The Master and His Wealthy Fiancée

Chen Dong had just walked through the Ghost Gate again, and his heart turned cold with alarm.

'I was too careless. Did I get too comfortable from my time in the modern world, or is this bad luck already affecting my intelligence?'

To think I'd rashly used my Divine Sense to probe them without knowing their strength. This incident was a wake-up call for Chen Dong.

If that woman, Feng Wei, had actually struck him, it would have all been over.

'This damned luck!'

From their conversation, he learned that Feng Wei couldn't sense Divine Sense, but Mu Qingzhu had a Protective Spiritual Artifact that could. The one who had walked right past Chen Dong was Mu Qingzhu, not Feng Wei, which almost exposed him.

Even though he'd learned the general level of their cultivation, it wasn't worth risking his life for it.

After that, Chen Dong was in no mood to continue browsing and went straight downstairs, preparing to head back to the Prince's Mansion.

He carefully made his way through two streets, terrified that some lunatic would jump out and stab him.

With his current luck, something like that wasn't entirely out of the question.

Upon returning to the Prince's Mansion, he went to the small courtyard where he had rested yesterday and began to process the medicinal herbs.

He thought to himself, 'Right now, I don't just need to recover my body and rebuild my cultivation. I also have to solve this problem with my luck. Otherwise, I'll die because of it sooner or later.'

But this thing called luck was too ethereal. Chen Dong didn't know any methods to increase it, only that he had vaguely sensed his luck increasing after saving many people back in his old world.

But to save people, you needed cultivation. Punishing the wicked, helping the weak, healing the sick—all these methods required cultivation to be carried out effectively.

The problem circled back again: to cultivate, he first had to recover his body.

Most of the herbs he bought this time were for his own recovery. Not wanting to entrust the task to others, Chen Dong started a fire in the courtyard and began to brew the medicine.

He first brewed a bowl of a calming and brain-nourishing formula, gave it to Wang Yang, and told him to deliver it to Wang Xian'Er.

After all, he had bought so many herbs; it would be strange if he didn't produce something.

In truth, Wang Xian'Er's sleeping sickness had been cured after the first acupuncture session. Chen Dong's explanation at the time was just a ploy because he didn't know the Wang Family's attitude, a way to make them hesitate and give himself an insurance policy.

As it turned out, the Wang Family truly did have 'ill intentions' toward him, so the insurance policy paid off. Otherwise, Chen Dong certainly wouldn't be so free right now.

Since Wang Xian'Er was just recovering from a brain ailment, a calming and brain-nourishing formula was perfectly appropriate. It also served as a proper account for his actions.

After that, Chen Dong began brewing the herbs he needed for himself, dividing them into two portions: one for internal use and one for a medicinal bath.

The Wang Family naturally agreed to his request for a bath. While making the arrangements, Wang Yang also brought a message from Wang Xian'Er: "She said... she's still unable to get out of bed, or else she would definitely come over to properly thank her husband, and so on..."

This gave Chen Dong a fright. If Wang Xian'Er came to thank him, there was no telling *how* she would do it. What if she offered herself to him? That would be a disaster.

Chen Dong felt that with his current frail body, he definitely wouldn't survive being manhandled by that three- to four-hundred-pound frame.

For the sake of his own innocence, he had to speed up his cultivation recovery.

A dozen or so servants, following Chen Dong's instructions, first placed a wooden bathtub in the room and then poured the heated medicinal liquid into it.

Once everything was ready, Chen Dong closed the door, downed the internal medicine in one gulp, then stripped off his clothes and jumped directly into the tub.

A stinging pain instantly racked his entire body, nearly causing Chen Dong to pass out. Thankfully, the internal medicine slowly dulled the agony while simultaneously repairing his body from the inside and out.

Gritting his teeth in the medicinal bath, Chen Dong attempted to circulate his energy.

After painstakingly completing a Small Circulation, a faint wisp of True Qi was generated in Chen Dong's Dantian.

Although Chen Dong had lost his Realm entirely, his body's foundation remained. He could directly skip the two initial stages of tempering the muscles and bones—the External Strength and Inner Strength phases—and begin cultivating True Qi.

Just as Chen Dong refined that first wisp of True Qi, the four originally dim pillars of light in his sea of consciousness also produced a tiny glimmer of fluorescence.

Then, a sudden realization struck him: he had less than three months left to live.

He also remembered that the Array hadn't just extracted his luck; it had drained his lifespan as well, leaving him with only a sliver.

It was the generation of this wisp of True Qi that caused the Golden Lotus Radiance in Chen Dong's sea of consciousness to flare, waking him as if by the tolling of a great bell of the Dao. Chen Dong's mind reeled in horror.

'This damned luck really can affect a person's intelligence!'

'No wonder so many people make foolish decisions when their luck is low.'

'If not for the warning from the Spiritual Golden Lotus, the consequences would have been unimaginable.'

Now was not the time to be cultivating True Qi. Master Wang, a man capable of supporting the entire Wang Family, was no fool; his methods were undoubtedly decisive and ruthless. The only reason Chen Dong had this much freedom was because he was supposedly ignorant of the Martial Dao and possessed no True Qi. If he suddenly developed True Qi, the Wang Family would surely discover it. He would then face strict confinement, unable to even touch medicinal herbs, and his cultivation might even be sealed away.

Chen Dong lay in the medicinal bath, thinking desperately. 'Dammit, what do I do now?'

He really didn't want to become husband and wife with that Wang Xian'Er.

The only thing he could think of right now was the Drunken Immortal Brew from the Drunken Immortal Tower. If he could just get his hands on some—not even all seven varieties, just three or four would be enough for self-preservation.

But how was he supposed to get the three hundred Spirit Stones?

Chen Dong submerged his entire body in the medicinal bath and, finally, dissipated the wisp of True Qi he had just cultivated.