Yin Shaoyuan hung up on the phone before looking over at Yao Jiamu eagerly. “Wanna fight?”
“I’d rather fight with Xixi.” Yao Jiamu huffed and replied.
Yin Shaoyuan: “…” He knew that Yao Jiamu made the comparison on purpose, but he couldn’t say anything in retort.
The two of them were on the same ancient martial arts stage, but to Yao Jiamu, beating him was as easy as beating a dog, so Yin Shaoyuan was both miffed and intrigued by that implication.
It wouldn’t have been weird for, say, Tang Qinghong to be able to beat him up with one hand tied behind his back because he had stayed in the trial tower for so many years, but Yao Jiamu had only started learning ancient martial arts! How could such a person beat him so easily?
Yin Shaoyuan was filled with curiosity, at first.
Then, not a day later, he realized why that was the case.
He had wanted to return to the trial tower after one day here, but after seeing the reality of what was happening on Gu Xiqiao’s end, he was shook to his core.
That was especially when he saw a big, red bird the size of a car that could fight and speak.
He couldn’t even defeat this bird that could seal all his chi with a single flap of its wings and render him powerless, what was this creature?
The moment he felt his world view crumble was when someone called it Xixi.
Xixi? Yin Shaoyuan thought that was just a regular bird that Gu Xiqiao kept as a pet, but it was a legendary beast??
He and Tang Yanling had planned to amass forces so that they could be a strong protective shield for Gu Xiqiao in the ancient martial arts world, but as he looked at the training arena filled with people, he wiped the sweat off his forehead with a numb expression from all the shock.
If it really came to that, they would probably be the ones that were protected instead!
“Ms. Gu!”
“Ms. Gu!”
“Er Qiao!”
“…”
Yin Shaoyuan’s mind was wandering when a commotion broke out, everyone smiling brightly and looking over in his general direction, and when he looked back too, he saw Gu Xiqiao that was walking towards them.
The young woman was holding a black umbrella in her hand, and in her clear eyes shone galaxies.
“Big Brother Yin,” she greeted, smiling softly.
Yin Shaoyuan was stunned for a moment upon seeing the younger sister of his for the first time in two months, then he smiled brightly and pulled her in for a tight hug. “Qiao Qiao!”
How did she become even prettier in just a few months?
Meanwhile, Xixi, Wu Hongwen and Xiao Yun came over to her too.
The other hundred pairs of eyes were attracted to Gu Xiqiao, but after they were shouted at by Yao Jiamu, they went back to focusing on their training, only stealing admiring glances over in her direction from time to time.
“Do you have an array here?” Yin Shaoyuan had become more knowledgeable after being in the ancient martial arts world for almost two months, and when he arrived here he felt a certain mystical aura to the entire training area that covered it like a veil, and it reminded him of the Trial Tower.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but the sense of familiarity was definitely there.
Even though this was an open-air arena, it wasn’t affected at all by the weather outside, as if it were its own secluded world.
Upon hearing Yao Jiamu say that this place was created by Gu Xiqiao, he was extremely shocked. The trial tower was the treasure of the ancient martial arts world that had training grounds inside that warped time and space, but it was only fitting for its reputation as the birthing ground of many masters in the ancient martial arts world. In fact, it was even treated as one of the ancient martial arts world’s trump card.
Meanwhile, this training ground was created by Gu Xiqiao alone.
Along with it was the fact that almost everyone in this place had prowess that surpassed their ancient martial arts stage. Without using any chi, a Beginner trainee from here could fight him to a standstill with sheer technique and prowess, and this was the reason that cemented his choice to stay here.
“Yes.” Gu Xiqiao replied. “There’s five arrays that feed endlessly off of each others’ energy here, actually. I could teach you, if you want to learn?”
Yin Shaoyuan almost choked at the dismissive explanation. Five arrays that fed off each others’ energies endlessly? Even the Baili Family wouldn’t be able to do something on that scale so easily!
“I probably wouldn’t be able to learn it even if I tried.” Yin Shaoyuan coughed into his fist as he looked up at Gu Xiqiao. “I don’t have the natural talent for it.”
“Well do you want to try fighting with me?” Gu Xiqiao quickly changed the topic, looking up and down at Yin Shaoyuan. “From the looks of it you’re already in the Tendon Forging stage, but Xiao Mu told me you were quite weak?”
It had been quite some time after all, and she wanted to see where he could improve.
“Fight?” Yin Shaoyuan looked up and down at Gu Xiqiao’s thin frame. “Are you sure…?”
Gu Xiqiao smiled. “It’s alright, come at me with all you’ve got.”
Yin Shaoyuan hadn’t had the chance to actually win against anyone after he came here—From Yao Jiamu, Xixi, to even the weakest, Xiao Yun, he was beaten up as easy as pie, and he had been waiting for someone who he could win against.
Even though he had been beaten for three days in a row, but he had improved immensely too.
“Ah, but arrays are forbidden!” Yin Shaoyuan exclaimed, suddenly remembering that the girl was an expert in that field.
“Of course.” Gu Xiqiao handed her umbrella to Xiao Yun, before turning back and looking at him. “En garde?”
Yin Shaoyuan was quite excited about it. “I’ll hold back, don’t worry.”
At this moment, he completely missed the pitying looks the others gave him.
A space was cleared out for them, and Yin Shaoyuan’s expression turned serious as he looked towards Gu Xiqiao that was still in a resting position, energy converging in his palm in an effort to showcase his strength. “This is the strongest secret technique in the Tang Family, the Void Lightning Spell, careful!”
As he spoke, he started moving his hands quickly in mysterious-looking motions, and a strong presence started to emanate from him.
Gu Xiqiao only stood there motionlessly as she looked at his motions until he finished all of them, as if in thought.
