Chapter 21: No Public Displays of Affection

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Chapter 21: No Public Displays of Affection

Deep in the Qinling Mountains, above the Lin residence, a thunderbolt suddenly exploded across the previously cloudless blue sky. Bluish-purple lightning struck directly at a certain part of the old residence, yet caused none of the damage one might have expected.

The old residence remained standing, quiet and imposing.

“Damn it!! I have a son! Although he’s dead, his body is still perfectly preserved, and he still has a breath of life left in him. Even Grandfather said that as long as Linlin overcomes his tribulation, he’ll recover. And you’re telling me I’m destined to have no descendants? Even if you’re my elder brother, don’t blame me for wanting to fight you one-on-one!!”

Lin Xuandi’s square face was full of fury, and even his bushy beard was sticking up, as though it wanted to straighten itself and pierce the seemingly refined middle-aged man opposite him. Judging by the scene alone, it looked almost like the ultimate showdown between a martial artist and a scholar. To make matters worse, one of them was wearing a changsan while the other was wearing a tangzhuang .

“Who would be stupid enough to fight you one-on-one?” The refined middle-aged man opposite Lin Xuandi sneered. “I cultivate the Thirty-Six Heavens Divination Technique, which concerns the secrets of heaven and the forces of the earth. You, on the other hand, have cultivated the Heavenly Thunder Technique since childhood, along with the Vajra Eight Trigrams Palm. Even if I’m your elder brother and a little older than you, you, a martial artist, actually have the nerve to challenge me, a scholar, to a duel? Do you think I’m as stupid as you?”

“Lin Xuantian! How dare you say I won’t have any descendants! If I don’t have any, I’ll curse you to have none either!” Lin Xuandi thought about it and decided that he really shouldn’t start fighting with his refined and sinister elder brother in front of a room full of people. At worst, he’d find a time to sneakily beat his elder brother up. It wasn’t as though he’d never done that before.

“My divination says exactly that. Even if you curse me, the divination won’t change.” Lin Xuantian’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. “Besides, shouldn’t you go see what kind of person Mu Yanxiao actually is? You only have one son, Linlin. Now your son has to stay by his side and overcome the tribulation together with him in order to recover. What if this person isn’t as pure-hearted as he seems? Aren’t you afraid that Linlin will be dragged down by him and be unable to overcome his tribulation? My divination shows that almost every major event in Linlin’s life will be connected to this Mu Yanxiao.”

Lin Xuandi hissed sharply upon hearing this. After thinking about it, he felt that his elder brother had a point, so he hurriedly looked toward his wife.

He saw his wife happily playing mahjong with his sister-in-law, third sister, and an aunt from one of the collateral branches.

Well, even if their stakes were broken spirit stones and low-level magical artifacts, and even if the mahjong tiles flew around the table according to their will, that still didn’t change the fact that they were playing mahjong!!

“Wife!! You, you, you! How can you still be in the mood to play mahjong here?! Our Linlin is in the hands of some unknown person! No, I have to go take a look. If that kid named Mu Yanxiao doesn’t treat our Linlin well, I’ll strike him with lightning until he’s crispy on the outside and tender on the inside!!” Lin Xuandi raised his handsome but bandit-chief-like face and made up his mind.

However, Hua Yu, who was playing mahjong with the power of her consciousness, had no intention of supporting her husband. Instead, she gave Lin Xuandi a thoroughly disdainful look. Only after she called a set of eight-wan did she say, “Second Eldest Lin, you actually have the nerve to mention Linlin to me now? By the time you remembered to check on Linlin, the daylilies would have withered hundreds of times already! You’ve been off robbing and plundering again these past ten days, haven’t you? I asked Brother to divine Linlin’s situation long ago, and I even asked Old Master for help! Old Master has already met the head of the Mu Family and seen Mu Yanxiao from afar. If Old Master says there’s no problem, then there definitely isn’t a problem!

Tsk, you really are something as a father… Win! I’m done playing. Second Eldest Lin, come fight me! I get angry just thinking about how you forced our son to learn mystic arts back then and ended up driving him away!!”

“Even if he were just loafing around in the Lin Family, it would still be better than his current situation!!”

Lin Xuandi, “…” Why did he always manage to single-handedly provoke domestic violence? What? You ask why he was still afraid of his wife even though he’d been learning Daoist arts, mystic arts, and Eight Trigrams Palm since childhood? Heh. If your wife were a naturally gifted sword cultivator who also came from a cultivation family, you’d understand… Back then, this tigress had chased him around and beaten him for five years!! Then his wife said she’d gotten used to beating him up, so she married him.

