After Transmigrating as an Immortal Master, I Hold a Group Meeting - Chapter 83

Ning Mingmei: “So, we’re really walking all the way to the Lian family’s graveyard?”

Qi Miancheng: “The Lian family’s graveyard is in the south of the residence.”

Ning Mingmei: “I mean, are we seriously walking there on foot?”

As they passed under an archway, Ning Mingmei noticed a few Lian family’s servants sneaking peeks at them.

…What kind of stealth mission was this? It felt more like ‘College Boys Stay Out Late, Strolling Around Campus Roads.’

Qi Miancheng: “I just thought that since you’ve been in seclusion for ten years, you probably haven’t seen the moonlight in a long time.”

Ning Mingmei remained expressionless. “Senior Brother, that’s where you’re wrong. I’ve seen moonlight for more than just eleven years.”

Four years of undergrad, seven years of a PhD. What grad student ever made it back to their dorm before 11 PM?

Qi Miancheng said, “Is that so? Then, have you heard this poem before? The bright moon rises over the sea, tides swell in unison…”

Ning Mingmei: “The spring river’s tide merges with the ocean’s waves.”

Can we go back now? Why was this turning into a high school poetry exam?

As they reached an open area, Qi Miancheng said, “It’s time for a little late-night chat.”

…!

Ning Mingmei was caught off guard as Qi Miancheng suddenly wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Then…

They lifted off the ground together?

The full moon hung high in the sky, casting light over the jade-tiled rooftops and ornate eaves. Two figures, one in black and one in white, flew gracefully across the interconnected rooftops.

Qi Miancheng’s Light Step was impeccable. His right hand barely rested on Ning Mingmei’s shoulder, yet his inner energy effortlessly lifted him, allowing them to soar between the buildings together.

It reminded Ning Mingmei of the martial arts dramas he used to watch outside convenience stores as a kid.

Like ‘The Legend of Chu Liuxiang’ and similar shows.

He had to admit, it was kind of romantic.

They glided past the pavilions and terraces Ning Mingmei had seen earlier in the day. He asked, “What’s that waterside pavilion?”

“A residence for the Lian family’s hired Golden Core cultivators.”

“And that set of buildings?”

“Where the family’s elders live.”

“Senior Brother,” Ning Mingmei said, “you sure seem to know the layout of the Lian family’s residence like the back of your hand. With this level of detail, even if you wanted to hire assassins to take out the Lian family, it’d be a breeze.”

Qi Miancheng replied, “Oh? But the Lian family doesn’t have anything I want to take right now. They’re too weak.”

Ning Mingmei raised an eyebrow. With the way they were talking, they sounded like two villains sneaking into the Lian family’s residence.

If not for the fact that one of them played the role of a virtuous gentleman while the other specialized in cold sarcasm, the two of them working together could probably make a killer team at arson and murder.

Beyond the ancestral hall lay the graveyard. The further in they went, the more neglected the graves became. Some were marked by nothing more than a wooden stake.

Ning Mingmei remarked, “So even in the cultivation world, the way they bury their dead is just like how academic conferences seat their attendees. The leaders sit in the front with nameplates and bottled water. Professors sit in the next row and lecturers go even further back.”

The system: [And students sit at the very back?]

Ning Mingmei adjusted his glasses. [They stand.]

The system: …

The system: [Don’t taint the cultivation world with your filthy metaphors. Here, the law of the jungle is at least straightforward, not dressed up in formalities.]

Ning Mingmei: [It doesn’t matter. After the conference ends, I’ll steal the unopened bottled water left by the leaders and bring it back as souvenirs for the grad students in my lab.]

The system: …

What kind of life do your ‘grad students’ even live?!

Qi Miancheng finally set Ning Mingmei down on a stone slab.

Ning Mingmei steadied himself and said, “Senior Brother, your Light Step is truly impressive. Not only do you excel in academic, but you also embody physical excellence. A well-rounded development in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor.”

Qi Miancheng chuckled. “Junior Brother, was that a comfortable ride?”

Ning Mingmei: …

Under Ning Mingmei’s death glare, Qi Miancheng added, “I was worried you might feel dizzy, like you did this morning…”

Ning Mingmei: “Senior Brother, how could I? You’re not a donkey.”

