It's impossible for her to acknowledge her biological father, not because she has any aversion to him, but simply because she feels there's no trace of him in her life.
Perhaps when he is very young, he is drowsy and unable to run or jump high. When other children laugh at him, he wonders why he doesn't have a father who can protect him.
But those thoughts were few and far between, so few that they never reappeared after his health gradually improved.
When he turned nineteen, he was suddenly asked to recognize a father, and another person was openly and legitimately in charge of him. How strange! He just couldn't bring himself to say "Dad".
Of course, if his great-uncle is willing to acknowledge him, he wouldn't mind at all. It's just calling him great-uncle; having another powerful backer is a good deal.
Upon hearing this, Xuan Ningcheng, both amused and exasperated, told him to get lost. What kind of person would rather acknowledge their biological father's uncle than their own father?
Qin Gu quickly left. His great-uncle could get his senior brother to act as an intermediary, so the two must have a good relationship. He was giving his great-uncle face, which was also giving face to his senior brother.
Ruan Bei and Qin Gu did not stay in Xuan Ning for long. Since the exchange competition required teams, it would be inappropriate for them to stay at their senior brother's house alone.
Qin Gu is alright; he can just compete alone. But Ruan Bei doesn't even know many people. Whether he forms a team or not is another matter, but at least he should go and make himself known.
On the day they left, Xuan Ning originally planned to have the family driver take them there. Ruan Bei had already put his luggage up, but he went over and carried it down for him: "Qin Gu, take this car. Xiao Bei, I'll call another car for you."
Ruan Bei, bewildered, held her suitcase and asked, "Why?"
Qin Gu also looked puzzled. Xuan Ningcheng glanced at him, wanting to say, "Don't you have any idea why? In the past two or three years, look at how you bullied the young contestants. Their elders even called him to complain."
Anyway, everyone knows his identity, so it doesn't matter if he goes there in his own car.
But Xiao Bei has never shown his face in public. Going with him would not reveal his identity, but would only invite him to get involved.
If the two of them could team up, that would be fine, but this time it's stipulated that fellow disciples can't team up. What if those people can't beat Qin Gu and take their anger out on Xiao Bei? His junior brother is so young, it would be so unfair if he were bullied.
Qin Gu finally understood. He turned his head away and coughed lightly. He used to beat people up just for the thrill, but now that he thought about it, his reputation didn't seem so good.
He was too embarrassed to explain to Ruan Bei, so he simply took the luggage down himself: "When you go to stay there, if you meet someone you like, you can team up with them. If anyone bullies you, don't hold back. Come back and tell me. If your teammates are not good, break up with them. Don't have any reservations."
"What about you? Aren't you going?" Ruan Bei was puzzled. Both his senior brother and Kun Kun were acting strangely today.
Qin Gu: "I'm too lazy to go anywhere. I didn't plan to team up anyway. I'll just stay at Senior Brother's place and go directly there when the time comes."
Ruan Bei blinked, looked at Xuan Ningcheng, then at Qin Gu; the two of them were clearly in agreement.
"Okay, if anything happens, I'll call you."
It was difficult to flag down a car here, so Qin Gu called Jiang Ran and asked him to come and drop Ruan Bei off. When Jiang Ran arrived, Qin Gu couldn't help but give him some more instructions, describing the characters of some people he knew who had bad tempers and couldn't get along with him, so that Ruan Bei wouldn't suffer at their hands.
Of course, he also considered going with Ruan Bei and directly threatening him.
But what if someone who is not afraid of death but holds a grudge against him and wants to vent their anger regardless of the consequences?
So let's play it safe.
Ruan Bei listened attentively next to him, then looked up and saw his senior brother's smiling eyes, as if he were looking at his own child who was about to start kindergarten. He immediately felt a little embarrassed: "Okay, okay, I know. I'm not that weak, am I..."
Everyone says he's talented; surely he shouldn't be at the bottom of the competition.
He had inquired and found out that he wasn't the only young disciple who had just graduated from his apprenticeship participating for the first time. It didn't matter if he didn't get a good ranking, as long as he wasn't last.
