Dog-Blooded Love Story End
The Extraordinaries who emerged from the spiritual coffin and the Officials came out completely unharmed under the protection of Qin Jingzhou’s spiritual shield. The only thing they suffered was… a bit of a shock.
Qin Jingzhou glanced at the Extraordinaries he had shielded, including Gu Jing, Gu Lingfan, and Ye Lingtian. All of them stood there, slack-jawed, in disbelief. He gave a soft chuckle, then beckoned to Ling Jing and Xuan Qing. “Come here. Let me teach you a trick.”
Xuan Qing exchanged a look with Yuan Lingmei, who was standing a little ways off, then obediently floated to stand by his father.
From this close, he looked down at the mass of Golden Core Extraordinaries, most of them unconscious and lying haphazardly on the ground, the rest showing obvious regret and agony. He remained completely unmoved. His wish had been to save the world, not to save this batch of scum… Seeing firsthand how these scum had chosen to turn on his father with a desperate strike while he drove off the interplanar demon, he was left with just three words for them: They all deserve to die!
Even when Zhong Dewen and Xuan Helin had treated him as they did before, he had only complained—he never truly hated them. But now… he wouldn’t mind at all if his father did away with this pair of enemies himself!
Ling Jing drifted over with a sunny smile on her face.
Xuan Qing glared coldly at Zhong Dewen and Xuan Helin. The couple, though still somewhat lucid, were deliberately avoiding his gaze. Ling Jing whispered, “Maybe I shouldn’t meddle, but isn’t it time you let it go for the sake of your father?”
Xuan Qing, who had already become much softer and more restrained since his brush with madness, had never actually lashed out at her, nor bore her any ill will. As for always seeing her as a stepmother—well, that was just something she couldn’t explain, for fear that any explanation would only worsen things.
Hearing her words, Xuan Qing rubbed his face hard, as if trying to crush all distracting thoughts.
After a moment, he composed himself and said sincerely, “Thank you for reminding me.” He even managed to force out a smile.
Qin Jingzhou put an arm around his son’s shoulders and thanked Ling Jing as well. Then he stepped to the front of the main coffin, raised his free hand, and gave a careless flick. Zhong Dewen and Xuan Helin, their heads and torsos still intact, were sent flying into the mountain wall. They bounced off and crashed to the ground with two muffled thuds.
Seeing this, Ye Lingtian scooped up the dazed Su Jinxi, intending to flee. Qin Jingzhou called out to him, tossed him a healing pill, and said, “You can stay.” He looked to Gu Lingfan, who was supporting Gu Jing and about to say something, and added, “You come over as well.”
Ye Lingtian was himself covered in wounds—cuts from the blast of negative energy, or rather, antimatter—but Su Jinxi had scarcely a scratch. Gu Lingfan had genuinely tried to save him a moment ago.
Qin Jingzhou smiled and offered a compliment to the World Will. “I see you never misjudge people.”
The System cheerfully relayed a message from the World Will: “It wants me to assure you that since you both extended its lifespan and protected three generations of Fate’s Sons, you’ll be well rewarded at settlement time.”
Although Xuan Qing was the Main antagonist, before his descent into madness he was clearly also a Fate’s Son—or at least in the running to become one.
Qin Jingzhou grinned. “Good. By the way, I really agree with my partner’s line about ‘the cost of a lack of education.’ Since the World Will is so appreciative, before I leave, I’ll try to give the Fate’s Sons a little extra education.”
He continued, “Take a good look at your feet.” With a snap of his fingers, the riddled floor shimmered with a strange glow. Silver lines began to emerge.
Qin Jingzhou gave everyone a moment to process what they were seeing. “Xuan Yuan was a genius. He could predict the situation and see into people’s hearts. If anyone tried to destroy the Array, not only does the main coffin hold methods to seal off the whole mountain range, the Array itself has sub-arrays that absorb and convert all kinds of energy to seal the range. What you’re seeing now is one of those.”
Everyone was stunned yet again. Qin Jingzhou hadn’t been completely explicit, but every Extraordinary in the crowd understood.
Ling Jing made no effort to hide her glee. “So, even if Ye Lingtian hadn’t activated the trap inside the main coffin, as soon as the Array was damaged and the negative energy in the chasm reached a certain threshold, the sub-array would have activated—locking every Extraordinary present here in place, regardless of their motives, to turn them all into fertilizer and seal up the chasm.”
Qin Jingzhou nodded with a smile. “Precisely.”
Watching the shell-shocked, doubt-ridden Extraordinaries, Ling Jing was in high spirits. She continued, “Xuan Yuan was a genius and an idealist. For his ideals he didn’t mind giving his own life—so why would he care about the lives of other Extraordinaries? Who do you people think you’re underestimating here? Did you really believe you could control a genius with another genius?”
