Deal!

The private room was so quiet that they could hear each other breathing.

Tang Ping rubbed his fingers along the cool wall of the bone china cup. Though the treatment offered to a "son-in-law of the Luo Family" had already stirred his heart, he knew better than anyone that Luo Family servants were merely "high-end tools," while a son-in-law was considered "one of their own," someone with access to core resources. The gap between the two was as vast as that between the Planetary Rank and the World Lord Rank.

Still, he suppressed his impulse and raised his final question. "I want to know—why me?"

Luo Xiaoyu blinked her clear eyes, her long lashes trembling lightly like butterfly wings. "Is that important?"

"Very important." Tang Ping sat up straight, his gaze exceptionally serious. "I don't want to get married in a muddle, and I definitely don't want to be just another name on someone's 'backup list.'"

Looking at his tense profile, Luo Xiaoyu's pretty face suddenly flushed faintly. Her fingertips unconsciously curled around the ends of her hair, but she still spoke frankly. "First, you fit my tastes very well. At least every night from now on, I'll be facing a man I find pleasant to look at."

Tang Ping instantly straightened his back, and his chest puffed out without him even realizing it.

See that? This was the charm of Jiangnan Wu Yanzu! What were Peng Yuyans compared to him?

Even so, he maintained a calm expression and merely gave a soft "Mm," pretending not to care.

"Second," Luo Xiaoyu said, changing the subject as her tone grew more solemn, "I had Lady Babata investigate the files of martial artists your age on Earth. Your brain domain breadth is the highest. You're only one unit behind Grandpa Founder Luo Feng back in his day. That means your potential may surpass that of most people in the future."

Tang Ping was stunned.

Before he could fully process that information, Luo Xiaoyu's next sentence left him dumbfounded. "Third, when we were children, you watched me bathe."

"Huh?" Tang Ping's eyes flew wide open.

The private room instantly fell silent. Only the patches of light cast by the Star Track Chandelier continued to sway softly. He opened his mouth, yet had no idea what to say.

Tang Ping still had his reservations. After all, no matter how one dressed it up, the phrase "living off a woman" was a little disgraceful.

Besides, his dream was to be like an ancient emperor, with three thousand beauties in his harem. When he had nothing to do, he could flip through name plaques and indulge in pools of wine and forests of meat. That was the life a true powerhouse should lead!

What was more, he knew the future plot. With a little advance planning—such as buying up Earth land that would skyrocket in value later—he could rent it out to people who wanted to have children. In just a few thousand or tens of thousands of years, he would earn enough to support his cultivation all the way to Immortal, perhaps even beyond.

In that case, marrying Luo Xiaoyu would grant him Luo Family resources, but it would not exactly be timely aid. At most, it would be icing on the cake.

As for the school beauty's looks? Once he became a King-Rank Immortal, forget school beauties—even Zerg Mother Queens and Monster Race Wolf Girls would be his for the taking.

Luo Xiaoyu seemed to see through his hesitation. Instead of being displeased, she looked even more satisfied. Those destined for great things feared nothing more than losing themselves at the sight of profit. A true tycoon remained unruffled even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, and would not blink even if a herd of deer sprang up beside him.

Tang Ping could remain clear-headed in the face of such temptation. It seemed she had truly chosen the right person this time.

She gently set down her coffee cup, her voice carrying a trace of barely noticeable temptation. "Oh, right. I forgot to mention the Luo Family's marriage rewards. Direct descendants are divided into nine grades when they marry. The lowest, ninth-grade reward is ten million Silver Blue Coins. But with the aptitude the two of us have, the odds are high that we'll receive the first-grade reward—an entire billion Silver Blue Coins."

Tang Ping's breathing paused. One billion Silver Blue Coins was enough to buy ten entire Starlight Commercial Streets in Jiangnan City, not to mention how many Dragon Blood Crystals and Telekinesis Training Devices it could be exchanged for!

Such a massive amount of startup capital could make his real estate blueprint progress dozens of times more smoothly.

Before he could react, Luo Xiaoyu continued, "The first-grade reward also includes a star system as territory. We split the territory's income fifty-fifty with the family.

"For safety, the family will also assign a Universe Level slave to serve as captain of your guards. You know that a Universe Level expert in the Silver Blue Empire can become a planetary lord."

Tang Ping's fingers began to tremble slightly. Territory spanning an entire star system! A Universe Level guard! This was no longer merely icing on the cake. It was directly raising his starting point to a height others could never reach in several lifetimes!

"And," Luo Xiaoyu continued in an even softer voice, her eyes carrying a hint of mischief, "every time we have a child, the family will award us another one hundred million Silver Blue Coins.

"Most importantly, I'm a traditional girl. I don't object to you having multiple wives and concubines. As long as you're strong enough, you can do whatever you want. But if you can't even beat me and still go fooling around outside, don't blame me for applying for family arbitration."

