Tycoon War God

「Qin Family.」

Lin Mu and Qin Luoli were each busy with their own tasks.

Qin Luoli cradled a huge ball of red yarn, clumsily knitting a sweater. Seeing her furrowed brows, it was obvious that knitting was far more difficult for her than practicing martial arts and cultivation.

Lin Mu wasn’t idle either; he was balancing their accounts with a pen in hand. If anyone had looked closely, they would have noticed that the problem this great God of War was racking his brains over was the household expenses he and Qin Luoli had incurred over the past few days.

Ever since Qin Luoli’s pointed revelation, Lin Mu had stopped cultivating. Instead, he sought to engage in ordinary activities, immersing himself in the essence of mundane human life. Qin Luoli knitting a sweater while he balanced the books was just one example. In Lin Mu’s own words, he was ”finding emotional resonance in the ordinary and human warmth in the everyday.”

Qin Luoli didn’t understand any of this, but she was willing to accompany Lin Mu.

”Master, Xiao Xuan requests an audience,” Li Linglong said as she cautiously walked in to ask for instructions. She nervously stole glances at her master and mistress, completely bewildered.

Ever since they had returned from their trip a few days ago, they had been acting strangely. Her mistress, the dignified president of Qin Corporation, wasn’t managing the company’s affairs but instead spent her days focused on knitting. Her master, a living legend and the world’s strongest expert, was biting the end of his pen while calculating their daily household expenses. Li Linglong couldn’t understand it, nor did she dare to ask.

”Can’t you see we’re busy? Tell him we’re not seeing anyone,” Lin Mu said without looking up.

Li Linglong suppressed the urge to make a sarcastic comment and slowly backed away. He’s too preoccupied with the cost of groceries to even meet with Commander Xiao. If it were only Master acting like this, I would have entertained the heretical thought that he had suffered a cultivation deviation or gone mad.

”Wait, did you say Commander Xiao?” Lin Mu asked, seeming to snap back to reality.

”Yes!” Li Linglong replied, her gaze fixed on her own toes. She found her master was becoming more and more enigmatic.

”Then we should see him.” Lin Mu put down his pen and turned to Qin Luoli. ”Luo Li, yesterday we spent a total of 878.5 yuan, which is 1,336.5 yuan less than the day before.”

Qin Luoli merely hummed in response without looking up, and it was unclear if she had even heard him.

Li Linglong was dumbfounded. What in the world was going on with her master and mistress?

「The living room.」

Xiao Xuan paced back and forth, unable to sit still.

”Elder Xiao, I finally managed to get some free time. There isn’t another mission, is there?” Lin Mu asked as he entered the hall.

”Hmm?”

Hearing Lin Mu’s words, Xiao Xuan felt that something was off. When he finally saw him, he was shocked beyond measure. ”You! How can you be... how...”

The great Commander Xiao was at a loss for words to describe the man standing before him.

Lin Mu smiled. ”I took the wrong path before. Now I’m walking it again. Please, sit down, Elder Xiao.”

The wrong path? If taking the wrong path made him a living legend, what realm will he reach now that he’s on the right one?

Xiao Xuan finally understood how to describe the Lin Mu before him. Divine radiance withdrawn, a return to true simplicity! If, before the battle at Changbai Mountain, Lin Mu’s brilliance was on full display, his aura of dominance unparalleled like a peerless treasured sword that could cleave through anything, then the Lin Mu of this moment was that same sword returned to its sheath, building power for the perfect strike. The battle at Changbai Mountain had sealed his divinity! Everyone assumed that even if Lin Mu didn’t become complacent, he would at least enter seclusion to cultivate and polish his realm. Unexpectedly, he did the exact opposite—he abandoned cultivation to polish his state of mind instead. That air of casual indifference, that heart unperturbed by praise or blame, was simply peerless. This was a temperament Xiao Xuan had only ever seen in the older generation of leaders. It was the ultimate expression of a character that had weathered every storm, stripped away all vanity, and grasped the true self. He never expected Lin Mu could achieve this at such a young age. The shock this gave Xiao Xuan was even more profound than the awe inspired by Lin Mu’s terrifying Martial Way cultivation, which had allowed him to slay a Foundation Establishment Immortal.

