Chapter 530: Long Legs and a High Ponytail, This One is Nailed!
Inside Hangzhou Airport.
Seeing his daughter, Ji Xiaolin, turn and leave without giving him any Face, Zhang Tianen could only give an awkward smile.
Because he had abandoned his wife and daughter to Cultivate the Dao, which led to his wife's death from illness, he felt extremely guilty towards his daughter, Ji Xiaolin, and could never say anything harsh to her.
At this moment, Zhang Tianen could only follow up with, "Zhang Zhiyun, Xiao Lin is straightforward and has no ill intentions. Don't take it to heart."
Zhang Zhiyun's eyes, however, remained fixed on Ji Xiaolin's departing figure, a profound sense of exhilaration blooming in his chest. Love, he felt, had just struck him like a bolt of lightning. In a place like the Tianshi Sect, a mountain monastery overflowing with stern-faced men and ancient Daoist texts, he had never encountered such a stunning creature. It wasn't just her beauty, which was easily one in a million, but the entire package: the defiant set of her shoulders, the confident swing of her long legs, and the way her high ponytail bounced with every angry step. She was a vision of fierce, untamable vitality. 'How could a Destined Heroine be anything less than perfection?' he thought, his heart pounding. The arranged marriage he had once viewed as a duty now felt like winning the grandest lottery in the heavens.
"Senior Uncle, it's fine, I don't mind at all," Zhang Zhiyun said, tearing his gaze away and turning back to Zhang Tianen with a cheerful, almost radiant smile. "Little Sister Xiao Lin is spirited and quirky, which just means she's authentic and guileless. This is wonderful; I'm incredibly satisfied."
'If she had been some ugly duckling,' he mused privately, 'then her attitude would have been insolence. I would have torn up this marriage contract without a second thought.'
But now? Now, he was completely captivated. He wouldn't care if she gave him the cold shoulder for a month. He wouldn't even mind if she decided to use his back as a stepping stool. That fiery personality was just another layer of her charm.
Zhang Tianen breathed a silent, heavy sigh of relief, the tension in his shoulders finally easing. He saw the genuine admiration in Zhang Zhiyun's eyes and knew that this incredibly promising son-in-law had not been scared away by his daughter's thorny exterior. The future of his lineage, and a chance to atone for his past, was secure.
Afterward, Zhang Tianen happily led the young man back to the family residence to entertain him, his mind already racing with plans for the wedding.
As for his daughter, Zhang Tianen harbored no concerns about her storming off alone or running into trouble. Ji Xiaolin was a genuine Artificer True Person, a master of mystical crafts. In the mundane world, she was the one who bullied others, not the other way around. Her safety was the last thing he worried about.
Unseen, a third figure followed, a phantom moving through the bustling airport crowd. Shen Anyu's gaze was locked onto Ji Xiaolin, but his focus was turned inward, a cascade of information scrolling through his mind.
[Name: Zhang Zhiyun]
[Age: 26]
[Background: The Child of Destiny from "My Wife is a Quirky Female Celestial Master." Twenty years ago, the Hangzhou Zhang Family was annihilated, and Zhang Zhiyun's entire family tragically died. Fortunately, he was rescued by a Master and joined the Tianshi Sect of Longhu Mountain, learning a set of heaven-reaching magical arts. He was known as the most outstanding successor of the Tianshi Sect in a thousand years, achieving Half-Step Celestial Master at a young age. Twenty years later, his Master kicked him down the mountain, giving him a marriage contract, where he met the quirky female Celestial Master who made him fall in love at first sight, and he was once again drawn into the Mortal World...]
[Cultivation: Half-Step Celestial Master]
[Abilities: Five-Thunder Righteous Law, Eight-Armed Qimen, Spirit Summoning and Commanding, Summoning Wind and Rain, Golden Light Incantation...]
[Personality: Outwardly refined and amiable, but in reality, a dragon has a reverse scale; touching it means certain death!]
[Items: Celestial Master Token, Five-Thunder Talisman...]
[Associated Heroines: Ji Xiaolin, Zhang Yaqian]
[Destiny Value: 5 Million]
…
'Five million destiny value... Excellent. Finally, a real feast has arrived.'
Shen Anyu followed Ji Xiaolin from a comfortable distance, meticulously dissecting the data presented by the System. A genuine, predatory joy sparked within him. The minor protagonists he'd been swatting away lately, characters like Tang Kun with a paltry few hundred thousand destiny points, were little more than appetizers. They were amusing for a moment but provided no real nourishment for his own growing power.
But this? This was a main course.
The moment he laid eyes on Zhang Zhiyun at the arrival gate, the System had lit up, confirming his status as a Child of Destiny. The tragic, cookie-cutter backstory, the fated encounter with a top-tier beauty like Ji Xiaolin—long legs, high ponytail, and a fiery temper—it all fit the template with a certainty of ninety-nine percent.
Speaking of which, Young Master Shen couldn't help but feel the urge to complain about the sheer lack of creativity.
'Why is it that among these urban supernatural protagonists, eight out of ten have to be the sole survivors of a family massacre? It's getting tiresome.'
Ye Yan, the so-called Master who descended the mountain, was one. Chu Yun, the self-proclaimed Asura Demon King, was another. And now this Zhang Zhiyun, the prodigious Celestial Master, was yet another orphan forged in the fires of familial tragedy. It was as if having your entire family slaughtered was a prerequisite for earning the favor of the world's consciousness.