“This is a very strong move even though I haven’t perfected it yet!” Yin Shaoyuan looked up at Gu Xiqiao, his eyes squinting in concentration.
Under the blue sky, the girl suddenly started moving her fingers in archaic motions too, her fingers like porcelain as
“What is Er Qiao doing?” Wu Hongwen was surprised that Gu Xiqiao hadn’t just beaten the young man up already.
Yao Jiamu’s eyes were stuck to the scene like glue, before he muttered, “…She’s copying his technique.”
“What?!”
At the same time, Yin Shaoyuan’s expression started to turn from confident to shock as the girl copied all of the movements that he did moments ago completely, and the energy that she generated seemed to be even stronger than his.
Gu Xiqiao suddenly raised her head, and said, “Come!”
It was the fight between two Void Lightning Spells.
A bright, white flash appeared all of a sudden with a boom, and the next moment, a small crater appeared under Yin Shaoyuan’s feet.
The dust settled after three minutes, showing the young man buried halfway into the dirt and practically fried, the dust and soot concealing his handsome face as he looked over at Gu Xiqiao that didn’t even have a speck of dust on her body, the latter looking at him with a smile. “Big Brother Yin, are you okay?”
Wu Hongwen came over and helped him up, and as he wiped himself with a piece of cloth, he replied emotionlessly. “Not at all.”
Why was he so innocent?
“You’ll get used to it, Oh Great Young Master Yin, Er Qiao was already holding back.” Wu Hongwen grinned mirthfully, before tilting his head in the direction of the trainees. “Don’t you see those jealous gazes?”
Yin Shaoyuan: “…”
He wasn’t blind, he saw the pitying gazes sent to him too!
He moaned in pain as he rubbed his arms, feeling pain all throughout his body that was much greater than when he fought with Tang Qingqiu.
As disheveled as he looked right now, he knew that his image was completely shattered.
“I feel like I’m going to make a breakthrough for my Void Lightning Spell…” Yin Shaoyuan clung onto Wu Hongwen’s neck as he replayed the scene from earlier in his head, and as he remembered Gu Xiqiao’s movements and the spatial energy that she invoked, he felt his understanding of the technique increase!
There were seven stages to the Void Lightning Spell, and he was only on the second stage, but this was already the cream of the crop when compared to the others in his generation.
The technique was too difficult, and it had high requirements to the user’s physical constitution and their latent talent.
Basically, only the people that could actually learn this technique were almost exclusively ones that could train in the trial tower, and it was also why Tang Qinghong was worried for Yin Shaoyuan.
Yin Shaoyuan had seen Tang Qinghong use this skill once, blasting a small hill in the process, and while it was definitely shocking, it didn’t hold a candle to this.
What sort of genius would be able to learn their opponents’ skills while they were casting it like this?
Yin Shaoyuan felt quite distraught, and a sense of weakness welled up in his heart.
His poor heart couldn’t handle more of this!
“So you get why those people are jealous of you now, don’t you?” Wu Hongwen explained. “Even I’m jealous of you, honestly. Er Qiao’s the type to either fight once or not at all whenever she comes, and it was either me or Xiao Yun who got this special treatment in the past, but now you got it!”
Yin Shaoyuan breathed deeply, before looking over at Gu Xiqiao who was in the middle of a conversation with shock.
“Big Boss Bai has already controlled all of the forces on the south, and is now focusing on going national.” Not only was Yao Jiamu busy with training everyone, he also had to help Big Boss Bai expand his sphere of influence. “Another bunch of people were sent here yesterday, and even though they’re not as talented as the ones that are already here, they’re more than qualified to stand guard at all our branches.”
“You know about that yakuza group in Japan that’s recognized by the public, right? Work in that direction, and the motto of the Bai Gang is to maintain the peace and safety of the world.” Gu Xiqiao said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Yao Jiamu: “…” Why was he not surprised that Gu Xiqiao came up with that idea?
One of the ways that a gang could survive was by expanding their influence and permeating into every organization and changing their public image.
Yao Jiamu naturally knew about the only yakuza in Japan that was recognized by the public which did charity and community service, as well as disaster relief in an effort to gain the trust of the public.
“But we’ve already become trusted in Imperial Capital.” Yao Jiamu mused, going along with Gu Xiqiao’s suggestion. “That time we gave the cops evidence and helped with their investigation, we even got a brocade flag for them.”
The incident had actually become quite well known in China, and ever since then the Bai Gang had truly started to expand, people from all corners of the world joining the gang and not even thinking of leaving upon being shown all the pros of joining it.
“Big Boss Bai has always been good at this sort of thing.” Gu Xiqiao nodded. For someone that was expelled from the Bai Family, creating the strongest force in the Imperial Capital was even harder than it sounded. “I won’t go see him today, then, don’t want to bother him.”
Yao Jiamu: “…”
Why does he feel as if Big Boss Bai would beat him up if he knew about this…?
Gu Xiqiao wasn’t privy to his thoughts, and she only pet Xixi gently before talking with Xiao Yun, her gaze stuck on the people that were training in the arena.
“You got a new role?” Gu Xiqiao asked in surprise. “But not as the main lead?”
Xiao Yun smiled mysteriously as she talked with Gu Xiqiao. “Brother Kun accepted the role for me, and even though it’s not the main lead, it’s much better than a regular lead role.”
After acting in Empire Under Siege, her acting ability was approved by the public, and along with that came millions of followers on her Weibo account, and along with her currently airing web drama, she was about to his twenty millions followers quite soon.
Gu Xiqiao raised her eyebrows in interest. “It’s a big production?”
In any case, a role that was handpicked by Xiang Kun and had such a reaction from Xiao Yun wouldn’t be anything simple.
Xixi shuffled over and latched onto Gu Xiqiao again. “Beauty Qiao, why didn’t you bring Haha with you?”
