Chapter 558: Zhou Luyao's Proposal, and the Unexpected Intruder!
"Brother Shen is very unfaithful. I sense that he must have more than one woman. I want to keep his heart, but I'm all alone, so I was thinking, maybe you could help me." Zhou Luyao looked earnestly at Ji Xiaolin and said in a condensed voice.
On the Rolls-Royce Phantom, she had seen other women's hair, and she guessed that with Shen Anyu's status and conditions, he definitely had more than one woman. Although she felt a bit jealous, Zhou Luyao was more rational. Now, in all aspects, from emotion to material, she couldn't leave him, so she decided to tie herself to him even more tightly. Besides hoping her belly would be cooperative, she also sought an ally.
In Zhou Luyao's opinion, Ji Xiaolin was very suitable. On one hand, she trusted Ji Xiaolin's character, and on the other hand, Ji Xiaolin's family background was as ordinary as hers. Her father was a deliveryman for Shunshun Express. Their conditions were similar, allowing them to be allies on equal footing. Zhou Luyao's gaze swept over Ji Xiaolin in front of her. Long legs, a slender waist, a high ponytail, and a melon seed face that was bright and spirited—she was definitely the type Brother Shen liked.
Ji Xiaolin's face turned crimson from Zhou Luyao's words and scrutiny. The suggestion was so brazen, so direct, that it short-circuited her thoughts. She stammered, flailing for a response, "No, absolutely not! I... I don't want to be with that scoundrel Shen Anyu."
"Really? I don't believe it for a second!" Zhou Luyao's lips curled into a mischievous, all-knowing smile. She leaned forward, her voice a conspiratorial whisper. "I observed you yesterday. That jealousy of yours... tsk tsk, I could practically smell the vinegar from ten meters away."
"You've definitely had your eye on my Brother Shen for a long time."
"Hehe, and why wouldn't you? My Brother Shen is handsome, tall, and dashing, with a prominent family background that could make kingdoms tremble. He even shared a kidnapping experience with you—a classic hero-saving-the-beauty scenario. If I were in your shoes, my heart would have completely fallen for him ages ago."
Every word struck Ji Xiaolin like a well-aimed dart, deflating her defenses. Her cheeks were burning, a fierce heat spreading to the tips of her ears. Her composure, already fragile, completely crumbled. Ignoring Zhou Luyao's light-hearted attempts to hold her back, she shot up from her seat and bolted for the door.
"Giggles~" A cascade of silvery laughter followed her, echoing from behind and making Ji Xiaolin quicken her steps into a near sprint, desperate to escape the mortifying truth in Zhou Luyao's teasing.
After leaving the villa, Ji Xiaolin finally slowed, her pace reduced to a walk. She paused by the roadside, looking back at the magnificent building with a deeply complex expression. She pursed her lips, the ghost of Zhou Luyao's words still ringing in her ears. "Have I... Have I really fallen for Shen Anyu?"
The frantic, pounding rhythm of her heart and the lingering heat on her cheeks served as a silent, obvious answer. In that moment of introspection, Ji Xiaolin seemed to understand something fundamental about herself.
A defiant spark ignited in her eyes. "Hmph, absolutely not! This girl won't just throw herself at him like some lovesick fool. At the very least, that scoundrel Shen Anyu has to pursue me a bit. Otherwise, I'll never, ever agree."
With a determined snort, Ji Xiaolin tossed her ponytail back and strode away, her long, 1.2-meter legs carrying her forward with renewed, albeit conflicted, purpose.
On the other side of the city, Shen Anyu watched the entire exchange with detached amusement. The feed from the nanometer monitoring robot played out on a screen only he could see, capturing every blush and flustered denial. A faint smile touched his lips. 'As expected of my good Yaoyao,' he thought to himself, a flicker of genuine appreciation in his eyes. 'She's so sensible, already recruiting for the harem. A truly virtuous wife.'
