Chapter 164: Bai Yunqi: She’s using all my lines!!!

The air fell into a heavy silence.

Bai Tian and Jiang Dai said nothing, simply staring at their smug eldest son.

Bai Tian: 【Now I finally get why, back in the day, whenever I acted like a brat, the old man would chase me down with a shoe sole.】

Jiang Dai: 【Even though he’s from the Immortal Cultivation world, at this point, I still think I could beat him up.】

In the corner, little Juanjuan swallowed nervously and stayed quiet, trying her best to become invisible.

Kids always have a sixth sense when it comes to whether their parents are mad.

Bai Yunqi’s cocky attitude gradually deflated. He adjusted his tone, now polite and tentative as he broke the silence.

“Mom, Dad… the gold?”

His tone had shifted from “Hand it over, old man” to “May I, please?”

Bai Yun’an nearly burst out laughing.

This is their son? No, this is pure comedy.

“Here, the gold you wanted.”

Bai Tian pulled out the gold and handed it to Bai Yunqi.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the gold in Bai Yunqi’s hand vanished and turned into a stone.

Juanjuan blinked.

So this is what it looks like when Eldest Brother eats gold?

Bai Yunqi felt the Spiritual Power flowing through his body and let out a satisfied sigh.

With a casual wave of his small hand, a modest stream of Spiritual Power surged out.

He didn’t go all out and envelop the whole courtyard—just the people inside the house.

With his parents and younger siblings watching, Bai Yunqi proudly began, “I am…”

Everyone waited in anticipation.

“Wait a sec!”

He had barely gotten a few words out before stopping himself.

Everyone: …

Bai Tian reached out expressionlessly. “If you’re gonna say it, then say it. If not, give me back my gold!”

【Seriously? You ran all the way from the county yamen to home just to say this? All this hemming and hawing—just forget it if you’re not gonna talk!】

Jiang Dai twitched at the corner of her mouth, clearly exasperated. “Can you maybe speed it up a little?”

Bai Yunqi waved his hand, signaling his parents to hold on. Then he pointed toward his third brother and little sister.

“Wait, Mom, Dad… can they hear this?”

Something wasn’t adding up.

His parents had been swapped out, but the replacements were decent. They could be told.

Second Brother was also a replacement—calm and reliable. He could be told too.

But Third Brother… who knew if he’d been swapped or not? Who knew what kind of person he was? Could he be trusted with the family’s secrets?

And their adorable little Juanjuan—was he supposed to tell the kid that over half her family had been replaced?

Wouldn’t that scare her half to death?

Besides, if those two little brats found out, what if they went around bragging, making stuff up, showing off? For example, but not limited to:

“My brother is a Cultivation Expert! He can summon wind and rain!”

“My family has so much gold, we could crush you with it!”

“My brother is the Young Master of the General’s Estate! He came back from the dead!”

Bai Yunqi figured if that happened, he’d probably end up going full rebel and causing a mess, only for the Heavenly Dao to come down and smite him.

Great.

Sure, cultivators always talk big about defying the Heavenly Dao, but that’s just talk. Just venting.

What else can you do?

Get struck by lightning. You’d deserve it.

Jiang Dai and Bai Tian, now reminded, turned to look at their third son and little daughter.

These two…

Jiang Dai: 【Right now, it’s more likely that Third Son has been swapped, but he’s hiding it well. Juanjuan, though, definitely hasn’t. She didn’t ride the ox cart.】

【But if we send Juanjuan away by herself, won’t it seem too deliberate? Would a kid feel like she’s being excluded by her own family?】

Bai Tian, ever the straightforward one, didn’t hesitate to “sacrifice” himself temporarily.

“What do you mean, can they hear or not? Who cares!”

“Come on, Daddy’s little curl¹~ Let’s go get some sweet drinks!”

He scooped up the little one and glanced at his second son, giving him a look. “Yunxing, coming?”

Bai Yunxing nodded and left decisively, grabbing their third brother on the way out.

Bai Tian: 【Ha! Problem solved.】

【Anyway, Jiang Dai’s gonna tell me everything when I get back~ Let’s go, let’s go!】

Jiang Dai stared, dumbfounded, as Bai Tian swaggered off with three kids in tow, even thoughtfully closing the door behind him. She could only mutter two words under her breath.

“Freaking awesome.”

Bai Yunqi: …

Yeah, that was pretty awesome.

But also very convenient.

Bai Yunqi quietly retracted some of his Spiritual Power.

