Return of the Immortal Emperor Daddy

Watching Wu Tian, the other examinees concluded he was just showing off and scribbling nonsense. Many of them secretly wished they could do the same. How exhilarating that would be! But they couldn’t.

Take the old men here, for example. Some felt they were about to die of old age, while others felt they were succumbing to illness. They didn’t want to die, but they had achieved nothing on the Martial Path. Their only hope was to become Blood Refiners, which offered them a sliver of a chance at survival. Perhaps by succeeding fully, or even just halfway, in Blood Refinement, they could prolong their lives. They had to answer the questions seriously. Even if they couldn’t solve an entire question, each one was worth three points. If they got even a small part right, they might still earn one of those three points, and that was enough. So, they dared not write nonsense.

At that moment, Wu Tian put down his pen and let out a breath. PHEW. He swept his Spiritual Sense over the paper to check for errors, then stepped forward. "I’d like to submit my paper."

An uproar erupted among the examinees.

"What? He’s submitting his paper already?"

"He didn’t come here for the examination. He must have come to fool around."

"Definitely."

The room was lit not by crystals or diamonds, but by candlelight. In the dim, flickering light, Wu Tian’s features were blurry, and the other examinees didn’t recognize him.

One of them even guessed, "Master Meng Tian must be furious."

"Why?" another asked.

"Blood Refiners have always been in hiding, never mastering the true Art of Blood Refinement. That’s made them more sensitive, with a stronger sense of pride. This person is clearly here to make a mockery of them."

The exam was an hour long, yet not even fifteen minutes had passed before Wu Tian submitted his paper. Such a thing had never happened in the entire history of the Blood Refiner examinations.

Ignoring the other examinees’ chatter, Wu Tian looked at Meng Tian and asked, "When will it be graded?"

What? This guy scribbled nonsense, and he has the audacity to ask for his score? Heh. Is he going to be thrilled when he finds out he got a zero? What an oddball!

Meng Tian snorted. "Wait outside. You’ll be notified of your score later."

Wu Tian nodded and walked out of the small examination cave.

The moment he left, Meng Tian casually set Wu Tian’s exam paper aside. He couldn’t be bothered to even look at such a nonsensical submission; it would only fuel his anger. We Blood Refiners still have our dignity. This is not a place for you to trifle with.

After walking out of the small cave, Wu Tian leaned against a nearby wall, his mind already racing. I should go to the Heavenly Emperor’s Treasure House, to the Doushuai Temple, and see if there are any blood exchange methods. Perhaps, if the blood exchange methods from Cultivation were combined with the incomplete Path of Blood Refinement from the Immortal Emperor Realm... it just might work.

Seeing Wu Tian emerge, Meng Xue walked up to him. "How did you get out so quickly?"

"I don’t have time for you," Wu Tian replied bluntly.

His priority now was to send his Spiritual Sense into the Heavenly Emperor’s Treasure House and the Doushuai Temple. Meng Xue? I don’t have time for the likes of her.

"What? No time for me?" Meng Xue felt stifled. "Tell me why."

She hadn’t spoken to anyone in so long, and now she’d finally found someone to talk to. And he refuses to speak? The thought made Meng Xue deeply uncomfortable. She had come here with her father as a child and had spent her life in a dark room, monitoring the ancestral hall. She was always alone. Now that someone was finally here, he was telling her he had no time to spare?

Meng Xue bit her lip, finding Wu Tian completely unreasonable. Any normal man would prefer talking to a beautiful woman over standing by himself in silence. That’s just how it is.

"What ’why’? I don’t want to talk to you, that’s all. If you’ve got something wrong with your head, you should hurry up and get it checked," Wu Tian said, his frustration mounting. This girl’s pestering was keeping him from the Doushuai Temple.

"You..." Meng Xue was furious at being told she was sick. I was only talking to you for your own good!

Boredom was the first reason she had struck up a conversation with him, but there was a second one as well. Seeing Wu Tian standing there alone, she grew anxious. In the past, many candidates who knew they had failed stood alone just like that before taking their own lives. When even their last hope of becoming a Blood Refiner was extinguished, they figured they might as well be dead. Meng Xue worried Wu Tian would do the same, so she was pestering him out of good intentions. And this was how he repaid her? By calling her sick? You’re the one who’s sick! Sick from head to toe!

Meng Xue was so enraged that she began to breathe heavily. Her chest, which was normally quite flat, heaved up and down, creating the illusion of small hills.

"Do you even know why I’m trying to talk to you?" Meng Xue suddenly asked. Once I tell him, he’ll realize just how badly he has wronged me.

"Hmm?" Wu Tian fell into thought. Why is Meng Xue pestering me so much? His mind drifted back to his experiences in the Immortal Emperor Realm, back before he was the Wutian Celestial Emperor. Even then, though not yet an Immortal Emperor, his fame was already widespread, and young women constantly sought him out, pestering him endlessly. When he had asked them why, they’d all said he made their hearts flutter.

With this thought, Wu Tian snapped back to the present. He looked at Meng Xue with great seriousness and said, "I’ve made myself very clear. I have a wife and a lovely little girl at home. Nothing is possible between us, so please, do not fall in love with me."

As Wu Tian saw it, if she kept this up, she would inevitably develop feelings for him, even if she didn’t have them now. He had to refuse her outright. "Don’t get close to me," he warned. "Otherwise, when you fall for me and I don’t reciprocate, you’ll be the only one who suffers."

"Me, like *you*?" Upon hearing this, Meng Xue nearly choked. What kind of joke is this? Me, like him? Damn it all, why won’t you just let me explain why I’m pestering you? I’m doing this for your own good! I’m afraid you can’t handle the reality of your failure! I’m afraid you’ll kill yourself! How dare you speak to me like that? I’m a beauty, no matter how you look at it! You make it sound like I’m so desperate I’ll never get married, as if meeting you would be the ruin of my life!

Meng Xue gritted her teeth so hard they made a grinding sound. She felt like she was about to explode.

Just as Meng Xue was about to lose her composure and lash out, the examination in the small cave finally ended, and people began to trickle out one by one. Mindful of her image, Meng Xue fell silent and simply stood to the side, deciding not to berate Wu Tian for now.

Wu Tian seized the opportunity, quickly sending his Spiritual Sense into the Heavenly Emperor’s Treasure House and toward the Doushuai Temple.

The books inside, left behind by Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad, were all covered in dust. Wu Tian paid it no mind, eagerly flipping through them. Finally, a tome titled *Method of Blood Exchange* caught his eye. Wu Tian smiled.

In the Mythical World, the Chan and Jie Teachings were busy with their conflicts. Only Lord Lao Zi had the time to delve into other great Daos.

Wu Tian opened the *Method of Blood Exchange* and was immediately mesmerized, completely engrossed in its contents.

Meanwhile, back in the small cave, Meng Tian gathered the exam papers, picked up a red pen, and prepared to start grading. He had tossed Wu Tian’s paper aside without a second glance.

As he graded the other papers, his frown deepened and his expression grew increasingly ugly. He finally cried out in despair, The Blood Refiners... If no one pioneers the true Path of Blood Refinement, we are truly doomed. Fewer and fewer people understand our art with each passing year. What kind of scores are these? This is all utter nonsense!