Chapter 128 Ying Lingyun 1

This huge Western-style villa seems to be inhabited only by Zhu Shi and his grandparents. Now, with Chang'an added, there are only four people in total, so it is normal that there are many empty rooms.

We have now arrived at one of the empty rooms, which contains only a wooden table with a towel on it. The head of the monster creator is laid out in the bright light, and the towel is stained with dirty blood flowing from the severed neck.

If a thief broke into your house, or if some kids in the neighborhood were to explore this place like a haunted house and find this head while searching around, they would probably feel like they were experiencing a horror story.

I didn't see Chang'an on the way here; he's probably somewhere in the villa. He certainly doesn't know that his biological father's head (though it's possible it's a clone) is under the same roof as him. And perhaps to avoid suspicion, Zhu Shi locked the door from the inside when he entered the room.

Mr. Zhu walked to the table, put his hands behind his back, and stared silently at the head. As outsiders, Ma Zao and I couldn't very well take the other party's son-in-law's head, so we could only stand behind and wait for him to hand it over. But he didn't move for the time being, just lowered his head as if deep in thought.

At first I was a little confused, but I quickly realized what was going on. Unlike me and Zhu Shi, Old Mr. Zhu was mostly convinced of Ying Lingyun's death. And no matter what, Ying Lingyun was his son-in-law, his daughter's husband. He couldn't help but be moved by the sight of his remains.

I realized this might be a good opportunity. Zhu Shi knew very little about Ying Lingyun, but Old Master Zhu seemed to know most of him inside and out. I could take this opportunity to inquire about Ying Lingyun from Old Master Zhu. That man might not be dead yet, and inquiring about him now was just in case.

Moreover, even setting that aside, I have a very strong curiosity about Ying Lingyun himself and want to know about his past.

When I asked about Ying Lingyun, Mr. Zhu turned around in confusion.

"You're interested in this kind of guy?" He pointed rudely at the head on the wooden table.

It seems he really dislikes his son-in-law, even referring to him as "that kind of guy."

“Yes,” I said, “when I first killed him, I didn’t know he was Zhu Shi’s father, so…”

“…Hmm, I see.” Old Mr. Zhu nodded thoughtfully. “You don’t need to feel sorry for killing this kind of guy. But since you’re curious, I might as well tell you.”

"But as you can see, I'm an old man, and my talk might take a while. How about we go somewhere else to talk? We've already prepared tea and refreshments for you."

I had no objection, and then Ma Zao, Zhu Shi, and I left the room. Old Mr. Zhu led us to the reception tea room. Zhu Shi's grandmother was waiting there; after serving us hot tea and snacks, she left first. I guess the initial plan was to have us drink tea and exchange pleasantries before retrieving the head, but Old Mr. Zhu had skipped that step. I had a vague feeling that he was different from his appearance; he seemed to dislike formalities.

Watching the steam rise from the hot tea, Mr. Zhu, with a touch of reminiscence, asked, "Where would you like to begin listening?"

Caught off guard by this question, I was somewhat at a loss for words. After a moment's thought, I noticed something amiss and asked, "As far as I know, Ying Lingyun was just an ordinary official in society, so why did he later become the son-in-law of a demon hunter family?"

"Oh, so you're starting your questions from here..." He nodded. "Did my granddaughter ever tell you that I initially planned to lead the Zhu family out of the demon hunter circle?"

“I did say that,” I said. Zhu Shi, who was sitting next to me, nodded as well.

"What gave me this idea was none other than my daughter, Zhu Jiu."

Mr. Zhu then explained the whole story to us.

Zhu Jiu is Zhu Shi's mother and Mr. Zhu's only daughter.

In fact, the Zhu family does not have a tradition of having only one child; on the contrary, they have always encouraged having many children. For example, Mr. Zhu Ba's generation had several brothers and sisters, but they have all passed away.

The cause of death was none other than "forging the sword of Yama".

Although even the Zhu family themselves didn't believe that the Yama Sword possessed the power of the Great Impermanence, the immense power it contained was undeniable. According to reliable records, the heir who fully unleashed the power of the Yama Sword could obtain power surpassing the limits of a demon hunter. Therefore, the struggle for the inheritance of the Yama Sword ultimately led to a bitter feud between Zhu Ba and his siblings, culminating in an unprecedented and unparalleled battle.

As the sole survivor, Zhu Ba suffered severe psychological trauma from the horrific battle. To prevent similar conflicts from happening to his descendants, after his wife gave birth to a daughter, he had no intention of having any more children and named his daughter "Zhu Jiu" according to the family heir format.

He had high hopes for his only daughter, expecting her to become an outstanding witcher, and subjected her to extremely rigorous education.

There's a saying that sons should be raised frugally and daughters should be raised lavishly, but he did the opposite. He put Zhu Jiu through a lot of hardship and toil, acting like a devil who knew nothing of tenderness.

This isn't my saying; it's what he said himself.

However, he gradually realized that his daughter was not suited to be a witcher.