“Haha can’t run around with that wound on his leg, so he’s staying at home with Mama Yin.” Gu Xiqiao replied.
Xixi: Poor dog~
That night when it returned home, it suddenly felt as if it’s entire avian life was a lie when it saw the new and improved kennel Haha got.
After checking on Yin Shaoyuan, Gu Xiqiao looked around and went out to have lunch with them, before giving Yao Jiamu another old book and leaving.
She didn’t drive here, but she refused Yin Shaoyuan’s offer to give her a lift home.
After seeing the thin figure off, Yin Shaoyuan glanced over at the old book in Yao Jiamu’s hands curiously. “What is this?”
Yao Jiamu leafed through the yellowed pages, and every ten pages or so, there would be a piece of paper that was filled with beautifully written words. “Something that you can’t learn in the ancient martial arts world, believe me.”
Upon hearing this, Yin Shaoyuan became even more curious as to what this book was, was it even stronger than the ones passed down the ancient martial arts world?
He found that somehow hard to believe.
When he was bought to a room, he suddenly felt as if he lost his sense of reality.
“This, these books are…” Yin Shaoyuan inhaled deeply in disbelief as he looked around the room in awe. There were just a few books, barely more than twenty of them, and attached to these books were explanations and details—Most of them were written in Gu Xiqiao’s neat and tidy writing, some were written in Yao Jiamu’s stubby handwriting, while the rest held handwriting that he recognized as Jiang Shuxuan’s.
He flipped through one of the books, then another, and another…
“So these books are just…Placed around here without any protection?” He asked, belatedly noting the dryness of his throat.
Any one of these could cause a large commotion in the ancient martial arts world!
“Yeah.” Wu Hongwen replied nonchalantly.
Yin Shaoyuan: “…Aren’t you guys afraid that someone would steal them?”
“You’re assuming that everyone can come in here, and those that can aren’t stupid enough to steal from this place.” Wu Hongwen replied with a chuckle.
Yin Shaoyuan looked at these books as he breathed another sigh of relief from choosing to stay here.
After half an hour, Big Boss Bai was filled with sorrow when he was told that he missed Gu Xiqiao.
Gu Xiqiao was walking in the slums with her umbrella in hand, greeting everyone that passed her familiarly and getting gifted a bunch of snacks as she did.
She accepted the offerings, not knowing whether to laugh at the situation, before sneakily keeping them into the system inventory while no one was looking.
After twenty minutes, she came to the side of the road, and took out her phone to get a taxi.
[Ding! Daily Good Deed Mission activated: Help the mission objective fix their car.]
[Mission accomplishment reward: 20 points]
Suddenly, a system notification rang in her head.
After that, the system spirit flew out and pointed over in the direction in front of her. “It’s that one, Beauty Qiao!”
Gu Xiqiao’s gaze followed the system spirit’s finger all the way to a white car, and right at that moment a woman in a beige cardigan stepped out of it, looking at her car in distress.
It was hard to tell how old the woman was just from her appearance.
“Do you have any tools? I can help you.” Gu Xiqiao said as she walked over.
The woman turned around, and her eyes met the ones of a young woman that seemed to have walked straight out of a painting. “Yes, but are you sure you can fix it?”
“Of course.” Gu Xiqiao popped open the hood of the car familiarly.
Upon seeing that she seemed to know what she was doing, the woman took out a toolbox from the trunk of the car and handed to this unknown girl.
The girl bent down and started fixing it seriously, and motions that would seem crude when someone else did it looked particularly elegant when she did it, as if she weren’t fixing a machine but a piece of art.
The woman picked up the umbrella that was set on the side of the car and raised it above Gu Xiqiao’s head.
“Thank you.” Gu Xiqiao raised her head and smiled at her politely, and even though her fingers were practically coated with motor oil, she didn’t even furrow her brows as she resumed fixing it.
“I should be the one thanking you! Ah, my surname is Shu, so you can call me Auntie Shu, if you don’t mind?” The woman liked the girl quite a lot.
Gu Xiqiao smiled, before closing the hood of the car. “Well, Auntie Shu, can you try and start up your car?”
[Ding! Mission accomplished! 20 points have been rewarded!]
The woman didn’t try and start up her car immediately, but instead took out a bottle of mineral water to let Gu Xiqiao wash her hands, along with a clean handkerchief.
Gu Xiqiao thanked her before accepting the handkerchief and cleaning her fingers one by one.
After being together with Jiang Shuxuan for such a long time, one of the things she learned the most from him was his cleanliness.
There was only a single bottle of water, so Gu Xiqiao couldn’t clean up her hands thoroughly and even the handkerchief was stained with motor oil.
Auntie Shu smiled and took back the handkerchief with a smile. “It’s alright, let me see if it worked.”
She gave Gu Xiqiao her umbrella, before reaching into her car and turning the key experimentally. Even though the girl seemed to be quite sure of her results, she was still to young, so the woman didn’t have high hopes.
The next moment, the car whirred to life.
Auntie Shu blinked in surprised for a moment, before looking at Gu Xiqiao with an elated surprise. “Good job, young lady!”
Upon being told by the girl that she was waiting for a taxi, the woman immediately volunteered to send her to her destination.
Gu Xiqiao didn’t refuse and got onto the car, telling Auntie Shu the address of Nine Heavens.
The car drove into the city center and stopped.
“Thank you, Auntie Shu.” Gu Xiqiao got off the car and thanked the woman again.
“It’s no problem, I wouldn’t know what I could have done if you weren’t there!” Auntie Shu waved it away, thinking that the girl was too humble.
It was only after the girl disappeared from her view that she belatedly realized that she didn’t even have her name, but after that, she realized that it was because the girl didn’t want to leave her name.
