Wei Yuan and Xu Wan’er were Dao Foundation stage cultivators. They moved quickly and disappeared after just taking a single step. As a result, Xu Wenwu found himself alone in the eerie chamber.

The young man looked left and right. The more he looked, the more he felt like it was crawling with ghosts. Countless eyes seemed to be peering at him from the darkness, the faint, high-pitched voice of a woman was drifting through the air and singing something he couldn’t make sense of, a chill was creeping up his neck and growing colder as if someone was blowing cold air at it, and even the darkness was beginning to stir and writhe.

Xu Wenhu had read the novel about the giant snake scholar and the seven Misses. At the time, he had found the story to be utterly thrilling. Now, all he felt was bone-chilling cold. This was doubly true when he looked at the goddess’ statue; the one with a face that was eerily similar to the woman in the relief sculpture at the front hall. Right now, the statue was smiling at him and chilling him to the core. He felt like she was lusting after his body.

Xu Wenwu felt weak all over, legs trembling so badly that he could barely stand. It was only now he realized just how dangerous this world truly was. He would probably have to invest extraordinary effort to conquer it. Back in his own world, he had long given up on striving not because he didn’t want to, but because he had never had the chance.

Luckily for him, the one who would eventually conquer the world was Wei Yuan, not him. Xu Wenwu possessed a keen sense of self-awareness, fully understanding that he was merely fit to be a minister who supported an emperor, not an emperor for the ages. He harbored no grand ambitions—when the day came when Wei Yuan became emperor of the world, he would be content with just being a king who was granted his own fiefdom and sharing the same status as Wei Yuan. He wasn’t greedy either. This world was pretty vast. A fertile land spanning seven or eight thousand li would be enough for him.[1].

Things would get busy once he had secured his own fiefdom and become the one above all except the emperor. Xu Wenwu might not be ambitious, but he had plenty of ideas he wished to realize. For example, he would have his men build those so-called wine ponds, meat forests, Leopard Houses[2], and Lin Pools[3].

But of course, he could not neglect his spiritual nourishment. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy after all. He would round up several hundred scholars at the minimum and confine them to the imperial library to write stories for him. He would reward those who excelled and throw those who failed to live up to expectations into a dark cell, feeding them only water. Xu Wenwu was a firm believer that, no matter the caliber of the scholar, three straight days of hunger was sure to unlock a fountain of literary inspiration within them.

Buoyed by these thoughts, Xu Wenwu no longer felt quite as afraid as he was before.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan pushed open a door and stepped into a dilapidated house. He immediately spotted a bed in the center where a woman was lying on top of it. Her eyes were tightly shut, and her complexion looked rather pale. Faint bluish black qi was swirling persistently across her skin as well. Right now, her shirt was partially undone, and her skirt was pulled all the way down to her ankles, revealing a pair of round, snow-white legs. Snow-white skin was peeking out of her chest area as well.

The second Wei Yuan laid her eyes on her, he immediately confirmed through the signature of her primordial spirit that she was the real Yun Feifei in the flesh.

There were two other men in the room. One man looked to be in his thirties and was wearing a cruel, calculating look on his face. He was holding a throwing knife mystic artifact that was covered in blood. On the other side standing in the corner was a young cultivator with somewhat handsome features.

Right now, the young cultivator was pressing a hand to his abdomen, blood leaking between his fingers as he trembled, “Big Senior Brother! How could you do this to me?”

The woman-in-red saw the unconscious woman’s disheveled appearance and grew stormy. She barked, “What are you two doing?”

The one called Big Senior Brother turned to face the woman-in-red, his gaze turning gentle yet bitter. He began, “I’ve watched you since you were a child, Feifei. When you came of age, I was happy that you reciprocated my feelings, and Master gave us his blessings.... But that all changed when Little Junior Brother came.”

The woman-in-red replied, “There is nothing between Little Junior Brother and I.”

Big Senior Brother suddenly exploded, “Lying to me even now, Feifei? Did you really think I would notice how the way you looked at him changed over the years? The two of you were always going out on missions and adventures together. Eventually, even Master stopped talking about our union altogether. Everyone wants you and Little Junior Brother to be together, and no one is willing to help me! Just why? He had only shown up for a few months, but we were together for sixteen years!”

