Chapter 49

The Rabbit Spirit father gave his Rabbit Spirit son a long, deep look. Admit it—he was only a little better off now than I was at your age. Either way, we were both poor bastards.

Bai Jinxiao had taken twenty years to turn his life around. As they said, money could make even ghosts grind millstones. Don't think that just because you weren't human, you didn't need money. You clearly needed even more of it!

It was only much later that he learned that if he had had a reliable, wealthy elder to guide him back then, he never would have had to live so miserably.

Like how Dual Cultivation had to be frequent, because leaving too much time between sessions made it easy for a rabbit tail to show...

Like how one person could hardly meet all his needs, so it was best to split oneself like an octopus and develop multiple Dual Cultivation partners...

If you opened a harem purely for pleasure, then no matter how painstakingly you planned it, or how everyone condemned you after it blew up in your face, none of it mattered. You paid for your hobby, after all. Money couldn't buy happiness.

But was the Rabbit Spirit doing it for pleasure? He did it to survive! He had no choice but to do it! Even great senior Su Daji had to hide her fox tail, and even the thousand-year snake demon Bai Suzhen had to be careful not to reveal her true form. Did a weak, helpless Little Bunny have the guts to act so willfully? When the time came, Fa Hai wouldn't even be necessary. A few capable humans could take care of him easily.

So although Bai Jinxiao, a country kid from the mountains, had "hooked up" with so many women within just over a year of arriving in the city, boasting achievements that made countless men envy and admire him... in truth, he had lived during that time as if ghosts were chasing him from behind. He couldn't stop, and he didn't dare stop. He had been utterly wretched.

The worst part was that despite working so "hard," he still suffered for his lack of education and fell into a pit without even realizing it—

The more Dual Cultivation partners a Rabbit Spirit found, the better? Not at all!

Because with too many of them, the energy he absorbed became mixed. Over time, many things similar to "Dantoxin" accumulated in his body. It wasn't quite as bad as drinking poison to quench thirst, but Bai Jinxiao suffered dearly for it later.

Furthermore, choosing Dual Cultivation partners required great care. It was somewhat like the concept of a Furnace Cauldron in fantasy novels. Could you just grab someone off the street and make them a Furnace Cauldron? Obviously not. Most Rabbit Spirit ancestors had lived rough lives, and some lacked the means to be particular even if they wanted to. Bai Jinxiao, on the other hand, looked back after becoming successful and could only sigh. Ah, how many detours he had taken!

A good Furnace Cauldron could match a hundred ordinary ones. Combined with the best Spirit-Gathering Array, it could lay an unshakable foundation during the initial transformation. That was the true royal road a Rabbit Spirit should follow.

Unfortunately, he had missed that chance back then.

But since his own son had the qualifications, he had to provide him with one!

Although Bai Jinxiao had been absent from Li Zhikong's life for nearly twenty years, he was actually quite fatherly. Rabbit Spirits were especially strange when it came to descendants: they seemed to carry their own energy field, making ordinary couples who spent much time around them more likely to conceive. Yet they themselves found it difficult to have offspring. Perhaps it was reproductive isolation?

Barring any surprises, Li Zhikong would be Bai Jinxiao's only heir.

"I don't mind making a trip to the United States. I'm on summer break anyway, so I can treat it as a vacation." What Li Zhikong found difficult was this: "My grandparents worry about me too much. They definitely won't be comfortable letting me go that far."

"That's easy." Bai Jinxiao had clearly prepared for this long ago. "I got back in touch with your mother some time ago. I'll have her invite you over, and your grandparents will definitely agree."

"Huh? My mom?" Li Zhikong was utterly amazed. His immortal father, whom he had not seen for years, really had become more and more immortal. "You could even find her? I thought... tch."

After giving birth, Ms. Li had gone abroad and vanished without a trace, as though there was no one in the country she cared about. It was understandable that she did not care for her son—after all, his biological father was not even human. But she had ignored even her own parents completely. To be so heartless was simply incomprehensible.

So, apart from the first few years when his grandparents occasionally complained about her, everyone eventually assumed that something had happened to her—women blinded by love were most likely to meet the wrong people. Who knew whether that blond man who had taken her away was human or ghost? They had wanted to ask the Qin Family to help look for her, but Mr. Lü Qin had no interest in getting involved. Eventually, the matter was dropped.

As far as Li Zhikong knew, his older brother, Qin Mobei, had spent money searching for her after coming of age. Even his decision to study abroad had largely been for that purpose, but he had still found nothing.

That made sense. A Rabbit Spirit could use spiritual energy to locate people with whom he had practiced Dual Cultivation.

And since his immortal father was doing quite well abroad, finding someone would be even easier for him.

"Don't worry. She's doing fairly well. It's just that the family of the man she married later is somewhat... conservative about family values. She probably doesn't want them to know she gave birth to two children in China." Bai Jinxiao sighed. "Everyone has their own weaknesses. I hope you can be more forgiving toward her. After all, if it hadn't been for me back then..."

Strictly speaking, Ms. Li had been somewhat spoiled and did whatever pleased her. Her diary made it perfectly clear: she had fallen in love with Rabbit Dad at first sight, so she completely ignored the fact that she was married with a child and hit it off immediately with Rabbit Dad, whose values were not much better at the time... Judging by how she found another lover and fled far away barely a month after the affair was exposed, her feelings for Rabbit Dad had only gone so far. In short, she was one of the rare women of that era who were extraordinarily unconventional, accustomed to living exquisitely for herself.

Li Zhikong shrugged. "I don't really care. Once my grandparents learn that she's still alive, they'll surely be very relieved."

"Wait." Li Zhikong suddenly noticed a loophole. "My mom doesn't only have me as a son. If she's inviting someone, she should invite my brother too. Is it reasonable for her to invite only me?"

"But your brother... will be very busy. He can only go a few days later."

"...All right." Li Zhikong understood Rabbit Dad's unspoken meaning. "You'd better take it easy. My brother and I are very close."

"Don't worry. I guarantee it'll be a good thing."

"Ah-choo!" Having just dealt with a round of inexplicably deranged business partners, Qin Mobei breathed a sigh of relief, only to suddenly sneeze toward the sky. A faint sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

You thieving heavens, don't tell me someone's plotting against me again?

Bai Jinxiao's ability to get things done was no joke. Before Grandma had even finished shopping at the market, a call from Ms. Li overseas came through—instantly throwing the Li Family into chaos. Then, at noon the next day, Li Zhikong boarded a flight for the United States as he wished, carrying his grandparents' earnest reminders with him.