As the dream ended, Qi Yuan sat up.
This answer wasn't unexpected, after all, with each step of Gao Changze's investigation, the opposition had cleared obstacles one step ahead. There must be someone within the Duty Bureau.
On the contrary, he would have been surprised if an ordinary person had stirred up such trouble.
Although different units varied, none were as independent as the Duty Bureau. Without real power, it was nearly impossible to convince others.
Qi Yuan knew he was far from being as cunning as those old hands, but he could still deceive others, ultimately due to the information gap resulting from the difference in strength.
To give the simplest example, if a cultivator at the Great Vehicle Stage told a small fry at the Qi Refinement Stage how to practice cultivation, who would doubt it? Unless another Great Vehicle Stage cultivator came out to argue, there would be no room for debate.
He stretched his body. Having split off too many avatars recently, his sense of time had been exponentially stretched by the avatars' memories, giving him a strong sense of "not knowing which year it is" typical of immortal cultivation.
For the sake of his mental and physical health during this rare opportunity for communication, he'd have to inconvenience this former ninth-ranked captain a bit.
...
At the Duty Bureau,
A muscular man in his fifties with graying hair sat casually in a chair, facing Yu Anhe, the director of the Duty Bureau.
Yu Anhe poured chrysanthemum tea from the pot into a cup and pushed it towards the man: "No wonder you haven't been in Jidu for the past few months. So you've been planning to leave. Are you sure you won't reconsider? Things are unsettled everywhere now."
Wei Zhiming picked up the teacup and took a small sip: "Time waits for no one. How much longer can I hold on at my age? Before, I couldn't find direction, but now I'm just one step away from the truth. If I can find that mysterious organization, I'll understand whether the gods can be revived, and fulfill my lifelong wish."
Wei Zhiming's expression remained unchanged. Compared to a mysterious organization, he was more inclined to believe in the masked figure, but there was no need to say more about that.
Yu Anhe smiled without further persuasion.
This former ninth-ranked captain's obsession with theology was not exactly common knowledge, but anyone who had interacted with him knew of his fixation on and yearning for the gods.
Changing Wei Zhiming's mind wouldn't be easy, and their ordinary friendship wasn't close enough for persuasion. Yu Anhe wouldn't make the mistake of speaking too freely in a shallow relationship.
Moreover, even parents shouldn't have the audacity to obstruct someone's dreams and pursuits. Wei Zhiming had left the Duty Bureau years ago, so there were no concerns about confidentiality.
If they could produce one Qi Yuan, they might well produce a second. To make use of civilian ability users, they naturally needed, and must have, some degree of tolerance.
However, as the director of the Duty Bureau, he had to maintain his stance, so he had to make an attempt.
His thoughts raced in an instant, and Yu Anhe joked: "If you really find it, that's not bad. Don't forget us when you make it big."
Wei Zhiming put the teacup back on the table: "You're still the same, always calculating..."
Inwardly, he was noncommittal. If Yu Anhe were the type to prioritize exchanging benefits above all else, he wouldn't have needed to leave Dragon Country. Because it would mean that as long as it wasn't out in the open, Yu Anhe would smooth things over, and Qi Yuan wasn't the kind of hot-blooded youth who would come brandishing a knife.
If those in power were purely driven by self-interest, death on the spot and death after trial would be two different concepts.
It was precisely because Yu Anhe wouldn't tolerate it, and now had the conditions to allow his intolerance, that Wei Zhiming had no choice but to leave.
Hmm...
Wei Zhiming suddenly sensed something amiss. Logically, after two hypocritical middle-aged men finished joking, they should burst into laughter.
Yu Anhe's silence was decidedly abnormal.
He looked up to see Yu Anhe with his mouth open, head tilted back in laughter, his body naturally leaning back. Everything seemed normal, except...
There was no sound.
No, that wasn't entirely true. There was a sound.
It was just that his ears were filled with a continuous ringing...
The laughter and the sound of Yu Anhe moving his body were completely absent. The scene before him appeared normal, yet there was an indescribable sense of strangeness.
It was like watching an eerie silent film.
The sudden change made Wei Zhiming's expression turn grim, though he hadn't even noticed it himself, until Yu Anhe waved his hand in front of him. Reading his lips, Wei Zhiming could tell Yu Anhe was saying, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
"It's nothing."
Wei Zhiming composed himself, and everything seemed to return to normal, but he knew that what had just happened was neither an illusion nor a physiological response to stress.
Yet a fire of anger ignited in his chest, burning through his viscera.
He had been provoked.
Or rather, it wasn't even provocation. The other party simply didn't take him seriously enough to inform him in this manner.
As far as he knew, only one person in Jidu could do this: Qi Yuan!
Wei Zhiming wasn't an unreasonable person, but even a man of clay has his limits. His repeated concessions were only because reason had prevailed.
Yu Anhe's eyes swept over, observing the changes in Wei Zhiming's body. He wondered what could have caused such a sudden change in expression, whether he had remembered something or was feeling unwell.
"If you're not feeling well, go to the hospital. You're not a child anymore, acting like you're three years old."
Wei Zhiming's face stiffened. The anger at being provoked by a junior had just subsided, only to flare up again.
Since ancient times, those who sought the way of gods did so for a few reasons: one for longevity, two for power, three for knowledge, four for regrets...
His self-deprecation about his age was, in fact, a manifestation of his concern.
Self-mockery and sudden mention by others evoked vastly different feelings.
In the end, he wasn't truly blinded by the provocation. His face contorted for a moment before he abruptly stood up.
"I just remembered something. We'll chat another time."
Wei Zhiming left the office hurriedly, as if some urgent matter awaited his attention.
Yu Anhe watched his old friend's erratic behavior with a thoughtful expression. He picked up his cup and stood by the window, which offered an angled view of the Duty Bureau's main entrance.
Before long, he saw Wei Zhiming appear at the gate. He took a step in a certain direction, seemingly normal.
But Wei Zhiming's step lasted a bit too long, and in the next second, he changed direction.
That direction was...
Yu Anhe's gaze followed Wei Zhiming's advancing direction outward, his eyelid twitching. He immediately closed his eyes, returned to his seat, rested his hand on the chair back, and took a sip of his health tea.
Heh, he hadn't seen anything.
However, he hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back, then wanting to hold back but unable to resist. Finally, he couldn't help but mutter to himself in the air.
"Don't go around looking through illusions, you think I don't know? This is illegal, you know?"
A breeze blew through the window, and Yu Anhe continued talking to himself: "If you know you're wrong, then change. Don't let me catch you next time."
As Yu Anhe wrestled with the air, he didn't realize that Qi Yuan's illusion hadn't lingered here, but had left with Wei Zhiming.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
