“Maybe they were trying to spare your life.”
Yan Ku spoke with deep sincerity. After all, judging by how the story was going, if Meng Youdao didn’t die, he’d at least end up crippled.
Meng Youdao didn’t quite understand, still looking hesitant.
But Mu Dezhong, standing nearby, seemed to recall something. His expression as he looked at Meng Youdao was complicated. “The ‘Guan’er’ you mentioned… could she be from the Guan family in Feiyun City?”
Yuan Ji’s eyes flickered slightly at the mention of “Feiyun City.” “The Mu family is also from Feiyun City.”
“You know Guan’er?” Meng Youdao’s eyes lit up. Hearing news about her, some of his hostility faded, replaced by eager anticipation as he stared at Mu Dezhong.
“Ah, I was too rash earlier.” Meng Youdao suddenly smacked his forehead, as if remembering something, and pulled out several small porcelain bottles from his sleeve. “Here, here, don’t be shy—this healing medicine works pretty well.”
Yuan Ji, who had somehow ended up with a bottle shoved into her hands: “…?”
You gave it to the wrong person.
After this little performance, Meng Youdao eagerly sidled up to Mu Dezhong. “Elder, do you know something?”
After returning home, he had used his family’s resources to investigate for a long time but found nothing. If he could get even a scrap of information today…
Just thinking about it made him feel like today was his lucky day.
With him drawing everyone’s attention, no one noticed Guan Muping and Ai Xiang exchanging wary glances behind the crowd, their eyes fixed cautiously on Mu Dezhong.
This incident had happened over a decade ago. If it hadn’t been so earth-shattering at the time, Mu Dezhong wouldn’t still remember it so vividly.
“The Guan family of Feiyun City was indeed highly skilled in mechanical arts, making them one of the top families back then. But in that generation, they only had one daughter—I forget her real name.”
“I just remember her nickname was Guan the Second.”
“Pfft—!”
Ye Wenshu, who hadn’t expected the name to be that different, choked on a fried peanut in shock. The mental image of a delicate flower turning into an iron ox was just too bizarre.
“Ahem, Elder Mu, please continue.” Ye Wenshu waved his hands frantically, coughing for a while before finally stopping. “Pretend I’m not here.”
Even now, Mu Dezhong shook his head at the memory. “She looked sweet, gentle, and obedient, but secretly, she was an absolute menace.”
Hearing this, Yuan Ji grew interested. She rested her hand on the stone table, her fingers unconsciously tracing patterns as Mu Dezhong spoke.
“If she’d just been an ordinary troublemaker, that would’ve been one thing. But Guan the Second had incredibly dexterous hands—ordinary wood and stone in her grasp would turn into deadly weapons in no time.”
“If I recall correctly, she once dismantled her father’s wheelchair and built something… a fire-watching platform?”
Hearing this, A’Tong perked up too. It pricked up its ears and began rapidly searching its database for related information.
“Yuan Ji, we should find someone like her!”
Turning a wheelchair into a fire-watching platform? With all the scrap wood in our River God Temple, maybe we could even build a flying lighthouse!
Yuan Ji: “…”
She had a bad feeling about this.
Meng Youdao listened to Mu Dezhong’s words, swelling with pride as if he himself were being praised. “So this fire-watching platform must’ve been incredibly grand?”
“Not at all.” Mu Dezhong ruthlessly crushed his fantasy. “She blew up the Guan family’s estate.”
Everyone: “…?”
Meng Youdao fell silent for a moment, then skeptically rubbed his ears. “Ah, must’ve damaged my hearing earlier. Let me take some medicine first.”
With that, he pulled out seven or eight more bottles of pills and downed them all in one go. A surge of potent spiritual energy erupted from the medicine—now everyone understood how this guy had survived so long.
Yuan Ji hadn’t expected that outcome either. She chuckled softly, amused by A’Tong’s frozen expression. “You still want her to build you a lighthouse?”
A’Tong collapsed to the ground in despair, giving up. “Never mind. I’ll just save up money the slow way.”
“That can’t be!” Meng Youdao still refused to believe it. “Just because she blew up the house, they had to move?”
“Not exactly.” Mu Dezhong stroked his half-grown beard. “They moved because Guan the Second roasted the Demon Lord’s newly acquired spirit beast egg and got hunted by the demonic sects. Feiyun City was on high alert for a long time after that.”
Everyone: “…?!”
Now that’s impressive.
Yuan Ji fell silent for a moment before suddenly feeling a strong urge to meet this Guan the Second.
“A’Tong—”
“No!” A’Tong cut her off righteously. This person was too dangerous—what if she corrupted their pure-hearted host?!
Unlike the others’ reactions, Meng Youdao only cared about Guan’er’s whereabouts. “Elder Mu, do you know where they went afterward?”
Mu Dezhong shook his head regretfully. “They moved too quickly. I don’t know where they ended up.”
Meng Youdao’s hand dropped, his whole body slumping against a nearby plant in sorrow. Whether it was from grief or something else, his right arm suddenly started stinging.
He absentmindedly grabbed a piece of silk paper next to him, crumpled it into a ball, and clenched it in his fist, a fire burning in his chest.
