The Face-Slapping Journey of a Sword Cultivator Male God (QT) Chapter 003: The Rightful Heir's Retaliation in the Story of a Reincarnated Concubine's Son - Part 2

An onslaught of data might be overwhelming to the average individual, but for a cultivator, it was hardly an issue.

The wealth of worldly knowledge shared by 0617 unfurled before Xuan Yuan, akin to an open book, offering him the luxury of leisurely navigation.

This was the tale of a man.

The data 0617 provided encapsulated this man's entire lifespan - from his eagerly-awaited birth, his cherished childhood years, his astute and scholarly adolescence, to his ignoble end in his early adulthood.

This tale wove together two threads - the downfall of a legitimate heir of a noble house and the corresponding rise of an illegitimate son.

The body to which Xuan Yuan was now tethered bore the name Lin Xuanzhu, the rightful heir to Luoning Marquis Manor of the Great Wei Dynasty. This lineage had spanned centuries, a seamless continuity of heritage.

His father was Luoning Marquis, his mother, the esteemed Lady of the Marquis Manor, and he himself was the legitimate eldest son, designated as the heir shortly after his first birthday.

From his early years, Lin Xuanzhu exhibited exceptional brilliance, earning considerable notice within the Marquis Manor. In the capital of the Great Wei Dynasty, he was an engaging and accomplished young man, known far and wide.

The future once held great promise for the young Lin Xuanzhu, a path laden with familial happiness and expansive opportunities.

However, his life veered dramatically off course with the appearance of a half-brother, a son from his father's concubine, when he was twenty.

In the year the illegitimate son, Lin Yingjie, turned seventeen, he created a stir in the Great Wei's capital. He topped the golden list, making history as the highest-ranking imperial scholar in the entire dynasty.

However, Lin Xuanzhu, who participated in the same examination that year, merely ranked seventeenth among the second-tier imperial scholars (i.e. 4th place and up). Although a respectable achievement, it seemed lackluster compared to the accomplishments of his half-brother, who was three years his junior.

From that point forward, Lin Yingjie effectively leveraged the prestige that came with being the most distinguished imperial scholar in the dynasty's history. He married into the royal family and subsequently reestablished his ancestral heritage, officially becoming the young master of Luoning Marquis Manor.

Moreover, his birth mother was raised in status by Luoning Marquis to that of a legitimate wife and was formally relocated to the Marquis Manor.

Upon becoming the emperor's son-in-law, Lin Yingjie enjoyed the favor of both the emperor and the crown prince.

From that point, he ascended to unprecedented heights, emerging as a significant influence within the court of the Great Wei Dynasty. He became a valuable advisor and strategist to the crown prince, evolving into a trusted confidant upon whom the prince heavily depended.

Meanwhile, as Lin Yingjie relished in his triumphs, Lin Xuanzhu's fortunes took a significant tumble. His life became progressively more challenging and bleak; initially outshone by his half-brother in the imperial examination, he later fell out of favor with the royal family. Despite his name appearing on the golden list, he was never appointed to any official position.

Career setbacks weren't his only troubles; Lin Xuanzhu's personal life also grew increasingly complex due to family dynamics.

When Lin Yingjie's mother was elevated to the status of a legitimate wife, and even after Lin Yingjie married into the royal family, Lin Xuanzhu's mother was obligated to show respect to Lin Yingjie's wife, Princess Chaoyang.

The cumulative impact of these events proved too much for Lin Xuanzhu's mother to withstand. She fell gravely ill and ultimately succumbed to her affliction, leaving this world in a state of confusion and despair.

During the funeral for his mother, Lin Xuanzhu, who had kept an all-night vigil, was ensnared in a setup.

Shockingly, he was falsely accused of disrespecting a maidservant at his mother's funeral altar. Afterwards, the maidservant deliberately drew the attention of others and then publicly took her own life in the funeral hall.

This incident caused a massive uproar and became public knowledge.

Following such a scandal at his own mother's funeral, Lin Xuanzhu was entirely ostracized by Luoning Marquis. He was vilified as unfilial and unjust, held in lesser regard than a pig or a dog.

Subsequently, he was stripped of his heirship and sequestered in a manor on the outskirts of the capital.

Eventually, someone poisoned his meals. After a month of lingering on his deathbed, he tragically succumbed to the poison.

