Qing Chen sighed, "You guys are really thoughtful."
He went up to Qing Chen, and the mute servant attached two tubes to Qing Chen's temples. On the other side, a tube for injecting nanobots was also connected to Qing Shou's head.
The banquet hall was completely silent. Everyone stared in disbelief at the scene, and some even began to tremble.
Meanwhile, someone tried to tip off someone, only to find that all the signals here had been blocked.
After the mute servant finished adjusting the data and pressed the start button, the mercury-like nanorobots inside the instrument were injected into the two people's bodies...
Time passed second by second.
Qing Chen quickly categorized Qing Shou's memories, keeping only Qing Shou's experience in military supplies management and secrets, while discarding the other emotional memories as trash.
Qing Chen opened his eyes and received the military supplies management experience that the other party had accumulated over twenty years in just a few minutes.
On the other side, Qing Shouze became a vegetable.
In the banquet hall, everyone was shocked. It turned out that Qing Chen really couldn't be possessed!
Qing Ji calmly said, "Oh right, you might also suspect that there's something wrong with this machine, such as that it wasn't originally designed for possession, and that Qing Chen and Qing Shou were just putting on an act. We didn't actually start the possession process. Come on, bring up the two people who questioned us the loudest just now and start the possession process for them."
The two men struggled, and one of them even wet his pants.
They were strapped to the equipment and watched helplessly as nanobots were injected into their bodies.
Just five minutes later, one person woke up, but the other became a vegetable forever.
The person whose body had been possessed stood rooted to the spot, staring at their hands in disbelief: "I...I successfully possessed someone?"
Qing Ji said, "The possession is complete. Take him away. Now, is there anyone who doesn't believe Qing Chen? Raise your hand if you do."
No one dared to raise their hand.
No one objected.
By this time, everyone realized that the patriarch, who had been living in seclusion for many years, was not senile; he had long been prepared for tonight's storm.
Qing Ji laughed and said, "Well then, the banquet is over for tonight. However, you can't leave yet; you'll have to stay in the guest rooms at Ginkgo Manor. I wish you all sweet dreams tonight! Please leave now!"
He didn't want these people to watch Qing Chen plunder his memories, so the rest of the plundering process could only begin after they had all left.
Once the place was empty, Qingchen stood inside the machine again, waiting for the mute servants to bring people up one by one.
Shindai Yunlu watched silently for a long time before sighing, "I'd heard before that the head of the Qing family was ruthless, but I always felt that he was just sitting on Ginkgo Mountain without moving, which seemed a bit unrealistic. Only by experiencing it firsthand today can I truly feel the terror of his mind... Can this family head really abandon human emotions?"
Qingji scrutinized Shendai Yunluo: "Um... do you have any particularly powerful skills?"
Kamishiro Unra said thoughtfully, "I'm particularly good at attracting girls."
Qing Ji's eyes lit up: "Come on, drag him into the machine too! Our Crown Prince desperately needs this skill!"
Qing Chen was both amused and exasperated: "Who are you trying to be sarcastic about...? I've read all their memories. Let's begin. There are still quite a few people to purge tonight. We'll start with the garrison troops in all the cities; they're already preparing for a mutiny. The first is Brigade Commander Qing Zhou of the Garrison Brigade in City 5; he's been secretly turned. The second is Battalion Commander Qing Bian of City 4, and the third is..."
Qing Shou, whose memories were stolen, is a logistics officer in charge of military supplies. He is one of the core figures in the opposing camp and naturally knows many secrets.
As Qing Chen rattled off dozens of names, Qing Ji looked at Qing Chi, who immediately left after recording them, thus beginning the cleanup operation for the evening.
Qing Chen didn't need to do anything else; he only needed to say the names, and Qing Chi and Qing Yu would take care of the cleanup.
This is why Qingyu was stationed at the front line and sent Qingchi back with the troops for a rest. The other side planned to make a move tomorrow, but the patriarch had no intention of letting certain people live past tonight.
When important figures hold meetings, they generally have a common habit: problems that can be solved must be solved before the meeting; those who need to be eliminated must be eliminated, and those who need to be discussed must be discussed. Then, when the formal meeting begins, everything is always passed unanimously.
Only the winners are allowed to attend the meeting.
Losers are not eligible to attend the meeting.
