My father is the main character, but the female leads want to kill me.

"I still have some pills here. Brother Lin Chong, please take them quickly so you can recover from your injuries soon!" Fu Yuemei looked at Lin Chong across from her with worried eyes.

Lin Chong's condition was not very good at this time. He was bare-chested, and there was a long and hideous wound on his back. His breathing was also not very stable.

Lin Chong shook his head and said softly, "Yuemei, you guys have been dragged into this. If you hadn't helped me today, I might have really been killed by those bastards."

"Brother Lin, those guys from Shengqiong Academy, along with the Qin family, probably know you're Mr. Lin's son, which is why they were so ruthless," a brother from Tianli Academy said from the side.

This person had spent some time with Lin Ran before, and now he felt indignant about the Holy Sky Academy and the Qin family's cruel treatment.

"Hehe, that's not why they attacked me. It seems I stumbled upon their secret by accident today. I only heard about the so-called 'secret treasure.' Do you know anything about it?" Lin Chong couldn't help but ask.

Everyone shook their heads. Fu Yuemei asked curiously, "Brother Lin Chong, what did you overhear them discussing today?"

"They... seem to be looking for a 'hidden treasure.' I guess it's some kind of inheritance or treasure from this secret realm. We can't let these guys get it so easily. They've gone to so much trouble; if they don't get this 'hidden treasure,' they'll be furious, right?" Lin Ran chuckled.

“Then let’s be like the mantis stalking the cicada…” Fu Yuemei said with delight.

"The oriole is unaware of the mantis behind!"

……

Outside the secret realm, the Qin family, the Holy Sky Academy, and the Azure Dragon Academy have a close relationship.

Although the Qin family patriarch was humiliated by the Sword Sect that day, the two academies would not break off relations with the Qin family because of it. After all, it was not them who made the Qin family lose face. It would be better for both sides to avoid reopening old wounds and continue to maintain the existing relationship of interests.

In the stone house where the Qin family was mainly stationed, Qin Tianying toasted Lin Yi and Jin Qiusheng, then said loudly, "These past few days I've had people constantly monitoring the movements in the secret realm, and our plan is proceeding smoothly..."

Jin Qiusheng finished his drink in one gulp, slammed the glass on the table with a flourish, looked at Qin Tianying, and said in a carefree manner, "That's already ours!"

Jin Qiusheng and Qin Tianying exchanged a smile, their hearty laughter echoing in the stone house. Qin Tianying filled his wine cup, looked at Lin Yi who was frowning and deep in thought, and asked, "Brother Lin, what are you troubled by?"

"No…"

Lin Yi raised his glass, took a sip, and then chuckled, "I just think it's a bit too early to call it a success... Although we've prepared a lot, sometimes if we don't do a good job on a small detail, all our previous efforts can be wasted. So I'll continue to observe and see!"

Qin Tianying smiled, raised his wine glass in a gesture of respect, and then said, "I need to learn more about Brother Lin's prudence. We've done what we should do, and now it's up to those good-for-nothing juniors. Let's drink, let's drink, let's not worry about anything else!"

Lin Yi also raised his glass and took a few sips. A glint of shrewdness flashed in his eyes, but he quickly concealed it, replaced by a slightly tipsy and dreamy look...

It seems that the cooperation among these three parties isn't as solid as it appeared...

……

In Lin Ran's room, Mu Shishuang didn't know how long she had slept. It was already dark outside when she finally woke up.

As she sat up slightly, a blanket slipped off her shoulders. Mu Shishuang stared at the blanket for a moment, stunned. After a while, once her mind cleared, she realized who had covered her with it.

Mu Shishuang subconsciously looked around, but the room was dark and she couldn't see Lin Ran, until she heard footsteps outside the door...

"bump!"

The door was pushed open the next moment, and Lin Ran, smelling of earth and grass, walked in. He looked at Mu Shishuang sitting on the recliner and said with a smile, "You're awake. If you're awake, come with me to help. I went hunting a lot of monsters and came back, but we need someone to deal with them."

"I just…"

Mu Shi stared blankly at Lin Ran, and murmured something under her breath. She had only mentioned it casually and never thought that Lin Ran would actually complete it.

Because she knew Lin Ran was very busy, and she didn't hold much importance in Lin Ran's heart anyway—definitely not as much as that woman named Shangguan—but she never expected…

"What are you still standing there for? Come over here... If you don't finish cleaning up quickly, we won't be able to eat for a long time tonight. Aren't you hungry?" Lin Ran called out when she saw Mu Shishuang still sitting there blankly.