“If anything happened to Guan the Second… Guan’er… I’d grind the old Demon Lord’s bones to dust!” With that, he hurled the paper ball to the ground with all his might!
The next second, a chilling aura enveloped the courtyard. Everyone’s backs prickled with cold.
Luo Qiushui and the others swiftly drew their swords, scanning their surroundings—but found nothing out of the ordinary.
“Damn it, could there be demonic spies here?” Had they overheard him insulting the Demon Lord and come to teach them a lesson?
Meng Youdao snapped back to attention, warily eyeing the area.
Meanwhile, Qi Yan’s gaze immediately locked onto an unknown plant in the courtyard. It had been so quiet earlier that no one had noticed how close it was to them.
But…
Qi Yan narrowed his eyes, suspicion flickering in his gaze. Hadn’t this plant been green before?
Following his line of sight, everyone collectively gasped. What the hell was this thing—now entirely red, with thorns sharper and thicker than iron rods?!
“R-River God… what is this?” Wu Boshan gulped, mustering the courage to ask.
Yuan Ji swept a casual glance over it and said offhandedly, “I think it’s called a cucumber?”
Yan Ku stared at the suddenly enlarged monstrosity, doubting his own ears. He’d killed so many cucumbers in his life—did he not know what a cucumber looked like?!
“Wait, something’s not right.” Yan Ku swallowed hard, a wave of intense danger crashing over him. “RUN!”
The next instant, silver light flashed as a storm of needle-like thorns shot toward them. Screams erupted from all directions.
After barely surviving the first wave of “Storm-Blossom Needles,” everyone finally caught their breath—only to see the plant shiver and grow a whole new row of spikes.
“AAAAAHHH!”
Ye Wenshu stared at the bottomless holes punctured into the ground before him and burst into tears. “My ancestors! River God! River God, save me! I’ll guard the River God Temple for life!”
“HELP!”
“Waaah! River God, we’re on the same side!”
……
A’Tong watched the scene unfold, floating midair as it slowly petrified—then shattered.
Yuan Ji rubbed her temples, her head pounding from the deafening screams. Frowning, she walked up to the mutated cucumber and studied it thoughtfully for a long moment.
“It was so well-behaved earlier. What happened?”
The mutated cucumber paused its frenzy. Just as everyone thought it had calmed down, it cautiously sidestepped—and resumed its rampage.
Everyone: “…?”
Then Yuan Ji’s gaze fell on the crumpled paper ball on the ground, and realization dawned.
“What’s this…” She bent down slowly, picked it up, and smoothed it out. Her slender fingers traced the words as she read aloud softly, though many were too smudged to make out clearly.
“A lotus-pink jacket draped over… soft trembling words whispered between… lips?” Yuan Ji frowned, confused—completely missing how Ye Wenshu had started trembling in the distance, while others’ faces flushed red. “Don’t…”
“What is this?”
A’Tong: “—IT’S A VIRUS! Yuan Ji, throw that filthy thing away!”
“Ahem.” Qi Yan cleared his throat, masking his own odd expression as he discreetly handed the paper to the enraged cucumber.
Sure enough, the cucumber pressed the inked side of the paper against its thorns—then instantly reverted to its earlier docile state, standing quietly beside the chili plants as if it hadn’t just caused mass panic.
Ye Wenshu stared in horror, feeling like the sky had fallen.
Ancestors! How did my erotic novel end up there?! I hid it so well!
There was no fixing this now. He’d just have to steal it back when no one was looking. Resolved, Ye Wenshu patted Yan Ku’s shoulder with the relief of a survivor. “Brother Yan, why aren’t you getting up? The River God and Cultivator Qi subdued the mutant cucumber!”
Yan Ku gave him a dead-eyed look. “I’m paralyzed.”
Ye Wenshu: “?”
“The cucumber’s thorn nicked my finger.”
“Now my whole body’s numb.”
Ye Wenshu: “!!”
Everyone stared at the tiny, sesame-sized wound on his finger, then at the now-harmless cucumber, and collectively shuddered.
Who knew the quietest one would be the most dangerous?
Young Master Mu, please retract your divine powers!
Mu Chao smiled faintly, though a trace of bitterness lingered.
“Enough. No more nonsense.” Yuan Ji stepped forward, exchanging points for an antidote from the system shop and dripping it onto Yan Ku’s hand to neutralize the paralysis. “Meng Youdao, you still haven’t explained how you got involved with the Mu family.”
Meng Youdao snapped out of his daze. “Oh, that. Guan’er and I met in Feiyun City, so I thought I’d settle there and build some influence.”
“Coincidentally, the Mu family head died unexpectedly, and the other families were scrambling to carve up their territory—so I went to watch the show.”
“But then Mu Danchen approached me, proposing a partnership. He claimed to have a formula that could resurrect the dead and skyrocket one’s cultivation.”
The Meng family specialized in alchemy, so Mu Danchen suggested that the Mu family provide the herbs while the Meng family handled the refining, with profits split 20-80.
“Resurrect the dead?! Skyrocket cultivation?! My ancestors!” Ye Wenshu gasped. Either of those alone would make cultivators from every sect fight to the death!
Something about this felt off to Yuan Ji.
“Do you have any of that medicine on you?”