Auntie Shu shook her head and chuckled, because it sure was the first time in a long while she had met someone that wasn’t trying to butter her up for personal benefit.
Then, the white car disappeared in the traffic.
After scaling up on their operations, Nine Heavens Group bought an entire building, and Gu Xiqiao stood at the entrance for a while, looking at the buildings around it and confirming to herself that it was a place with good fengshui for a business before walking in.
There were two receptionists in delicate makeup that were unfamiliar to her, probably newly hired, and they were helping a middle aged man. The man had a thick ethnic accent and looked quite humble, and after listening in on the conversation for a while, she realized that he was here to apply for the position of bodyguard.
The receptionists didn’t know Gu Xiqiao, and one of them smiled at her politely and asked, “Hello, is there anything we can help you with?”
“Hi, I’m here to see Manager Luo Wenlang.” Gu Xiqiao nodded back politely, before telling them her reason for coming here.
“Do you have an appointment?” The receptionist pulled out a notebook, flipping through it to see if there were any notes of such an appointment.
The answer to that was affirmative, but it wouldn’t have been noted down in that notebook.
Gu Xiqiao was about to call Luo Wenlang when someone spoke up form behind her, “God Gu, you’re here! I thought Luo Wenlang tricked me!”
Yu Ning walked over with a bright smile, starting to talk with her excitedly.
Three of the most important people in Nine Heavens was Mu Zong, Luo Wenlang and Yu Ning, and the most mysterious of the three was Yu Ning who was in charge of the web development department.
As the receptionists, they had only seen Yu Ning only once from far away, and this was the first time they saw the elusive man up close.
More surprising to them, was how Yu Ning seemed like a respectful lackey in front of Gu Xiqiao.
They looked at Gu Xiqiao for a long while, not knowing who it was, but soon enough they came up to the answer to that question and were stunned.
“Director Cheng gave you those clips, right?” Gu Xiqiao asked. “This is the first lead role that Ning Qing acted as, so you have to put a hundred and twenty percent into it and make it as perfect as you can!”
It was the best if they could premier it before the international movie awards, so that Ning Qing might get considered as one of the nominees of the best lead actress prize.
“We’ve been very busy with the virtual world, lately…” Ning Yu grumbled, before looking at Gu Xiqiao with an expectant expression. “If you come and help us, we’ll definitely make this as quickly and as well as we can!”
Gu Xiqiao only fixed him with a stare, before patting his shoulder. “You can even deconstruct the source code, I’m sure you can do it even if I wasn’t there.”
Yu Ning: “…”
The two got to the web development room, and all of the employees there were busy with work, a couple of them discussing heatedly sometimes, and Gu Xiqiao walked over to the host computer and looked at the threads of code that were being calculated on it. “Lil System, don’t you think something’s missing?”
“Yes, Beauty Qiao. It isn’t so simple to create and run a virtual world because it has to hold the consciousness of countless people, and there’s too much data involved.” The system spirit knew the problem with a single glance. “You should create an intelligent processing system that can keep the entire system stable and safe.”
“Are you an intelligent processing system?”
“I’m the highest grade artificial intelligence in the entire world, of course I am!” After it said so, it floated there dumbly in the air, realizing that it had basically sold itself off.
The young man sitting at the host computer was You Huan, one of the freshmen at A University that was scouted by Luo Wenlang because of his talent, and when he knew that Luo Wenlang belonged to Nine Heavens, he was greatly surprised and in disbelief.
He was brought to the company in a dazed state, and upon seeing all the renowned hackers and programmers working there, he felt as if he was dreaming.
On every computer in the department held countless softwares and codes that surpassed his recognition, and after only three days he felt as if he was in a completely new world, and it was no wonder why everyone was so focused and enthralled.
He was working on the virtual world just like everyone else, but they seemed to have run into a wall when the code couldn’t even run.
It had been three days since they were stuck like this, and even Yu Ning couldn’t think of a way to resolve it.
As You Huan was scratching his head in frustration, a hand reached over and took the mouse over from him.
He raised his head and saw a familiar face, and for a moment he didn’t even know how to react. “Beauty Gu?”
He knew who she was, because what student of A University would he be if he didn’t, but he never expected to see her in this place.
Gu Xiqiao: “…Scoot over for a bit, will you?”
You Huan got up from his seat, still dazed as he looked at her, and Gu Xiqiao sat down and started typing on the keyboard. “As my lil’ system, it is your duty to help me out! Let’s get started on that intelligent processing system.”
The lil’ system: “…Okay.”
A page of code appeared on the monitor, and then it started rolling down quickly with data and code while those lithe fingers typed so fast on the keyboard that it was hard to even track with the naked eye.
Everyone in the room had already surrounded her, and was watching her with awe.
You Huan was completely stunned. “D-Did she just-”
“Solve all our problems we had in the past three days? Yes, yes she did.” Yu Ning replied, looking at Gu Xiqiao work attentively.
After a final decisive tap on the keyboard, Gu Xiqiao got up from the seat. “That should do it for the mainframe of an intelligent processing system.”
Yu Ning: “…” Now he feels useless!
Everyone else: “…” They were used to it, but it was still too much of a shock!
Meanwhile, You Huan stood there as if he became a statue.
Gu Xiqiao went to find Luo Wenlang, but neither Mu Zong nor Luo Wenlang were at their offices, so she sat there at Luo Wenlang’s office before a secretary came up to her with a pile of documents.
Gu Xiqiao: “…”
The phone suddenly rang, and it was Zhu Yuan that called her.
Zhu Yuan’s tone was urgent as he spoke: “Beauty Gu, my master and I have to go see someone important, can we meet tomorrow?”
“It’s alright.” Gu Xiqiao replied. “Don’t forget to bring your silver needles.”
Zhu Yuan hummed affirmatively in reply before hanging up hastily.
