Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

Lin Yueru, who had been stunned for a long time, finally managed to come to her senses. She coughed twice to suppress the turmoil in her heart and took the initiative to look at Shen Jingshu. Her tone was somewhat restrained and surprised: "Hello, Shen classmate. My name is Lin Yueru. This is my master, Master Lingxu. We... are alumni of Peking University."

Shen Jingshu remained calm, nodding slightly, her eyes showing no emotion whatsoever. She truly had no recollection of this fellow alumnus.

Upon hearing this, Master Lingxu was greatly shocked and hurriedly asked his disciple, "Yueru, do you know Miss Shen?"

"That's right, Master. We go to the same school and occasionally run into each other on campus."

A college student still in school?!

Master Lingxu was completely unable to sit still, his heart filled with shock and bewilderment. At such a young age and with such experience, to possess a secret Xuanmen technique that had been lost for a hundred years—this was simply an unheard-of, heaven-defying talent!

He quickly made a guess in his mind: the girl must be from a hidden sect with top-notch skills. That exquisite lightning-struck wood amulet and the lost ancient formation could not possibly be mastered by a young student; they were most likely made by her elders.

Suppressing his shock, Master Lingxu composed himself, rose, and bowed slightly with a respectful and solemn posture. He earnestly inquired, "Miss Shen, may I ask which school or lineage you belong to? Could you please tell me, so that I may know which lineage of masters you have inherited?"

Shen Jingshu clearly sensed Lingxu Zhenren's subtle movements as he secretly probed her aura from beginning to end. However, the other party's cultivation level was ultimately far inferior to hers. As long as she deliberately concealed her spiritual energy with a thought, no matter how Lingxu Zhenren used his methods to probe, he could only gain nothing and could not sense any of her true cultivation level.

Facing the probing gazes of the master and disciple, she calmly and slowly uttered four words: "I am a disciple of the Xuanmen sect."

"The Mystic Sect?!"

Master Lingxu and Lin Yueru, who was standing beside him, both changed their expressions and froze. Lin Yueru turned to look at her master with a blank expression, her heart filled with confusion.

She had grown up cultivating in the Xuanmen sect since childhood, and there were only two of them, her master and herself. She had never seen anyone named Shen Jingshu before. If the other party really came from the Xuanmen lineage, her master, as the current sect leader, could not possibly be unaware of it.

Master Lingxu suppressed the shock in his heart, leaned forward slightly, and solemnly asked, "So you are from the same lineage as me, fellow Daoist? May I ask which senior your master is? I am Lingxu, the current 38th generation head of the Xuanmen. Please tell me about your lineage."

"My master is Xuanjizi."

The moment the title was casually bestowed, Master Lingxu shuddered and abruptly stood up straight from his seat, his eyes wide with shock and his tone filled with disbelief.

Lin Yueru frowned and thought back repeatedly. She felt that the name "Xuanjizi" sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't remember which senior in the sect it was for the time being.

Master Lingxu pointed at Shen Jingshu, his expression a mixture of shock and seriousness, even tinged with anger: "You...you mustn't speak recklessly! Xuanjizi was the founding patriarch of our Xuanmen sect, who attained enlightenment and ascended to immortality hundreds of years ago. How could he possibly accept a disciple like you in this world after so many years? If Fellow Daoist Shen is unwilling to reveal her true lineage, she can simply say so. There's no need to joke about the name of the founding patriarch of our Xuanmen sect; this is a great disrespect to our ancestor!"

Shen Jingshu looked at Lingxu Zhenren's furious and questioning expression, but remained calm and composed, without the slightest bit of anger.

Everything was exactly as she had expected.

She spoke calmly, her tone neither arrogant nor impatient: "You were the one who asked me about my lineage, and I told you the truth, but you refused to believe me. I truly did study under Xuanjizi; whether you believe it or not is up to you."

As soon as she finished speaking, she gently flipped her palm, and a simple, warm-colored half of a jade pendant appeared out of thin air.

The jade pendant looked plain and unremarkable, lacking any luxurious luster. It appeared to be just ordinary, unremarkable jade.

But the moment the jade pendant appeared, Master Lingxu's pupils suddenly contracted, his blood and qi surged instantly, and his breath suddenly stopped.

He stared intently at the half of the jade pendant, his body trembling slightly uncontrollably, his eyes surging with extreme excitement and disbelief.

His voice trembled as he almost respectfully asked, "Fellow Daoist Shen, may I borrow the jade pendant for a closer look?"

"Can."

Shen Jingshu raised her hand and handed it over, her posture calm and composed.

Master Lingxu solemnly accepted the jade pendant with both hands, his fingertips carefully tracing the ancient and incomplete patterns and obscure ancestral secrets on the jade pendant, examining it again and again, his fingertips trembling slightly.

After a long silence, he swallowed hard, uttering a voice that resonated deeply: "This...this is the Xuanmen Sect Leader's Token, lost for hundreds of years!!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand and pulled out the other half of a jade pendant from inside his clothes, a piece he had treasured all his life and passed down through generations.

Everyone in the tea room held their breath, their eyes fixed intently on the two broken pieces of jade.

Under the utterly shocked gaze of everyone, Master Lingxu's hands trembled slightly as he slowly pieced together the two jade pendants that had been broken for a hundred years.

click-

A very soft jade chime quietly rang out.

The two broken lines fit together perfectly, seamlessly. The next second, the complete jade pendant suddenly burst forth with a dazzling and holy golden light, so bright and blinding that it instantly filled the entire private room, causing people to instinctively close their eyes and turn their heads away, unable to look directly at it.

A moment later, the blinding light slowly faded.

When everyone opened their eyes, they saw that the two pieces of jade that had been split in two had now completely merged into one.

The jade body is perfectly formed, smooth and translucent, with no cracks or gaps at the joints, as if it has been a complete whole since the beginning of time and has never been separated.

"Master! This, how is this possible!" Lin Yueru was completely stunned, speechless, her whole body stiff, unable to believe the miracle she was witnessing.

Master Lingxu was already deeply shaken, and all traces of his previous doubts and anger had vanished.

He suddenly looked up at Shen Jingshu, who was young and had an elegant demeanor, and his eyes were filled with the utmost awe and respect.

Without the slightest hesitation, he prostrated himself and knelt on the ground, his back straight, performing the most orthodox and solemn Taoist kneeling ceremony. His voice was solemn and loud, resounding throughout the entire tea room.

"Lingxu, the thirty-eighth generation disciple of the Xuanmen!"

Greetings to the legitimate head of the Xuanmen sect!

After a century of interruption, the lineage has finally been restored.