When Jiang Shuxuan got back to Jiang Manor, Gu Xiqiao, Baili Bin, and the others were seated around the dining table.

“Shuxuan!” Shu Chen was quite surprised upon seeing him, and she had the butler prepare another set of chopsticks. “I thought you weren’t coming back today.”

Jiang Shuxuan nodded and looked at everyone sitting at the table—Baili Bin, Murong Feiye, his mother sitting to the left of Gu Xiqiao, and to Gu Xiqiao’s right, a colorful blob of… Jiji?

He fixed Jiji with an emotionless stare, and when the latter noticed it, its mechanical hand freezing in place before it jumped off the seat with its bowl.

Jiang Shuxuan walked over and sat on the seat which Jiji had sat on calmly, before accepting the bowl and chopsticks that the butler gave him and starting to eat slowly.

Murong Feiye looked at Jiang Shuxuan strangely. “Do you bully the robot too?”

What did he do to have emotionally traumatized a robot to the point of having such a reaction to his stare?

“Do you want to try getting bullied too?” Jiang Shuxuan asked, looking straight into his eyes.

Murong Feiye rubbed his arms, feeling a chill coming on. “No, no, I would never challenge you. Please, eat.”

Jiang Shuxuan looked back gloomily at his bowl. Ever since he was born he had been put under immense amounts of stress, and while he didn’t quite care about the ancient martial arts world in the start, everything changed after he met Gu Xiqiao. He started to take as much power as he could in the ancient martial arts world so that one day he would have the power to protect her when her secrets were revealed.

He never expected that day to come so quickly, however.

Everything was in the palm of his hand except for Dubhe which had been a variable that was sent by the heavens completely out of the blue. He still wasn’t a match for this monster as of yet, so his plans and actions had to be modified and obstructed at every turn.

Once he thought of this, he seemed to become even more depressed, but it was right at this moment that Gu Xiqiao put a chicken wing into his bowl and smiled at him reassuringly.

Feeling his dark and dreary state of mind fill up with some color once again, Jiang Shuxuan curled his lips in a soft smile.

They finished dinner quickly, and after Baili Bin talked about the ranking battles with Gu Xiqiao, Shu Chen dragged her upstairs to see the newly furnished art studio.

Jiang Shuxuan saw two of the most important women in his life go upstairs before he retracted his gaze.

“Qiao Qiao was there but I didn’t mention it, but you know what Dubhe said, right?” Baili Bin looked at Jiang Shuxuan with a serious gaze. He didn’t want to talk about this while the girl was there so as to not affect her mood, though it was probably an inevitability that she would find out.

Jiang Shuxuan nodded, before getting a cigarette from Murong Feiye and lighting it up, before blowing out a puff of smoke. “I know.”

His tone was as calm as always, and Baili Bin couldn’t read what he felt about this. “What do we do now?”

In terms of strength, the three of them added together wouldn’t be a match for Dubhe so he made a beeline for the Jiang Manor as soon as he could, while Baili Qu was at his wit’s end at home.

“I don’t have a lot of influence on the Murong family just yet, but I’m completely on your side.” Murong Feiye leaned back comfortably on the couch as he sipped on a cup of tea. “Of course, we don’t believe in fate, so Dubhe wouldn’t do anything too radical just yet.”

“We’ll be moving out of the ancient martial arts world tomorrow.” Jiang Shuxuan tapped his cigarette on the ashtray.

“Back to the secular world?” Baili Bin asked in surprise.

“I don’t want to get involved in the ancient martial arts world for a while.” Jiang Shuxuan snuffed out his cigarette. “We’ll come back after the dust has settled.”

Baili Bin nodded, knowing that the other man had already made up his mind. “Alright.”

“Thanks, you two.” Jiang Shuxuan looked at the two men in front of him, knowing that they came here for the sake of helping Gu Xiqiao, and he would remember this fondly.