The one thing Lin Xuanzhu regretted most in his life was his inability to save his mother. Instead, he was manipulated into committing an indignity in his mother's funeral hall, violating the sacred space and denying her peace even in death.

He was prepared to pay the ultimate price, with his soul if need be, to identify the hidden perpetrator and exact revenge for his mother and himself.

Simultaneously, he wished that his dream of becoming a pillar of the nation could be fulfilled.

"What am I to do?" Xuan Yuan inquired coolly after witnessing the fleeting life of Lin Xuanzhu.

Having navigated the Cultivation World for numerous years, Xuan Yuan, who himself had risen from humble origins, found Lin Xuanzhu's predicament pitiful, but not sufficiently moving to evoke sympathy.

The weak are undeserving of sympathy.

In Xuan Yuan's view, having battled his way through the survival-of-the-fittest world of Cultivation, Lin Xuanzhu had landed in such dire straits due to his own foolishness and lack of strength or power.

"Host, don't rush, I haven't transmitted the plot to you yet!" 0617, the naive and innocent entity, quickly interjected, thinking Xuan Yuan was asking how to exact revenge for Lin Xuanzhu.

Xuan Yuan's eyebrows gently furrowed: "Plot?"

"Yes, this world is a small world derived from a novel, so there's a main storyline!" 0617 declared jubilantly, preparing to transmit the plot of this world to Xuan Yuan.

Xuan Yuan's face remained impassive. He understood the concept of a small world, but as for novels and main plots — as a sword cultivator singularly focused on his swordsmanship, Xuan Yuan inquired coldly: "What is a novel?"

"Huh? Uh...you're asking me what a novel is?" 0617 was entirely dumbfounded, suddenly feeling as if there was a glitch in its circuits. It felt as though it had been linked to an imposter host. Shouldn't the soul drawn into the Main God Space be that of a modern person?

'Wait a minute!' 0617 recalled the appearance of the host's soul it had seen earlier, and a surge of apprehension gripped it as the pieces fell into place. It stuttered, "Host, are you from ancient times? Oh, you might not understand that either...okay, do you know about storybooks?"

Xuan Yuan's eyebrows slightly furrowed as he slowly nodded. While he hadn't read these storybooks, he had heard of them. They were essentially collections of fictional and imaginative tales.

In an instant, Xuan Yuan comprehended the situation by piecing together this understanding with what 0617 had said earlier.

It appeared that the world he was currently in was not part of the Cultivation World but a derivative of a story. The person whose body he was inhabiting, Lin Xuanzhu, was likely a character in that story. As the story unfolded, Lin Xuanzhu had met a tragic end, and filled with resentment, had somehow drawn Xuan Yuan into his destiny.

Although he was yet to receive the details of the story from 0617, Xuan Yuan, having deduced the nature of the world he was in, couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment.

The reason he had agreed to bind with 0617 was because he was intrigued by its mention of 'traversing other worlds'.

After all, Xuan Yuan had previously endured the Ascension Thunder Tribulation, which was meant to enable him to ascend to other worlds. He sought to explore the unknown world and future, all with the aim to become stronger!

However, after binding with 0617, the reality did not live up to Xuan Yuan's expectations. In such a frail world, how could he possibly grow stronger? It appeared that this time, he wouldn't reap much benefit. He had indeed ascended to the wrong place.

Yet, Xuan Yuan still felt baffled.

After he had survived the Ascension Thunder Tribulation, he should have ascended along the immortal stairway and left the Cultivation World. It was already odd enough that he ended up in an inexplicable chaotic world, and now this entity claiming to be a system had transported him to an even more peculiar small world.

"I won't carry out this mission." After comprehending the current situation, Xuan Yuan stated in an indifferent tone. He never squandered time on pointless pursuits.

0617 was taken aback, "Why?" Its voice was imbued with bewilderment. As a system binding a host for the first time, it was just discovering that a host might refuse to execute a mission.

"It bears no significance to me." Xuan Yuan replied curtly. He sat up from the bed, lifted the bed curtain, and perched on the edge of the ornately carved wenge bed, preparing to forcibly sever his connection with 0617 and pierce through the spatial layers of this small world to depart.

0617 cried out, "How can it be meaningless? If you complete the mission, you can gain everything you desire. Don't you yearn to be resurrected? Don't you crave wealth and prestige? Don't you want... um, don't you want..."

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