After breaking up with my girlfriend, I became a Great Sage of the Demon Clan.

Dong Yuecheng got up and left the study. When he returned, he placed three items in front of Zhou Yan: a watch, a compass that looked like an ornament, and a bracelet made of thin teeth.

Zhou Yan scanned the items one by one. The watch seemed to be a handmade watch from a brand called "Modica," with exquisite workmanship, but nothing particularly interesting. The compass seemed to have been taken from a large ship, and similarly, nothing special.

But when Zhou Yan saw the canine tooth bracelet, he couldn't help but frown.

Chapter Sixteen: Can I Take It With Me?

Name: Cursed Beast Fang.

Type: Curse medium.

Effect: The wearer is cursed with the "Beast" curse (now invalid).

Zhou Yan pointed to the beast tooth bracelet.

"This thing is a medium for curses."

Dong Yuecheng's expression turned cold for a moment, but he quickly recovered.

"I see."

Dong Yuecheng returned to his desk, picked up the medicine prescribed by Zhou Yan, and drank it. When Dong Yuecheng left earlier, he went downstairs; there were people there, and the dog had drunk the medicine Zhou Yan had provided, and there were no major problems.

The report from the Awakened Ones also stated, "These immortal plants are a haphazard mix, and we don't know what their effects are, but they don't seem to contain any toxic components."

The medicine he drank went down Dong Yuecheng's throat and into his stomach without him feeling anything special.

Dongyue Cheng placed the teacup on the desk and closed his eyes again.

Dongyue Cheng began to fantasize about mud, soil, and vegetation. Normally, when he fantasized about these things, his body would feel an uncontrollable urge to eat and roll around. As a result, Dongyue Cheng had to find a professional psychologist to help him give himself psychological suggestions so that he would not think about these things that could stimulate the effect of his curse in his daily life.

Now...

Dongyue Cheng quickly opened his eyes again.

"It seems to be effective."

Dongyue Cheng was surprised. When he was fantasizing just now, he felt that he had no desire to roll around or eat.

Zhou Yan said smugly.

"Since I have kept my promise, Mr. Dong?"

Dong Yuecheng slowly nodded his chin, his joy surpassing his reserve and decades of upbringing, making him beam with delight.

"Of course, if this effect continues, I will also keep my promise to you, young sir, and I will fund the management of the slums."

"but."

Dongyue Cheng stroked his chin, quite curiously.

"Young man, do you want to be a good person?"

Zhou Yan countered with a question.

"Since you have the ability, why not be a good person? Aren't you wealthy people the ones who are most fond of donating money and establishing various charitable foundations?"

Dongyue Cheng couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"Oh, my dear young man, have you misunderstood? Do you think people like us donate money for charity?"

Zhou Yan looked puzzled.

Dongyue Cheng sighed and explained.

“The government’s tax collection is too heavy. People like me have to hand over 45% of their income every year. And my lawyer told me that setting up various charitable foundations can be tax-exempt, you know? Charity and foundations are for tax exemption, not because I really want to be a good person.”

Zhou Yan: "..."

Dong Yuecheng looked at Zhou Yan's somewhat dazed expression and couldn't help but chuckle softly.

The tax authorities of the Eastern Xia United States have their own army. Therefore, when facing the underworld bosses and transnational drug lords of the Eastern Xia United States, they dare to have people hold guns to the heads of those underworld giants and make them obediently pay taxes on their drug trafficking and organized crime money.

This is nothing more than a case of the wicked eating the wicked.

However, even such a huge tax group is helpless against the various ways local tycoons evade taxes. As far as Dongyue Cheng knows, a tycoon who is even richer than him only paid 300,000 RMB in taxes last year, relying on tax evasion techniques through foundations and charities.

Thugs aren't scary; what's scary is when thugs know the law.

"I see."

Zhou Yan stood up.

"Anyway, you get this done for me."

Dongyue Cheng's face was full of sincerity.

"I will not let you down, Mr. Zhou."

After leaving Dong Yuecheng's villa and passing over the villa's perimeter wall, Zhou Yan took out his phone and dialed Ying Zhao's number.

The call was answered quickly.

"Your Excellency Nine Thousand Years Old? You're still awake so late?"

Zhou Yan sighed as he walked.

"Yingzhao, I'm in trouble. Can you do me a favor?"

"Tell me what you need me to do first?"

"I might..."

Zhou Yan looked in the direction of the Vermilion Bird Academy. The young man could already sense that there was some danger brewing there, aimed at him.

"If I'm going to get beaten up, can you give me something that can quickly—and I mean quickly—immediately boost my combat power as soon as I get my hands on it?"

"that's it?"

Yingzhao sounded somewhat surprised.

Zhou Yan countered with a question.

"if not?"

"That's easy, Your Excellency. Just give me your address, and I'll send you a divine weapon!"

Zhou Yan revealed his home address.

"Okay, no problem, it can be delivered tomorrow."

"Okay, I'm hanging up now."

Zhou Yan prepared to hang up the phone.

"Wait a minute, Your Majesty, may I ask you a question?"

"Yes, go ahead and ask."

"Your Excellency, why didn't you ask to come with me when I left?"

Zhou Yan lowered his eyelids.

A strong sense of self-mockery made Zhou Yan's tone tinged with resentment.

"There are two reasons. One is that I can't let go of my parents, and the second is that you didn't ask me to come with you."

