Chapter 68: Persuade Me, and My Everything is Yours

Lin Ruoxuan easily caught the underlying meaning and double entendre of his words. A faint, near-imperceptible blush swept across her pale cheeks.

She looked quietly at Xu Yunzhou, forcefully suppressing the impulse to recklessly throw herself into his arms like Song Jiaru did.

Her voice carrying a slightly imperceptible tremble, she asked that question that had lingered in her heart for over a decade:

"I need an explanation... a reasonable explanation about the Tyrant, about Xu Yunzhou, about all of this."

She took a deep breath, as if wanting to exhale all the heaviness accumulated for thirteen years at once. Staring at him with burning eyes, she delivered a vow as heavy as a thousand catties:

"If you can persuade me..."

She paused, her chest heaving slightly from agitation, and finally said word by word:

"Then, everything I possess is yours—because all of this was originally yours anyway."

Watching her fight to maintain a facade of absolute executive composure while her inner world was clearly being torn apart by a tempest, Xu Yunzhou found it incredibly amusing and decided to lean into the teasing.

"President Lin is still so... domineering on the outside. But I remember, the last time I saw you, you didn't look like this."

A wicked smile curled up at the corners of his mouth,

"It was on Jinli Ancient Street in Chengzhou. A certain someone who kept claiming she wanted to be a Queen, after hearing a song, suddenly cried like a little child in public, snot and tears smearing all over her face."

"It really startled Jiaru and me who were present at the time."

With a "boom" in Lin Ruoxuan's mind, that blurry memory fragment instantly became incomparably clear!

The version of herself who lost emotional control and broke down losing composure in public after hearing familiar singing in Jinli... so back then, the "Tyrant" was watching right beside! He saw everything!

Her agitated chest heaved violently. Staring fixedly at Xu Yunzhou, she forcefully suppressed the impulse to rush over, grab his collar, and interrogate him.

Because this person before her, she had secretly paid attention to and investigated for too many years, always thinking he was just an inconsequential teenager who merely looked identical:

"You... explain to me... I don't understand, completely don't understand... the timelines don't match up, nothing matches up..."

Unlike Song Jiaru's near-religious, absolute acceptance of his return, Lin Ruoxuan was a creature of structural control and unyielding logic.

She had investigated for too many years and had also been disappointed for too many years. She truly couldn't instantly switch her feelings from that omnipotent "Tyrant" to this "mortal" before her eyes whom she had once despised.

At this time, the sun gradually rose higher, golden sunlight spilling over the West Lake, which also attracted more and more tourists.

Soon, quite a few curious, inquiring, and amazed gazes drifted seemingly unintentionally toward this trio with vastly different temperaments.

Xu Yunzhou frowned slightly and swept a glance around:

"This isn't a place to talk, there are too many eyes and ears around here. Mingyue Tower next door has elegant private rooms for drinking tea. Let's go up, open a private room, sit down, and chat slowly."

"Okay."

Lin Ruoxuan had already taken out her phone. Her fingertips swiping rapidly on the screen, her tone returned to its usual state of clinical, high-powered corporate efficiency:

"I'll arrange it."

Xu Yunzhou turned around to go to the stall to scan the code and pay the bill, but that glasses-wearing uncle waved his hand, his face smiling into a pile of wrinkles:

"No need for that, absolutely no need! Consider it my treat for such distinguished guests... Hehe, if anything, I ought to be thanking you! This little stall of mine is practically guaranteed to blow up online by tomorrow!"

"I've already mapped out the strategy: first thing tomorrow, I am launching the 'Diva Song's Tear-Stained Sweet Tofu Pudding Signature Combo,' and then I'll fire up a live stream titled 'The West Lake Breakfast Spot for Goddess Encounters'! I am absolutely riding this viral traffic wave to the bank!"

Xu Yunzhou felt a wave of speechlessness.

Binzhou truly deserved to be the capital of e-commerce; even a roadside stall uncle had such keen business sense, playing the game of riding trends and creating concepts to perfection.

Within the brief span of that exchange, Lin Ruoxuan had raised her eyes, looking at him calmly, and spoke concisely:

"The top-floor scenic private room is already prepared."

Xu Yunzhou raised his eyebrows; this is the efficiency of money and power.

The few people didn't say more, quickly got up, and moved to the adjacent Mingyue Tower.

The well-trained waiters had clearly been instructed in advance, guiding them to the top floor with incomparable respect.

The private room was extremely spacious, decorated elegantly and quietly. Sandalwood smoke curled up, refreshing the heart and mind.

Outside the huge carved wooden window lattices was the panoramic view of the vast and misty West Lake; the beauty of the lakes and mountains was taken in at a glance.

