Chapter 76 – The Fiancée in the Broken Engagement Revenge Story…

When Xie Hui heard that familiar name, he couldn’t even be bothered to spare a glance. He picked up the spirit wine on the table, took a sip, and smiled as he chatted with a friend about cultivation.

If even the host of the banquet, Xie Hui, was this indifferent, there was no need to mention how the others reacted. On closer thought, no one found it arrogant or disrespectful—after all, there were far too many people attending the celebration at Yongchang Sect today, and every single one of them wanted a chance to curry favor with Elder Xie.

If he were to personally receive each and every guest, it would take the entire day—and even then, he might not be done.

Many of the attendees were cultivators of decent strength, and with a single glance, they could tell that this man who had barged in and introduced himself as Li Qing was merely at the Golden Core stage. Given his age, having reached Golden Core wasn’t bad, but compared to Elder Xie, it was utterly insignificant.

There were countless Golden Core cultivators in the entire cultivation world. If someone were to randomly toss a rock into this banquet, they might hit three Golden Cores in one throw. Truly, nothing special.

Before barging into Yongchang Sect, Li Qing had mentally prepared himself to be treated like a monkey in a zoo—something for others to stare and gawk at. What he hadn’t expected was that he would blend into the background like a drop of water falling into the soil, attracting no attention at all.

“Xie Hui! That day you wanted to break off our engagement just because I became a cripple. Today I came to personally congratulate you on advancing to the Tribulation Stage!”

Only when he spoke again did Xie Hui finally lift his gaze lazily. The rest of the banquet guests also looked over in unison. Unbeknownst to them, Xie Hui had already taken control of the entire situation the moment the man had entered.

“Traveling from my Yongchang Sect to your Li family, even with sword flight, would take several months. And your ruined spiritual roots were a tightly kept secret by your family patriarch—how could I have foreseen it and sent someone ahead of time?”

“Besides, you’re just a mere mortal. What would make you worth my time and effort to humiliate?”

These words, whether spoken now by Xie Hui, a Tribulation Stage cultivator, or in the past when he was still just Elder Xie the alchemist, would have sounded just the same.

Being humiliated so directly, Li Qing’s face turned completely dark. His breathing grew heavy from anger, and he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, a fierce glint in his eye as if he wanted to devour Xie Hui alive.

“You may be basking in glory now, but who knows who’ll be laughing in the end? Back then, when you looked down on me, did you ever imagine that I’d still reach the Golden Core stage?”

“Do you dare make a wager with me? Thirty years from now, let’s see whose cultivation is higher!”

Xie Hui propped one hand against his forehead. There was clear weariness in his eyes as he looked at Li Qing. Then he stood, adjusted his robes, and walked slowly toward him.

Under his wild, untamed gaze, he shattered Li Qing’s spiritual roots with ease. Li Qing crumpled to the ground instantly, unable to even cry out in pain. With a cold smile, Xie Hui asked,

“Oh? And why should I wait thirty years?”

Raising a tiger to invite future calamity had never been Xie Hui’s style. He had no intention of troubling Li Qing over what had happened in the previous life tied to his client; as far as he was concerned, what was over was over.

But now, with Li Qing practically dancing in front of him, unless his head wasn’t screwed on right, there was no way he would actually give him thirty years to grow.

A bug that could be squashed now—why wait until thirty years later, only to risk being bitten before stepping on it?

“I can destroy your spiritual roots right now, snuff out your desire to cultivate on the spot. If you still insist on thirty years, then fine—let’s see if you can even step foot into Yongchang Sect again by then.”

Xie Hui had personally ensured that Li Qing would never again have the chance to reform his roots. Even if he got his hands on a merman egg, his severed meridians could never be restored.

From that moment on, Li Qing’s fate was sealed—he would never cultivate again.

“Wen Feng, come help your master send him out properly. I don’t want to see such ill-omened garbage ruining my fine day.”

“Yes, Master.”

Wen Feng, who had been seated off to the side, quickly stood upon hearing the command. He helped the collapsed and pain-ridden Li Qing to his feet and, after leaving the great hall, coldly threw him down the grand stone steps of Yongchang Sect.

Back when they last met, Li Qing had dared to verbally insult their little junior sister. Wen Feng had only held back out of respect for his master’s prior instructions and had given him just a light lesson.

But today, with Li Qing crashing the celebration and spoiling their master’s joyous mood, there was no reason whatsoever for Wen Feng to be polite.

After kicking Li Qing down the stairs, he summoned his natal sword and flew via sword-light to stand above him, looking down with a flash of disgust in his eyes.

“That girl who followed you that day—she might’ve been arrogant and rude, but her heart was true toward you. Who would’ve thought you’d kill her father, steal his cultivation, and now try to flaunt that stolen power here at Yongchang Sect?”

Back in the secret realm, Wen Feng had immediately noticed the demonic aura on that pampered girl. He had guessed her identity then and had recently received news that the Supreme of the Demon Realm had died in his own palace.

