Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Although Ning Fengzhi had made a decision, the implementation of it was ultimately entrusted to Ning Rongrong.

This is not something that can be resolved in the short term.

While Ning Rongrong was still enrolling in Shrek Academy, Zhu Zhuqing had already returned to the Xingluo Zhu family.

"Second Miss!?"

In the Zhu family territory, the guards at the main gate of the Duke's mansion were daydreaming when they suddenly saw Zhu Zhuqing's face. They were immediately shocked and stood at attention.

Like the Dai family, the Zhu family has maintained a brutal competitive mechanism internally since ancient times.

However, like the Dai family, the Zhu family, as a long-established family on the Douluo Continent, often regards this kind of competition mechanism involving the family as a sensitive topic by the family's senior members, and has always taken measures to keep it secret.

This custom was not a secret among the upper echelons of the nobility, but it remained a secret for ordinary people, even for the security guards at the Zhu family's gate.

So the guard was just wondering when Zhu Zhuqing had run outside and why she had run back now.

"Um."

Zhu Zhuqing nodded, and the guards quickly stepped aside to let the second young lady into the Duke's mansion.

Zhu Zhuqing did not bring any Soul Fighting Beasts with her; she returned alone.

Of course, just to be on the safe side, You Chen secretly disguised himself as You Xing and hid nearby, but there was no need to tell Zhu Zhuqing about this.

Whether it's to prevent the Zhu family from not arranging Zhu Zhuqing as expected, or to prevent Zhu Zhuqing from acting impulsively and betraying them due to her Douluo personality, at least until it's confirmed that she has completely sided with the Beast Soul Alliance, surveillance under the guise of protection is necessary.

And this task is something that no one but You Chen himself can do.

Although it took up a little of his cultivation time, just like monitoring Tang San, You Chen knew that this trouble was something he couldn't afford to ignore.

By spending a little effort now, one can avoid a lot of trouble in the future; You Chen is certainly capable of calculating such a deal.

"Mother."

Upon returning to the Zhu family home, the first thing Zhu Zhuqing did was to visit her mother.

Inside the Zhu family's study, which was filled with a sense of historical weight and scholarly atmosphere, sat a stunningly beautiful woman who bore a striking resemblance to Zhu Zhuqing.

Although she was nearing forty, she still maintained the youthful charm of someone in their twenties. Her face was exquisite and flawless, her skin smooth as jade, and most importantly, she had an S-shaped curve that was exactly like Zhu Zhuqing's, making any man's throat bob when he saw her.

Add to that her elegant black long dress, as beautiful as a blooming orchid in the night, and the sophisticated black-rimmed glasses on her nose, and she looks like a young woman who has traveled from the modern fashion world.

With such a face, especially her plump and proud body, You Chen glanced at her and knew she was definitely her biological mother.

In order to continue the lineage of the Netherworld Cat Martial Soul, the Zhu family has always been a family where women are stronger than men. They arrange for men from outside the family to marry into the family, with women ruling the family and holding the title of Duke.

Some people may have doubts.

Judging from the life-or-death struggle between Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun, the Zhu family, like the Dai family, only has one sole heir in each generation who ultimately prevails.

So what is the relationship between the current head of the Zhu family and the current emperor? It can't be the empress, can it?

Wouldn't that create chaos?

But if that's not the case, then what is the relationship between the head of the household and the current empress?

The sisterhood was ruled out from the outset.

If they are sisters, what's wrong with Zhu Zhuyun that she would go after Zhu Zhuqing?

Like the Dai family, the Zhu family has always had a mechanism of death-defying competition.

It's not hard to understand.

Because the death competition only exists within the lineage of the family head, meaning that such a competitive relationship only exists between the most outstanding bloodlines.

Because of the inheritance issues of the Evil-Eyed White Tiger and the Netherworld Spirit Cat martial souls, the bloodlines of both families are forbidden from flowing out, but naturally they have continued to circulate within the Star Luo royal family's clan.

If none of these royal relatives are qualified to be the head of the family, then the position of head of the Zhu family will be held by the empress, who will then choose the next prince consort from among the many collateral bloodlines of the Zhu family for her son.

Conversely... it's still a brutal, death-defying competition.

First, the best of the best were selected to identify a group of outstanding talents.

Then, the process of natural selection continues, and the most outstanding bloodline is chosen to inherit the position of family head.

The current head of the Zhu family, Zhu Lanyan, is, by blood, the current emperor's younger sister.

This is actually a relatively peaceful succession process.

Without needing to compete with other collateral branches, and backed by the royal family, they ascended to the throne directly.

