“Old classmate, we meet again!”
Li Xinyue walked over gracefully in her high heels, exuding an air of endless charm. She forced a smile.
She had spotted Jiang Tian a while ago, but she felt annoyed inside. If her boss hadn’t called her over, she wouldn’t have come to greet him at all.
“Oh, so you’re working for President Yang now!” Jiang Tian smiled faintly and glanced up at Li Xinyue.
Li Xinyue was dressed beautifully—a white stand-collar silk blouse with a bow, a short tailored blazer that cinched at the waist, a light gray pencil skirt, and black high heels. Her long black hair was curled into fashionable soft waves, with wine-red highlights that made her look especially alluring and charming.
She could sing and dance, and had been the artistic backbone of the college back in her university days.
At the freshman welcome party, she had performed a belly dance to “The Heavenly Maiden,” swaying gracefully with endless charm, stunning the entire audience and instantly becoming every male student’s dream girl.
Now, compared to her university days, she had lost some of her youthful innocence, but her chest appeared fuller, her waist slender, her hips round—she carried more seductiveness and allure. Countless men’s eyes were wandering over her dishonestly.
“Haha, Jiang Tian, didn’t you pursue Li Xinyue back then? Now she’s just broken up with her boyfriend, and we’re traveling together—you should seize the opportunity!” Yang Wenlun laughed heartily, feeling extremely superior.
See that? The dream girl of every guy in college is now my secretary.
Li Xinyue was quite gracious about it. She politely extended her hand to shake Jiang Tian’s, but smiled with a hint of mockery. “President Yang, you’re underestimating Young Master Jiang too much. Young Master Jiang’s family is enormously wealthy—when would he ever look at an ugly duckling like me?”
Noticing Qing’er glancing over with a teasing look, Jiang Tian pretended not to see Li Xinyue’s hand. He frowned and said coldly, “Don’t joke around. I’m already married!”
He took Qing’er’s hand and stood up, heading toward the boarding gate, afraid that big-mouth Yang Wenlun might say something else unpleasant.
“He’s avoiding me?” Seeing this, Li Xinyue felt nothing inside—she even found it a bit funny.
What a joke. A nouveau riche whose family runs a pharmacy, a playboy who knows nothing, doesn’t even understand basic business etiquette—did he really think I’d throw myself at him?
There are plenty of rich second-generation and official second-generation men pursuing me now, several with assets worth hundreds of millions. How could you possibly compare?
“Jiang Tian, they were just joking. Don’t be so nervous. I don’t care about your past!”
At the boarding gate, Qing’er squeezed Jiang Tian’s hand and smiled.
“I swear to the heavens, I never even touched a finger of hers before!” Jiang Tian said very seriously.
“Alright, alright, I believe you! Hurry and board!” Qing’er smiled with a face full of tender affection, pushing him toward the boarding gate.
He was worried she’d be jealous, and he was especially nervous—was this really the same Master Jiang who cut down everything in his path?
“I’ll come back quickly!”
Boarding time arrived. Jiang Tian hugged Qing’er tightly, showed his ticket and boarding pass, and stepped into the boarding tunnel.
Qing’er watched the plane fly into the clouds and disappear before turning and walking toward the exit.
……
On the plane, by coincidence, Jiang Tian and Li Xinyue were seated next to each other.
Li Xinyue smiled and said, “Your wife is quite beautiful! No wonder you dote on her so much!”
“Mm…” Jiang Tian nodded without looking sideways.
“There’s no cat that doesn’t steal fish these days. Don’t you want to?” Li Xinyue tucked a strand of hair from beside her face behind her ear, flirting, and leaned close to Jiang Tian’s ear, asking like a lover’s whisper.
“Mm…”
Seeing Jiang Tian looking completely uninterested, Li Xinyue shrugged.
But this actually sparked her competitive spirit. Bastard, what are you pretending for? Don’t you remember how you groveled when you pursued me back then?
There’s no man in this world I can’t conquer.
She was the type of career woman who was good at leveraging her gender advantages, with a very open mindset.
She had no real feelings for Jiang Tian—she just treated this as a game.
After thinking for a moment, she took hand cream from her purse and carefully applied it to her slender, delicate hands.
Suddenly, she let out a coy cry. “Oh no, I applied too much. This is Lancôme, I can’t waste it. Here, let me put some on you!”
She grabbed Jiang Tian’s large hand, trying to flirt with him.
“Don’t touch me…”
Jiang Tian frowned. His cultivation technique activated, and his palms instantly became scorching hot, like burning charcoal.
“Ouch!”
Li Xinyue screamed from the burn and yanked her hand back.
She looked at Jiang Tian with shock and fear. “You—your hand is so hot! Do you have a high fever?”
“Stop talking!”
Jiang Tian really wanted to slap a silence talisman on her to seal her mouth shut. Then he closed his eyes with a look of disgust and started snoring.
“Fell… fell asleep?”
Li Xinyue felt utterly defeated, extremely frustrated.
“Could it be that he’s truly changed his playboy ways, or does he prefer elegant, understated girls now?”
Li Xinyue wondered inwardly.
She noticed that Zhao Xueqing wore no makeup and went bare-faced, yet had a moving, lively spirit about her—completely different from her own style. That’s where this thought came from.
No matter what she was thinking, she eventually settled down and boredly flipped through gossip magazines.
……
The plane flew for seven or eight hours, and finally landed at Xingzhou International Airport. Red Leaf Immortal Xu Wenjie and other Lingnan arcane masters were already waiting for Jiang Tian at the airport gate.