This man had once been a cripple and was now suddenly able to cultivate. In just a few short months, his cultivation had become profound, filled with deep demonic qi. There was only one explanation—he had robbed someone of their cultivation.

Hearing those words, a red-robed woman who had been hiding in the shadows stepped out. Her eyes were rimmed red, and she stared at Wen Feng, lips trembling.

“You—you mean, my father didn’t die from going astray while cultivating, but was killed by him?”

Although Wen Feng disliked the karmic entanglements that came with the demon race, he had to admit that the Demon Lord’s cultivation was something most in the cultivation world could never reach. He wasn’t about to let someone like her be deceived by a small-time crook like this.

“If someone dies from going astray during cultivation, it can only be due to flaws in their technique. If the Demon Lord’s technique had flaws, don’t you think we’d have discovered that long ago?”

The red-robed woman drew the whip from around her waist and swung it down toward Li Qing with brutal force.

“You lied to me? You told me my father went into qi deviation while cultivating, and before he died, he passed all his cultivation onto you and asked you to take care of me. Were all those things lies?”

Wen Feng stood on the steps, hugging his sword. He had heard that although the Demon Lord was ruthless and bloodthirsty, he cherished his only daughter above all else.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the girl ended up with such a simple and gullible personality.

It did sound a bit pitiful, but Wen Feng couldn’t feel much sympathy, especially after remembering how she had earlier demanded an apology from his junior sister in such an overbearing way. After telling her the truth, he turned and went back to the sect.

His master had once taught him that foolishness is also a fault—Wen Feng strongly agreed.

At the banquet, Xie Hui received a notification from the system: in this world, the male lead Li Qing would die at the hands of the Demon Lord’s daughter—who should have been one of his confidantes.

Xie Hui smiled and drained the wine in his cup, then turned to look at his daughter seated at his right side. At this point, he figured he had fulfilled the client’s request.

That day, after the celebratory banquet ended and they returned to Muxiu Peak, Xie Hui had just been preparing to rest when someone knocked on the door. Judging by the frequency of the knocks, whoever it was seemed quite anxious.

Most of the disciples he had taken in were fairly steady in temperament—recklessly pounding on the door like this could only be that little brat.

With a sigh, Xie Hui got up and opened the door. Before he could say a word, his sleeve was grabbed by Xie Yin, who dragged him off toward the backyard.

When he had first arrived in this world, that backyard had been barren and desolate. Now it had been transformed into a place where his disciples cultivated spiritual herbs, with not even a single corner left unused.

Among all the plots, Xie Yin’s section had always grown the best. But today, when they looked at it, it seemed as though something had chewed through the whole thing and left a complete mess.

“Dad, the egg that fell into my arms in the secret realm last time—it cracked when I accidentally dropped it! A guy with a fishtail came out of it. I just turned around to memorize a cultivation technique, and he ate all the spiritual herbs I planted!”

“Dad, do you think something with a fishtail can be eaten? Why don’t we stew him?”

The spiritual herbs planted in that patch were extremely rare, and the seeds had been found in a secret realm by Xie Yin and a few of her senior sisters. They were just about ready to harvest, and now they’d been ruined by that strange creature hatched from the egg. It would’ve been stranger not to be angry.

“He’s probably a merman.”

Xie Hui had suspected as much back in the secret realm. If the merman egg weren’t critical to whether Li Qing could rebuild his foundation, that haughty Demon Lord’s daughter wouldn’t have been so desperate to retrieve it.

“Merman?”

Xie Yin tilted her head in confusion. Then, suddenly recalling something her father had once told her, her eyes lit up. She grabbed the whip her senior brother used to herd geese and stormed off toward the pond, looking fierce.

The pond in the courtyard had been built to make it easier to water the spiritual herbs. It wasn’t particularly large, but now a merman was hiding in it, and the water had nearly overflowed.

Compared to when she had first seen him, the merman’s tail was now gone, leaving only a few scales on his cheeks. It wasn’t grotesque—in fact, it gave him a strangely captivating look.

“You! Cry for me! If you don’t cry, I’ll beat you!”

Thinking of all those spiritual herbs that had been ruined just before they were ready to be used, Xie Yin felt like she couldn’t let this merman off unless he cried her a few sacks of merman tears!

“I… I don’t know how to cry.”

Xie Hui glanced at the merman’s cultivation level. He hadn’t even reached the Foundation Building stage. Shaking his head, he turned and went back to his room—after all, that little girl of his wouldn’t let herself suffer a loss.

“You can’t cry? Then cry anyway!”

After scolding him for a while, Xie Yin finally managed to collect a few merman tears. Looking at the smooth, round pearls, her eyes flashed with amazement.

They weren’t the pure white of ordinary pearls, but rather a milky hue that shimmered with a faint blue light—each one full and lustrous.

“I’ll come again tomorrow to make you cry!”

After saying that, Xie Yin took the merman tears and returned to her room.

Eventually, under the relentless pestering of the merman—whose name turned out to be Lan Zhu—he ended up becoming one of Xie Hui’s disciples as well.

But somehow, just looking at him, Xie Hui couldn’t shake the feeling that this merman was up to something.