Love, Gun, Cupid

"No, you'll know once you've seen it; the work is quite magical."

"Have you thought it through?" Du Juan asked.

"I've thought it through! What kind of man backs down now? It's better to do it now and regret it later than to regret it later!"

Du Juan tapped the coffee table three times with her fingers. Lin Jiade's first thought was that Cupid was paying homage to a classic story, asking him to come to her room at three in the morning. But after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that Cupid wasn't Bodhi Patriarch, nor was he Sun Wukong.

So he asked, "What?"

"Your enthusiasm for learning new knowledge is commendable, but you've forgotten that you are human, a human who needs to eat and replenish his energy approximately every eight hours, so you must eat first!"

"I'm going to take a shower first; I worked up a sweat playing soccer this afternoon."

Du Juan shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, but Lin Jiade was very bothered by the fact that his unpleasant smell was being detected by his beautiful roommate. He even painfully deleted the photos of the girls who had been with him for many years from his hard drive.

Last Sunday, on Cupid's first night at his house, he wished he could transform into a bathhouse masseur and scrub himself clean with the vigor of peeling off a layer of skin.

As Lin Jiade turned on the electric water heater, Du Juan opened her lips, her forked purple tongue sticking out, and a magic circle swirled around it, capturing Lin Jiade's scent in the air.

Chapter Eighteen: Chains of Gratitude

According to Lin Jiade's description, he spoke to Jasmine from a suitable distance, so he should have caught Jasmine's scent. Unfortunately, Du Juan couldn't find any Jasmine scent.

At this point, Du Juan had almost ruled out the possibility that Jasmine was an ordinary person... Wouldn't that be better?

If Lin Jiade can win over Jasmine, she can draw more energy from it and submit an excellent graduation project.

According to Cupid's standards, love can transcend race, and lovers are born equal, but some couples are destined to be more equal than others.

But what is this subtle feeling of unease?

Du Juan herself couldn't understand what was bothering her, even though a bright future was right in front of her. Because of her complicated feelings, the dinner she cooked tasted even worse.

Lin Jiade ate with a pained expression, like El-Melloi II working overtime. Seeing this, Jasmine whispered, "You are...M?"

Lin Jiade almost spat out the lean meat in his mouth. He took a sip of spinach and egg drop soup and asked, "Why did you come to this conclusion?"

“Because I could tell from your expression that my cooking didn’t suit your taste, but you not only ate it, you didn’t even complain. Doesn’t that make me feel even more guilty?” Du Juan replied.

"Ah, my philosophy on food has always been to prioritize quantity over quality. In fact, I'm afraid you'll make the food delicious."

Du Juan asked, puzzled, "Is being delicious a mistake?"

"Delicious food can arouse greed, and when people can't control their mouths, their weight will inevitably start to increase."

In this new era where various forms of 'correctness' are popular and individual freedom is emphasized, there are some things I cannot say, but in areas where 'correctness' cannot cover, body shape has a fatal impact on personal image.

Lin Jiade patted his stomach and said, "I'm 187cm tall. If I gain weight, my appearance will be even worse. Even if I lose weight, my left leg... well, it will put a lot of strain on both legs—"

You might not lose weight, but arthritis might appear first.

So, I made up my mind not to gain weight in the first place. You see, my life doesn't include sugary drinks, fried food, or desserts. My tastes aren't heavy either, and the only beverage I have at home is tea.

The fact that the food wasn't very tasty actually helped me control my appetite, especially for carbohydrates, which was good.

Du Juan tilted her head and examined Lin Jiade's physique. The young man's body fat percentage was acceptable among ordinary people, but it was far below what was acceptable among professionals. Strengthening his exercise and controlling his diet would always be the right thing to do.

A brilliant mind requires a healthy body to match, and a harmonious and stable romantic relationship also requires physical fitness to support it. This is a realistic issue that cannot be avoided.

If Lin Jiade were to date a woman of a different race, the first challenge would be his ability to accept new things, as the ways in which different races unite are incredibly diverse. If he could overcome that hurdle, the next requirement would be a sufficiently strong and enduring physical physique.

Otherwise, their relationship probably wouldn't be harmonious. Love requires the fulfillment of both sex and emotion, spirit and flesh.

This is the first marriage that Du Juan has personally arranged, and of course she hopes that this marriage will have a good ending and that the marriage she has arranged will last a lifetime.

After dinner, Lin Jiade went to review his high school knowledge. He planned to start with Chinese, the subject Jasmine did the worst in, and math, the subject he was best at. Since these two subjects were the main courses in the college entrance examination, they naturally had a higher priority for tutoring.