Qing Ji asked, "Have you finished reading all the memories?"
Qingchen nodded.
Now that he has plundered the memories of elites from nine families, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a political genius.
He covered in one night the distance that would take others nine lifetimes to complete.
The birthday gift given to the head of the Qing family was quite generous.
Qing Ji looked at Qing Chen: "Let's go, come with me to see the patriarch. It's time to meet him."
Qing Chen took a deep breath. This was the first time he had seen his biological father since he transmigrated, and he even felt a little uneasy.
Watching Qing Ji and Qing Chen's departing figures, Shen Dai Yunluo said regretfully, "I thought there would be a fun banquet tonight, but it ended so abruptly."
Suddenly, Kamishiro Sora said, "That's good."
Kamishiro Yunra laughed and said, "It's a good test of our friendship."
...
...
Return countdown 02:00:00.
As they climbed the mountain path, Qing Chen followed behind Qing Ji and asked, "Does the patriarch not have much time left? What illness does he have?"
“He’s not sick, he’s just exhausted, which has caused his organs to fail. He won’t agree to organ transplants,” Qing Ji said calmly. “We can’t persuade him on this kind of thing. If you want to persuade him, you can help me. Consider it a favor I owe you.”
An old man who had lived in seclusion in the mountains for many years, detached from worldly affairs, was about to leave this world due to exhaustion, which shows that he was not idle even in seclusion.
Reaching the mountainside, Qingchen looked at the solitary little wooden house: "Has he been living here alone all these years?"
“Yes,” Qing Ji nodded, “Go, he’s waiting for you.”
At this moment, an old voice came from inside the room: "Qing Ji, you come in and listen in too."
The two mute servants opened the door, and when Qingchen went in, he saw the old man sitting on a prayer mat with his back to them. There were two more prayer mats behind him, which seemed to have been prepared for him and Qingji.
Unlike the memories I had of him, he was much more hunched over and thinner, and no longer had the charm he had more than ten years ago.
Qing Chen didn't sit down; he just stood at the door and asked, "Did my brother come to see you in the last moments of his life?"
“Yes, they’ve come to see me,” the old man replied.
"Did he say anything?" Qingchen asked.
“He said he asked me to take care of you after he left,” the old man said softly.
Qing Chen pondered: "So you've prepared so many plans just so you can give me this huge Qing Clan before you leave? Even if it means killing so many people and destroying the Shadow War system left by our ancestors, you're willing to do it."
The old man thought for a moment and said, "Actually, even if I wanted to give it to you, you would have to be able to accept it. Besides, I didn't plan the purge for you; I did it for Xiao Zhun."
"Huh?" Qingchen asked, puzzled.
The old man recalled, "After Xiao Zhun met Ning Xiu, he kept it a secret from me because he was worried that I wouldn't be able to accept Ning Xiu as a dancer... To be honest, he never really understood his father. Actually, I quite like Ning Xiu. She's very good to Xiao Zhun and is truly sincere. As for her identity as a dancer, that's not really important. For people like us, shouldn't we just be happy? If the world accepts us, then we accept the world; if the world doesn't accept us, then we change the world. That's the mindset of a king."
The old man continued, "Later, someone wanted to kill Xiao Zhun, but mistakenly killed Ning Xiu instead. What I didn't expect was that Xiao Zhun wasted a hundred years of his life on this, which made me a little angry."
"Are you blaming him for acting on emotion?" Qingchen asked.
“No,” the old man shook his head, “whether he acted on emotion or not is his own choice, and it has nothing to do with me. He decides his own life, so what’s wrong with that? What angers me is that someone actually wasted my son’s hundred years of life.”
Qing Chen stood there, stunned.
"I investigated for a long time but couldn't find out who did it. But I thought to myself, the murderer must be one of the beneficiaries. Since I can't find the real culprit, I might as well kill all the beneficiaries. So, that's when the purge plan started." The old man said casually, "But this purge plan can't be rushed, because you haven't come back yet. I can't let you come back to find the Qing family riddled with problems. Wouldn't that make me look too incompetent?"
Qing Chen was shocked: "Kill them all? If you do that, half of the Qing family will die!"
The old man laughed and said, "So what?"
Chapter 780, The father and son are playing pretty big games.
The small wooden cabin on the mountainside was dark and quiet.