The moment he exited the airport, Jiang Tian felt Xingzhou’s prosperity and wealth.
Although it was just a city of only a few million people, tall buildings stood everywhere, lights blazed brilliantly, and it guarded the vital Malacca Strait—incredibly prosperous.
Travelers flowed endlessly, of all skin colors and ethnicities, speaking English, Japanese, Spanish, Malay. Many planes stopped in Xingzhou before continuing to other destinations.
Jiang Tian nodded inwardly. No wonder it was one of Asia’s Four Little Dragons, on par with South Korea and Hong Kong Island.
Around 2008, Xingzhou’s GDP per capita had already reached forty thousand US dollars, far surpassing mainland China’s first-tier cities like Yanjing, Zhonghai, and Yangcheng. Even Hong Kong Island couldn’t compare.
Xingzhou’s high-tech, logistics, shipbuilding, and electronics industries were all highly developed. It was only many years later that mainland China’s first-tier cities gradually surpassed it.
“Hm?”
Walking out of the airport with Yang Wenlun and Li Xinyue, Jiang Tian suddenly paused.
His spiritual consciousness spread out, and he immediately sensed wave after wave of powerful auras—even denser than at the Martial Alliance Conference.
“Not martial artists, but arcane masters…” Jiang Tian marveled inwardly.
A small airport alone had at least a dozen arcane masters at the Entering the Dao cultivation level—let alone all of Xingzhou.
The path of arcane arts, according to what Old Tang had said years ago, was divided into four levels: Sense, Entering the Dao, Communing with the Mysterious, and Dao Body. In terms of strength, they roughly corresponded to the martial path’s Iron Body, Internal Energy, Transformation Realm, and Divine Realm.
In other words, these Entering the Dao arcane masters could almost cut down a martial arts master at the Internal Energy level.
It could be said that since Jiang Tian’s return, this was the first time he’d encountered so many arcane practitioners, especially so densely packed. A tiny airport had over a dozen!
This was because cultivating arcane arts was even harder than martial arts—it required not only rare treasures but also innate talent. So arcane cultivators were even rarer and harder to find.
Someone like Wei Shuofeng, who had spent his entire life and only reached the Communing with the Mysterious level, could dominate a region and control most of Lingnan.
Among Chinese martial artists, those who could reach the Transformation Realm and be called grandmasters numbered at least several dozen—including hidden ones who never showed themselves, possibly even over a hundred. The Dragon Group had even published a Divine Ranking.
But arcane masters had no such ranking, because there were too few of them to rank at all.
As far as Jiang Tian knew, only Maoshan Sect and Dragon Tiger Mountain’s Celestial Master Sect had a few old monsters at the Communing with the Mysterious level holding the fort.
“I’ve heard that Xingzhou people and all of Southeast Asia believe in feng shui, arcane arts, and Nanyang dark arts, worshipping all kinds of masters. Seeing it today, it’s certainly true! Xingzhou truly deserves to be called the City of Arcane Arts!”
Jiang Tian felt a bit excited and emotional.
If that were truly the case, there must be plenty of arcane formation materials here. This trip should be worthwhile.
“Jiang Tian, want me to give you a ride? This is our company office’s car—only worth a bit over a million! Our family company now has assets of over ten billion. This car doesn’t even suit my status anymore!”
At the airport exit, Yang Wenlun proudly pointed at the Lexus that had come to pick him up, smiling arrogantly.
“No need, I’ll just grab a taxi!” Jiang Tian smiled.
“Jiang Tian, keep in touch! Tomorrow the Guo family is holding the birthday banquet. Come find me at the hotel!”
Yang Wenlun felt very pleased inside. Heh, looks like you’re really doing poorly—you even have to take a taxi.
He was only showing off. Why would he actually give Jiang Tian a ride? He shook Jiang Tian’s hand and got into the Lexus without looking back.
“Bye, Jiang Tian!”
Li Xinyue also curled her lip imperceptibly, then smiled sweetly and got in after him.
After they drove off, Red Leaf Immortal and Xu Wenjie’s silver-gray stretch Bentley slowly pulled up.
“Master Jiang!”
The two got out together, bowed respectfully to Jiang Tian, and helped him open the car door.
“Thanks for your hard work!” Jiang Tian patted their shoulders and got in happily.
The moment Jiang Tian withdrew his spiritual consciousness…
Everyone felt a chill run through their bodies, but they only thought it was a cool breeze passing by.
But one old man suddenly turned his head toward Jiang Tian’s direction and frowned. “Strange, why do I feel like someone’s watching me?”
The old man wore a black front-buttoned long gown and soft-soled old cloth shoes. He was already eighty years old, with a flowing white beard and youthful face—giving off an air of immortal elegance.
“Grandpa, you’re the number one feng shui and arcane master of Hong Kong Island. Who would dare stare at you?”
Beside him, a young girl in an apricot-yellow Taoist robe, carrying a peach wood sword on her back and several talismans hanging from her shoulder, laughed.
She was only fifteen or sixteen, cute and innocent.
This strange outfit would seem highly bizarre in mainland China, but in Xingzhou, no one even gave her a second glance.
“Mm! True!” The old man nodded proudly.
He was Xu Mozhai, a feng shui master from Hong Kong Island, with very high status there. Even the four major families like Li Chaoren’s relied on him, and he could speak with the Chief Executive.
“This time, attending the Nanyang Arcane Arts Conference, we must show the Nanyang arcane world the strength of our Xu family’s talisman school!”
The old man smiled proudly.
