Chapter 1

"Xiu, where did you hide the money? Hurry up and take it out!"

"Xiu, even if our family is short of money, you can't just take it randomly. As the saying goes, 'if you steal a needle when young, you'll steal gold when grown.' You can't develop the habit of stealing, or your whole life will be ruined."

"Xiu, I remember you owe the school three thousand yuan for tuition. Are you thinking of using that money to pay the tuition?"

More than a dozen people surrounded Xiu, incessantly talking, their eyes full of suspicion and disgust, their tones filled with impatience.

Xiu's face turned bright red, his lips bleeding from biting, and his eyes misty, but he held his head high and firmly said, "I didn't steal the money!"

"Shangwen, Mei Yun, you've watched Xiu grow up. Xiu has always been honest and academically excellent, never lying. Since he says he didn't steal the money, the missing three thousand yuan must have nothing to do with him." Su Lingyun tightly hugged her son and pleaded with the middle-aged couple in the room.

"Lingyun, we didn't say Xiu stole the money. We just think he might have hidden the three thousand yuan to help you out." The middle-aged man turned his head to the side, not daring to meet Su Lingyun's eyes.

"Academically excellent? Ha ha. Your son was indeed academically excellent before entering Xingcheng No. 1 High School, but he only shone for a year. His academic performance plummeted, and he has been the worst in the entire grade for a long time. If you hadn't begged, your son would probably have been expelled from Xingcheng No. 1 High School, right?" The middle-aged woman ignored Su Lingyun's nearly desperate gaze and said sarcastically.

Hearing the words of her younger brother Su Shangwen and his wife Zhang Meiyun, Su Lingyun's face turned deathly pale, and her eyes lost their luster. However, after a glance at her son, she had to steel herself and gather the courage to defend him again.

But before Su Lingyun could speak, she was interrupted by two sharp voices.

"Aunt, stop protecting Xiu. You can protect him for a while, but not for a lifetime. There are only so many people in the family. If you say Xiu didn't steal the three thousand yuan, did the money fly away on its own?"

"Aunt, we suspect Xiu because he is the most likely to have stolen the money. In your eyes, Xiu is the best, but you know how badly he has behaved in school over the past year—copying homework, cheating on exams, and fighting. As his cousin, I can't even hold my head up in school."

The ones interrupting Su Lingyun were Su Shangwen and Zhang Meiyun's children. If Su Shangwen and Zhang Meiyun spoke relatively tactfully and knew how to hide their true feelings, these two teenagers clearly did not.

"Su Yaning, Su Xiangfei, you are talking nonsense, spouting lies!" Xiu almost shouted in a hoarse voice.

"Shangwen, Meiyun, please don't make things difficult for the child. If the three thousand yuan can't be found, consider it a loan from me. You know that since the car accident a year ago, Xiu has been in a daze and can't handle any more stress. If he really gets into serious trouble, I won't be able to live on either." Under the relentless pressure from her younger brother's family, Su Lingyun's tears fell like broken pearls, and she pleaded weakly.

After saying this, Su Lingyun seemed to have used up all her strength.

Thinking about her son's experiences over the past year, Su Lingyun couldn't help but feel deep sorrow and sobbed silently.

Although her son had lost his father at a young age, he had always been very obedient and had excellent academic performance. Two years ago, he entered Xingcheng No. 1 High School with the best middle school entrance exam score in the city. During his first year of high school, he excelled in various exams and competitions, winning first place in all subjects.

However, during the second semester of his sophomore year, a car accident caused severe damage to his brain, resulting in a significant decline in his memory and comprehension. He was even diagnosed as intellectually disabled by doctors. If it weren't for her desperate pleas and the school's faint hope for him, he would have been expelled long ago.

Seeing Su Lingyun's heart-wrenching appearance, the room fell into a brief silence. Su Yaning and Su Xiangfei exchanged glances, their faces showing a hint of sympathy.

As everyone's attention was drawn to Su Lingyun, the body of Xiu, who was being held in her arms, trembled slightly, and a glint of clarity appeared in his eyes.

"Where am I? Didn't I fail to transcend the heavenly tribulation and disintegrate? What's going on now?" Xiu looked around in confusion, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

Xiu remembered that he was a great figure in the immortal realm, attempting to transcend to become a god. If he succeeded, he would become a god in the immortal realm and gain the qualification to enter the Gate of Eternal Life.

Struggling to recall everything, Xiu's facial muscles gradually twisted, and a look of extreme pain flashed in his eyes. The last conscious image before he lost consciousness finally surfaced in his mind...

It was the most critical moment of Xiu's transcendence. He was nearly at the end of his strength, focusing all his spiritual energy and mental power on resisting the divine tribulation. His back was completely defenseless, making him an easy target for his few close friends at the peak of the immortal realm, who possessed countless divine artifacts and divine talismans and were only slightly less powerful than him.