After waiting for a short while, Jiang Ran came over, greeted his boss nervously, and then took Ruan Bei to the hotel where the contestants were staying.
Ruan Bei first went back to his room to pack his luggage. After packing, he chatted with Qin Gu for a while. Seeing that it was lunchtime, he put on a coat and went to eat.
Their accommodation included three meals a day, and since he wasn't familiar with the area, he decided to eat at the hotel.
Just as he closed the door behind him, a head of striking blue hair popped out of the next room, walking clumsily while on the phone, and almost bumped into Ruan Bei.
Ruan Bei reached out to help him up, and the blue-haired man looked up at him with an embarrassed smile, saying into his phone, "Let's talk about it when I get downstairs."
"Sorry, bro."
"It's nothing." Ruan Bei noticed that he was about the same age as her and decided to strike up a conversation: "Are you also here for the exchange competition?"
"That's right, how many of those who come here aren't?"
The blue-haired guy, all nonchalant, reached out his hand to him: "My name is Mao Xiaoqian, 'qian' means 'forward.' What's your name, brother?"
"Ruan Bei, the north of the four directions." Ruan Bei reached out and shook hands with him.
Mao Xiaoqian was clearly a natural at making friends, shaking Ruan Bei's hand and saying, "Hello, hello, want to go down for dinner? Together?"
"Okay, I'm new here, I don't know the way, and I don't know anyone." Ruan Bei smiled shyly, like a fledgling bird just out of the nest, revealing a bit of clumsy and cute childishness.
Upon hearing this and seeing that he was alone, Mao Xiaoqian assumed that he was a rogue cultivator accompanied by a junior cultivator. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, a child who looked so innocent would definitely be accompanied by an experienced elder or senior brother or sister.
"I know it well, it's okay. With your Brother Mao, you definitely won't suffer any losses." Mao Xiaoqian patted his thin chest loudly.
Ruan Beile had someone to guide him, and since Mao Xiaoqian's name wasn't on the list of people he couldn't cooperate with provided by Kunkun, he happily followed Mao Xiaoqian.
Mao Xiaoqian led him to the self-service restaurant downstairs, where three young men in their early twenties were already waiting and waving at Mao Xiaoqian from afar.
Mao Xiaoqian waved and greeted Ruan Bei with a big brother-like demeanor, leading him to get a tray and food, and then they carried it together to the table where the young people were sitting.
"Move aside and take care of the new guy." Mao Xiaoqian kicked the stool leg, asked for another seat next to his own, and let Ruan Bei sit down.
Across from Mao Xiaoqian stood a boy with fair skin but ordinary features. He looked at Ruan Bei carefully for a few moments and asked curiously, "Young man, what's your background? You look kind of familiar to me."
Upon hearing this, the others also stared at Ruan Bei, and then some said they were familiar with him, while others said they weren't.
Mao Xiaoqian kicked forward: "Old Bai, what are you staring at? Xiao Ruan... he does look familiar. Isn't this your first time participating in an exchange competition?"
"Yes." Ruan Bei swallowed the food in her mouth and answered with her eyes downcast, looking extremely obedient.
"Holy crap, I remember now!" The pale-faced boy across from him clapped his hands: "I remember now, that trending topic from a while ago, 'Switched Baby into a Wealthy Family'!"
We're all young people, and we also read entertainment gossip in our spare time. When Lao Bai mentioned it, everyone who had seen it remembered it, since it's quite hard to forget Ruan Bei's face.
It's quite embarrassing to hear someone bring this up in person, but after Lao Bai blurted it out, he saw Ruan Bei hanging his head and not saying anything, so he showed an embarrassed expression.
"Can't you speak properly? Can't you speak properly?!" Mao Xiaoqian said as he kicked him, making Lao Bai grimace and apologize to Ruan Bei repeatedly.
"It's alright, the whole country knows about it now anyway." Ruan Bei smiled, her obedient and well-behaved appearance quite endearing.
Old Bai scratched his head, smiled sheepishly, and apologized to Ruan Bei again: "Sorry, I'm quick-witted, so feel free to hit me if I say something wrong, just don't be angry."