"Agreed!" Tang Ping abruptly raised his cup and stood up, his eyes burning as he looked at Luo Xiaoyu, his voice full of excitement.

"Wife, at this moment, we have dreams—dreams of ideals, love, youth, and the future. I hope that years from now, centuries from now, even thousands of years from now, we can still clink glasses like this and never hear the sound of our dreams shattering."

"The starlight is distant, the evening breeze endless. Sooner or later, we'll meet a beam of light. Through mountains and rivers, it is a blessing across three lifetimes!

"Cheers—to the future!"

Seeing the light in his eyes, Luo Xiaoyu could not stop the corners of her lips from lifting into a faint yet genuine smile. She picked up her coffee cup and lightly clinked it against Tang Ping's.

"Ding~"

The crisp sound of the collision echoed through the private room, like a pebble falling into a still lake and sending ripples spreading outward.

Tang Ping drained the last warm drop from his coffee cup, set it down, and asked without the slightest hesitation, "Wife, when are we holding the wedding?"

Since they had already made it clear this was a "win-win partnership," beating around the bush would be a pure waste of time. Right now, Earth's housing prices were all he could think about.

He had specifically looked into it recently. Because the Luo Family had encouraged migration to other planets, most old Earthlings had taken their families to other inhabited planets in the Milky Way Galaxy to "work."

After all, the Milky Way Galaxy had more than 210,000 inhabited planets. The Luo Family's direct line simply did not have enough people to manage them all. They were even short of administrators for affiliated civilizations. Old Earthlings could easily find jobs as "planetary administrator assistants" after moving there.

Once people left, Earth's housing prices plummeted to rock bottom. Especially in the prime districts of Jiangnan City, money that once could only buy half of a large apartment could now purchase three fully paid detached villas with courtyards.

He had to buy at the bottom before the migration wave slowed. Otherwise, once those people realized Earth's "livability advantages," it would be too late when they came back to fight over properties again.

Luo Xiaoyu gently shook her head. "Neither of us has parents. Who would we hold a wedding for? If we accept wedding gifts, we'll have to remember whose weddings, funerals, and marriages require return gifts later. All that socializing would be a complete waste of cultivation time."

She leaned forward slightly, speaking with the efficiency-first tone unique to top students. "We can just register our marriage at the family's virtual residence. Pick a star system close to Earth as our territory, so it'll be convenient to come back and claim bonuses when we have children. Once we register, we'll head to the residence and cultivate in seclusion.

"Time waits for no one!

"The family classic, the Ancestral Records, mentions a World Lord Rank 'senior' who always thought there was plenty of time. He kept postponing cultivation until he was old and frail. In the end, he failed to break through to Immortal, could only find a successor to entrust with his inheritance, and was eventually buried among a barren asteroid belt. What a pity."

"As expected of my wife. You really see things clearly!" Tang Ping instantly gave her a thumbs-up.

Compared to cultivating and growing stronger, what did a wedding's sense of ceremony matter? He could save time for cultivation and buy houses sooner. It was simply perfect.

Luo Xiaoyu's pretty face warmed at his words, "my wife," and the tips of her ears turned faintly pink. But she did not deny it. Instead, she waved a hand, and a silver-gray helmet appeared on the table.

The helmet had sleek lines, its surface engraved with dense Luo Family totems, while its edges glowed with a faint golden light.

"Husband, this is a customized anonymous Virtual Helmet made by the Luo Family." She tapped the helmet's projection with her fingertip, and rare pride entered her voice. "Put it on. We'll enter the Luo Family Exclusive Island in the Virtual Universe directly and register with Lady Babata.

"You don't need to attend university either. The family will arrange Universe Level experts to guide our cultivation. That's a hundred times better than studying those 'basic theory classes' at school. You can take general knowledge courses online. I'll get you a spot for 'family-approved home study,' and you'll be able to receive your diploma in a few years."

Tang Ping's gaze was instantly drawn to the helmet, and his eyes lit up.

He had known from the novels in his previous life that the Virtual Universe was the Human Race's true "ultimate weapon." It could simulate the operation of universal laws at a one-to-one ratio. Even World Lord Rank experts could comprehend the Space Law within it. It was far superior to the Luo Family's self-built "simple virtual world."

But he had never even dared to imagine the price of such a thing.

An ordinary consciousness-sensing helmet cost ten Black Dragon Coins, equivalent to ten thousand Silver Blue Coins, and its annual network fee was another ten Black Dragon Coins. Anonymous accounts were even more expensive: two thousand Black Dragon Coins each, with a validity period of only one hundred years. Converted into Silver Blue Coins, that was two million.

He had not yet reached the Planetary Rank and could not register a nationality, so naturally he could not open an account. He could only buy an anonymous one.

Two million. His tiny inheritance could never afford it.

