Jiang Wan'er was completely petrified on the spot, taking a long while to snap back to reality.
She only heard Liu Bufan saying:
"I can sense the connection between our two bloodlines, though I don't know yet whether it's a boy or a girl."
With tears in her eyes, Jiang Wan'er couldn't help wondering if this was the heavens compensating her.
Yet her face immediately fell.
"Darling, does that mean you'll never die from now on...?"
"Your husband is an Immortal Emperor, of course he won't die."
Jiang Wan'er's face fell even further.
"And our children won't die either...?"
With a radiant and high-spirited air, Liu Bufan declared:
"That's right. Once I arrived on Earth, the children experienced a direct bloodline retroversion, granting them an immortal body right at birth."
Jiang Wan'er immediately threw herself into Liu Bufan's arms and burst into tears:
"B-but I'm going to die, wuwuwu...
You and the children can live forever, but I'll only be able to stay with you for less than a hundred years, wuwuwu..."
Only then did Liu Bufan realize that in his joy, he had failed to notice his beloved's emotional shift. He immediately explained:
"Silly wife, I've already told you that you'll stay with me forever. Once my artifact avatar merges, the heavenly treasures within it can directly elevate your cultivation.
Not only that..."
At this, Liu Bufan gave Jiang Wan'er a mischievous look, leaned close to her ear, and muttered something.
Jiang Wan'er's pretty face instantly flushed red as she gave Liu Bufan a punch in the chest:
"Y-you, you're so incorrigible."
Yet she still asked, feeling rather shy:
"I-is this really true...?"
With that, she buried her head straight into Liu Bufan's chest, not daring to lift it.
……
Just one hour earlier.
Deep within an underground cave in the mountains of Jiangzhou City.
A figure clad in tattered black robes suddenly experienced a ferocious surge in aura!
"Hahahaha, two thousand years! I've finally cultivated a Golden Core, hahahahaha!
Zhang Daoling, didn't you say my aptitude was poor?
Didn't you say that for me, cultivation was harder than ascending to the heavens?
Your daddy here has finally forged a Golden Core!"
With that, he unleashed an incantation toward a basketball-sized clump of dirt in front of him, and the dirt was instantly blasted into oblivion... (Dirt: What the *&#@￥!)
"Hahahaha!
So this is what it means to be a cultivator?!
Is this what magic power feels like?!
Is this true power?!
Zhang Daoling, the facts are right before your eyes! What gives you the right to say my aptitude is poor?!"
Yet his aura immediately plunged into despair.
"Damn it, two thousand years...
If not for the unique nature of this demonic art, wouldn't even my bones have turned to dust by now?"
Two trails of clear tears silently streamed down his cheeks.
Yet, thinking of something else, his aura instantly recovered.
"Zhang Daoling, so what if my aptitude is poor?!
If you hadn't refused to take me in,
would I have had to cultivate this demonic art?!
Didn't you always preach about kindness and righteousness?!
Very well,
then I'm going to do evil! I am going to become the ultimate villain...!"
Before the word "villain" could fully leave his mouth,
suddenly, a crushing pressure descended from above, though only a tiny fraction of it was applied to this person.
As the black-robed man gazed up and roared to the heavens, he heard a crisp cracking sound from within his Dantian.
And it was a truly crisp sound!
"My Golden Core shattered?!"
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, the black-robed man collapsed to the ground.
"I spent two thousand years in closed-door seclusion just to reach the threshold of the Golden Core.
Which son of a bitch did this...?"
*Blech!* Another mouthful of dark red blood spewed forth.
Though he muttered fierce threats, the tears in his eyes simply grew more abundant.
……
Above the clouds,
"Wife, you landed right on your backside when you fell down there earlier, are you alright? Do you want me to rub it for you?"
Seeing Liu Bufan's deadpan expression, Jiang Wan'er genuinely couldn't tell if he was just trying to take advantage of her or actually wanted to help.
Before she could even answer, a mischievous large hand naturally found its rightful place.
"Bufan..."
"Call me husband."
"Husband, why did fusing with that Saint Body cause such a massive commotion just now?
Why didn't I feel anything when you fused with your memory avatars earlier?
And what's the difference between a memory avatar and consciousness?"
"That's because of the unique nature of the Saint Body. In other realms, those who successfully forge a Saint Body can be counted on one hand.
Before crossing the temporal barrier, I placed a protective incantation on each avatar to ensure I could suppress the pressure when merging them.
As for a memory avatar, you can simply think of it as a USB flash drive or a portable hard drive; it stores data, but without an operating system, it can't be accessed.
The pressure during the merge was kept under control by the incantation I left behind.
However, I underestimated the power of the Saint Body when fusing with it, and the incantation I prepared in advance almost failed to contain it.
Fortunately, I channeled all the excess pressure deep into the ground, otherwise you might have been in danger."
With that, he pulled Jiang Wan'er tightly into his arms.
"Wife, I'm sorry. My oversight almost hurt you."
Feeling the genuine sincerity welling up from the depths of Liu Bufan's heart, Jiang Wan'er felt entirely enveloped in happiness.
"Wife, the incantation we prepared beforehand is pretty much exhausted.
Let's head down. Once I recover some magic power and fuse with my other avatars, I'll take you out to properly see the world."