Another bespectacled, refined-looking boy smiled and smoothed things over: "No wonder, I noticed your umbrella was unusual back then, it must be a magical artifact."
"Yes, it was a birthday present from my senior brother."
"You have a senior brother?" Mao Xiaoqian asked in surprise. "Isn't he with you?"
“He didn’t come over,” Ruan Bei said.
He was saying that Qin Gu hadn't come to the hotel, but Mao Xiaoqian and the others thought he hadn't come to participate in the competition. They figured he was probably too old, otherwise, in most cases, those who could participate would come, and even if they didn't win first place, the gifts for second and third place wouldn't be bad.
The top ten even receive an encouragement prize, which is quite good for those independent cultivators.
Even if we don't make it into the top ten, we can still exchange ideas and trade any unused talismans, magical artifacts, or materials. There are always these spontaneous little markets held before each competition.
The others saw that Ruan Bei was handsome and refined, but had a good personality, so they gradually started chatting.
Then Mao Xiaoqian said that it was his first time here, he didn't know anything, and he didn't have any elders with him, so they rushed to help him explain things.
After listening to their conversation, Ruan Bei realized that, as his senior brother had said, the news that teams could be formed for this competition had already been spread.
These guys usually get along well, and after hearing the news, they decided to form a team.
They also told Ruan Bei about some of the team-up details he didn't know.
Since this competition allows both teams and individuals to participate, it may seem unfair to individual participants. However, because this competition is based on points, if a team participates, the team's final score is the average of their individual scores divided by the number of team members.
In this way, those who want to curry favor or be carried will have to think twice.
Adding one more person increases the denominator by a number, potentially skewing the average score by an unknown amount. If you're not careful, it won't just be a case of carrying the team to victory, but the whole team failing.
Of course, teaming up has its advantages. With more people, you can take on more missions, including more difficult missions that award higher points.
If the organizers are unethical and allow participants to compete and fight over tasks, having more people will have an advantage when things get heated.
Ruan Bei listened with great interest. It was his first time participating in such a large-scale real-life competition, and he felt both excited and nervous, as well as somewhat expectant.
After listening to Mao Xiaoqian and the others' analysis, he also felt that forming a team was a better option, but he didn't know anyone and was too embarrassed to just grab someone and ask.
Mao Xiaoqian and the others are all quite easy to get along with, but they seem to be very capable. In their conversation just now, they clearly expressed their intention to dominate the competition and win first place.
Ruan Bei didn't think he was the worst among the contestants, but he was too embarrassed to tell the winning team that he wanted to join, because that would be dragging them down.
Not wanting to embarrass others by revealing his thoughts, Ruan Bei listened obediently from beginning to end. When they praised each other, Ruan Bei even cooperated by giving them amazed and admiring looks and expressions.
His upbringing taught him to listen attentively to others, and his sincere expression made Mao Xiaoqian and the others extremely happy, praising him as if they had already won first place in this exchange competition.
Seeing how cooperative Ruan Bei was, Lao Bai got carried away and couldn't resist pulling Ruan Bei along, trying to get him to join: "Why don't you join us?"
"Ah...this..."
Ruan Bei felt that he had once again misspoke. In order to prevent him from being beaten up by his teammates, he was about to refuse when Mao Xiaoqian spoke up first: "Yeah, aren't you alone? You don't know anything and you look easy to bully. Follow me, and we'll protect you and help you get first place!"
Ruan Bei subconsciously looked at the others. The other two were stunned for a moment. The boy with glasses pushed up his glasses and nodded: "I think it's okay."
Another tall boy nodded in agreement when he heard him say that: "I'll listen to the elementary school student."
The bespectacled boy punched him. Ruan Bei already knew from their conversation that his name was Conan, which matched Ruan Bei's name quite well, except that it was the same as a certain famous elementary school student who was a death god. His friends would jokingly call him "elementary school student."
Ruan Bei was very tempted, but he felt he had to make things clear so that if the competition started and they found out that his skills were not up to average, he would be too embarrassed to ask them to leave, which would make things even more awkward for him.
So he honestly replied, "This is my first time participating in a competition, and I haven't been cultivating for very long. I've only been on a mission alone once before. I'm just an ordinary kid."
