Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

His speechless expression made Guo Xiaohe jump from her seat and hit the ceiling of the shuttle. She sat cross-legged again, grimacing, and rubbed his head hard. “Dad, I was joking. But what’s with your guilty face? Did I point the truth out?”

“What are you talking about? What a child. Your mom and I are fine!” Guo Chunfeng held the steering wheel with one hand and touched his daughter’s head with the other. “What nonsense have you been reading?”

“Then what did you mean, Dad?” Guo Xiaohe blinked her watery eyes and asked, “What do you mean by ‘my life will experience drastic changes’?”

Guo Chunfeng blinked and took a long breath. “What I meant to tell you is that ‘researcher of the Storm Institute of the Bureau of Meteorology’ is just my disguise. In fact, your dad was the best agent of the ‘Secret Sword Bureau’ decades ago and the most excellent demon hunter of the federation.

“For the past decade, I have been managing the first division of the Secret Sword Bureau, which is the most important branch of the agency! In the battle to demolish the Patriots Partnership, I was nominated as the acting director of the Secret Sword Bureau and was responsible for the whole operation. Now, everything has been settled, and the ‘acting’ will be removed very soon!

“In short, your dad is now one of the most influential people in the federation and the leader of the secret frontline!

“I didn’t tell you this before because I wanted to protect you and prevent you from worrying. But now that I’ve been promoted to this new post, it is impossible that my identity can still be kept a secret. As my family, it’s impossible for you to grow up like a regular girl, too. So, I’ve decided to tell you in advance so that you’ll have more time to prepare yourself.”

Guo Xiaohe was silent for a long time. Her mouth bulged so wide that a watermelon could have been stuffed inside easily.

She stared at her father for a whole minute, only to discover no irregularities in her father’s face. Finally, she could not help it any longer and burst into laughter, holding her belly, kicking. She laughed so hard that her tears and snobs were flowing out.

“Hahahaha. Dad, you are funny. You are too funny! Whoever dares say that you are a nerd, I’ll definitely spit right in their face! Really. I never knew that you were so humorous. You are a master of joking! You didn’t win my mom’s heart through jokes, did you?”

“No,” Guo Chunfeng said casually. “I slew approximately eight hundred demon beasts and rescued your mom from a beast tide. That was how I won your mother’s heart.”

Guo Xiaohe laughed so hard that she almost slid down the seat. Her face red, she raised up his hands. “Help! Please stop talking, Dad! I’m being choked! I give up! I surrender! Hahahahahaha!”

Guo Chunfeng scratched his nose. His shuttle joined the traffic of shuttles in the sky and flew to the western suburb of the capital city.

The western suburb of the capital city was Jade Maple Mountain, which stretched for almost a hundred kilometers. The mountain was not steep, but it was zigzagging and enjoyable enough. It also had brooks, waterfalls, and a whole mountain of fiery maple leaves in the autumn. It was a great place of entertainment for the citizens.

Today was not a holiday, and most of the citizens had gone to the Federal Square to greet the Flying Tigers Legion, who had come home from a foreign land, if they were free. Therefore, few visitors were on Jade Maple Mountain. The place was quite peaceful and quiet.

The supermarket shuttle flew deeper and deeper into the Jade Maple Mountain. Soon, no travelers could be found anymore.

The two of them stopped the shuttle in a parking lot in the middle part of the mountain. Then, they walked upstairs, not in a hurry at all.

Guo Xiaohe told her father the interesting stories in her school. The father and the daughter had a great time and reached a small waterfall after walking for almost half an hour.

A tiny smoke was rising up from the trees, and the scent of chicken and spices could be vaguely smelt.

“Your mom is there. Let’s go!” Guo Chunfeng smiled, in great relief and expectation.

Guo Xiaohe nodded, but her portable crystal processor suddenly buzzed. She raised her wrist, only to beam with delight. She quickly pushed Guo Chunfeng. “Dad, you go there first. It’s a message from Si Mao. They are attending Wu Mayan’s fan meeting today!”

“That boy. Oh, right. He’s back at the capital city, too.”

Guo Chunfeng was dazed for a moment. Then, with a mysterious smile, he walked forward.

Guo Xiaohe opened the message and enlarged the light beam to the maximum. Immediately, countless heads were showing up in front of his face. She was seeing the liveliest scene and hearing the most deafening noises.

“Wu Mayan! Wu Mayan! Wu Mayan, prince of Iron Plateau!”

“Xiaohe!”

Si Mao, the fat boy, and a few of her confidantes all moved close to the camera. They were so excited that they might pass out at any moment. “Look, look. It’s really Wu Mayan. He just greeted us! Wow. He is so handsome. He is a thousand times, no, ten thousand times more handsome than his photos! Look!”

Her confidantes increased the resolution of the crystal camera and precisely shot Wu Mayan, who was signing autographs in the front of the crowd.

Wu Mayan was wearing a pure black suit, which was covered with dark Golden Stripes according to the distribution of his muscles, outlining his magnificent body.

