26: Chapter 26 I'm a coward!

As soon as the words fell, the room fell into silence for a moment!

Upon hearing this, Shen Qinglan was stunned for a moment. Her beautiful eyes reflected Chen An, who looked plain and unremarkable, but a faint flush had quietly crept onto his earlobes as a wicked, charming smile curled the corners of his lips.

"Hmph! You? And 'a son-in-law is half a son'?! "

Shen Qinglan snorted coldly, crossing her arms over her chest, which made her already exquisite figure appear even more curvaceous. She glared at Chen An with shy indignation in her beautiful eyes, and raised her chin with a haughty air, saying:

"How come I never noticed, why is your skin so thick?!"

"If you want to sleep with this young lady, wait until you can beat me first!"

Watching her flushed ears and her haughty, unyielding expression, the smile in Chen An's eyes deepened.

He looked at her with a calm gaze, his tone carrying a touch of lazy, confident teasing:

"Alright, those words came from your own mouth."

Holding a bun in one hand, he leaned in slightly, gazing at her intently: "As long as I can beat you, I'll take these words seriously from now on, okay?"

"Fine, then this young lady will wait for you to beat me. How about we do it right now?!" Shen Qinglan, naturally unwilling to admit defeat, looked at him provocatively and said.

"Let's skip it for now!"

Chen An shrugged, finishing the bun in his hand in two or three bites, and said, "The County Exam is tomorrow. If I don't hold back and accidentally injure you, wouldn't that be a sin?"

"Pfft!!"

Hearing Chen An's words, Shen Qinglan couldn't help but scoff. She naturally didn't believe what Chen An said was true, thinking he was just making excuses. She didn't pay it any mind and didn't dwell on the issue further.

The two had known each other for so many years and often bantered like this; neither would ever take it seriously.

"By the way, let me tell you, the Bai Yifan's Family was wiped out last night!" Shen Qinglan suddenly said again.

"Oh?!"

Chen An raised an eyebrow, feigning a look of surprise, "The Bai Yifan's Family? Is it that Bai Yifan's Family?!"

"That's right, the very same Bai Yifan who caused you trouble two days ago!"

Shen Qinglan nodded her head, then suddenly slapped her thigh in annoyance and said, "Oh, didn't you say that Bai Yifan wanted to give you three thousand yuan crystal to break off your relationship with me?"

"If you had agreed to him back then, wouldn't you have earned three thousand yuan crystal for nothing?!"

"What a loss, a huge loss!!!"

"Forget it, it's just three thousand yuan crystal; how could it compare to our friendship?!" Watching Shen Qinglan's annoyed expression, a smile appeared on the corner of Chen An's mouth as he spoke with feigned indifference and detachment.

"Smooth-talker, you only know how to say nice things to coax people. This young lady doesn't buy that!"

Shen Qinglan rolled her eyes at him, feigning disdain, but the corners of her eyes curved secretly, hiding uncontrollable amusement and curiosity.

She scanned Chen An up and down, pondering to herself. For some reason, she had felt for the past few days that Chen An was different from before.

Could it be that this kid has finally wised up?!

Sensing Shen Qinglan's strange, scrutinizing gaze, Chen An's eyes flickered slightly, and he took the opportunity to change the subject, feigning astonishment: "By the way, the Bai Yifan's Family is, after all, a well-known Family in the county. Who could be bold enough to wipe out the entire Bai Yifan's Family within the city?"

"I don't know!"

Shen Qinglan shook her head slightly, a clear look of gravity flashing in her eyes as she said seriously: "I specifically went to the scene to check just now. Overnight, the Bai Yifan's Family's estate of over a hundred acres was reduced to ruins. Moreover, on the ground of the main residence, there was a giant palm print left behind, a hundred zhang in diameter and two or three zhang deep."

She paused, her tone becoming increasingly grave: "To be able to unleash such terrifying power, the cultivation of the person who struck must have already surpassed the Innate Realm; they are at least a Grandmaster level expert!"

"It's a pity, the Bai Yifan's Family has relied on the County Magistrate's authority all these years to run rampant in Wurong County, oppressing the common people, and secretly hoarding who knows how many yuan crystal and Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill!"

"Now that they've been wiped out in one fell swoop, it's said that their treasury has been emptied. I wonder who ended up benefiting from it?!" Shen Qinglan said with a face full of regret.

