Chapter 39: Fate Compass, The Death of Lu Daoshuang

【The Qi Luck Value of the Child of Luck, Qin Yuan, has fluctuated and increased significantly. This is estimated to be an increase caused by force majeure and cannot be reversed.】

【Due to an error in the estimation of the Child of Luck's Qi Luck Value, the second part of the System Mall is specially opened for the host in advance.】

【System Mall Part Two: Fate Compass!】

After listening to the system's explanation, Lu Ren immediately made a decision in his heart.

If it were not the work of the Heavenly Dao, what else could this irreversible force majeure be? But Lu Ren did not expect that the system would actually break the rules for the Heavenly Dao and directly release the second part of the System Mall.

This caused a dark glint to flash through Lu Ren's eyes.

With a second part, who is to say there isn't a third...

The matter of Qin Yuan was already a foregone conclusion and could not be changed, so Lu Ren simply stopped worrying about it.

Looking on the bright side, the Heavenly Dao's refusal to give up on its own son, Qin Yuan, was not without benefits for Lu Ren. At the very least, this was the only known Child of Luck still alive, and he could still be "sheared like a sheep"—it was simply an added opportunity to generate revenue.

Lu Ren's expression softened significantly as he opened the second part of the System Mall.

The first part was named: Great Dao Treasury.

It was extremely arrogant.

It contained all kinds of heavenly treasures and cultivation manuals; there was nothing one could imagine that could not be found there.

However, for Lu Ren, while there were many useful items, his Qi Luck Value was very scarce, and the cheap items were of no use to him.

The second part of the System Mall, the Fate Compass, sold only one thing.

【A Wisp of Memory】

Within this, it was further subdivided into 【A Wisp of Memory of Lu Ren】, 【A Wisp of Memory of Lu Daoran】, 【A Wisp of Memory of Qin Yuan】, 【A Wisp of Memory of Yu Ruowei】...

The price was a uniform 100,000 Qi Luck Value.

This price was neither high nor low.

It was quite tempting, sparking an urge to give it a try.

This Wisp of Memory had no description, and it was difficult to infer what aspect of memory it was from the text alone. Priced at 100,000, it enticed people to act impulsively.

Lu Ren tapped his knuckles lightly against his knees, a flicker of deep thought crossing his brow.

He figured the system likely wanted him to experience it for himself.

Since that was the case...

Lu Ren no longer hesitated and directly redeemed 【A Wisp of Memory of Lu Ren】. Only by redeeming his own first could he more intuitively discover what point in time this memory belonged to.

Closing his eyes and opening them again, what Lu Ren saw was no longer his own cave dwelling, but a slightly gloomy sky. Drizzling rain poured down from the firmament, and a figure stood before him.

It was Lu Daoran.

The youth's aura was unstable, and a scar ran across his face from the corner of his eye to his philtrum, completely ruining his once-handsome features. His eye sockets were red, and his entire body trembled with extreme grief.

"Family... Family Head..."

The spirited youth could not even finish a complete sentence.

His teeth chattered, his hands held something steady, and his grief-stricken eyes contained bone-deep hatred.

"Daoran is incompetent; I failed to protect... failed to protect Sister Daoshuang."

Lu Ren's gaze shifted downward, and he felt his mind suddenly "buzz"! In Lu Daoran's raised hands, he held a blood-stained head. The face was filthy and unrecognizable, eyes tightly shut, the entire face slashed and ruined. Even much of the hair had been shorn away, revealing a bloody scalp already crusted with black, dried blood.

It was Lu Daoshuang.

She had no life left, only a head remaining, held tightly in the arms of the sorrowfully weeping Lu Daoran.

Fury and disbelief suddenly assaulted Lu Ren's mind. He looked around; the Lu Family within his line of sight was reduced to little more than broken walls and ruins. The few scattered clansmen were so numb they couldn't even cry.

Lu Daoran choked out: "In the Sword Soul Secret Realm, Qin Yuan joined forces with the Leng Family and the Dong Family to ambush our Lu clansmen. Only Daoshuang and I remained, but Qin Yuan used Elder Hong Ling's relic as a trap, causing Daoshuang to die to cover my escape. I... I..."

He could not continue at all. With a sob, a mouthful of thick blood sprayed out, his figure swayed twice, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.

Lu Ren was furious; he slammed the table and stood up, intending to kill those people, but in an instant, he felt his meridians were completely empty.

How could this be! While in disbelief, he clenched his fists, feeling such helplessness for the first time.

He had retrieved Spirit Medicine for Yu Ruowei, but his injuries had not healed for a long time. He had been betrayed, and Qin Yuan had leaked the news. To deal with the aggressive enemies, he had been forced to interrupt his secluded cultivation to heal.

Although he had repelled those people, it had left a permanent root of illness in his body.

To force those people back, he had not hesitated to use the Time Law, but because his injuries were unstable, he suffered a backlash and lost a great deal of his lifespan.

One wrong step, every step wrong.

Lu Daoshuang and the others had heard there were treasures in the Sword Soul Secret Realm that could help him recover from his injuries, so they had risked their lives, only to be ambushed by Yu Ruowei in league with Qin Yuan.

She died without a complete corpse.

Her remains were left forever in the Secret Realm; to think that only a head could be brought back...

"Pfft!"

Lu Ren spat out a mouthful of blood, his vision suddenly plunged into darkness, and his body went limp, though his emotions continued to burn.

Unreconciled!

Unwilling!

Resentful!

If only he hadn't taken the wrong path back then...

"Hiss!"

Lu Ren woke up from the memory with a start. That feeling of despair and unwillingness continued to erode his heart, and thinking of what he had seen in the memory, Lu Ren's expression became even uglier.

His most prized foster son's aura was unstable, and half of his meridians had been crippled!

His niece, the only daughter left behind after his elder brother and sister-in-law died, was now nothing but a blood-stained head!

Almost everyone in the Lu Family was dead, even Elder Hong Ling who guarded the Library Pavilion was dead!

If he hadn't been prepared, he feared he wouldn't have been able to maintain the calmness of his Qi right now!

After a long while, Lu Ren finally calmed the fluctuations of his emotions.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes.

The Leng Family, the Dong Family.

If he remembered correctly, Yu Ruowei once had a close bosom friend who was from the Leng Family, named Leng Hanqiu.

The Dong Family...

Lu Ren knew almost everything about Wanren City like the back of his hand; whether it was the Dong Family or the Leng Family, they both seemed law-abiding and rarely committed any offensive acts, and that Leng Hanqiu of the Leng Family could even be considered a member of the minor prodigies.

Yet in the future of his original Fate, the Lu Family was actually viciously backstabbed by these two families working together.

After careful deliberation, Lu Ren slowly exhaled a breath.

The Leng Family and the Dong Family could not be kept, but they also could not be removed; if these two families were gone, there would be others, so keeping them under his own nose was actually the best course of action.

And he had already figured out what exactly this so-called A Wisp of Memory was.

It was nothing more than a random fragment of memory, belonging to a specific timeline, concerning the future and possibly containing the past.

If utilized properly, one could find unique intelligence from within it.

It was indeed a good thing, though he didn't know if there were any from his own timeline.

After brief contemplation, Lu Ren confirmed one thing.

Qi Luck Value! Everything required Qi Luck Value! Qi Luck Value was simply an urgent necessity; originally, he had a peaceful mindset and did not pursue it excessively, but now, things were different from the past.

He had to take the initiative and collect more Qi Luck Value as quickly as possible to ensure he remained in an invincible position!

(End of this chapter)