03

When Zhang Wei arrived at the manor following the memories in his head, he was not surprised to see the crowd gathered there. From the memories of the original host, his father had ascended to the seventh grade, which was why a party was being held.

Zhang Wei remembered that when he was attacked on the mountains by Qin Shou and those nine cultivators, Zhang Lei was among them, and he was still in the sixth grade. From his assessment of their powers back then, none of them seemed to have reached the apex of the sixth grade yet. How could he have suddenly ascended to the seventh grade?

He had an inkling regarding why but pushed it to the back of his mind as he entered. He intended to bypass the crowd and go to the apartment where the host and his mother lived. But he hadn't even entered the courtyard when his path was blocked.

Zhang Wei halted in his steps, a cold glint flickering past his eyes for a second as he lazily raised his head to look at the intruder. It was a youth about the same age as this body was, and Zhang Wei recognized him from the memories as the host's cousin, Zhang Jia.

He didn't speak immediately and instead gazed at the boy, who was a head shorter than him, with an indifferent gaze, knowing what was about to come. In the past, this cousin always picked on him, taking advantage of the fact that the host always tried to avoid trouble since he knew no one would support him. Usually, he would just lower his head and avoid him or run away upon seeing him.

But Zhang Jia didn't expect him not to do that today and instead regarded him with a casual gaze as though nothing could faze him.

But he didn't think too much of it and instead fearlessly questioned, "What are you doing here?"

Zhang Wei lazily gave him a probing look. "Why? I'm not allowed to be here?"

"Why would a b*stard like you be allowed here? Scram and go back to the dirty hole you crawled out from!" Zhang Jia harrumphed.

"Ha..." Zhang Wei couldn't help but snort at this, giving the other party a once-over.

He was a head taller than him, and standing there like that, he could see the top of his head without any hassle. He didn't know how this young boy had the pride to stand in front of him and spout nonsense when he had to look up at him when speaking.

But at the thought that even a mere cousin had the guts to tell Zhang Wei not to enter his own home, his expression chilled.

"Who are you to tell me to scram?" He fired back, inching closer to him. Zhang Wei had always been like this. Even though he had just returned to this world and in an unfamiliar place, he wouldn't hesitate to show dominance if need be.

"You... are you trying to fight?" Zhang Jia retorted, stuttering a bit as he didn't expect Zhang Wei to suddenly approach him.

He threw his fists toward him but didn't expect Zhang Wei to suddenly inch closer and grab him by the wrist. Before he could react, his arm was pulled to the back harshly, and he was slammed to the nearest wall.

"You..." Zhang Jia's expression stiffened, and he winced out loud from the pain.

But before he could yell out loud, Zhang Wei's cold but calm voice rang beside his ears. "What? You don't dare to fight back?"

"Let go!" Zhang Jia protested, trying to break away from his tight grip, but for some reason, he didn't even budge, and his grip only became tighter.

"Ah no... let go of me." He cried out in pain, his face turning pale, and he felt as though his arm was going to be pulled out any moment from then. His eyes quickly searched around them, hoping someone would notice them and make Zhang Wei stop. But it was hard since no one would stay in the doorway when there was a party going on inside.

To his luck, however, Zhang Lei, who had just finished making rounds to greet the guests, noticed them and approached with two other boys tailing him.

"What do you think you're doing!?" He hollered as he approached them.

Zhang Jia seemed to have found his savior and stopped struggling. Instead, he gave Zhang Wei a dark look and snickered, "You think you're so good, don't you? I'll see how Uncle deals with you."

"Really? You think you found your backbone?" Zhang Wei retorted, a shadow crossing over his expression.

He tightened his grip even more, and Zhang Jia almost screamed, feeling as though his bones had been twisted.

When Zhang Lei got to them, he glared at Zhang Wei harshly. "What do you think you're doing? Let him go this instant!"

Zhang Wei's gaze finally shifted to his face, the shadow cast under his gaze looming and dark. But other than that, his gaze was rather indifferent.

He thought he would lose his shit and kill Zhang Lei in anger when he met him. After all, he was amongst those who had plotted to kill him.

But he was actually able to keep control of his emotions and instead looked at his face, noting that he seemed to have grown older.

"You... do you not hear me? How dare you do something like this in front of the guests? Are you trying to embarrass our family!?" Zhang Lei's face was all red, and he looked as though he was about to collapse out of anger.

But the youth in front of him merely looked at him calmly before letting go of Zhang Jia's arm. And to top it all, he directly pushed the back of his head, making him slam his head on the wall again.

Before Zhang Jia could even scream in pain, he shifted his gaze to Zhang Lei again. The older man looked as though he had swallowed a bomb.

His finger was shaky as he pointed at him. "You little... I told you to let go of him. How dare you hit him again right in front of me?"

"You told me to let go, and I did." Zhang Wei shrugged. "Whether he hit his head or not is not my business."

