Chapter 17 Your Seventeenth Brother

"Your Seventeenth Brother..."

Hearing Lingjun's words, Zhang Yuanqing's first reaction was: "How many siblings do you have, and where do you rank among them?"

The term "Seventeenth Brother" had a distinct Qing Dynasty drama flavor. Lingjun seemed to have quite a few siblings. Lingjun pondered for a moment and replied, "About a dozen before the founding of the country. After the founding, fifty or sixty, I don't remember the exact number. I rank forty-third at home."

Zhang Yuanqing was stunned. As a socialist successor and a good youth of the new era who received nine years of compulsory education, his mind couldn't fully process such shocking information.

After a few seconds of silence, he murmured, "What a stud." He always heard Lingjun using the phrase "stud father," thinking it was just mockery and disparagement, but he didn't expect it to be a statement of fact.

"A stud is just a breeding machine without emotion. He chooses women based solely on genes and talent, with no affection whatsoever. Isn't that a stud? My mom was only twenty-two when she married into the Taiyi Sect. He was over a hundred years old. If the law worked on demigods, he'd be executed over a hundred times because his wives could fill the entire Fu Jiawan." Lingjun's words were filled with disdain for his father.

"Hearing that makes me envious," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Did your dad build a building to use as a harem?"

"Not really. Although he had many women, most of them remarried."

"What?" Zhang Yuanqing didn't understand.

Lingjun curled his lip. "He's a stud. A stud's mission is to breed and strengthen the clan. As for the women, as long as they give birth to children, he doesn't care if they leave or stay. He wouldn't care even if those women got together with Old Qin, the doorman. Anyway, he won't touch most of the women who bear children again."

"However, I think that's the only commendable thing about him. At least he doesn't restrict those women's freedom. They still have their own lives."

"Our values are strongly impacted." Zhang Yuanqing said, "What about your mother?"

"My mom returned to the Lingjing in the second year after I was born. Once, she entered a dungeon and never came back." Lingjun sighed.

"Why do the people around me all have dead fathers and mothers, or are better off dead?" Zhang Yuanqing was full of complaints. But then he thought, if Lingjun had both parents, Guan Ya wouldn't have said his childhood was a tragedy, would she? Speaking of which, the Grand Elder of the Baihua Hui (Hundred Flowers Society) is obviously not a wood妖 (*yao*, demon) with reproductive attributes, otherwise Lingjun's cousins would fill this villa.

Lingjun shrugged, not caring. "Let's not talk about my mom. I barely have any memories of her."

"Let's continue talking about that stud. He was among the first Lingjing Xingzhe, a man from the Republic of China era. He's lived for over a hundred years. He figured out the pattern of character card distribution very early on. The higher the level, the higher the probability that the offspring will receive a character card. Before the founding of the country, his level wasn't that high. After the founding of the country, he was promoted to demigod and began to frantically reproduce. If you spend the effort to investigate, you'll find that every ancestor of the Lingjing aristocratic families has more than twenty children."

"So, your philandering is a family tradition?" Zhang Yuanqing asked in surprise.

"And yet, your grandpa still married his granddaughter to that Taiyi Sect Master?"

"Does Guan Ya want to marry into the Miller family?" Lingjun sneered. "Love is something only the petite bourgeoisie can afford. The poor can't afford it, and the powerful disdain it. If you advance to demigod in the future, so many daughters from the Five Elements Alliance will be available for you to choose from. Guan Ya won't be able to stop it."

"That's true. Once I reach the demigod stage, Guan Ya will probably want to break up with me. With my self-healing ability, I can still be independent..." Zhang Yuanqing fantasized about the self-healing ability of a demigod for a moment, then brought the topic back on track. "Let's not talk about these things. What's the deal with your Seventeenth Brother?"

A look of emotion appeared in Lingjun's eyes as he recalled, "He was the seventeenth son of my stud father after the founding of the country. When I was very young, he was especially kind to me. He was different from my other siblings. He was calm, gentle, and fair. The younger siblings all liked him."

"Because he would bring us gifts and warn those older brothers who liked to bully us. He was the most talented son my father had after the founding of the country. He became a Ruler at a young age, on equal footing with the elders of the Taiyi Sect."

Zhang Yuanqing pondered. "How old is he? What's his Lingjing ID? What position does he hold now?" The Taiyi Sect Master was among the first Lingjing Xingzhe, at least one hundred and thirty years old. Even if the Seventeenth Son was born after the founding of the country, he would probably be old enough to be his grandfather. The stud Sect Master was fully capable of having his harem concubines pregnant at the same time. The age difference between the first and seventeenth sons might not be that great.