Jiang Wan'er nodded obediently.
"Actually, I don't care about all that sightseeing. As long as you're by my side, that's enough."
"Mhm, I understand."
"But husband, what kind of level is your strength at right now? Can guns even hurt you?"
Gazing at his adorably naive wife, Liu Bufan let out a chuckle:
"Forget about guns. On this Earth, in this realm, there is nothing that can harm me."
The chapter isn't over yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Just as the two of them were being all lovey-dovey up in the clouds,
down in the underground cave...
"Uwa-blech...
What the hell...
Is... is anyone there?
Would someone please come save me?!
My Golden Core has never shattered before, I have zero experience with this!
What is the meaning of this endless vomiting of blood?
Uwa-blech...
Great Master...
Great Immortal...
Old Lady....
Is anyone out there listening to me...?"
Holding Jiang Wan'er in his arms, Liu Bufan descended slowly from the sky.
"That's right, husband, are you planning to go to Kyoto to take revenge on that old hag of the Liu family?"
As it turned out, back when Liu Bufan had first returned home, his grandfather and patriarch Liu Shanhai had suddenly suffered a stroke and become bedridden.
His step-grandmother Wang Jie had secretly colluded with the Wang Family—another influential clan—to seize supreme authority over the family.
On virtually the same day, the family of Liu Bufan's eldest uncle, Liu Yiqian, mysteriously vanished.
His parents, Liu Yiqian and Wu Lingchan, died in a car crash.
His younger brother Liu Pengyuan and Liu Bufan himself were drugged, had one of their legs broken, their Dantians and hands crippled, and were forced to swallow mute-remedies before their faces were disfigured and they were dumped in two separate remote villages. His younger sister Liu Duoduo was likewise cast into the ocean.
Afterward, his step-grandmother's sons—his third uncle Liu Yiwan and fourth uncle Liu Yizai—took over the family businesses previously managed by his eldest uncle and father.
A trace of playful amusement flashed in Liu Bufan's eyes.
"Revenge? Of course we're going to take revenge.
My parents are dead, my younger siblings' whereabouts are unknown, and my eldest uncle's entire family has vanished.
Once I merge my divine sense avatar and track them down, I'll settle the score with that poisonous hag right in front of them, or let them take vengeance with their own hands—only then will my hatred be appeased.
Besides, I suspect Grandfather's stroke was also the work of that venomous Wang Jie.
However, as long as Grandfather is still alive, our old political, commercial, and martial arts connections remain intact."
"The martial arts world? You mean like the kind they show in TV dramas?" Jiang Wan'er asked, puzzled.
"Not entirely. The martial arts world is something ordinary people can never touch.
Speaking of which, when my memory avatar first returned, it accidentally killed two people. But after erasing parts of their memories, I reversed time and brought them back to life."
Liu Bufan shook his head with a trace of embarrassment; after all, those people hadn't offended anyone—they were just eating noodles and chatting late at night when they suddenly got snuffed out. Talk about being wronged!
"The path of martial arts is graded into levels: Martial Artist, Mingjin, Anjin, Huajin, and Grandmaster, among others.
I used to study Ancient Martial Arts from childhood under Old Liu, a retained master of our family, and I already possessed Huajin cultivation by the age of ten."
Yet, thinking better of it, he wisely refrained from mentioning the mortifying episode where he ruined his own body by messing around with herbal medicine formulations.
"Then why didn't those retained masters stop that old hag?"
"The family's retained masters only deal with external threats. To put it bluntly, this incident was essentially an internal power struggle within the family.
My third and fourth uncles are, after all, legitimate descendants of the Liu family.
Not to mention, those four retained masters held differing loyalties toward the various uncles and senior figures.
Old Liu and Old Sun supported my eldest uncle and my father, while Old Ma and Old Wang supported my third and fourth uncles."
This was the first time Jiang Wan'er had ever heard such detailed inside information.
She gently wrapped her arms around Liu Bufan, pressing her cheek against his chest.
"Husband, you've suffered through these past few thousands of years."
Feeling his beloved's warmth, Liu Bufan stroked her hair.
"That's nothing. You're the one who bore the greatest pressure.
In this game of chess, a single misstep would have shattered you to pieces, and the Jiang Family would have been implicated as well.
On top of that, I've let you suffer far too many grievances."
Jiang Wan'er raised her head, tears shimmering in her eyes as she stubbornly declared:
"Don't you dare say that. I love you, which is why I was willing to do all of this.
Haven't you heard the saying?
A woman lost in love has no reason; everything I did for you came straight from the heart. Bufan, please don't put any psychological pressure on yourself, alright?
We still have a future ahead of us. Can't we just let the past be the past?"
Looking at the silly, endearing wife in his arms, Liu Bufan smiled faintly:
"Alright.
Let the past be past, let the new begin.
We won't bring any of it up again. Between a husband and wife, who keeps score of who owes whom?"
After offering Wan'er a comforting reassurance, the corners of Liu Bufan's mouth twitched upward:
"Wife, it seems someone has come to interrupt our private talk."
Author's Note:
The little demon will be a comedic recurring character throughout the entire book. What kind of sparks will fly between him and the protagonist, and what interesting stories will unfold in the urban setting? Please stay tuned and see for yourselves!