His head hurt a little. As far as his memories went, he had not suffered such a headache for thousands of years. Fan Xiwen rubbed his head in a daze, then suddenly opened his eyes.
The scene before him was no longer the imperial study from which he had once looked down upon all living beings as though they were ants. It was not even the lavish Great Chu Divine Palace floating Above the Nine Heavens.
This was an orchard, where small, green-glazed fruits had already grown on the orange trees.
Several burly men with bare, tattooed torsos were laughing wildly beneath the orange trees. One casually snapped off a branch, sneered disdainfully, tossed it aside, and stomped on it with force.
Supported by someone, Fan Xiwen turned around in bewilderment and saw two faces that were utterly familiar from his memories.
Their faces were filled with anger, their eyes bloodshot, their mouths opening and closing as though they were cursing someone furiously.
Everything was both familiar and strange.
His memories surged forth like a tide, and his head began to ache faintly again. Yet Fan Xiwen did not strike his head a second time.
Because he was afraid that everything before him was merely a dream.
His father and mother's faces had appeared in his dreams hundreds and thousands of times, only to leave him with nothing but a sigh whenever he awoke.
“You animals! Aren't you afraid of retribution for doing this?”
His father, Fan Yue, was furious, while his mother, Su Qing, wept bitterly beside him.
Their words rang clearly in his ears.
Fan Xiwen struggled to stand, but his limbs were weak. His right hand even dangled in the air, swaying unconsciously.
“The fruit from your orchard is sour and astringent. You can't sell it for much anyway, so you might as well sell it to the boss. You may even get some compensation. At least then you won't have to toil in the fields for your food anymore. Brothers, isn't that right?”
Bare-chested and hideous, the burly man smiled at the family of three, as though he were watching a monkey show, his expression full of mockery.
“Animals. You animals.”
Fan Yue was an honest farmer who had always been simple and hardworking in the village. He never quarreled with anyone. Even now, despite having people come to his door and assault him, he could only repeat those same two phrases.
..
The memory was somewhat distant. Fan Xiwen lay silently in his mother's arms, feeling very warm.
This orchard had been obtained more than ten years ago, when Fan Xiwen's grandfather led the entire family in clearing the wasteland through hard work. Over the years, the Fan family had continued planting fruit trees. They had even been counting on this orchard to provide the betrothal gifts for Fan Xiwen's future marriage. Unfortunately, Heaven was unkind. Three years ago, the orchard was struck by lightning for some unknown reason. From then on, its fruit was never good again. It was all sour and astringent, and every year most of the accumulated fruit rotted into the soil without being sold.
Then, a group of people appeared from who knew where, saying they wanted to purchase Fan Xiwen's family's orchard. However, they negotiated with the Village Chief. Greedy for profit, the Village Chief instructed a group of lackeys to negotiate with Fan Yue. It was called negotiation, but in truth they simply wanted to force a sale. Even at the lowest price, the village land was worth ten thousand yuan per mu, yet these people offered only one thousand yuan per mu.
Although Fan Yue was an honest, unsophisticated farmer, he knew that the entire family depended on those more than twenty mu of orchard for their livelihood. If it were taken for one thousand yuan per mu, how would the family survive?
Unable to swallow his anger, Fan Yue sought someone to reason with them. Instead, those people viciously beat him in the orchard. After Fan Xiwen learned what had happened, he could only rush back from school.
But those men then brutally beat Fan Xiwen, a high school student, even breaking his arm.
“It was because of this that Father and Mother gave up resisting and handed over the foundation of the family's livelihood for twenty thousand yuan. Not long afterward, Father died of anger and frustration. Mother also passed away in sorrow a few years later.”
“If I had not obtained a great Fortuitous Opportunity and undergone transmigration to the cultivation holy land, the Xinghe Continent, and if I had not relied on great perseverance to break through the trials of life and death, eventually becoming the youngest Immortal Emperor on the Xinghe Continent, sweeping across the Five Great Sects and Four Great Immortal Palaces and establishing the Great Chu Divine Dynasty in one stroke, then perhaps my life would have ended in obscurity on this tiny Unnamed Star.”
Everything had happened because of a small orchard.
If not for you, my father and mother would not have died in sorrow and shame.
If not for you, I would not have needed to see my father and mother only in my dreams.
If not for you, none of this would have become so terrible.
..
At this thought, Fan Xiwen narrowed his eyes. Even though his right arm was broken and his cultivation had vanished completely, the pressure emanating from the Lord of the Great Chu Divine Dynasty, who had endured thousands of years of slaughter, was not something a few mortal ants could withstand.
The tattooed brutes suddenly looked as though they had encountered something terrifying. Their pupils widened as they stared fixedly at Fan Xiwen. The hairs on their bodies stood on end, their faces turned pale, and sweat instantly poured down them.
