Tang Family Tradition: First You Set the Trap, Then You Lead Others into It
Inside the Platinum Temple, Tang Feifei was in a daze for a while. Suppressing the turmoil in her heart, she tentatively asked, "Senior, please..."
May I ask which ancestor of my Tang Family you are?
Tang Ping leaned casually against a jade pillar with cloud patterns, and said with a playful smile, "My name is Tang Ping, and it's engraved in the second column of your family genealogy."
"Boom~"
Tang Feifei's eyes were so wide they almost popped out.
Tang Ping?!
That legendary First Elder of Earth was actually King Anle, the Venerable Anle!
He clearly remembered that Earth's ancient records stated that First Elder of Earth was a figure who only emerged after the rise of the Galaxy Lord, which was only about 20,000 years ago.
But in just over 20,000 years, our ancestor has actually risen to the level of a ruler of the Human Race? Doesn't that mean our ancestor now has an even more prestigious title: Lord of Peace and Joy?
What made his scalp tingle even more was that Tang Ping's name was exactly the same as that of the infamous Tang Family internet celebrity from the Ganwu Universe Kingdom —the one revered as the "Grandmaster of Lying Down and Being a Scumbag"!
He hurriedly brought up the Virtual Universe panel, clicked on the projection of the internet celebrity's appearance, and almost cursed out loud when he saw it. Damn it, even the lazy and casual look in his eyes and brows was exactly the same!
Ancestor, just how many aliases have you been hiding?!
After a long silence, Tang Feifei seemed to suddenly remember something. Her lips twitched, and her tone was filled with desperate probing. "Ancestor, that Soul Hall Jie-Jie Monster who has recently risen to fame in the trial circle and terrified everyone—could it also be you?"
Now, more and more members of the Tang Family are participating in the trials, covering the entire Virtual Universe. In addition, with various intelligence companies and trial members conducting private live broadcasts and communications, news from the trial circle spreads rapidly.
The Soul Hall is a nightmare for all the trial participants. They are ruthless and cruel, and the most terrifying of them is a "Jie-Jie Monster" who is completely covered in black clothes and only has two scarlet eyes showing.
That guy's laughter always rings out when people are at their most desperate, followed by utter death and torment.
Many disciples undergoing trials would have nightmares at night after hearing that "heh heh" sound, fearing that the black-clad figure would appear in front of them at any moment.
Upon hearing this, Tang Ping not only didn't deny it, but scratched his head and smiled somewhat shyly, "Hehe~ How was it? Was my performance realistic enough? I even honed this acting skill on my son."
Tang Feifei:----
He mentally screamed, "Grandpa, your son probably's been wanting to beat you up for ages! This isn't acting practice, this is pure torture!"
"But don't worry." Tang Ping waved his hand. "Acting skills are something that can be honed through practice. Even if you make a mistake and scare someone too much, it's okay. Our Tang Family has a dedicated soul master who can easily make those juniors in the trials forget the trauma."
"Keep it up! The future of the Tang Family depends on you little rascals!"
Tang Feifei looked at the Human Race ruler in front of her with a complicated expression.
The Tang Family's strategy for raising their descendants is the complete opposite of the Luo Family's "iron rice bowl" style of support. This is a typical case of "first exploiting the next generation, then exploiting them as well," making the tormenting of the younger generation a family tradition, isn't it?
But then he couldn't help but feel secretly pleased: although this kind of family "violent upbringing" sounded terrible, luckily, he would be the one to commit violence in the future!
Moreover, if you perform well, you can get all sorts of top-tier rewards, making it a huge win!
The Tang Family, loyal!
From this day forward, he will be the patriarch's most loyal "accomplice in swindling people"!
A day later, Tang Feifei, carrying her resurrected parents and with cultivation resources she had obtained through a family loan—enough to instantly elevate them to the pinnacle of Universe Level cultivation—left the Platinum Temple with light steps but a hint of doubt.
He hasn't fully recovered from the day's dramatic ups and downs.
What reassured him most was finally having a powerful backer: a Human Race ruler at that. Although Ancestor Tang Ping was unreliable and had an eccentric personality, he was easy to talk to: he could resurrect his parents if he wanted, and lend money if he wanted; he was very generous.
There was one thing he couldn't understand: even though the ancestor was this powerful, why did he still have to charge interest on the money for such a small amount of cultivation resources at the Universe Level?
On this day, he also specifically studied the welfare benefits of Tang's Core Member. Apart from the subsidies they could receive for training junior members and joining the Soul Hall, most of the other benefits depended on "loans".
For example, if breaking through to the Immortal Realm is difficult, one can borrow several million Hunyuan Unit to directly buy a Wind-type Origin Fruit, thus increasing the breakthrough probability by 40%.
But this loan not only needs to be repaid, but also interest. Although the interest rate is not high, if he fails to repay on time, the family will forcibly pursue him for the debt. At that time, he will probably be directly used as collateral for the debt and thrown into dangerous secret realms or Outer Battlefield as a laborer, since those places are always short of people.
Thinking about it this way, wouldn't the younger generation of the Tang Family be constantly chased by debt for their entire lives, with no way to stop?
But upon further reflection, compared to those independent cultivators, he felt content.
Those people would find it difficult to even meet, let alone get a loan to buy the Origin Fruit, let alone come into contact with such a rare Supreme Treasure that is seldom seen even at auctions. The Ancestor may seem ruthless, but in reality, he has given them a shortcut, even if that shortcut is full of debt and thorns.
