Chapter 387: The Prodigy Looks at the Sword

The quiet corridor echoed with the sound of rain outside, and muddy shoe prints tracked into every household.

It had already entered the season of frequent rains; the damp, chilly climate combined with the dim corridor created a gloomy atmosphere, until a person appearing out of nowhere triggered the corridor's motion-sensor light, adding a streak of brightness to the gloom.

"I was just telling the truth—was that bitch insane? It hurts." Su Lin rubbed his temple, wincing.

"Good thing I stacked on a lot of armor—still far from being able to kill me."

Meek in other worlds, but unleashing heavy punches in the Type-Moon World.

The sense of loss from this fluctuation in power levels probably had him accustomed to it—he felt this way every few days.

It indirectly strengthened his Dao heart.

"What date is it today?" Su Lin pulled out his phone, glanced at it, then reached into an alternate space inside the fire extinguisher and withdrew a key.

Same as always—Mom was simmering soup in the kitchen, Dad was watching TV10's "Approaching Cultivation" on the sofa.

These days, Su Tuoni had stirred up plenty of events in this world, and combined with the commotion Su Lin had caused by showing off his powers publicly, the world's social structure had already begun to enter the so-called "Spiritual Qi Revival" phase.

"I'm back," Su Lin said, entering with a plastic bag holding takeout boxes, kicking off his shoes and slipping on slippers: "I ordered a few stir-fries—no need to cook lunch."

Su's mother's voice came from the kitchen: "Again, no warning? You never tell us when you're coming home."

"It's my own house—I can come back whenever I want, why do I need to announce it?" Su Lin replied with a chuckle.

Su Xiangrong picked up his thermos and said: "Save your money—don't go spending recklessly just because you've made a few bucks."

"Those transcendent things haven't been applied to production yet. The economy's bad—still need to save when you can. Your mom's cooking may not match mine, but it's still decent."

That was true—on weekdays Su Lin's father rushed to work, but on weekends he'd pick up the pots and pans; after all, he'd once served in the mess hall and his cooking wasn't bad.

"How's your business going with your partners lately?" Su Xiangrong shifted aside, gesturing for Su Lin to sit down and chat properly.

"Not bad," Su Lin thought for a moment and said: "Leading the industry by a wide margin—I recently acquired a company outright. Now I'm its chairman and legal representative."

Su Xiangrong froze. Although he hadn't dug up details about what kind of agricultural products Su Lin was growing in the tertiary sector, he knew these fruits were no ordinary thing—eating them had steadily improved his health. He suspected they were special produce supplied to a select group.

After the New Year reunion, a relative had called, saying the fruit was delicious and asking if he could get a sapling to plant in his backyard—but no matter what he did, it wouldn't sprout. Could he get a seedling?

Su Xiangrong immediately realized the man was fishing for information and brushed him off right away.

He knew his son was involved in something extraordinary—but he hadn't expected it to reach the acquisition stage so fast.

"Your own company?!"

Su's mother walked out of the kitchen, holding the clay pot by its ear handles with a damp cloth, her face beaming with unhidden joy. She set the pot down and hurried to the bedroom to fetch a bundle of unopened incense sticks.

"Last month I still prayed to them for your career to flourish—and now I've gotten good news this week!" Su's mother shoved the incense into Su Lin's hands, urging:

"Go pay your respects quickly—used to not believe in this stuff, but now better safe than sorry."

"Also pray for a romantic match—I know you're picky and like pretty girls. Coincidentally, I have a classmate whose daughter is single, she likes anime and gaming just like you, and she even enjoys cosplay—the family background's decent too—"

Su Lin's eyes went blank; he quietly cast a silence spell on his own ears.

He glanced at the unopened bundle of incense in his hand—inside were cards offering cashback for positive reviews—and then at the two statues displayed in the living room.

When he left last time, he'd clearly stolen them and thrown them in the trash—when had these two ordered two more?

No—Su Lin narrowed his eyes and sensed it: the statues concealed arrays.

"Hmm… actually… quite effective."

Su Lin placed three bowls of ramen on the table, along with the stir-fried dishes he'd ordered separately from Weigong Shilang: "Let's talk later—eat first. Carrying these dishes back exhausted me."

When the soup was also brought to the table, the three of them picked up their chopsticks.

But after the first bite, his parents—who had planned to chat while eating—suddenly couldn't stop. When they came to their senses, all the dishes were gone except the pot of soup.