Yin Shaoyuan hung up on the phone before looking over at Yao Jiamu eagerly. “Wanna fight?”
“I’d rather fight with Xixi.” Yao Jiamu huffed and replied.
Yin Shaoyuan: “…” He knew that Yao Jiamu made the comparison on purpose, but he couldn’t say anything in retort.
The two of them were on the same ancient martial arts stage, but to Yao Jiamu, beating him was as easy as beating a dog, so Yin Shaoyuan was both miffed and intrigued by that implication.
It wouldn’t have been weird for, say, Tang Qinghong to be able to beat him up with one hand tied behind his back because he had stayed in the trial tower for so many years, but Yao Jiamu had only started learning ancient martial arts! How could such a person beat him so easily?
Yin Shaoyuan was filled with curiosity, at first.
Then, not a day later, he realized why that was the case.
He had wanted to return to the trial tower after one day here, but after seeing the reality of what was happening on Gu Xiqiao’s end, he was shook to his core.
That was especially when he saw a big, red bird the size of a car that could fight and speak.
He couldn’t even defeat this bird that could seal all his chi with a single flap of its wings and render him powerless, what was this creature?
The moment he felt his world view crumble was when someone called it Xixi.
Xixi? Yin Shaoyuan thought that was just a regular bird that Gu Xiqiao kept as a pet, but it was a legendary beast??
He and Tang Yanling had planned to amass forces so that they could be a strong protective shield for Gu Xiqiao in the ancient martial arts world, but as he looked at the training arena filled with people, he wiped the sweat off his forehead with a numb expression from all the shock.
If it really came to that, they would probably be the ones that were protected instead!
“Ms. Gu!”
“Ms. Gu!”
“Er Qiao!”
“…”
Yin Shaoyuan’s mind was wandering when a commotion broke out, everyone smiling brightly and looking over in his general direction, and when he looked back too, he saw Gu Xiqiao that was walking towards them.
The young woman was holding a black umbrella in her hand, and in her clear eyes shone galaxies.
“Big Brother Yin,” she greeted, smiling softly.
Yin Shaoyuan was stunned for a moment upon seeing the younger sister of his for the first time in two months, then he smiled brightly and pulled her in for a tight hug. “Qiao Qiao!”
How did she become even prettier in just a few months?
Meanwhile, Xixi, Wu Hongwen and Xiao Yun came over to her too.
The other hundred pairs of eyes were attracted to Gu Xiqiao, but after they were shouted at by Yao Jiamu, they went back to focusing on their training, only stealing admiring glances over in her direction from time to time.
“Do you have an array here?” Yin Shaoyuan had become more knowledgeable after being in the ancient martial arts world for almost two months, and when he arrived here he felt a certain mystical aura to the entire training area that covered it like a veil, and it reminded him of the Trial Tower.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but the sense of familiarity was definitely there.
Even though this was an open-air arena, it wasn’t affected at all by the weather outside, as if it were its own secluded world.
Upon hearing Yao Jiamu say that this place was created by Gu Xiqiao, he was extremely shocked. The trial tower was the treasure of the ancient martial arts world that had training grounds inside that warped time and space, but it was only fitting for its reputation as the birthing ground of many masters in the ancient martial arts world. In fact, it was even treated as one of the ancient martial arts world’s trump card.
Meanwhile, this training ground was created by Gu Xiqiao alone.
Along with it was the fact that almost everyone in this place had prowess that surpassed their ancient martial arts stage. Without using any chi, a Beginner trainee from here could fight him to a standstill with sheer technique and prowess, and this was the reason that cemented his choice to stay here.
“Yes.” Gu Xiqiao replied. “There’s five arrays that feed endlessly off of each others’ energy here, actually. I could teach you, if you want to learn?”
Yin Shaoyuan almost choked at the dismissive explanation. Five arrays that fed off each others’ energies endlessly? Even the Baili Family wouldn’t be able to do something on that scale so easily!
“I probably wouldn’t be able to learn it even if I tried.” Yin Shaoyuan coughed into his fist as he looked up at Gu Xiqiao. “I don’t have the natural talent for it.”
“Well do you want to try fighting with me?” Gu Xiqiao quickly changed the topic, looking up and down at Yin Shaoyuan. “From the looks of it you’re already in the Tendon Forging stage, but Xiao Mu told me you were quite weak?”
It had been quite some time after all, and she wanted to see where he could improve.
“Fight?” Yin Shaoyuan looked up and down at Gu Xiqiao’s thin frame. “Are you sure…?”
Gu Xiqiao smiled. “It’s alright, come at me with all you’ve got.”
Yin Shaoyuan hadn’t had the chance to actually win against anyone after he came here—From Yao Jiamu, Xixi, to even the weakest, Xiao Yun, he was beaten up as easy as pie, and he had been waiting for someone who he could win against.
Even though he had been beaten for three days in a row, but he had improved immensely too.
“Ah, but arrays are forbidden!” Yin Shaoyuan exclaimed, suddenly remembering that the girl was an expert in that field.
“Of course.” Gu Xiqiao handed her umbrella to Xiao Yun, before turning back and looking at him. “En garde?”
Yin Shaoyuan was quite excited about it. “I’ll hold back, don’t worry.”
At this moment, he completely missed the pitying looks the others gave him.
A space was cleared out for them, and Yin Shaoyuan’s expression turned serious as he looked towards Gu Xiqiao that was still in a resting position, energy converging in his palm in an effort to showcase his strength. “This is the strongest secret technique in the Tang Family, the Void Lightning Spell, careful!”
As he spoke, he started moving his hands quickly in mysterious-looking motions, and a strong presence started to emanate from him.
Gu Xiqiao only stood there motionlessly as she looked at his motions until he finished all of them, as if in thought.