As Zhang Wei responded, his gaze flickered to the two boys behind Zhang Lei. He recognized them as his older half-brothers, Zhang Jun and Zhang Ming. Zhang Jun didn't seem to have much interest in what was going on, but the conflicted and troubled expression on Zhang Ming's face was notable.

He quickly figured it was Zhang Ming and his younger brother, who was the fatty that dumped him into the temple that night.

He snickered inwardly at this sight of how panicky he was but didn't make mention of it as his gaze met Zhang Lei, who had been ranting all along. He didn't pay attention to what he was saying but seemed to have heard him ranting about grounding him.

Zhang Wei was too lazy to bother with this problematic family and simply dusted his palms, giving him a casual look. "As if you can lock me up."

Then, he walked past them, making use of his memories to find his way around the villa toward the apartment the original owner used to live.

***

Zhang Wei had just reached the doors of the little hut where his mother lived with her niece when a figure suddenly dashed out in a hurry and bumped into him. He didn’t even have time to lament about how dilapidated the hut was.

“Brother Wei,” a female voice called out tearfully, and he quickly looked down to see the person who had stumbled into him. She looked about two years younger than Zhang Wei, and with his memories, he quickly deduced that she was his mother’s niece, Luo Yu.

However, before he could have time to react, the girl in front of him suddenly slumped on the floor and burst into tears.

“You…” Zhang Wei was immediately at a loss. “Don’t cry.”

“Brother Wei, you’re alive…” She hiccupped and continued weeping. “They said you died.”

Zhang Wei’s eyes instantly narrowed imperceptibly at her words. Even his father had not known that; how did she know?

But he didn’t mention it and instead tried to console her, but she only cried even more.

The tears made Zhang Wei's head ache. One of the things he hated most was crying girls and... children.

When he was just about to lose his temper, he suddenly noticed a frail old woman leaning on the door and wiping her tears.

It was his mother, Luo Ran.

She took him in and told Luo Yu to stop weeping. Then, they all sat on the floor to talk; there were even no proper chairs to sit on.

Zhang Wei’s gaze stopped on the woman’s face. He would have mistaken her for an old granny if he didn’t know she was his mother. She looked even older than Zhang Lei, who was more than seven years older than her.

“What exactly happened, son?” She asked, still wiping at the remnants of tears in her eyes. “Luo Yu said she overheard your brothers talking about disposing your body. We thought you were wrongfully killed and were about to go to the main courtyard to ask your father for an explanation.”

Zhang Wei paused, not knowing how to explain. But eventually, he spoke up, “They must have been joking. Nothing of such happened.”

His mother looked doubtful. “Are you sure? Luo Yu said…”

“She must have mistaken their words. Nothing of such happened,” Zhang Wei repeated as he cut in.

He could have told Zhang Lei earlier what his sons had done, but it was a matter of who would be believed. Obviously, it wouldn’t be him or his mother. So he had already deduced a plan before leaving the temple, and he would make sure the culprits paid for what they did.

After all, even though it gave Zhang Wei another chance to live, it was undeniable that someone had died.

His mother was obviously relieved. She covered her mouth with a white handkerchief as she coughed gently and added, “Regardless, make sure you stay away from them. We should strive to live well, no need to fight with them for anything.”

She paused for a moment after saying this and seemed thoughtful but soon continued, “Also, about the Azure Sky Academy entrance examination we talked about last time, I know you want to study. But, I don’t want you to get targeted by the people in the main courtyard, so let them go for this year. Next year…”

“I want to go this year.” Zhang Wei interrupted her. Before the original host died, he seemed to have been bothered by his lack of essence, too, and was hoping to get into that academy to cultivate.

Zhang Wei didn't know much about this since he didn't get involved in such in his past life. With the amount of hatred he had for sects, if he could, he wouldn't want to have anything to do with them. But if it was a chance to cultivate this empty shell of a body, he would take it.

She instantly looked worried. “You… But, your father…”

As she spoke, she paused and coughed even more incessantly while Zhang Wei looked at her frail hands as she quickly covered the handkerchief. But, he had seen the patch of blood she was trying to hide.

It seemed she was pretty ill.

“I don’t want you to get targeted,” As she spoke, her eyes quickly reddened.

Zhang Wei didn’t know what to say to comfort her and could only keep quiet.

A few minutes later, Zhang Wei entered his room and looked around. Then, he sat on the bed, which creaked incessantly from his weight as he organized his thoughts.

It seemed he had transmigrated into the future - likely, a couple of years from the day he died. He had to learn about the state of the world and find out about Qin Shuo's current status now. He could imagine that he had been promoted to an higher position after successfully getting rid of him - the biggest troublemaker of the cultivation world.

Not to mention, he had to get back at Qin Shuo. There were a lot of things he was bad at; but when it came to repaying debts, he had to repay tenfold, or he wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully.

And to do that, he had to get into that academy and find a way to make this body stronger.

Either by hook or crook.