“She’s my sister.” Baili Bin replied. “You have nothing to thank me for.”

Murong Feiye rolled his eyes. “Don’t get all formal with me, we’re bros after all. Well, it seems that I have to go pack my bags, then.”

How boring would the ancient martial arts world without these people? He would rather be happy neighbors with them.

Before the two could leave, Gu Xiqiao walked down the stairs, holding a glass cup in one hand and a tattered book in another. She glanced at Murong Feiye, before throwing the book in his direction.

Murong Feiye caught the book carefully before he raised his eyebrows in surprise. “What’s this?”

“It’s for you. I hope you can take over the Murong family soon.” Gu Xiqiao poured herself a cup of water, before continuing, “Or else it’s going to be seeing its last days soon enough with those elders in power.”

Murong Feiye: “… Roger that.”

What did she mean, that the Murong family was going to see its last days?

But anyway, he was more curious about the book that Gu Xiqiao had given him, and his heart itched with curiosity, and all he wanted to do was go home and read this book properly.

After the two of them left, Jiang Shuxuan looked towards Gu Xiqiao and grumbled, “Why did you give that to him?”

“Isn’t he your friend?” Gu Xiqiao asked with a smile. “That’s why I gave it to him.”

Jiang Shuxuan nodded, accepting her reasoning. “Get prepared, we’ll be leaving this place tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Gu Xiqiao nodded. “We haven’t been back in a while, after all.”

It had been a month since she went back to the secular world and checked on Nine Heavens and the laboratory, but she wasn’t worried in the slightest. Even though Luo Wenlang wasn’t there at the moment, he had a bunch of financial geniuses that could hold the fort while he was gone, and the laboratory at A University was even less of a problem with Zhu Yuan there.

“Alright, and we have to deal with the brat’s matters too.” Jiang Shuxuan commented as they walked upstairs.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Even though Jiang Shuxuan didn’t say who it was, she knew that he was referring to Hua Youlin.

“Let me ask him when we get back.” Hua Youlin’s random mission still hadn’t been accomplished, yet, and even though he didn’t speak a word about it, Gu Xiqiao could feel that it was always on his mind.

After Shu Chen found out that Gu Xiqiao liked to do art, she immediately had one of the storage rooms upstairs renovated into an art studio. The wall in the direction of the sun was demolished and replaced with glass panes, and set in front of them was a chair and an easel. On the other side of the room was a well-made bookshelf, and placed in it were art materials like paintbrushes, graphite pencils, and palettes. The entire was room was furnished elegantly and homely, and it was clear just by looking at it that it was decorated with great care.

Gu Xiqiao was surprised when she came in here for the first time, and it was Jiang Shuxuan’s turn to be surprised too.

“Not bad, don’t you think?” Shu Chen asked with raised eyebrows.

Jiang Shuxuan imaged his own monotonous study in his mind before looking again at the meticulously furnished room in front of him, and he suddenly felt as if Gu Xiqiao was her child instead of him.

“Look at this!” Shu Chen pointed at the canvas with a painting in its early stages. “Qiao Qiao was in the middle of painting this for me, isn’t it pretty?”

Jiang Shuxuan looked at the painting with a clear divide between warm and cold colors, and after researching on oil paintings because of Gu Xiqiao, he knew that the girl had put a lot of heart into it.

He knew that the painting was of Shu Chen, but upon seeing her pleased face, he was silent for a moment before he replied, “I can’t see what the painting is about.”

“You have no taste!” Shu Chen glared at him before she looked over at Gu Xiqiao that started to resume her painting.

She was quite focused as she painted, and at that moment, her gaze lacked her usual nonchalance, which was replaced with a glint of passion.

Jiang Shuxuan looked at this for a bit, before taking out his phone and snapping a picture of her and posting it casually on Weibo.

A Flowing River: JPEG

He didn’t know the amount of attention this post would get.