Generally speaking, each emperor would have many children, trying to produce a princess who could inherit the Netherworld Cat Martial Soul, so that she could become the head of the Zhu family.

After all, the offspring of the emperor and empress were chosen from among the best, so they did not need to compete with those from collateral branches and were often the most talented.

Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing are cousins. (I remember the original novel mentioning that they were cousins.)

In order to ensure the purity of the martial souls of their descendants, it is not uncommon for large families like those in Douluo Continent to have cousins ​​marry each other.

As for the issue between Yu Xiaogang and Liu Erlong.

Excluding the factor of the original author's self-contradiction, the biggest reason is still the issue of the purity of the martial soul.

Both of them possess mutated martial souls. If they continue to combine, who knows what kind of mutation will occur? Whether it's for the sake of the family's reputation or to prevent the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus bloodline from being contaminated.

Yu Luomian had reasons to prevent the two from getting together.

Some might say, what about polluting the bloodline? As long as their children don't mate with any members of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex family, isn't that enough?

People who say things like that must have incredibly simple minds...

First, if their descendants are not allowed to join the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex family's social circle, there's no way to guarantee that their bloodline won't leak out. Perhaps their offspring will mate with normal people and mutate back into the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex martial soul...

If their descendants are integrated into the family's social circle, who can guarantee that they won't develop romantic relationships with other family members?

In addition, there are cases like Yu Xiaogang and Liu Erlong, who got involved without knowing each other's knowledge.

In short, it's very difficult to handle, and it's best to just cut it off completely.

Hearing her daughter's voice, the intellectual young woman finally came to her senses. She turned her head sharply and was stunned when she saw Zhu Zhuqing's face.

"How come it's you?" Zhu Lanyan blurted out.

A fleeting look of disappointment crossed Zhu Zhuqing's face, but perhaps because she had matured considerably after being hunted down by her sister, she concealed her emotions very well.

He concealed his disappointment and buried the even stronger determination that arose from his mother's attitude deep within his heart.

Zhu Lanyan realized she had misspoke, but she did not apologize. Instead, she looked at Zhu Zhuqing with a very complicated expression.

As sisters, Zhu Zhuyun and Zhu Zhuqing have similar voices. In addition, Zhu Lanyan has been somewhat anxious and exhausted lately, and was so engrossed in the documents in her hands that she made a mistake for a moment.

Moreover, in Zhu Lanyan's eyes, Zhu Zhuqing was already a dead person.

Zhu Lanyan said, "You dare to come back?"

This was the first thing Zhu Lanyan actually said to Zhu Zhuqing after realizing that the person in front of her was Zhu Zhuqing.

Since ancient times, royal families have been known for their ruthlessness. The Zhu family may seem to be just a duke's family, but they have consistently produced and selected empresses for each generation. In a sense, they are completely bound to the royal family and can be considered a different kind of royal family.

As the current emperor's sister, Zhu Lanyan was even more well-versed in this.

She naturally wouldn't invest much emotion in her younger daughter, who was born later and was almost destined to die in the competition.

This is why Zhu Zhuqing developed such a cold and indifferent personality.

Apart from her older sister, she didn't receive much love or care growing up.

Now, even the sister who once cared for her has betrayed her and is dead, making Zhu Zhuqing's heart even colder.

Upon hearing Zhu Lanyan's words, Zhu Zhuqing understood that until this moment, Zhu Lanyan probably had not considered the possibility of her eldest daughter's death at all.

Therefore, in Zhu Lanyan's eyes, Zhu Zhuqing probably escaped from Zhu Zhuyun's clutches and returned to the Zhu family's Duke's Mansion.

In Zhu Lanyan's eyes, this was naturally a nonsensical action.

No matter what, they were her daughters. She really didn't want to see them kill each other right under her nose. But in other words, that's why she allowed so many of her retainers to help Zhu Zhuyun hunt down Zhu Zhuqing.

"Why would you come back after finally escaping? You can't be begging me to save your life, can you?"

Zhu Lanyan felt both sorrow and amusement for her daughter.

That's only to be expected.

Zhu Zhuyun's own strength is higher than Zhu Zhuqing's, and she has so many helpers by her side. No matter how hard Zhu Lanyan thought about it, she could not have imagined such a possibility.

"From a young age... you, no, you've always been like this," Zhu Zhuqing suddenly said.

She stared intently at Zhu Lanyan's stunningly beautiful face, which possessed natural charm and elegance. For the first time, she realized that her mother, whom she had feared and dreaded, was actually not such a big deal after all.

