"MY MUSCLES ARE GONE!" With his heaven-shaking scream, a dark premonition clouded Jianyu's mind.

Slowly and hesitantly, his trembling hand moved towards his lower half, patting upon his precious scepter and family jewels. Only after confirming their presence did Jianyu take a breath in relief.

"The family's future is safe." With a thumbs up and his now-usual smile, he reassured Xin Dongyang.

Who in turn felt a phantom headache pass through. "That's not what I was worried about."

Jianyu simply tilted his head in confusion.

"I am wondering about that smile of yours," pointing towards his grandson, Dongyang's brows furrowed even further.

"Ah, this..." covering his face with his hand, Jianyu tried to mold his smile in an attempt to change his expression. "A side effect of half-step ascension perhaps? After all, it's a rather unstable process against the usual rules, heavily influenced by one's wishes."

It wasn't that Xin Dongyang couldn't understand such a thing, but he felt like something was amiss. But a wish to don a smile forever... That in itself was a sad wish, wasn't it? So, he decided to remain silent for now.

As silence reigned with Jianyu trying to change his expression repeatedly with no success and Xin Dongyang remaining quiet, Xin Dongyang remembered something.

"Before you leave for the other realm, you should meet your mother and friends."

"Friends?" Jianyu frowned with displeasure enveloping his words. "Does that include that Xiao Xiang?"

Xin Dongyang's eyes widened slightly. This was definitely a strange development. "No... that girl has yet to gain consciousness after the events from three days ago."

"It would be nice if she just keeps on being like that." Some rather dark words exited Jianyu's mouth quite naturally.

"Did something happen between you and her?" It was a rather shocking event, but not a bad one to Xin Dongyang. After all, while having that Yin bitch's disciple wrapped around his grandson's fingers was a fun idea to humor, he felt that the girl was rather odd and did not want his family to get involved with her if possible.

"Well, first of all, I almost died because of her!" Jianyu's anger was somewhat apparent even through his smile. "And she's that fucker's daughter! Can you believe it?! Even now not letting me live in peace!"

Listening to the non-stop aggressive rant from his grandson was yet another surprise to Xin Dongyang. But even then, he did not miss a certain detail.

"....Her father?" Dongyang felt rather shocked by this revelation. He couldn't understand how Xiao Xiang's father managed it, but he had somehow escaped his and that Yin family witch's information net? No... that's unlikely unless...

"I don't mean that guy. Let's see..." massaging his temples, Xin Jianyu paused in an attempt to calm himself. "I am talking about another guy, a manipulative bastard!" He failed to calm himself.

"There used to be this fox-like snake bastard titled Dao Sage back in my past life. That bastard single-handedly made me one of the most miserable beings back in the days and had the gall to speak nonsense justifying his actions. 'It's for the greater good,' he said, ready to ruin others' lives yet too cowardly to take the blame! The bastard's probably still alive, fucking insect-like bastard hanging onto life while hiding and using others as shields!"

"Umm, wait a minute!" Having enough of the one-sided conversation, Dongyang finally interrupted. "How exactly is Xiao Xiang the daughter of this 'Dao Sage'? Also, why are you so sure of this?"

"Ah, yes... I forgot to explain that... Well, the Dao Sage had once used his Dao to create an offspring of his own with a 'special ability.' An ability that copied his own or perhaps even surpassed it. Of course, most of the information regarding that guy was unreliable, to say the least, but he was definitely a monstrous bastard... I believe he took around a millennia to reach the Dao without inheritance or guidance."

Upon hearing this, Xin Dongyang felt quite shocked. After all, this was a feat that he himself could not imagine... Although it was still not something he'd straight up deny since he did have knowledge of someone similar, or rather, two such people... one of them even sat in front of him...

Meanwhile, Jianyu simply continued, "As for how I'm so sure that she is that rat's daughter? Well, do you not find it weird how her ability keeps on improving, evolving? It's simply unnatural. Moreover, I can tell... after all, I've had the displeasure of knowing her even before. Of course, I am not sure why exactly she's a mortal right now... Well, I can guess the reason why... But, surely it's not anything good!"