Thinking about it was all blood and tears.

“Wife, let’s talk this out! I just remembered there’s a place with heavy yin energy in Lingnan that I haven’t inspected yet! I’ll be going now!!”

Hua Yu, who had already drawn her twin swords, “…” It had been almost thirty years. How was this guy still so cowardly? She wasn’t going to stab him to death!

“Ahem, second sister-in-law, you should put away the Twin Blades of Fire. The spiritual energy of the seven great mountain ranges has been unstable lately. We’re right above the core of the Qinling Mountains, so we’d better be careful.”

The Lin Family’s eldest daughter-in-law spoke up. She had a round, slightly plump face and looked dignified and generous. Hearing this, Hua Yu decisively put away her twin swords and gave her sister-in-law a hearty smile. “Don’t worry, sister-in-law. I know what I’m doing. But as for Linlin… Ah, forget it. As long as he’s happy, even if he ends up without any descendants… I’ll accept it.”

Compared to Father Lin’s enormous reaction, Mother Lin’s response was much calmer. After all, she cultivated the Heavenly Dao and believed in cause and effect as well as fate. One could do everything within one’s power, but in the end, there was always a part of one’s fate that had to be left to heaven. There were people who went against the will of heaven, but few succeeded. Unless one was truly at the end of the road, it was better to go with the flow.

“Besides, Linlin’s divination back then was much more ominous than this. Before he turned twenty, didn’t it show that he had no chance of survival at all? Who would’ve thought that after he turned twenty, he’d have a way to overcome his tribulation?” Hua Yu smiled as she spoke. “Although Xuandi and I have taken the lives of quite a few evil spirits and demons, I can guarantee that everyone we killed was truly vicious and evil. Even if we didn’t accumulate merit or blessings, there shouldn’t be any retribution that would fall upon Linlin. What’s more, I believe that the reason Linlin was able to gain that sliver of hope to overcome his tribulation is precisely because of the efforts Xuandi and I have made to eliminate evil all these years. So, Xuandi and I should be content with the situation as it is.”

“As for whether Linlin can overcome his tribulation and whether he’ll have descendants in the future, that’s his own business. What he needs isn’t me or his father. It depends on his own choices and efforts.”

After saying this, Hua Yu slung her twin swords onto her back and dashed away with a heroic air, preparing to inspect Lingnan with her husband.

Meanwhile, inside the main residence, the gentle eldest sister-in-law walked over to her husband and said with a soft smile, “Everyone says I’m dignified and generous, but in my eyes, this sister-in-law is the one who is truly open-minded and insightful. Just these words alone put her far above those who cry about the unfairness of fate or insist on defying heaven to change their destiny. Righteous and awe-inspiring, yet open-minded and cheerful. Second younger brother is truly blessed.”

Lin Xuantian smiled upon hearing this. “I’m blessed too. Don’t sell yourself short.”

As the eldest daughter-in-law of the Lin Family, being able to manage the internal affairs of such a huge family in perfect order was something that many people could never accomplish.

“However, I genuinely agree with what our second sister-in-law said. Linlin, just like A’xuan, is someone whose fate is uncertain. Whether he’ll ultimately be without descendants isn’t something we can say for certain. Back then, when I divined for A’xuan, didn’t it say that he’d fall into the demonic path and become abandoned by everyone? But look at him now. That incident caused such a huge uproar, and it still hasn’t been completely resolved, yet isn’t A’xuan still living perfectly well on the righteous path? Although, ahem, there are quite a few people who fear and hate him, he hasn’t actually been abandoned by everyone, has he? His fate has already changed. As for Linlin, although his temperament is much more easygoing and calm than A’xuan’s, when all is said and done, he’s also walking the path of ‘deviating from the orthodox.’”

“Tsk, tsk. The Lin Family’s ancestral rules say that when it comes to those who deviate from the orthodox path, we should watch from the sidelines, keep ourselves out of it, and lend a helping hand when necessary.” A hint of amusement appeared in Lin Xuantian’s eyes. “Anyway, the Lin Family always produces oddballs. The only difference is that I’ve happened to run into two at once. So what? Father and Grandfather are still here, and A’xuan is already quite famous. What do I have to be afraid of?”

