"Break off the engagement?" the young disciple asked, his gaze suspicious.
"Exactly! Break off the engagement!" Liu Xiangnan nodded firmly and explained further, "I know I'm unworthy of Holy Maiden Ye, and I have neither the standing nor the courage to lay a finger on the Tianyuan Young Master's woman."
"That's why I've come specifically to return the marriage contract my lineage arranged without my consent when I was a child."
"How can we trust that you aren't deliberately making excuses to approach the Young Master and assassinate him?" The young disciple remained suspicious of Liu Xiangnan.
In response, Liu Xiangnan reached into his robes and took out a yellowed envelope that clearly showed its age. "This is the marriage contract drawn up by my lineage's elders and the Ye lineage's elders. Please take a look."
"So, should we let him in?"
"We'll keep watch right beside him. How big a storm could someone in the Quasi-Martial Master Realm possibly stir up?"
"Besides, doesn't Holy Maiden Ye have martial master realm cultivation? She'll definitely have no trouble protecting the Young Master."
"But what if the two of them are conspiring to kill the Young Master and destroy the harmony and stability of our Tianyuan Holy Land?"
"Gasp!"
At those words, not only did the others suck in a breath of cold air, but Liu Xiangnan himself did the same.
His expression was utterly helpless. All he wanted was to return the marriage contract, sever his ties with Ye Qingcheng, and avoid provoking retaliation from the Tianyuan Holy Land and its Tianyuan Young Master. Why was that so difficult?
Honestly, the moment he heard that Ye Qingcheng had been selected to enter the Tianyuan Holy Land as a personal bodyguard...
Liu Xiangnan had already been certain that, in this lifetime, fate had brought them together only to deny them a future.
With beauty like Ye Qingcheng's paired with the words "personal bodyguard," how could nothing happen?
Even if there was only the slightest possibility, Liu Xiangnan would never dare court trouble.
If Chen Mu happened to have some peculiar preference for other men's wives, Liu Xiangnan would still obediently cooperate.
He would remain married to Ye Qingcheng in name alone.
Too servile?
There was no helping it. Faced with such a powerful family background, he lacked the strength to be anything else.
He knew exactly how much he weighed.
"You want to see the Young Master? Fine, but before that, you have to swallow this pill."
At the voice, everyone turned to look.
The speaker was a senior Alchemist of the Tianyuan Holy Land.
"A pill?"
"Exactly! This pill is called the Heart Demon Seed. If you dare harbor even the slightest hostility toward the Young Master, your internal organs will rot, and all eight of your extraordinary meridians will die!" the Alchemist explained.
"The Heart Demon Seed! Isn't... isn't that a seventh-grade pill?"
"Looks like the Alchemy Room is very concerned about the Young Master's safety too."
"No kidding. The person at the top of the Alchemy Room watched the Young Master grow up, cleaning up his shit and piss along the way."
"If anything happens to the Young Master, everyone under that person will suffer!"
"So that's how it is."
A seventh-grade pill?!
Liu Xiangnan's mouth twitched. His understanding of the Tianyuan Holy Land, as well as its Young Master Chen Mu's standing and influence within it, reached an entirely new level.
When he first heard that the Tianyuan Holy Land's Young Master had awakened a Low-Grade Yellow Rank talent, he had assumed Chen Mu's standing would plummet and he would become a discarded pawn, just as he would in other lineages and sects.
Who could have imagined that these people would instead become even more fiercely protective of him?
Even Liu Xiangnan's own fiancée had been selected as his personal bodyguard.
A distinguished holy maiden had been offered up like an object.
"All right, no problem. I'll take it!" Liu Xiangnan picked up the pill in the box and swallowed it in one gulp.
He harbored no ill intent and had a clear conscience!
Most importantly, he lacked the confidence and strength to dare oppose the Tianyuan Holy Land.
Even if he was the esteemed Holy Son of the Sky Sword Sect and the grand elder's personal disciple... so what?