“This is a very strong move even though I haven’t perfected it yet!” Yin Shaoyuan looked up at Gu Xiqiao, his eyes squinting in concentration.
Under the blue sky, the girl suddenly started moving her fingers in archaic motions too, her fingers like porcelain as
“What is Er Qiao doing?” Wu Hongwen was surprised that Gu Xiqiao hadn’t just beaten the young man up already.
Yao Jiamu’s eyes were stuck to the scene like glue, before he muttered, “…She’s copying his technique.”
“What?!”
At the same time, Yin Shaoyuan’s expression started to turn from confident to shock as the girl copied all of the movements that he did moments ago completely, and the energy that she generated seemed to be even stronger than his.
Gu Xiqiao suddenly raised her head, and said, “Come!”
It was the fight between two Void Lightning Spells.
A bright, white flash appeared all of a sudden with a boom, and the next moment, a small crater appeared under Yin Shaoyuan’s feet.
The dust settled after three minutes, showing the young man buried halfway into the dirt and practically fried, the dust and soot concealing his handsome face as he looked over at Gu Xiqiao that didn’t even have a speck of dust on her body, the latter looking at him with a smile. “Big Brother Yin, are you okay?”
Wu Hongwen came over and helped him up, and as he wiped himself with a piece of cloth, he replied emotionlessly. “Not at all.”
Why was he so innocent?
“You’ll get used to it, Oh Great Young Master Yin, Er Qiao was already holding back.” Wu Hongwen grinned mirthfully, before tilting his head in the direction of the trainees. “Don’t you see those jealous gazes?”
Yin Shaoyuan: “…”
He wasn’t blind, he saw the pitying gazes sent to him too!
He moaned in pain as he rubbed his arms, feeling pain all throughout his body that was much greater than when he fought with Tang Qingqiu.
As disheveled as he looked right now, he knew that his image was completely shattered.
“I feel like I’m going to make a breakthrough for my Void Lightning Spell…” Yin Shaoyuan clung onto Wu Hongwen’s neck as he replayed the scene from earlier in his head, and as he remembered Gu Xiqiao’s movements and the spatial energy that she invoked, he felt his understanding of the technique increase!
There were seven stages to the Void Lightning Spell, and he was only on the second stage, but this was already the cream of the crop when compared to the others in his generation.
The technique was too difficult, and it had high requirements to the user’s physical constitution and their latent talent.
Basically, only the people that could actually learn this technique were almost exclusively ones that could train in the trial tower, and it was also why Tang Qinghong was worried for Yin Shaoyuan.
Yin Shaoyuan had seen Tang Qinghong use this skill once, blasting a small hill in the process, and while it was definitely shocking, it didn’t hold a candle to this.
What sort of genius would be able to learn their opponents’ skills while they were casting it like this?
Yin Shaoyuan felt quite distraught, and a sense of weakness welled up in his heart.
His poor heart couldn’t handle more of this!
“So you get why those people are jealous of you now, don’t you?” Wu Hongwen explained. “Even I’m jealous of you, honestly. Er Qiao’s the type to either fight once or not at all whenever she comes, and it was either me or Xiao Yun who got this special treatment in the past, but now you got it!”
Yin Shaoyuan breathed deeply, before looking over at Gu Xiqiao who was in the middle of a conversation with shock.
“Big Boss Bai has already controlled all of the forces on the south, and is now focusing on going national.” Not only was Yao Jiamu busy with training everyone, he also had to help Big Boss Bai expand his sphere of influence. “Another bunch of people were sent here yesterday, and even though they’re not as talented as the ones that are already here, they’re more than qualified to stand guard at all our branches.”
“You know about that yakuza group in Japan that’s recognized by the public, right? Work in that direction, and the motto of the Bai Gang is to maintain the peace and safety of the world.” Gu Xiqiao said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Yao Jiamu: “…” Why was he not surprised that Gu Xiqiao came up with that idea?
One of the ways that a gang could survive was by expanding their influence and permeating into every organization and changing their public image.
Yao Jiamu naturally knew about the only yakuza in Japan that was recognized by the public which did charity and community service, as well as disaster relief in an effort to gain the trust of the public.
“But we’ve already become trusted in Imperial Capital.” Yao Jiamu mused, going along with Gu Xiqiao’s suggestion. “That time we gave the cops evidence and helped with their investigation, we even got a brocade flag for them.”
The incident had actually become quite well known in China, and ever since then the Bai Gang had truly started to expand, people from all corners of the world joining the gang and not even thinking of leaving upon being shown all the pros of joining it.
“Big Boss Bai has always been good at this sort of thing.” Gu Xiqiao nodded. For someone that was expelled from the Bai Family, creating the strongest force in the Imperial Capital was even harder than it sounded. “I won’t go see him today, then, don’t want to bother him.”
Yao Jiamu: “…”
Why does he feel as if Big Boss Bai would beat him up if he knew about this…?
Gu Xiqiao wasn’t privy to his thoughts, and she only pet Xixi gently before talking with Xiao Yun, her gaze stuck on the people that were training in the arena.
“You got a new role?” Gu Xiqiao asked in surprise. “But not as the main lead?”
Xiao Yun smiled mysteriously as she talked with Gu Xiqiao. “Brother Kun accepted the role for me, and even though it’s not the main lead, it’s much better than a regular lead role.”
After acting in Empire Under Siege, her acting ability was approved by the public, and along with that came millions of followers on her Weibo account, and along with her currently airing web drama, she was about to his twenty millions followers quite soon.
Gu Xiqiao raised her eyebrows in interest. “It’s a big production?”
In any case, a role that was handpicked by Xiang Kun and had such a reaction from Xiao Yun wouldn’t be anything simple.
Xixi shuffled over and latched onto Gu Xiqiao again. “Beauty Qiao, why didn’t you bring Haha with you?”
