It turns out, they were the main characters.

“It’s still different.” Father Bai shook his head. “Many people pursued your mother back then, and I was one of them. It’s just that later, because I became the clan leader…”

Mr. Bai did not continue speaking.

After all, even a vulgar old man has his pride when it comes to his daughter.

He was too embarrassed to admit that he had used some of the clan chief's privileges to eventually win Bai Yuanfeng's heart.

"You should go back to the Mu family with Miss Wei first. I'll feel more at ease with you there."

Father Bai continued, "But remember, if that Mu family brat comes into your room at night and says he wants to chat with you, don't believe him."

The aloof and delicate beauty's face flushed red in an instant, her eyes flickered, and she lowered her gaze, saying with a mixture of anger and embarrassment, "Father, what are you saying?! Young Master Mu isn't that kind of person. If he wanted to take action, he could have done it a long time ago!"

If Mu Zhian were that kind of person, he could have made his move on the very first day in the carriage, instead of waiting until now.

Being confronted by his daughter who was defending another man in front of him, Mr. Bai felt both annoyed and helpless. He could only give his daughter a deep look and then secretly shake his head.

If Mu Zhian had taken action earlier, all he would have gotten was Bai Ruoxi's body.

But now... what Mu Zhian can obtain is the body and soul of the most beautiful woman in Tianxuan City.

This can be seen simply by looking at Bai Ruoxi's reaction.

……

Mu Zhian was unaware of the conversation between the father and daughter. He took out a large pile of spirit stones from his storage ring and placed them on the bedside table, then sat cross-legged on the bed.

As the cauldron within his body operated, the spirit stones quietly transformed into purified spiritual energy, which Mu Zhi'an absorbed into his body.

This is the benefit of spirit stones. Under normal circumstances, cultivation requires purifying the spiritual energy between heaven and earth before it can be absorbed into the body.

However, spirit stones are already purified spiritual energy, so skipping this purification step can save at least four to five times the cultivation time.

Although the outcome of the competition is not important, Mu Zhian had wasted too much time on women before, so he naturally hoped to make up for it as soon as possible.

Nearly two hours later, the spirit stones by the bedside gradually disappeared, and Mu Zhian felt that the spiritual energy in the cauldron had been filled by nearly one-third.

He slowly opened his eyes, raised his hand, and pushed out a palm strike from a distance.

With a loud "bang," the door was pushed open, and a clear "creak" sound reached our ears.

Mu Zhian took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

The surrounding spiritual energy swirled around him with each breath, drawing spiritual energy into his body with each breath, creating a feeling of complete comfort.

Being able to expel the old and take in the new, and to transform spiritual energy into tangible power to unleash, is the third level of Qi Refining.

If one reaches the peak of Qi Refining, one can even retrieve objects from a distance, instantly taking back weapons from afar.

Once one reaches the Refining Spirit Realm, one can fly on a sword like Wei Mengrou.

This feels really good. The difference between Qi Refining Stage 2 and Qi Refining Stage 3 is quite significant... Mu Zhian looked down at his palms, feeling quite satisfied.

He calmed his mind slightly, closed his eyes again, and entered a meditative state.

The next morning.

Mu Zhian was at the training ground early in the morning, sparring with his maid.

Although he had neglected his studies for a period of time due to his obsession with Naizi, Mu Zhian still had a good foundation. In addition, Wei Mengrou held back a bit, so when the two were just exchanging martial arts skills at the beginning, they were evenly matched.

However, Wei Mengrou was clearly not skilled in melee combat. As the fight progressed, she switched from physical attacks to magical attacks. The dazzling light pollution made Mu Zhian's eyes blurry and he was really exhausted.

"Wait first!"

Just as Wei Mengrou was about to slap him from a distance, Mu Zhian immediately raised his hand and successfully controlled Wei Mengrou with his voice.

The maid's palm stopped in front of Mu Zhi'an's face. She tilted her head slightly and looked at him with a look of doubt in her eyes, waiting for him to speak.

Don't you know the saying "Don't hit someone in the face"? Mu Zhian glanced at Wei Mengrou's hand that was about to slap his face, put on a serious expression, and said, "Let's stop hitting. Let's rest first. I have something I want to ask you."

Wei Mengrou looked at her palm with a conflicted expression, then looked at Mu Zhian.

After thinking for a moment, he finally nodded and did not deliver the slap.

Mu Zhian found a step in the training ground and sat down. Then he turned to look at the maid and asked, "When you escorted Bai Ruoxi home last night, did you feel like you were being followed?"

“If I’m being followed, I’ll notice immediately.” Wei Mengrou paused, then continued, “Unless the other person is a level higher than me.”

Wei Mengrou is at the Refining Spirit Realm; the next higher realm is the Returning to Emptiness Realm.

In the mortal world, those who have reached the Void Returning Realm are also known as terrestrial immortals. Such beings are extremely rare, almost like rare animals.

Upon hearing this, Mu Zhian nodded slightly.

In terms of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, Wei Mengrou is top-notch. In the end, she can be classified as an assassin. Since she said so, we can rest assured.

He still trusted Wei Mengrou a lot, after all, in terms of investigative ability alone, Wei Mengrou was among the top in the Refining Spirit Realm.

In modern times, a maid would probably be a female investigator with a curvaceous and sexy figure, dressed in a tight-fitting outfit.

"You suspect I'm being followed?" Wei Mengrou asked.

