CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 9: REJUVENATION

The little actions between the siblings naturally didn’t escape Li Shiji’s notice, but he paid no mind to them, as he couldn’t force the siblings to speak up.

Suddenly, Li Shiji appeared in front of Li Anle, gently pinching his shoulder.

"Not even a year into your bone age, indeed you have awakened Rejuvenation."

[Rejuvenation, Purple Epic, Martial Artist Talent, rejuvenates every fifty years, has a short period of weakness after rejuvenation, restores previously consumed lifespan, random number of rejuvenations, maximum of nine times.]

People with this talent can live up to 450 years.

The situation with the Rejuvenation talent is very similar to Li Anle’s.

"Please take care of my sister more; she’s a bit timid."

"Goodbye, sister. Uh... goodbye, grandpa."

Li Cunxu bade farewell.

Li Shiji frowned, exuding authority without anger.

"You want to leave? Not going to stay?"

Li Anle looked hopefully at Li Cunxu, wanting her brother to stay with her.

"Yes."

Li Cunxu replied decisively.

Not leaving, staying? Experiencing Tongdu where one can hardly take a step with enemies everywhere.

Old man, how many people have you killed in Tongdu? Are you not aware?

Although Li Shiji killed those who deserved it, the families of those people don’t see it that way.

If the game could be easier without being on Hell mode, Li Cunxu would rather play it on Normal mode. He’s not some thrill seeker who insists on Hell mode.

Moreover, the rewards for passing Normal mode and Hell mode are the same.

Besides, without his sister Li Anle’s Red Lotus Eye, he wouldn’t be valued even if he stayed, so it’s better to leave.

Li Shiji advised: "The conflict between your father and me won’t affect you."

Li Shiji very much wanted to keep Li Cunxu around as he valued family ties highly. Unfortunately, this very attachment led to his family’s ruin.

Li Cunxu still left.

Staying by Li Shiji’s side is nothing but harmful.

Just look at his father’s, Master Li Ming’s, several brothers.

Useless in everything, best at infighting.

Their internal battles were scarier than palace dramas, and of course, that was a result of Li Shiji’s intentional indulgence.

Li father’s brothers were too mediocre, especially when compared to their father Li Shiji, they appeared even more so.

Li Shiji hoped to cultivate excellent successors through a controlled method of internal conflict.

The result, however, was no success at all, external evaluations of them remained that they were incompetent and not worth employing.

This led to a restless household, and later on, they all saw their own brothers as enemies deserving a gruesome death.

After Li Cunxu left, Li Anle was settled.

Li Shiji returned alone to the tearoom.

"Shadow Guard."

"I’m here."

A shadow moved under a piece of bright armor in the tearoom, and a shadowy figure kneeled behind Li Shiji.

"Go check where Second Master Li Ming is; he can’t possibly be dead."

"Yes."

The Shadow Guard transformed into a shadow and left.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Li Shiji gazed at the Yin-Yang Tai Chi Diagram in the tearoom, his eyes half-closed.

"Li Cunxu, interesting."

Li Shiji found himself intrigued by this grandson he’d just met; Li Cunxu’s seemingly respectful expression hid an extreme arrogance of superiority.

"He’s very confident and arrogant, an arrogance that stands above all beings, much like me, he resembles me at his core."

Li Shiji felt both interested and uninterested.

As the saying goes: "Those who learn from me live, those who resemble me die."

In his eyes, Li Cunxu was the latter.

On his way home, Li Cunxu bought some sterilization drugs.

"How much should the Winged Slime be priced at? Too high and no one will buy it; let’s set it cheaper, building a reputation is most important."

Li Cunxu priced it very cheaply, ten bucks, but later found it inappropriate. With free shipping, he’d have to cover ten bucks of shipping cost per piece himself.

The addition and subtraction both amounted to ten bucks, making no profit.

It even incurred losses, as opening an online shop has costs.

So, Li Cunxu raised the price to twenty bucks.

Two days after listing, no interest.

On the third day, still the same, and Li Cunxu started to get anxious.

He spent three thousand to do a little promotion, which gradually gained some attention, and he left it at that, releasing the Winged Slime with regular courier pick-up every day.

The five-day preliminary ended with Li Cunxu winning all ten matches, advancing to the main competition.

The main competition kicked off.

The venue changed, moving from an open-air arena to a competitive arena seating 500 spectators. The stands were packed, mostly with the competitors’ parents.

Li Cunxu wasn’t sure how he ended up in the first match of the main competition.

Li Cunxu and Chen Baiyan entered the arena.

"Please summon your respective beasts."

The heroic White Lion and the soft, adorable Water Slime appeared on the field, and the whole crowd burst into laughter.

"What? A Slime appeared?"

"Is this kid here to be a clown?"

"Not necessarily; having made it from the preliminaries to the main competition, this Water Slime might not be ordinary."

There were also rational people providing an accurate analysis.

Opponent Chen Baiyan laughed so hard he couldn’t straighten up, wiping tears of laughter, he composed himself.

"Thanks, brother, for delivering a victory."

"Slime shall prevail!!!"

A thunderous shout came from the audience, and everyone turned to see a young man in the front row yelling through a loudspeaker.

The young man was Lin Fei, the first match prelim opponent defeated by Li Cunxu.

Since his defeat, Lin Fei seemed to have become a devoted supporter of Xiaoruan. He attended every match of Li Cunxu’s, cheering, and after each match, offered water to Li Cunxu and Spiritual Food to Xiaoruan.

Li Cunxu naturally declined. As a competent Beastmaster (despite not even being in the Beastmaster class), he wouldn’t let his beasts eat anything casually from others.

The ordeal of the Heaven-Eating King still echoed!

A King-level Beastmaster, who allowed his own pets to eat what others gave, only for the pet to be killed, and himself as well.

Moreover, it was a tragic death, his fat made into candles, his skin into banners, his head into a jug.

To this day, these are still on display at the Blood God Sect headquarters, showing off to newcomers.

The referee shouted, "Begin the battle."

Without Li Cunxu’s command, Xiaoruan spat a Water Ball.

The Water Ball paved the way; if one could receive it, block it, or dodge it, then one had the credentials to continue fighting.

In the ten prelim matches, Li Cunxu wasn’t fortunate; he intended for someone to spar with to cultivate his battle rapport with Xiaoruan, but his opponents couldn’t even take a Water Ball with Xiaoruan holding back five-tenths of its strength.

Thankfully, with the help of Mechanical Annihilation Hunter and Ah Huang as sparring partners, otherwise Xiaoruan would not have any real combat experience by now.

The White Lion’s talent [Danger Sense (Green)] detected lethal danger in the seemingly ordinary Water Ball and immediately dodged.

Chen Baiyan put away his contempt; the speed and power of the Water Ball were nothing to scoff at.

Otherwise, winning against just a Slime isn’t anything worthy of boasting, but losing is different; losing to a Slime would be incredibly embarrassing if spread around.

Another Water Ball.

This one was even faster than the last, and coupled with the White Lion’s frantic dodging, his stance hadn’t recovered.