Zhang Fei - The Abandoned Son

Upon their arrival at the building, Zhu Yan promptly briefed Zhang Fei about her plans for the restaurant's opening tomorrow morning. "Since you've already planned everything, I'll follow yours. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to make flyers because of my evolution, so the number of diners probably won't be as many as we originally estimated." Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

"I can help you with that." Zhang Fei immediately turned to Xian Xianqin. "Hey! I'm their princess, remember? I can arrange for some guards to announce the opening of your restaurant, saving you the trouble of creating flyers or any other promotional materials. However, I won't do it for free, and I want to enjoy Zhu Yan's cooking every day."

"Hahaha." Zhang Fei and Zhu Yan laughed at that, especially since Xian Xianqin was already addicted to eating Earth dishes. "It is acceptable; you are welcome to dine here on a daily basis, and I will serve you my best dishes. However, you should control your appetite, or you'll get fat if you eat too much."

If Zhang Fei had made that statement, Xian Xianqin would have been infuriated, but since she and Zhu Yan were both women, she responded to it casually. "Your dishes are too tempting to my appetite, so I will eat as much as I want. Moreover, I can burn the fat with qi, so I will never get fat."

"All right, you can come here anytime." Zhu Yan then turned to Zhang Fei. "Are you going to bring all of them here for the opening of this restaurant?"

Zhang Fei rejected Zhu Yan's question with a shake of his head. "You already know that their beauty can topple kingdoms, and those guys will try to get closer to them, so I won't look for trouble by bringing them here. However, I will bring Hua'er and the Wen Twins here so the three of them can start taking care of other things."

Zhu Yan herself was actually jealous of the beauty of all of Zhang Fei's wives, and she wanted to be as beautiful as them. However, she realized that beauty would only bring disaster, so she forgot her desires and chose a peaceful life. "I've asked those women to come here at dawn, so I'll prepare everything from now on, and we'll open this restaurant as soon as the capital's residents start their activities."

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After that, Zhang Fei brought Xian Xianqin out of the building, and Zhu Yan started making final preparations for the restaurant's opening.

"What's the name of your restaurant?"

"The Sky Jade Restaurant."

"Isn't that the name of your home realm?"

"Actually, the Sky Jade Realm is not my home realm, and I come from another realm where there is no qi or cultivators." Xian Xianqin turned to Zhang Fei with surprise. "That realm has special meaning to me because I started my cultivation path there, and I met most of my wives there, so I will always consider it my home realm."

"I see." Xia Xianqin nodded in understanding and asked again. "Then what is your home realm like? How can you become a cultivator if there is no Qi there?"

"Princess, we've only known each other for a month and a half, and you're not part of my extended family, so I can't possibly tell you all my secrets, right?" Zhang Fei smiled as he watched Xian Xiaqin pout, making him itch to devour her luscious and rosy lips. "However, you've heard that I've died before, and the person who killed me brought me back to life as my current self, right?"

"Yes."

Zhang Fei then continued. "That person also left something for me so I could go to the Sky Jade Realm to start my path of cultivation, and my life has undergone so many changes since then. All those changes made me better, or else we wouldn't be able to talk like this now."

"Since you were able to bring those people from the Sky Jade Realm to this realm, I'm sure you can come back to your true home realm, right? Can you take me there?" Zhang Fei raised his eyebrows in response. "I've been to several planets in the middle realms, but I've never been to a planet in the lower or upper realms. Since you came from the lower realms, I want to look over the planets there."

"I won't take you there now, but I might take you there in the future." Zhang Fei's refusal disappointed Xian Xianqin, but she was aware that their relationship was still ordinary, so she felt it was natural that he didn't want to reveal his secrets to her. "Anyway, can you tell me about the Star Tower? How did it exist in this realm? Did the ancestors build it?"

"The Star Tower, huh?" Xian Xianqin muttered softly. "How about we talk at the royal palace? The tower has many stories, and we can talk about it there."

Zhang Fei actually didn't want to get too close to the Xian royal family, but he still needed more information about the Nine Stars Realm; even Feng Yao had never told him about the Star Tower. "Do you have a private place to talk? I don't want the palace people to know I'm there."

"We can talk in front of my room, and no one will disturb us."

Hearing that, Zhang Fei immediately teased Xian Xianqin. "Are you going to invite me to your room, Princess?"

