Chapter 61 — TVF Chapter 61

The Old Father Who Flipped the Table in Fury In the eyes of Chairman Xie and the other native cultivators, a demonic calamity was indeed no different from typhoons, floods, or earthquakes—simply another form of natural disaster. It was just that demonic calamities had longer cycles and far wider impacts, and whenever one arrived, it would drastically weaken cultivators’ strength.

Moreover, demonic calamities were global disasters. It wasn’t only the Huaguo cultivation world that suffered; the Western mystical factions were afflicted as well.

Qin Jingzhou deeply understood the principle that teaching a man to fish is better than giving him a fish. Because he needed to guard his two children, he had to live in this world for several decades, but he still didn’t want to personally take the lead and guide all cultivators through this demonic calamity.

Providing assistance, however, was acceptable. Thus, he tinkered together this spirit-plant demonic-energy purification array.

Don’t be fooled by how simple and casual this purification array of flowers and plants looked—there were countless intricacies hidden within.

Chairman Xie and the sword cultivator consultant, whose demonic energy had already been completely purified, naturally had sharp eyes. When yet another consultant who had been tainted with a bit of demonic energy lay among the spirit plants for ten minutes and then sprang up full of vigor, wanting to laugh and shout on the spot, the two of them proactively stepped forward to discuss pricing.

Toward the association, which had always maintained goodwill, Qin Jingzhou charged only the cost price: for mild cases—those who could lie down peacefully among the flowers on their own—it was one spirit stone; for severe cases, two spirit stones. For sects outside the association, the price doubled.

After that, Qin Jingzhou had his children demonstrate how to extract spiritual energy from spirit stones, convert it into pure wood-element spiritual energy, then—after a series of added ingredients and processing—refine it into a specialized spiritual liquid. When this liquid was poured onto the stems and leaves of the flowers and plants that had clearly wilted after absorbing demonic energy, the plants indeed recovered their vitality within five minutes.

The spirit plants’ absorption and digestion of demonic energy was not without cost, but Chairman Xie and the others saw a new hope: a powerful method that could, to a certain extent, handle periodically erupting demonic energy!

From blindly sealing demonic vents to transitioning toward ecological governance, it took about fifty years. During those fifty years, Qin Jingzhou taught his children enough core skills to protect themselves.

When the authorities officially announced the end of the demonic calamity, demonic cultivator Jin Yuansheng came to find Qin Jingzhou—he had come to bid farewell.

Demonic cultivator Jin Yuansheng had once harbored many twisted and gloomy thoughts. However, under the watchful eye of Qin Jingzhou, this overpowering old father, he had absolutely no room to perform, and because he had worked for years in a flower shop rich in wood-element spiritual energy, he had long since become so mild that he hardly resembled a demonic cultivator at all.

For the sake of this son’s diligent decades of work, Qin Jingzhou gave him a set of cultivation methods. “You’re not suited to the demonic path.”

Jin Yuansheng accepted it directly. “I’m going back to where I came from. I delayed myself for fifty years—surely you’d long since found me an eyesore.”

Qin Jingzhou patted his son’s shoulder. “Not to that extent.” Both of his children had already cultivated to the Foundation Establishment stage, with lifespans of two hundred years. “If you’re not rushing me, am I supposed to curry favor with you instead?”

Jin Yuansheng was shocked.

Qin Jingzhou smacked the back of his son’s head. “A heart demon is best broken by one’s own hands.”

The illusory gate before them slammed shut after Jin Yuansheng’s soul passed through it, then instantly dissipated.

Ling Jing floated over to Qin Jingzhou with her arms crossed. “Another worry settled?”

Qin Jingzhou nodded.

The original Jin Yuansheng in his arms let out a soft sigh. “I know he deliberately kept his distance from Dad and Yunyun, afraid he wouldn’t be able to bear it when he left. But I still feel… a bit sad.”

Qin Jingzhou patted his son’s shoulder again and said nothing more.

After hearing that the ‘air-dropped older brother’ had gone back, Jin Ziyun was also downcast for several days.

