jingzhou had set up a secret cultivation school, he felt he had to come in person to probe for the truth, since there was no way he'd simply turn and leave on the strength of a few sentences.
As for the scum of a foster father who raised Xiao Jin and Xiao Wan, brother and sister, he only ever taught them one thing: "Mountains can fall and rivers can dry up, in the end you can only rely on yourself." So, being called out publicly by Su Huaizhen for relying on their father left the two siblings with at least a bit... of embarrassment...
As for Xuan Qing, who had his life saved twice by Qin Jingzhou, and whose skills—especially all his key techniques—were all taught by that man, not to mention the fact that the two had lived together for over a hundred years as father and son... He not only took pride in being a "dad’s boy" and relying on his father, but saw it as a point of honor. Now, seeing his brother and sister's expressions sharply change, he deliberately suppressed his cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Stage, and charged straight over.
Everyone held their own thoughts, but from the outside, it looked like an "attack at the slightest disagreement" situation.
Every time Xuan Qing attacked Su Huaizhen, he would receive subtle pushback from fate itself. Having once been a Fate’s Son, once blessed by the World Will, he was acutely sensitive to this.
If a fight broke out, he was naturally going to take the opportunity to test Su Huaizhen’s strength to its limit.
But the longer the fight went on, the heavier Xuan Qing’s heart grew. Not only did he have to endure constant backlash from fate as he dealt blows to Su Huaizhen—he suddenly realized that his own fate was being slowly drained, to be precise, being secretly siphoned away by Su Huaizhen...
Once he’d figured out Su Huaizhen’s upper and lower thresholds, Xuan Qing suddenly ramped up his force and sent Su Huaizhen flying with a single kick.
Su Huaizhen seized the opening, launched several spells in succession, and vanished from Xuan Qing and his siblings’ sight within two seconds.
Wanwan was extremely perceptive, and ever since she started Qi gathering, her intuition had grown sharper still. Even if her brother wore a blank face, she could still sense he wasn’t in a great mood.
She took her twin brother Xiao Jin’s hand, and with her other hand, carefully tugged Xuan Qing’s sleeve. “Big brother?”
Xuan Qing didn’t hesitate to speak the truth. “This guy can steal fate, that’s a stone-cold fact.” The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. “He’s the trickiest Fate’s Son I’ve ever met!”
Wanwan and Xiao Jin exchanged glances, and it was Wanwan who asked, “Can you tell us more?”
Xuan Qing forced a smile. “Of course I can. Stealing someone else’s fate isn’t so rare, but to be able to instantly integrate what he’s stolen with his own luck... this is the first time I’ve seen that. The guy’s origins definitely aren’t simple.”
After a pause, Xiao Jin said, “Just in the past few days, all the upper management from Wanwan’s original agency got taken in by the authorities. That company had always had tax evasion issues, but without a push behind the scenes, things could never have progressed so quickly. Our aunt and uncle who sold us out both confessed and got brought in as well, but only our foster father has disappeared.”
Wanwan added, “I think Su Huaizhen took care of our foster father in advance... I have a feeling he might be good at divination...”
“He definitely is. Divination and deduction both come at a cost, and the best price to pay is always your own fate. When you both need to advance, and your foster father suddenly shows up to trigger a Heart Demon for you, there’s nothing new about that trick, but it’s very effective.” Xuan Qing gave his younger siblings a brief explanation, then changed the subject suddenly: “Let’s go, time to buy groceries.”
Wanwan and Xiao Jin: ...Could you change your expression a little less abruptly?!
The three siblings left the Xiao family’s old estate together. Ling Jing withdrew her divine sense, still feeling a lingering fear. “I remember, when I took this quest, the System warned me this was by far the hardest task in the list. I was curious at first—just how troublesome could early Golden Core-stage Su Huaizhen be at the end of the original story? While I’m not good at spell duels, my Nascent Soul combat strength is definitely up to par, but there’s just no way I could take him down. Fighting by constantly draining fate... who could bear that!?”
Everyone says cultivation is hard, but accumulating fate in the proper way is even harder.
The more Ling Jing thought about it, the more apprehensive she became. “It’s precisely because, in the later stages of the original story, people on this world could never rise up. Su Huaizhen not only drains other people’s fate—he can burn through their prospects and futures as well!”
Qin Jingzhou sounded approving. “That’s right. I’m not afraid of him stealing fate itself, but if I slap him to death, all the fate he carries would shift onto me, and I’d have to shoulder the entire future of this world. That’s not ideal. My principle has always been: teach a man to fish, not just to hand him one.”
Ling Jing suddenly laughed out loud. “So, you started your mass-production plan for Fate’s Sons?”
“Having them cross between two worlds, getting more life experience and grinding like players, is just my personal hobby.”
Ling Jing clapped her hands and burst out laughing. “Working day jobs in their old world and night shifts in another, that kind of labor exploitation is too much even for a capitalist! If you weren’t running a one-of-a-kind cultivation school, boss, you’d deserve a brick to the head.”
“Shouldn’t I be strung up on a lamp post?” Qin Jingzhou laughed too. “Truth is, for all I look like a lone wolf, I’ve always believed a group fight is the highest justice. I’m sure you heard what happened when the Second Elder took the Insight Talisman home.”
