Ye Qingcheng's lovely face was cold as frost, sword light flickering in her hand as spiritual energy surged toward him like an overflowing tide.
Chen Mu hurriedly said, "Nothing happened. Don't worry. I was just stretching and accidentally, accidentally... twisted a bone! Yes, twisted a bone!"
He made up an excuse on the spot.
In truth, Chen Mu had unexpectedly discovered something in the system logs: although he had never said a word, the system had checked in on its own and placed a sacred-grade divine weapon in his system inventory.
Forcing gifts on me, huh?
The system's explanation was:
[To save the host time and energy, the system can automatically perform daily check-ins, obtain vast quantities of divine-grade rewards, and help the host defy the heavens and rise to greatness!]
What could Chen Mu say? All he could offer was, "Whatever makes you happy."
But he really had no interest in defying the heavens and rising to greatness...
"Twisted a bone?!"
Upon hearing Chen Mu's explanation, Ye Qingcheng immediately sheathed her sword and came to his side.
"Please let me take a look!"
"Oh, sure." Chen Mu agreed, letting Ye Qingcheng examine him.
After confirming that he was unharmed, she let out a heavy breath of relief.
To be safe, she took a white jade medicine bottle from her spatial ring and poured out a pill. "Young master, please take this healing pill."
"I..." Chen Mu swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
He felt that Ye Qingcheng would never be at ease unless he took it.
"All right." He pinched the pill between two fingers and put it in his mouth.
It dissolved immediately, and a powerful surge of spiritual energy and vitality spread through his extraordinary meridians, reaching every limb and bone and nourishing all his internal organs.
He felt considerably more refreshed, body and mind!
"What grade is this pill?" Chen Mu frowned slightly. He doubted an ordinary healing pill could have such an effect.
"Fourth grade," Ye Qingcheng replied.
"Fourth grade! That's a pill that can snatch a half-dead person's life back from the brink, and you..." Chen Mu could not help feeling that Ye Qingcheng was squandering a precious treasure.
Pills were ranked into only nine grades from lowest to highest, and fourth-grade pills were already considered valuable medicines.
"As long as you're unharmed, young master, a mere fourth-grade pill is of no consequence." Ye Qingcheng shook her head, telling Chen Mu not to worry about it.
With Ye Qingcheng showing such care, what did Chen Mu have to complain about?
A sect's esteemed holy maiden had actually gone this far for him.
What kind of bewitching potion had his father fed her?
Or had he forced her with martial might?
Knock, knock, knock!
Just then, another knock sounded at the door.
"I'll get it." Ye Qingcheng immediately moved, walking toward the vermilion courtyard gate with light, graceful steps.
Meanwhile, Chen Mu opened his personal attributes page on the system panel.
He discovered that his spiritual energy had increased considerably, and he seemed close to a breakthrough.
It was a fourth-grade pill, after all, brimming with spiritual energy, and his cultivation had not been high to begin with...
In the Great Cang World, cultivation ranks ran from lowest to highest as follows: Martial Student (tempering flesh), Martial Disciple (tempering tendons), Martial Warrior (tempering skin and membranes), Martial Master (tempering bones), Innate Martial Master (tempering internal organs), Grandmaster (tempering bone marrow), Martial Saint (replacing blood), and Mortal Immortal (tempering apertures).
Each major realm was further divided into nine layers.
As for the Quasi-Emperor Realm Chen Tianlin had reached, it lay beyond Mortal Immortal (tempering the spirit). Upon cultivating to a sufficient level, one could become the Great Emperor of a world!
At present, the position of Great Emperor in Chen Mu's world remained vacant.
Chen Tianlin was also doing everything he could to break through to the Great Emperor Realm.
Outside the gate.
"Cous—"
Seeing the courtyard gate open, a young man was about to speak, but the excitement on his face abruptly turned to confusion.
He could not understand why such a breathtakingly beautiful woman would be at Qingyun Prefecture.
Could she be... my cousin's wife?!
"Hello, cousin-in-law!" At that thought, the young man immediately called out with a radiant smile.
"You brat! What nonsense are you calling her?" Hearing that voice, Chen Mu knew who it was in an instant, even without seeing him.
It had to be his cousin, Jiang Sheng, who had become a master artificer at just fourteen.
Strangely enough, Jiang Sheng was utterly obsessed with artifact refining and barely cared about anything else, yet of everyone in the Tianyuan Holy Land, he was closest to Chen Mu alone.
Anyone else who wanted him to refine an artifact had to make an appointment in advance. Chen Mu only had to say a word, and Jiang Sheng would immediately scamper off to do it.
Whenever he got something good, he brought it to Chen Mu first, free of charge!
A few words of praise would leave him overjoyed.
"Cousin!" Jiang Sheng strode over.
Ye Qingcheng closed the courtyard gate and followed closely behind.
A faint blush had appeared on her previously icy cheeks.
"Cousin, when are you getting married? How about I refine a few divine weapons for you as betrothal gifts?" Jiang Sheng asked excitedly.
Chen Mu brought a chopping hand down on Jiang Sheng's head, looking utterly speechless. "You brat, I told you to stop talking nonsense! She's the personal bodyguard Father found for me, Ye Qingcheng, the Sky Sword Sect's holy maiden."
"Ye Qingcheng, the Sky Sword Sect's holy maiden!"
"You know her?" Chen Mu asked.
"No." Jiang Sheng shook his head.
"Then what are you getting so excited about?" Chen Mu rolled his eyes.
"She sounds impressive." Jiang Sheng scratched his head with a goofy smile.
"So, what did you come here for? Don't tell me you're here to make fun of me?" Chen Mu changed the subject.
"How could I!" Jiang Sheng said with utmost seriousness. "Even if you're a complete and utter good-for-nothing, you're still my dear cousin, and you'll be my dear cousin for life!"
"Back then, when everyone thought I was an idiot and didn't believe I could become an artificer, you were the only one willing to believe in me. You sneaked me into the artifact-refining chamber and stole secret manuals for me..."
"Anyway, from now on, I, Jiang Tian, will have your back, cousin!" Jiang Sheng thumped his chest with resounding bangs.
"Sure." Chen Mu readily agreed, genuinely touched.
In his memories, Jiang Sheng really had been a little slow as a child. His nose had run all day, and he had even liked eating his boogers...
Yet despite being like that, he had been deeply interested in artifact refining and declared that he would become an artificer.
Learning artifact refining was a minor matter. His family had mostly worried that he might accidentally melt himself!
As for why his "former self" had helped Jiang Sheng learn artifact refining?
It had simply been for fun. He had wanted to see what an idiot could actually learn.
He had never expected that, by stumbling into it, he would nurture a fourteen-year-old master artificer!
In fact, Chen Mu had transmigrated into this world sixteen years ago. His memories had simply remained sealed until now.
Thinking about himself before his consciousness awakened, he really had been... someone with quite a twisted sense of humor.
"If there's nothing else, go back to refining your artifacts. I have faith in you." Chen Mu lay back on the lounge chair and rocked gently.
The sunshine was just right, and he wanted to sleep a little longer.
"Cousin, don't be so quick to chase me away. I came specifically to bring you a treasure," Jiang Sheng explained.
"A treasure? What treasure?" Chen Mu followed along with his words, his expression calm.
"Hehe, to tell you the truth, your little cousin here just refined a sacred-grade divine weapon!"
"..." Chen Mu.
System: [...]
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