Chen Miemie returned to the shop.
“Daidai, how did it go? Crossing the eras like that, were you still able to collect the price of the transaction?”
Daidai’s expression was a little blank.
“I already initiated the collection of the price, but something feels off—different from usual.”
“Different how?”
“Normally when I collect a price, there are only two possibilities: success or failure. I can clearly sense either result. But today, it felt like ‘half-successful.’”
After Pure Water and the Forbidden Fruit Bestiary discussed it at length, they jointly proposed a hypothesis:
“Relying on Daidai’s [Mystery] alone, making a price take effect across time is unlikely. This ‘half-success’ probably only happened because you, Chen Miemie, were involved—but since the transaction was led by Daidai, it couldn’t fully succeed.”
Chen Miemie wasn’t interested in the analysis process at all. “And the conclusion?”
“It may have taken effect conditionally, or it took effect but came with derived side effects.”
Qinghua recalled: “A moment ago, we demanded the thing he desired most from him.”
“For someone like him, a bright future and the pursuit of power would be what he desires most. That means from now on, he’ll amount to nothing.”
“Trading the future for the present—that’s a heavy price.”
“Heavy? If you can’t make it through the present, there’s no future to speak of.”
“Forget it. This commission is over. Those are just guesses—if we ever run into him again, we’ll know for sure.” Chen Miemie shut down the topic.
For the next while, Chen Miemie prepared to go out and handle some personal affairs.
[Huangyi] stepped out again—this time, the door opened onto Fairy Tale Road.
Target: [Burger Workshop].
Chen Miemie didn’t want to alert anyone else about his investigation into [Butler]—not [Silence], not [Bridge Maiden], not [Lady Scab]. He hadn’t breathed a word to any of them.
He planned to investigate on his own, to avoid any leak along the way.
His experience in Four Elephant City had taught him that within any faction, even if the people who are friendly toward you are trustworthy, you can’t guarantee the whole organization is reliable.
Of course, this also meant he lacked intelligence. He didn’t even know where [Butler] was, so he could only start with [Burger Workshop].
[Burger Workshop] wasn’t far from [Molting Clinic]—they were neighbors, with their territories adjacent.
He had expected that a guild that lost a vice-president and harbored a schemer like [Butler] would be a gloomy, stifling clique full of calculating people.
But when he slipped in invisibly, the scene before him completely changed his mind.
The main hall of [Burger Workshop] was just as spacious.
There were no frost-moon or blood-moon giant sculptures, and no sun either.
What there was, was row after row of stoves and kitchen tools.
Chen Miemie had arrived a bit late—the food was already cooked.
The people of [Burger Workshop] were all crammed together—not just core members, but everyone including outer members.
On the central platforms, food was piled into mountains, and beneath those food mountains sat a few men and women.
The men had rolled up their sleeves; the women had tied up their hair.
The onlookers surrounding them were either cheering or shouting encouragement.
Chen Miemie crept closer, listened for about ten seconds, and finally figured it out.
These people were holding an “eating contest”—seeing who could eat the most!
Yi Zhu and Yi Xian weren’t competing. With their small builds, joining would just be wasting the entry fee.
Four people were still hanging in there.
Two men, two women.
The guild master, [Last Shepherd], was half-shirtless, wielding two enormous pig trotters—one in each hand—chomping left and right. With every massive bite, a visibly huge chunk disappeared from the trotters.
[Knot] was no slouch either. He tied two fat sausages into a knot and shoved them straight into his mouth, grease dripping everywhere.
The two female competitors, Chen Miemie didn’t recognize either.
One was small in stature. She seemed skilled at drinking—a small bucket-sized cup, and she just kept chugging “gulp gulp gulp” without stopping. The liquor spilling from the corners of her mouth soaked her clothes, and she didn’t care at all.
The last one really stood out. She had pink hair, two big pointed horns on her head, wasn’t fat, but had a slightly chubby, cute look.
Cute as she was, she was terrifying when eating. A steak bigger than her face—she shoved it straight into her mouth, swallowed it with barely any chewing, and then, without even resting, moved on to the next one.
The four on stage ate with gusto, while the crowd below cheered themselves red in the face, completely absorbed.
Chen Miemie suspected that even if he revealed himself right now, as long as he shouted “keep going!” a couple of times, probably no one would even recognize him.
Chen Miemie: ......
A guild like this—saying they’re good at conspiracies? Isn’t that overestimating them?
Chen Miemie didn’t need to search for [Butler] on purpose—he was hard to miss, serving as the referee of this eating contest.
As referee, he didn’t need to judge violations. He only needed to spot when a contestant was truly stuffed, then have people carry them off.
The first to drop out was [Knot]. That little rookie, to eat more, had compressed his food before swallowing—but never thought about the food expanding in his stomach. On his fourth plate of intestines, he got food stuck right up to his throat, covered his mouth, and ran off himself.
The second eliminated was the small woman. She had a great attitude—happy she got to drink her fill, not chasing the title. After drinking too much, she went to the restroom with flushed cheeks.
In the end, only [Last Shepherd] and the pink-haired girl remained.
These two were both undoubtedly extremely strong.
The stacks of plates in front of them towered taller than a person, and yet their pace showed no sign of slowing.
Just as Chen Miemie thought it would take a while longer to decide the winner—
[Last Shepherd] suddenly foamed at the mouth and collapsed onto the table.
Even as he fell, he kept his death grip on a huge skewer of squid, refusing to let go.
Chen Miemie thought: What’s going on—did he get poisoned?
Before he could wonder too long, several people in the crowd shouted: “Quick—get the master off the stage! He’s having a seafood allergy flare-up again!”
And just like that, the pink-haired girl claimed the championship.
[Butler] stepped forward, hung a medal around her neck, then took her hand and raised it: “Let’s give the warmest applause and cheers to [Tietie], successfully defending her title for the 33rd time!”
When the contest was over and the crowd fully dispersed, [Butler] finally left the guild.
He opened the door of his small car and got in.
Before he could start the engine—
The hairs on his body stood on end. His hand instinctively reached for the weapon at his waist.
In the back seat, an uninvited passenger in a yellow robe extended a hand through the gap between the driver’s seat and its backrest, gently resting it on his shoulder near his neck.
“Being this tense with a guest—that’s no way for [Butler] to practice hospitality.”
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
