Zi Yang was grinning in his study, flipping through books and scrolls extremely quickly and storing the information in his brain. He closed his eyes and sorted all the information into groups very neatly.

He quickly realized that he could even change his mindspace to whatever he wanted and did so!

He arranged a giant library with multiple sections that seemed to go on forever. They were clearly categorized and divided by general information, cultivation methods, cultivation techniques, even alchemy, formation, weapon refining sections were there, although Zi Yang had very minimal knowledge of those topics.

Zi Yang smiled to himself and was hopeful for the future, everything seemed to be looking up!

As he was dazed, looking into space, a young woman was standing in front of him and flailing her arms around, shouting “Uncle! Uncle Zi Yang! Helloooooooooooooooooooooo~?!”

She was Huo Mei!

Despite being a troublemaker, she was quite pretty.

She had clear, unblemished skin with soft eyebrows, slightly larger eyes, a cute little nose, and cherry lips. Something to note was that she had bright orange eyes that seemed to flicker like real flames!

Not only that but she had orange tips to her black hair, it was very strange but gave her a mysterious vibe. Unfortunately…

Huo Mei shouted “You old fool! Have you finally lost it, holy fuck!”

Her personality shattered any sort of mysterious beauty she had, making her look more like a hooligan than anything…

Zi Yang came out of his reverie and blinked at Huo Mei, who pouted and muttered “He’s not dead, what a pity…” Zi Yang felt his lips twitch and he looked at Huo Mei strangely before saying “What do you care if I’m dead or not, dumb girl.”

Huo Mei’s little cherry mouth gaped and she pointed a finger at him, saying “You! What a bad uncle!” Zi Yang chuckled and rolled out from behind the desk with a smile, saying “Come tell Uncle Yang what you did.” he patted his chest and added “I, your Uncle, will wipe your ass clean for you!”

Huo Mei cringed at ‘wipe your ass’ and looked at Zi Yang in the wheelchair, her eyes flashed with sadness, seeing his situation, but she quickly returned to normal as she was used to it. She rolled her eyes and giggled, saying “Well… There was that Inn incident on the way here…”

Zi Yang turned green and muttered weakly “Inn accident?” Huo Mei tapped her chin and paced in front of him, muttering “I think nobody was killed?” Zi Yang turned white as she continued “But there’s no Inn anymore…”

He couldn’t help gawking at her before pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, saying bluntly “You’re going to make me regret sticking up for you, eh?” Huo Mei giggled and spread her hands, quipping “You said that you would wipe my ass~”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Zi Yang’s eyeballs rolled in his skull and he sighed again, replying “Come push me, girl. Let’s go see the damage.” Huo Mei got nervous and laughed awkwardly, saying “Haha, it’s okay. We don’t have to! Haha!”

Zi Yang blinked at her, he was about to ask, when a maid shouted “Patriarch! The Inn on the east side of town exploded and 12 buildings have burned to the ground!”

Zi Yang snapped his head to Huo Mei, with a shocked look on his face. She cringed at his gaze and Zi Yang laughed incredulously, saying “You’re too fucking good! Damn! Old Gang is gonna blow his top! Haha!”

Huo Mei blinked and felt that her Uncle Yang was a bit different today, she was proven right when she noticed an excited gleam in his eye and heard “Let’s go see! Haha! Come on, girl! Push me!”

Huo Mei was just a bit shocked and absentmindedly pushed Zi Yang out of the room.

Zi Yang was excited, his blood boiled at the thought of destruction. He didn’t quite know why, but Clink informed him with a bit of schadenfreude [The Grandmaster really likes to scam people… Hehe.]

Zi Yang didn’t know what that meant and replied anxiously “He didn’t ruin me did he?” Clink replied [Huh? Why would he? He would never do that. He just gave you something special, that’s all…] then he fell silent and muttered [I think he made it himself…]

Zi Yang rubbed his palms and chose to leave it be, if it wasn’t a blessing, it was a disaster, and the disaster couldn’t be avoided, so just go with the flow.

Huo Mei calmed down and pushed Zi Yang around normally as he looked around at the disdainful expressions of his clansmen. Even Huo Mei frowned at them, thinking ‘Uncle Yang might be crippled, but he’s still the Patriarch…’

Seeing Huo Mei’s frown, the clansmen turned white in fear and quickly scrambled away before she could remember them. The last thing they wanted was revenge from the little Overlord of Purple Flower city!

Unfortunately for them, Huo Mei was the least of their problems, as Zi Yang had remembered them all.

He said quietly “Mei’er, go around the entire compound.” Huo Mei was startled and looked at him, he looked grave and said “Go.” she had no other choice but to agree and pushed him around.

The duo went everywhere in the Zi Clan Compound and Zi Yang started memorizing all the disdainful faces and sneers directed towards him, his face getting darker and darker as they traveled.

He counted them all and out of them all, only a handful of people treated him with respect. He suddenly let out a grim smile with a touch of cruelty and made mental notes of them all, as the Patriarch he didn’t need people to revere him as a god, or even be extremely loyal to the point of kneeling.

But the basic respect was necessary!

He also caught a lot of people who were completely fake people. Faking their respect with ulterior motives. How could he not notice?

Firstly, Old Yang has been around the world and seen many things! Plus, Zi Yang was mentally tortured by Sun Tao for 10 years. If he couldn’t distinguish who was good to him and who wasn’t, he would be the world’s biggest idiot.

Therefore, he knew who had actual respect for him and who didn’t.

He was a bit shocked by the number to be honest, the handful of people that were respectful to him consisted of 3 maids, 2 elders, and one young man.

The maids were his maids and Zi Tian’s maid, the elders were the 2 in charge of the Scripture Pavillion, and the young man was a boy that he picked up from the outside.

The young man’s name was Chao Yi. He was a young beggar that collapsed at the Zi Clan’s door. Zi Yang took him in and treated him kindly, letting him stay. His talent was negligible and not worth notice, but he was a kind boy.

Zi Yang started formulating plans in his mind immediately and ordered Huo Mei to leave the compound after giving a maid some instructions. Huo Mei felt a chill down her spine for no reason whatsoever and looked at Zi Yang before pushing him out into the town.

For some reason, she felt that Uncle Yang was much scarier than the last time she saw him. Nowhere in her little mind, did she think that the chill down her spine was a warning to not get on Zi Yang’s bad side…