The Immortal Cultivation World Is Too Dangerous: I Return to Earth as a Divine Sage
Chapter 11 - Ye Yang, Like a God, and the Terrified Zhao Family

Chapter 11: Ye Yang, Like a God, and the Terrified Zhao Family

“They’re confident, so be it. It’s a win-win situation anyway.”

“The Medicine Family gets thirty percent of our Zhao Family’s assets, and we get a divine herb that can extend Father’s life by at least three years.”

Zhao Wuji looked at Zhao Qingzhi and spoke solemnly.

“A win-win? Perhaps.” Hearing Zhao Wuji’s words, Zhao Qingzhi shook his head.

To Zhao Wuji and the others, it might seem like a win-win. But in Zhao Qingzhi’s eyes, this win-win hid the Medicine Family’s ambitious intentions.

The Zhao Family’s assets, under his management, had been forged into an impregnable fortress. Even if the Zhao Family did nothing, their industries would continue to operate indefinitely.

As long as their industries kept running, the Zhao Family’s dynasty status would remain unshaken. But if he agreed to trade thirty percent of the Zhao Family’s assets for the Medicine Family’s divine herb, everything would change.

The Zhao Family’s assets were intricately tied to the family as a whole. Handing over thirty percent would be like punching a hole in their ironclad fortress.

For ordinary people, even with such a breach, they couldn’t harm the Zhao Family. But the Medicine Family’s influence far surpassed the Zhao Family’s.

While Zhao Qingzhi was alive, he might be able to prevent the Medicine Family from exploiting this breach. But once he was gone, with the Medicine Family’s power, they could easily infiltrate through this hole. In the end, they would either swallow the Zhao Family whole or turn it into their puppet.

Zhao Qingzhi saw the Medicine Family’s ambitions clearly but chose not to voice them. If he hadn’t faced life and death, he would have spoken out and rejected the Medicine Family without hesitation.

But after this brush with mortality, Zhao Qingzhi realized he might have overestimated himself. He used to believe he had achieved enough in his lifetime, that he had no regrets and was at peace with life and death.

Yet, upon awakening, he felt an overwhelming fear of death.

He wasn’t ready to die. He wanted to live. He wanted the Medicine Family’s life-extending divine herb. Even if it meant creating a breach in the Zhao Family’s impenetrable foundation, he was willing to pay the price.

Moreover, everything the Zhao Family had was built by him. If he could create a breach, couldn’t he also seal it? He was confident that during his extended life, he could mend the hole opened for the Medicine Family.

Even if he couldn’t, he had the resolve to make tough sacrifices. At worst, the Zhao Family would lose its foundation to become a top-tier dynasty and fall to the level of an ordinary one. But the Zhao Family’s foundation was his creation, and elevating it to dynasty status was already more than enough for the family.

He felt he deserved to be selfish this once, to use the family’s foundation for his own benefit without jeopardangering its dynasty status.

“Wuji, contact the Medicine Family member who sent the divine herb later and tell them I agree to their terms.” On the sickbed, after a long moment of contemplation, Zhao Qingzhi spoke to Zhao Wuji.

“Yes.” Zhao Wuji nodded immediately upon hearing his father’s words.

Thud, thud, thud.

Just as Zhao Wuji nodded, a heavy set of footsteps suddenly echoed from the empty corridor outside. The moment they heard the footsteps, Zhao Wuji and the Zhao Family members in the room turned cold.

Who dared make such loud noises near Master Zhao’s sickroom? Did they not know the Zhao Family’s rules?

As anger rose among them, the footsteps grew closer to the door. The moment the footsteps reached the doorway, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The younger Zhao Family members standing at the door began to float into the air, one after another.

As they levitated, a path cleared from the doorway to Zhao Qingzhi’s sickbed.

“What’s happening?”

“Why am I floating?”

The Zhao Family members in the air shouted in panic.

Those around them, witnessing this, were equally terrified.

Zhao Qingzhi on the sickbed, along with Zhao Wuji and Zhao Xuankun beside him, saw this and their pupils contracted, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Thud, thud.

Soon, amidst everyone’s horrified gazes, a figure stepped forward.

It was Ye Yang.

Seeing Ye Yang walk in, Zhao Qingzhi and the others grew even more shocked. Was this unbelievable scene caused by the person before them?

Truth be told, they were people who had seen the world. But no matter how much they had seen, they had never witnessed a power that defied their understanding.

Making people float in the air—wasn’t that something found only in the fabricated myths of ancient times?

Could it be that the supernatural powers of gods and immortals in those myths weren’t fiction but real? Even if they were real, why would such a figure suddenly appear at the Zhao Family?

What was their purpose?

“Zhao Qingzhi, do you still recognize me?”

Ignoring the shock of the Zhao Family members, Ye Yang looked directly at Zhao Qingzhi on the sickbed and spoke calmly. As he spoke, an imperceptible purple light flashed in his eyes.

This purple light was from a spell Ye Yang cast. The spell was called Soul Capture.

In the cultivation world, Soul Capture was considered a useless spell. Its function was to forcibly implant memories into someone’s mind.

The creator of Soul Capture intended it to implant memories that would make the target recognize the caster as their master and obey them. But unfortunately, the research failed.

Soul Capture had almost no effect on cultivators. As long as the target could protect their soul with spiritual energy, the spell was ineffective. Soul Capture could only be used on mortals. Even then, it couldn’t implant large amounts of memories to make them treat the caster as their master.

Due to mortals’ weak constitutions, they could only handle minimal memories—any more would overwhelm them. These minimal memories weren’t enough to make a mortal recognize the caster as their master.

However, while Soul Capture was useless in the cultivation world, it was perfect for Ye Yang. He only needed to implant a small, insignificant memory to let Zhao Qingzhi’s imagination fill in the rest about his identity.

The memory Ye Yang implanted was that Zhao Qingzhi had met him during his childhood. Nearly a century later, Ye Yang still appeared the same, which was enough to make Zhao Qingzhi imagine all sorts of things.

Once Zhao Qingzhi started imagining, subduing him would be far easier.

Originally, subduing Zhao Qingzhi didn’t require such complexity—displaying a cultivator’s power would have sufficed. But plans changed.

Initially, Ye Yang thought Earth only had special physiques, and controlling the Zhao Family would be enough. But now, with the existence of supreme spiritual herbs like the Longevity Flower, the Zhao Family alone wasn’t enough to help him collect Earth’s resources. He needed to recruit more subordinates.

To do so, simply displaying power wasn’t enough. He needed to craft an identity that would make people like Zhao Qingzhi willingly serve him.

This identity required not only the absolute deterrence of power but also something that would drive these people to fervor. Only by combining authority with incentives—both intimidation and benefits—could he ensure they would serve him wholeheartedly.

Of course, the benefits Ye Yang would offer came from the very resources he would gain from them, and even then, only a tiny fraction.

It wasn’t that Ye Yang was stingy; the benefits of his monopoly were simply that vast.

As Earth’s only cultivator, only he could unlock the true potential of Earth’s divine and miraculous items. Even if he shared a mere fraction of their effects, it would be countless times greater than their effects on Earth.

…

“Recognize you?” On the sickbed, Zhao Qingzhi heard Ye Yang’s words and immediately began to recall.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Qingzhi’s pupils suddenly contracted, and he looked at Ye Yang with utter disbelief. “You … you’re Mr. Ye?”