North Chu Country did not have the Mid-Autumn Festival, so Li Shiyin did not quite understand why Qin Ran was suddenly in low spirits on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month...
Today's master was obviously in sorrow.
"Master..." She leaned against the doorframe between the living room and kitchen, watching Qin Ran making noodles she had never seen before in the kitchen, and asked, "What kind of festival is the Mid-Autumn Festival?"
"A festival for family reunion." Qin Ran replied, "Eating mooncakes, appreciating the moon, osmanthus flowers, osmanthus wine, that's the memory this festival gives me."
"But why have I never heard of the Mid-Autumn Festival?"
"Because there is no Mid-Autumn Festival in North Chu."
"Aren't you from North Chu, Master?" Li Shiyin asked in puzzlement.
"I am from North Chu, and I am not from North Chu."
"Huh? Why?" Li Shiyin's little brain couldn't comprehend such a philosophical question.
Qin Ran just smiled without answering. He didn't tell Li Shiyin that in fact, her master was from another world.
The Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake had been built. It took Qin Ran and Chasing the Wind three days, using quite precious wood, to build it.
This wood was the kind that could be carved with magic circle patterns, was resistant to water erosion, and was extremely spiritual, very amazing magic wood.
Even during ordinary times, just sitting in the pavilion, one could smell the rich, sweet spiritual aura, making people feel refreshed all over, carefree and happy. If it was an ordinary person, there would probably be the effect of prolonging life.
That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and a light breeze blew across the lake surface.
Qin Ran made mooncakes, osmanthus cakes, bought osmanthus wine, prepared fruits, made some other delicacies, and placed them all on the stone table in the center of the Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake;
He also pulled out Tushan Youyou, who had been reading books in the fox's cave, called over Tian Wenjin from Sword Peak and Huang Feiyu, so along with the original four people from Cinnabar Peak, seven people gathered together in the Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake.
Tushan Youyou was truly not letting down the fine tradition of fox demons, loved learning very much. Ever since Qin Ran gave her the magic circle compendium, she had been shrinking in the cave reading books all day, rarely going out. The people from Cinnabar Peak had barely seen her.
"How much of the Basics of Magic Circles have you read?" The little loli dragon Long Qiqi threw Tushan Youyou a mooncake, and curiously asked.
"Almost half." Tushan Youyou caught the mooncake, looked at it, smelled it, and asked Long Qiqi, "What is this?"
"Qin Ran said it's called mooncake, a delicacy from his hometown. Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival you have to eat mooncakes," Long Qiqi said. "So can you set up magic circles now?"
Tushan Youyou shook her head. She took a small bite of the mooncake, looked inside, and found egg yolk in it... What kind of dark cooking was this?
"Since reading the Basics of Magic Circles, I've realized what's called vast as smoke and seas. Just the basic magic circle patterns alone number three thousand. And each of these basic magic circle patterns can be combined with other patterns arbitrarily. Each combination is different from the others. Then their order, time, space, and other relationships, if one thing is different, it will produce new effects..."
She said, "Reading it makes my head feel like exploding. Standing in front of the way of magic circles is like an ant standing in the universe, alone facing the ancient past and present, above and below!"
Qin Ran handed Tushan Youyou a cup of osmanthus wine. Hearing Tushan Youyou's words, he laughed and praised, "It seems you have some comprehension of magic circles, very good."
Tushan Youyou took a sip of the osmanthus wine and gave her evaluation: "Your osmanthus wine is no good. It only has the fragrance, there is no sweet osmanthus taste in the wine."
"The wine was bought. In the future when we have planted our own osmanthus trees, we can brew it ourselves," Qin Ran said. "Just tell me how the mooncakes are!"
"The mooncakes are alright."
"I made the mooncakes..."
Tian Wenjin and Huang Feiyu looked like they were not in good condition. From when they arrived at Cinnabar Peak to when they sat down in the Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake until now looking at the moon, they didn't have good expressions towards each other.
They even sat far apart, at opposite sides of the pavilion...
"Has Wenjin taken on any sect missions in the past few days?" Li Shiyin gave Tian Wenjin some plums, laughing as she asked.
Tian Wenjin shook his head and replied, "I haven't gone out recently..."
"Next time you go on a mission, remember to call me. I haven't done any sect missions yet!" Li Shiyin said.
"Sect missions are actually quite arduous. They are just an opportunity for those ordinary disciples to cultivate," Tian Wenjin said. "For someone like you, there is no need to take on missions. They are arduous and dangerous, not worth it."
"Not entirely..." Qin Ran walked over and said to Tian Wenjin, "Sect missions are actually tempering experiences for you all too. Which of the top sect missions each year does not contain both opportunity and danger? Shiyin should really try taking on some sect missions."
He handed Tian Wenjin juice and mooncake, and said, "You've already done missions and have experience. Next time you can bring Shiyin to do some simple missions. Then with your abilities, you can take on somewhat more difficult missions."
Tian Wenjin accepted the juice and mooncake, hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, if there's a chance later."
"I'm very powerful!" Li Shiyin said with her mouth full of plum, pouting at Tian Wenjin, "We sisters joining hands will definitely be invincible! Enemies will cower before us!"
"Hehe..." Tian Wenjin was in very low spirits, only forcing a smile.
Huang Feiyu already had considerable control over his body. When he first transformed into flames, his whole person was raging inferno. Without control, he could affect temperatures within a hundred meter radius. But now sitting in the Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake, his impact on others was not great.
Compared to Tian Wenjin's bad mood, this guy felt guilty. He could not participate in the other people's conversations in the pavilion, and could only stay with this tiger who only knew how to diligently eat.
Chasing the Wind's food bowl was filled with roasted meat. He lay on the ground leisurely eating it, his tail wagging happily, and soon finished the whole bowl of meat.
He picked up the bowl in his mouth, placed it on the stone table, and lifted a paw to gesture at Huang Feiyu, sticking out his tongue to say, "I want that, that, that..."
Huang Feiyu looked at Chasing the Wind, then held out his own hands to show him, as if saying, do you see these hands of mine can hold chopsticks?
Seeing Huang Feiyu's flaming hands, Chasing the Wind immediately understood that Huang Feiyu couldn't eat. He couldn't help but give Huang Feiyu a look of disdain. Even unable to hold chopsticks, your transformation sucks!
Huang Feiyu was beyond tears. He would never have imagined he would be looked down upon by a tiger for being inconvenient to eat.
Not wanting to bother with someone who couldn't eat, Chasing the Wind opened his huge mouth and shouted, "Dad!"
Qin Ran looked over and saw a big white tiger standing up, front paws resting on the table, mouth wide open with meat scraps about to fall out onto the table.
He hurried over and slapped the kitty head, scolding, "Your drool got into the dishes!"
Chasing the Wind dropped to the ground, extremely aggrieved. He felt he had been discriminated against.
But he rolled around on the ground, then stood up again some distance from the table. He pointed at Qin Ran with his paw, "Dad, I want that, that, that..."
Although very aggrieved, he still had to eat.
As Qin Ran picked food for him with chopsticks, he lectured,
"Don't you know how big you are? If you ruin all the food, what will the rest of us eat? I've told you many times to think of others, why are you still so selfish?"
Chasing the Wind's round cute ears flapped, flapping away Qin Ran's nagging... He didn't hear any of it at all, just staring at his own food bowl.
Huang Feiyu looked strangely at Qin Ran and Chasing the Wind's interaction. Only then did he realize that Qin Ran was raising Chasing the Wind not as a spiritual beast or combat pet, but as a child, a son.
The foolish son of the landowner... Chasing the Wind.
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] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.

【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”

e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.