Then, just as he barely survived the nine layers of thunder tribulation and faced the final, silent, and most terrifying heart tribulation—the Primordial Demon Tribulation—his close friends, who were supposed to protect him, launched a fatal attack in perfect unison.

Among them was Xue Qincheng, his beloved companion of hundreds of years.

Under their combined attack, Xiu's fate was almost sealed. Even before his body was completely shattered and his consciousness lost, they rushed forward to snatch the mysterious ancient book—the Ten Thousand Sources Void Universe Transcendence Technique—that he had accidentally obtained from the ruins of the ancient divine and demonic era.

"Human nature is so ugly. In the face of supreme divine techniques, friendship and love are nothing!"

"But if I failed to transcend, I shouldn't have any chance of survival. My body should have been reduced to dust, and my soul should have disintegrated. What's going on now?"

In a daze, a familiar feminine fragrance wafted into Xiu's nose.

Breathing in the fragrance, Xiu's face showed a look of great enjoyment, and his emotions gradually calmed down.

After a long while, Xiu slowly turned his head to look at the woman embracing him from behind.

A gentle face appeared clearly before Xiu, familiar and dear, with a faint crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.

"Damn heart demon, how can I still be disturbed by a heart demon after disintegrating?" Xiu quickly shook his head, forcing himself not to look at the face that had haunted him for ten thousand years.

When Xiu saw the other dozen or so people in the room, he was taken aback.

Over the ten thousand years in the immortal realm, Xiu had experienced countless heart tribulations, but after each one, he decisively abandoned all his relatives. The only one he couldn't abandon was his mother, so only his mother appeared in his heart tribulations, not other relatives.

"Could it be that these people are not heart demons?" Xiu looked around in confusion, muttering to himself.

Suddenly, a loud noise echoed, and Xiu's sealed memories of ten thousand years instantly opened. At the same time, a vague memory surfaced in his mind.

"Could it be that I have returned to the Earth I long for? Ten thousand years have passed in the immortal realm, but only a year has passed on Earth?" It took Xiu a long time to understand what was happening.

The vague memory that suddenly surfaced in Xiu's mind contained all the memories of his body on Earth over the past year.

A year ago, the car accident did not seriously injure Xiu's body, but it damaged his soul, causing a significant decline in his intelligence. He lived a dazed life in school, absorbing information from his surroundings like a bystander but rarely participating in interactions.

However, Xiu stored all this information in his mind, allowing him to clearly remember what he had experienced on Earth over the past year.

The damaged fragment of Xiu's soul had traveled to the immortal realm, possessing the body of a spoiled grandson of the Vermilion Bird Holy Sect's patriarch, and lived a wonderful and magical life for ten thousand years, like a dream!

Unexpectedly, after being betrayed and disintegrated in the immortal realm, that fragment of his soul returned to his body on Earth, where only a year and a bit had passed.

"Flower Weaving Fairy, Great Emperor Danqing, Nine Stars Lute Demon, the day I return to the immortal realm will be the day of your demise!"

Recalling the details of his life in the immortal realm, when the last memory surfaced in his mind, Xiu almost gritted his teeth and shouted.

Xiu's roar broke the silence in the room, drawing everyone's attention.

"Xiu... you... what's wrong with you?" Su Lingyun was the first to react, panicking and hugging Xiu tightly, her face full of anxiety.

Seeing Xiu's facial muscles severely twisted and considering his physical condition, the dozen or so people in the room showed regretful expressions and cast accusing glances at Su Shangwen's family.

Su Shangwen's family clearly did not expect Xiu to suddenly "go crazy," and it seemed to be triggered by their actions, making them exchange uneasy glances.

"Xiu, stop acting. Talking about immortals, emperors, and demons, do you think you're playing a game? I've never heard of a game with Flower Weaving Fairy, Great Emperor Danqing, and Nine Stars Lute Demon as bosses." As everyone was at a loss, a cold snort echoed in the room, and it was Xiu's cousin, Su Xiangfei, who sneered.

"You damn fool, you're even pretending to be crazy. You almost fooled us. Don't think that by acting pitiful, we won't pursue the three thousand yuan. I'm telling you and your mother, if you don't hand over the three thousand yuan today, you won't be able to leave this door!" After a brief panic, Zhang Meiyun couldn't help but quietly observe Xiu for a moment, then became furious and shouted.

After roaring, Xiu realized his loss of composure and felt his mother's anxiety and tension. He quickly adjusted his emotions and repeatedly reassured her that he was fine, which Zhang Meiyun saw and naturally angered her.

"Like father, like son." Xiu coldly glared at Zhang Meiyun, then turned his gaze to Su Xiangfei and said indifferently, "Su Xiangfei, are you sure you want to continue this game? If you find it interesting, I don't mind playing along!"