"You're practicing too hard and too impatiently. If you're not careful, you could easily suffer a backlash."

Yanqing was still muttering to himself when he asked him, "If you're not willing to come with me to ask the True Man, why don't you go to your clan and ask for some useful magical artifacts and pills?"

"Okay, I'll ask later."

The male cultivator from the Zhou family had a guilty conscience and was unwilling to discuss the matter further. He excused himself, saying he had to go refine pills, and took his leave.

He turned his head and was still very annoyed.

What are you talking about regarding the magical artifacts and elixirs of the Zhou family?

Since Zhou Rongsheng's accident, he has been bedridden for more than half a year to recover. During this period, the Zhou family members have been scheming to divide power among themselves, and it is said that Zhou Rongsheng's second wife secretly took a lot of things back to her parents' home.

By the time Zhou Rongsheng had almost recovered, An Zhengzheng's Hundred Women's Pavilion had already joined forces with various powerful families to suppress the Zhou family!

The Zhou family is not what it used to be; even magical artifacts and elixirs are no longer distributed to the clan members so easily and casually.

This once-powerful family is now severely weakened, and it remains to be seen whether it can return to its former glory.

He was truly distressed. How could he have been so blinded by greed? Now, not only was he suffering the consequences, but the Zhou family was being suppressed so severely that the clansmen were too busy taking care of themselves to even begin his cultivation.

Is there any hope for the Zhou family?

However, precisely because the Zhou family was severely weakened, Zheng Xiaosha did not seek out the Zhou family.

When he returned from Qintianfu, his mind was filled with the words his master had told him.

Let him destroy it; consider it a loss.

"We made several trips, supervised the work, and revised the manuscript. Now they're just going to destroy it like that?"

Of course he didn't want to!

"An Zhengzheng, it would have been fine if you had just focused on your alchemy magazine business, but why did you have to meddle in the storybook industry..."

Recalling the sea maiden's amazement at the new storybook published by the Hundred Women's Pavilion, his heart felt as heavy as if it weighed a ton.

An Zhengzheng opened up the female cultivator market and then seized the male cultivator market through price wars, even defeating the Zhou family.

If she sets her sights on the storybook market, you can imagine what their future will be like!

Zheng Xiaosha felt increasingly uneasy, and these past few days he'd been so anxious he was practically bubbling at the mouth.

He finally managed to contact the major cultivation families. When the managers of the other families heard that he wanted to unite against An Zhengzheng's storybook market, they were so frightened that they shook their heads in fear.

No matter how eloquently he spoke or how grandly he discussed the future of storytelling, he was always shut down.

Finally, the Qi family couldn't stand his repeated harassment and sent their steward to secretly tell him, "No matter how eloquently you speak, it's useless. Nowadays, all the major cultivation families rely on the Hundred Maidens Pavilion for their livelihood. How can we be expected to sabotage them?"

Female cultivators, as cheap labor, completely lowered the production cost of elixirs and other items. Surely the major cultivation families couldn't reduce the wages of male workers?

That would surely drive them crazy with the male workers blocking the door and causing trouble!

They had considered hiring female workers, but for the same price, Bai Nu Ge offered the best benefits, so why come here?

But if they also raise the treatment of female workers, what's the difference between that and not lowering costs at all? Besides, the male workers would feel resentful.

How can a female cultivator be paid the same as them for the same work?

Anyway, Zheng Xiaosha messed around for more than a month, but failed to make a single ripple.

Until An Qinghuan's storybooks became very popular in the cultivation world.

This storybook swept through the entire cultivation world like a short drama about a domineering CEO, and even some male cultivators watched it out of curiosity.

This was quite a surprise; it turned out that Bai Nu Ge had also launched a male version of Long Aotian, which was being sold at Dongfengdu.

However, the harem plot was removed, and the focus was placed on political intrigue and martial arts.

This male-oriented storybook, which combines elements of action-packed anime, is also very popular.

Regardless of whether the stories are aimed at men or women, they occasionally mention the martial arts techniques sold by the Hundred Women Pavilion.

For a time, storybooks, magazines, and martial arts manuals were in short supply.

Even the male workers under Zheng Xiaosha had the idea of ​​switching jobs to other cultivation families, since the major cultivation families had become OEM factories for Bai Nu Ge and cooperated with Bai Nu Ge.

The original text of the story and martial arts techniques was provided by Bai Nu Ge.

The sea maiden was getting anxious.

She even secretly came to Zheng Xiaosha and said, "I have a way; I can easily imitate these stories..."

"I've read both of these books. Both start with the male and female protagonists being jilted at the beginning, and then..."