This place is like a shrine on a desolate mountain, where a god or Buddha is worshipped by no one, indifferent to the presence of human life or the peace of the world.
It's right here, almost forgotten over the past decade or so.
But starting tonight, many people may recall what kind of role the old man sitting here really played.
The person who can stand out in the battle of shadows and defeat all the shadows to reach this position is indeed the most ruthless being in this world.
In Qingchen's eyes, this family head should be a shrewd and calculating person who values the family's interests above his own life.
But this old man, in order to avenge his son, was willing to drag the entire Qing family into the abyss!
This doesn't sound like a decision made by the head of a household; it sounds more like a simple, hardworking father willing to shed blood for his son.
Qing Chen felt somewhat uncomfortable. He had originally thought that when only the head of the family remained as a relative in this world, the so-called kinship had already become a mere formality.
But to his surprise, the reality was not so.
Qing Chen turned to look at Qing Ji, only to see the other man smiling faintly in the dim light, as if he had expected Qing Chen to react this way.
"Don't you care about the interests of the Qing family?" Qing Chen asked.
"You think I'm too willful and want to destroy the Qing family? No," the patriarch said slowly. "This behemoth has become rotten after a thousand years. In history, no dynasty has ever lasted a thousand years. How can a family last a thousand years without any problems? The people of the past are resting on their laurels, and it's difficult for new people to rise up. Everyone is just keeping to their own little plot of land and indulging in wishful thinking. We're better off without this kind of Qing family."
The head of the Qing family recalled, "What was the Qing family like in the past? Our ancestor, Qing Zhen, believed that the family had become corrupt, so he stormed Ginkgo Mountain and overthrew the Qing family. In the final battle against the artificial intelligence 'Zero,' everyone relied on the belief that 'success doesn't have to be mine,' and died one after another, just to fight for a future for the living. The Qing family should have always been synonymous with courage and fighting spirit. We have never lacked the courage to start over. That's the true Qing family, something to aspire to."
The patriarch continued, "Xiao Zhun first gave you the Secret Service, then the Shadow Force, and tonight I'm giving you the Qing Clan's frontline troops and all the project companies. From now on, wherever you are, the Qing Clan will be there."
Qingchen listened silently, feeling that the other party was very well prepared.
Fearing that he lacked experience, the father even left him nine experience packs in the management field, directly leveling him up from a management novice to a max-level player.
The other party had gone to great lengths to prepare for this day.
However, Qing Chen's expression remained largely unmoved. He calmly asked, "And then? Do you have any other plans?"
The patriarch calmly said, "It depends on whether tonight's plan goes smoothly. You don't need to worry about being held back here. I've chosen Qingyu for the front lines. He's a loyal subject, doesn't form cliques or seek personal gain, has no powerful allies, and is only focused on the family's interests. If one day you're dissatisfied with him, just remove him; he has no power to resist. Tonight, he will arrest several people overnight, including the commanders of infantry divisions, air force divisions, rocket force divisions, and information force brigades. Once you've seized their memories, you'll naturally have a thorough understanding of the military. Qingyu can't deceive you."
"You have Qingkun in the rear. Although he has a bad temper, he is a master at managing internal affairs and a genius in business," the patriarch said. "You only need to promise him Qingyi's future, and he won't rebel against you, nor does he have the intention to. If you want to be a knight, then be one; no one will hold you back. By the way, Li Kerou is a good secretary for you. Cultivate a good relationship with her; she will be the most suitable person to stay by your side and assist you."
Qingchen asked, "So you arranged everything, but never asked me if I wanted any of it? Did you ever ask me what my plans were?"
"What, you don't want it?" The Qing family head's tone showed no surprise, as if he had expected it all along: "Spending too much time in the outer world can make you a bit sentimental, I understand. But now that you're back, you naturally have to learn how to get along with this world, it's more ruthless than you imagine."
At this moment, Qing Chen suddenly shook his head: "You've arranged everything. If I were to refuse now, wouldn't it seem a bit pretentious? This enormous Qing family is something others would kill for. What reason do I have to refuse? Becoming the head of a powerful conglomerate is a good thing!"
"Um?"
This time, it was the head of the Qing family who was puzzled.
He had made so many efforts, and his biggest worry was that Qingchen wouldn't be willing to come back and take over everything.