Qin Jingzhou fulfilled the original host’s final wish and immediately used bloodline tracing to locate the original host’s eldest daughter, Zhang Jiamin—at this moment, Zhang Jiamin and her husband, Little Ross, were being kept on a small island.
The couple was under house arrest, allowed periodic contact with the outside world and their lives were not in danger, so Qin Jingzhou was not in a hurry to rescue his daughter. His priority was to get his own son back and to quickly establish his status.
Within five days, after wielding his “three axes,” both the Extraordinaries’ Administration and the Officials recognized his unshakable position. Only then could he spare himself to deal with the problems concerning the original host’s daughter.
As for Zhang Jiamin and her husband, Ross, they had been college classmates—a genuine love match. It was only when discussing marriage that they learned their families were actually well-matched in status. Sharing similar backgrounds and education, and with sincere affection for each other, their relationship was truly loving.
After the Spiritual Energy Revival, He Qingya and her son clung to a powerful cultivator’s thigh and took off like a rocket, never ceasing to pressure and trouble the original host. All the while, Zhang Jiamin tried her utmost to help her father resolve every issue.
The Ross family also produced Extraordinaries, not just one. Though their Extraordinaries were not as fearsome as the genuine backer behind He Qingya and her son, still, those rich and powerful folks queuing up to harass the original host at He Qingya’s hint began to hesitate. It’s always wise to leave a way out for future interactions.
Therefore, for a while, the original host remained frantic but could barely cope—until word came from the Ross family. They ordered Zhang Jiamin and her husband, Little Ross, home for “reflection.”
That was when the original host died, and Qin Jingzhou arrived.
After reviewing all the relevant storylines with the System’s supplementary explanations, Qin Jingzhou couldn’t help but sigh. “Most of my daughters have fine taste.”
Ling Jing wholeheartedly agreed. “The Ross family isn’t much, but Little Ross is alright.” She closed her laptop. “The Ross family inherited a Lich lineage. Their cooperation with Evil gods is highly likely.”
Qin Jingzhou released his Divine sense, sweeping across the globe. “Right now, only three Evil gods are capable of exerting Golden Core or even early Nascent Soul combat strength. The one that Fate’s Son, He Jiuping, has pledged allegiance to is the strongest of them all. I suspect the original host’s adopted son, He Jiuping, is already scheming about how to ‘fulfill his filial duty’ to me.”
Ling Jing laughed. “That’s Fate’s Son for you. He knows even Golden Core cultivators would avoid clashing with us directly, and yet he refuses to bow or show goodwill. I admire his spine. I hope he’ll keep it to the very end.”
Qin Jingzhou smiled as well. “That will be rather difficult, I think.” Just then, that wisp of Divine sense he’d left on the original host’s daughter, Zhang Jiamin, was activated. “Oh, he plans to test me through Zhang Jiamin first.”
Just as Qin Jingzhou said, He Jiuping—who had given up his original Zhang surname—was indeed a cautious man. He would never play his trump cards recklessly under uncertain circumstances.
He Jiuping knew full well that his own biological father was nothing but a lowlife who did nothing but leech resources and drag him down. So the moment He Qingya came to depend on him, he’d locked up his biological father without hesitation.
Seeing her grandson, in whom she’d placed such hopes, show no mercy to his father, He Qingya straightened her attitude yet again and grovelingly begged on her knees, “Just spare his life, at least.”
He Jiuping smiled and agreed, “I’m not that ruthless yet.” Then he questioned her again, what exactly had happened in that private club.
He Qingya knew her grandson kept his word, so she felt somewhat relieved and truthfully began to “confess”—not even waiting for He Jiuping to prompt her, she described every minute detail she could remember.
After listening to his grandmother’s account of Taiyi Sect, He Jiuping closed his eyes helplessly. “Zhang Jingzhou and your younger half-sister were most likely possessed by a great power. When the elders of Taiyi Sect sensed something was wrong, they wanted to pull out but were already riding a tiger they couldn’t dismount, so they had to trade blows with your half-sister.”
He Qingya pressed a hand over her heart. “That’s what I thought too. Days have passed and it’s like Taiyi Sect has forgotten all about it. Just goes to show how terrifying Zhang Jingzhou is.” She couldn’t hide the lingering fear in her expression. “Otherwise, after all the trouble I gave him before, he would have killed me with a slap.”
He Jiuping smiled. “As far as I know, when a great power seizes possession, he always has to consider or fulfill the original host’s last wish. Zhang Jingzhou himself will never let our family go. So whether you came here or not, I’d already be on his kill list. The only reason he hasn’t shown up is that he either doesn’t want to or cannot—yet.”
Her grandson’s calm infected her, and He Qingya also gradually collected herself, her manner more natural now. “He can’t come.”
He Jiuping’s confidence was obvious. “Cultivators don’t need to meet to estimate the other’s strength.”
He Qingya believed this too. “But he, he’s clearly targeting Evil gods. Isn’t that dangerous?”