“Haha can’t run around with that wound on his leg, so he’s staying at home with Mama Yin.” Gu Xiqiao replied.
Xixi: Poor dog~
That night when it returned home, it suddenly felt as if it’s entire avian life was a lie when it saw the new and improved kennel Haha got.
After checking on Yin Shaoyuan, Gu Xiqiao looked around and went out to have lunch with them, before giving Yao Jiamu another old book and leaving.
She didn’t drive here, but she refused Yin Shaoyuan’s offer to give her a lift home.
After seeing the thin figure off, Yin Shaoyuan glanced over at the old book in Yao Jiamu’s hands curiously. “What is this?”
Yao Jiamu leafed through the yellowed pages, and every ten pages or so, there would be a piece of paper that was filled with beautifully written words. “Something that you can’t learn in the ancient martial arts world, believe me.”
Upon hearing this, Yin Shaoyuan became even more curious as to what this book was, was it even stronger than the ones passed down the ancient martial arts world?
He found that somehow hard to believe.
When he was bought to a room, he suddenly felt as if he lost his sense of reality.
“This, these books are…” Yin Shaoyuan inhaled deeply in disbelief as he looked around the room in awe. There were just a few books, barely more than twenty of them, and attached to these books were explanations and details—Most of them were written in Gu Xiqiao’s neat and tidy writing, some were written in Yao Jiamu’s stubby handwriting, while the rest held handwriting that he recognized as Jiang Shuxuan’s.
He flipped through one of the books, then another, and another…
“So these books are just…Placed around here without any protection?” He asked, belatedly noting the dryness of his throat.
Any one of these could cause a large commotion in the ancient martial arts world!
“Yeah.” Wu Hongwen replied nonchalantly.
Yin Shaoyuan: “…Aren’t you guys afraid that someone would steal them?”
“You’re assuming that everyone can come in here, and those that can aren’t stupid enough to steal from this place.” Wu Hongwen replied with a chuckle.
Yin Shaoyuan looked at these books as he breathed another sigh of relief from choosing to stay here.
After half an hour, Big Boss Bai was filled with sorrow when he was told that he missed Gu Xiqiao.
Gu Xiqiao was walking in the slums with her umbrella in hand, greeting everyone that passed her familiarly and getting gifted a bunch of snacks as she did.
She accepted the offerings, not knowing whether to laugh at the situation, before sneakily keeping them into the system inventory while no one was looking.
After twenty minutes, she came to the side of the road, and took out her phone to get a taxi.
[Ding! Daily Good Deed Mission activated: Help the mission objective fix their car.]
[Mission accomplishment reward: 20 points]
Suddenly, a system notification rang in her head.
After that, the system spirit flew out and pointed over in the direction in front of her. “It’s that one, Beauty Qiao!”
Gu Xiqiao’s gaze followed the system spirit’s finger all the way to a white car, and right at that moment a woman in a beige cardigan stepped out of it, looking at her car in distress.
It was hard to tell how old the woman was just from her appearance.
“Do you have any tools? I can help you.” Gu Xiqiao said as she walked over.
The woman turned around, and her eyes met the ones of a young woman that seemed to have walked straight out of a painting. “Yes, but are you sure you can fix it?”
“Of course.” Gu Xiqiao popped open the hood of the car familiarly.
Upon seeing that she seemed to know what she was doing, the woman took out a toolbox from the trunk of the car and handed to this unknown girl.
The girl bent down and started fixing it seriously, and motions that would seem crude when someone else did it looked particularly elegant when she did it, as if she weren’t fixing a machine but a piece of art.
The woman picked up the umbrella that was set on the side of the car and raised it above Gu Xiqiao’s head.
“Thank you.” Gu Xiqiao raised her head and smiled at her politely, and even though her fingers were practically coated with motor oil, she didn’t even furrow her brows as she resumed fixing it.
“I should be the one thanking you! Ah, my surname is Shu, so you can call me Auntie Shu, if you don’t mind?” The woman liked the girl quite a lot.
Gu Xiqiao smiled, before closing the hood of the car. “Well, Auntie Shu, can you try and start up your car?”
[Ding! Mission accomplished! 20 points have been rewarded!]
The woman didn’t try and start up her car immediately, but instead took out a bottle of mineral water to let Gu Xiqiao wash her hands, along with a clean handkerchief.
Gu Xiqiao thanked her before accepting the handkerchief and cleaning her fingers one by one.
After being together with Jiang Shuxuan for such a long time, one of the things she learned the most from him was his cleanliness.
There was only a single bottle of water, so Gu Xiqiao couldn’t clean up her hands thoroughly and even the handkerchief was stained with motor oil.
Auntie Shu smiled and took back the handkerchief with a smile. “It’s alright, let me see if it worked.”
She gave Gu Xiqiao her umbrella, before reaching into her car and turning the key experimentally. Even though the girl seemed to be quite sure of her results, she was still to young, so the woman didn’t have high hopes.
The next moment, the car whirred to life.
Auntie Shu blinked in surprised for a moment, before looking at Gu Xiqiao with an elated surprise. “Good job, young lady!”
Upon being told by the girl that she was waiting for a taxi, the woman immediately volunteered to send her to her destination.
Gu Xiqiao didn’t refuse and got onto the car, telling Auntie Shu the address of Nine Heavens.
The car drove into the city center and stopped.
“Thank you, Auntie Shu.” Gu Xiqiao got off the car and thanked the woman again.
“It’s no problem, I wouldn’t know what I could have done if you weren’t there!” Auntie Shu waved it away, thinking that the girl was too humble.
It was only after the girl disappeared from her view that she belatedly realized that she didn’t even have her name, but after that, she realized that it was because the girl didn’t want to leave her name.
