Chapter 53 — TVF Chapter 53

Metaphysics Master (10)  Jin Ziyun covered her face and thought for a moment. Even though those two hadn’t interacted at all, she still felt there would definitely be follow-up sooner or later. Ever since she’d been staying by her dad’s side all the time, her intuition seemed to be getting sharper and sharper—almost frighteningly so.

Seeing his cheap daughter’s expressions change nonstop, Qin Jingzhou deliberately asked, “What are you thinking so intensely about?”

Jin Ziyun answered honestly, “About the… ghost lady by your side.” She glanced at the ghost lady’s two stark-white skeletal legs. “Can they… be healed—no, repaired back to normal?”

Qin Jingzhou replied casually, “Of course.” He took out a wood-element spirit stone and placed it in Ling Jing’s hand. “You owe me a favor. I already got paid in merit for digging you out earlier.”

Ling Jing immediately seized the chance. “After I finish my revenge, I don’t really have anywhere to go… Boss, are you hiring—uh, I mean, recruiting ghosts? I don’t eat or sleep, I just ask that you don’t casually send me off to be transcended.”

Even Jin Ziyun—who had been feeling emotionally complicated about her dad possibly remarrying—couldn’t help laughing.

Jin Yuansheng and his sister had always shared an unspoken understanding. He also felt that as long as this ghost lady wasn’t hard to get along with, it was fine.

Gu Yu was a little uneasy, but only slightly. The ghost lady was going after the old master’s mistress and youngest son—he was fully supportive. If there were collateral consequences, they’d probably fall on the old master, who had always treated him well. At worst, he’d be caught in the middle. But that was a problem for later.

Chairman Xie and the others also laughed. If she were a fierce or evil ghost, she’d have to be transcended. But this one was still rational. Once her cultivation improved, she’d naturally become a ghost cultivator.

Ghost cultivators tended to keep to themselves, but overall, they were very rule-abiding.

By the time the helicopter landed, Ling Jing’s stark-white leg bones were already wrapped in a thin layer of pale green spiritual energy. As Chairman Xie got off the helicopter, he glanced at them and joked, “I’m honestly jealous.”

Qin Jingzhou said, “Come work for me, and I’ll cover medical treatment and advancement resources too. Interested?”

Chairman Xie burst out laughing.

Qin Jingzhou led everyone into the guest room of his house, to the bedside of Jin Ziyun.

“After two days of wood-element spirit fluid, the body’s basically repaired. It’s time for the soul to return.”

Hearing this, Chairman Xie and the others were instantly energized and crowded closer.

Qin Jingzhou continued, “I know what you want to say. Soul return is simple, but after being separated for several days, once the soul goes back, it’ll still habitually leave the body uncontrollably. If it happens too many times, one slip-up and—poof—soul dissipates.”

With spiritual energy present, a soul with some cultivation aptitude could survive for a while outside the body. But in the end, a soul couldn’t exist in the world indefinitely on its own.

Chairman Xie looked at Qin Jingzhou with undisguised anticipation. “Exactly. Many inherited texts say that after soul-stabilization, spontaneous soul separation won’t happen again. But the methods for stabilizing the soul seem to have been lost…”

Qin Jingzhou said, “You’re about to see it.” He turned to his eager daughter. “Go on.”

Jin Ziyun’s soul happily dove toward her body. Soul return didn’t really need teaching—it was truly something that “anyone can do.”

Once soul and body merged, Jin Ziyun abruptly sat up. Her strongest sensation was simple: “I’m starving.”

Under everyone’s intense gaze, Qin Jingzhou casually reached above his own head and grabbed. A strand of indescribable, faintly flickering golden thread appeared in his hand. He flicked his finger, and the golden thread obediently drilled straight into Jin Ziyun’s brow.

At that moment, if you screenshot Chairman Xie and the others’ expressions, you could directly turn it into a “I don’t understand it, but I’m deeply shaken” meme.

That golden thread was merit—something many people present knew well. Merit was known to be beneficial; that was common sense. But whether merit would activate, and when, had always been a matter of fate. Treating accumulated merit like an investment meant the returns were completely uncertain—you never knew if you’d profit or lose.

So aside from a handful of sects you could count on one hand, no cultivators bothered spending time or effort researching merit.

You could imagine how turbulent Chairman Xie and the others felt after Qin Jingzhou casually demonstrated targeted use of merit.

Qin Jingzhou hadn’t intended to hide such basic cultivation knowledge anyway. “The greatest use of merit is helping you avoid or survive tribulations. My heart tribulation is my children.”

Chairman Xie: Never in my life did I imagine a Core Formation senior like this! The officials couldn’t help exchanging looks.

Qin Jingzhou continued, “With my daughter healed, next is my son.” He glanced at his cheap son, who was rubbing Gu Chen’s head. “My son is exceptionally gifted. He has a demon core that can convert spiritual energy into demonic energy. So you can’t not keep an eye on him. But you probably didn’t know demon cores can also be resolved with merit?”

Ling Jing, who had been calmly acting as background scenery behind Qin Jingzhou, frowned slightly at that.

Chairman Xie already guessed where this was going and looked incredulous. “So…?”

Qin Jingzhou smiled. “Exorcisms, ghost removal, feng shui—send that kind of business my way. There’s a commission.”

Chairman Xie didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely!”

After seeing Chairman Xie and the others off, Ling Jing tugged lightly at Qin Jingzhou’s sleeve. “Big boss, I have something to say.”

