Chapter 162: How Old Lu Managed to Win You Over

Xuanyuan Peak.

It was an isolated peak nestled deep within the Myriad Mountains.

The ancestral estate of the Lu family was concealed upon this mountain, which was named after the family's founding patriarch, Lu Xuanyuan. The antique, elegant courtyard stood right at the edge of the precipice, becoming an integral part of this perilous yet breathtaking landscape painting.

A thousand-stone stairway stretched all the way from the base of the mountain to the summit, serving as the sole pathway to the Lu family residence.

After all, when the patriarch of the Lu family established the martial arts clan, it was during a turbulent era. Carving out such a strategically advantageous terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack, had been a necessity. Later generations of the Lu family had preserved it ever since, carrying out only repairs without making alterations, out of fear that it might disrupt the geomantic layout passed down by their ancestors.

Today, Xuanyuan Peak was exceptionally bustling, with an endless stream of visiting guests, all of them scions of martial arts families.

A small minority still firmly stood within the traditional faction aligned with the Lu family.

The majority, however, had defected to the Qing family. After all, the formidable reputation of a tenth-tier master loomed large, and martial arts families of lesser strength could not afford to take them lightly.

Today, Qing Zong was publicly challenging the arena and had invited various martial arts families to witness the event.

Prior to this, Qing Zong had challenged the experts of all the other top-tier families door-to-door, maintaining a completely undefeated record throughout. The Lu family was his final stop.

For those unwilling to submit to Qing Zong, the Lu family was likewise their final line of defense.

Regardless of whether Qing Zong's challenge today succeeded or failed, this day would be recorded in the annals of martial arts family history, so quite a few people had naturally come to watch the spectacle.

Cheng Qimeng brought Lu Ye and Su Qianqian to the base of the mountain.

Gazing at the dragon-like flight of a thousand stairs stretching all the way up into the clouds, Su Qianqian was instantly dumbfounded. "Darling, why does your hometown look like an immortal-cultivation sect? How am I supposed to climb a mountain this high?"

Lu Ye himself was dumbfounded!

Before setting out, the martial arts Lu family he had imagined in his mind was nothing more than a slightly larger courtyard where a bunch of youngsters practiced Tai Chi.

As a result, this damn place... was practically a replica of the Wudang Sect!

Lu Ye half-crouched down and said, "Wife, hop on. I'll carry you up the mountain."

Su Qianqian paused. "Won't that exhaust you to death?"

"It's fine, this bit of mountain road is nothing."

Piggybacking Su Qianqian, Lu Ye stepped firmly, one footprint at a time, before heading up the mountain. After all, his wife's belly still contained the crystallization of their love, so he could not afford to be careless.

They had barely climbed a short distance up the mountain when another group of people overtook them from behind.

"Oh? Brother Lu, why are you only just getting back?"

Looking back, it was Wan Quan and the Mo siblings.

Mo Cheng, the head of the Mo family, had also come, bringing along a dozen or so disciples.

Meanwhile, Wan Quan was supporting an elderly man—his grandfather, Wan Jinyou.

Upon seeing Lu Ye, Wan Jinyou was so excited that he repeatedly cupped his hands and bowed. "Young Master Lu, I have finally met you! This humble old man truly has no way to repay the immense kindness you showed our Wan family."

With that, Wan Jinyou dropped directly to his knees on the hard stone steps, looking as though he intended to kowtow in gratitude.

"Elder Wan, please don't be so formal. I only helped Wan Shao because I consider him a friend. Friends helping each other out means you don't need to show me such grand courtesy."

Wan Jinyou refused to listen, however, and still insisted on performing the full kowtow ritual of three kneelings and nine kowtows.

With Su Qianqian still piggybacking on his back, Lu Ye truly could not spare a hand to pull him up, so he called out, "Wan Shao, hurry up and help your grandfather up!"

Who would have thought that Wan Quan would also drop to his knees right along with him.

Even Mo Cheng, as well as the brothers Mo Chong and Mo Dong, chorused together, "We thank Young Master Lu for bestowing upon us the grace of a second birth!"

"Today, we ascend the mountain to assist the Lu family in defending the arena, and we shall not shrink from boiling oil or raging fire!"

It looked as though they had planned this out beforehand.

Lu Ye sighed and said softly, "Everyone, please get up. The way we first met may have started from unpleasant little trifles, but through our time together over these past few days..."

"I can tell that the three of you genuinely treat me as a brother, and I won't be petty either. All those past follies were written off long ago, so don't keep dwelling on them. One must look forward."

Wan Quan chuckled and helped Wan Jinyou to his feet.

Wan Jinyou said, "Young Master Lu, I actually have a proposal."

Lu Ye nodded. "Elder Wan, please speak."

"Wan Quan's father died young, and the boy has no interest in business. As for myself, I am getting old, and after this year I will turn eighty. Managing such a massive Union Group is truly beyond my physical capabilities."

"I wish to merge the Union Group into Young Master's wife's Yiren Group, leaving this good-for-nothing grandson of mine with just enough shares to ensure he never has to worry about food or clothing for the rest of his life."

