After dinner, Li Xinwen went back to his room. Saying that he was too tired after playing all day and wanted to rest early was his excuse. When he got to his room, Li Xinwen looked through the cultivation manual. ‘But then… what if there are better cultivation techniques for him?’ he thought, since there were still more books in the dimension. Even though he said that, he still spent time reading through everything. He put those that were compatible with Sun Xiao’s physical constitution aside, then sent the rest back into the dimension.
When he looked at the clock, he realized that it was already close to 10:00 PM. “I wonder if Hua-jie is already asleep…” he murmured in a soft voice. Though he already knew the reason why Li Jinghua was protective of him, and how Li Xinwen died in Li Jinghua’s apocalypse, he still wanted to know more. “She mentioned that Mr. Min was able to create a pill to cure the zombie virus by using the cauldron… I wonder if she saw it personally…”
Deciding to enter Li Jinghua’s memories once more, Li Xinwen turned off the lights and went to bed. Closing his eyes, he let his spiritual energy enter Li Jinghua’s mind and started to look through her memories. But halfway through, he suddenly felt someone else’s presence in his room. Not only that, this person even got onto his bed. Thinking it was an enemy trying to assassinate him, Li Xinwen retracted his senses and returned to his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw a figure hovering over him. A hand was under his shirt, feeling his entire body.
As if sensing that Li Xinwen had opened his eyes, the man looked up and met Li Xinwen’s fierce glare.
“Ah, did I wake you?” the voice was calm, as if it was natural for him to be in the room at that exact moment.
Li Xinwen frowned at the familiar voice and quickly became alert. ‘This kind of person… must not be let off so easily lest he does not learn his lesson!‘ Li Xinwen thought to himself. In the next second Li Xinwen raised his hand and pushed the man off him. Judging from the fact that the man flew off the bed and crashed against the opposite wall with Li Xinwen’s push, describing the act with the word push would be an understatement.
The crash should have made a loud noise and should have woken the entire Li household, but Li Xinwen had taken the precautionary measure of setting up a barrier around the perimeter of his room, thereby isolating any sound or disturbance occurring within it.
“Care to tell me why the second young master of the Xue family is in my room this late at night?!” Li Xinwen asked as he got off the bed and approached Xue Liang in a domineering manner.
Xue Liang picked himself up from where he crashed after being pushed by Li Xinwen. At first, he was surprised, but as Li Xinwen approached him, it didn’t take long for his surprise to turn into excitement. His eyes filled with lust and never left Li Xinwen as he stood up and straightened his suit.
“So, not only did your temperament change, you also became stronger?” Xue Liang asked, his voice laced with unfathomable desire and lust. “But you’ve been in a coma for two months and only woke up recently. So how did you manage to become this strong? I wonder… would you mind sharing your secret Xinwen?” Xue Liang asked, a dark smile curling up his lips.
‘This guy… something is definitely wrong with his head,‘ Li Xinwen thought. As he stared intently into Xue Liang’s eyes, he saw a hint of madness glazing them. ‘I should erase his memories and just call Xue Rui to pick this guy up afterwards.’
While Li Xinwen was thinking, Xue Liang continued to speak. “You see, I’ve already asked those doctors but they said that nothing about you is suspicious. The discharge report says that your body still has several scars that have yet to disappear. But when I touched you earlier, your skin was smooth, and devoid of any scars…”
“Oh? So, what does the second young master want to say?” Li Xinwen asked in a low, dangerous tone. By manipulating the spiritual energy in the room, Li Xinwen put pressure on Xue Liang, forcing the man to fall to his knees. At the same time, he made sure to only use pressure that a rank one Houtian practitioner can exert. After all, he didn’t want Xue Liang to accidentally turn into a bloody mess on the floor. “No matter, after this, you won’t remember a thing.”
Li Xinwen crouched down and touched Xue Liang’s forehead. Just as he was about to inject some spiritual energy to wipe out Xue Liang’s memories for the day, something unexpected happened. Because this was the mortal realm where most mortals were non-cultivators, Li Xinwen lowered his guard after putting pressure on Xue Liang. After all, it was unheard of that a mere mortal could withstand the spiritual pressure of a cultivator. And yet, here was a man who was currently proving him wrong.
Xue Liang’s lips curved into a dark smile as he made his move. In one swift movement, he aimed a tranquilizer-filled syringe at Li Xinwen’s neck. However, it was unfortunate for Xue Liang that Li Xinwen was now a peak fourth stage Houtian, so the flimsy tip of the syringe broke the moment it hit Li Xinwen.