"I'll take this soup with me—don't want it to go to waste," Su Lin said, storing the pot in his storage bag.

Su Xiangrong had just escaped the illusion induced by the food, refreshed and clear-headed, only to see Su Lin taking the family's soup pot away:

"You've finally come clean with your old man!"

Compared to Su's mother, whose mind was already scrambled and unable to distinguish reality, Su Xiangrong looked excited—almost euphoric.

This reaction surprised Su Lin—in fact, he'd brought out these transcendent foods today precisely to set the stage for what came next.

"You figured it out?" Su Lin asked.

"Little Ying comes to visit you every few days—she's a top-tier candidate selected for cultivation—what's she doing hanging around you?!" Su Xiangrong, having previously seen gifted individuals recruited by state cultivation schools, continued talking in shock:

"Even though she hasn't come lately, if you're not a cultivator, I'm afraid you're wasting her time! You little rascal, after tender grass!"

If a rascal doesn't eat tender grass, does he eat old grass?

Su Lin fell silent. He had agreed to let Su Tuoni take care of his parents—he spent long periods away, sometimes traveling to other worlds, including the Administrator's.

He'd settle accounts with him later for the honorarium—last time he used Ultimate Transcendence, the guy's pockets must be empty now. Perfect for robbing.

"You've misunderstood—it's just fellow sect members," Su Lin said calmly, lying without blinking:

"I happened to be discovered as having cultivation potential, and my frequent disappearances were due to a classified mission."

Su Xiangrong calmed slightly, wearing an expression of "I knew it all along," and said:

"Among the partners you brought home for New Year, Mr. Zhong spoke with extraordinary grace—I got along with him very well. His demeanor and way of speaking were clearly not ordinary."

Su Lin's face darkened.

Great—yeah, you got along so well you spilled all my personal preferences. Come to think of it, it's time to clean out my room—later I'll move all that stuff to the Sect Master's quarters on Water Mirror Peak.

"That Zhou Ming… Zhou Mingming?"

"Who's Zhou Mingming?"

"The one who won a lot of money gambling."

"Zhou Mingrui!"

"Oh, Zhou Mingrui."

Su Xiangrong slapped his forehead and said:

"Flower cards, mahjong, Texas Hold'em, Dou Dizhu—he swept from your second aunt's table all the way to your great-grandmother's table, never lost a single round! If he hadn't handed out red envelopes to every old man and woman at the end, we thought you'd brought home a professional cheater."

"We didn't notice at first, but later I kept feeling something was off—plus you were always mysterious, and kept bringing back all sorts of amazing things."

"Those people aren't ordinary, are they?"

He looked at his son, a hint of pride in his eyes.

"Impressive, impressive." Su Lin clapped half-heartedly: "You're right—I've been a cultivator since long ago. Those people are all my fellow sect brothers."

Under Su Lin's explanation, the two believed that even before graduating from university, Su Lin had been noticed by an old white-bearded fortune-teller near Erxian Bridge due to his extraordinary talent.

"Son… you really can cultivate?" Su's mother's eyes were reddened: "That's wonderful."

Su Xiangrong pointed to the fruit on the living room coffee table: "Why else would I tell you not to send these things outside lately? Haven't you noticed we've all grown younger after eating them for a year?"

"You're so clever!" Su's mother shot her husband a glare, patted her chest to calm herself:

"Son, you're an Eastern cultivator. Don't keep any statues of God in the house anymore. Take down the Western gods' statues and put them away—I heard your Hun Tian Di doesn't get along with him."

"No wonder you never showed him any respect and kept calling him a 'bird-man who does nothing.'"

"Indeed." Su Lin looked at the two statues, clenched his fist under the table, and smiled: "He really doesn't get along with him."

"Indeed," Su Tuoni rolled meat in a flatbread and sighed: "Tastes great. Choosing this place as a school was definitely right—this meal would cost at least 2000 yuan back home."

Due to the revival of spiritual energy and the emergence of cultivators, four new cultivation academies have been built nationwide, specifically selecting those with qualified talent and character for enrollment.

Jixia Academy, the most famous academy from the Warring States period, located in Linzi, the capital of Qi State—now Zibo City, Shandong Province—has one of its campuses right here.