”It seems my visit today was born from needless worry,” Xiao Xuan said with a wry smile, shaking his head.

”You seem troubled, Commander Xiao,” Lin Mu observed, taking a calm sip of his tea.

Xiao Xuan said, ”I had intended to bring you into the Dragon Protection Hall, but my request was rejected by its Elders’ Council.”

”The Dragon Protection Hall,” Lin Mu savored the name. ”Is that the organization established to oppose the Ancient Land Sects?”

Xiao Xuan nodded.

Lin Mu smiled. ”Whether or not the Dragon Protection Hall can actually oppose the Ancient Land Sects is one thing, but it certainly seems to have perfectly mastered all of their worst habits.”

”Worst habits? What do you mean?”

”An organization subordinate to the state has established an Elders’ Council that can even defy orders from the Military Department. Isn’t that a terrible custom?”

Xiao Xuan’s brow furrowed slightly. In his previous life, Lin Mu was Emperor Zun and was no stranger to power struggles. Seeing that Xiao Xuan still didn’t quite grasp it, he spelled it out for him. ”What if, one day, the Ancient Land Sects attack and the nation needs the Dragon Protection Hall to act, but the Elders’ Council, due to certain considerations, refuses the order? What happens then?”

”Impossible!” Xiao Xuan instinctively retorted.

But then he recalled how his two applications had been vetoed by the Dragon Protection Hall’s Elders’ Council, and his expression turned grim.

”The Dragon Protection Hall... it’s becoming a force too great to control,” Xiao Xuan finally managed to utter after a long pause.

There was a time when the Dragon Protection Hall was Huaxia’s strongest power. Military organizations like the War Dragon Camp and the Divine Machine Camp couldn’t even hope to compare. The nation had devoted nearly all its resources to supporting the Dragon Protection Hall, hoping it could contend with the Ancient Land Sects.

But this time, their reason for refusing Lin Mu was that by slaying Ao Guang, he had offended the Celestial Northern Dipper Pavilion, and they were worried about being held accountable. How utterly absurd! If the Dragon Protection Hall has to walk on eggshells around the Ancient Land Sects, then what purpose does it even serve?

Previously, Xiao Xuan had only thought the Elders’ Council was full of old fossils set in their ways. Now, with Lin Mu’s insight, he finally realized the gravity of the situation.

Xiao Xuan rose again and began pacing back and forth in the hall. ”Teacher Lin, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

”If it’s about fighting, you can forget it.”

Lin Mu cut him off before he could even finish his sentence.

Xiao Xuan looked chagrined. He hadn’t even noticed that his form of address for Lin Mu had grown increasingly respectful since the battle at Changbai Mountain. Now, having been refused so bluntly, he found it difficult to press the issue.

Seeing Xiao Xuan’s expression, Lin Mu sighed in resignation. ”Elder Xiao, I’m only considering this because it’s you asking. Otherwise, I would absolutely refuse.”

Xiao Xuan’s face lit up with joy.

Lin Mu held up a hand. ”Don’t get too excited yet, Commander Xiao. I won’t be acting personally this time. If you need people for a fight, I’ll have Linglong and the others go in my stead.”

”Linglong?” Xiao Xuan looked troubled. Their opponent is the Dragon Protection Hall. Can Li Linglong, Li Lingqing, and the others really handle it?

Lin Mu smiled. ”You shouldn’t underestimate them. Besides, I used the Three Sacred Treasures of the Western Deity Race to forge Magic Artifacts for them. They should be more than capable of taking on the Dragon Protection Hall.”

”So, tell me. Who do you want beaten up?”

With Lin Mu putting it so bluntly, Xiao Xuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However, he didn’t beat around the bush either. ”The Dragon Protection Hall’s Elders’ Council!” he stated directly, a cold light flickering in his eyes.

”Since those old geezers in the Elders’ Council have become so rotten, it’s time for them to give up their positions to those with more courage. I want to ask you to take your people to the Capital City and clean house!”

PS: My eyes are killing me, so I’ll stop at ten thousand words for today. I’ll continue tomorrow! And let me state again: I do not have dark circles under my eyes. If I’m lying, I’m a little pig