Having written traditional storybooks before, she was able to figure out some patterns.

But Zheng Xiaosha was devastated.

These days he leaves early and returns late, travels long and arduous, but sees no hope at all in bringing down An Zhengzheng.

"Now the Hundred Women's Pavilion is deliberately smearing our reputation and has even brought out some well-regarded storybooks. We are also isolated and helpless..."

He also took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

This was specially sent to him by An Zhengzheng; she had known about Zheng Xiaosha's activities these past few days for a while.

The sea maiden unfolded the note with great confusion, only to find it contained a stern warning.

An Zhengzheng even said she wouldn't mind having the photo stones from that day distributed for free with the Bai Nu Ge storybook magazine!

"We only made some changes to the storybook describing her... Why did she have to be so ruthless!"

The girl was shocked. An Zhengzheng was deliberately targeting them, and she was targeting them without any attempt to hide it.

Then another thought occurred to her, and she couldn't help but panic: "Could it be that while An Qinghuan was exhausting us, An Zhengzheng was already planning these methods?"

From stating the facts to seizing the market and then isolating them, she simply doesn't believe there was no deliberate arrangement.

But only half a month later, An Zhengzheng had already come up with a solution?

"Terrifying... The An family actually produced such a remarkable daughter..."

Zheng Xiaosha said with a sneer, "At least she gave us a way out."

His reminder made Hai remember the contents of the note.

"Yes! The note said... as long as we sell the cultivation techniques normally, she won't interfere anymore."

This must mean they're being let off the hook, right? As long as they don't try anything else?

Neither of them had been sleeping well these past few days.

The sea maiden tossed and turned in bed all night, and the next day she ran off to the Hundred Maidens Pavilion.

"Is Miss Hai here to see you, Miss?"

Dong'er wasn't surprised at all, which showed that An Zhengzheng had predicted it long ago.

An Zhengzheng met the girl Hai.

As soon as the sea maiden saw her, she accused her, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? Aren't you supposed to be a person who wholeheartedly cultivates the Tao? How can you be so petty and narrow-minded as to try to wipe us out over this matter?"

"They say women wear the crown and men take the blame, it's been like this for thousands of years! At first, some men didn't want to admit they were inferior to women, and later they were afraid of misleading the way they were being taught..."

We can't let the female cultivators realize that they can also achieve something. If they become ambitious, who will still be there to support their husbands and raise their children?

An Zhengzheng had already brewed the tea, but since the girl's face looked somewhat ferocious, she didn't invite her to drink it with her.

"So you still think I was trying to wipe you all out because of the storybooks from the Hundred Women's Pavilion?"

An Zhengzheng lowered her eyebrows slightly, feeling that the person opposite her was quite dull-witted.

"...Aren't you?"

Hai-guniang couldn't imagine what else she could have done to offend An Zhengzheng!

An Zhengzheng remained remarkably calm: "Of course not."

"I just think that you are too good at distorting the truth. It is against the natural order to let people like you control public opinion."

In my previous life, with over a billion people in China and billions worldwide, it was virtually impossible to monopolize public opinion.

Fortunately, this is the world of cultivation, a world inhabited by a group of people who are neither human nor ghost.

They couldn't let go of worldly fame, fortune, and emotions, nor could they let go of the cultivation techniques and skills of the immortal realm.

Even in a place where such a group of people gather, the number of independent cultivators does not exceed 100,000.

Therefore, even though the Zhou family became the number one family in the cultivation world, they still couldn't compare to the powerful An family of their previous life.

Similarly, in the public sphere, the perfect match between Zheng Xiaosha and Miss Hai became a popular topic of conversation in the world of storytelling...

For An Zhengzheng, it was far simpler than the advanced internet public opinion management of her previous life.

An Zhengzheng didn't even need to hire a team to come up with a solution.

"You...you want to control public opinion?" Miss Hai found it absurd.

An Zhengzheng shook her head slightly, and there seemed to be a shimmering light in her round almond-shaped eyes.

She said, "Why would I control public opinion? You said it yourself, I am a Taoist practitioner."

"What I've always done is uphold fairness and justice. So what if this dirty stage that's smearing female cultivators is overturned?"

Having learned about the trend of ideological liberation, An Zhengzheng knows the importance of thought to people.

“I’m targeting you, but I’m not just targeting you.”

An Zhengzheng put down her teacup, raised her eyes slightly, and looked at her calmly: "I just want a fair environment, an environment where the merits of female cultivators can be recorded truthfully, and the mistakes of men can be made public."

We must never repeat the mistakes of our past lives.