"I have my doubts, but I believe you. However, I still find it strange." Mu Zhian smiled and said, "If this man in black robes doesn't come out to see me today, I will start to suspect that he has some tricks up his sleeve, or that he doesn't value Ye Yu at all."

Wei Mengrou's eyes flickered slightly, and a thoughtful expression appeared on her face.

"That 100,000 spirit stones, should include the Gongsun family's share as well?" Wei Mengrou suddenly asked.

Wei Mengrou, who had always been by Mu Zhian's side, naturally knew about the 100,000 spirit stones.

Even in Wei Mengrou's opinion, the amount of 100,000 spirit stones was already quite astonishing... Now that Master Huang had sent all 100,000 spirit stones to the Mu family, she couldn't quite understand his thinking.

"The 100,000 spirit stones are only for our Mu family, and have nothing to do with the Gongsun family," Mu Zhian said.

"You mean... the Dawn Merchant Guild will send more spirit stones to the Gongsun family?"

“I don’t know about that. If Master Huang is smart enough, he probably wouldn’t do that.” Mu Zhian smiled and continued, “Merchants are stingy with money, but big merchants have a strategic vision. They can look to the future and are willing to spend a little money to make a lot of money.”

"He only gave the money to our Mu family, which shows that he thinks highly of us. In Master Huang's eyes, the Gongsun family is at most on the same level as himself, and there is no need to give them money."

"Furthermore, regardless of whether the Gongsun family actually received any of the 100,000 spirit stones from Master Huang, we will assume they did not, and that's it," Mu Zhian continued.

Wei Mengrou glanced at him and said softly, "Are you planning to embezzle it?"

“How can this be called embezzlement, Sister Mengrou?” Mu Zhian turned his head to look at Wei Mengrou, and their eyes met.

He gave a gentle smile and said, "This is something we earned by contributing our manpower and effort."

How can the expenses for suppressing bandits be considered embezzlement?

This should be called confiscation.

……

At this very moment, Master Huang was leisurely sitting in the hall, legs crossed, drinking tea.

Beside him, the beautiful woman didn't seem to be in a good mood, sometimes drinking tea and sometimes sighing.

His face was clouded with worry and despair.

"Why are you sighing so much beside me?" Master Huang had no choice but to speak, looking at his wife.

"Master, you're saying we just gave away 100,000 spirit stones to the Mu family and didn't get any benefits in return... How long will it take to earn it back?" Madam Huang sighed, her eyes filled with heartache.

"Why can't we make any profit?" Master Huang crossed his legs and looked at Madam Huang strangely. He said, "There are people hindering our business. We need to get rid of the obstacles in order to continue making money."

"If we don't give away these 100,000 spirit stones, we might have to give away even more in the future," Master Huang continued.

The beautiful woman's eyes flickered slightly, and she couldn't help but glance at her husband a few more times.

However, Master Huang had no intention of explaining, but simply changed the subject, saying, "Did you send a servant to inform Old Master Tian?"

The beautiful woman nodded gently and said, "Old Tian has agreed to go to Dragon Head Forest together tomorrow, but sir, why should we contribute our labor as well as our money?"

Mr. Huang glanced at his wife, shook his head, and sighed, "We gave away this money; we lost out."

"But in the next month or two, they will gradually give it back to us, so in the end we still make a profit."

Seeing that the beautiful woman seemed to understand but not quite, Master Huang did not explain further. He simply tapped the edge of the chair lightly with his knuckles, looked ahead, and fell into thought.

Before they knew it, most of the day had passed. Just as Mu Zhian had predicted, the man in black robes finally arrived at the Mu family that night.

No... we can't call him the man in black robes anymore, because he hasn't worn black robes since the Gongsun family offered a reward for his capture.

He changed into a plain-colored robe and wore a straw hat.

"Young Master Mu, are you confident about tomorrow?" A pair of cold, triangular eyes under the black-robed man's hat stared at Mu Zhi'an.

Clearly, he already knew how Mu Zhian had "tricked" Ye Yu into going to the Dragon Head Forest.

Mu Zhian smiled and said, "Does winning or losing matter?"

If Mu Zhian hadn't awakened his memories and it was just a simple competition, then it would probably have been Mu Zhian provoking Ye Yu and then getting slapped in the face by the 'protagonist'.

However, now... this game has nothing to do with Ye Yu from beginning to end.

No matter how strong or extraordinary the chosen one is, or how great their fortune, being able to fight against cultivators at the Qi Refining Realm is already their limit.

As for the next level, the Refining Spirit Realm... the distance between Refining Essence and Refining Spirit is like that between an elephant and an ant, with absolutely no room for maneuver.

Even the "protagonist" couldn't do that.

The man in black robes sneered and said, "That's true."

"Then I look forward to your performance tomorrow, Young Master Mu."

After speaking, the man in black robes turned and disappeared into black mist in the room.

After watching the man in black robes disappear from sight, Mu Zhian turned his head to look at the shadows in the corner.

In the shadows, one could vaguely see a graceful figure and a huge human heart.

"Are you sure?" Wei Mengrou asked.

Mu Zhian shook his head: "I already said, winning or losing is not important."

"So, in the end, it's because you're not confident?" Wei Mengrou understood Mu Zhian's unspoken message.

"Then Ye Yu must still have some trump cards up his sleeve," she reminded him.

“I know, but I also have my trump cards.” Mu Zhian said seriously.

"What?" Wei Mengrou's eyes showed confusion.

She thought she knew the young master very well... but she had never heard of him having any other trump cards up his sleeve...

Mu Zhian waved to her, mysteriously saying, "It's a secret."