At this, Ling Jing got animated. “He used it and everyone exchanged glances. What a sight—turns out all the old folks had golden borders and lights between their brows. Now everyone’s looking toward the future... It’s basically a group of Fate’s Sons, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Once this batch of players reaches Foundation Establishment, I’ll consider expanding again. Get the fields sown, the mines dug, and once they reach Foundation Establishment, then I can open up trade and communication with interstellar forces.”
Ling Jing gave a thumbs up. “Before Foundation Establishment, their bodies can’t even handle warp travel.”
They chatted for a bit, then Xuan Qing and his siblings returned with bags upon bags of groceries.
Because the Xiao Group was undergoing a transformation, a lot of its less promising peripheral businesses needed to be handled, so the elder couple and Eldest Brother Xiao were extremely busy. They left for the company early that morning, while Big Sister-in-law and the two nephews had gone to Haishi to take a leave of absence from school, so for lunch, Xuan Qing only had to cook for the six of them.
As soon as Xuan Qing began cooking, the fragrance wafted out from the kitchen, drawing Ling Jing’s attention from the dining room. “You... something’s different about you!”
Her son, Bao Bao, sitting beside her, opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Qin Jingzhou grinned. “Back in the interstellar world, Xiao Qing spent all his spare time secretly practicing his culinary skills, nearly stepping into the realm of Kitchen Dao.”
Xuan Qing chuckled. “Whether I reach enlightenment or not doesn’t matter much to me.” All I want is to see the genuine, radiant smiles on all your faces as you eat my food.
Six dishes, one soup, one porridge, and two kinds of staple foods were served up—each not just pleasing in color, aroma, and taste, but also carrying a subtle, ineffable resonance.
Ling Jing and the others now experienced what it was like to nearly enter Kitchen Dao. Ling Jing felt cheerful after eating, but Xiao Jin and Wanwan simply ascended by a minor realm then and there.
The twins were stunned with joy. Even with a super-powered dad behind them, they had always been down-to-earth in their cultivation. To gain a full minor advancement just from one meal, even if they knew that such things would only get rarer as they progressed, they were still genuinely grateful to Xuan Qing.
As the saying goes, no one strikes a smiling person, and even less so if it’s your own younger siblings. When his brother and sister lavished gratitude on him, Xuan Qing also let himself float a bit from their praise.
With his mood improved, both his mindset and cultivation benefitted a little as well.
Xiao Bao watched his siblings chatter and laugh, deep in thought.
Noticing the faint, curious lights flickering over their children’s shoulders, Qin Jingzhou caught Ling Jing’s eye and smiled without a word.
At the same time, in his own lair, Su Huaizhen—having marked Xuan Qing and the twins with his subtle, mystical seal—was smiling too. As for Xiao Jingzhou, who could travel between worlds, Su Huaizhen had decided he’d rather not face him head-on. So, he had poured all his resources into creating three seals, and successfully left them on Xuan Qing and the siblings today. His plan was to let them fatten up before making his move.
As Su Huaizhen smiled, his beautiful confidantes gathered around him.
He appeared to be busy handling all sorts of requests, but in truth, he was multitasking: I’m no match for Xiao Jingzhou, but one day your children will all become my nourishment, and you’ll learn what it means to labor for another’s benefit. If that gives rise to a heart tribulation, I’ll finally have a shot at finishing you off! Because so many ancient scriptures mentioned that in this dangerous path of cultivation, if you can’t crush your enemy by force, then the best method to surpass the strong with the weak is to stir up their Heart Demon, and better yet, evolve it into a heart tribulation...
He hugged the beauty who pleased him most, thinking, If I could father a child with Xiao Wan, that might be even safer. Besides, her innate talent surely surpasses the rest of these women.
It seemed his Evil allure technique could not be neglected anytime soon.
While Su Huaizhen raised his cultivation smoothly to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, the one hundred carefully selected, virtuous, and talented players chosen by Qin Jingzhou—about half of them were now teetering on the verge of advancing.
Feeling the time was right, Qin Jingzhou told them it was time to start preparing for advancement. He advised them to fulfill any promises or lingering obligations back home, so as not to fail at the key moment due to unresolved issues. Meanwhile, he allowed the players to teach the cultivation knowledge they’d learned to others.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the players erupted in excitement, shouting in unison: Principal, you’re brilliant!
In fact, since entering Qi gathering and stepping into the Qi Refining stage, they had already begun to feel their senses heightening and their physiques strengthening. According to what they learned, after Foundation Establishment, they would be able to hover briefly in the air, wield specialized spiritual artifacts for attack and defense—and even fly.
Finally, quantity was about to become quality—they would truly experience what it felt like to cultivate as in a xuanhuan novel. Even Old Master Xiao could hardly suppress his excitement.
Qin Jingzhou waited until the players had calmed down before continuing, “I’ll be setting up shop in our hometown, selling basic materials, spiritual herbs, and spiritual tools, and recruiting apprentices and workers.” He turned to Ling Jing. “You all can sign up with Ms. Han.”
Once the players logged off, Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing returned to the real world. Eldest Brother Xiao came running over, phone in hand, pounding on the door.
Qin Jingzhou let him in, glanced at the caller ID, which read "Ministry of elders," and said directly, “It won’t hold anything up. Since you’re all interested, why not come experience the expansion together this time—how about it?”