Efficiency was key.

Back in the day, he—Bai Yunqi—would never have cared about saving a bit of Spiritual Power!

“They’re all gone now. You can talk. Were you originally a cultivator? Sword cultivator? Alchemist? Talisman user? Don’t tell me… a music cultivator?”

“How did you transmigrate? Struck by lightning? Betrayed by a fellow disciple? Or did you sacrifice yourself to save the world?”

“Do you absorb gold to replenish your Spiritual Power? But logically, shouldn’t it be jade? Do you guys have something like spirit jade essence over there?”

Jiang Dai was ready to open the mystery box.

After all, Spiritual Power was directly tied to Immortal Cultivation.

Listening to his mom rattle off a string of familiar terms, Bai Yunqi was stunned: ???

Wait a minute! Those are all my lines!

He hadn’t even said anything yet, so how did his mother know so much about the Immortal Cultivation world?!

You’ve already said everything—what am I supposed to say now?

“Mom… are you from the Sky Realm too?”

Jiang Dai: ?

“No! I’m from the modern world, the 21st century. Modern day, you know?”

Bai Yunqi: Wait a minute. Now he was really confused.

What was “modern”? What was the 21st century? And what the heck was “youknow”?

Jiang Dai looked at Bai Yunqi and gave up guessing. She just urged him directly, “Go on, go on, I’m listening.”

Then she sat back, ready for her eldest son to give her a full rundown.

She had transmigrated into some alternate ancient world, and now she was meeting someone from the Immortal Cultivation world? Jiang Dai was genuinely a little excited.

This was Immortal Cultivation!

Sure, ancient times lagged behind the modern era in many ways—she’d learned that from history books—but Immortal Cultivation? That only existed in novels.

A world of wonder, of cultivation, battles, and ascension to the heavens—who hadn’t fantasized about that when they were young?

Looking at his mother, who was now urging him to speak, Bai Yunqi fell silent for a moment. He gave up trying to act mysterious and just explained everything in the simplest terms.

“Sword cultivator. Failed to ascend. Got struck by lightning and ended up here. There’s no Spiritual Energy in this world, only jade and gold have it. I can sense it and absorb it.”

Bai Yunqi couldn’t keep up the act anymore.

His mom had already said everything he was going to—what was the point of pretending?

Jiang Dai: “That’s it?”

As expected. The usual transmigration setup.

“Yeah.”

Bai Yunqi’s mouth twitched. He suddenly felt a bit deflated. There was nothing left to show off. But…

No, he couldn’t just let it go. He felt stifled.

“Isn’t that impressive enough?”

“I’ve done so much for this family in secret!!!”

“Every time someone came looking for trouble, I was the one who quietly took care of it!!”

“And that gold—if I hadn’t identified it and gone through all that trouble to get it…”

Halfway through his rant, Bai Yunqi suddenly wilted and fell silent.

Jiang Dai blinked, not sure why her eldest son had suddenly gotten so worked up, then just as suddenly deflated.

Then she remembered something important.

Gold?

Goudan?

“You picked up the gold in the dog poop on purpose?”

“Wait, that time you fell into the latrine pit—don’t tell me you were down there digging for jade and gold too?”

Bai Yunqi: …

Grabbing his hair in frustration, Bai Yunqi shouted, “I didn’t fall into the latrine pit! I was doing Marrow Cleansing and Meridian Washing! Marrow Cleansing and Meridian Washing! Marrow Cleansing and Meridian Washing! Purging impurities from my body!”

“Oh.” Jiang Dai’s reaction was perfectly calm. Then she asked, “So can we do Marrow Cleansing and Meridian Washing too? Can we absorb the Spiritual Power from jade and gold?”

Utterly defeated and mentally exhausted by his mother, Bai Yunqi: …

Why were there so many questions?!

Someone save him already!!!

---

Translator’s Notes

• Sword cultivator? Alchemist? Talisman user? Don’t tell me… a music cultivator?: Jiang Dai is listing standard xianxia (cultivation) archetypes: Jianxiu (Sword), Danxiu (Alchemy/Pills), Fuxiu (Talismans), and Yinxiu (Music). Music cultivators are often stereotyped in the genre as being more elegant or less “hardcore” than sword cultivators, which explains her skeptical tone.

---

1. little curl: The name “Juanjuan” (卷卷) literally means “curls” or “curly.” Bai Tian is using a diminutive, affectionate nickname based on the meaning of her name. ↩