Gu Xiqiao herself hadn’t posted anything on her Weibo for more than a month, and her fans were crying under her past posts for her to come back, and just as everyone was guessing whether she was abducted by aliens, someone came across Jiang Shuxuan’s post!

And so, everyone went crazy.

‘Ahhhhhhhhh! After forty-seven days and eighteen hours, I finally get to see my beauty again! I don’t have the words to describe what I’m feeling right now!”

‘Even though it appeared on our love rival’s Weibo page, it’s enough to know that she’s still doing well QAQ’

‘Am I the only one that’s licking the screen1?! Look at those eyelashes, those eyes! Ahhhh! Why is my screen so dirty!’

‘You’re not alone, upper floor, wait for me!’

And so, under the combined effort of Gu Xiqiao’s fans, Jiang Shuxuan’s post became one of the trending posts of the day, with almost fifty thousand comments after less than twenty minutes.

“Brother Jiang, you posted a picture of me?” Gu Xiqiao laughed when she saw Li Yu @ her and reposted Jiang Shuxuan’s post.

v For A Millennium: Goodnight, everyone.

/

/A Flowing River: JPEG

After she posted this, her fans became even more frenzied.

At the same time, the words ‘Goodnight, Beauty.’ surged to the top of the Weibo hot topic rankings.

The top post under this topic was Gu Xiqiao’s post, and after everyone stopped spamming ‘AAAAAA’, they started to reply:

‘Jade-like beauty, goodnight!’

Gu Xiqiao was quite happy upon seeing this, knowing that no matter when it was, there would be a bunch of people waiting for her and loving her.

Jiang Shuxuan had wanted to talk to her, but his phone rang, and upon seeing the caller ID, his expression changed, and with another glance at Gu Xiqiao, he turned around and left to take the call.

Gu Xiqiao looked at him go, before rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Something wasn’t right…

Her phone vibrated, and Gu Xiqiao looked down to see a message sent by Xiao Yun. The message sent by Xiao Yun made her brows furrow slightly, and her fingers rested on the screen for a short moment, but she didn’t reply as she was still in thought.

After about two minutes, Xiao Yun called her instead.

Gu Xiqiao accepted the call. “Xiao Yun, what’s up?”

“Gu Er Qiao! Why didn’t you reply my message? I’m freaking out right now!” Xiao Yun’s words spilled out the moment she heard Gu Xiqiao’s voice. “Do you know what’s happening right now? I’m so worried-”

Gu Xiqiao held the phone far away from her ear and only put it back to her ear after Xiao Yun finished her rant.

Xiao Yun had always been as cool as a cucumber, and she knew that the reason why she was this agitated was because of her, so it warmed her heart quite a bit. “It’s alright, you don’t need to worry about this, hm?”

“How could it be alright?” Xiao Yun almost cried from anxiousness upon hearing this. “How could I not worry?”

“It’s alright, I’ll be moving out of the ancient martial arts world and back to the condominium together with Brother Jiang tomorrow, so you can always come to visit, yes?” Gu Xiqiao had wanted to inform them as such, and now was exactly the chance to do so.

Xiao Yun nodded and asked her why she wanted to move out of the ancient martial arts world, and Gu Xiqiao just replied that she needed to take a breather.

After the two of them chatted for a bit, Gu Xiqiao concluded, “Alright, I’ll be heading off to bed now. Bye~”

***

It was only after Xiao Yun hung up on the phone that she realized she had been tricked by Gu Xiqiao into not talking about what worried her in the first place, and she just hung up like that?

Looking back at Wu Hongwen and Yao Jiamu, they were quite expectedly looking at her as if she were dumb.

“Well, it’s good that she doesn’t know.” Yin Shaoyuan leaned back on his chair and squinted slightly. Who would want to know that they were regarded as a calamity and that they were blamed and questioned by everyone?

As a glint of ruthlessness flashed through his eyes, he asked, “Do any of you know who let out this rumor?”