Watching Shen Qinglan's expression, the corners of Chen An's mouth couldn't help but curl upward.

He naturally wouldn't tell Shen Qinglan that he was the one who wiped out the Bai Yifan's Family, and that their treasury had fallen into his hands.

"Forget it, this matter has nothing to do with you. The Bai Yifan's Family has been acting like tyrants in Wurong County for years, bullying the markets and the people; they deserved this calamity!"

Shen Qinglan shook her head, then looked at Chen An and warned him, "And you, don't run around at night for no reason. The government hasn't found the culprit for the Bai Yifan's Family incident yet. Plus, the County Exam is tomorrow. In the next few days, the government will definitely be patrolling everywhere and conducting strict investigations. Don't go out, don't cause trouble, do you hear me?!"

"Mm, okay!"

Chen An didn't refute her; he smiled and nodded, saying, "You know me, I'm cowardly, I never go out at night!"

"That's all the ambition you have!"

Seeing that Chen An could actually admit to being cowardly with such peace of mind, Shen Qinglan was amused to the point of laughter.

She rolled her eyes at him with annoyance, a hint of coquettish indignation on her pretty face, saying: "You're quite capable of bickering with this young lady on normal days, but you turn cowardly as soon as it comes to serious matters."

"Fine, it's better if you stay put, so this young lady doesn't have to worry about you!"

"Alright, I've delivered Old Yue's message. I need to go back and Cultivate to prepare for tomorrow's County Exam, so I won't chat with you anymore. See you tomorrow!"

Saying this, Shen Qinglan stood up, reached out to pat Chen An on the shoulder, and then walked toward the courtyard wall outside without any hesitation.

She leaped slightly, light as a swallow, tapped her toes against the wall, and in an instant, she jumped onto the top of the wall. With a flick of her figure, she vaulted over the wall.

Looking at Shen Qinglan, who had disappeared over the wall, the corners of Chen An's mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly.

This girl never uses the front door when coming to his house!

Shaking his head, he withdrew his gaze from the wall, turned around, and walked back into the room. After thinking for a moment, he took a package out from under the bed.

Opening the package, he saw over a dozen Secret Manuals of Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill that he had scavenged from the Bai Yifan's Family's treasury lying quietly inside.

His eyes flickered, and he set aside eight of the Yellow Rank Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill, then began to examine the remaining five Profound Rank Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill.

Of these five Profound Rank Secret Manuals, two were Cultivation Technique and three were Martial Skill.

The Cultivation Technique were the Profound Rank Low Grade "Xuanyuan True Art" and the Profound Rank Medium Grade "Huiyuan Profound Art".

The Martial Skill were the Profound Rank Medium Grade "Ocean Overturning Wave Palm" and "Flowing Cloud Thousand-Layer Step", as well as the Profound Rank High Grade "Heaven-Cleaving God-Slaying Saber".

With his current cultivation, he naturally had no use for these Profound Rank Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill.

However, his cultivation had improved too quickly, and he still had some shortcomings in Martial Skill. Since he didn't have any Earth Rank Martial Skill on hand, he planned to learn some first, thinking that perhaps he could use them to deduce Earth Rank Martial Skill later.

This was also a trick he had accidentally discovered when deducing the "Cangxuan Qi-Condensing Art" previously.

When he used the System to deduce that Earth Rank Cultivation Technique, the essence of the Profound Truth of the various Cultivation Technique and Martial Skill he had cultivated in the past naturally emerged in his mind.

Those Move trajectories, True Qi circulation methods, and attack-defense rhythms all intertwined and merged, becoming the reference foundation for deducing the Cultivation Technique, helping him avoid countless detours.

Additionally, for this Five Prefectures Joint Examination, with his current real cultivation, if he were to unleash it completely without reservation, he could completely crush the Prodigy of his generation and sweep away all opponents.

However, being so sharp-edged and ostentatious neither suited his personality nor the persona he had deliberately created for himself externally.

Therefore, he planned to master a few more Profound Rank Medium and High Grade Martial Skill, which he could use to deal with enemies when the time came. This would allow him to display decent strength, stand out in the Joint Examination, and secure a ranking, without having to expose too much of his own true cultivation foundation and arouse suspicion.

"System!"