Li Xinwen blinked a couple of times in disbelief as he stared at Xue Liang. At the same time, Xue Liang also stared at Li Xinwen, dumbfounded as he looked at the syringe with its broken needle.
“You…” Xue Liang began to speak.
BAM!
Li Xinwen aimed his fist right into Xue Liang, punching him right across the face. The punch didn’t have any spiritual energy; it was just a regular punch. Of course, if it was up to Li Xinwen, he would beat the man before him to a pulp.
The punch was enough to make Xue Liang fall to the floor, and Li Xinwen frowned once again. Earlier, when Xue Liang moved, he thought that it was because this man might also be a cultivator, albeit a low ranking one. But after seeing this, he knew that his conjectures were wrong. A cultivator, no matter how weak, even if they had only just started their cultivation, could not be thrown down by just a simple punch with no spiritual energy imbued. ‘So he really is mortal… a mortal who can stand against the pressure of a first stage Houtian.’
Xue Liang had piqued Li Xinwen’s interest. He stared at Xue Liang who was currently wiping the blood off his lips after the punch. Sitting down on the floor with his legs crossed, Li Xinwen continued to stare at the other man. “I’ll give you a chance. Tell me why you’re here,” Li Xinwen said as he activated Mo Yan to inspect Xue Liang’s body. ‘Ah, no wonder he could resist slightly,’ Li Xinwen thought in his mind as he discovered the reason. ‘This man completed the first stage of Body Transformation and is actually close to entering the second stage.’
***
Due to his curiosity, Li Xinwen increased the pressure he was exerting. From the pressure of a lower stage one Houtian to middle stage, he could see that Xue Liang was still able to resist and nothing much had changed. But when the pressure entered the peak of stage one Houtian, Xue Liang finally coughed up blood and Li Xinwen immediately stopped. ‘Just a mere stage one body transformation practitioner and he could already resist the pressure from a mid-stage one Houtian? He has a lot of potential. It’s unfortunate that I don’t like him,’ Li Xinwen thought as he put his hand over Xua Liang’s head and proceeded to inject his spiritual energy, erasing the things that had happened the moment Xue Liang got into his room. Then, he proceeded to create a fake memory, making it so that after Xue Liang entered his room, he had an accident and fell, knocking his head and falling unconscious.
After he was done, he went over to his table and grabbed his phone that was charging. He scrolled over his contacts list, found Xue Rui’s number and proceeded to call him. It took several rings before the phone call was finally answered.
“Hello?” Xue Rui’s words slurred as he continued to speak. “Xinwen… Ah‘Wen… I love you so much and I miss you so much~”
Li Xinwen’s expression turned dark when he heard this tone. “Rui-ge, are you drunk?” he asked. “Can you drive?”
“Drive? Of course, I can! Xinwen, ah! Just tell me where and I’ll go to you. I promise that I can drive all night long and give you the utmost pleasure~”
Li Xinwen: …
Li Xinwen couldn’t say anything. He became speechless at Xue Rui’s reply because he didn’t understand what it meant until he remembered a certain modern slang. His face was immediately covered with black lines and was just about to scold Xue Rui when he heard another voice on the other end of the line.
“Xiao Rui, you’re drunk. Let your big bro answer it,” then following that voice, Li Xinwen could hear Xue Rui struggling.
“No! Brother… please don’t take Xinwen away from me!!”
Li Xinwen decided to simply wait for the people on the other side to be done while glancing over at Xue Liang who was out cold on the floor. Not long after, Li Xinwen heard Xue Rui’s voice again.
“Xinwen, are you still there?” he asked, his tone sounding very pitiful.
“Here. Rui-ge, I won’t repeat this so listen carefully… come over quickly and pick up your brother,” Li Xinwen said before he cut off the phone call.
***
A few hours before Li Xinwen’s phone call, 7pm at the Fluorescene Club, Xue Rui met up with his eldest brother. In this private room, there was only the two of them and no one else. Xue Rui sat down opposite his brother who had a stoic expression. “You look well, Jun-ge. I guess the army is treating you well?” Xue Rui asked as he greeted his brother, Xue Jun.
Xue Jun nodded his head at Xue Rui’s question. “Have you eaten?” his brother asked and Xue Rui shook his head.
“I came here straight from work… I finished quite late so I didn’t have time to eat,” Xue Rui replied.
“Then, let’s eat something first. Pad your stomach before drinking.”