Auntie Shu shook her head and chuckled, because it sure was the first time in a long while she had met someone that wasn’t trying to butter her up for personal benefit.
Then, the white car disappeared in the traffic.
After scaling up on their operations, Nine Heavens Group bought an entire building, and Gu Xiqiao stood at the entrance for a while, looking at the buildings around it and confirming to herself that it was a place with good fengshui for a business before walking in.
There were two receptionists in delicate makeup that were unfamiliar to her, probably newly hired, and they were helping a middle aged man. The man had a thick ethnic accent and looked quite humble, and after listening in on the conversation for a while, she realized that he was here to apply for the position of bodyguard.
The receptionists didn’t know Gu Xiqiao, and one of them smiled at her politely and asked, “Hello, is there anything we can help you with?”
“Hi, I’m here to see Manager Luo Wenlang.” Gu Xiqiao nodded back politely, before telling them her reason for coming here.
“Do you have an appointment?” The receptionist pulled out a notebook, flipping through it to see if there were any notes of such an appointment.
The answer to that was affirmative, but it wouldn’t have been noted down in that notebook.
Gu Xiqiao was about to call Luo Wenlang when someone spoke up form behind her, “God Gu, you’re here! I thought Luo Wenlang tricked me!”
Yu Ning walked over with a bright smile, starting to talk with her excitedly.
Three of the most important people in Nine Heavens was Mu Zong, Luo Wenlang and Yu Ning, and the most mysterious of the three was Yu Ning who was in charge of the web development department.
As the receptionists, they had only seen Yu Ning only once from far away, and this was the first time they saw the elusive man up close.
More surprising to them, was how Yu Ning seemed like a respectful lackey in front of Gu Xiqiao.
They looked at Gu Xiqiao for a long while, not knowing who it was, but soon enough they came up to the answer to that question and were stunned.
“Director Cheng gave you those clips, right?” Gu Xiqiao asked. “This is the first lead role that Ning Qing acted as, so you have to put a hundred and twenty percent into it and make it as perfect as you can!”
It was the best if they could premier it before the international movie awards, so that Ning Qing might get considered as one of the nominees of the best lead actress prize.
“We’ve been very busy with the virtual world, lately…” Ning Yu grumbled, before looking at Gu Xiqiao with an expectant expression. “If you come and help us, we’ll definitely make this as quickly and as well as we can!”
Gu Xiqiao only fixed him with a stare, before patting his shoulder. “You can even deconstruct the source code, I’m sure you can do it even if I wasn’t there.”
Yu Ning: “…”
The two got to the web development room, and all of the employees there were busy with work, a couple of them discussing heatedly sometimes, and Gu Xiqiao walked over to the host computer and looked at the threads of code that were being calculated on it. “Lil System, don’t you think something’s missing?”
“Yes, Beauty Qiao. It isn’t so simple to create and run a virtual world because it has to hold the consciousness of countless people, and there’s too much data involved.” The system spirit knew the problem with a single glance. “You should create an intelligent processing system that can keep the entire system stable and safe.”
“Are you an intelligent processing system?”
“I’m the highest grade artificial intelligence in the entire world, of course I am!” After it said so, it floated there dumbly in the air, realizing that it had basically sold itself off.
The young man sitting at the host computer was You Huan, one of the freshmen at A University that was scouted by Luo Wenlang because of his talent, and when he knew that Luo Wenlang belonged to Nine Heavens, he was greatly surprised and in disbelief.
He was brought to the company in a dazed state, and upon seeing all the renowned hackers and programmers working there, he felt as if he was dreaming.
On every computer in the department held countless softwares and codes that surpassed his recognition, and after only three days he felt as if he was in a completely new world, and it was no wonder why everyone was so focused and enthralled.
He was working on the virtual world just like everyone else, but they seemed to have run into a wall when the code couldn’t even run.
It had been three days since they were stuck like this, and even Yu Ning couldn’t think of a way to resolve it.
As You Huan was scratching his head in frustration, a hand reached over and took the mouse over from him.
He raised his head and saw a familiar face, and for a moment he didn’t even know how to react. “Beauty Gu?”
He knew who she was, because what student of A University would he be if he didn’t, but he never expected to see her in this place.
Gu Xiqiao: “…Scoot over for a bit, will you?”
You Huan got up from his seat, still dazed as he looked at her, and Gu Xiqiao sat down and started typing on the keyboard. “As my lil’ system, it is your duty to help me out! Let’s get started on that intelligent processing system.”
The lil’ system: “…Okay.”
A page of code appeared on the monitor, and then it started rolling down quickly with data and code while those lithe fingers typed so fast on the keyboard that it was hard to even track with the naked eye.
Everyone in the room had already surrounded her, and was watching her with awe.
You Huan was completely stunned. “D-Did she just-”
“Solve all our problems we had in the past three days? Yes, yes she did.” Yu Ning replied, looking at Gu Xiqiao work attentively.
After a final decisive tap on the keyboard, Gu Xiqiao got up from the seat. “That should do it for the mainframe of an intelligent processing system.”
Yu Ning: “…” Now he feels useless!
Everyone else: “…” They were used to it, but it was still too much of a shock!
Meanwhile, You Huan stood there as if he became a statue.
Gu Xiqiao went to find Luo Wenlang, but neither Mu Zong nor Luo Wenlang were at their offices, so she sat there at Luo Wenlang’s office before a secretary came up to her with a pile of documents.
Gu Xiqiao: “…”
The phone suddenly rang, and it was Zhu Yuan that called her.
Zhu Yuan’s tone was urgent as he spoke: “Beauty Gu, my master and I have to go see someone important, can we meet tomorrow?”
“It’s alright.” Gu Xiqiao replied. “Don’t forget to bring your silver needles.”
Zhu Yuan hummed affirmatively in reply before hanging up hastily.
