"I arranged Chuyi to stay at the Zen Meditation Academy, not in my Yunshe Courtyard because I’m used to living alone. Only my assistant Xiaocai is with me, and there are only two women in my courtyard. If a young man suddenly moves in, things will be rather inconvenient."
Chu Keqing poured a cup of tea for Chen Yan in the living room, apologized first, and then smiled, "Are there any arrangements that you are not satisfied with, senior?"
Chen Yan sighed, "It’s very well arranged, thank you."
Then he smiled and said, "Your Zen Meditation Academy is quite large... It must have been expensive to get such a big area in this region?"
Chu Keqing took a sip of tea and said lightly, "Just so you know, senior, it’s not just the academy. This entire street is owned by our Cloud Sect!"
A wealthy lady indeed!
"When I was thirteen, I apprenticed in this small Yunshe Courtyard. Back then, it was all old houses. I and my master, along with a few fellow apprentices, squeezed into the dilapidated houses in this small courtyard. The Cloud Sect was not as grand as it is now."
Later, my master passed away and entrusted the Cloud Sect to me.
I’ve earned quite a bit of money over the years, but I don’t know how to spend it. The Cloud Sect Technique I cultivated teaches not to indulge in material desires or seek worldly splendor, and I also don’t understand how to invest and manage finances.
So, I bought houses whenever I had money. Two this year, two next year, and I’ve been doing that for many years. Then, the government started redeveloping this area, demolishing and reconstructing it into a street of ancient-style buildings. So I just bought all the houses on this street."
Chen Yan’s fingers holding the teacup couldn’t help but tremble!
This is what you call a master in the city!
I barely earned a wealth in the millions and already felt a bit above it all.
But look at Chu Keqing here, her net worth is an entire street!
In the southern district of the Jinling Prefecture, the capital of a province, a whole street!!
With the real estate market these past two years, this wealthy lady’s assets should have shrunk quite a bit, right?
After a cup of tea at Chu Keqing’s place, Chen Yan got up to leave, and Chu Keqing sent him all the way to the door.
After Chen Yan’s car drove away, Chu Keqing turned back pensively and instructed her female assistant Xiaocai, "Remember to look after Chen Yan’s registered junior apprentice brother. If there are any problems, let me know immediately!"
After leaving Chu Keqing’s place, Chen Yan went to Boss Fang Dahai’s company to pay a New Year’s visit and delivered eight frozen chickens—even Boss Fang’s assistant Yan received two.
Boss Fang was overjoyed, brought out good tea to entertain him, and enthusiastically invited him to stay for a meal, which Chen Yan politely declined.
Before going home, Chen Yan stopped at the Extreme Internet Cafe and gave the proprietress ten frozen chickens. He found an excuse to leave before she could ask her full stomach of questions.
On the way home, Chen Yan sighed.
Fifty chickens, half of them finally consumed, but there were still half remaining...
These were gifts from his fellow villagers and definitely couldn’t be sold.
Gifts from others could be regifted, but selling them would be inappropriate.
Back home, Chen Yan paid the driver and entered the courtyard. A sudden cold wind blew past, and Chen Yan shivered in the wind and then sneezed loudly!
Entering the house, he felt the warm air and shook his head, "I’m too lazy to cook today, let’s order takeout."
"Whatever." Gu Qingyi waved her hand, then also twitched her nose and sneezed loudly!
Gu Qingyi rubbed her nose, unfazed, and continued watching the variety show on TV.
The next morning, when Chen Yan just woke up from his sleep, he noticed something was wrong!
He felt light-headed, his brain foggy, and his body weak.
He instinctively touched his forehead, feeling a tightness in his chest.
He walked downstairs and saw Gu Qingyi just coming out of her bedroom.
Gu Xiaoniang looked somewhat pale, her eyes stern, but her steps seemed a bit weak.
Gu Qingyi’s voice was still that of a little girl, but noticeably hoarser than usual.
"Me too, maybe it’s a cold." Chen Yan waved, "I’ll go find some cold medicine, I remember we have some at home."
"No! You don’t understand!"
Gu Qingyi grabbed Chen Yan, her face serious, "I can’t get sick! I’ve already broken through to the Celestial Realm and entered the Extraordinary Tier! My body was refined through the Celestial Tribulation during Breaking the Mirror and Transcending. I’m immune to all diseases!"
Though my cultivation is suppressed to the Ascension Realm in your world, my Celestial Human Body remains unchanged! I shouldn’t get sick at all!"
After hearing this, Chen Yan also realized something was off.
Although he wasn’t in the Celestial Human Realm and had no Celestial Tribulation refined body, his cultivation had reached the Guiyuan Realm, and his body was strengthened by Primordial Qi, making him much fitter than an ordinary person.
Though not immune to all diseases, a minor cold shouldn’t have affected him.
Chen Yan and Gu Qingyi sat facing each other on the living room sofa.
Both were wrapped in blankets, with fever patches on their foreheads.
Chen Yan took a deep breath and used his Qi Observation Skill to observe Gu Qingyi and then himself.
Indeed, both had signs of an illness tribulation in their destiny.
"This sign looks strange," Chen Yan said puzzled.
According to the "Destiny Cycle" he learned, most illness tribulations are born from destiny and resolved by destiny—except for those causing grave illness or death.
Chen Yan understood this concept, illnesses mostly come from bacterial or viral infections. The world is full of invisible bacteria and viruses, and people unknowingly come in contact with countless microbes daily.
Most of them are instantly killed or blocked by the body’s immune system.
Only rarely, when a virus breaks through the immune defense, can it cause an illness.
Gu Qingyi’s illness tribulation in her destiny... as observed using Qi Observation, was caused not by fate, but by human actions! Moreover... this predestined misfortune was subtly related to him?!
"It has something to do with me? Did I cause it?" Chen Yan was stunned.
He looked closely at his own illness tribulation in his destiny and found it increasingly odd.
Within the misfortune involving illness, no matter how hard he calculated, he arrived at a conclusion that even he found baffling.
Unwilling to accept, Chen Yan took out his book and began reading, carefully studying "Destiny Cycle" twice.
"A wealth tribulation?"
Chen Yan shook his head hard, thinking he had gone mad with fever—how could it be a wealth tribulation resulting from illness?
With a serious face, he recalculated his destiny and finally wrote down four characters:
"Good wealth is hard to give up!"
Once he derived this annotation, he suddenly had a flash of insight and remembered something.
After the old lady passed away, she left him a letter containing a line:
"There is a rule in our lineage that money earned by the sect cannot be spent by outsiders, not even by close relatives, or it will bring a curse!"
Chen Yan smacked his forehead.
That’s what "Good wealth is hard to give up" means!
According to the old lady’s rules, only those who practice the same cultivation technique as hers are considered fellow disciples.
Only fellow disciples are allowed to spend money earned through spells!
Otherwise, even though Chen Yan was her grandson and had been raised by her for twenty years, he couldn’t spend the money she earned through spells!
—Spending a little bit might not be a big issue since she had spent some while raising him.
But clearly, spending too much would lead to backlash and curses!
This was the reason Chen Yan had been poor for twenty years.
He had learned the old lady’s skills and had made quite a bit of money recently.
But he had also spent a lot on others!!
Who around him had spent his money the most?
Thinking about this, Chen Yan looked up and saw Gu Qingyi, aka Gu Tianren, aka Gu’s Consort Mother, sitting in front of him with a fever patch on her forehead.
She eats my food, drinks my drinks, and lives in my house...
Who else could it be?
"Now, type ’Dancing hard and long’!"