They proceeded to call for the waiter. Because they were frequent customers of the club, they simply ordered the usual and the waiter understood.
“Xiao Rui, tell me what happened with Xue Liang earlier.”
Xue Rui felt distressed as he recounted what happened earlier. How Xue Liang had said he had taken advantage of Li Xinwen behind his back by impersonating him. Just thinking about it made his heart heavy and caused him a headache from all the stress. He slowly explained to Xue Jun about Xue Liang’s matter and the eldest of the triplets also felt a headache coming.
From when they were young, Xue Liang had always been a troublesome child. The reason lay with their parents. Their father, Xue Yunfeng, only focused on raising the eldest to be his successor. On the other hand, their mother only doted on the youngest and even spoiled Xue Rui. Xue Liang always felt that he had no place in his own home so his rebellious phase came early.
Things got worse when they entered their teens. Xue Liang was caught in a street fight and when their father found out, the man was livid. It was only then that they found out that Xue Liang had joined an underground organization. Xue Yunfeng was very close to disowning Xue Liang then, but was stopped by their grandfather. Old Xue told Xue Yunfeng to let Xue Liang do as he pleased, but at the same time, he also told Xue Liang that he was not allowed to step into their ancestral home until he reached the top of the food chain within the underworld circle.
This was tantamount to Old Xue’s wishes to subdue the underworld circle. At that time, Old Xue’s rank was that of a General, a rank above Xue Yunfeng who was a Lieutenant General. Then, two years ago, Xue Liang returned to their ancestral home with his head held high. In just five years, he had managed to become the master of the underground organizations. But at the same time, Xue Jun had also reached the rank of Brigadier General at the age of 20, making him the youngest to reach the rank in history. Then, a few months later, Xue Rui reached a great achievement in the business world, and became the youngest man to become a business tycoon.
All sorts of praise for the Xue Family hailed from every direction. But due to the nature of Xue Liang’s business, his achievements were naturally concealed. Feeling that the family was treating him unfairly again, Xue Liang ‘ran away’ from home. Although he ran away, he still kept in close contact with his brothers.
“I sent some men to search for Xiao Er but he really knows how to hide himself. If he doesn’t want to be found, then he won’t be found,” Xue Jun said with a heavy sigh. “I should put a tracker on him when we see him again…”
“Ge, that aside, what should I do? Because of Er ge, my relationship with Xinwen has become very complicated… Please tell me how to fix this…” Xue Rui said helplessly.
Xue Jun was just about to answer when the waiter came in with their food. “We’ll talk later. First, let us eat,” Xue Jun said as he picked up his utensils. Xue Jun was raised in a very strict manner and one of the rules he was taught was that one should not speak while eating. Xue Rui understood this so he quietly ate his food.
After dinner, they ordered a couple of bottles of wine and in just a few hours, Xue Rui was undeniably drunk. He continued complaining about matters involving Xue Liang to Xue Jun who only made comments every now and then. It was only after Li Xinwen’s call that Xue Rui felt slightly better. But the last sentence that Li Xinwen uttered before cutting off the call made him sober up. ‘Pick up my brother…?’
“Xiao Rui, what’s wrong?” Xue Jun asked when he saw the change in his brother’s expression.
It took Xue Rui a while to process what he had heard and once he got it all figured out, his face became dark. “Brother! I’m going to the Li household!” he said as he stood up and grabbed his coat. Though he had sobered up slightly, he was still drunk, so it was not good for him to drive.
“Driving in this state? If you want to go and meet your maker that quickly, feel free to do so. Otherwise, wait for a bit. Big bro will pay and then we’ll go to the Li household together. I have someone waiting for us outside,” Xue Jun said as he stood up. “But you will explain the details of what happened when we’re in the car.”
“En. Thank you, Jun-ge,” Xue Rui replied. “And… it’s just that, Xinwen said that Xue Liang is there with him… now I’m feeling anxious…”
“We’ll go quickly,” Xue Jun said, understanding his brother’s worry. Deep inside, he was also worried. Though he never told his brother, he had looked up Li Xinwen’s information once and was enamored with the young man. Unfortunately, because Xue Rui fancied him already, Xue Jun decided to give up, harboring his feelings of affection for Li Xinwen privately instead of letting them come to light. Because his youngest brother fancied him, he did not look for the young man again and as such did not find out about the matters involving Xue Liang until today. ‘If only I continued to keep an eye on him, I could’ve kept him safe…’ he thought to himself, feeling regretful.
