Adrian wrapped one arm around his girlfriend's shoulder, smiling as he explained to Qi Yuan, "I see. Unfortunately, my father isn't home right now. He's out attending a gathering with his friends."
"May I ask when he'll be home?"
"If you don't mind, would you like to join us for the witch's gathering this afternoon? After it ends, I'm planning to invite some friends over to my place for a barbecue. He'll be home by then."
If I mind, does that mean your father won't be home in the evening either?
He grumbled internally.
Something that could be resolved with a simple "He'll be home tonight" - Adrian had to take such a roundabout approach. Qi Yuan could tell the other hadn't completely let his guard down.
So he agreed, "I'd be honored."
As they walked, the young couple attracted quite a few teasing remarks from older men and women on the street, who also took the opportunity to greet him as well.
"It's different here compared to New York City. Everyone's very friendly," Adrian said as he held his girlfriend's hand while walking. "I heard there was an incident in New York City. How are things there now?"
"The monsters have been cleared out. Can't say it's good, but can't say it's bad either."
Qi Yuan glanced around, noticing there weren't many young people in the small town, and gave an ambiguous answer.
But his response seemed to appeal to Adrian, who gave a knowing look: "For those in power, New York City not falling completely is considered 'not bad,' but for ordinary people, it's already quite terrible. Did I understand your meaning correctly?"
His eyes lit up with keen interest. "My father told me that as time passes, the monsters will grow stronger, while humans have to gamble. I agree with his view. Unfortunately, the leadership of Bitford Country is hopelessly stupid. If I were them, I'd contact countries around the world to jointly eradicate the monsters."
Looks like another "politician."
For people like Adrian, discussing world trends and analyzing underlying causes and future developments gives them an almost addictive thrill.
Qi Yuan nodded, casually agreeing, "More or less."
"I knew it."
Feeling validated in his interpretation, Adrian grew even more excited.
"You're at it again," Caroline rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, swinging his hand as she said to Qi Yuan, "He's always like this. Don't mind him."
Her interruption snapped Adrian out of his grandiose state. He shrugged helplessly.
"But I'm just an ordinary person, so... as ordinary people, we need to choose a place with decent defenses but not so many people that it attracts high-level monsters."
"Caroline and I are both ordinary. Are you an ability user?"
Qi Yuan had been listening attentively the whole way. Hearing this, he calmly replied, "I'm looking forward to gaining a new ability."
He didn't answer directly, giving a response that could easily be misunderstood.
Joking aside, if he weren't an ability user, they'd just be having a barbecue. If he were one, was he planning to invite the whole town to watch?
Adrian and Caroline had clearly fallen into his verbal trap.
As everyone knows, each person can only awaken one ability. Looking forward to gaining a new ability implies not having one yet, thus being able to gain a new one.
Caroline relaxed visibly. She took the initiative to bring up a new topic, "Then you've come to the right place. The witches at the gathering will select people who are likely to awaken abilities."
This piqued Qi Yuan's interest. He listened quietly as Caroline explained.
"Initially, Ms. Martha did it to help people in town. Her ability is spiritual sight - she can see things others can't. If someone had a high probability of awakening, she would approach them directly to tell them. Later, as more people came to her and she got older, it changed to an annual witch's gathering."
"Every year on Ms. Martha's birthday, they hold the witch's gathering. Ability users from town and those she's helped in the past who have time will come back to attend. At the same time, wealthy people from nearby areas bring their children. You know, they're desperate to produce ability users to protect their wealth."
"But if someone's married or over 25, even if they have a chance to awaken, Ms. Martha won't say anything. I don't know the reason for that."
"I know about that," Adrian said, earning a skeptical look from Caroline. She was the native small-town resident, while her boyfriend had only moved there a few years ago.
"My mother is close with Ms. Martha," he first cleared up his girlfriend's doubts, then continued on the previous topic: "There was a newly married couple before. Because Ms. Martha pointed out that the husband might awaken an ability, he left home and hasn't returned since. So, Ms. Martha believes that once you reach a certain age, you should take on family responsibilities."
Caroline commented, "It's not her fault."
"But it's not a happy thing when tragedy occurs because of you. Just like how she holds the gathering in the afternoon for everyone's safety."
"If you had the hope of awakening an ability, would you abandon your family?" Caroline seemed to dwell on this, clearly unsettled by Adrian's grand talk.
"Why would awakening an ability mean abandoning family? It's not a matter of having to choose," Adrian didn't realize this was a loaded question. With his way of thinking, he quickly spotted the flaw in the question. "I could come back regularly, and there's video calling."
Not making a choice is equivalent to not choosing, which is ineffective in front of an insecure Caroline. In her logic chain, not choosing her equals that if forced to choose between two options, she would be abandoned.
Her face darkened, and she said through gritted teeth, "Mr. Oscar, what do you think?"
Qi Yuan, who had been keeping a low profile to allow the young couple their intimacy, felt his eyelid twitch.
What could he, a single man, think about this?
He could only maintain his composure and give a vague answer, "I don't know. I don't have a girlfriend."
Adrian, that's all the help I can offer you.
With Qi Yuan's even worse response as a foil, Caroline's gaze towards her boyfriend became less angry. She took Adrian's hand again.
Adrian looked bewildered, belatedly realizing his girlfriend's anger. He shot Qi Yuan a grateful look.
The three finally arrived at the town square.
The couple had quite a few acquaintances who came over to greet them, and Qi Yuan was no longer the brightest third wheel.
No wonder they hadn't seen many young people on the way - they had all come here.
If he hadn't known the purpose of the gathering beforehand, he would have thought this was a large-scale matchmaking event. The men and women in the square were dressed up, with many approaching targets they fancied.
Adrian chatted briefly with the man at the entrance, took the corsages, and handed them to his girlfriend and Qi Yuan, gesturing for them to pin them on their chests.
Qi Yuan accepted and pinned it on, following them into the venue.
The outer ring of the venue had various stalls selling drinks, food, and other items. He looked around, noticing tables arranged in the inner circle with desserts and fruits placed on them.
+ Slow Paced + Main Character Thrives Together with His Disciples】 Transmigrated into a cultivation world, Chu Xingchen awakens a discipleship system that reveals the tags of his disciples! Starting from scratch, he builds the strongest sect. Disciple One: Li Yingling 【Gold Tag: Genius Cultivator】【Purple Tag: Extremely Lucky】【Blue Tag: Bewitchingly Beautiful】 Disciple Two: Li Hangtian 【Gold Tag: Reincarnated】【Purple Tag: Ruthless and Decisive】【Blue Tag: Loyal and Noble】 Disciple Three: ??? 【Orange Tag: Alluring Demoness】【???】【???】 Thus, in the cultivation world, an unremarkable little sect appears out of nowhere, but little do others know that each member of this sect is a powerhouse in their own right. The book is also known as: Cultivation? It's Exactly Like This!
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.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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!