She herself did not worship the entity behind her grandsons, and openly called it “Evil god” because she had long heard from He Jiuping that it didn’t care what it was called. Sometimes even its own priests casually called it “Evil god” in casual conversation.
He Jiuping looked completely unconcerned. “There’s no camaraderie between Evil gods. If the conditions are right, they will instinctively devour each other. Humans grow stronger by consuming Evil god spawn—why would any Evil god mind if their food tasted better and was more nutritious?”
He Qingya fell silent.
She seemed to glimpse her own fate—no matter how she struggled, a tragic end awaited her. Nevertheless, there was no way out for her now. She could only grit her teeth and follow this path to the bitter end.
It wasn’t hard for He Jiuping to read his grandmother’s mind from her expression. “That one is one of the most rational of the Evil god’s children. That’s why it woke up the earliest and is strongest of all. As long as it doesn’t starve, it won’t eat its followers.”
He Qingya said softly, “I know. But I’m still afraid.”
He Jiuping smiled. “Of course I worry too. That’s exactly why I have to grow stronger as quickly as possible, while it still has use for me.” As he spoke, he patted his grandmother—who looked no more than thirty years old—on the shoulder. “I treasure my life.”
He Qingya understood. “Come with me.”
One thing He Jiuping had truly meant: he valued his life, but he wasn’t totally ruthless. For example, when he’d used his priest status to deceive the present head of the Ross family into transforming his own son, Little Ross, into a Lich…he had shown considerable restraint. If it weren’t for that powerful figure possessing someone, he would never have done this much to his former brother-in-law.
The process of forcibly transforming a living human—especially someone in the prime of youth—into a Lich against their will was so cruel that if described in detail, it would be banned in any country.
As for the pain and suffering endured by the subject…well, the result was that every successful Lich was driven mad, all destined to go insane, and would be sane only for a few days out of the entire year.
They could only move about with some free will during those fleeting lucid moments.
The Divine sense Qin Jingzhou had left on Zhang Jiamin alerted him that He Jiuping was about to act. Immediately, Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing took a flying sword and crossed the ocean in five minutes, arriving at the Ross family’s estate in the far northwest of the White Eagle Federation.
The head of the Ross family had planned to transform his son, Little Ross, in Zhang Jiamin’s presence. The moment Little Ross was pinned to the operating table, Zhang Jiamin broke down on the spot. She barely managed to speak up, expressing her willingness to cooperate, when the ceiling of the underground transformation chamber…vanished.
Zhang Jiamin looked up, and there was her father backlit and floating in midair. Oddly enough, she could see her father smiling at her.
All her fear vanished in an instant, and she shouted, “Dad! Help!”
The moment his daughter called for him, Qin Jingzhou was compelled to act.
With a single sword strike, he neatly sheared through the four steel-and-concrete legs of the operating table, then smashed apart the restraints holding his not-really-son-in-law. Among them was even a magic artifact infused with spiritual energy. Finally, his flying sword stood upright, aiming straight between his son-in-law’s brows.
Zhang Jiamin stared, dumbstruck, as her father’s sword pierced her husband’s forehead, popping out the long, unspeakably-marked spike that had pinned him through the brow.
For a moment, Little Ross experienced what it was like for a sword to “chill the brain.” He touched his forehead and gave his wife a dopey grin. “Eheh, doesn’t even hurt!”
Zhang Jiamin grabbed her husband and dragged him, rolling and crawling, to the corner of the now-exposed transformation chamber—well, now it was a convertible chamber—and watched as something in a black robe suddenly appeared where the operating table had been.
It had to be called a humanoid, because neither the half-face exposed under its hood nor the bits of limb protruding from the sleeves were anything a normal person would possess.
Gazing at the Ross family’s Lich, sculpted in accordance with their ancient inheritance, Qin Jingzhou sighed sincerely, “What a waste.”
Whether the black-robed Lich understood him or not, it roared, opened its mouth—and then a massive fireball appeared from thin air, slamming into its face.
Qin Jingzhou raised his hand and waved to Ling Jing, who was recording with a camera, making a point of showing off the combat glove on his arm. Fixed in place with a silver mechanical arm, its center was a finely crafted firing port.
Ling Jing floated nearby taking plenty of footage, then got a close-up of Qin Jingzhou’s combat glove. After some quick editing, she uploaded the video online.
Within just a few days, the verified account of “Zhang Jingzhou” had attracted over 500 million followers on social media.
So the new video shot straight to trending within five minutes of posting.
Leaning against the wall, Ling Jing listened to Qin Jingzhou chat with his new daughter and son-in-law as she browsed comments from netizens.
But even she was surprised by the top-rated comment.
“Chairman Zhang! Mrs. Zhang! I know you’re reading the comments! If you’ve got time to release new products, how come you don’t have time to ship orders? Open your eyes and look at the preorders for flying swords on your website—three hundred million! If you’re short-handed just call, we’ll come help tighten the screws for you!”
Ling Jing snorted and ruthlessly downvoted the comment.