This modern city, once famous for its barbecue, has become famous again—but this time it's different: around Jixia Academy, there are arrays and military forces; no internet celebrity or curious onlooker can sneak in to take photos.

For a time, college entrance exam and civil service exam cutoff scores rose by 30 points, and housing prices reversed their decline, staging a real-life surge.

"Master, are you sure it's fine?" A handsome boy stared at the mountain of skewers and the beer bottles scattered on the ground:

"Our bodies are no different from ordinary people's."

An adult man sat with five underage students at a roadside barbecue shop, drinking and eating meat—clearly teacher and students—but when people saw their school uniforms, their eyes burned with excitement before quickly looking away, though some still quietly pulled out phones to take photos.

Teachers at Jixia Academy are cultivators and have the authority to use spells against ordinary people who disturb their daily lives, so even if someone wanted to do something, they usually hesitated.

"It's fine. After all, those bird-men on their side do nothing," Su Tuoni poured himself a glass of juice and filled the students' beers, complaining:

"Lately I keep having nightmares—I think it's too much stress. I keep dreaming I'm being assimilated by a thing that looks like light but is actually twisted, wrong, indescribable—not quite right, just utterly insane, so insane it's beyond words, turning me into another monster."

"For several days straight. If one day your master turns into this kind of monster, make sure to give me a quick end."

Just as Su Tuoni was about to keep talking, a statue, wrapped in pure radiant light, pierced through time and space and struck his forehead.

Thud—!

Su Tuoni collapsed onto the stained concrete ground.

The handsome boy's face turned terrified; he slammed the table and shouted: "Master has been assassinated! Lock down the entire area!"

"Practice more, play less O," Su Tuoni got up from the ground, clutching his head, one hand holding the God statue, the other covering the handsome boy's mouth.

He looked at that table of barbecue—now completely gone.

His spiritual perception spread; the rainbow light in his eyes swirled, effortlessly locking onto a separate dimension.

"Heh, kid."

He sneered—and under some unknown force, that separate dimension shattered, spilling forth endless Bai Mang.

Amid the panic and screams of bystanders, a proud man clad in golden armor and with golden hair and red eyes stepped out of the Bai Mang, gripping a rotating cylindrical weapon whose tip resembled a black hole, compressing everything—even light—so it could not escape.

"Lowly cultivator!"

So it wasn't a revival of spiritual energy—it was a fantasy world entering reality?

The Gilgamesh from who-knows-where raised his Enkidu and slashed; Su Tuoni, confident, smiled and walked straight toward the spatial shear of wind pressure.

He pulled out his phone, ready to record his face meeting EA and post it online—but the next moment, he saw the EA in the camera slightly deform, its blade turning transparent, then—

The sky cracked open; countless stars began to fall.

"Holy shit."

Along with Earth, the Milky Way vanished.

"Creating an incomplete temporary world… a creative power," Su Tuoni held a black jade token, praising:

"And not some pathetic little world or alternate dimension—this is a truly independent new world. Though you're weaker now, I felt that world was complete, with multiple layers of cosmic laws."

"Impressive, impressive. In just a few months, you've grown this much."

"By the way, I still have enough points to use one more. You'd better keep your eyes off my artifact."

"Tsk." Su Lin clicked his tongue, cupped his chin, and muttered: "You've grown. I should've killed you decisively when you were still in the cradle."

He noticed Su Tuoni's gaze and flashed a bright smile:

"In just a few months, seeing you recover so well puts my mind at ease, hahaha."

'Should I use one more to take him down with me?' Su Tuoni looked at the unconscious students around him and said:

"I didn't expect you abandoned the Immortal Dao and took another path."

Su Lin shook his head: "I've only just reached the Great Ascension stage—not yet close to becoming an Immortal."

Bullshit! Where's your spiritual energy fluctuation?! Uh—

Su Tuoni stared at Su Lin for a moment—then realized there really was some, hidden beneath layers of cosmic laws.

Great Ascension? He grimaced, yet felt curious: "May I check your condition? With your permission, perhaps I can offer some guidance on the Immortal Dao."

Su Lin nodded. The other must have a way to directly observe—he was asking politely, showing mutual respect, and indicating he hadn't secretly scanned Su Lin's state since.

So Su Tuoni carefully studied him—and after a moment—

"Monster!" Su Tuoni's eyes bulged; he drew a purple longsword from empty air and slashed at Su Lin: "Sword, strike!!"

(End of Chapter)