My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 427: Chapter 281: Jinghong Sword Master

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xiang once again made his rounds through the village, offering New Year’s greetings. Whenever he ran into a child, he would pull out a red envelope. There wasn’t much inside—just eighteen yuan.

It wasn’t that he was being stingy, but rather that he couldn’t give too much.

If he gave too much, the red envelopes would just end up with the adults. Only with a few or a dozen yuan could the children have control over the money themselves.

Besides, red envelopes were meant to be a token of good luck.

Solitary elderly folks, like Third Granny, were naturally a priority on Li Xiang’s list of visits. He brought gifts and sat at Third Granny’s home for a long time. He also secretly used his Earth Superpower to level her land and took the opportunity to loosen the soil and weed her vegetable garden.

He did it as subtly as ”a silent, nurturing rain,” so Third Granny never noticed a thing.

The village’s ancestral hall had been rebuilt and looked brand new.

Under the guidance of Li Xiang, the village chief, and elders like Li Jinyu, the ancestral tablets were moved from the old hall into the new one.

The old hall was still being preserved and would be renovated later. Because the building had some age to it and a quaint, antique charm, it could serve as a village attraction. Many tourists from out of town were quite interested in such old architecture.

As for the graves of his grandfather and parents, he had already paid his respects earlier, so he didn’t go again on New Year’s Day.

Also, on this day, the film adaptation of *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, in which Li Xiang had a role, was released!

Li Xiang didn’t go see it, as Jiang Cai’Er still wouldn’t let him. However, Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui went to show their support.

On the second day of the New Year, several of his aunts returned to their maternal home, and Li Xiang hosted them warmly. Although his Little Aunt was very secretive and didn’t reveal her income, her clothes and appearance clearly showed that things were different from before. She even brought back her new fiancé, saying they were planning to get married on May Day, the same day her son would also be holding his wedding.

His first and second aunts started prying, asking where she worked, how much the betrothal gift for her son’s wedding was, and all sorts of other gossip. Little Aunt handled it all with ease, but inevitably, her other two aunts noticed something was up and began to speculate.

Naturally, those two families were quite unhappy about it, but there was nothing they could do. Li Xiang was already treating them very well; if they made any more unreasonable demands, he would likely turn on them.

So, after discussing it in private, the first and second aunts decided it was better to take things slow and plan for the long term, hoping to mend the rifts in their family relationship as soon as possible. In their eyes, their past actions weren’t a big deal at all; it was just that Li Xiang had become too stingy after getting rich.

’Honestly, that kid,’ they thought. ’We’re all family, thicker than water, and he’s still holding a grudge? We’re both his aunts, yet he plays favorites. It’s infuriating!’

On the third day, Li Xiang went to his maternal grandparents’ house to offer New Year’s greetings. He also brought gifts to his aunts’ homes. It was a matter of reciprocity; since they had come to visit him, he naturally had to pay them a Return Gift.

But everything was ”streamlined” now. His family didn’t have many relatives to visit, so he finished all the rounds in a single day. It wasn’t like when he was a child, when visiting one family would take at least a full day.

On the fourth day of the New Year, the village held a feast for the new men of the clan. A rolling banquet was set up in the open space in front of the new ancestral hall. One couldn’t have high expectations for this kind of banquet, but the food was much better than last year’s. Many young people took this opportunity to ask Li Xiang if they could work for his company.

These migrant workers had secretly compared their situations and discovered that after a year of hard work elsewhere, their income didn’t even amount to half of what they could make working in the village. For some, it was less than a third.

And that’s not even mentioning their savings. When you’re working far from home, food, clothing, housing, and transportation—what wasn’t expensive?

It was so much cheaper at home, and they could also take care of their parents nearby.

Li Xiang’s scenic area didn’t need that many people, so after some thought, he told those who were willing to join the construction site. The third phase of the Shelter was already under construction with an even greater workload. The previous construction company, being relatively small, had complained to Li Xiang several times that workers were hard to find and that it might affect the project’s schedule.

Now, the problem was solved. Li Xiang sent them dozens of able-bodied laborers. And among them were many experienced workers who had been on construction sites for years.

In any case, most of them didn’t have high levels of education and were doing manual labor jobs away from home. Since the pay for building the Shelter was no worse than what they were earning elsewhere, they all clamored to join.

Some of the women could be assigned to the construction site’s cafeteria.

With so many people to feed, and being out here in a remote mountain valley, not having a dedicated cafeteria was out of the question.

Then, Li Xiang picked a few of the more presentable older women and assigned them to the National Tea House and the tavern.

Luo Feifei was a box-office guarantee. As soon as the film adaptation of *The Return of the Condor Heroes* was released, it exploded in popularity across the internet. As expected, the protagonist, Yang Guo, was completely overshadowed. All the attention was on Little Dragon Girl and Yin Zhiping.

The ”Xiang-Ru-Fei-Fei” ship once again stirred up a frenzy online. You couldn’t open your phone without being flooded with posts about them, which made Jiang Cai’Er’s jealousy flare up. She fiercely pinned Li Xiang against the wall for a ”kabe-don.”