“Jiang Tong did.” Tang Qinghong handed him his phone. “Look at what an elder messaged me just now.”

Yin Shaoyuan took over the phone and read through it, and the flames of anger in his eyes burned even brighter.

Jiang Tong!

“What about Wenlang?” Yao Jiamu suddenly raised his head. “His brains are on par with Miss Gu’s, he must have a way!”

It was true that Luo Wenlang was the smartest among them, and it was clear as day how capable he was just by seeing how well he managed the Peace Manor.

And so, a certain genius was dragged out of his pile of paperwork and sat onto a chair, and after hearing Luo Wenlang and Yao Jiamu tell him everything, he only looked back at them with a wordless stare. “Is that all?”

“Are you not worried?” Yao Jiamu was quite anxious upon seeing how Luo Wenlang didn’t even have a change in expression. “You’re not part of the ancient martial arts world so you wouldn’t know, but this is no joking matter!”

“You guys already called her, correct?” Luo Wenlang asked.

“We did.” Xiao Yun nodded.

“Let me guess, she told you not to worry, and to not get involved?” Luo Wenlang asked again.

This question was met with another bout of nods from Xiao Yun.

“I guessed so.” Luo Wenlang sighed and glanced at them. “Have you people forgot what she started out as after loitering around in the ancient martial arts world?”

Seeing them blink dumbly in return, Luo Wenlang poured himself a cup of water and sighed again. “Well, I don’t know if you guys remember, but she started a certain company called Nine Heavens? You know, the one that became an indomitable force on the market? I should show you the plans she wrote out, really, and you guys would know how terrifying her foresight is. Before the enemy even takes one step, she would already predict their next hundred steps, and honestly, I think this situation is probably part of her calculations too. If you really have to be worried about someone, be worried about the one that’s pointing arrows at her behind the scenes, get some popcorn, and watch the show! If she needs any help, she’ll be the last person to be cordial, as I’m sure you know.”

Wu Hongwen was suddenly reminded of this, and he commented, “Right, she did lead that Bai family into a trap that time, didn’t she?”

Tang Qinghong wasn’t quite versed in the matters of the secular world, so he didn’t quite understand what Luo Wenlang meant, but he was quite surprised at his high appraisal of her—To be able to predict an opponent’s moves a hundred steps into the future?

***

Murong Feiye and Baili Bin saw the posts on the forum too, and many of these comments were so filled with malice and disdain that Baili Bin smashed his phone on the ground.

Once they got back and discussed the matter even further, Murong Feiye took out the old, tattered book that Gu Xiqiao had gifted him.

The moment he flipped open the pages, a golden pulse of energy surged towards him, and the words ‘Pentamerous Truth’ appeared in his mind’s eye, the golden lettering thrumming with power.

Murong Feiye almost burst out with excitement as he felt the words in his mind—It was a true ancient artifact with an ancient spell inscribed on it, and it had the consciousness of an ancient warrior sealed in it too!

It was a sleepless night for Murong Feiye, who only opened his eyes after he felt his mental power on the brink of drying out.

He knew that Gu Xiqiao had ancient scrolls, but he thought that those were just copies and not the real deal!

There weren’t many spells and training methods left behind from the archaic times to the point where even a copy would be regarded as a treasure, not to mention a legitimate scroll!

The true remains of the ancient martial arts world had disappeared for a long time, and he hadn’t expected such treasures to be in Gu Xiqiao’s collection.

From the looks of it, she had quite a lot of them, too!

If these books appeared in the ancient martial arts world, it would definitely turn it upside down.

Thinking of this and remembering how the Baili Family became stronger exponentially in such a short time, then thinking to the relationship between the girl and the Baili family, Murong Feiye let out another chuckle.

What would those people that said she was a calamity think when they knew that she was exactly the key to change their fate?

1 Usually meant as the action of fawning over someone that looks very pretty or handsome.