The slogan of the Xiaoyao Organization (Carefree Organization) was chuuni (adolescent delusions of grandeur). Zhang Zizhen and Chu Shang were both young people, so they could accept such a slogan. The Shadow Twins probably weren't too old either. After all, adults over the age of thirty would only laugh at the ideal of saving the world, let alone battle-hardened old guys.

"My Seventeenth Brother's Lingjing ID was Ling Tuo. If he's still alive, he should be forty-seven or forty-eight years old." Lingjun recalled the untimely death. "If he hadn't died, he would definitely be an Elder. Oh, I know what you want to ask. Why was he the seventeenth son after the founding of the country? Because all the children before the founding of the country died. After all, not everyone can become a Lingjing Xingzhe, and the death rate for Lingjing Xingzhe is even higher."

"If the Lingjing world wants to maintain the number of Xingzhe, it has to keep having children. Most of them will be ordinary people for life, and a small number will become Lingjing Xingzhe, but the death rate of Lingjing Xingzhe is too high, so you have to have babies like crazy."

"Dead?" Zhang Yuanqing didn't pay attention to the second half of the sentence. His pupils constricted slightly, and his heart skipped a few beats. A thought flashed through his mind: "It's him! The Shadow Nightwalker! Is he Lingjun's brother?"

Outstanding talent, not old, a peak Ruler, with a sense of justice, perfectly fitting the identity of the Nightwalker among the Shadow Twins. As the son of the Taiyi Sect Master, Lingjun's brother had abundant resources, guides, items, and sect help. Coupled with his own extraordinary talent, it was entirely possible for him to advance to peak Ruler at a young age.

"Did the Shadow Twins also meet with misfortune?" Zhang Yuanqing sighed. "When exactly did your Seventeenth Brother die, and what was the cause of his death?"

Lingjun stared at him, frowning deeply. "Do you suspect my Seventeenth Brother is the Nightwalker of the Shadow Twins?" Zhang Yuanqing nodded.

Lingjun hissed. He hadn't been interested in this matter, but now he suddenly perked up and took out his phone, saying, "I'll check the Taiyi Sect's database..."

He quickly logged into his account and searched for "Ling Tuo," but no entry was found. There was no Ling Tuo in the Taiyi Sect's database. "Hiss..."

Zhang Yuanqing and Lingjun gasped at the same time. The teacher and student said in unison, "There's a problem!"

Lingjun frowned, trying to recall, and slowly said, "I remember... Seventeenth Brother died in the year Forty-ninth Sister was born. She's twenty-three years old this year. Hmm, I remember now. Seventeenth Brother died in 1999. He seemed to have died in a dungeon, at least that's what they said at the time. I was sad for a long time because Seventeenth Brother was nice to me."

"He returned to the Lingjing in 1999. I didn't expect the Shadow Nightwalker to be the first to die. Then, in 2000, the Chu family was exterminated. In 2006, my dad returned to the Lingjing." Zhang Yuanqing quickly sorted out the timeline. The data showed that the Xiaoyao Organization disappeared after the battle for the Compass of Light in 1998. The Palace Master said that his father had been worried later on, worried that the enemy would come to his door. For this reason, he didn't dare keep the Palace Master by his side and could only give her away.

"The one who could make my dad so fearful is most likely a demigod. But who could it be?"

"Well, Ling Tuo was the first to die. He's the source of this matter." Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts turned, and he took the initiative to speak. "That senior once said that among the four members of the Xiaoyao Organization, someone snatched the most core fragment of the Compass of Light."

"In the following years, the Lieyang Twins died one after another. Now it's confirmed that your brother was the first to die, and the other Shadow is probably dead too." He took the initiative to share information, putting on a curious posture to discuss the past. "Anyway, Lingjun isn't a scout, so he won't be able to tell."

"Are you saying that Seventeenth Brother suffered a disaster because of the core fragment of the Compass of Light?" Lingjun's expression was solemn. "That makes sense, but it's unlikely. If I were Seventeenth Brother and knew someone was coveting the Compass of Light fragment, I would definitely hide in the Taiyi Sect and not come out. The stud father is the strongest Nightwalker, and the elders in the sect are also a force to be reckoned with. Even a demigod couldn't kill him under the Taiyi Sect's nose."

Speaking of this, Lingjun shrugged, "Unless the stud father did it, otherwise..." His expression suddenly froze.

Zhang Yuanqing's face suddenly became dull.

Then, the teacher and student tacitly turned their heads and looked at the table on the computer, and were stunned again.

Lingjun's eyelids twitched violently, almost jumping out of his chair. "Impossible, this is impossible..."