Before she finished speaking, over a hundred Extraordinaries suffered mental backlashes on the spot.
Behind Gu Jing, the thousand-odd Extraordinaries looked equally ashen, but many also wore expressions of relief.
Ling Jing gave a light chuckle.
Qin Jingzhou flicked his hand, and the deranged Extraordinaries were all slapped precisely into the mountain wall and fell heavily to the ground, unconscious.
It had to be said that among the six thousand Extraordinaries lying across the floor, at the height of the negative energy surge, fewer than ten had been unlucky enough to actually die outright. But all were injured—in some cases, like Xuan Helin, little more than a torso remained, and even the luckier ones were missing arms or legs, or, like Ye Lingtian, had gaping holes through their bodies.
Xuan Qing took it all in, as if he wanted to memorize every example of human nature. Then he tugged at his father’s sleeve. “Dad, are you going to repair the Array… and use these trash for something useful?”
Qin Jingzhou burst out laughing. “A teachable child.”
The six thousand Extraordinaries who had just come back to their senses all shivered, their faces stricken.
Restoring the Array had always been Xuan Qing’s wish.
Only this time, it wouldn’t be free. Qin Jingzhou was not going to extort them, but he wasn’t about to let the six thousand have it easy. With a casual wave, he brought Ling Jing, Xuan Qing, and Yuan Lingmei along, as well as Gu Lingfan and Ye Lingtian—two pairs making four people—and teleported them all home.
With his grandsons safe under Senior Ying’s protection and his daughter having gotten timely advice from the Dan Sect’s girl, Gu Jing no longer felt the need to “put the greater good first.” Instead, he instructed the remaining dazed Extraordinaries, “Clean up.”
As for the associate who had stabbed him in the back and was now kneeling on the ground, Gu Jing didn’t spare him a glance. Now that circumstances had reversed, the six thousand Extraordinaries, along with this traitor, would all be put to “practical use”—destined to become fertilizer for the sub-array.
He didn’t want to jeopardize the Senior’s plans, but still offered a reminder. “The Senior is, after all, righteous. You may have acted without honor, but he won’t necessarily take your lives. Escaping death does not mean escaping punishment.”
Just then, back at home, Xuan Qing was also asking his father, “How are you going to fix the Array?”
Qin Jingzhou laughed as he replied, “Before, the Array drew on life force to seal the chasm. I’ve changed that—it’ll drain spiritual energy instead. As for those six thousand Extraordinaries, I’ll have them spend ninety percent of the remainder of their lives providing power to the Array and the sub-array.”
Gu Lingfan and Ye Lingtian exchanged glances.
After carefully inspecting his brother’s wounds, which had started to heal so rapidly that new flesh was already closing over them, Gu Lingfan felt awed by the boss’s all-around prowess and said, “Returning the favor in kind, huh?”
Qin Jingzhou took the teacup from his son and smiled without a word.
Ling Jing spoke up again. “You might want to think about why the boss brought you here in the first place.”
Ye Lingtian’s voice trembled. “Is… is it to accept us as disciples?”
Having experienced a new life through Rebirth, he understood acutely that truly powerful figures didn’t impress by showing off their strength, but rather because it was impossible to gauge just how powerful they were. The boss was like a treasure chest—every time they met, he pulled out a new trump card beyond imagination.
So he and his brother Gu Lingfan exchanged a look, both instantly dropped to their knees, and their legs hit the marble floor with a solid thud.
“Greetings, Master!”
Ling Jing: …I can’t believe the two of you knelt so quickly.
Xuan Qing, holding the tea tray, narrowed his eyes: …they even dare to compete with me for Dad.
-----
After Gu Lingfan and Ye Lingtian decisively became disciples, Qin Jingzhou graciously accepted them and launched right into foundational teaching that same day.
Xuan Qing had never known much about arrays—they’d deliberately kept the successor of the main coffin from studying or even coming into contact with Array-related knowledge to avoid resentment and disaster. But the two scions of Noble Families, Gu Lingfan and Ye Lingtian, had even more pitiful knowledge of array basics; Ye Lingtian, despite having the advantage of Rebirth, was just as clueless.
Qin Jingzhou was a little helpless and sent a mental message to Ling Jing. “Teaching these disciples has to start with literacy.”
Ling Jing was slightly embarrassed. “Boss, your inheritance is so advanced… I don’t really get it, but it’s mind-blowing…”
Well.
So Qin Jingzhou really started with “one plus one equals two,” patiently instructing them. He only regretted that the lesson plans he had previously prepared would have to wait awhile before they could be used.