At this moment, Shen Anyu had already arrived at his destination: a rustic farmhouse courtyard nestled deep in the western suburbs of Hangzhou. The building was unassuming, with peeling paint and a yard cluttered with old farming equipment. To any passerby, it was just another relic of the countryside, slowly being encroached upon by the sprawling city. Outsiders would find it hard to imagine that this ordinary farmhouse was, in fact, the notorious Wan Fa Sect's most crucial secret base in Hangzhou. It was once managed by the One-Eyed Old Man, the sect's Right Protector and a formidable Half-Step Celestial Master. Now, it was under the command of his new subordinate, Du Zhao.
Shen Anyu approached the heavy iron gate and knocked twice. A small slat slid open, and a cautious eye peered out.
"Snow Mountain, eternally cold!" Shen Anyu recited the first half of the code, his voice calm and level.
A voice from within responded immediately, laced with a reverence that bordered on worship. "Du Zhao, Emei Peak!"
The heavy locks clicked and groaned. The large iron gate swung open to reveal Du Zhao, who immediately dropped into a deep, respectful bow. "Du Zhao greets the Young Lord!" He held the pose, feeling a slight twinge of strangeness in his heart. 'Why such a poetic dialogue? Is the Young Lord a fan of old martial arts films?' But since it was the Young Lord's direct order, no matter how whimsical or bizarre, he had to obey it without question.
"What kind of hidden treasures does the Wan Fa Sect possess? Take me to see them," Shen Anyu said, his tone devoid of any need for explanation. He strode past Du Zhao as if he owned the place, because now, he did.
"Yes, Young Lord! Please follow your subordinate."
Du Zhao had already cleared the base of all non-essential personnel. The only souls remaining were himself and a silent, unnerving retinue of over ten figures dispatched personally by Shen Anyu. They were humanoids, constructs of the System, perfect warriors forged in the crucible of Destiny Points. Ten Grandmasters, the System had informed him, could be synthesized into a single, far more powerful Great Grandmaster. As a result, the number of Great Grandmasters under Shen Anyu's command was growing at an astronomical rate, far outstripping any other force in the country. They were a bit clumsy in their social interactions, their expressions perpetually blank, but this was a feature, not a bug. It guaranteed absolute loyalty. He could strap explosives to their chests and order them to march into hell, and they would not hesitate for a fraction of a second.
Du Zhao felt their cold, empty gazes on his back as he respectfully led Shen Anyu towards the main farmhouse. He led him through a spartan living area and into a kitchen, where he moved a heavy wooden cabinet to reveal a reinforced steel door set into the floor. He entered a code, and with a hiss of hydraulics, the door swung upward, revealing a flight of concrete stairs descending into darkness.
The air that wafted up was cool and smelled of damp earth and cold steel. The basement was far more spacious than one would expect, covering two to three hundred square meters. The walls were thick, reinforced concrete, built to withstand a direct missile strike—an air-raid shelter from a bygone era, repurposed for a new kind of war. Crates of military-grade rations, bottled water, and medical supplies were stacked neatly against one wall. In the event of an apocalypse, this place could easily function as a self-sufficient safe base.
But what immediately drew the eye, dominating one entire corner of the vast space, was a sight of pure, unadulterated avarice. A massive pile of glittering golden bricks was stacked in a crude pyramid, reflecting the harsh light of the bare overhead bulbs with a blinding intensity. The sheer, raw wealth was staggering. Next to the gold were dozens of heavy wooden chests, their lids thrown open to reveal their contents. Box after box of priceless jewelry overflowed: brilliant green emeralds the size of a man's thumb, jade pendants of milky white and deep imperial green, dazzling diamonds that fractured the light into a thousand tiny rainbows, blood-red chicken-blood stones, and flawless mutton-fat jade. It was a pirate's fantasy made real, a dragon's hoard hidden beneath a humble farmer's hovel.
"Young Lord," Du Zhao said, his voice filled with awe, "these are the Wan Fa Sect's accumulated liquid assets over many years, urgently transported here from our vaults all over the world. There are twelve tons of gold bricks. The hundreds of boxes contain emeralds, jade, chicken-blood stones, mutton-fat jade, diamonds, and more. These are all hard currency, with a conservative market value of over ten billion US dollars!"