Their chests heaved, their legs trembled dangerously, and their shoulders shook as they shivered like broken drums.
Fan Xiwen—the youngest Immortal Emperor on the Xinghe Continent. He attained the Dao and ascended in four hundred years, then advanced to Immortal Emperor in a thousand. He roamed the Xinghe Continent, commanding millions of immortal soldiers in campaigns across the four directions. After two thousand years of slaughter on the battlefield, he ultimately became a God Emperor, intimidating the fourteen directions of the stars. If his foundation had not been too shallow, causing him to lose and perish in his final clash with the foremost Great Han Divine Dynasty, while his Ten Directions Divine Venerable subordinates were all slaughtered, perhaps Fan Xiwen would still have been the Great Chu God Emperor who determined the life and death of billions of living beings with a single word.
A God Emperor's might was forged through slaughter on the battlefield. The savage aura of countless armies was not something a few mortal ants could endure.
“Get lost.”
Fan Xiwen softly spat out a single word. The burly men immediately fled as though pardoned, their faces ashen.
Even after they had gone far away, they still felt shaken.
“What the hell was that?”
“Damn it, I almost pissed myself from fear of some young punk.”
“Seriously. In that instant, I almost felt as though I was going to die. Even my heart stopped beating.”
“There’s something strange about Fan Xiwen.”
The burly men who usually ran roughshod over the village only dared to discuss it in hushed voices after they had gotten far away from Fan Xiwen. His gaze had been far too frightening, as though their heads might be severed at any moment.
Fan Yue and Su Qing stared blankly at the few ruffians as they left, still completely dazed. They could not understand the situation at all!
The men had been aggressive just moments ago, apparently determined not to stop until the matter was settled. Yet they had left simply because of their son's casual command to get lost?
Since when had those people become so easy to deal with?
“Xiaowen, Xiaowen, what happened to you?”
Su Qing wanted to ask her son what had just happened, but when she looked over, she saw that he had collapsed into her arms and fainted again. She panicked and slapped his cheeks while telling her husband to call 120 immediately.
“Dad, Mom, it’s wonderful to see you again.”
Lying in his mother's arms, Fan Xiwen slept peacefully. He mumbled repeatedly like a child, and before anyone knew it, two trails of tears had slipped from the corners of his eyes.
A man does not lightly shed tears; it is only when he reaches the depths of sorrow.
Su Qing and Fan Yue stopped panicking and simply sat beside their son. Su Qing did not even dare move, afraid that she might wake him.
Although she did not know what her son had experienced, seeing those two tearstains filled Su Qing with inexplicable heartache.
..
Fan Xiwen did not know how long he had slept. He only knew that he had dreamed a very long dream, in which he saw his parents again.
When Fan Xiwen opened his eyes again, he found himself still in the orchard. His mother's temples were already beaded with sweat, and her eyes were red, as though she had been crying.
Fan Xiwen wanted to reach out and wipe away his mother's tears, but he found that he could not move his arm.
“Son, you're awake?”
His father asked with concern from beside him, “How do you feel? Is anything hurting? Should we go to the Hospital?”
After the three questions in succession, Fan Xiwen shook his head. “Dad, help me sit up.”
If it had only been a broken arm, he would not have been in this condition. Even after being beaten by those ruffians, Fan Xiwen should not have been this weak. The main issue was that his divine soul had entered this body. It was too fragile and could not withstand Fan Xiwen's powerful divine soul. If his divine soul had not been able to find a trace of familiarity within this body, that powerful divine soul would have long since torn the body to pieces.
Fan Yue lifted his son from his wife's arms and placed him beneath an orange tree, propping him against it. Just as he was about to take out his phone to make a call, his son shook his head.
“I’m fine. I’m just a little weak. I’ll recover after some time.”
Fan Xiwen smiled and casually moved his left hand over his right. After two crisp cracks, he raised his right hand; it could already move freely.
Fan Yue and Su Qing exchanged a glance, each seeing a trace of shock in the other's eyes.
The crisp cracking of the bones meant that their son's arm had indeed been broken. Even the village barefoot doctor did not know how to set a fracture like this. They had only heard that some elderly people knew the technique. How had their son reset the bone so casually?
Where had he learned such a skill?
“Dad, Mom, I’m fine now.”
Fan Xiwen smiled at his parents and waved his hand. Although he still looked somewhat weak, he appeared full of vigor.
“All right. Dad will carry you home.”
Although his son had given them quite a shock, he was still the same son. Fan Yue felt that this had not changed, so it was nothing to worry about.
“Dad, don’t rush.”
Fan Xiwen shook his head. “I’ve been wondering why, after our family’s orchard was struck by lightning three years ago, the fruit became sour and astringent even though the trees were seemingly unaffected. Also, why would that outsider take an interest in our sour and astringent orchard?”
“Don’t think about these things for now. Go home and rest properly.”
Su Qing said with a resolute expression...