Xuan Qing didn’t grasp the deeper meaning, but watching his father patiently teach from zero, he just felt—no wonder he’s my real dad!
Thanks to Xuan Qing, Yuan Lingmei was also allowed to join in studying. When she was alone with her boyfriend at night, she said, “I’m only able to learn thanks to you… All your luck really went into your birth. Uncle Ying really dotes on you.”
Xuan Qing propped up his chin and said seriously, “My dad kept the Array intact, even modified it into a power-charging type, and told me the ‘key’ to the Array would always stay in my hands… He does everything for me. I know that.”
Yuan Lingmei said, “Then you better show filial piety. But if you don’t progress fast enough in cultivation, you might not live longer than him.”
Xuan Qing nodded at once. “I think the same.”
“You better focus on your cooking skills.”
“I think that too.”
Qin Jingzhou ate his son’s lovingly cooked stir-fries for decades. Besides watching his son, his two unofficial disciples, and Ling Jing each achieve Nascent Soul stage, even his daughter-in-law had reached the peak of the Golden Core stage.
With their cultivation realms rising and their foundational knowledge solid, Xuan Qing and his group excelled in pill-making, artifact forging, and array work.
The brand-new power-charged sealing array, under Qin Jingzhou’s supervision, was reforged by Xuan Qing and the other three with their own hands.
Having suffered a massive loss, the six thousand Golden Core Extraordinaries were forced to redeem themselves. After one corner of the true Array was restored, they began taking turns powering the formation.
The original Array designed by Xuan Yuan drew on life force, but being locked up in the spiritual coffin wasn’t painful—just lonely, and the knowledge that your lifespan was draining faster. The improved version extracted spiritual energy, and the experience of powering it was anything but pleasant.
Those six thousand Extraordinaries often wailed while being drained, whereas other Extraordinaries powering the Array barely felt a thing.
Everyone now understood this was entirely intentional on Qin Jingzhou’s part.
Meanwhile, the Extraordinaries world, thanks to Gu Lingfan, now had clear benchmarks for every realm. Because of missing inheritances, most local Extraordinaries—though high in stage—could not fully access the skills for their level. As a result, Golden Core Extraordinaries could intimidate even the most brilliant while joining forces to extort someone like Gu Jing, a true Nascent Soul cultivator.
After advancing to Nascent Soul, Ling Jing received appropriate techniques from her System, and remarked, “A typical Nascent Soul could playfully handle a hundred Golden Core cultivators…”
Qin Jingzhou chuckled, “Gu Jing is just exceptionally good-natured.”
Before leaving this world, Qin Jingzhou required Gu Jing and his associates to reveal the truth of the world’s crisis to the public and to open his personally improved foundational techniques and cultivation methods for all.
Feeling that Xuan Qing and the rest could now stand on their own, he prepared to settle everything with Ling Jing, who was now approaching Divine Transformation Stage. Xuan Qing, upon learning he was “returning to the Spiritual Realm,” cried for several days straight, but knowing his father had left him a way to stay in contact, finally managed to hold back his tears most of the time.
Qin Jingzhou patted his son’s shoulder and shook his head at the scene of Ling Jing gleefully watching the show with crossed arms. “You’ve reached Nascent Soul, but you’re still just a kid.”
After Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing departed, Xuan Helin, who had been repeatedly drained of spiritual energy until she looked utterly old and haggard, asked to see Xuan Qing one last time.
Xuan Qing thought it over and agreed.
At the meeting, Xuan Helin blurted, “That’s not your father. Someone else has definitely taken over his body!”
Xuan Qing looked at her and said, “I know. But what does it matter? Whoever he is, to me, he’s my father.”
Xuan Helin screamed, “You don’t even know his name or family!”
Xuan Qing reached out to his birth mother, letting the mysterious mark in his palm flash briefly. He smiled in open mockery. “Do you want so badly for me to fall into madness?” With that, he stood up and walked away, utterly unconcerned by the sight of his birth mother clutching her face and sobbing.
Extraordinaries needed to hold true to their hearts. Xuan Helin was racked with regret, but at her moment of weakness, she still tried to drag someone else down with her.
But seeing through all this left Xuan Qing relaxed. He felt he’d never go mad again, at least not before facing tribulation and ascending to the Spiritual Realm.
He looked down at the mark on his palm. “Dad, wait for me.”
Waiting outside, Yuan Lingmei watched as her boyfriend floated slowly over. “Gu Lingfan and Ye Lingtian said once everyone trains successors, you three are forming a group to ascend together.”
Xuan Qing immediately scowled. “Have they no shame? They still want to fight me for Dad, even in the Spiritual Realm!”
Yuan Lingmei couldn’t help a peal of laughter.