The woman-in-red let out a sigh. “It’s not what you think, Big Senior Brother....”

Big Senior Brother suddenly lifted his head and burst into a long laugh. “You’re still lying to me! In truth, I know exactly why you’re doing this—you covet his background and his Xu surname! Even Master proved himself to be just another sycophant who only cared about currying favor with the Xu Clan!”

While the duo talked, blood was still streaming down Little Junior Brother’s fingers and showing no signs of stopping. His panic grew as his breath weakened. Thus, he hurriedly spoke up, “Big Senior Brother, I didn’t intend to ruin your happiness. If you like Senior Sister Yun so much, then you can have her! I’m just a spy carrying out my elder’s order to obtain that item. I’m not actually interested in Senior Sister because, you know, my family would never allow me to marry a mountain woman of uncertain background. I.... Everything I said to her is just an act!”

His plea seemed to shake Big Senior Brother’s resolve a little. He asked doubtfully, “Are you telling the truth?”

Little Junior Brother hurriedly replied, “May the heavens strike me down if I said a single lie! Big Senior Brother, I am wounded pretty badly right now. Can you please treat my wounds already? If you let me live, I promise to speak to my father when I get back. I’ll ask him to arrange for one of our clan sisters to marry you[4] into the Xu Clan!”

Big Senior Brother hesitated even more and glanced back and forth between the woman-in-red and her limp true body on the bed. “But your Senior Sister and I are...”

“Big Senior Brother! Don’t you think it’s a bit too late to say this after what you’ve already done? There is no way this is going to end well for you, so you might as well see through your actions until the end and take her now! It’s not like you’re losing anything, are you?

“If she is smart, she will surrender that refuse-to-die[5]’s secret to you. You are free to make her your concubine then. If not, my family has ways of making her talk. We can then sell her to a brothel or better yet, the west.”

The woman-in-red yelled in fury, “Little Junior Brother! After all my devotion and Master’s favor to you, this is how you repay us?”

Little Junior Brother was still growing weaker by the moment. Desperate to see to his wounds, he snarled, “You’re just some savage from a backwater sect! Don’t you know your place? How dare you dream of joining the Xu Clan!”

Big Senior Brother was unsure what to do at the beginning, but when he heard the woman-in-red’s exclamation, his face drained of all color. “So, you do have feelings for him! There’s nothing else to say then. Today, I shall fulfill my long-standing desire!”

With that said, he walked over to the woman on the bed and reached out to rip off her clothes.

Enraged, the woman-in-red yelled, “You are courting death!”

Big Senior Brother sneered and grabbed the unconscious woman’s collar. While slowly peeling away the fabric, he said, “I’ve already dug out the Soul Drawing Box you buried in secret. You won’t be able to replenish your power of prayer at all. Want to kill me? I welcome you to try! It’s a shame that that selfish old ghost died too soon. If I had the Seven Star Reincarnated Body, I could’ve given your primordial spirit[6] a physical form and toyed with it to my heart’s content, not to mention other ways!”

Finally, Wei Yuan could not wait any longer and let out a cough. “Hey you. Why are you pretending I don’t exist?”

Both Big Senior Brother and Little Junior Brother turned their heads at the same time and stared at Wei Yuan with wide-eyed shock. They both exclaimed in unison, “Who are you? When did you show up?”

Wei Yuan was speechless. As it turned out, they weren’t pretending.

1. If you can’t tell, dude is anything but unambitious and greedless. ☜

2. No seriously, there was a Tiger-Leopard Garden, Tiger City, Elephant House, and more. ☜

3. Basically a fancy lake. ☜

4. Most of you probably already know this, but who marries who is very important in Chinese culture. Generally speaking, if you are marrying into a family, it is implied that your status/family status is inferior to your partner/partner’s family. If your status is equal, then it is always the woman marrying into the man’s family unless there were special circumstances. ☜

5. Meaning old bastard. ☜

6. I couldn’t really find a way to put it in the translation without sounding awkward, so here’s a note. The woman-in-red they’re speaking with is Yun Feifei’s primordial spirit. The unconscious woman on the bed is her physical body. ☜