'And the villains in their stories... what a bunch of incompetent fools,' Shen Anyu scoffed internally. 'Couldn't they be bothered to cut the grass and eradicate the roots? They always leave one survivor, practically guaranteeing someone will come back for revenge twenty years later. It's a fundamental failure of their profession.'
He smirked. Each and every one of them was an unqualified villain, a disgrace to the title. No wonder they were destined to be stepping stones for a Child of Destiny. If you can't even handle a simple extermination job properly, what are you even doing? It was shoddy, unprofessional work.
'It's still better to be a Great Villain of Destiny,' he mused, a playful curve gracing his lips. 'The whole family is harmonious and united. No tragic backstory, no messy revenge plots. Parents alive and well. It's far more civilized.'
His expression settled back into a calm, calculating mask as he processed the numbers.
'Five million destiny value. That puts him in the upper echelon. Second only to the twenty-million-point behemoths like Wu Ming, the Reborn Cautious Daoist; Long Hao, the Reborn Investment Guru; and Ye Linyuan with his seven goddess sisters. He's on par with Ye Yan. This is going to be a substantial harvest.'
A confident smile touched Shen Anyu's handsome face.
As for Zhang Zhiyun's strength, it was, by mortal standards, extraordinary. A Half-Step Celestial Master possessed power roughly comparable to a Martial Dao Heavenly Human. To reach that level at such a young age was the mark of a heaven-blessed genius. Shen Anyu could understand why Zhang Tianen was so eager to secure him as a son-in-law.
However, to Shen Anyu, Zhang Zhiyun was nothing. The vaunted Tianshi Sect itself was no longer worthy of his attention.
What were martial arts and magical arts in the face of true immortality? They were parlor tricks, fleeting and outdated. He was treading the path of a genuine immortal cultivator, a being fundamentally different from these practitioners who merely borrowed the world's energy. He commanded it.
Shen Anyu estimated that a single use of his Divine Ability, the Two-Aspects Life-Death Mystical Light, would be more than enough to obliterate Zhang Zhiyun. There would be no struggle, no grand battle. Just an effortless erasure.
'This type of straightforward protagonist is much better to deal with,' he thought, a flicker of annoyance crossing his mind as he remembered his most elusive prey. 'Wu Ming might have over twenty million destiny points, but he's so pathologically cautious that he's practically buried himself at the ends of the earth. A complete coward. Where am I supposed to find him to deal with him? The man would probably tolerate someone taking his goddess to a hotel room just to avoid revealing his position.'
Shaking off the frustrating thought of the Cautious Daoist, Shen Anyu refocused on the current target. His eyes scanned the System panel one last time.
'The two Destined Heroines are Ji Xiaolin and a Zhang Yaqian. I'll have Ash investigate this Zhang Yaqian later, along with a full background check on Zhang Zhiyun himself. For now…'
His gaze settled on the proud, angry silhouette ahead of him.
'I'll follow Ji Xiaolin and see where she leads.'
Shen Anyu wasn't driving his usual Rolls-Royce. He was simply walking, trailing Ji Xiaolin with an unhurried grace. He had folded his presence into itself, becoming a ghost in the mortal coil. The air didn't stir as he passed. The noise of the city seemed to bend around him. He was so perfectly concealed that even Ji Xiaolin, an Artificer True Person with heightened senses, remained completely oblivious to the predator stalking her steps.
"Seriously," Ji Xiaolin muttered under her breath, kicking viciously at a loose pebble on the sidewalk. Her expensive leather boots scuffed the stone, sending it skittering into the gutter. "Out of nowhere, they find me a fiancé. What, do they think I can't get married on my own? Do I need my deadbeat father to arrange my life for me? And that guy… that so-called fiancé… the way he was looking at me with those shining eyes. Definitely not a decent person."
Her heroic and bright, melon-seed-shaped face was clouded with a storm of dissatisfaction.
Just then, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, her expression souring even further when she saw the caller ID: her father, Zhang Tianen.
"Xiao Lin, Dad is doing this for your own good," his voice came through the speaker, laced with a placating tone she despised. "That child, Zhang Zhiyun, is the Young Sect Leader of the Tianshi Sect! He's already a Half-Step Celestial Master at such a young age. If you marry such a promising son-in-law, your future will be secured. You'll definitely be very comfortable…"
"Then you marry him," Ji Xiaolin retorted, her voice dripping with ice. She didn't wait for a reply, stabbing the end call button and shoving the phone back into her pocket.
"'For my own good, for my own good.' If it was for my own good, why did you abandon Mom and me back then?" she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. "Tianshi Sect… hmph. No one from the Tianshi Sect is any good!"
A profound sadness, sharp and deep, flashed in her bright phoenix eyes. In her heart, the Tianshi Sect wasn't a sacred place of cultivation; it was the monster that had stolen her father from her and her husband from her mother. She didn't have a single shred of goodwill towards it. The aversion she felt for Zhang Zhiyun at first sight had now solidified into outright hostility.
The resentment she held for Zhang Tianen was a wound that had never healed. He had abandoned them, choosing his pursuit of the Dao and its magical arts over his family. For twenty years, he was a ghost, a name without a face. He didn't even come back when her mother was on her deathbed, wasting away from sickness and a broken heart.
Ji Xiaolin would carry that memory with her for the rest of her life.
"Yo, little lady, unhappy? Do you want us brothers to make you happy?"
Just at this moment, several hooligans with colorful hair walked over, their Faces frivolous and sinister, surrounding Ji Xiaolin...
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