"I'll come right away!"

Mu Shishuang hurriedly placed the blanket on the recliner, stuffed the binoculars in her arms into the pocket in her sleeve, and quickly came up behind Lin Ran, following her step by step.

Although she was being ordered around to do the work, Mu Shishuang was happy to do it.

Because this feeling of being cared for and needed seems... quite nice...

……

156. A Secret Realm Where Competition Is Increasing

One morning, near the Qianlong Secret Realm, Lin Ran, who was fast asleep, was awakened by the noise outside.

He yawned as he came out of the house and saw in the distance a crowd gathered near the plaza at the entrance to the secret realm.

"What's going on here? Why are they all gathered there?"

Lin Ran didn't even bother to wash up, and he ran over to join in the fun. Standing on tiptoe on the outside, Lin Ran discovered that the two groups surrounded in the center were two unfamiliar forces. The two groups seemed to have already fought, and both of them had a lot of bruises on their bodies.

At this moment, the two sides separated and were facing off, exchanging all sorts of trash talk.

Lin Ran spotted Mulan in the crowd and called out to her a few times via telepathy. Upon hearing this and recognizing Lin Ran, Mulan emerged from the crowd.

After successfully meeting with Mulan, Lin Ran rubbed her hands together eagerly and asked, "Why is there a fight here so early in the morning? What happened?"

Mulan glanced at the circle of people and explained in a low voice, "It's the disciples that the group on the left sent into the secret realm. There was a disciple who was probably very important inside, and he was killed. Then these people found out who did it, so they went to settle accounts with the other side."

Upon hearing this, Lin Ran was taken aback and exclaimed, "Is the difficulty of this secret realm already this high?"

Mulan shrugged and said helplessly, "It's just that you, Mr. Lin, don't pay attention. The entrance to this secret realm hasn't been closed yet, and many new people are going in every day."

"From the scenes in that scroll, you can see that the fighting inside is becoming increasingly bloody and violent. According to the information obtained by the guys who escaped from there, there are many inheritances and treasures in that secret realm. Many people are fighting for those things, and they have already fought to the death."

"Mr. Lin, are your students really capable of handling this increasingly complicated situation? Why don't you let them out sooner?" Mulan said with some concern.

Just yesterday, she watched a scene from the scroll that showed the secret realm. There was a group of women from an unknown place who seemed to have been ambushed and then suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of another force. They didn't even have a chance to escape with their spatial tokens and were dragged into endless humiliation.

Although the subsequent footage was deliberately cut off, it is said that the forces behind those women have already come to settle accounts.

Right now, the fighting is happening both inside and outside the secret realm.

"I believe in those kids, and I've given them space tokens and taught them how to protect themselves, so they should be fine!" Lin Ran smiled.

But only he knew how much bitterness was hidden in his smile. He had taught all his experience to those children in order to improve their chances of survival in the secret realm. If they were to die in the end, perhaps it was just fate and they had no one to blame but themselves.

When Lin Ran returned to the front of the house, he found Mu Shishuang standing at the door. He was taken aback for a moment, then went forward to open the door for Mu Shishuang and said, "Why did you come here so early?"

Mu Shishuang pointed to the central square and said, "That...is too noisy, so I came here instead..."

"Won't I just make it noisier?"

Lin Ran smiled, went into the house, and then went to the makeshift kitchen inside, saying, "You probably haven't had breakfast yet, right? I'll just make you something to tide you over!"

"it is good!"

Mu Shishuang nodded and obediently sat down at the table by the window in the room. She glanced at the scene in the scroll outside, then looked down at the notebook in her sleeve, and then at Lin Ran's busy figure in the kitchen, seemingly struggling with something...

"Eat it while it's hot!"

Lin Ran was quick, and soon he had prepared a sumptuous breakfast. As he ate the "custard buns" he had recently made, reminiscing about the taste of his hometown, he noticed that Mu Shishuang hadn't touched her chopsticks for a long time. He couldn't help but ask in confusion, "What's wrong? Is it to your liking?"

Mu Shishuang shook her head. She looked up and stared at Lin Ran with a deep, melancholic gaze. Just as Lin Ran was about to throw a steamed bun at her, a notebook was shoved in front of him: "Here you go!"

"For me?"

Lin Ran was taken aback. He took the notebook and couldn't help but ask, "What's in here?"

"Didn't you ask me to record any scenes of Xiao Chong in the secret realm? I've recorded them all, and the scenes of others too..." Mu Shi said, her eyes slightly evasive.