"Sighing tiredly, Dongyang felt like his grandson was being a bit too open with him. "I am not sure about your history with Xiao Xiang and this Dao sage, but I do believe that the girl truly does like you..."

"So what?! Many people want to get in my bed. I'm just that breathtaking. Does that mean I have to sleep with half the sect?"

Shameless, utterly shameless! His grandson had grown too shameless... What made it even worse was the fact that Dongyang's younger self resembled him quite a bit.

Jianyu's smile deepened as his eyes began to glow ominously, "The only kind of love I can reciprocate for that woman is the one where one devours the other person whole."

"..." While it might seem like a passing sarcastic comment to others, to Xin Dongyang this comment did not seem so.

"In a way, isn't that a great display of love, surely you would agree~" 

And that was the confirmation Dongyang needed, "How much do you know?" This was something related to the very founder of the Xin family and a secret unkown to all but the head of the family.

"Just a bit~" Glowing violet eyes, a wide creepy smile and an unnerving aura... 

"...Just don't act like this in front of your mother." Another source of worry for Dongyang...

"Of course, I won't. You're worrying a bit too much," he shrugged alongside this carefree remark causing nothing but worry to Dongyang.

"And you should be worrying a bit more!" Somehow, the current situation was more stressful than when his grandson suffered from an inner devil... 'Well, as long as my wife doesn't find out about this... and the fact that I'm half at fault for this personality change...'

Xin Dongyang had committed an act of betrayal towards the sect and his main body, he was partially caused the derailment of the sect's plans. He could've prevented part of this by resisting that "guidance".

But, in the end, the recent decisions of his while somewhat questionable were not something he regretted, if he can secure the happiness of his family with such a small price it was worth it.

Moreover, neither the sect nor his main body were able to find out about this so, there wasn't much to regret about... except for his grandson's situation.

'Well, as long as he behaves well enough in front of my daughter...'

...

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

...

Xin Dongyang's worries turned out to be mostly unfounded as the meeting between the son and mother pair was quite harmonious.

With Xin Yingyue hugging Jianyu in a tight embrace and Jianyu telling her that he's completely fine over and over... Well, that was understandable since from a shallow glance, Jianyu's current situation looked quite precarious.

And finally there was 'that' thing...

"Um..." Jianyu began with a smile and slight hesitance. "I am sure you already know of it, but I have some memories from my past life... I am sorry for not telling you about this earlier."

What followed this was a series of self-blame and stuff... Xin Dongyang made sure to not interrupt this till his daughter has had her fill.

Perhaps it was because of Jianyu's shrunken size, but Yingyue was much more affectionate towards her son, keeping him in a tight embrace for hours...

And finally when she prepared to leave, she left behind the words, "Well, I'll let you meet your friends and 'Xifeng' now."

For the most part, Yingyue was left in the dark about the growing tension between Jianyu and Xifeng. Since her visits to the sect were far and few between, and Jianyu had attempted his best to not let her worry.

Of course, it's not that she didn't have an inkling but with the whole inner devil situation, she believed everything to be caused by that.

...

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

...

After that was Cao Meihui's turn, where Jianyu had a little "talk" with her regarding this and that...

Finally, Xin Dongyang let Mo Suyin and Xin Guang meet Jianyu. Of course, he didn't meet them directly as he was the patriarch of the esteemed Xin family, escorting juniors like them... wasn't something he ought to do.

Xin Guang entered the spatial gate to meet Jianyu with Mo Suyin, as the surroundings on the other side of the gate became clearer, he felt his intuition flare up as he panicingly attempted to block whatever was coming towards him.

"TAKE THIS, YOU BASTARD!"

With that declaration, a sword flew at him with the intent to kill. The force behind the attack was immense and it was just as swift yet the attack lacked any true substance, no Qi nor any intent. 

Thanks to that Xin Guang was able to stop the blade from piercing his chest using multiple flame barrier spells as well some other spells.

Looking at his assailant, Xin Guang roared with fury, "What are you doing?!"

To which...

"Tsk, I missed!"

Jianyu smiled welcomingly.