Luo Xi and Ye Chuan appeared at a nearby commercial plaza. The area wasn’t particularly bustling, with most of the ground-floor shops already closed, giving off a desolate vibe. Their destination was the third floor, which housed numerous clothing stores. Perhaps due to the many closures in the area, the remaining shops were selling their goods at unusually low prices to attract customers.
Even though it was the weekend, the third floor wasn’t crowded—just a sparse scattering of people. In a few years, even these shops might struggle to stay afloat and eventually shut down.
With the rise of online shopping, traditional clothing stores had indeed taken a significant hit.
"Chuan, you got a new phone?" Luo Xi noticed the Blue Mi in Ye Chuan’s hand as they walked side by side. "How much was it?"
"Two thousand," Ye Chuan replied.
"That’s a month’s rent! Did you pay one month’s deposit and one month’s rent upfront?" Luo Xi knew Ye Chuan’s old phone had been used for years—a secondhand "battle-scarred" model held together with tape. It was a miracle it had lasted this long.
"Three months’ deposit, one month’s rent," Ye Chuan said casually. He trusted Luo Xi completely, but explaining the "system" would be far too troublesome.
"Wow, someone’s struck it rich," Luo Xi teased with a grin. It was rare for tenants in their rundown urban village to pay three months’ deposit upfront, especially for Ye Chuan’s old apartment.
If only he had a few more renters…
Ye Chuan paused in front of a clothing store advertising "3 items for 99 yuan" and pulled Luo Xi inside.
The racks were filled with trendy styles. Ye Chuan began browsing while Luo Xi peered over his shoulder, hands clasped behind her back.
"Buying something for me?" she asked, tilting her head. "These clothes are all pretty cute."
"Not for you," Ye Chuan replied without turning around.
"Another cross-dressing livestream? Didn’t your account get banned?" Luo Xi remembered when Ye Chuan had borrowed her clothes for his streams, even stuffing tissues in the chest area because they didn’t fit properly.
Back then, Ye Chuan had tried every possible way to make money—just none successfully.
Her mom had called it "ambition."
Either he’d strike it big someday, or he’d end up blacklisted for debt.
"…" Ye Chuan denied it. He’d lost interest in livestreaming.
By the time the average person realized an industry was profitable, the golden opportunity was already gone—especially for low-barrier fields.
"Got a new girlfriend?" Luo Xi pressed when Ye Chuan shook his head.
"No way. Just shopping for a tenant." He picked up a white sundress and held it against Luo Xi’s frame. She struck a playful pose, as if modeling.
Luo Xi’s figure was much better than Bai Qianshuang’s—long legs, ample curves—while Bai Qianshuang’s advantage lay in her ethereal beauty. Though Luo Xi was also pretty, Bai Qianshuang had an otherworldly aura, likely due to her cultivation background.
"Yeah, this’ll work," Ye Chuan nodded.
Their heights were similar, so the sizing shouldn’t be an issue.
Except for the underwear.
After selecting five or six items, Ye Chuan haggled the price down from 198 to 138 before leaving the store with their purchases.
By the time they finished their rounds, both were carrying multiple bags—clothes, underwear, even stockings.
Originally, Ye Chuan had planned to buy from the shop he’d visited a couple of days ago, but the owner had apparently gone back to her hometown for a wedding.
Otherwise, he could’ve bargained for a better deal.
That auntie was an old acquaintance.
Pausing mid-step, Ye Chuan spotted a shoe store nearby and headed inside.
"How about these?" He picked up a pair of blue-and-white Adidas Yeezy knockoffs. Comfortable and stylish, these shoes had been hyped up years ago. Nowadays, the counterfeit versions from Putian were often better quality than the real ones, priced at just over 100 yuan per pair.
"Mhm, they’re nice," Luo Xi agreed, nodding at the color and design.
Ye Chuan pointed to a nearby chair. "Try them on."
"Okay." Luo Xi obediently played the role of model. As she sat down, she asked, "Wait, are my feet the same size as your tenant’s?"
"Close enough." Not that Ye Chuan had checked.
Luo Xi slipped them on, took a few steps around the store, and bounced lightly. "Ooh, new shoes are so comfy."
It had been a year since she’d last bought shoes. Though her parents gave her spending money, she preferred to save it—only replacing things when they wore out.
"Good." Ye Chuan paid without bargaining this time.
Luo Xi loved the shoes, but since they were meant for someone else, she started to take them off.
Then she realized Ye Chuan had already packed her old, slightly yellowed sneakers into a bag.
"Hey, Chuan! My shoes—I haven’t put them back on yet!"
"Just wear these," Ye Chuan said, glancing at her.
"But they’re for someone else. What if I dirty them?" She wiggled her ankles, staring at the pristine sneakers.
"They’re for you." Ye Chuan tugged her ponytail before walking out, the bag with her worn-out shoes in hand.
"Let’s go. It’s almost lunchtime."
Luo Xi sat frozen for a second before scrambling to catch up. "Hehe, since when are you so generous? You’re learning, Chuan."
"Just decent, I guess."
"Oh?"
---
That afternoon, as soon as Ye Chuan returned home, his phone buzzed with a notification from the Multiverse App.
[Obtained Bai Qianshuang-related item. Retrieve now?]
"Huh?" Seeing that a new item had appeared, Ye Chuan tapped "No" and checked his inventory. A new icon had appeared.
[Item: Low-Grade Mystic Yin Body
Increases efficiency when cultivating dual cultivation techniques. More likely to attract male attention.
Equippable.]
Ye Chuan: "…"
Good news: It’s a physique.
Bad news: Useless to him.
Or rather, he had no interest in attracting men.
[Spiritual Roots, Physiques, and similar items can be synthesized.]
Noticing this prompt, Ye Chuan dragged his High-Grade Ice Mystic Body and Low-Grade Mystic Yin Body together.
[Synthesize?]
[Probabilities:
Low-Grade:
Mid-Grade:
High-Grade:
Top-Grade:
Peerless: 1%]
Ye Chuan: "…"
One percent?
Should he "pad" the odds first?
But since neither the Ice Mystic Body nor the Mystic Yin Body were useful to him, he went ahead with the synthesis.
[Synthesizing…]
A flash of purple light—
[Congratulations! Obtained High-Grade Fire Mystic Body. Added to inventory.]
[Item: High-Grade Fire Mystic Body
Naturally attuned to fire-attribute spiritual energy. Enhances cultivation of fire-attribute techniques. Reduces damage from fire-attribute attacks…
Equippable.]
"Fire again?"
Ye Chuan was surprised, but since his hot-swappable spiritual root was already fire-aligned, pairing it with a fire physique didn’t seem bad.
Oi, things are heating up.
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!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