Qi Miancheng: “Junior Brother, indeed, I am not a donkey.”

After their usual round of insincere banter, Qi Miancheng changed the topic. “Junior Brother, what do you think of this graveyard?”

Ning Mingmei: “Burial? Not eco-friendly.”

“What is eco-friendly?”

“Eco-friendliness is derived from the cycle of reincarnation.” Adopting Qi Miancheng’s cryptic tone, Ning Mingmei started spouting riddles of his own.

They exchanged a knowing glance and smiled. Ning Mingmei figured neither of them actually understood what the other was saying.

Qi Miancheng nodded. “That makes sense. Let’s take a look at this one… This grave looks freshly buried, so the body’s probably still intact.”

Ning Mingmei: …………

“Are you grave-robbing?” he asked.

Qi Miancheng had already waved his hand, lifting a chunk of earth. “Junior Brother, leave small tasks like this to your senior brother.”

Ning Mingmei: “…I never said I was going to help you dig.”

Qi Miancheng: “Junior Brother, you’re showing me more of your true thoughts lately. This means we’re growing closer. That makes me very happy.”

Ning Mingmei thought the stone slab was filthy but at least Qi Miancheng’s robes were underneath him, saving him a laundry bill. He watched as Qi Miancheng unearthed a coffin.

Inside lay a corpse.

Ning Mingmei glanced down at the body. “…What’s with their face?”

“This is the Lian family’s secret cultivation technique,” Qi Miancheng explained. “A technique that allows the main practitioner to reach the pinnacle of power at the cost of another person’s body. The stronger the supporting cultivator’s talent and the closer their blood relation, the greater the benefit to the main cultivator. Meanwhile, the supporting cultivator’s appearance will deteriorate and eventually, their entire body will rot away until they die… This corpse must have been used as a refining vessel by a particularly talented Lian family cultivator, causing premature death.

“My mother was once a supporting cultivator for her elder brother, Lian Zhufeng,” Qi Miancheng’s tone remained calm as he continued.

“My mother had even greater talent than him but because she was born of a concubine, she was used as a sacrifice for her legitimate brother’s cultivation. Later, she killed him, defected from the Lian family, and had nowhere to go. Because of her disfigured appearance, the world saw her as a ruthless demoness. She was hunted by righteous cultivators and driven into a desperate situation, until the Heavenly Order Sect was attacking the Embracing Simplicity Temple at the time.

“The Heavenly Order Sect’s saintess, Jiang Wu, found her interesting and saved her.”

Jiang Wu was the younger sister of the infamous demon concubine, Jiang Heng.

“But my mother could not adapt to the righteous path, nor did she fully align with the fiendish path. She left the fiend realm alone. Jiang Wu admired her and did not stop her. Later, my mother met my father, they fell in love, and were betrayed, leading to her being sealed beneath the Embracing Simplicity Temple.

“Someone asked my father if my mother would bring disaster to the world again? How can he guarantee she won’t harm humanity?’ My father stabbed himself and swore a blood oath. They were then married, living in harmony as husband and wife. The Lian family’s disgraceful technique was exposed, forcing them to publicly vow never to use such a sinister cultivation method again.”

Qi Miancheng added, “Back then, it was a legendary love story.”

Ning Mingmei: “I didn’t expect the Old Patriarch Qi to be such a romantic.”

“That’s just how people tell it,” Qi Miancheng said. “But my mother…”

He hesitated for a moment before asking, “Junior Brother, if you were in my mother’s position, what would you have done?”

…No way. No male mother scenarios, please.

Ning Mingmei: “I’d join the Qi family, gain a powerful backing, and then publicly reveal the Lian family’s cultivation technique, making it accessible to everyone. At the same time, I’d proclaim to the world that my unparalleled strength and my ability to dominate both the human and fiend realms all came from the Lian family’s technique.”

Qi Miancheng: “I didn’t expect Junior Brother to have such a noble heart, thinking about granting everyone equal access to cultivation.”

Ning Mingmei: “Before making it public, I’d create twenty different versions of the Lian family’s technique, some missing a page, some with an extra page, and distribute them to different factions. Let them argue endlessly over which version is the true one. At the same time, I’d grant reprint licenses to further muddy the waters and collect copyright fees.”

