Chương 40: The Destined Son-in-Law (Part 2)

Three days later, Su Chen emerged from seclusion. Xia Yingyue, who had been cultivating at the Water Cloud Sect, returned to the family. She was truly beautiful, worthy of her title as Green River City's foremost flower. Dressed in a moon-white gauze skirt, her black hair flowed like ink, and her presence carried an ethereal grace, like an immortal untouched by the mundane world. One glance was enough to stir instant fondness. The feeling of first love.

"To think he had a fiancée like this and still wasted his time in brothels. What an absolute piece of trash!" Su Chen inwardly cursed the original Mu Chen once again. Xia Yingyue had returned this time in accordance with her own wishes, ready to marry him and fulfill their long-standing engagement. A heaven-blessed genius marrying a good-for-nothing who couldn't even beat another good-for-nothing. Su Chen felt as though he had somehow stumbled into the protagonist's script.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more something felt off. Suddenly, his expression darkened.

"Damn it, I knew there was a loophole somewhere!" The one who had defeated him was also a good-for-nothing. The young master of the Fang family—once hailed as a genius ten years ago—had lost all his cultivation overnight. Three days earlier, he had crushed Su Chen in battle and shot to fame overnight. Everyone now assumed the Fang young master had simply been hiding his strength all along. But Su Chen knew better. Hiding his strength? Bullshit. This was textbook old-grandpa template.

This wasn't the same as his own knockoff version of reincarnation and rebirth. All at once, the allure of Xia Yingyue standing before him faded. According to the classic script, he would offend the protagonist. Xia Yingyue would encounter said protagonist, develop feelings for him after several chance meetings, then learn that her fiancé was the petty small fry who had crossed him. The protagonist would casually wipe him out.

Even with the memories of a Profound Connection Realm powerhouse from his previous life, Su Chen was absolutely certain he could not outplay those ancient monsters who had lived for who-knew-how-many years. Those old freaks terrified him. In his last life, a single technique had already played him to death. No. He refused to shoulder such humiliation. Xia Yingyue watched Su Chen standing there in a daze and felt puzzled.

'Could it be that Brother Mu Chen is unhappy about my request to marry only after I finish handling sect matters?' Her return wasn't solely to honor the engagement. She also carried the important mission of recruiting disciples for the sect. Su Chen suddenly felt enormous pressure. … The next day, Su Chen quietly slipped out of the Xia residence and headed straight for the local auction house. The night before, he had stayed up writing out a complete Profound-grade cultivation method.

Selling it should easily fetch tens of thousands of gold coins. With a suspected Child of Destiny looming over him, Su Chen felt immense pressure. One careless step and he might even lose his wife. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. As Su Chen left the auction house, two black-robed figures brushed past each other. They glanced up, met eyes, and both saw the same flicker of confusion in the other's gaze.

Inside Fang Bubai's mind, a voice asked, "Master, why does this black-robed person feel faintly familiar to me?" He had the nagging sense that he had seen this person somewhere before. Su Chen felt the exact same faint familiarity from the figure opposite him.

"No way it's this much of a coincidence…" His expression turned strange. He was one hundred percent certain: this was the Fang family's young master—the very one he suspected of being a Child of Destiny. Sure enough, there was a secret. Su Chen calmly walked away without showing anything. Though Fang Bubai was curious about the identity of the similarly dressed black-robed stranger, he did not pursue. He had more important matters to attend to.

As Su Chen left the auction house, he became convinced that the Fang young master was almost certainly someone blessed with a tremendous destiny. The thought of eliminating him flashed through Su Chen's mind, only to be immediately dismissed. The odds of him being the one eliminated were far higher. He could not see through Fang Bubai's cultivation at all. Either Fang Bubai's realm far surpassed his own. Or Fang Bubai possessed a technique or treasure capable of concealing his aura. Or…

there was an existence far stronger than anyone from Su Chen's previous life helping to mask his presence. Su Chen did not dare gamble.

"Then the only option is to befriend him!" Su Chen's eyes flickered with calculation. He was no impulsive youth; he was an old monster who had lived for centuries. He understood well that in this world, no grudge was truly irreconcilable. Besides, his conflict with Fang Bubai amounted to nothing more than a few verbal spats. In the end, he had been the one to suffer some losses—far from a life-and-death enmity. Su Chen returned to the Xia residence and ran straight into Xia Chenfeng.

When Xia Chenfeng saw him coming back from outside, he sneered.

"Well, well, look who's back. Where has Young Master Mu been carousing this time? The prodigal son returns—only my father falls for that act. I know better. A dog can never change its habit of eating shit." Su Chen gave him a calm glance. He knew it would take more than a day or two to erase Xia Chenfeng's deep-seated prejudice against him. Seeing Su Chen ignore him completely, Xia Chenfeng flushed with anger and humiliation.

Convinced that Su Chen had done something unforgivable to Xia Yingyue, he struck without another word.

"Mu Chen, today I'll take Father's and my sister's place to teach you a lesson! I'll make you understand—you're nothing but trash. How dare you think you deserve Father's care or my sister's hand in marriage?" Xia Chenfeng clenched his fist. The wind around it sharpened like a blade as he unleashed the Xia family's signature technique: Five Fingers Pierce the Heart Fist. With his cultivation at the fifth layer of Spirit Gathering, a clean hit would likely cripple Su Chen even if it didn't kill him.

But just as the punch was about to land, Su Chen stepped back smoothly. The fist wind grazed past his chest, missing the vital strike.

"Pure luck. You dodged once—think you can dodge twice?" Xia Chenfeng refused to believe Su Chen possessed such a skill. He shifted from fist to palm, channeling his vital energy to full power and slamming it downward. Su Chen moved faster. One hand blurred into an afterimage, seizing Xia Chenfeng's arm and executing the Heavenly Yang Meridian Sealing Technique. In an instant, Xia Chenfeng's arm went numb and limp, completely drained of strength. Sensing something was terribly wrong, Xia Chenfeng hastily retreated.

His arm dangled uselessly at his side. He cried out in shock, "My arm… what did you do to me?" Looking at Xia Chenfeng's panicked expression, Su Chen replied calmly, "I merely sealed the spiritual meridians in one arm. It will recover fully in a few hours." Hearing that his arm wasn't permanently damaged, Xia Chenfeng exhaled in relief. He stared at Su Chen as though he were looking at a monster.

For the first time, he clearly sensed that this young man—who had always been nothing but a burden to the Xia family—had changed. Only after Su Chen walked away did Xia Chenfeng finally snap out of it.

"Hmph. Even if you beat me, you still don't deserve my sister!" Though Xia Chenfeng couldn't fathom why Su Chen had suddenly become so powerful—strong enough to defeat him effortlessly and force him to reconsider— he still refused to accept Su Chen as a worthy brother-in-law. Su Chen's victory over Xia Chenfeng sent ripples through the Xia household. Xia Chenfeng was the top genius of the family, second only to Xia Yingyue, who was away cultivating at the Water Cloud Sect. Yet he had been defeated so easily.

It was utterly shocking. To Su Chen, however, there was nothing praiseworthy about it. An old monster who had reincarnated and cultivated for hundreds of years—if he couldn't even handle a hot-headed youth, he might as well give up cultivation altogether. Children of Destiny were the exception. Those were pure cheats. One week later, Su Chen's cultivation method sold at auction for eighty thousand gold coins.

With this substantial starting capital, he was confident he could raise his cultivation to the peak of Spirit Gathering within half a month.