"But that woman doesn't like our dad, does she?"
"All these years, she's only ever taken things from our dad without ever giving him a straight answer, just stringing him along like this. And now, the moment she hears I'm in trouble, she comes running over to cut ties with him?"
Watching the scene unfold before him, Chen Qiye didn't even wait for Chen Yan to finish speaking; he cut right in and said it for him!
What the hell!
As a transmigrator, this scenario looked just a bit too familiar to Chen Qiye!
He was a destined super villain who had barely managed to reject a broken engagement, and now his own father was back at it again, acting like a simp villain?
This whole scene, what his father was doing, and that woman's words—his father was definitely acting the part of a simp villain!
"S-Second Brother, how do you know all this?"
Chen Yan was dumbfounded. He had been too ashamed to even mention these things, yet here was his Second Brother, who hadn't been home in over a decade, somehow seeming to know even more about it than he did. For a moment, he was utterly stunned.
"Is her family's background pretty ordinary, and didn't her family and her only start to find their footing in the last couple of years because our dad kept bailing them out and sending them things? And hasn't this woman been taking the things our dad gave her and handing them over to another man?"
Before Chen Yan could finish, Chen Qiye rattled off the questions at top speed.
"Yes, Brother, how do you know all this? Have you been keeping tabs on the family from the shadows this whole time?"
"Our family is actually considered a prominent household in Weicheng, and that woman is from the Zhao family. Twelve years ago, her family suffered a terrifying disaster. If it weren't for our dad constantly helping them all these years, the Zhao family might have been finished already, and we'd still be—"
Chen Yan wanted to keep going, but Chen Qiye once again didn't let him finish!
"Wait, you don't need to say anymore!"
"As for that agreement, my dad will sign it!"
Chen Qiye strode forward, forcefully elbowed his way through the crowd, and marched right up to the main gate.
Hearing the commotion, many people in the crowd looked over at Chen Qiye with puzzled expressions.
"Who is this?"
When Chen Qiye had left Weicheng, he was still just a child. Now that he had suddenly appeared, many people didn't recognize him yet.
But Chen Qiye paid no attention to anyone's reaction.
He reached out, snatched the severance agreement straight from the woman's hand, and pulled it away.
"Qiye? You... why are you back? Why didn't you run..." Chen Qiang finally raised his head at that moment.
"My problem is already solved. Dad, let me finish—don't say anything else yet, just do everything I tell you to!" Without waiting for Chen Qiang to finish his sentence, Chen Qiye quickly cut him off.
Then, Chen Qiye took the agreement and shoved it forcefully right into Chen Qiang's hands.
Dammit, and this was his own biological father!
If this were his own son, Chen Qiye would have wanted to beat the person standing in front of him back to the stone age!
He had only been at the Qingxuan Sect for twelve years—how on earth had his father managed to stumble into a simp villain storyline?!
Following the logic of this plot, the moment his father—as the head of a prominent Weicheng family—finally refused, the man behind this woman would probably step out.
And in all likelihood, that man was probably the Child of Fortune of some country!
Or rather, there was a very high chance he was the Child of Fortune of Jiang Country, where Weicheng was located!
Offending a Long Aotian-type Child of Fortune was the kind of thing that got your entire clan wiped out!
That was far more terrifying than offending some behemoth from the Yuhua Dynasty!
Chen Qiye hadn't yet figured out which type of Child of Fortune was stronger or who would ultimately become the supreme powerhouse of an era.
However, Chen Qiye knew one thing very well: regardless of their tier, fake prodigies like himself were best off not provoking any Children of Fortune at all.
Wasn't it great to just live in peace, keep a low profile, cultivate quietly, watch the flowers bloom and fall, and gaze calmly at the drifting clouds? And if all else failed, he could just find a few wives and listen to music in the pleasure quarters—wasn't that nice?
Besides, his dad was considered the head of a prominent family. Even though he was middle-aged, as a cultivator he was still in his prime. In a remote border town of a few million people like Weicheng, what kind of woman couldn't he find?
At the very worst, could he not just open a pleasure house of his own?
Hell, if his dad was willing, the women lining up at their door across the whole of Weicheng would stretch for miles!
Why on earth would the head of a prominent family want to be a damn simp?!
Especially the lowest-tier kind of simp who dies the most miserable death and gets his entire clan exterminated?
"Ding! The host has triggered the Heavenly Destiny Plunder System. Short-term task: publicly slap Zhao Rongfei in the face. Upon completion, the host will plunder +500 Fortune Value and be rewarded with a Supreme-tier cultivation technique!"
"Ding! The host has triggered the Heavenly Destiny Plunder System. Long-term task: cripple the Child of Fortune of Jiang Country and seize all of his fortune! Upon successful completion, the host will receive Fortune Value +! Reward: an Imperial Weapon!"