Qin Jingzhou smiled. “So do I.” Then he took Ling Jing into the study together. There was no need to explain anything to the kids anyway.

Once inside, Ling Jing spoke without delay. “There’s something wrong with this world’s male and female leads.”

Qin Jingzhou poured her a cup of tea infused with spiritual energy. “If the leads were upright and clean, you wouldn’t be here. From the plot I got, at this point in time, the leads shouldn’t even know each other. The timeline’s probably already shifted because of me.”

Ling Jing shook her head. “Even if you didn’t come, the leads would still blacken. The real problem in this world is the female lead. I don’t know what plot you received, but what I know is this: when Chao Lan tried to eliminate the female lead’s bad luck, he initially only stole others’ luck in moderation. Later, he became completely unscrupulous. And Chao Lan believed he loved Su Weiwei and could give everything for her—but that belief itself was orchestrated entirely by Su Weiwei.”

Qin Jingzhou grew interested. “Then I really should go meet this female lead.”

Ling Jing paused, then added, “Also, you said Jin Yuansheng was born with a demon core? But the plot on my side says… the demon core was deliberately implanted into him.”

Qin Jingzhou: …

“The plot I got didn’t tie up all loose ends. It only says Chao Lan defeated Jin Yuansheng, a mysterious person appeared and removed the demon core from Jin Yuansheng’s body. Chao Lan gained enough luck to neutralize Su Weiwei’s misfortune, Gu Yu and Su Weiwei lived happily together, and Chao Lan finally let go, returned to his sect, and became its leader. I’m guessing Chao Lan’s ending wasn’t good anyway—it just feels like… a massive chessboard.”

Only then did Qin Jingzhou speak. “I really didn’t notice the demon core was implanted later.” He pushed open the window. “Son, come here.”

A moment later, not just his son arrived—his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson came along too… to watch the excitement.

There was no need for them to avoid it anyway. Qin Jingzhou had Jin Yuansheng lie down on the recliner and directly removed the demon core from beside his dantian.

He openly tested it with spiritual energy of various attributes, probing its internal and external structure.

Ling Jing, who had crammed cultivation basics before taking the mission, was full of question marks. She couldn’t help asking her system, “Pure spiritual energy of multiple attributes… what kind of cultivator can switch like this?” The system answered succinctly, “Jingjing, we’ve run into a big boss.” From the five elemental energies to lightning and ice, then yin and yang… just as Ling Jing was getting numb from watching, that flicker of purple—seemingly alive—flashed past Qin Jingzhou’s fingertips.

She blurted out, directly transmitting to him, “Innate purple qi! Big boss, what kind of monster are you?” Qin Jingzhou had already figured out the demon core’s secrets. He was also a bit incredulous himself, but that didn’t stop him from answering. “Just five spiritual roots. They all happen to be heavenly-grade.” Enough to achieve endless generation and free simulation and conversion—that was all.

Ling Jing clearly understood what grand five-element heavenly roots meant. She could only cry out, “Holy crap! You’re this strong—what benefits did your system promise to bind you?” Qin Jingzhou’s system, which had been sulking for a while, perked up at this.

Qin Jingzhou laughed. “My talent is a gold-devouring beast. When the system came to me, it didn’t feel like a trap, and the reward was generous, so I agreed. I was dirt-poor back then—so poor I couldn’t advance.” Ling Jing: …That actually made a terrifying amount of sense.

Qin Jingzhou’s system: I should be extremely lucky… so why does my mindset feel like it’s collapsing? After finishing his examination, Qin Jingzhou returned the demon core to its place beside Jin Yuansheng’s dantian and explained to his kids and Ling Jing, “A demon core that freely converts spiritual and demonic energy is a pretty valuable thing. I never would’ve imagined someone would want to modify it into an external core. That’s like using an anti-aircraft cannon to shoot a mosquito—let alone using such an external core to advance to Core Formation.”

He turned to his two sons sharing one body. “So you were basically treated as a walking flesh-and-blood cultivation vessel.”

Jin Yuansheng’s eyes turned red, his face twisted as he ground his teeth. “This is the root of my suffering. Dad—destroy it!”

Qin Jingzhou flicked a finger. From afar, his cheap son toppled backward with a bang, landing flat on the carpet.

“The demon core is a good thing. Besides, if they dared to send it over, they shouldn’t expect to ever get it back.” If he destroyed it now, how was he supposed to go fishing later?

As if by coincidence, ever since seeing the demon core with his own eyes, Gu Yu had seemed distracted. Just then, his chest tightened, a sharp pain stabbed his mind, and before he could react, he collapsed stiffly to the ground—following in Jin Yuansheng’s footsteps.

Watching coldly for a moment, Ling Jing—who already had suspicions—made up her mind. “Looks like the most terrifying existence in this world is the female lead.” Qin Jingzhou nodded. “Trying to artificially mass-produce cultivators—yeah, that’s terrifying.” Ling Jing snapped her head up. “Huh? Isn’t it about using demon cores as external cores to advance to Core Formation?” This time, Qin Jingzhou didn’t answer directly. “In your plot, did it ever mention that Chao Lan’s master’s attitude toward Su Weiwei was… a bit subtle?” Ling Jing immediately searched through the plot fragments. Sure enough, she found clues in several inconspicuous places. “Yes—more than one.” “Then Su Weiwei is probably Chao Lan’s master’s daughter.” Ling Jing covered her forehead. “So Chao Lan’s master cultivated Chao Lan for Su Weiwei all along… Does Chao Lan know?” Qin Jingzhou smiled. “What do you think?”