Du Zhao gazed at the mountain of wealth, his heart hammering with a mixture of admiration and terror. Yet, not a single shred of greed dared to surface within him. On one hand, Young Lord Shen Anyu had been exceptionally generous, bestowing him with cultivation resources and status he could only have dreamed of before. On the other, the silent, expressionless figures standing guard at the top of the stairs were a constant, chilling reminder of his place. He didn't know where the Young Lord had recruited these monstrously powerful and utterly inhuman warriors, but their unsettling presence was more effective than any lock or guard dog. He wouldn't dare make an improper move, not even in his wildest thoughts.
"Hmm, not bad." Shen Anyu's gaze swept over the hoard, and he found himself in a good mood. To his current self, this amount of money was no longer significant enough to change his life, but a gain was a gain. No amount of small gains was too little. A fat fly was still meat.
He knew this wasn't even the entirety of the Wan Fa Sect's wealth, merely its portable, untraceable hard currency. Their truly valuable assets were the vast network of legitimate and gray-market companies they controlled from the shadows, an empire whose total value surpassed even that of Hangzhou's richest man. Shen Anyu had no intention of liquidating those. He left them intact, a self-funding engine for the Wan Fa Sect's continued operations and development under his new leadership.
Currently, Shen Anyu had three major forces under his command: the Dragon King Society, the Shadow Alliance, and the Wan Fa Sect.
The Dragon King Society, helmed by his woman Luo Yuhe from its headquarters in Jinling, was his arm in the mundane world. It was steadily consolidating control over the underground networks of several provinces in the Jiangnan region, its influence expanding towards the southeast coast and north across the Jiangbei plains.
The Shadow Alliance was his intelligence and assassination network, led by the shrewd Guo Laoliu, a former high-ranking traitor from the Netherworld Palace. It was a proof of Shen Anyu's methods that Xu Pingan—that fake Young Lord, the pathetic Child of Destiny with the Damage Reflection Aura—was now diligently working within its ranks, having already earned the position of a minor team leader through meritorious service.
And now, the Wan Fa Sect. This was his hand extending into the arcane world of magical arts. Practitioners of their strange and esoteric arts were still quite useful, and with their global reach, they would be an invaluable tool.
'Speaking of which, I largely have my cheap father-in-law, Zhang Tianen, to thank for this,' Shen Anyu mused, a hint of a wry smile flashing in his eyes. 'If he hadn't gone on a righteous crusade and wiped out the Wan Fa Sect's leader and their entire upper echelon, seizing control would have been far more troublesome. I'll just consider this a dowry from that old geezer for Ji Xiaolin.'
His thoughts concluded, he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. He looked at Du Zhao, his voice dropping into an indifferent, commanding tone. "Take me to see the rare items."
The gold and jewels were impressive but mundane. Someone could be sent to collect them later. If this was all the base had to offer, Shen Anyu wouldn't have bothered coming in person. He was here for the true treasures, the items with extraordinary power that a centuries-old sect of evil cultivators would undoubtedly have collected. The Wan Fa Sect's foundation was definitely solid, and he was here to plunder it.
"Yes, Young Lord!" Du Zhao nodded respectfully, his subservience absolute. He moved to a seemingly solid section of the concrete wall and pressed a sequence of barely visible seams. With a low groan of moving machinery, a hidden door slid open, revealing another world within.
This was a secret room, a vault within a vault, roughly ten meters in diameter. The entire chamber—walls, ceiling, and floor—was cast from a single, seamless piece of gleaming titanium alloy. Du Zhao explained that without the correct multi-part password and biometric scan, not even ten tons of military-grade explosives could breach its walls.
Du Zhao led the way, and Shen Anyu stepped in leisurely, his senses already extending, probing the energies contained within.
And at this exact moment, as he crossed the threshold into the true heart of the Wan Fa Sect's hoard, Shen Anyu's eyes flickered slightly. His head tilted, a subtle shift in his posture. He had sensed someone else. Someone had infiltrated the compound.
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