"Ding! Every time the host slaps Zhao Rongfei and the Child of Fortune of Jiang Country in the face, you will plunder the Heavenly Dao fortune of the Jiang Country's Child of Fortune. Once he is completely crippled, all of his fortune will be yours!"
Just as a whirlwind of thoughts raced through Chen Qiye's mind, a mechanical voice suddenly rang out, and his body froze in place.
A system task?
There really was a Child of Fortune behind Zhao Rongfei? His dad really had been playing the role of a simp villain?
If he hadn't returned in time, his dad would have kicked the bucket today!
No!
Their entire Chen family would have been wiped out!
And this so-called Child of Fortune of Jiang Country might even have hunted him down later on some pretext, executing him as a villain!
Still, now that he knew the truth, should he accept the system's task?
Judging by what the system was implying, it seemed to want him to pull off something huge.
Yet this meant going up against a genuine Child of Fortune. If things went wrong, there was a high possibility of crashing and burning. That didn't quite seem to fit his usual cautious standard of doing things, did it?
"3, 2, 1... The host has not refused within three seconds; the task is accepted by default! If the task fails, the system will automatically shut down and enter a thousand-year slumber..."
Chen Qiye had originally wanted to weigh the pros and cons. He wasn't particularly interested in high-risk, high-reward gambles, but at that moment, the corners of his mouth twitched violently.
Did this damn system really not come with some kind of instruction manual?
This wasn't going out to buy cabbages; this was going head-to-head with the Child of Fortune of an entire country!
Even though there were over a thousand countries across the entire Eastern Wasteland, and this country's Child of Fortune couldn't possibly compare to a fiancé who was the Child of Fortune of the entire Eastern Wasteland, this was still leagues beyond what a fake prodigy like him could handle.
"Qiye, I... actually..." Standing before his son, Chen Qiang flushed with shame, his voice stuttering.
"Zhao Rongfei, is it? My dad can sign this agreement."
"However, if I remember correctly, hasn't my dad given your Zhao family a lot of things over the years? That Heavenly-grade Profent Ice Sword you're holding in your hand—wasn't that a gift from my dad?"
"Shouldn't you return that sword?"
A few seconds later, Chen Qiye's expression twisted and shifted before he suddenly snatched the agreement back out of Chen Qiang's hands!
Then, Chen Qiye turned around and, right in front of everyone, stared straight at Zhao Rongfei.
In those short few seconds, Chen Qiye's eyes had abruptly turned calm.
He had thought it through. As a fake prodigy with the identity of a destined super villain, if he couldn't defy the heavens and change his fate, the more he tried to hide, the more trouble he would likely run into down the road.
Just look at how he had spent the last nineteen years hiding away in the Qingxuan Sect, only for disaster to strike from the heavens anyway, nearly landing him with a destined fiancée who showed up to break off their engagement. That alone proved some things simply could not be avoided.
Strength!
He had to use the system and every possible opportunity to become strong enough.
Only when he was strong enough—strong enough to shatter the very fortune of the Heavenly Dao—would he perhaps attain true freedom!
If he didn't defy the heavens and rewrite his villainous destiny, it would be hard for him to ever enjoy peace!
Who was to say that even if he went to live in seclusion deep in the mountains, some Child of Fortune wouldn't stumble upon him and use him as a stepping stone to cut him down?
Freedom isn't something you hide away to find; freedom is something you fight for and seize!
True freedom is being strong enough to make all trouble step aside, rather than you having to dodge the trouble!
True freedom is a single sword casting frost across fourteen prefectures, a single spear shattering the vault of heaven, a single finger crushing ten thousand miles of empty space! True freedom is slaughtering a Child of Fortune as easily as butchering dogs and chickens! True freedom is Qiye's wrath staining the starry sky red, leaving no Emperors or immortals standing before him!
At that thought, a surge of heroic spirit rose uniquely within Chen Qiye's heart!
The mindset of cautious timidity he had maintained all these years seemed to break through a certain plateau in an instant, and Chen Qiye felt his thoughts instantly clear and unobstructed!
Though his cultivation realm had not increased, Chen Qiye's state of mind had broken through to a brand-new realm! At that very moment, Chen Qiye saw his own Dao!
"Ding! Congratulations to the host! The host has comprehended the core laws of this system: blade raised to the heavens, fighting against the mandate of heaven, to battle one's way to carefree freedom between heaven and earth!"
"Rewarding the host with a strand of the Laws of the Heavenly Dao! May the host soon raise your blade to the heavens and defy your destiny!"
As Chen Qiye made this resolution, the system's voice resounded once more within the depths of his sea of consciousness!