Chapter 5: Dad's Gift!

"So what are you planning to do next? You're not going back, are you?"

"I'm not going back. I've learned everything I can here, so what's the point? I'm planning to take over Master's photo studio..."

Before Li Changsheng could finish, Li Weiguo cut him off with an angry look. "What kind of joke is that? You're my son, Li Weiguo's son. I sent you to Wudang Mountain to learn real skills, not to become a Taoist priest. This is the TVB file. I still haven't finished cleaning everything up on my side. When the time comes, you'll take over and manage the television station for me."

Li Changsheng had only been cultivating on Wudang Mountain. He wasn't really cut off from the outside world, so of course he knew about TVB. He had lived in Hong Kong until the age of fifteen; how could he not know? He had even grown up watching it.

Its value was naturally enormous. TVB's market capitalization was already less than half of its peak, but it was still around 30 billion Hong Kong dollars. Its high point should have been before the Asian financial crisis in 1998, when it was worth more than 70 billion Hong Kong dollars, after which it went downhill year by year.

"Sixth Uncle is going too?"

Li Weiguo's expression turned wistful. "Yeah. Everyone reaches that day sooner or later. So, Changsheng, you need to live up to expectations. Your father will be relying on you from now on."

Li Changsheng nodded and did not refuse. He accepted the TVB gift directly, because it was what he deserved.

The ancients often spoke of the Four Essentials: Dharma, wealth, companions, and land.

Dharma refers to the methods of cultivating the immortal path, also known as alchemy techniques.

Wealth has two meanings, internal and external. External wealth refers to all the expenses required for cultivating immortality, while internal wealth refers to the capital a cultivator already possesses.

Companions refers to like-minded fellow Daoists needed during formal cultivation, and this also includes dual-cultivation partners.

Land refers to the place of cultivation, and also to rare treasures of heaven and earth.

As the ancestral home of the Daoist path, Wudang's feng shui and cultivation environment were naturally excellent. Li Changsheng was already considered accomplished in cultivation, so his need for "land" was not great. As for heavenly treasures and earthly rarities, those depended on luck, opportunity, and money.

As for "companions," fellow Daoists were theoretically necessary, but even on Wudang Mountain right now, people capable of sitting with Li Changsheng and discussing the Dao were extremely rare, and in Hong Kong they were even harder to find.

As for a dual-cultivation partner...

Sorry, but Li Changsheng was not cultivating the path of yin and yang. He cultivated the pure yang path, which focused on that innate primordial qi. Once his dao arts reached great completion later on, he would enter the legendary heavenly-human realm of "one golden pill swallowed into the belly, my fate is mine and not heaven's," becoming a true earthly immortal!

As for "Dharma," Li Changsheng had already brought the Fenghou Qimen arts to great completion and entered the third of the four major realms, the Bagua Realm. He no longer needed any more powerful techniques. He could already go straight toward the Great Dao; he only needed to accumulate power step by step. After another sixty years of effort, he would be able to reach the summit among mortals.

So the only real shortcoming was still "wealth." One of his reasons for coming back was not to inherit the family business, but he still hoped to get support from home in terms of external wealth. His father's gift could be said to have arrived at exactly the right time.

Standing outside, Xu Ziqi was about to bring tea to the father and son when she realized that TVB had not been prepared for Li Jiaxin at all, but specifically for the youngest son, Li Changsheng, and that it was being handed to him directly. That was a comprehensive television network valued at over 30 billion Hong Kong dollars, one that ranked solidly among the top three in Asia and was the largest TV station in all of Hong Kong.

Although Li Jiacheng was now working in a senior role at the Zhonghai Group, his actual income and assets were not much, only around a billion or so at most.

Compared like this, the old man was being biased beyond reason. Was he really planning to leave the entire family fortune to the youngest after he died?

Then what exactly was she supposed to be?

A breeding machine whose only job was to help the Li family spread its branches and leaves?

In that instant, Xu Ziqi no longer held any resentment toward Li Jiaxin. Compared to her, Li Jiaxin, the stepmother, was the truly miserable one. She had finally climbed the ladder and married a powerful old man well into his seventies, only to end up with nothing. As the saying went, the more carefully one schemed, the more likely one was to ruin one's own life.

Li Changsheng had actually already noticed his sister-in-law eavesdropping outside, but he said nothing and had no intention of exposing her in front of everyone.

He did not think his sister-in-law could do anything to him. As for TVB, since he had nothing better to do, if it really ended up in his hands later, he would run it properly and use it to accumulate more external wealth for himself, shortening the time needed to break through to the heavenly-human realm.

...

Jiang Tiansheng looked at the Black Iron Token that Ho Nam had returned to him in two broken halves, his expression extremely complicated. He directly told Ho Nam some of the Jiang family's and Hongxing's hidden secrets so that he would understand part of the truth and not mistakenly think Jiang Tiansheng was deliberately screwing him over. At the same time, Jiang Tiansheng intended to send Chan Ho Nam to handle another major matter.

In 1995, Jiang Zhen, the first dragon head of Hongxing, died. His eldest son, Jiang Tiansheng, succeeded him and became Hongxing's second dragon head, while the second son, Jiang Tianyang, lost the chance to take the position because he took the blame for the society and went to Stanley Prison.

Of course, that was Jiang Tiansheng's dirty trick, because according to the underworld rules at the time, whoever stepped forward to take the blame for the society would be the one who inherited it later.

You have to know that during the first underworld giants ranking contest, Jiang Tianyang, who was Hongxing's war god at the time, had made great contributions to the society and become one of the final six survivors, a famously feared Hongxing second-in-command on the streets.

Hongxing's current scale had also been built by Jiang Tianyang and the brothers under him through sheer blood and steel. Later he even took the blame for the society and served seven years in prison.

Yet the eldest brother, Jiang Tiansheng, who had always hidden in the shadows, used their father's death not only to steal the dragon-head position that should have belonged to Jiang Tianyang, but also to take Jiang Tianyang's beloved woman Rongrong, and he even wanted to wipe out his own younger brother completely.

Forced into a corner, Jiang Tianyang could only take his father's mistress and flee to Thailand. But that mistress had already been involved with his eldest brother for a long time, was pregnant with his brother's child, and even his father's death had something to do with his brother.

Although Jiang Tianyang had been on the run at the time, he had taken away one extremely important thing: the Black Iron Token, which Jiang Zhen had personally handed him when he stepped forward to take the blame for the society.

Without it, a new underworld giants ranking contest could not be convened. When that happened, there would certainly be chaos and infighting among the societies, and Jiang Tiansheng and Hongxing might not even survive. He might even have a chance to seize back the dragon-head throne in the confusion and settle every grudge with blood.