Lu Xuan was barely able to hold his tears as he saw his mother standing right in front of him, alive and well.
Being able to stand before his mother was a scene he was unable to even see in a dream in his past life.
“It’s good that you’re back.” Liu Wanrong said with a beaming smile, “I’ve made your favorite fish balls. Get to sleep once you’re done eating them. Best not stay up late often, or you’d end up bald.”
An intense cough was heard from the other end of the couch when Lu Xuan heard that. A bespectacled, unassuming middle-aged man was coughing hard.
“Dad!” Lu Xuan said, and he sounded as if he was sobbing as well. His parents were alive, and he was overjoyed. He had never been so excited and content, even when he became the Celestial Lord in his past life.
I’m absolutely not going to let anything bad happen to both of you in this life! he thought.
Seeing Lu Xuan standing there just looking at him without saying anything, his father—Lu Tianxiang—glared at him and said, “What are you looking at? I’m not bald yet. Don’t listen to your mom here. I’m not bald!”
Lu Tianxiang then touched his head for a bit and grinned. While he still indeed had hair on his head, it was obvious that the amount was no longer what it used to be.
But then again, he was proud nonetheless, as despite being middle-aged, he was far from becoming a bald, fat, good-for-nothing. He deemed that made him better than 90% of men his age out there.
Lu Xuan was unable to contain it and burst out laughing. Lu Xuan looked mostly like his father, yet he had his mother’s eyes, which coincidentally was the best-looking and sharpest part of him.
“Take good care of yourself, Dad. Just look at Mom here. She’s still looking so young that she hardly looks any older than I am. In a few years, if you and Mom go outside, it’ll look like a dad going out with his daughter instead,” Lu Xuan jabbed at his father.
“What did you say, you *sshole!?”
Lu Tianxiang was fuming when he said that.
“My, my, don’t blame my son here. He’s right, you know. Just look at you. You used to have abs, and you now don’t even have the slightest bit of them. Are you really that different from a bald, fat otaku?” Liu Wanrong gave Lu Tianxiang a rather scornful look.
Lu Tianxiang was practically screaming deep down, lamenting how his wife was a demon incarnate and how he lacked the ability of his wife to eat all the time and not get fat.
Lu Tianxiang saw no point in arguing with the mother and son, opting to head elsewhere instead.
Lu Tianxiang mumbled as he took his tablet and headed elsewhere in the house.
“Don’t give a damn about what your dad thinks. He just can’t take the fact that he’s about to turn into a bald, fat otaku.” Liu Wanrong smiled and said.
“Where is Shanshan?” Lu Xuan asked.
He was asking about his younger sister—Lu Shanshan—who was six years younger than he was and still attending high school.
“She’s still at school,” Liu Wanrong answered.
“What about Guoguo then? Is she asleep?” Lu Xuan asked.
Guoguo was his youngest sister, who was only three now.
“You’re right, she is. Our little empress is finally asleep.”
Liu Wanrong was both loving and exasperated when Guoguo was brought up, for the three-year-old child was indeed like the empress of the household.
Lu Xuan walked to the table, seeing a bowl of steaming fish balls waiting for him.
“Alright, tell me the truth. How did you get that three million?” Liu Wanrong sat by her son’s side and asked.
“Don’t lie to me. You know that you’ve never been able to keep me in the dark since you were a kid,” Liu Wanrong pointed at Lu Xuan and said seriously.
Lu Xuan knew that he was unable to keep some things under wraps for long. The fact that he was training as a Cultivator would have been known sooner or later. Furthermore, despite still being a secret now, it was only a matter of time before the government would need to acknowledge their existence officially.
None of that would be a secret by then.
Worse still, there was still the case with what Luo Ying pulled. If he were not to keep his parents in the loop, Luo Ying would take his folks away, claiming to be his friend. Things would take a turn for the worse if that were to happen.
Lu Xuan took the opportunity to tell his mother what happened. Of course, he omitted the part where he had been reincarnated, but he still told her basically everything.
“So you’re saying that Luo Ying is your nemesis then?” Liu Wanrong wore a rather complicated expression as she listened to what her son told her.
It was especially so when Lu Xuan mentioned that he had embarked on the journey to becoming a Cultivator. Her eyes gleamed when he told her that.
“Indeed. I’ve told the Special Task Force to put all of you under protection. There will be no problems coming your way, so you all can relax.” Lu Xuan then added, “I’m just afraid that I’ll end up dragging you all into my mess.”
Lu Xuan looked rather severe when he said that. That was because dragging them into his mess was not a possibility; it was a reality that happened right before his eyes.
That was a regret he had never truly gotten over his entire life.
“Hey, we’re family! There’s no such thing as you dragging us into your mess or whatever.” His mother patted his head and continued, “Your dad and I aren’t going to be a burden to you.”
“Mom, it will be the age of Cultivators from here on out. Only by taking the lead now can I gain an advantage in the future. Other than to take on Luo Ying, the reason why I came back was also to teach you all how to become Cultivators,” Lu Xuan said.
His mother’s eyes looked rather shifty when she heard what he said, but she eventually nodded seriously and said, “Very well then.
“I’ll talk to your dad about this. It’s getting late now. We’ll talk tomorrow,” she said.
“Okay.”
Lu Xuan picked up the bowl and finished the fish balls in no time. He then went back to his room.
He never anticipated just how different his mother’s reaction would be from what he thought it would have been. She hardly looked fazed and seemed to have been able to take everything in.
But then again, it worked in Lu Xuan’s favor, as further troubles were prevented, and he had no need to explain much to his folks.
Lu Xuan shifted the furniture in his room around a little bit, making a small, makeshift Spirit Gathering Formation. He sat at his bed, cross-legged. He then began his training.
However, when he extended his spiritual senses, he quickly detected several very powerful auras stalking about near his place.
However, he did not sense any untoward intentions from them, so he quickly realized that those auras probably belonged to masters of the Special Task Force sent to protect his family.
Lu Xuan was at ease with such arrangements in place. He released any other concerns in his mind, sitting down, and then immersed himself into his training.
At the same time, people who were lurking near Lu Xuan’s place seemed to have felt that they were being watched. All of them checked their surroundings but found no one around.
“Why the hell did I feel that we were being watched?” one of them muttered in their shared communication channel, which elicited the same response from the others.
“You got that right. I felt the same thing as well. Weird.”
“Seems like it’s just me seeing things.”
They all felt just how weird that happening had been. All of them were capable Cultivators, and they were far from being normal folk. Their senses were considerably more acute than most people. There was a possibility of one of them just seeing things, but it was impossible for all of them to have their senses fooling them.
“Regardless, best stay sharp, people. This mission isn’t something trivial. Mess this up, and we won’t be able to hold our heads up in front of the Chief.” A rather stern voice was heard on the channel, which silenced all other voices immediately.