Qi Miancheng: …

“Never mind, I was just talking.” Ning Mingmei casually crossed his legs. “If your mother were truly happy after marriage, she wouldn’t have bothered with the Lian family anymore. Senior Brother, my condolences.”

As he spoke, his eyes met Qi Miancheng’s. His expression seemed sincere but his mind was clearly elsewhere.

Qi Miancheng looked at him and thought, ‘How fake can he get when there’s nothing in it for him?’

Whether it was asking for land or later requesting furniture, Ning Mingmei always called him ‘Senior Brother’ with utmost politeness, saying all the right things and acting as if he cared deeply about righteousness. Even Fang Wuyu had come to Qi Miancheng several times about him but there was nothing he could do.

There were plenty of sycophants in the world, people who sought benefits through flattery. As the young master of the Qi family, Qi Miancheng had seen them all.

But Ning Mingmei was different.

There was no desire in his eyes.

He stood there coldly, every word and action bringing himself the greatest advantage, yet when he obtained those benefits, his gaze never wavered, as if they were simply his by right. In fact, when he looked at them, there was even a hint of mockery in his eyes. Whether it was directed at the things he acquired so easily or at the world itself, Qi Miancheng couldn’t tell.

What kind of person is Ning Mingmei, really?

How could that unshakable mask of his be broken?

Qi Miancheng had to admit that he was even more curious now.

Especially because…

“In the stories, it’s always like that. A talented man and a beautiful woman lived happily ever after.” Qi Miancheng said, “But unfortunately, that technique still changed my mother’s body… and mine. It left me with an inherent flaw and caused my mother to fall ill and pass away early.”

Ning Mingmei: “What kind of flaw does Senior Brother have?”

Qi Miancheng used the tip of his sword to extract a piece of tissue from the corpse and placed it into a small box. “Nothing much. I’ve already found a way to suppress it and a way to fix it.”

The last sentence was spoken with a certain weight, lingering like the touch of his hand on Ning Mingmei’s shoulder earlier.

Ning Mingmei frowned. “And what method is that?”

Qi Miancheng looked at him and smiled. “Junior Brother really wants to know?”

Ning Mingmei met his gaze. “Yes.”

Qi Miancheng said, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

The system: [Actually, you already know.]

Ning Mingmei had only one response. [See? It’s not me making the first move. He’s the one dropping hints, deliberately luring me in, and trying to make me his academic seductress.]

A school principal harassing a professor, how could such depravity exist in this world?

But there was one thing Ning Mingmei couldn’t quite figure out. He watched Qi Miancheng’s back as he put the box away.

If he remembered correctly, the Sword Immortal was already over three hundred years old. If cultivators only reached adulthood at 180, that still meant Qi Miancheng had been an adult for at least 120 years.

For 120 whole years, Qi Miancheng never once laid a hand on the original Sword Immortal, letting the man sit cold and ignored on Misty Peak. So why, as soon as he showed up, did Qi Miancheng start testing the waters like this?

There was no way Qi Miancheng had been a paragon of virtue before, only to suddenly change after meeting him, right?

Ning Mingmei: [Hard to say.]

The system looked at him sympathetically. [I understand. Do you even know what XXX is?]

Ning Mingmei pushed up his glasses. [pXrnhub? I know. Once, when a student was giving a presentation, he forgot to close Safari’s last tab and the whole thing got projected onto the big screen in front of me. Oh, do you know what pXrnhubis? It’s a site for playing XXX videos.]

The system: …

Ning Mingmei: [During those few weeks, the lab’s data usage was unusually high. I casually checked and discovered that someone had been using the lab’s WiFi to watch pXrnhub. So when I saw that scene, I couldn’t help but laugh.]

…How could someone say something so perverse in such a calm tone…?

Ning Mingmei: [Perverse? To be honest, I have no interest in such activities. What truly excited me that day was the expression on that student’s face.]

The system: […Which city is your lab in?]

Ning Mingmei: [For the next year, that student was extremely diligent. He never dated again and his academic efficiency improved significantly. In that regard, I was quite satisfied.]

…Pervert!

The system was at a loss for words.

