Li Changan, although always jokingly calling Jiang Shuibu's shop a stand, it was actually quite a big tavern. Although the prices of wine were expensive, there was never a lack of generous customers. After all, this was the safest place in North City.
The tavern's walls were written with 'No Noise, No Fighting', and no one dared to disobey, after all this place had once belonged to the largest gang in North City, but overnight, because of those three people, it was wiped out.
Of those three people, one had gone to the Trials Facility, and the remaining two sat facing each other. From their expressions they didn't look like friends, instead more like enemies.
"How can you shamelessly come to my place and drink free wine?" Jiang Shuibu rolled his eyes lazily leaning back in his chair, his legs crossed shaking.
Sitting opposite, Brother Lin still had the decadent appearance of an old man. Shaking the wine bottle in his hand, he looked towards Wu Liuyan who was busy behind the counter.
Jiang Shibu knocked on the table impatiently.
"The little girl Changan brought back? If you can't teach her properly then give her to me." As soon as Brother Lin opened his mouth, Jiang Shuibu could not help his anger rising.
"You're saying I can't teach?" Jiang Shuibu pushed against the table, his gaze icy cold.
Brother Lin nodded calmly, "With your temper, I'm afraid you'll lead the child astray. Back then you were the one who taught Changan how to interact with people, what was the result?"
When it came to this matter, Jiang Shuibu's fighting spirit immediately faded. Bowing his head silently, muttering discontentedly, "Always bringing this up to mock me, you're extremely boring."
"If you hadn't killed someone else's boss, would Changan have secretly snuck into someone else's gang and massacred them?"
"It's also because I was too trusting you could really teach him to get along with people, which led to him now, other than you and me, when facing strangers he would only choose to kill them or leave them alive. He simply doesn't know how to make friends."
Brother Lin continued relentlessly. He also had a bellyful of anger!
"Stop scolding, stop scolding, I know I was wrong. Aren't I trying to make amends now? Besides there's no big problem with this, human hearts are sinister, don't you know that." Jiang Shuibu's excuses were weak and powerless.
After a long time Brother Lin sighed, "When the three of us met, he had just passed the third Trial right. Now it's already the eighth, turning back so many years have passed in the blink of an eye."
"Don't suddenly reminisce alright, this is not a good omen. I opened my shop in a place where so many people died, it's already inauspicious enough, don't continue jinxing it." Jiang Shuibu stood up ready to leave, pouring wine into Brother Lin's mouth.
Brother Lin stood up first, pushing Jiang Shuibu back down, shaking his head, "I'm not joking with you. I plan to go back for a visit."
"I don't agree." Jiang Shuibu interrupted decisively, "Don't say anything else. If you want to speak, wait until Changan comes back. With him not here, anything you say I will disagree to."
"Damn brat, am I asking your opinion? No matter what, I want to go back and take another look. Consider today me coming to say farewell." Patting Jiang Shuibu's shoulder, Brother Lin lit a cigarette and walked out the door.
Brother Lin left without looking back...
At least leave the cup for me!
------
When the light of day began to brighten, Li Changan pushed aside the rubble and climbed out. Next to him was a headless corpse, the head ten steps away, its face still filled with shock and even a footprint.
"Talking loudly in the middle of the night, truly unafraid of death." Li Changan shook his head, searching the corpse he only found an empty water bottle. The one who killed must have already ransacked the body.
After eating a few military food pills, Li Changan was about to leave when he suddenly stopped. Taking out the Bronze Sparrow from his clothes, the sparrow's tail was trembling slightly. Lightly flicking the sparrow's tail, Jiang Shuibu's voice came out from the sparrow's beak.
"Calling Changan, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you." Lowering his voice, Li Changan smiled slightly. This thing really was useful.
The Trials Facility was isolated from the outside world. No matter what methods were unable to transmit messages. Only this Bronze Sparrow was, as far as Li Changan knew, the only effective method.
Of course this Bronze Sparrow that cost all his savings was not only capable of transmitting sounds.
"That's good. Brother Lin plans to return home for a visit. You should understand his circumstances right? I can't stop him now. How long until you can come out? Can you speed up a bit?"
Brother Lin wants to return home? He's gone crazy again! Li Changan frowned. "I'll try to be quick. This time there's nearly two hundred people, and quite a few fierce ones. You try to delay him first."
"Alright, then come back quickly."
Li Changan put away the Bronze Sparrow, stretching lazily, cracking sounds coming from his body.
No choice, can only speed up. Must take initiative this time! Li Changan was anxious for the first time to get out.
Moving through the concrete jungle, Li Changan was completely focused, listening for any suspicious sounds.
Li Changan suddenly twisted his waist, rushing north without any hesitation. Just now there was the sound of something breaking through the air over there, seemingly the sound of an arrow.
If there was no one else using a bow in the Trials Facility, then it would be a narrow escape from calamity.
Inserting his hands into the cement wall to climb upwards, Li Changan lay prone on the rooftop, like a dog yet also like a rat, raising his head slightly wrinkling his nose sniffing the smells in the air.
Perhaps no other esper could compare to his sensitivity to the smell of blood. Jiang Shuibu once jokingly said Li Changan was a [Blood Manipulation] esper.
Li Changan shook his head. There was no smell of blood nearby, at least none within five hundred meters. The smell of blood became extremely weak beyond five hundred meters, easily mixing with other odors.
Just as he was about to get up, Li Changan suddenly rolled to the side. The spot he had been lying on was shattered by tremendous force.
"Discovered a little mouse!" A coarse male voice came from below.
Li Changan swept his leg, kicking the rubble around him into the hole in the ground. His own body flipped backwards landing on the ground, smashing both fists into the already crumbling floor. Relying on the concrete's sturdy strength and steel bars, under his two fists the ground fully fractured.
A scorching heat, at least Class C [Flame Control] esper! In just a fleeting moment, Li Changan made a judgement. Only Class C and above flame espers could achieve compressed explosive flames.
With just the two words 'Class C', following common sense it should be upgraded by one level to view, meaning this opponent was probably Class A esper.
"Want to run?" Below, the man's voice was accompanied by surging crimson flames.
Li Changan stomped heavily, the ground collapsed, rocks entirely caved in, suppressing the flames.
Letting the rocks rain down on him, Li Changan lowered his body rushing towards the source of the voice. Ahead, berserk flames billowed, the wild intense heat pushing aside small rocks, but larger boulders could only be dodged by himself.
"Hehe!" Hearing the man coldly laugh amidst the chaos, "You want to ambush me!"
In a fleeting glance, the man had already glimpsed Li Changan's burning sleeve, as well as his scorched arms, vaguely showing signs of charring.
Overthrowing the man, Li Changan raised his hand.
Decisive!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