“A-Jiu’s aptitude as a demon hunter is extremely poor. She has no hope of reaching the highest level in her lifetime, and she might not even be able to reach the lowest level. Moreover, her personality is too kind and gentle, making her unable to adapt to the cruel and bizarre world,” Old Master Zhu said slowly. “In addition, the aptitude of demon hunters in the Zhu family has declined with each generation. You know, before my generation, the Zhu family had never experienced a bloody massacre over forging an external object like the Yama Sword. So I thought that the Zhu family should probably withdraw from the circle of demon hunters.”

Who could have imagined that the forging of the Yama Sword involved such a bloody past? I glanced at Zhu Shi; her expression was grave, as if she already knew.

"But Zhu Shi's talent should be considered quite good, right?" I asked.

“Yes, my granddaughter is an exception among all the successors. If Ajiu is a good-for-nothing, then she can be called a genius. The problem is, she wasn’t even born back then. If I had known this, perhaps I would have made a different judgment back then,” said Old Master Zhu. “Getting back to the point, as you probably know, the supernatural attracts the supernatural. If you want to lead the Zhu family out of the supernatural world, it means giving up the power and knowledge of the supernatural.”

"But this doesn't mean I intend to make the Zhu family just an ordinary member of society. In order to gain a foothold in that world as well, I want the Zhu family to have a certain degree of power and status in the secular world. For this, I hope my good-for-nothing daughter will sacrifice her will, obey my orders, and marry a man who has enough power and status in the secular world."

"So this is what's called a marriage alliance?" I never imagined that Mr. Zhu was such a despicable father who manipulated his children's marriages for personal gain.

Could Ying Lingyun be the marriage partner? But the Shadow Man said that Ying Lingyun was originally from humble beginnings and only rose to prominence after getting involved with the Zhu family.

“That’s right.” Old Master Zhu nodded. “Before the Fantian incident, although our Demon Hunter family couldn’t truly influence secular society with the power of magic, if we used magic to accumulate wealth and then used that wealth to connect with those in power, as long as we didn’t go too far, there were still some loopholes we could exploit.”

"With these advantages, I successfully found some marriage candidates for my daughter who possessed both virtue and power, either already accomplished figures or promising rising stars."

"However, just when things were about to proceed smoothly, the biggest obstacle we had ever encountered was unexpected..."

I asked logically, "Is it because Zhu Shi's mother was very resistant?"

Zhu Shi listened intently, seemingly hearing these old stories about her mother for the first time. Ma Zao, on the other hand, seemed to lack cultural sensitivity to such topics, merely staring at the tea stems in her teacup, as if studying tea stem divination.

Mr. Zhu shook his head and said, "That can only be considered an expected obstacle, and it can only be considered the second biggest obstacle."

"So what is the biggest obstacle?" I asked.

He said in a deep voice, "It was myself."

Not to mention me, even Zhu Shi was very surprised: "Huh?"

Mr. Zhu smiled helplessly and continued his story—

In the past, seeing her daughter's face full of resistance and her prospective son-in-law who was old enough to be her brother, Zhu Ba, who had always been hard-hearted, suddenly realized the truth.

From his youth, he had been scheming against his siblings, ultimately emerging victorious in a family feud, believing his heart had long since turned cold and hard. Yet, perhaps precisely because of this, he actually yearned for the warmth of family affection, harboring a hidden love for his wife and daughter.

He had already killed his former family members, and his wife and daughter were the family he had finally managed to reunite with. How could he be so greedy as to sell his daughter to others like a commodity?

So he barged into his daughter's blind date venue, kicked over the blind date he had found himself, and then took his bewildered daughter away.

However, while doing so was certainly satisfying, he still needed to consider how to ensure that the Zhu family would gain a foothold in secular society in the future.

Just then, he noticed a figure.

That person was Ying Lingyun.

Unlike those rising political stars from wealthy families, Ying Lingyun was just a grassroots person with no background, and even an orphan who lost both parents.

However, he possessed a tremendous advantage that none of those figures could match.

That is, his own daughter likes him.

The two had known each other since elementary school, childhood sweethearts. For a long time, Zhu Ba had been aware that her daughter was deeply in love with this man, but she never took it seriously, believing they lived in different worlds and would eventually separate. However, after deciding to enter the mainstream world—especially after a sudden realization—Zhu Ba re-examined Ying Lingyun's character and discovered that he actually had many admirable qualities.

Ying Lingyun is a handsome man, exceptionally talented, eloquent, insightful, and decisive. Although he is arrogant and pretentious, he possesses strong leadership qualities that come with these traits, always able to inspire those around him to act and follow him.

From another perspective, this is also a kind of "political ability" that many people lack. If he can gain sufficient experience and make up for his lack of support, he may very well be able to achieve great things in society.

Zhu Ba thought to herself, if that were really the case, marrying her daughter to this young man wouldn't be unacceptable.

After making up his mind, he took the initiative to approach Ying Lingyun and help him enter the political arena. In just a few years, Ying Lingyun indeed soared to great heights and became another rising star in the political world.

However, in the process, he gradually discovered Ying Lingyun's secret.

While Ying Lingyun was seeing his daughter, he was also secretly having an ambiguous relationship with a demon who had transformed into a beautiful woman!

(End of this chapter)