Ning Mingmei turned to Qi Miancheng. “Senior Brother, does the Qi family know that you’re here digging up graves in the Lian family’s ancestral grounds?”

The esteemed young master of the Qi family came to his mother’s old home to dig up graves. What kind of spectacle was that?

Qi Miancheng chuckled at the question.

“If my father found out, he’d probably say once again that I don’t seem like a Qi family’s child.” His tone was indifferent. “But it doesn’t matter. Decades have passed and the Lian family still refuses to abandon their old ways. They’ve started using that technique again to harm people. This evidence is enough to report back to the Qi family’s elders. Junior Brother, once we’re done here, shall we return to the Supreme Clarity Sect?”

Ning Mingmei: …

So after all that effort, Qi Miancheng had come there just to dig up a little evidence?

Suppressing his complaints, Ning Mingmei followed Qi Miancheng back. It was late at night and after they parted ways, Ning Mingmei took a few steps before suddenly realizing something. He held his breath and stealthily followed after him.

Sure enough.

After dropping Ning Mingmei off, Qi Miancheng changed into a different outfit and headed elsewhere.

Fortunately, Ning Mingmei’s Light Step was good enough to keep up. He followed Qi Miancheng all the way to the Lian family’s ancestral hall.

Qi Miancheng entered.

Ning Mingmei followed him inside.

As expected of an old noble family, rows upon rows of ancestral tablets gleamed in the candlelight. Ning Mingmei watched as Qi Miancheng stood in a certain spot within the hall. Then, in the blink of an eye…

Qi Miancheng was gone!

Ning Mingmei circled the ancestral hall, searching, but found nothing. He kept looking and eventually ended up in a courtyard behind the hall.

There, a young boy was training, his face full of impatience. Several cultivators and the Lian family’s patriarch stood beside him.

They seemed completely unaware of Qi Miancheng’s intrusion.

“…Another refining vessel has died.”

“Have we over-modified the technique? And we even used ‘that’…”

“But if we don’t, how can we restore the Lian family’s thousand years of glory? Those refining vessels are expendable.”

“It’s all because that kid ran away. His talent was exceptional. If we had used him, he would’ve lasted much longer.”

The boy sparring with the trainee was trembling all over. He tried several times to flee.

The one training was Lian Zhao. He glanced to the side, looking annoyed.

“…What are you all whining about? That brat ran away? Then just catch him and bring him back,” Lian Zhao said. Then, turning to his sparring partner, he asked, “Are you scared?”

The child nodded.

Lian Zhao said, “Then leave.”

The boy was overjoyed and immediately turned to flee. But before he could take more than a few steps, Lian Zhao clamped down on his head.

And then—

“Ahhh!”

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the courtyard. The agony was so intense that the victim’s voice no longer sounded human. The surrounding adults were startled.

“Why are you draining him now?”

“He was useless anyway, so I figured I’d use him as a temporary energy boost,” Lian Zhao said lazily. “Might as well level up faster. After all, isn’t that man surnamed Qi coming to see me tomorrow?”

Ning Mingmei stood in the shadows and saw Lian Zhao’s transformation. That kind of technique was terrifying. Lian Zhao’s arm seemed to turn into countless writhing tentacles in an instant. The deep black tentacles extended into the child’s facial orifices and within moments, the victim was completely drained.

Meanwhile, Lian Zhao’s complexion became rosy.

From a distance, Ning Mingmei could sense that the power in the child’s body had significantly advanced.

…Was that the Lian family’s cultivation technique?

Why did it seem so much like an evil technique?

The child’s lifeless body collapsed onto the ground, its skull shattered. Black, mold-like growths appeared on its face. A servant dragged the corpse away.

Lian Zhao wiped his hands, as if he were already accustomed to this.

“Forget it, as long as I get through tomorrow…”

Ning Mingmei raised an eyebrow. Somehow, he found Lian Zhao’s aura strangely familiar.

But he couldn’t quite place what kind of aura it was.

Judging by what they had described, Lian Zhao was practicing the latest improved version of the technique… meaning the older version wasn’t as insane as this one?

What had led to the ‘improvement’?

He turned to leave. But before he could take a few steps, a hand suddenly covered his lips.

A low chuckle came from behind him.

“Junior Brother, why are you following me?”