Zhang Yuanqing said quietly, "Isn't this more reasonable? Otherwise, how do you explain that Ling Tuo's information was erased? In the Taiyi Sect, the number of people who can do this is very small. You, you, you... Don't talk nonsense," Lingjun said excitedly, slightly ferocious. "If it's for the Compass of Light fragment, he can just ask Seventeenth Brother for it. In the Taiyi Sect, no one can disobey him, not even the elders."

"And why did he erase Seventeenth Brother's information?" Hua Gongzi (Playboy) rarely lost his composure like this.

"Why he erased it isn't important. The erasure itself is the most important thing. If your Seventeenth Brother's death was not a problem and was purely accidental, then is it necessary to erase the information?" Zhang Yuanqing slowly said, "As for the Compass of Light fragment, this shows that... The Compass of Light is not as simple as we thought. It's not just an item. It has a deeper purpose, a purpose that made Ling Tuo refuse to hand over the Compass of Light fragment to his father."

"Bullshit, these are all your guesses." Lingjun's expression was ferocious.

No, it wasn't a guess. Senior once said that the Compass of Light fragment was a bargaining chip. The Palace Master said that the Xiaoyao Organization had solved the secret of the Lingjing. The Compass of Light could make the four members of the Xiaoyao Organization risk their lives to compete for it, so it was definitely not just a prophecy item. It must have a special purpose.

The reason why Ling Tuo didn't hand over the Compass of Light fragment was sufficient, but it was still unclear why he didn't hand it over to his own father.

If the enemy of the four members of the Xiaoyao Organization was the Taiyi Sect Master, then everything could be explained. The reason why the Shadow Nightwalker was the first to die was explained. The reason why Zhang Zizhen was so afraid of the enemy was also explained. The reason why the Palace Master didn't tell him the truth back then was also explained. The core fragment of the Compass of Light shouldn't be in Ling Tuo's hands, otherwise there wouldn't have been any follow-up. The Taiyi Sect Master learned that his son was one of the Xiaoyao Four through Soul Devouring (噬灵, *shi ling*) and obtained information about the organization. Because the enemy was too powerful and terrifying, the Xiaoyao Organization disappeared back then and never dared to venture into the martial world again?

"So the mastermind is the Taiyi Sect Master?" Zhang Yuanqing's heart was quietly surging with shock.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the emotions in his heart, and said, "Whether it's a guess or not, we'll know if we check it. Oh well, I'm just curious. Since it involves the Taiyi Sect Master, then let's stop here." He said this deliberately, first taking himself out of the topic. The past was discussed to this point. Even if he didn't check, Lingjun would definitely go check. Lingjun's backing was the Grand Elder and Fu Qingyang. The former represented the Baihua Hui (Hundred Flowers Society), and the latter represented the *wan shuai* (playboy). This was much more stable than Yuan Shi Tianzun (Primordial Celestial Honored One) crossing the river by feeling for stones alone.

Lingjun sat blankly in the chair, his face and eyes dull, like a sculpture.

"Fifteen minutes have long passed. Tutor, aren't you going to find a girl for a date? Oh, you're probably not in the mood anymore." He was like a scumbag who didn't recognize people after pulling up his pants and said, "I'm going back to eat noodles." He snapped his fingers and disappeared as starlight.

Eight o'clock in the evening, Guan Ya's room. Zhang Yuanqing sat at the table, editing a message for Jia Yinji: "The Void Sect has replied. We'll meet in Jinshan City tomorrow night. They specified that you and I must go, without any elders. Also, bring a Saint-level Knight item." The message was sent successfully.

According to Fu Qingyang, the capture operation of Elder Honglv and Elder Gaofeng was in a stalemate, and they couldn't find the Chunyang (Pure Yang) Headmaster at all. That lunatic seemed to be hiding and developing in a wretched manner. This was very bad. The Chunyang Headmaster had entered his sea of consciousness and knew the existence of the Taiyin fragment. In the future, when he regained his strength, he would definitely hunt him down. Therefore, he and the old banger were the same - if the Chunyang Headmaster didn't die, he wouldn't be able to sleep or eat in peace.

Yinji quickly replied, "Received. I'll ask my master."

A few seconds later, another message was sent: "Thank you!" It was clear that this news was very important to them. Zhang Yuanqing stared at the wall for a few seconds, then sent a message to Zisha Gongzhu (Slaughter Palace Master): "Is it the strongest one back then?" He believed that Zisha Gongzhu could understand. After the message was sent, he waited left and right, but he didn't receive a reply from Zisha Gongzhu.

No reply meant tacit agreement. Zhang Yuanqing put down his phone, sighed softly, and walked towards the bathroom while saying, "Sister Guan Ya, help me get a bath towel and a change of clothes from the room."