Seeing that her mother showed no remorse whatsoever and instead questioned her, Zhu Zhuqing felt anger towards this beautiful woman for the first time. An involuntary smile crept onto her lips: "I killed my sister, so I came back."

Seeing the astonishment and shock on Zhu Lanyan's face, Zhu Zhuqing had never felt so pleased!

The mother, who always seemed to have everything under control and was like the sky over the Zhu family, was just an ordinary woman who would be shocked and bewildered in the face of a more powerful force.

"impossible!"

Zhu Lanyan's beautiful face twisted slightly, a hint of urgency and disbelief in her expression. She then looked at Zhu Zhuqing with a stern gaze: "How could you possibly be capable of such a thing?"

Zhu Zhuqing was too lazy to argue with her, so she simply threw Zhu Zhuyun's already stiff head out of her storage soul tool.

"You actually...!?"

Looking at the frozen corpse, Zhu Lanyan's maternal instincts immediately confirmed that the head was not a fake. Her heart felt like it had experienced a magnitude nine earthquake, and she blurted out, "She's your sister!"

Upon hearing these nonsensical words, Zhu Zhuqing was unusually taken aback, and then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! My sister!? Now you're telling me she's my sister!?"

Zhu Zhuqing laughed sadly, laughed heartily, laughed maniacally, and laughed until tears streamed down her face.

She was no longer the aloof person she used to be.

Zhu Zhuqing, her face contorted with rage, looked down at her mother, who seemed nailed to the desk, a rare look of panic on her face. Her laughter grew even louder: "That's it! That's it! This is the expression I wanted to see on your face, hahaha! Are you in pain? Are you sad? Are you terrified? This is your retribution! This is what you deserve!"

"I deserve it?" Zhu Lanyan asked, unusually bewildered.

Zhu Zhuqing stopped laughing. She merely curled her lip, moved closer to her mother, less than five centimeters away, and said with a cold laugh, "You've always... always maintained an air of complete control, but in reality, you haven't done anything at all! Since you chose to stand by from the beginning, don't wait until things don't go as you expect before you start lamenting! My foolish and useless mother!"

After saying this, Zhu Zhuqing finally distanced herself and turned to walk out the door.

Just as she was about to step out of the study, she seemed to suddenly remember something she had forgotten. Turning back, she smiled at the distraught Zhu Lanyan and said, "I almost forgot, Mother. I've come to tell you—I'm back. From now on, the Zhu family has no more Second Miss. Only me, Zhu Zhuqing!"

Not long after Zhu Zhuqing left, a handsome and refined man entered, followed by several guards.

The two did not conceal their argument, and Zhu Lanyan naturally had guards protecting her while she was working.

The reason they didn't rush in to stop them was simply because it was a conversation between Zhu Lanyan and her daughter Zhu Zhuqing, and as servants, they were naturally caught in a dilemma.

Moreover… judging from Zhu Zhuqing's words, from now on, she is the successor. They dared not offend her recklessly.

That's why they only dared to come in now.

The handsome, refined-looking middle-aged man, clearly not dressed as a guard, approached Zhu Lanyan with a worried expression: "Madam, are you alright? It's understandable that Zhu Qing is resentful. I'll talk to her about it later. You didn't set these family rules, so she should respect you as her mother no matter what..."

Zhu Lanyan suddenly raised her head and looked at her handsome husband, but no matter how she looked at him, she felt that he was weak and incompetent.

The resentment and anger stemming from Zhu Zhuqing had nowhere to go, but now the perfect target for that anger had been delivered right to his door...

"roll!"

With a furious roar, Zhu Lanyan unleashed her soul power, slamming her husband against the study wall, where he slid down like a painting.

"master!?"

The two guards were shocked and rushed forward to check on the refined man's condition.

Fortunately, Zhu Lanyan, despite her outburst, had held back a bit. Furthermore, the man himself was capable of marrying into the family as a son-in-law and being the biological father who produced high-quality offspring, so his aptitude wasn't too bad. He only suffered minor injuries.

Zhu Lanyan didn't even glance at the middle-aged man lying on the ground, clutching his chest and panting, and began giving orders to the two guards.

She first glanced at Zhu Zhuyun's severed head with barely concealed pain: "Call the head maid over and collect Zhuyun's... body."

Then he added, "Pass on my order to Zhu Zhuqing, tell her to wait for me in the main hall."

By the time she uttered these words, Zhu Lanyan's expression had completely regained its composure.

Although she was indeed shocked and overwhelmed just now, Zhu Lanyan had been a duchess for decades, and she knew very well that what she needed to do now was not to wallow in grief and shock, but to respond appropriately and promptly. (End of Chapter)