Liu Xiangnan had personally witnessed his master behave with utmost deference when meeting an ordinary inner court disciple of the Tianyuan Holy Land, terrified of slighting or offending that disciple.
A measure of respect?
No, nine measures, or even ten!
If even his greatest backer acted that way, what standing or ability did he himself have?
"Mm. Since he's taken the Heart Demon Seed, everyone, make way."
At the Alchemist's words, everyone opened a path.
Liu Xiangnan thought that once he swallowed the pill, they would feel reassured about him.
Who would have thought that a large crowd would still follow behind him?
Overhead, more and more people appeared riding flying swords.
Hey, hey, hey! Seriously? Even Martial Saints are here?
I'm just a Quasi-Martial Warrior! What have I done to deserve this?
Wait! Is that... the human immortal realm?!
As he walked, Liu Xiangnan underwent an earth-shaking change in both body and mind.
He finally understood why everyone wanted to join the Tianyuan Holy Land.
Its reserves of power were truly terrifying!
There were already no fewer than three human immortal realm cultivators present!
Liu Xiangnan thought that, never mind himself, even someone in the quasi-emperor realm would not dare make a rash move here.
He nearly pissed himself in fright...
When had he ever seen anything like this?
Qingyun Prefecture.
Chen Mu was sitting in the courtyard pavilion, sipping tea.
As for Ye Qingcheng, she had heard somewhere that a new pastry shop in the city served delicious treats, and had volunteered to run the errand for him early that morning.
Pastries happened to be Zhang Shengcai's weak spot.
This time, however, he had resolved to learn properly and was studying them in the kitchen.
After all, he couldn't take a hundred Spirit Stones a month for nothing.
Zhang Shengcai had no intention of losing the iron rice bowl he had worked so hard to secure. No, a golden rice bowl!
"Hey, have you heard? Ye Qingcheng's fiancé has come knocking."
"Ye Qingcheng? Who's that?"
"The Sky Sword Sect's Holy Maiden, Ye Qingcheng. You don't even know that? She's now the Young Master's personal bodyguard."
"Personal bodyguard? A man and a woman alone together... no wonder her fiancé came looking."
"Shh! Keep your voice down. Don't let the Young Master hear you."
"..." All Chen Mu wanted to say to that was: I already heard you.
The courtyard wall did nothing to block sound.
"Ye Qingcheng's fiancé? This plot really does feel familiar."
"He thinks I have no strength or talent, so he's come to slap me in the face? Play the hero and rescue the beauty?"
"But I haven't even done anything to her..."
He raised a hand to his forehead and shook his head, feeling nothing but a headache.
All he wanted was to enjoy life in peace, simple and uneventful. Why was that so difficult?
He certainly couldn't let the other man slap him in the face. He had to keep himself in good spirits.
He opened the system inventory.
Before falling asleep last night, Chen Mu had seen that the system had obtained some supreme-grade talent spiritual root for him through a check-in.
A Thunder Spiritual Root, was it?
As far as he knew, the Thunder Spiritual Root was one of the most domineering of all spiritual roots, possessing tremendous power!
"With this, I should have enough to intimidate him, right?" As Chen Mu pondered this, he suddenly noticed a whole assortment of other spiritual roots beside the Thunder Spiritual Root.
Supreme-grade heaven-tier earth spiritual root! Supreme-grade heaven-tier water spiritual root! Supreme-grade heaven-tier fire spiritual root! Supreme-grade heaven-tier wind spiritual root...
"Good grief! While I was asleep, you checked in and collected every top-tier spiritual root there was!"
System: [As a system, doing my utmost to help the host grow stronger is my duty!]
"Mm, good, very good." The system had indeed solved a major problem for him. Chen Mu felt that praise should be given where praise was due.
Especially since this was a system with a heart as fragile as glass.
He selected the Heaven-Rank Supreme Thunder Spirit Root and confirmed its use!
Before you continue