"Okay." Guan Ya, who was sitting on the chaise longue by the window, put down the book in her hand and got up to leave the room.

In the bathroom, the air was filled with the fragrance of shampoo and shower gel. In the bamboo basket, women's lace underwear and dresses were scattered in a mess. Guan Ya had just finished taking a shower.

Zhang Yuanqing took off his clothes and threw them into the bamboo basket, staring at how his own clothes covered Guan Ya's dresses. He chuckled.

When he was at home, his fastidious grandmother paid special attention to this kind of categorization. She bought each person in the family a bamboo basket, her own basket containing her clothes, and was not allowed to mix them up. To Zhang Yuanqing, mixing was a symbol of intimacy. "The taste of love is really good."

The joy of the coming night offset the bad mood tonight.

If it had been normal, knowing that the enemy was the Taiyi Sect Master, he wouldn't have been able to sleep well tonight. Zhang Yuanqing entered the shower naked. Next door was the bathtub. Guan Ya's room was very large, and the bathroom and toilet were separate.

Knock knock.

Yinji raised her hand and knocked on the door of her teacher, Elder Hongying.

The door opened silently, and the female ghost behind the door respectfully saluted Yinji.

Yinji passed through the foyer and outer hall and entered the master bedroom. She saw Elder Hongying wearing a silk nightgown, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the night view of the bustling city. "What's the matter?"

Elder Hongying didn't turn around. She was over fifty years old, but her figure was still voluptuous and graceful. Looking only at her back, she could still amaze the opposite sex. The age of forty or fifty was considered young among Ruler-level Lingjing Xingzhe.

"Teacher, Yuan Shi Tianzun sent a message saying that he has contacted the people from the Void Sect." Yinji said.

Hearing this, Elder Hongying's solemn face showed surprise and relief. "This Yuan Shi Tianzun is unexpectedly reliable. Tell me the specific situation."

Yinji told her teacher the contents of the message. "They only let you and Yuan Shi Tianzun go?"

Elder Hongying frowned and thought for a moment. "You can try. In addition to the Knight's item, I will also give you two items. One is the Lieyang Mirror (*lie yang jing*, scorching sun mirror) that I often use, and the other is a Saint-level tortoise shell." The latter could predict good and bad luck. "Use it with astrology to be careful." As she spoke, she gently waved her hand, and two items appeared out of thin air and flew towards Yinji.

Yinji respectfully took them. "Thank you, teacher."

Elder Hongying turned around and stared at her disciple with a black veil and a graceful figure, and smiled softly, "Do you often contact Yuan Shi Tianzun?"

"Occasionally," Yinji replied.

The smile on the corner of Elder Hongying's mouth grew deeper. "Besides being members of the Taiyi Sect, you almost don't contact outsiders. Are you fond of him?"

Yinji frowned slightly. "If the teacher doesn't like it, I won't contact him."

"No, this is very good." Elder Hongying walked over, caressed Yinji's hair, and sighed. "I feel guilty about that matter back then, but it has been two years, you should forget about that person and find your own life. Yuan Shi Tianzun is very good, from the official background, talented, and has unlimited potential in the future, worthy of you."

Yinji silently took two steps back and bowed. "Teacher, I'll go back to rest first."

Elder Hongying shook her head helplessly.

"Sister Guan Ya, good luck."

In the dark, Zhang Yuanqing's pleading voice sounded again.

The air conditioner delivered cold wind, bringing bursts of coolness. By the bed, there were scattered nightgowns, underwear, and balls of tissues. The bed was a mess. Guan Ya wrapped her full and hot body in the quilt, tightly wrapped, only revealing her head, facing her boyfriend with the back of her head, pretending not to understand. "Good luck, good luck." Zhang Yuanqing tirelessly hinted.

Guan Ya gritted her teeth and said, "Am I too used to you?" From last night to daytime, from daytime to tonight, Yuan Shi's demands could be described as terrifying. Although Guan Ya was a Saint, she was a little difficult to resist, but she still allowed him again and again.

She was six years older than Yuan Shi and had a standard sister-brother relationship, so she spoiled him everywhere. She didn't expect this kid to climb up the pole and become more and more excessive. Zhang Yuanqing begged a few more times. Seeing that she still didn't agree, he knew that things couldn't be done and reluctantly gave up, saying, "Okay then, good sister, I still want..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a murderous aura, and two fingers pressed against his head, followed by Guan Ya's angry voice. "How can you be so fresh every day from morning to night? Don't you need maintenance? Sleep!"

Zhang Yuanqing shivered in fright and quickly shrank back. He laughed and said, "That makes sense, that makes sense."

After Guan Ya retracted her sword fingers, he moved back, hugged her smooth and fragrant body, and fell asleep.