33: A monument to the merits of those who died for their cause! Su Qi, are you a devil?!

Divine Son Peak, Bedroom.

*Thud.*

Su Chen threw himself onto the long-absent bed of thousand-year-old spiritual silkworm silk like a puddle of mud.

His entire body was instantly swallowed by cloud-like softness.

Every inch of muscle in his limbs let out a groan of relief.

But he didn't sleep.

He just kept his eyes open, staring blankly at the magnificent dome carved from a single piece of Star Jade above his head.

The corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably, and a muffled, lecherous laugh escaped his throat, stifled by the quilt.

Back in the Elder Hall, he had been panicking like crazy.

But when he actually used the Great Void Technique to vanish in public, and when the corner of his Divine Thought caught the petrified expressions of those Old Ancestors and Ling Qingzhu on the spot...

An indescribable sense of satisfaction rushed from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head!

This feeling was too intoxicating!

It felt even better than a Breakthrough to Saint King!

It was ten thousand times better than the System rewarding him with another supreme divine technique!

[Refreshing! This is so damn refreshing!]

[Is this the pleasure of a top-tier show-off? Why didn't I realize before that showing off once in a while and seeing their 'questioning life' expressions could be so joyful?]

[This is perfect. Now that the 'Cultivation Maniac' persona is established, who will have the face to disturb my sleep in the future? I've conquered this territory just so I can sleep in forever!]

Su Chen rolled around on the bed, hugging the cool and silky quilt, already beginning to fantasize about a beautiful future where he could sleep until the end of time.

Slacking off was one thing, but showing off once in a while seemed like... a shortcut to the path of the ultimate salted fish!

Just as he was immersed in joy and preparing to drift off to sleep...

*Knock, knock, knock.*

From outside the layers upon layers of barriers surrounding the bedroom came an extremely faint and careful knocking sound.

A maid's voice, filled with infinite reverence and trembling with excitement, filtered through the barrier.

"Reporting to His Highness the Divine Son..."

Su Chen's brow furrowed impatiently. He turned over and covered his head with the quilt.

He was too lazy to speak and decided to play dead.

Unexpectedly, the maid seemed to have received a life-or-death order. She took a deep breath and, in a tone that was almost like an aria of supreme reverence, continued her report with gritted teeth:

"His Highness the Divine Son, the Seventh Elder... because he was too excited, he has personally led a team, mobilizing the Family's hundred best divine craftsmen, as well as three Grand Elders who specialize in Formation runes..."

Su Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he poked half his head out from under the quilt.

[What is that old man up to now? With such a big commotion, could it be he thinks Divine Son Peak isn't grand enough and doesn't match my 'expert' status, so he wants to tear it down and rebuild a golden palace for me?]

The maid's voice became increasingly excited, carrying a hint of uncontrollable fanaticism as she continued:

"The Seventh Elder said that Your Highness the Divine Son has performed Immortal merits for the Family and has perceived the true meaning of the Dao, making you the number one Cultivation maniac of all time! To display your supreme elegance for ten thousand generations of Su Family descendants to admire and learn from, he wants to erect a ninety-nine-zhang-tall... merit stele made of the highest-grade Ten-Thousand-Year Divine Gold at the gate of Divine Son Peak!"

*Boom!*

Su Chen felt as if his Soul had flown out of the Three Realms on the spot. His brain buzzed, completely crashing.

The silly smile on his face instantly froze, shattered, and weathered away.

His entire body felt as if a Zixiao Divine Lightning bolt had struck from the top of his head to his heels. He stiffened and, in a posture that defied the laws of physics, snapped straight up from the bed!

His eyes were wider than copper bells!

A merit stele?

Ten-Thousand-Year Divine Gold?

Ninety-nine zhang tall?!

The maid's voice, sounding like she'd been injected with chicken blood, continued. In an incomparably sacred tone, she read out the inscription that made even her blood boil:

"The inscription was personally drafted by his lordship. It says—'Divine Son Su Chen, with a heart solely for the Dao, unmoved by beauty, secluded himself in solitude; truly the number one Cultivation maniac of all time!'..."

A sense of extreme fear called "social death," even stronger than when he had faced the Demoness earlier, swept through his entire body like a cold tide of corpses!

I'm socially dead.

I'm being publicly executed.

[Su Qi! I'll screw your ancestors!!!]

Su Chen's heart roared frantically, his voice so shrill it could shatter a Saint's Divine Soul!

[You old geezer! You're trying to nail me to the pillar of historical shame!]

[Cultivation maniac? Maniac my foot! I did that to avoid you! To avoid that Ice Block Face! Do you even understand what a strategic retreat is?!]

[And 'heart solely for the Dao, unmoved by beauty'? Which eye saw that? That was my social anxiety acting up! I just found it troublesome! You damn old matchmaker!]

[If this merit stele actually gets put up, how am I supposed to survive in the Su Family? How can I be a salted fish with a clear conscience? From now on, whenever anyone sees me, won't they look at me like I'm some kind of cultivation lunatic?]

[No! Absolutely not! This is more painful than killing me!]

Su Chen felt the world spinning; his vision went dark.

He could clearly imagine the scene: a giant, glittering golden stone tablet towering into the clouds, standing right at the entrance of his Divine Son Peak, with that shameful inscription carved in flamboyant strokes that made his toes want to dig out a three-bedroom apartment on the spot.

From now on, Su Chen's reputation in the Su Family would take a 180-degree turn from an "unambitious, playboy Divine Son" to a "cold-hearted, emotionless cultivation machine"!

He didn't want either of those reputations!

He just wanted to be an ordinary, unnoticed, handsome Divine Son, sleeping every day, writing in his diary, and waiting for death while living off others. Wasn't that great?!

"This is bad! This is bad! Something big is going to happen!"

Su Chen paced around the room like a headless fly, his hands frantically scratching his hair. His previous exhaustion had vanished, replaced by a chest full of madness and a desire for destruction.

He stopped abruptly, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the bedside.

There lay an ordinary-looking diary that could stir the winds and clouds of the heavens, along with that Rune Pen.

That was his only outlet, and his only... life-saving straw!

No, I have to vent!

If I don't vent, I'm going to explode from this overwhelming sense of shame and anger!

He pounced like a hungry tiger, grabbing the diary and pen with a rough motion as if he wanted to crush them.

He flipped open the diary, his pen tip infused with spiritual energy, almost scratching angry sparks onto the paper.

He was going to use the most vicious, sarcastic, and lung-piercing language to nail Su Qi—that grandmaster of overthinking—along with his damn merit stele, firmly to the pillar of historical shame forever!