At the peak of Tongtian Peak, the Qingxuan Sect was shaken, drawing the attention of all. Yet Chen Qiye's focus at this moment was not on his breakthrough in cultivation realm!
"Heavenly Dao Plunder System activated!"
"By winning the favor of a Child of Fortune, the host can plunder the Heavenly Dao fortune of another Child of Fortune!"
"Ding! The system detects that the host's Heavenly Dao Value exceeds one hundred, and the lucky draw feature is unlocked! Ten Heavenly Dao Values can be exchanged for one draw! Once your accumulated plundered Heavenly Dao Value exceeds three thousand, the shop feature will be unlocked..."
The voice in Chen Qiye's head kept ringing.
Outwardly, Chen Qiye looked calm and composed, but inwardly, a massive storm was raging!
"I knew it. My fiancée is definitely a Child of Fortune, and now it's confirmed beyond a doubt!"
"Damn it! If I really went to her place to call off the engagement and heard the line 'Don't bully a young man in poverty, for the river flows east for thirty years and west for the next thirty years,' I'd actually be the one saying it!"
"Besides! Judging by what the system just said, there isn't just one Child of Fortune in this world?"
A chill ran down Chen Qiye's back. All these years, he had stayed holed up in the sect cultivating, never even venturing down the mountain for real practical experience. He had always feared the waters of the cultivation world ran deep, but now it seemed they were bottomless.
It now appeared that keeping a low profile and focusing on cultivation all these years was truly the wisest choice!
"System, you just said that as long as I win the favor of a Child of Fortune, I can plunder the Heavenly Dao fortune of another?"
"Then, after I win my fiancée's favor this time, who is the other Child of Fortune whose fortune is being plundered from me?"
"What will happen to him after his Heavenly Dao fortune is plundered?"
As the voice in his mind paused, Chen Qiye immediately asked two crucial questions.
"Yes. However, you do not yet have the clearance to know the identity of the Child of Fortune being plundered from you," the mechanical voice replied.
Hearing this, Chen Qiye froze. This thing required clearance?
He quickly brushed the matter aside; it wasn't that important right now.
Following that, Chen Qiye asked the most critical, potentially fatal question he could think of: "Will that plundered Child of Fortune know that I am the one taking his fortune?"
When Chen Qiye finished asking, his heart tightened.
He had only just managed to steady his fiancée, who bore the fortune of the Heavenly Dao, yet he felt that what the system was doing had a vaguely familiar, ominous ring to it. If other Children of Fortune set their sights on him, wouldn't he still end up playing the villain?
"No."
"Even an Extreme Dao Emperor Venerable could never trace the fortune plundering back to you! I can sever all causes and effects!"
The system spoke once again. Its voice remained mechanical, but as it landed in Chen Qiye's mind, it finally allowed his tense body to relax.
"Senior Brother! An ancestor slumbering in the back mountains has awakened! He witnessed your entire heaven-defying breakthrough process and is now summoning you to the Immortal Lord Hall!"
On Tongtian Peak, a stunning and delicate female disciple of the Qingxuan Sect tasked with delivering messages spoke with a slight tremor in her voice.
Her chest rose and fell in heavy undulations as she looked at Chen Qiye, her eyes filled with fervent admiration and worship. On her way up just now, she had deliberately lowered the neckline of her robes.
In the sect, she had always been known as the Ice Goddess, and on ordinary days she even wore a veil. But in front of Chen Qiye, she intentionally left a flaw in her disguise, confident that standing where he was, he would surely catch a glimpse of her breath-taking assets.
She was naturally blessed with an ice-jade physique!
"An ancestor has awakened? Very well, I'll head over right now."
Hearing this, Chen Qiye temporarily halted his probing of the system. After all, the Qingxuan Sect was an ancient and terrifying sect with a legacy spanning ten thousand years; any of those slumbering ancestors in the back mountains possessed unfathomable foundations.
This much face still had to be given.
If he somehow managed to evade the Children of Fortune only to be backhanded and obliterated by his own sect's ancestor, the loss would be catastrophic!
Besides, standing behind the Qingxuan Sect was the legendary Tianqi Dynasty—a colossal behemoth capable of going toe-to-toe with various sacred lands and fighting bloody battles in terrifying forbidden zones!
"Hmm?"
Just as he was about to leave, looking down from his elevated vantage point, Chen Qiye accidentally cast a glance below him, and his movements paused ever so slightly.
Xu Bingyun?
He had been in secluded cultivation for three years; had the little girl from before grown up? And grown *that* much?
"Senior Brother?"
Xu Bingyun's face flushed red. Known as the ice-beauty, she mustered up her courage and looked up at Chen Qiye.
"Immeasurable Heavenly Lord!"
Yet the moment Xu Bingyun raised her head, she saw that Chen Qiye—who had just frozen mid-motion—had put his palms together in front of her and bowed.
In her shyness, Xu Bingyun was somewhat bewildered. What was Senior Brother doing?
Wait, no!
Xu Bingyun considered herself a genius of her generation, and she suddenly realized that hanging around her neck was a jade carving of a Daoist lord—a holy statue worshipped by their Qingxuan Sect.
Wasn't Senior Brother looking at her assets just now? Was he actually looking at the Daoist lord carving?
Could Senior Brother's heart of Dao be this pure?
Was Senior Brother actually even purer and more of a gentleman than she had imagined?
Xu Bingyun lost her focus for a split second, and by then, Chen Qiye had already transformed into a lingering afterimage and departed.
"Too big... no, too dangerous!"
"This Xu Bingyun is the illegitimate daughter of the Sect Master, and her mother is a supreme giant of the Yaochi Sacred Land. There's also some youth from a fallen family who secretly has feelings for her, right? If I couldn't keep myself in check... As expected, damn it, the cultivation world is full of traps everywhere!"