Yingzhao was over a hundred years old and could be described as shrewd and calculating. He had prepared for so long, and when he ran away, he even said that he owed me a favor, and then he didn't take me with him.

What does this mean?

Yingzhao is unlikely to want to bring Zhou Yan along as a burden.

Zhou Yan didn't ask, which was to preserve some dignity for himself.

Yingzhao sighed on the other end of the phone.

"Your Excellency is smarter than I thought. Also, do you want to know why I didn't take you with me?"

"why?"

"Because ignorance and confusion have no effect on you, you are with us, and everyone can find us through you."

Chapter Seventeen: The Heavenly Emperor's Garden

Group 4⑧87④97⑨9

Inside a suburban house in a rural city.

Yingzhao stroked the Taotie sleeping on her lap with one hand as she spoke to Zhou Yan on the other end of the phone.

“My daughter can mess up our phones, computers, and even our address. If someone wants to use our phones, computers, or surveillance cameras to find out about us, it’s impossible for them to find out.”

Chaos can use mobile phones and other telecommunications devices without any problems because it can confuse mobile phone location. So even if Yingzhao is calling Zhou Yan now, there is no need to worry about someone monitoring Zhou Yan's mobile phone and then locating his own position.

Because no one can locate a phone that has been mislocated due to chaotic or confused positioning.

"But you, Ninth Thousand Years Old, can disable my daughter's abilities. Perhaps you can't affect inanimate objects like cell phones and computers, but in terms of surveillance or other aspects, you are a certain point in the chaos. With you, it's like walking in the dark with a light bulb. Even if we are still shrouded in darkness, you can still show our location to everyone."

Zhou Yan sighed on the other end of the phone.

"Is that so?"

Yingzhao nodded.

"We have already used my daughter's abilities to confuse our instinct to possess others. We just want to live as ordinary people in this life. You, 9,000-year-old, should stay away from our lives and only provide remote support."

"Okay, then I won't bother you any longer."

Zhou Yan hung up the phone.

Although Zhou Yan's tone was calm, Ying Zhao could still tell that Zhou Yan seemed a little angry.

Let her be angry; her own stable life is definitely more important than losing some of Zhou Yan's favorability.

Yingzhao put the disconnected phone aside and carefully placed Taotie on the bed behind her.

Zhou Yan asked Yingzhao to find him something that could quickly boost his combat power.

Yingzhao certainly had plenty of equipment, and besides, sending equipment wouldn't affect his secluded life, so there was no reason for Yingzhao not to help Zhou Yan.

Yingzhao walked to the door of the walk-in closet connected to her bedroom, muttered a few words to herself, and then opened the door.

Behind the door was not a dressing room, but a hilltop, densely covered with various colorful plants, their rich fragrance permeating the air and refreshing the mind.

The Heavenly Emperor's Garden.

In the skill bar that Zhou Yan cannot see, Yingzhao has a skill called "Door of Will," which allows her to enter the Heavenly Emperor's Garden through any door. Yingzhao's perception is not used for combat, but for sensing the thoughts and emotions of the plants in the Heavenly Emperor's Garden, so as to take care of them.

As for other aspects, Yingzhao doesn't even have Bai Ze's passive ability to completely immunize against perception control. However, the infinite perception still allows Yingzhao to be immune, reducing a lot of damage from perception skills.

For each different mythical beast, the Star Lord's ∞ attribute is used for their own divine duties, and therefore each mythical beast has its own bias.

Yingzhao stepped down from the bedroom door to the ground. This stunningly handsome man, who was over a hundred years old, glanced at the garden he had tended for nearly a century. The immortal plants that could grant longevity, the flowers and fruits that could cure all diseases, and the fruit trees that could produce golden fruit—any one of these treasures could drive the rich mortals crazy. In Yingzhao's eyes, they were everywhere, and he didn't even bother to give them a second glance.

In the Heavenly Emperor's garden, these celestial plants are all of the lowest grade.

Yingzhao descended the mountain, where there was a bamboo forest. Inside the bamboo forest was a pavilion, which Yingzhao had never rested in before. Judging from the inscription on the couplet above the pavilion, it was actually written by the Antarctic Longevity Emperor.

Since there are so many places to rest, I dare not offend this Heavenly Emperor.

The bamboo grove outside the pavilion is a divine thing. It grows an inch every hundred years and produces a new bamboo shoot every thousand years. Yingzhao has never seen a bamboo shoot grow in this grove in his life, but he did see the bamboo grove grow an inch all at once thirty years ago.

Yingzhao arrived at the largest bamboo in the bamboo forest. The surface of the bamboo was mottled, covered with marks from sword cuts and knife strikes. Touching it could even cause one's hand to be pricked by these mottled marks.

Yingzhao bowed to the bamboo and then spoke.

"Master Zhu, today I've chosen a master for you. Now you should leave this garden and go see the wonderful world outside."

There was no wind in the bamboo forest, yet the largest bamboo stalk rustled loudly, producing a noisy and unpleasant sound.

Even gardeners, Yingzhao, would not casually pick these divine objects unless they themselves were willing to cooperate.

Yingzhao said with a righteous expression.

"My master is Bai Ze!"

The bamboo stopped moving and made no sound.

Yingzhao smiled smugly.

Back then, Lu Wu came to the garden he tended and selected a nine-leaf lotus as equipment for his eldest sister. Now that Bai Ze needs combat power, he will give Bai Ze a bamboo sword.