His slightly messy hair covered half of his eyes, but the brilliance occasionally beamed out through the gaps, giving the feeling that he was a hybrid of a leopard and an eagle, full of wildness!

Guo Xiaohe’s heart almost melted. She scratched her hair hard. “Damn it. Why did the fan meeting have to be today?”

At this point, Wu Mayan happened to be smiling at the camera and even waved at them.

Her confidantes immediately shrieked in earsplitting noises and lunged at Wu Mayan, without caring about Guo Xiaohe anymore.

Si Mao, the fat boy, was left behind. He sniffed in front of the cameras. “How can they do that? It’s just a handsome guy who is young, strong, and wealthy! Do they have to be so crazy? But it doesn’t matter. Sister Xiaohe, I’m still here for you. Later, I will certainly grab a robe with Wu Mayan’s autograph for you. Should I deliver it to you tonight? Speaking of which, will my uncle be at home tonight?”

Guo Xiaohe quickly minimized the light beam. Hearing the deafening sounds, she sighed with great regret and walked to the waterfall.

Not far away from the waterfall, her mother and a woman whom she did not know had set up the grill and prepared the materials. They were roasting the food in the smoke.

Her father, on the other hand, was washing and dissecting the fish while chitchatting with a male colleague near the brook not far away.

“Mom, I’m here! Nice to meet you, Aunt!”

Guo Xiaohe greeted them politely. She then glimpsed at her father’s female colleague, only to discover that she was wearing a ridiculously huge hat with complicated spiritual stripes carved on the brim of the hat that were emitting a pleasant smell of fire.

Below the hat, most of the stranger’s face was covered by a pair of red, broad-edged sunglasses. Her mouth was rather big, and her lips were firm with attractive colors like jelly.

“Don’t call me Aunt!” The female colleague took off her sunglasses with a smile, revealing a pair of aggressive eyes, and grinned. “You are less than twenty years younger than me. Call me Sister Ding!”

“Sister… Ding.”

Guo Xiaohe scratched her head and intuitively felt that this ‘Sister Ding’ was a great friend-maker and would not be hard to get along with.

However, she did have a feeling that she had seen the stranger somewhere before.

Sister Ding handed over a skewer of chicken wings to her. “Little sister, you don’t look very happy. Don’t like barbeques? Here, all the first batch of chicken wings is yours. Take it slow. Don’t hurt yourself!”

“No! No!” Blushing, Guo Xiaohe quickly shook her head and explained, “I’ve been meaning to meet everyone from my dad’s workplace for a long time so that I can know my dad better… Wow, what are the spices for the chicken wings? It’s so delicious!”

For the first time in her life, Guo Xiaohe was about to cry out for the scrumptiousness of the food. After only one bite, she felt that brilliance was beaming out of every pore on her body. Having no time to care about whether the chicken wings were hot or not, she devoured all of them quickly and barely left any bones.

“Hahahaha. Of course it is delicious. The fire is my technique!”

Sister Ding raised her head and laughed hard toward the sky, her arms akimbo. Making delicious chicken wings for a girl seemed to be something that she was very proud of.

Right then, sounds were echoing from Guo Xiaohe’s portable crystal processor. The fan meeting appeared to have reached its climax.

“Huh. It’s Wu Mayan’s voice.” Sister Ding observed her face and immediately understood what is going on. “You like Wu Mayan, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Guo Xiaohe nodded, somewhat in embarrassment. She could not help but enlarge the light beam a little bit.

Her confidantes on the other side of the light beam had basically gone crazy. “Xiaohe, we just hugged Wu Mayan. Hugged him! Hahahahahaha!”

Guo Xiaohe was unbelievably jealous.

“Our Xiaohe loves Wu Mayan,” Yao Li, Guo Chunfeng’s wife, said with a smile. “Posters of Wu Mayan are all over our home. She is almost a member of his fan club, where a bunch of young girls collect information about Wu Mayan like lunatics.”

“Is this brat so charismatic? I really don’t know what young people nowadays are thinking.” Sister Ding sniffed. “I find him very unattractive, not to mention that he is also a coward. After only several punches, he was already weeping and begging for mercy, a far stretch from Li Yao years ago!

“However, if I had known that Sister Xiaohe likes him, I would’ve asked him to change the date of his fan meeting so that he could join the barbeque with us.

“But it doesn’t matter. I’ll call him later and ask him to come here early after the meeting. We’ll have dinner together. How does that sound, Sister Xiaohe?”

The weird conversation dumbfounded Guo Xiaohe.

Bulging her eyes, she stared at Sister Ding for a long time. Finally, an image that she was very familiar with, along with a thunderous, sparkling name, popped up in her head!

The name almost struck Guo Xiaohe into a coma like a streak of lightning. As if daydreaming, she stammered, “Ding, Ding, Ding—

“Ding Lingdang?”

Sister Ding smiled and handed over another chicken wing. “You’re right. That’s me.”