Lu Ye was stunned. This Union Group was the culmination of several generations of effort by the Wan family!

Although Wan Jinyou had phrased it tactfully, how was this any different from giving it away for free?

The market value of the Union Group was several times higher than that of the Yiren Group. If this behemoth were truly swallowed up, Su Qianqian might transform overnight into the new richest person in the country!

"That won't do. Wouldn't that make me a thief who indirectly usurped your Wan family's assets?"

Wan Quan self-deprecatingly said, "Brother Lu, you know I've been idle and undisciplined by nature all my life."

"If the Union Group were left in my hands, I'd only squander the family fortune. Sister-in-law is a business genius; she will definitely be able to carry the Union Group forward and make it thrive. Even if I only hold a small share, it will be more than enough for me to live out the rest of my days in wealth and luxury."

Lu Ye turned his head to look at Su Qianqian's profile and asked, "Wife, what do you think?"

Su Qianqian pondered for a moment and said, "How about this: the Union Group and the Yiren Group can merge, with management and decision-making matters under my sole responsibility."

"The Wan family can permanently hold thirty percent of the shares in the original Union Group, on a hereditary basis."

Wan Jinyou and Wan Quan nodded repeatedly. "Let's do it just like that!"

A hereditary basis meant that decades later, when Wan Quan also grew old, his descendants could still inherit these thirty percent shares of the Union Group. As long as the Yiren Group did not collapse, the Wan family would never have to worry about money ever again.

For Wan Quan, this was the arrangement of his dreams—getting to eat well, drink well, and do no work while money simply rolled in while he lay down.

Chatting all the way up the mountain and discussing the specific details of the merger between the two major groups, they found that this long mountain road was not quite so tedious after all...

Upon ascending to the summit, Lu Ye discovered that a whole new world existed here.

At the end of the stone steps stood a mountain gate.

Carved upon the plaque of the gate were four ancient-looking characters: Tai Chi Lu Clan.

Behind the mountain gate lay a vast open space spanning over a thousand square meters, which normally served as the place where the Lu family disciples practiced martial arts on a daily basis.

At the rear of the open space stood the main residence and auxiliary courtyards of the Lu family, their architectural structure bearing a somewhat spiritual resemblance to the famous Hanging Temple.

The martial arts training ground was already crowded with people, and a square arena measuring approximately thirty by thirty meters had been cleared out right in the center.

Lu Yuqing stood right in the middle of the arena. Today, he wore a white Tang suit, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, facing away from the mountain gate, exuding quite a bit of an ethereal, otherworldly master's demeanor...

Catching sight of his back, Cheng Qimeng spat indignantly, "Bah, show-off!"

Lu Ye simply found it somewhat amusing. In his inherent impression, Old Lu was a wine-guzzling, heavy-smoking, womanizing old rascal, and this sanctimonious appearance right now made him feel a rather contrasting sense of cuteness.

"Mom, I'm curious. How on earth did Old Lu manage to win you over back then?"

Cheng Qimeng said crossly, "Just like you two, he and I started off with a fake marriage."

Su Qianqian and Lu Ye both stared with wide, curious eyes. "Huh?"

Cheng Qimeng explained, "My encounter with him was an accident. Once, when I was in danger during a mission, Old Lu happened to run into me and saved my life. Afterward, he made a request of me."

"In order to put on an impromptu act to fool your grandfather and escape that arranged family marriage, Old Lu wanted me to enter into a fake marriage with him..."

After the fake marriage, Lu Ye's cheapskate grandfather had naturally flown into a thunderous rage!

He even went so far as to threaten to kill Cheng Qimeng with a single strike, so as to cut off Lu Yuqing's thoughts once and for all.

At that time, Cheng Qimeng was merely a young girl at the eighth tier; how could she possibly be a match for Lu Yangxiu?

If Lu Yangxiu had truly intended to kill her, she certainly would not have had any room to fight back.

Yet, to Cheng Qimeng's surprise, this fellow Lu Yuqing seemed to have gotten a bit too deep into character...

With tears streaming down his face, he severed his father-son relationship with Lu Yangxiu on the spot, resolutely insisting on dragging Cheng Qimeng down the mountain to elope.

However, Lu Yangxiu still refused to allow it.

Consequently, the father and son traded blows fiercely right here in the open space behind the mountain gate.

Both father and son were ninth-tier experts, and that battle was earth-shattering.

In the end, it was Lu Yuqing who intentionally conceded a move or two to Lu Yangxiu. Disabling his protective true Qi, he took the full force of a frantic, three-palm combo unleashed by a furious Lu Yangxiu, vomiting blood on the spot...

Struggling to his feet, Lu Yuqing pointed at the precipice on the edge of the training ground and shouted, "If I, Lu Yuqing, jump off this cliff today and die down there to feed the wolves, I still won't marry the eldest miss of the Qing family!"

That's right.

His intended marriage partner was precisely the eldest miss of the Qing family, Qing Qin.