The diary of the female missionary who saved female students during the war became the inspiration for the film, but when she appeared on the big screen, she was portrayed as a male missionary.

The daughter, far from home, tried to save her best friend but was locked out and died tragically. It was her mother who fought for justice for her, but in the TV series, she became the husband.

The movie remake of the film about a middle-aged woman saving a little boy has been turned into a story about a male assassin who dies while seeking revenge on a girl holding a potted plant.

...All of these things can be described as women wearing crowns and men wearing them.

The nurse who was treating patients died after a little girl pulled down her mask, and the little girl was actually a boy with epilepsy.

The crazy aunt who blows up a bus with a pressure cooker, causing repeated deaths and restarts, is actually based on a male.

The mother committed suicide, leaving her three-year-old daughter to survive. The story is based on a husband who killed his wife and then committed suicide, leaving only his daughter behind.

The story of a girl falsely accusing a male teacher of sexual orientation and ruining his life is based on a young boy who falsely accused a female teacher.

...This is the case of the man carrying the pot while the woman carries it.

The unbearable experiences of her past life made An Zhengzheng almost want to vomit.

Regardless of nationality, race, or anything else, and without knowing where the tacit understanding came from, they all had a unified approach to the eight characters "women wear crowns, men carry pots and pans."

This is probably the most united time the entire planet has ever been.

With such a precedent, why worry about not being able to form a human community when aliens attack Earth in the future?

That's still possible.

Thinking of this, An Zhengzheng couldn't help but smile sarcastically.

The next second, her face turned cold again.

"madman!"

The sea maiden had no idea what An Zhengzheng was thinking. She only saw An Zhengzheng laughing one moment and then having a cold face the next, which she found strange.

"For some damned notion of fairness, that vague and ethereal thing... you're going to treat us like this? What kind of cultivators are you!"

What nonsense about fairness? It's dead. They're alive!

An Zhengzheng didn't argue with her, but asked her another question: "Do you know that Zheng Xiaosha also came to see me? I didn't even let him in the door, but I let you in. Have you ever thought about why?"

Of course, the sea maiden didn't know.

"I want to ask you, aren't you a female cultivator? Why are you so enthusiastic about smearing women and forcibly elevating men to a higher position?"

An Zhengzheng can accept the slander against her by others. Even though they maliciously speculated that she cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness for Zhou Xu's sake, she didn't care.

But she cannot accept betrayal from a woman.

When the sea maiden heard this question, it was as if she had heard something utterly ridiculous.

Does it matter who is being smeared? Does it matter who is being promoted?

She felt sorry for An Zhengzheng: "Those things have nothing to do with me. I only care about myself. If I don't change it that way, my script won't be approved and I won't be able to sell it."

"What do I care about female cultivators who are discriminated against, suppressed, and persecuted by the preference for sons over daughters? I have earned so much money and have a reputation. No matter how much suffering I endure, it will not fall on me. Only pitiful girls who have no one to rely on need this so-called fairness."

An Zhengzheng remained silent.

She had heard this idea from someone in her previous life.

That was one of her classmates, from a very well-off family.

While some women realize they no longer need to endure the drudgery of beauty due to high expenditures on skincare products, cosmetics, and clothing, they opt for comfortable treatments at upscale beauty salons.

When some women rebel against workplace sexual harassment, she is the boss's daughter, and no one dares to lay a hand on her.

While other women were fighting for understanding, tolerance, and better treatment regarding childbirth, she chose to go abroad and borrow another woman's uterus.

...In essence, it is the disregard for suffering that has not yet befallen oneself.

Having gotten the answer she wanted, An Zhengzheng remained silent.

With a casual wave of her hand, the sea maiden was thrown out of the backyard. The sea maiden was furious, but there was nothing she could do.

"If you see her again, don't let her in."

"yes."

An Zhengzheng gave instructions to everyone in the Hundred Women's Pavilion.

An Yirou learned of the news and came to the backyard of Bai Nu Ge to find her.

“Huh, sister, I thought you would save her.” An Yirou found it very strange.

An Zhengzheng laughed: "How do we save her? Tell her this is wrong, that is wrong?"

She definitely won't listen.

Besides, since the wound didn't fall on my own body, how could anyone feel the pain?

An Zhengzheng offered a few casual explanations, which An Yirou found reasonable, so she didn't pursue the matter further.

She hesitated for a moment, then thought of something else: "Oh, right, sister. I've calculated the dates, and these next few days should be Mother's due date..."

An Zhengzheng paused for a moment, looking at An Yirou who had grown much taller, and then suddenly realized what was happening.

Another year has almost passed!