More than a hundred years later, the Jin siblings and Gu Yu all reached the end of their lifespans—Su Weiwei and Chao Lan had never advanced to Foundation Establishment and had passed away a century earlier. Gu Yu had continued working at the flower shop and had successfully become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Jin Ziyun and Gu Yu remained entangled, never fully cutting ties, but over the years she also dated new boyfriends. She herself felt that none of the relationships were quite right, and coupled with her family’s weighty inheritance, she chose to only date and never remarry.

For the latter half of his life, Gu Yu almost entirely revolved around Jin Ziyun. When Jin Ziyun dated other men, he would drown his sorrows in alcohol, yet he never expressed even the slightest dissatisfaction.

Qin Jingzhou saw things very clearly. While Gu Yu didn’t dare act out under his watchful eye, that didn’t erase the sincerity of Gu Yu’s atonement.

Maintaining this ambiguous closeness until death wasn’t such a bad thing.

Matters of the heart were never easy to explain clearly. In the end, as long as his daughter had always made the decisions herself… that was enough.

With his daughter, son, and former son-in-law passing away almost simultaneously, Qin Jingzhou evenly divided his assets between his grandson Gu Chen and Jin Yuansheng’s only daughter. Ling Jing invited him to leave this mission world together—by the time they departed, old acquaintances like Chairman Xie, Vice Chairman Zhao, and Director Li’s master-disciple pair had all passed away.

After settling the mission, Qin Jingzhou glanced at the rewards and smiled as he shook his head.

Without Qin Jingzhou needing to say anything, Ling Jing could already guess that the rewards the big shot received were still very, very far from ascension. She would have plenty of chances to meet him again, so she waved her hand. “Bye! Hopefully next time we meet, I’ll be a bit stronger… I definitely won’t just lie back and get carried next time!”

Watching Ling Jing drift away, Qin Jingzhou said, “Next mission.”

The system replied enthusiastically, “Okay!”

This time was different from before. Previously, the so-called main plots of the worlds had all been female-oriented romance novels. This time, it finally switched to a male-oriented one: a transmigrated male protagonist who starts by teaching his trashy family a lesson, then goes through the imperial examinations, is selected as a son-in-law under the results list, marries a princess, rises step by step while building a harem, and years later becomes a powerful minister, seizes the chance to force the emperor to abdicate, and becomes the founding emperor himself… It looked like a very formulaic transmigration power-fantasy, poor-background-to-harem-domination story.

However, after only skimming a number of details, Qin Jingzhou once again succinctly remarked, “When it comes to viciousness, Ji Qing really can’t compare to this one.”

The plot made it very clear: the male lead, Si Chenghui’s family, was not actually poor.

After all, in a feudal agrarian era, any family that could tighten their belts to support children and grandchildren in studying would certainly not be struggling just to survive. But before the transmigrator arrived, the original male lead had failed to pass the xiucai exam for a full nine years. Worse still, he was lazy, refused to work, and loved frequenting “special establishments.” Over time, he nearly drained the family dry.

The key reason the entire family managed to scrape by was the original male lead’s eldest uncle, Si Da… who was a skilled carpenter.

If the original male lead had continued using the excuse of studying for exams, living in the county town while having his uncle support the whole family, they could have barely managed to get by.

But the male lead, Si Chenghui, was repeatedly egged on by his lover Xiao Cui from one of those special establishments to try his luck at the gambling den. In a single day, he lost fifty taels of silver. With nowhere left to go, he could only run to the town and storm into his uncle’s carpentry workshop to grab money.

At the time, Si Da had just received a twenty-tael deposit from a wealthy household in the county town… money meant to purchase lumber.

Before returning, Si Chenghui had drunk quite a bit. No matter how much he talked, his uncle refused to give him silver. Rage surged from his heart, malice sprang to his guts—he grabbed a large plane from the table and smashed it down at his uncle’s back.

The last shred of his reason stopped him from striking directly at his uncle’s head.

Si Da didn’t even have time to make a sound before collapsing to the ground.

Worried that his uncle might wake up and chase him, Si Chenghui viciously struck his uncle’s leg twice more before grabbing the silver and running off.

Before this, no matter how selfish and vicious Si Chenghui had been… even when he forced his parents to “sell” his own younger sister at a high price, sending her to the prefectural city to be a chongxi bride for an official household, he had never personally used violence.