Although Lin Ran didn't know Mu Shishuang inside and out, she had gotten to know the girl's personality to some extent after spending so much time together.

Mu Shishuang's current state indicated that the scene she recorded was not simple. Recalling what Mulan had just told him about the increasingly fierce competition in the secret realm, Lin Ran's right hand trembled. He subconsciously pressed his trembling hand and laughed, "Eat breakfast first, it won't taste good if it gets cold."

"Oh…"

Mu Shishuang nodded, but she stole a few glances at Lin Ran, sensing that something seemed off about her.

If she had known better, she wouldn't have revealed everything she saw. If she had the power, she would definitely have used the memory erasure method!

Lin Ran waited until after breakfast before opening the notebook Mu Shishuang had given him. He was afraid he would lose his composure, so he even sent Mu Shishuang back home. He stayed in the room alone, looking at the notes Mu Shishuang had taken.

Upon opening the first page, Lin Ran saw Mu Shishuang's simple sketch, clearly showing that the girl had even drawn the scene from that time.

The scene shows his son confronting a long-haired man who looks like a woman. Yue Mei is also nearby, and his son has suffered many injuries.

Following this was a note written by Mu Shishuang: "Although the injuries are severe, they shouldn't have damaged the bones... I don't recognize the guy who played against Xiao Chong, but he has long hair and looks like a woman, so he should be easy to find..."

What Mu Shishuang recorded next were all instances of Lin Chong playing chess against different people, including the Qin family and the Holy Sky Academy.

After reading it, Lin Ran closed the notebook, took a sip of tea, and calmed himself down. He thought to himself, "This brat has offended so many people all at once. What exactly did he do in there? Couldn't he have kept a low profile?"

But then he thought about it again. His son was the main character, and the main character was someone who could run into someone he didn't like while drinking water and then inexplicably start a fight. Thinking about it this way, he felt much better.

"But the Qin family and the Holy Sky Academy... those two groups really deserve to die!"

Enraged, Lin Ran slammed her hand on the stone table in front of her. Her powerful spiritual energy instantly shattered the stone table into dust, and the teaware, now without support, fell to the ground and broke into pieces.

"bump!"

The large door at the entrance was suddenly pushed open, and Shangguan Mengqing walked into the stone house. She hurried to Lin Ran's side, a look of worry flashing in her eyes, and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but the table is in trouble..." Lin Ran said blankly, pointing to the table in front of her.

He glanced towards the gate and happened to see Mu Shishuang peeking out, which immediately made him understand why Shangguan Mengqing had suddenly appeared there.

He was both amused and exasperated. Was he really that unreliable?

Shangguan Mengqing burst in and sat down in the chair opposite Lin Ran, holding Lin Ran's hand tightly in her own. Her voice softened as she said, "I've also been keeping an eye on the situation in the secret realm. I hope that no matter what, you will believe in Xiao Chong, believe in your apprentice, and believe in your students. They are all very talented and polite children, and they will definitely return with a full harvest..."

"Don't worry!"

Lin Ran pulled her hand out of Shangguan Mengqing's palm, and instead grasped Shangguan Mengqing's soft little hand, gently kneading it, and said with a smile: "I'm a whole generation older than you, and because of that, I've had the opportunity to see more of the sorrow in this world. When it comes to how to face suffering, I can share my wisdom with you. Call me Master, and I'll teach you my secret recipe step by step!"

"Oh, no need for that," Shangguan Mengqing replied calmly.

"Why not use it? Don't you want to become stronger?"

“I’ve had a smooth journey so far, so I don’t need this method,” Shangguan Mengqing said with a Versailles-like air.

Lin Ran was immediately indignant. He recalled how miserable Shangguan Mengqing looked when she received the inheritance; she was disfigured.

"You're lying. When you received the inheritance back then... ah..." Lin Ran hadn't finished speaking when he couldn't help but gasp. At that moment, a small foot wearing a light blue embroidered shoe was "gently" resting on the instep of his foot.

Shangguan Mengqing looked at Lin Ran with a leisurely air and said, "What were you trying to say about me back then?"

"No, I just think you're amazing. You completed the inheritance so easily!" Lin Ran said against her will.

"Is that really the case?"

"That's really true!"

Shangguan Mengqing withdrew her foot, glanced at the door, and suddenly turned to look at Lin Ran, saying, "Why didn't you close the door when you came in? Let me close it for you!"

Lin Ran: "..."