About seven days later, the movie’s box office broke two billion yuan. For a martial arts film with such a short shooting schedule and a ”small budget,” a two-billion-yuan box office was a massive profit. The filming location for the Ancient Tomb Sect became popular again, and Li Family Village saw even more tourists.

Moreover, Luo Feifei herself was one of the investors in the film. Besides her salary, she earned at least a ”small goal.”

Time flew by, and after the Lantern Festival ended, Jiang Cai’Er had no choice but to return to school.

It was said that high schools were going to start canceling evening self-study sessions and implementing two-day weekends. However, with only about four months left until the college entrance exams, Jiang Cai’Er, as a senior, naturally wouldn’t get to enjoy these changes. The fact that there were no make-up classes or an early start to the semester during this year’s winter break was already an exception.

After the New Year celebrations were over, Luo Feifei also had some free time. She invited Li Xiang to her new villa in Suzhou. The two of them discussed Taoist Skills together, and when they brought up their trip to India last year to pose as Divine Envoys, Luo Feifei laughed so hard she swayed like a flower in the wind.

”Come on, Brother Xiang, let’s take another trip to India. The offerings at all the temples over there must have piled up by now. It would be a waste not to collect them.”

At Luo Feifei’s suggestion, the two of them traveled together again, ”looting” various places in India. Monks piously kowtowed to the Divine Envoys sent by the Shiva God and the Snow Mountain Goddess.

While ”graciously accepting” these offerings, Li Xiang sorted through them. He rejected anything that was flashy but worthless, or things that weren’t very practical.

The monks were stunned. ”...The Divine Envoys are so practical?”

After the trip to India ended, Luo Feifei had to go film again, so Li Xiang went to North America by himself.

The earlier online rumor that ”Li Xiang is Luo Feifei’s dedicated actor for intimate scenes” wasn’t actually true. Since the last time the two of them had filmed an intimate scene, Luo Feifei hadn’t accepted any more roles with them.

She was far more interested in fight scenes. Every time a director contacted her, she would excitedly ask, ”Are there any fight scenes? I won’t take the role if there aren’t!”

As for intimate scenes, they were out of the question. She even found roles that were heavy on romance to be too slow and tedious, and she wasn’t happy to accept them.

When this news got out, netizens were shocked. ’Damn, this adorable girl, the nation’s goddess, a top-tier actress, is actually obsessed with fighting and killing all day instead of romance?’

However, this was also Luo Feifei’s core competitive advantage. When she filmed fight scenes, the wire-work was just for show; she didn’t actually need it at all. She required no martial arts choreographer and no stunt double. Her every move was as fluid as flowing water, both beautiful and badass.

Someone once commented, ”If Luo Feifei competed in the national martial arts championship, she could easily take first place.” As a result, in addition to her title of ”Little Celestial Immortal,” she earned another moniker: ”Kung Fu Empress.”

She had earned this reputation through sheer skill, not just her looks.

After Luo Feifei found out, she interacted with her fans online and unintentionally revealed that she found the ”nickname” a bit too plain. So, her fans rushed to give her new ones, such as ”Jinghong Sword Master,” ”Flowing Cloud Swordswoman,” ”Jade Sword Celestial Maiden,” ”Martial Arts Champion,” and ”Ice Soul Sword Master.” This was because the weapon Luo Feifei used in most of her films and TV shows was a sword.

In fact, she was indeed most skilled in Swordsmanship. She practiced with the White Tiger Sword that Li Xiang had given her for one or two hours almost every day. Her Swordsmanship had reached a state of perfection, and in terms of swordsmanship alone, she far surpassed Li Xiang.

Li Xiang was better with heavy weapons, overpowering opponents with sheer force.

Luo Feifei preferred the title ”Jinghong Sword Master.”

The netizen who came up with the name explained: ”’Jinghong’ is taken from the phrase ’as graceful as a fleeting swan’ in the *Rhapsody of the Luoshen*. It also subtly alludes to her surname, ’Luo,’ while simultaneously describing her movements as being as swift and beautiful as a swan’s fleeting shadow.”

”’Sword Master’ highlights her high attainments in Martial Arts and also fits with her commonly used weapon.”

Having received this title, Luo Feifei happily shared it with Li Xiang.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t get in touch with him again.

’Where did that guy run off to have fun this time? Hmph, he didn’t even take me with him.’ Luo Feifei pouted, but then she immediately smiled. It wasn’t that Li Xiang hadn’t taken her, but that she truly didn’t have the time.

’Looks like I’ll just have to pay close attention to the news online, especially from foreign networks. Wherever a storm is brewing, that’s probably where he is,’ Luo Feifei murmured, fiddling with the Hairpin Li Xiang had given her.

At that moment, Li Xiang was scouting locations in North America. He had found a large Bat Cave and was pondering the perfect time to come and ”harvest” it.

This was the world’s largest bat colony: Blanken Cave in the United States, hailed as number one in the world.