Clutching the silver, terrified, he sprinted all the way, trying to meet the coachman waiting outside the town. He tripped by accident…

That fall directly killed him—and “hooked” the transmigrator over.

The transmigrator adapted to his identity in an extremely short time. After understanding his situation, he decisively turned back to the uncle’s workshop. Seeing his uncle having his head bandaged by a doctor, he dropped to his knees with a thud, returned the silver, and deeply bowed his head. “Uncle, I lost my senses! You can punish me however you want!”

Si Chenghui was, after all, the family’s pampered “baby.” No matter how furious Si Da was, seeing his nephew kneel and beg for forgiveness dissipated much of his anger.

Before long, the rest of the family arrived after hearing the news—especially Si Da’s parents. Old Master Si and Old Madam Si both persuaded him, and in the end, Si Da could only helplessly forgive his precious nephew for the time being.

After all, this nephew was the family’s hope for changing their fate.

It could only be said that the transmigrator truly lived up to his status. After resolving the first crisis since transmigrating, he returned to the county town and conducted careful inquiries. Taking advantage of the power struggle between the county magistrate and the county deputy, he directly overturned the special establishment and the underground gambling den that had trapped the original host—publicly, these were both businesses owned by the beloved concubine’s elder brother of the county deputy.

After settling this trouble, the transmigrator felt an even stronger sense of identification with his identity: he would build an empire in this world under the name “Si Chenghui.”

Leaving aside his character, the transmigrator—coming from the modern Huaguo—was a genuine exam prodigy. He was also extremely good at managing appearances. Despite demanding no less silver from the family than the original Si Chenghui, he managed to present himself as someone who had turned over a new leaf, determined to study diligently while working to support himself.

He persisted like this for over a year, moving several of the original host’s teachers. Some gave him special tutoring, and after an adjustment period, he placed second in the following year’s academy exam.

After a bit of preparation, he placed third in the provincial exam, then pressed onward to the capital. Because of his handsome looks and eloquent speech, even though his essays were only above average, he was personally appointed by the emperor as Tanhua.

While parading through the streets with the Zhuangyuan, Si Chenghui caught the eye of the emperor’s favorite daughter, Princess Anyang.

At this time, the Si family was completely unaware, still immersed in the joy of Si Chenghui’s meteoric rise and his letter urging the whole family to move to the capital.

Then, on the road to the capital, this entire extended family was killed by mountain bandits.

The bandits were, of course, fake.

For Princess Anyang to “embrace her beloved,” the beloved first had to be single. Since she had already conveniently killed Si Chenghui’s wife and child, why not “finish the job” in one go?

She was a legitimate princess, indulged by her imperial father in everything—why should she bow her head to Si Chenghui’s elders?

Tolerating Si Chenghui’s humble origins was already her limit.

From that point on, the Si family was almost entirely wiped out, except for Si Chenghui’s biological sister—the Si woman who had married into an official household in the prefectural city as a chongxi bride.

This Si woman was very clever and guessed that her family’s deaths were suspicious. However, when she sent people to look for evidence, she was caught red-handed by her husband’s grandmother, who without a word arranged for her to “die suddenly.”

At this point in the plot, Qin Jingzhou asked the system to report Princess Anyang’s ending.

The system gave only four words: “Also died suddenly.”

“Truly ruthless,” Qin Jingzhou chuckled. “Si Chenghui wasn’t avenging his family. Without his instigation and hints, Princess Anyang might not have thought of wiping out the Si family.” He closed the book-like plot summary. “Who am I this time, and where has the timeline advanced to?”

The system replied, “You are Si Da, the male lead Si Chenghui’s eldest uncle. Because your leg was broken before, you’ll limp a bit at the start… You’re currently on the road to the capital.”

Qin Jingzhou grew interested. “Interesting. In my previous transmigrations, my host bodies were either already dead or about to die. This time, I’m actually on the way to death. So next time, can we have some new tricks?”

The system fell silent for a moment. “Brother Zhou, your mentality is really something… This mission isn’t about protecting your children as minor villains anymore. You have to become the emperor yourself.”

Qin Jingzhou instantly guessed who had issued this mission and answered decisively, “Sure—but the pay has to increase.”