The heavy solid wood door was gently closed by the waiter behind them, emitting a muffled "click," completely isolating the disturbances and prying eyes of the outside world.

Inside the private room, it fell into a subtle, almost stagnant silence.

The aroma of tea floated in the air.

The two Queens who had reached the summit in their respective fields, at this moment, were like believers waiting for the final judgment.

All gazes focused on Xu Yunzhou sitting in the center, waiting for him to uncover the final mystery of destiny.

Unrushed, Xu Yunzhou first picked up the purple clay teapot and personally poured three cups of tea. The amber tea soup rippled slightly in the white jade-like porcelain cups.

He pushed two of the cups in front of Lin Ruoxuan and Song Jiaru respectively.

Then, he picked up his own cup, his gaze looking distantly at the lake view outside the window, as if organizing his words, and also as if recalling ancient times.

A moment later, he withdrew his gaze and smiled:

"Actually, I am an immortal, or rather... a cultivator."

This was the rhetoric he had meticulously prepared after deep consideration over these past few days.

That bizarre "Goddess Nurturing" "game" was his biggest secret and trump card, involving incomprehensible dimensions and powers, and absolutely could not be known by anyone.

And this setting of "cultivation," under the influence of current internet culture, was much easier to understand and accept than some "System" or "higher-dimensional existence," and could also perfectly explain the various contradictions and irrationalities on his body.

"A cultivator?"

As expected, just as Xu Yunzhou anticipated, although the faces of the two women showed shock, they didn't feel too much surprise.

This answer, to some extent, instead confirmed the guesses they had long harbored deep in their hearts!

Covering her lips with her small hand, Song Jiaru's clear almond eyes flickered with excitement as she muttered:

"Pretty much what I thought... Big Brother, did you achieve merit and perfection, and have now reincarnated as a human again? But... how did you suddenly become so..."

She subconsciously gestured at Xu Yunzhou's current mature and tall figure, meaning how did his physical age suddenly become so "big/old"?

This was also the part Lin Ruoxuan was most confused about.

If Xu Yunzhou was the reincarnation of the "Tyrant," the timelines completely don't match up, it simply can't be explained.

Xu Yunzhou smiled slightly, knowing the most crucial part that required him to "spin the tale round" had come.

Calm and composed, he began his performance:

"Mhm, for an existence that has cultivated to a certain realm, there isn't only a single form."

He weighed his words, trying his best to appear unfathomable,

"We can understand it as possessing two bodies—a Dharma body and a physical body."

(TL: "Dharma body" refers to a spiritual or manifestation body in Buddhist/Daoist context.)

He extended two fingers and spoke slowly:

"My Dharma body, to some extent, can transcend the restraints of time and wander in the long river of history. One of his missions is exactly to find those 'People of Destiny' who shoulder great luck and extraordinary fates, yet are temporarily covered in dust."

His gaze swept gently over Lin Ruoxuan and Song Jiaru,

"Like you two, and also... Xiao Yun."

"By guiding and helping you step onto your fated trajectories, this is both helping you, and also an important way for me to accumulate merit on the path of cultivation."

"When you achieve your accomplishments, the merit harvested can help me advance my cultivation and consolidate my Dao foundation."

He paused, observing the two women's increasingly focused and enlightened expressions, knowing they had already accepted this setting.

So, he pointed at himself, his tone carrying a trace of the worldly atmosphere of mortal life:

"And my current state, Xu Yunzhou, twenty-six years old, possessing a complete growth experience and identity proof of an ordinary person."

"This is exactly the fundamental stage I must experience during this entry into the mortal world, and also a crucial, even the most perilous link on the path of cultivation. Commonly known as—"

He deliberately paused, emphasizing his tone:

"The Mortal Tribulation."

(TL: "Mortal Tribulation" is a common xianxia trope where an immortal must experience mortal suffering to advance.)

"The Mortal Tribulation..."

Lin Ruoxuan repeated this term softly, her beautiful brows smoothing out slightly.

During that period of bewildered and painful days, she indeed came into contact with a large amount of metaphysics, philosophy, and even web novels trying to find answers.

She was not unfamiliar with this term, roughly understanding that it was a tempering a cultivator must experience before a realm breakthrough.

She pondered for a moment:

"You mean, your Dharma body and physical body have now merged into one, and you remembered us?"

Song Jiaru's train of thought, however, completely drifted in another direction.

As if suddenly thinking of some key question, her cheeks were "swish" dyed crimson:

Um...

Can cultivators... get married? Can they have babies?

Don't worry guys, the novel will maintain its identity.

It's not gonna become a Xianxia Cultivation novel all of a sudden, this is just an excuse he came up with to explain his powers without actually leaking it's real source.