After all, in this dog-eat-dog world, having pitfalls to fall into and debts to repay is far better than not even having the right to struggle.
From this perspective, he not only can't blame the ancestor, but he should also thank him properly.
Take care, and good luck!
Before the jade steps of the Platinum Temple, Tang Ping warmly greeted the departing figure of the outstanding younger generation of the Tang Family.
In terms of the success rate of their offspring alone, the Tang Family far surpasses the Luo Family today; what is even more remarkable is that even those offspring of the collateral branches who only enjoy the basic benefits of the Tang Family and have no powerful backing are all cautious in their words and deeds, and dare not easily make enemies, making them far more obedient than the younger generation of the Luo Family.
Of course, the Tang Family is not without problems. For example, among the trial elders, there are those who are related to the trial disciples or have old grudges, and the hidden danger of favoritism and abuse of power always exists.
To close this loophole, the Tang Family has a rule: when trial elders perform trial tasks, they must keep full-dimensional virtual video recording enabled throughout the entire process. After the task is settled, the recording will be handed over to artificial intelligence for frame-by-frame recognition and analysis.
In this way, although it's difficult to prevent malicious individuals from secretly easing the rules or subtly adjusting the difficulty, it also keeps all methods within reasonable limits.
As for the elders of the clan who want to pass on secret signals or reminders to the younger generation, the Tang Family has a countermeasure: all students who start the trial are under the complete surveillance of the Virtual Universe.
Of course, this doesn't prevent telepathic communication, a kind of subtle hint that only they themselves understand. However, the trial rules are constantly updated to adapt to changing circumstances, which solves this problem.
The punishments are severe: those who help cheat will be stripped of their ancestral status in the Tang Family, all clan benefits will be revoked, and even all previously enjoyed resources will be recovered; even the disciples who cheat will have their subsequent trials made more difficult as a form of punishment.
But as the saying goes, "a large forest has all kinds of birds," and even a large clan like the Tang Family could not remain a monolithic entity with everyone of one mind.
Tang Ping had previously considered that having artificial intelligence handle all the trial tasks would theoretically eliminate any favoritism.
However, this method has two major problems: First, the involvement of a large number of high-level machines will make the trial lose all its variability and human touch, becoming rigid and boring; second, the maintenance and upkeep costs of high-level machines are astonishingly high, far less cost-effective than using people.
Humans can find food to replenish their energy and heal themselves without the need for clans to expend resources. They may even work overtime to get ahead, making them far more practical than cold, impersonal machines.
At that moment, Tang Ping suddenly understood why those unscrupulous bosses in his previous life refused to use robots to do all the work: it was simply too cost-effective.
"Hehehe----"
"Cough cough~"
A soft cough came from behind him.
Tang Ping looked up and was surprised to Mountain Sitting Guest had been standing in front of him at some point, his blue robes hanging down, and his expression was indescribable.
He quickly composed himself, reverting to his usual simple and honest yet undeniably handsome appearance, and greeted him gently, "Teacher Mountain Sitting Guest, when did you arrive?"
The Mountain Sitting Guest glanced at his apprentice with a complicated expression.
He considered himself to be the ultimate hands-off mentor and set three ironclad rules for his disciples. However, he never expected that his four disciples would be even more ruthless than him, devising a method of "first scamming, then scamming; taking out loans for advancement" to train the younger generation.
Of course, in this harsh and realistic Primal Universe, probably only a loser like this could survive better.
He originally thought Luo Feng was the most promising, after all, no matter how good the talent, willpower and comprehension are the core foundation of cultivation. But Luo Feng was too ambitious and didn't care about the consequences. Before even reaching the Realm Lord level, he forcibly increased his Gene Multiplier to 10081 times, which is comparable to the limit of the Universe Master.
He obtained the divine secrets of the Primal Universe, but he was still not satisfied. He absorbed countless rare metals to strengthen the Original Core of his Internal World, making the Original Core of the Golden Horned Beast incredibly hard, even the ultimate secrets of Immortal Level could not shake it.
In the eyes of the Mountain Sitting Guest, Luo Feng's actions were no different from those arrogant but incompetent so-called geniuses throughout the Golden Horned Beast's history; he had already blocked his path at the Realm Lord level. Even if a Realm Lord had a lifespan of billions of years, what use would it be? Even Immortal Level ultimate secret technique couldn't break through his Original Core; how could one expect him to comprehend Venerable's secret technique?
This is absolutely impossible.
Thinking about it this way, it seems he's wasted his time taking on these three disciples.
That's why, looking at Tang Ping now, the Mountain Sitting Guest found him more and more pleasing to the eye.
This kid never sets his sights too high. Once he breaks through a barrier, he forges ahead relentlessly, advancing triumphantly all the way. In fact, he has taken the safest and most correct path. No matter how much you build up your foundation or increase your strength at a lower level, it is ultimately not as good as stepping into a higher level as soon as possible and overwhelming others with your power.
A mere 10,081 times the Gene Multiplier is not unusual among the Universe Master of the Universe Ocean.
It's just a pity about the Star Tower.
Thinking of the supreme Supreme Treasure that had been inexplicably forged, the Mountain Sitting Guest couldn't help but sigh. He raised his hand and patted Tang Ping's shoulder, his voice heavy. "I am increasingly weary, and my disciple is often ill. You must encourage him."
Tang Ping:?
How can someone who's already the Universe Master still be making empty promises to him?