The eldest sister-in-law of the Lin Family shot her husband a look. “You’re really good at avoiding trouble and taking it easy. Enough. Even if we don’t concern ourselves with Linlin’s affairs, we still need to handle the other matters properly. Although those people keep saying that everything is fine, I still have a bad feeling. Just like our second sister-in-law said, everyone has their own destiny, and going against heaven is a major taboo. If you want something, you have to put in the corresponding effort. They spent twenty years working hard to obtain that sliver of hope for Linlin, while those people haven’t done anything and yet want to seize the fortune of heaven and earth… It’s best for the Lin Family to keep its distance from them.”

Lin Xuantian’s smile disappeared as well. He casually grabbed a handful of spirit stones and scattered them across the table, then looked at the divination result and sighed.

This was a sign of great chaos.

……

“Your website still isn’t up?”

In the second bedroom of Mu Yanxiao’s farmhouse, the owner was sitting on the bed, listening to the news while asking his parrot, who had been fiddling with the computer for nearly two hours.

“I told you to let Mu Three come and fix it for you. That’s his specialty, so even if you accidentally mess up the system, it won’t matter.”

Young Master Lin You, who was sitting in front of the computer, became furious upon hearing this.

“Squawk~ How many times does this lord have to say it?! This lord isn’t illiterate! This lord knows how to use a computer! This lord would never be stupid enough to destroy the entire computer system! Do you think this lord’s family doesn’t have computers?!”

“This lord just can’t access this website, okay?! This damn website is still under system maintenance! I’m going to tear them apart!!”

Mu Yanxiao silently imagined his adorable little blue parrot fluttering his wings and flying onto some website to angrily berate them. He immediately found the image hilarious and couldn’t help letting out a laugh. Suddenly, he felt that he could understand why, out of all the parrot spirits in that family, this was the only one who had foolishly run away, gotten caught, and then forgotten how to get home.

“Are you different from the other parrot spirits in your family?” Mu Yanxiao asked with a hint of teasing. He had originally thought his little parrot would start bristling again, but the chaotic clattering of the keyboard suddenly stopped. A few seconds later, he heard a voice filled with sorrow and confusion.

“How did you know?! My dad thinks I’m the worst misfortune our family has ever suffered, the greatest disgrace of them all!!” It wasn’t until this lord overturned him with a jar of paralyzing ginseng tea that he finally stopped.

Mu Yanxiao laughed even harder upon hearing this. He turned off the news and deliberately lowered his voice as he said, “Because I think you’re probably the only one in your family who doesn’t cultivate on a regular basis, but instead watches TV and uses the computer.”

Lin You instantly felt as though his knees had cracked. Although Mu Yanxiao was talking about his identity as a parrot spirit, Lin You realized with grief and indignation that the same situation applied perfectly to his life in the Lin Family’s old residence!!

When his eldest male cousin, second female cousin, third male cousin, and the other brothers and sisters from the collateral branches were meditating and cultivating, he was watching The Legend of the White Snake, My Fair Princess , playing computer games, reading novels, and researching dual-effect medicines.

When his eldest male cousin, second female cousin, third male cousin, and the others went out to study feng shui and gain experience, he was researching dual-effect medicines and… reading novels and playing crappy games.

When his eldest male cousin, second female cousin, third male cousin, and the others successfully obtained the Lin Family’s qualification to graduate from mystic arts training and were allowed to work independently, he researched dual-effect medicines and opened an online store.

“…Life is hard enough without exposing me.” Young Master Lin You calmly covered his face with his little wings.

Although Lin You hadn’t said it outright, Mu Yanxiao felt that he could imagine what his life at home had been like. Well, even though everyone in the family was a parrot spirit, he had to admit that he could really picture the ridiculous, bittersweet scene of someone standing out from the crowd while carrying that hint of uneasiness and melancholy.

Mu Yanxiao reached out and pulled his parrot into his arms. “Don’t feel sad or worried about it. What’s past is past. As long as you’re strong enough, even if you smash a television over their heads, they won’t dare complain.”

“But in terms of fighting, I’m really pretty weak.” Lin You was depressed. “Even with those medicines, if it suddenly turns into one-on-one fighting or a group brawl, that’s still a bit stressful.”

Mu Yanxiao’s body suddenly straightened when he heard this. Then Lin You heard a casual yet immensely confident voice.

“With me here, you’ll be the strongest.”

Lin You was slightly stunned.

Although a voice in his head was shouting, I don’t believe you. They could kill you with a single spell , and Even if you could kill them with a rocket launcher, my Little Uncle is an oddball. You definitely couldn’t kill him , Lin You still felt his heart pounding. At that moment, his heart felt as though it had been soaked in a jar of honey, sweet to the point of being cloying.

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