The cold and aloof young man named Tu Liao was stunned for a moment before he finally reacted. He shook his head and said, "No."
Under Mu Xiaoyuan's astonished gaze, the young man pushed her hand away and walked toward Jiang Yun, the leader of the research team who had just parked the car and gotten out.
"Close your mouth, close it. Drooling isn't a good look," Situ Jiajia said as she walked over, helping Mu Xiaoyuan close her slightly agape mouth.
"No way? He's still not interested?" Mu Xiaoyuan stomped her foot in frustration.
"Come on," Situ Jiajia said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Mu Xiaoyuan's ear and pinching her cheek with a smile. "Look, Xiaoyuan, you're so pretty and you’ve been so forward, yet he’s still not interested. What does that tell you?"
"It means..." Mu Xiaoyuan suddenly gasped, her face filled with shock. "It means he doesn’t like women!"
"..." Situ Jiajia looked utterly bewildered. "What... what are you talking about?"
What she wanted to say was: 'It means he’s not the type to be casual, and it also means he’s principled and a good man! With your looks, and after spending so much time together after entering the spatial gate, it shouldn’t be too hard to win him over.'
Situ Jiajia walked away holding Xiao Mijou, leaving her comforting words stuck in Mu Xiaoyuan’s throat. It was exhausting.
Tu Liao led the research team into a house. As soon as they entered, Xiao Mijou woke up. Her small nose twitched as the aroma of food wafted into her nostrils. Wiping away her drool, she clung to Situ Jiajia’s neck with anticipation, her little face resting on Situ Jiajia’s shoulder, looking both expectant and adorably clueless.
"Welcome, welcome!"
A man nearing his forties, still youthful, walked out of the kitchen carrying a pot of soup. He warmly greeted the research team: "What are you lazy bums still doing? The research team is here, hurry up and come down!"
"Don’t be shy, make yourselves at home. Sit down, sit down! Here, have some fruit!"
"Let me introduce myself. I’m Wei Jin, the leader of the Jagged Scar team," the middle-aged man said.
"I’m Jiang Yun, the leader of the research team," Jiang Yun replied.
Lazily, three young men came down from upstairs. One of them had a crew cut, phoenix eyes, and a well-defined jawline. He was wearing shorts and a tank top, looking sharp yet aloof. He lit a cigarette, but before he could take a puff, his boss kicked him in the backside.
"What’s the deal, boss?" the young man grumbled, clearly annoyed.
"Smoke, huh? Go ahead and smoke!" Wei Jin smacked him repeatedly. "You just keep smoking, don’t you see all these guests here?!"
"Stop hitting me, boss!" The young man grabbed a pillow from the sofa to shield himself from Wei Jin’s slaps.
"Hopeless," Wei Jin sighed.
Seeing that Wei Jin had stopped hitting him, the young man with phoenix eyes looked apologetically at the group and then started handing out cigarettes to the research team...
Everyone was stunned. Wei Jin took a sharp breath and smacked the back of the young man’s head. "Is that what I meant? If you’ve got nothing better to do, why don’t you just go die!"
The young man with phoenix eyes was pushed into a corner, raising his hands to shield himself from Wei Jin’s slaps. Wei Jin wasn’t hitting him too hard, but it wasn’t light either.
"Idiot," Wei Jin muttered, exasperated. He had hoped to play matchmaker for these single, sloppy men who had been single for over twenty years. But now, thanks to Mang Kui’s antics, the girls probably thought he was a complete fool.
No chance now.
"Mang Kui," Wei Jin introduced the somewhat wronged young man with phoenix eyes.
Mang Kui genuinely didn’t understand what he had done wrong. He had just come downstairs to wait for dinner, lit a cigarette, and got smacked. Then he offered cigarettes to the guests and got smacked again.
Suddenly, he got smacked once more. Mang Kui was baffled. "What now?"
"Your breathing is too loud," Wei Jin glared at him.
"Even my breathing is wrong?!" Mang Kui was utterly confused.
"Everything about you is wrong from the moment you came downstairs!" Wei Jin kicked him in the backside again.
Mang Kui shut his mouth and stood silently in the corner.
Wei Jin was already forty-one, approaching middle age. Mang Kui was a child Wei Jin had taken from an orphanage. He had joined the Night Watchers at a young age and was now twenty-one.
He obeyed Wei Jin without question. To him, Wei Jin was like a father. Without Wei Jin, he believed he would have either ended up in prison or died by eighteen, becoming just another statistic.
Mang Kui had always been fond of fighting and causing trouble. Breaking the law was his favorite pastime, as it was his way of rebelling against society and making quick money.
The first half of his life had been a disaster, living a harsh and calculated existence. He never valued life, believing his own was worth less than a dog’s.
But after Wei Jin had picked him up like a chick and hung him from a tree for an entire day, he gave up his old ways. He submitted to Wei Jin, who then took him out of the orphanage.
He began to receive an education, food, care, and friendship. He cherished this new, unexpected life and started to realize that the world wasn’t as messed up as he had thought.
Mang Kui and Wei Jin had a relationship akin to teacher and student, but it was more like father and son.
Wei Jin then introduced the other three young men. "Yu Ran, Yu Zhao, and Tu Liao. They’re all top-notch in strength! They’ll definitely keep you safe inside the spatial gate."
After sharing a meal, everyone quickly became acquainted.
"Aww, this little girl is so cute! Let me hold her," said Yu Zhao, a member of the Jagged Scar team, reaching out. Xiao Mijou obediently moved from Situ Jiajia’s arms into Yu Zhao’s.
"How old are you?" Yu Zhao handed her a green date.
"Thirteen," Xiao Mijou replied, rolling up her long sleeves to reveal her delicate, fair hands. She took the date, and Yu Zhao supported her little bottom as she lazily wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder and taking a bite of the date.
"Aren’t we going into the spatial gate? Who’s going to take care of the kid?" asked Yu Ran, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he picked up an apple.
"There’s a couple next door who want a child but are too scared to have one. They don’t have much to do anyway, so they can take care of her," Yu Zhao suggested.
"You’re not planning to take me with you?" Xiao Mijou looked up at Yu Zhao, surprised.
The research team members stifled their laughter.
"Take you with us? Who do you think you are, little treasure? If we lose you, we can’t afford to pay for you," Yu Zhao teased, pinching her cheek.
Xiao Mijou tilted her head, her golden hair swaying as she seemed to ponder something. Then, with a hint of uncertainty, she said, "I’m... the nation’s little treasure."
The Jagged Scar team couldn’t help but laugh, and Xiao Mijou joined in. However, they soon noticed that the research team members weren’t amused by the little girl’s innocent remark, and their laughter gradually faded.
"Yes, you’re the nation’s treasure, and ours too," Situ Jiajia said, standing up and gently rubbing the girl’s adorable cheeks.
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