Yet Luo Xiaoyu had directly given him a "customized model" that could even access the "Luo Family Exclusive Island." This treatment was better than that received by ordinary collateral descendants of the Luo Family.

"Alright!" Tang Ping grabbed the physical helmet Luo Xiaoyu handed over. Cool metal touched his palms, and he eagerly put it on and adjusted the sensing device.

"Connecting to the Virtual Universe..."

A deep, majestic voice suddenly resounded in the depths of his consciousness, as though it came from the Origin of the Universe itself, carrying a weight that pierced the soul.

Tang Ping's vision blurred. The warm yellow lights of the café vanished, replaced by an endless expanse of void.

Beneath his feet was solid "light matter ground." Looking up, he could see hundreds of millions of stars glittering through the void, while distant nebulae slowly drifted. Even the air was suffused with the faint aura of "law particles."

Looking down, he saw that his school uniform had turned into a silver-gray robe, also embroidered with the Luo Family totem. Its style perfectly matched Luo Xiaoyu's outfit.

"So this is the Luo Family Exclusive Island in the Virtual Universe?" Tang Ping could not help sighing as he looked around.

This island, floating in the void, was larger than Jiangnan Province. It was covered with exotic flowers and plants, and every petal glimmered with a faint light that seemed capable of nourishing spiritual power.

Several snow-white Spirit Deer stepped lightly through the grass. Their antlers were wrapped in faint bands of light. At a glance, they were clearly Law Spirit Beasts unique to the Virtual Universe.

At the center of the island stood an ancient-looking manor. Above its vermilion gates hung a gilded plaque bearing the two powerful characters, "Luo Mansion," radiating the majesty of an ancient noble clan.

"What do you think?" Luo Xiaoyu walked to his side, her tone carrying a trace of barely concealed pride. "The Luo Family spent several hundred million Ganwu Coins buying permanent ownership of this island from the Virtual Universe Company. Ordinary Universe Level factions can't afford it. Only core direct descendants like us can enter directly."

Tang Ping nodded repeatedly, his anticipation soaring. "Where are we going now? Are we going to pay respects to the Luo Family's ancestors?"

If he could personally meet those bigshots, it would fulfill a "novel dream" from his previous life.

Luo Xiaoyu smiled and shook her head. "How could it be that easy? The ancestors are busy with countless affairs every day. How could they have time for juniors like us, separated from them by ten generations?"

She raised a hand and pointed toward the east side of the manor. "We just need to go to the Ancestral Hall and register with Lady Babata. After collecting the marriage rewards, we can head to our territory and arrange our cultivation."

"So I won't get to meet the ancestors..." A trace of regret passed through Tang Ping's heart, but it was quickly replaced by anticipation. Even if he could not meet the ancestors, meeting Babata would still be worth it!

That "little devil" Smart Life from the novels in his previous life was his favorite character. She had accompanied Luo Feng from Earth all the way to becoming a Universe Master—a true "legendary existence."

A while later.

Tang Ping was led by Luo Xiaoyu's soft, warm hand toward the Ancestral Hall.

The girl's detailed instructions filled his ears as she explained the family's many taboos one by one. "You must not speak carelessly in the Virtual Universe, especially disrespectful complaints about the family. Absolutely not.

"And you mustn't do anything indecent either. Things like taking off your pants, urinating in public, fighting, or insulting people are all strictly forbidden."

"Also, if you meet any of the family's seniors or ancestors, you must be extremely respectful." As she spoke, Luo Xiaoyu transmitted images of several elders to Tang Ping, and he hurriedly focused and memorized them.

When his gaze passed over the images, Tang Ping could not help secretly praising Xu Xin's grandmotherly elegance. She was truly breathtakingly beautiful.

Finally, Luo Xiaoyu deliberately emphasized, "And Lady Babata. You must show her the utmost respect. If you're good with words, say more flattering things; if you really don't know what to say, then stay quiet and respectful. Whatever you do, don't lose your manners."

After chattering instructions all the way, Luo Xiaoyu suddenly stopped and turned to look at her bargain husband. "Right, Tang Ping, I forgot to tell you.

"When I asked Lady Babata to help scan for geniuses across the world, I already promised her that I would introduce you to the Falling Ink Star faction as a registered disciple."

Seeing Tang Ping pause slightly, she immediately added, "Don't worry. Being a registered disciple doesn't come with much restraint, and you can receive quite a few rewards.

"Also, Lady Babata will check your cultivation progress every ten years. If you meet her requirements, the rewards will become even more generous. Even if you fail, at most you'll be expelled. You won't lose anything."

"As for this Falling Ink Star faction, I specifically looked into it. It doesn't have much of a reputation. It's just that Lady Babata repeatedly stressed that this matter must remain absolutely confidential and must not be revealed to anyone."

Falling Ink Star?

The corners of Tang Ping's lips rose slightly.

What an absolute steal!