Chapter Forty-Eight: A Father's Duty to Repay His Son's Debts—A Law of Heaven and Earth

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[Current remaining spiritual energy: 1560.]
[Player summoned successfully. They have been randomly placed in Yingdu City and granted a suitable identity. Please edit this player’s exclusive quest.]
Su Jian pondered for a moment, then began to compose the quest.

[Expose to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion that the righteous alliance plundered the branch in Lingzhou City. Also, discover Xi Wang’s whereabouts and slay a thousand cultivators of the righteous alliance who have reached the Foundation Establishment stage or higher.]
[Quest generated. Awaiting player acceptance.]

A son repays the debts of his father; such is the law of heaven. His chief aim this time was to make use of the Lingzhou City incident. If he could provoke conflict between the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and the righteous alliance, so much the better. Even if it failed, he stood to lose nothing. If anything happened, it would be the player who would suffer...

…

At that very moment, Ouyang Feng’s expression shifted unpredictably. He had just been about to duel with Hong Qi atop Mount Hua, but before he could react, a wave of dizziness swept over him, and he was forcibly brought here.

Only after a while did Ouyang Feng come to terms with what had happened. Suddenly, he remembered the strange disappearance of his son, Ke, years ago. The maidservants had said that Ke vanished into thin air, as if spirited away by ghosts. When he first heard this, he scoffed and immediately concluded that the maids had colluded with outsiders to harm his son. How could he believe such a feeble excuse?

Now, however, it seemed the maids had not lied after all. Yet he felt no guilt; those who enjoyed the protection of White Camel Manor were expected to pay the price.

[Your quest has arrived!]
[Expose to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion…]
[Complete this quest and you may choose one of the following rewards:]
[The entire trajectory of your future life.]
[The Nine Yin Manual.]
[The Celestial Ascension Sutra.]

Ouyang Feng’s face twisted involuntarily. In his younger days, he had fallen victim to vile schemes and practiced the Nine Yin Manual in reverse, which led to his later madness. What would be the consequence of failing the quest? This time, the voice in his mind gave no answer.

Ouyang Feng dismissed the quest from his mind. His sole remaining thought now was to find Ouyang Ke as quickly as possible.

…

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[Player Ouyang Feng shows little interest in your quest and has begun to search for Ouyang Ke’s whereabouts.]
Why can’t he ever give me some peace… Su Jian sighed. If it weren’t for the fifty thousand points of spiritual energy spent on the summoning, he’d have half a mind to beat the man to death himself.

This was the greatest flaw of the player summoning system—every summoned player possessed independent thought; none of them were the kind to blindly throw themselves into completing missions like mindless fools. Now that things had reached this point, Su Jian would have to guide him personally.

Ouyang Ke was Ouyang Feng’s soft spot; with that in hand, manipulating Ouyang Feng would be child’s play. Perhaps he could feign a message from Ouyang Ke to Ouyang Feng? The method seemed feasible, but its execution would not be so simple. It would be too abrupt for Ouyang Ke to send a letter—how would he know Ouyang Feng had been summoned? It would be difficult to explain plausibly.

If anything, such an act would arouse Ouyang Feng’s suspicion and prove counterproductive. Su Jian pondered for a moment, and a plan began to take shape in his mind. As long as he convinced Ouyang Feng that Ouyang Ke had been assigned the same quest, Ouyang Feng would naturally give his all.

This matter could not be delayed; it had to be done before nightfall.

…

Before returning home, Su Jian made a point of purchasing two mortal servant girls. He had no requirements regarding their appearance, as long as they were decent to look at. In the end, he secured their contracts for two pieces of spirit stone.

Su Jian couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: “In this world of cultivation, mortal lives are as cheap as grass. Two living, breathing people are worth less than a single stalk of quality spirit herb.”

With that, Su Jian led the way, the two servant girls following timidly behind. He did not inquire about their backgrounds just yet; the bustling marketplace was no place for conversation. Though he was not in the habit of keeping servants, he couldn’t expect to handle every household chore himself in the future.

Still, the presence of servants carried some risks—they could easily be used by those with ill intent. To prevent trouble, Su Jian made another trip to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and spent resources worth fifty spirit stones on an array diagram that could prevent any cultivator below the Foundation Establishment realm from approaching.

He did not expect this array to ward off real threats, only to prevent unnecessary trouble. After all, this was the mortal world; mortals made up the majority, and scoundrels could be found everywhere. The array’s presence would also curb any disloyalty from the two newly purchased servants. He had no need for them to leave the house—handling daily affairs would suffice. It was a precaution, nothing more. Spirit stones were not hard to come by.

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Soon, Su Jian returned home with the two servant girls. Zhao Qianxue had already found some workers who were tidying up the courtyard and bringing in furniture. Once everything was settled, Zhao Qianxue generously tossed out a spirit stone as payment, and the mortals left beaming with joy.

Su Jian muttered to himself, “What a spendthrift woman!” Merely cleaning and moving some furniture, and she handed out a whole spirit stone? Still, he wasn’t about to ask for it back; after all, he wasn’t the one playing the fool.

Since Zhao Qianxue was inexperienced in worldly matters, it seemed he would have to give her a crash course in the basics—otherwise, if she tried her hand at business with this mindset, she’d be swindled out of every shop.

Zhao Qianxue paused, then asked, “Are these the girls you bought to warm your bed?”

Su Jian couldn’t be bothered to correct her. “Well, are you satisfied with them?” he asked.

Zhao Qianxue glanced them over, then remarked, “These two are clearly malnourished.”

Su Jian was momentarily speechless. She had a point; he couldn’t argue.

“Bought for two spirit stones. What more do you want, flying swords? And you were so generous just now…”

Listening to Su Jian’s incessant chatter, Zhao Qianxue felt her head throb. But she quickly realized this was the mortal world, not the immortal city—prices were not the same.

Su Jian let the matter drop, having corrected Zhao Qianxue’s misconceptions. After all, even the landlord’s family had no surplus grain, and he had yet to become a landlord himself.

Turning his gaze to the two young servant girls, he noted that they had remained silent the whole time—quite well-behaved, it seemed.

Su Jian smiled kindly. “Introduce yourselves—tell us a bit about your backgrounds.”

“Master, my name is Hong’er…”

“My name is Gou’er…”

Su Jian was instantly at a loss for words. What kind of names were these? Clearly, they were victims of the old adage, ‘a humble name keeps one safe.’

“They don’t sound good. You’d best choose new names.”