"Hey!" Xian Xianqin immediately shouted at Zhang Fei. "I'm a woman, and you're a man, remember? Moreover, you said that we haven't known each other for long, and you're still a stranger to me, so I won't invite you to my room."

"Hahaha." Zhang Fei laughed and took Xian Xianqin's hand. "Show me your room; I'll take you there directly."

After Xian Xianqin showed him the location of her room, Zhang Fei immediately took her there by teleporting several times. However, Xian Feng and Shi Qingzhuang immediately noticed his presence, but they had no intention of disturbing them.

Upon arriving at the balcony, Zhang Fei immediately peeked into Xian Xianqin's room, but the princess blocked his view right away and closed the curtains. "Hehe! You're too late because I've seen all of your room, but I didn't expect that a princess like you would have such a simple bedroom."

"I am always busy in the sect and taking care of some royal affairs every day, and I can only find peace in my room, so I don't want to busy myself with useless things." After that, the two sat opposite each other on empty chairs on the balcony, and Xian Xianqin began to tell Zhang Fei about the Star Tower. "Actually, our ancestors did not build the tower, and it suddenly appeared in this realm about ten thousand years ago. Since then, countless cultivators have tried to challenge it, but none of them have succeeded in completing it, so no one knows for sure about its mysteries. Only a few, including my ancestors, have managed to reach the fourth floor."

"Hmm?" Zhang Fei looked toward the location of the star tower. "How could such a tall tower suddenly appear in this realm? What is the true purpose of that tower?"

"No one knows how the tower appeared in this realm." Xian Xianqin then continued her explanation. "Even though the tower only looks that big from the outside, the inside is much larger than people imagine, and each floor is like another world. Before we challenge the tower, we must measure our raw strength through the stone obelisk in front of the tower to determine our eligibility to challenge it, and we can start challenging it if our names enter the top 100 rankings."

"Top 100 rankings?"

"Yes." Xian Xianqin nodded to Zhang Fei. "If we can't reach the top 100 rankings, we will never be able to challenge it, and the array in the tower will stop us if we insist on challenging it. Even so, we have no time limit for measuring our raw strength, so we can do it over and over again. In fact, my brother and I failed to enter the top 100 rankings about fifty times, but we finally managed to enter and challenge it."

"How far have you two gone up the tower?" Zhang Fei curiously asked.

"The first floor." Zhang Fei was taken aback by Xian Xiaqin's response, mainly because she and Xian Xianwu's cultivation had reached the quasi-divine realm, yet they were unable to pass the first floor. "You don't have to be so shocked, especially since the tower is not an ordinary tower. On the first floor, we will be faced with random challenges, and we must complete ten challenges to be able to go up to the second floor. Furthermore, each challenge is extremely difficult; even those cultivators in the seven divine realms often fail to pass them."

"Even cultivators in the seven divine realms can fail to pass the first floor." Xian Xiaqin nodded to Zhang Fei. "What exactly are those challenges?"

Xian Xianqin let out a heavy sigh before revealing the information to Zhang Fei. "One of the challenges is facing our demon heart, and it is one of the two toughest challenges on the first floor. The second toughest challenge is fighting with other cultivators because we can't choose our opponents, and it is determined randomly by the tower."

"What do you mean by our demon heart?" Zhang Fei asked in confusion.

"All living beings have their regrets and fears, and both will become our demon hearts if we sink too deep into them." Zhang Fei nodded slightly as he thought about it. "Moreover, the stronger the cultivators, the stronger their demon hearts will be. According to my father, we need extraordinary peace to be able to overcome our demon hearts, but for us to be able to get such peace is not as simple as turning the palm of our hand, especially if our regrets and fears haunt us too deeply."

"Did you fail because of your demon heart?"

Zhang Fei's question caused Xian Xianqin's expression to darken, and she fell silent for a considerable amount of time as she contemplated whether or not to tell him. A few minutes later, she let out a deep breath and revealed the truth. "You're right; I failed several times because of my demon heart, especially since it got stronger every time my cultivation broke through."

"What's your demon heart?" Xian Xianqin immediately frowned at Zhang Fei. "I'm just curious about that, but you don't need to say it if it's too disturbing for you."

