“Master.”
The two useless disciples bowed slightly, their forms gradually fading.
They were returning below to serve their sentences.
I nodded slightly, watching the two of them leave.
“Mas…” The two hesitated to speak, but in the end said nothing. With a soft sigh, they departed in silence.
I knew they wanted to beg for forgiveness.
Perhaps I would forgive them, but definitely not so soon.
Their lives were still too short, their hearts not mature enough, not reliable.
After sending off the two tool disciples, the competition finally entered its final round.
Yazhe raised his sword.
Musicheng leaned forward, his body tense, eyes wide as he stared intently at the arena.
“Ninth round of clashes, final round, decisive battle—begin!”
“Clang——”
The two swords met.
Those two dumb disciples were taught by me personally. In the beginning, I treated them just like Miss Cluru, imparting to them every technique below the Jindan Stage without reservation.
Whether it was cultivation level or refining skills, of course they could crush the other side’s Qi Refining rookies a thousand times over.
So, the outcome was never in doubt.
The sword broke, and so did Musicheng’s confidence.
Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, the Refiner Association’s sword was sliced apart without any effort.
From the start, the two sides were never on the same level.
—The only reason you could win before was because I was playing with you.
Musicheng suddenly realized this terrifying truth.
It was like I’d always had the power to kill him and destroy the Mu Family at any time, yet I never did.
Musicheng understood—I did it to shatter his confidence, his faith, everything.
And yet, he still thought he could stand in my way…
“The match is decided! As everyone around the world has seen, the Immortal Dew Crafting Shop wins by a landslide!” Joanna Lancelot declared triumphantly, not forgetting to mischievously add—
“Now you know whose products to buy, right?”
Take that, Musicheng, for mocking my Lancelot Family, Joanna thought in satisfaction.
Musicheng suddenly lost all strength, slumping down in front of the cameras.
He shouldn’t have ended up so pathetic.
His whole life, he had always strategized, always had a way out…
If he hadn’t picked up that Book, he would’ve run by now. He’d never have stayed here to play at being the mantis.
But…why?
Unwilling, Musicheng pulled out the Book, mumbling, “Why…how can you be stronger than the High Civilization described in this Book?”
“Eh?!” With delight, I snatched the Notebook from Musicheng’s hand with a slap. “Isn’t this my kindergarten study notes? Where did you find it??”
“Pfft——” Musicheng’s eyes bulged, spewing three liters of blood.
He screamed in disbelief, “Kindergarten study notes?! Nonsense! This is clearly a gift from a High Civilization!”
“Uncle, can’t you read?” I pointed to the smudged writing on the cover and read it out to him, word by word: “Thousand Moon Sect: Handbook for New Servant Disciples… Oh, I wrote this in Eastern Huang Language.”
Musicheng stared, dumbfounded.
So that’s what it meant?!
So the thing he’d always treated as the crystallization of High Civilization wisdom, his secret weapon for turning the tide, his power source for this whole duel, was actually…
Yun Luo Xian’s childhood study notes?!
“Serves you right,” I said leisurely, rubbing salt into Musicheng’s wounds. “Cultivation is all about fate. You were lucky to pick up this Notebook; it was your blessing. I wouldn’t have taken it back. With it, you could have led the Mu Family to unprecedented heights, even ruled the world! Too bad…you messed up seventeen years ago.”
Musicheng trembled all over, unable to utter a single word.
If he hadn’t killed the previous family head and driven Mu Qingyou away back then, maybe the Mu Family would already be the rulers of the new era.
Even if Musicheng hadn’t become the head, the family would have been harmonious, and his own position would not have been bad.
He could’ve achieved great things, reaching a far higher level than now.
But he’d stubbornly narrowed his own path.
He drove Mu Qingyou away, turned Qilins Master Yunxian into a vegetable, and from then on, those two bore an overwhelming grudge against the Mu Family—irreconcilable.
If he hadn’t done that, how could they have possibly returned to destroy the Mu Family?
In fact, they might even be the Mu Family’s most capable aides right now!
“That’s right, regret it? You should. I said all this just to make you sick with regret.”
Seeing Musicheng’s face twisted in deep remorse, Cluru and I happily high-fived in celebration.
We won!
Total victory!
The Mu Family’s legs were broken—there would never be a comeback.
We did it!
We destroyed the entire Mu Family!
At that moment, a figure long unseen stepped out from the side.
Elder Mu, Musicheng’s father, Cluru’s grandfather.
“Let Qingyou come back,” the old man’s spine was straight as a pine, his expression complex.
“She’s won. From now on, everything in the Mu Family belongs to her. Qingyou is the new family head…”
Cluru was somewhat stunned.
This development was beyond her expectations.
This was indeed what she had once wanted—for all her enemies to pay, then to return in glory and reclaim everything that should have been hers.
But in this situation, she only felt a strange sense of discomfort.
Something’s not right.
Not satisfying.
“You old geezer, you wish! Now that your life’s work, the Mu Family, is about to be finished, you want to rope back the unlucky one you chased out and use her power to revive your legacy… As if!”
Cluru spat right on the old man’s face.
I was a bit displeased, muttering quietly, “How are you rewarding him?”
“I’m telling you, impossible!” Cluru replied to Elder Mu resolutely.
“From today, there is no more Mu Family in this world! Only Immortal Dew!”
“You…you ungrateful wretch…you…”
Halfway through, the old man suddenly, just like Musicheng, spat up three liters of blood.
But his body was clearly not as tough as Musicheng’s.
And after all the emotional turmoil lately—he’d already coughed up blood at the last Immortal Dew Press Conference, and now, blow after blow, he simply couldn’t take it.
He died on the spot.
I wasn’t surprised. After all, in spirit vision, White and Black Impermanence had been waiting nearby for ages.
What did surprise me was that, after leading Elder Mu’s soul away, White and Black Impermanence didn’t leave.
They continued waiting in place.
Was there someone else due?
“Yunxian, Mu Qingyou, you want to take everything from me? Don’t think you’ll have it easy either!”
Suddenly, Musicheng’s face twisted with madness.
In a flash, he charged at me and Cluru, finally revealing the powerful strength he had hidden so deeply!
Everyone in the world had always thought he was just a sickly administrator, but no one knew—he was actually very strong!
He’d hidden his strength all his life, waiting to unleash a fatal blow at a critical moment!
A whole lifetime of patience!
All for this one surprise attack!
“Bang——”
I kicked Musicheng flying straight into the forging furnace.
Musicheng burned rapidly inside, his screams sounding rather delightful.
“Tsk, he really knew how to hide…”
But how could you think that seventeen years of patience could challenge my ten thousand years of cultivation? Hm?
Cluru glanced at my foot, pouted, and muttered quietly, “How are you rewarding him…”
“I was wearing shoes, that doesn’t count as a reward, right?” I retorted.
“It counts!”
“Then what about when you spat on him just now?”
“Want me to feed it to you? Mu——”
“……”
Your disciple is still your disciple.