"Junior Sister, please don't dig a grave for me! My... self-control... I'm a man with a fiancée! I... sometimes I can hold back, but I might not always be able to endure..."
Chen Qiye swallowed hard, the stunning mountain peaks still lingering in his mind.
"Ding! Won the favor of Xiao Yanyue, Great Dao Value +12!"
"The system detects fluctuations in the host's heart of Dao. The system can provide a free Heavenly Dao Sterilization Supreme Technique. Does the host require sterilization? Sterilization will allow the host's heart in seeking the Dao to become more steadfast, and future heavenly tribulations will automatically weaken the power of karmic fire..."
"No!"
"I can hold it together!"
Hearing this, Chen Qiye rejected it almost without thinking, the corners of his mouth twitching fiercely.
Damn it, was the system looking down on him?
Before transmigrating, he, Chen Qiye, had sworn to be irreconcilable with gambling and drugs; could a mere woman shake his heart of Dao?
He, Chen Qiye, could handle this!
As he spoke, Chen Qiye had already stopped in front of the Immortal Lord Hall on Qingxuan Peak.
"Qiye has now made a heaven-defying breakthrough past the peak of the Tianxuan Realm and entered the Tianzun Realm. At nineteen years of age, this realm means he already has a shot at truly attaining the Dao and becoming a Great Emperor!"
"Indeed, Old Ancestor Jiutian, did you come out of seclusion this time specifically for Qiye?"
Inside the Immortal Lord Hall, the Sect Master of the Qingxuan Sect and many older-generation giants turned their gazes toward an ancestor with white hair and beard, who possessed the immortal air of a daoist sage.
The old man stood casually alone in the grand hall, and in the void behind him, a terrifying and awe-inspiring Heavenly and Earthly Dharma Form could be faintly seen manifesting in silence!
He was none other than the thirteenth ancestor of the Qingxuan Sect, the Jiutian Saint Venerable!
"Indeed. I heard that the people of the Yuhua Dynasty have already agreed to let their Goddess enter a dual-cultivation marriage with Qiye? That is a good thing."
"However, a dynasty has its own laws and standards. You must immediately find time to deal with that good-for-nothing fiancée of Qiye's. You do not understand the Yuhua Dynasty; they are a truly supreme existence with a legacy spanning eternity. You must not allow any blemishes on Qiye."
"The trial of the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm is about to begin, and proud talented disciples from all major top-tier forces will participate. If Qiye completes his engagement with the Yuhua Dynasty's Goddess before the trial, then upon entering the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm, he will be able to join forces with the princes and holy maidens of the Yuhua Dynasty within the realm!"
"If that happens, the probability of Qiye finding the best natal artifact from the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm will increase significantly! And a true natal artifact is the foundation for defying the heavens to attain the Dao. Do you understand?"
Inside the Immortal Lord Hall, the thirteenth ancestor of the Qingxuan Sect spoke word by word.
As he spoke, Great Dao rules manifested in the surrounding void; it was as if he had reached the realm where his words carried the force of law!
At this time, the news that Chen Qiye had secretly sent someone to deliver a letter and a storage ring to the Xiao Family had not yet reached the Qingxuan Sect.
"The Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm, a natal artifact!"
"Old Ancestor, can't anyone under the age of twenty-five enter the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm? The older they are, the stronger their strength. Doesn't Qiye still have six years? Do you mean to let Qiye enter the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm this time around?"
Hearing this, the Sect Master of the Qingxuan Sect shook slightly, his steady hand faltering, and a trace of shock flashed across his profound, dao-rhythmed eyes.
"For ordinary proud talents, indeed, the older they are, the greater their advantage, as the probability of survival increases significantly."
"However, for true top-tier talents, before the age of twenty is the absolute best age for fusion. Because at this age, finding and fusing with the strongest natal artifact within the Heavenly Desolate Secret Realm is the only way to achieve true unity of divine and mortal destiny. This is also the beginning of the true path to becoming the strongest."
"Therefore, Qiye going immediately to Wutan City to call off the engagement and then marrying the Goddess is an urgent matter."
The thirteenth ancestor of the Qingxuan Sect spoke once more, a wisp of terrifying pressure emanating from his body!
"Wait!"
"Chen Qiye pays his respects to the Ancestor! However, Qiye dares not agree with the Ancestor's words! I, Chen Qiye, am a man of my word. Since my family already agreed to the engagement with the Xiao Family back then, Qiye will not call off the engagement with the Xiao Family now just for the sake of a dynasty's Goddess."
"This is Qiye's bottom line. I beg the Ancestor to take back this command!"
Outside the door!
Hearing the conversation inside the Immortal Lord Hall, Chen Qiye's heart twitched violently.
It was one thing for the sect master and some elders to try and pit him into an early grave, but now even a thirteenth-generation eternal ancestor had crawled out of seclusion?
The crisis on the Xiao Family's side had been temporarily defused, but the sect's side needed to be dealt with just as urgently! Otherwise, if the sect sent people behind his back to call off the wedding, all his previous efforts would go down the drain.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
"Senior Brother, what are you saying? You... you just rejected the Ancestor's suggestion? You... you said you refuse to marry the Goddess in a dual-cultivation union?"
"That's the dynasty's Goddess, a dynasty's Goddess that countless people dream of! Are you really going to refuse a marriage with the Goddess?"
Several young genius disciples of the Qingxuan Sect stared as Chen Qiye pushed the door open and walked in, their minds briefly short-circuiting. They looked at Chen Qiye, unable to process what was happening for a moment.
Inside the grand hall, countless gazes instantly converged on Chen Qiye!