"My demon heart is my childhood friend." Xian Xianqin paused for a while before continuing. "Qian Ying and I have been best friends since we were five years old, and we have always been together since then. We have been competing to become strong, but our competition has always been positive, and we have always supported each other. However, the situation changed after we broke through to the soul realm, which was caused by my stupidity and carelessness."

"What really happened?"

"We were only 17 years old when that incident happened." Tears unknowingly fell from the corners of Xian Xianqin's eyes, making Zhang Fei realize that her past story was too painful. "Back then, I was still too naive and overconfident, especially since my father and grandfather gave me a lot of protection. I took Qian Ying to the ancient castle ruins to look for a rare item, and I believed that my protection was enough to protect us. At first, we didn't encounter any problems there, but a demon from the Dark Demon Kingdom suddenly appeared and attacked us, and my protection collapsed before his attack. In the end, she fell into his hands to protect me, and he took her away from me."

"Aren't your parents and grandparents supposed to be able to save Qian Ying?"

"No." Xian Xianqin shook her head in response. "In fact, they tried to save Qian Ying, but those demons are truly powerful, and they are no match for them. Ximen Gongfu finally made them an offer to free her, but he asked them to submit to him, so they refused and chose to sacrifice her."

Zhang Fei chose not to comment on the matter, especially since he would have made the same choice if he had been asked to choose between his family and an outsider.

"I'm disappointed that they couldn't save Qian Ying, but I can't blame them either." Xian Xianqin then let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "I met her again a few years later, but she was no longer herself, and she had turned into a bloodthirsty demon. She even tried to kill me, so I fought her back, and I almost killed her using one of my artifacts. However, the demon who kidnapped her back then saved her, and I would have died at his hands if Old Wen hadn't protected me. Since then, I have always regretted my naivety at that time, and she has become my demon heart until now. When I challenged the tower for the first time, I met her shadow, and I couldn't do anything to fight her, so I failed again and again."

Zhang Fei nodded in understanding. "Have you ever met her after that day? Is she still alive now?"

Xian Xianqin then took out a green jade. "This jade belongs to Qian Ying, so she is still alive now, but I have never met her again to this day."

"I believe we can still save her as long as she is still alive." Xian Xianqin immediately looked at Zhang Fei with a frown. "Have you forgotten my story about my initial relationship with Hua'er? Back then, Pang Hong controlled her for several years, and he used her to attack Qingyu and the others."

"Yeah." Xian Xianqin then asked. "Can you help me save Qian Ying from the hands of that demon?"

"I can't promise you anything, especially since I'm still too weak. If we use our cultivation to fight, I will definitely die in your hands." Xian Xianqin nodded in understanding. "I know it's not easy, but you must never give up on saving her. As long as we never give up and keep trying, then we will definitely find a way out of all our problems."

After hearing that, Xian Xianqin squeezed the green jade in her hand. "You are right; I must not give up. I will continue to improve my strength, and I will save Qian Ying from the hands of that demon in the future."

"Then, what are the other challenges besides those two?" Xian Xianqin immediately informed Zhang Fei regarding all the other challenges, which caused him to frown. "I don't think much about the challenges of fighting those beasts, but fighting nature is definitely not an easy matter, especially if those elements are truly strengthened by their respective laws."

Xian Xianqin then looked towards the Star Tower. "The only way to pass those elemental challenges is to understand their respective laws, but it is not easy, and we need a long time to be able to understand them. I was able to understand the wind law because of my grandfather's help, or else I would never have been able to understand it."

"Can you teach me about the wind law?" Xia Xianqin tilted her head at Zhang Fei, who immediately opened his palm and showed his wind element. "As you can see, I also have the wind element, so I want to try to understand the wind law."

Xian Xianqin didn't answer Zhang Fei and stared at his wind element in shock, especially since she already knew that he had fire and dark elements, yet he was now showing his third element. "No wonder my parents admire you so much; it turns out you have three elements, and there is only one cultivator who has three elements in this realm."

"Eh?" Zhang Fei was surprised to learn another cultivator had three elements. "Who is that person? What elements does that person have?"

"Xian Lianghua, the Emperor of the natural races. He has wind, water, and wood elements." Xian Xianqin then touched Zhang Fei's forehead and shared the method used to learn the wind law. "I find it difficult to explain to you, so you can try to understand the method first."

Without wasting any time, Zhang Fei immediately sat cross-legged on the balcony floor and read the method while Xian Xianqin silently watched him.

- To Be Continued -