"It's alright, your umbrella should be pretty strong. It should be able to protect you. It would be even better if it could lend us a hand," Conan said calmly.
He wasn't like Lao Bai, who spoke without thinking. After analyzing the situation, he figured that even if Ruan Bei was holding his umbrella, he wouldn't be a major hindrance, since he couldn't draw many of the talismans on it.
Although Mao Xiaoqian is the leader among the four, Conan is probably the strategist, and everyone takes his words seriously.
Since everyone agreed, Ruan Bei didn't hesitate and happily agreed to join them.
Now that we've finished eating, let's go to Mao Xiaoqian's room together to discuss the competition.
With a new teammate, we introduced ourselves again, this time including some details about our individual skills and abilities.
Mao Xiaoqian is the youngest in the Mao family of this generation. He has eight older siblings, and his eldest cousin's eldest son is two years older than him.
The Mao family is a long-standing family of practitioners, but in earlier years, they were most famous for their practice of transporting corpses.
Of course, that job doesn't exist anymore; if you were to take a corpse on the road, you'd get arrested by the police.
So they changed their business and started doing funeral services, such as custom-made coffins, paper offerings, and tombstones. They have a chain of stores.
This is a common industry. In terms of cultivation, because it is impossible to determine which aspect of the descendants' talents they are inclined towards, such families generally have a variety of professions unless there are some bloodline-related restrictions that prevent each generation from working in the same industry.
Mao Xiaoqian is a Taoist master. He usually follows his elders to cultivate. With the backing of his family, he has sufficient resources for cultivation and has several magical artifacts.
When Ruan Bei saw the compass and other magical artifacts that he brought with him when he took the peach wood sword, he secretly touched the soul-capturing bell tied to his wrist. He only had two magical artifacts.
Lao Bai, whose full name is Bai Mingliang, prefers to be called Lao Bai when introducing himself.
He is a disciple of a small sect and frankly stated that he was also adopted by his master and brought back from the orphanage when he was very young.
Old Bai is a feng shui master, skilled in finding dragon veins and pinpointing acupoints... He's not good at it. It's harder to become a feng shui master than a celestial master. However, he knows a bit about formations and can also read qi.
In the past, when I competed in tournaments, I was always fighting alone and it was easy for me to get beaten up. This time, I finally had a chance, and it was quite comfortable to play support.
Yin Kai, that tall guy, is a body cultivator that Ruan Bei has never seen before.
Body cultivation is a very rare branch in the cultivation system. It does not cultivate spiritual energy but focuses on the power of blood and qi, and learns the methods of body refinement.
Yin Kai started training from a young age, and he has soaked in countless medicinal baths to nourish his meridians and body. Those medicinal baths were incredibly expensive, and Yin Kai felt a pang of heartache just thinking about them.
However, the effect is good; ghosts usually have to back away when they bump into him, for fear of being overwhelmed by his vigorous blood and energy.
Moreover, he is physically stronger than the average person, so he is not easily injured, and even if he is injured, he heals faster.
In short, he is the tank role in the team, standing in front of his teammates.
Finally, let's talk about Conan. He doesn't come from any prestigious sect or family, but his parents are both cultivators.
His father was a weapon maker and his mother was a talisman maker. Once these two families made it big, they would never lack money.
Conan's parents aren't exactly top-tier, but they're still quite famous, so Conan is considered a wealthy second-generation heir.
As for Conan himself, Mao Xiaoqian eagerly introduced him: "He used to learn weapon crafting from his father, but he has now switched careers and is learning talisman drawing from his mother."
Before Ruan Bei could ask any questions, he chuckled and said, "Are you going to ask why? Because last year, the Great Demon King slapped a lightning talisman in his face, which made him depressed. He went back and switched to cultivation."
Conan grabbed Mao Xiaoqian's blue hair, pinned him to the floor, and gave him a good beating before clapping his hands, standing up, and sneering, "You talk as if you weren't blown up."
He sounded like a terrifying person. Looking up, Ruan Bei asked tremblingly, "Who is the Great Demon King?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