Du Juan was looking at the magic book that Jasmine's guardian had given to Lin Jiade. The knowledge recorded in this magic book was simple and crude, after all, it was something that people at the primitive tribal level had pondered and verified to be effective over generations.

It may be useful, but it cannot be more advanced than the corresponding modern disciplines.

This is precisely what makes Homo sapiens so terrifying: when they exterminate other races, they constantly replace the old with the new; when they begin to rule over their own kind, they bring out the old that they have replaced and give it a sacred status.

Lin Jiade had been busy for two hours. When he came out, he saw that Du Juan had torn out several pages of paper with sparse writing on them, while she herself was searching for something on the Celestial Phone.

"How so?" he asked.

Du Juan raised her head, leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes to rest for a while before saying, "Playing on my phone for too long makes me dizzy and my eyes blurry."

"No, I meant magic."

"You have no conscience!" Du Juan opened her eyes again: "I have an idea. I want to see if there are any props that are suitable for you on the Celestial Shopping Platform."

Celestial laws stipulate that the 'divine pronouncements' and items that unemployed individuals like myself can bestow upon humans are strictly limited. For example, the gun I gave you was a 12th birthday present from my family.

"It was just a toy gun?"

Du Juan nodded: "But loading bullets can also turn them into murder weapons. When I first arrived, I had already made contact with the unit here that specifically receives visitors from the celestial realm and obtained legal status to operate locally."

That's why I'm even more careful in abiding by the parts of the Heavenly Laws concerning Homo sapiens; if someone catches me in a clear violation, all that awaits me is deportation.

Lin Jiade cupped his hands in thanks: "Thank you for your kindness."

"Thanking me is useless, because I've looked around and found that what suits you is something I can't afford, and what I can afford isn't suitable for you."

Lin Jiade didn't seem to care much: "Isn't it fine? If I owe you again, I really don't know how I'll repay you."

"Kindness is like a chain around your neck. From my point of view, I still hope you owe me as much as possible."

For some reason, Lin Jiade felt that Du Juan's eyes were somewhat frightening when she said those words, but the next second, she was back to her charming and smiling self. Was it his imagination, or... women are fickle?

Just as he didn't want to believe Jasmine's extraordinary identity, Lin Jiade also didn't want to believe that Du Juan had any bad intentions. He sat down next to Du Juan: "Teach me magic."

Du Juan pointed to the torn pages from the notebook: "No need to teach, just read it yourself. The magic of the Papastathopoulos is known for its simplicity and brutality. There are only two obstacles to you learning magic: the first is the language barrier, but I've translated it for you."

Lin Jiade hesitated for a moment: "Your celestial laws don't allow it..."

“I didn’t directly help you. I just found your book collection interesting, translated it on a whim, and then returned it. What you learn from this book is your business and has nothing to do with me.”

"Is it even possible to do it like that?" Lin Jiade was dumbfounded.

Du Juan said with some pride, "My mother is a partner in a law firm. I've seen this kind of thing many times. I just consulted her, and she approved of my idea."

"Is this considered making fair use of the rules? Thank you, and please thank her for me too."

"Yes, I will convey your gratitude to her."

Chapter Nineteen: Triple Ritual

Lin Jiade looked down at the paper. Du Juan's handwriting was very delicate and beautiful, as pleasing to the eye as she was.

At the very top of all the pages is the Burial Magic: through a triple ritual of consuming a potion, paying a price, and burying oneself, a gifted ordinary person can sense the energy emanating from the planet, laying the foundation for learning other magic.

“You don’t have talent, but now that you’re my lover, you’ve passively become a talented person. Don’t worry about that,” Du Juan added.

“What if we terminate the contract?” Lin Jiade asked.

"It won't affect the extraordinary powers you've already learned... Ah, speaking of breaking the contract, I suddenly feel a little sad."

Du Juan's sudden change of topic was a bit strange, but Lin Jiade was focused on the parting Du Juan mentioned. At the latest, she would return to the Celestial Realm to submit her graduation project by next spring.

He didn't want to separate from Dujuan, and admitted that the ugly greed and instinctive possessiveness in this relationship were the main driving forces. If Dujuan were plain-looking, he would never have had any feelings for her.

To avoid overthinking and letting his sadness flow like a pissing beef ball, he continued watching the buried magic.

The three-part ritual of immersing oneself in magic has a strict sequence, the first being the preparation and ingestion of a magical potion. And the ingredient list for the potion…

He looked up at Du Juan with a complicated expression, much like Cristiano Ronaldo looking at Marcelo who couldn't open a bottle.

"Are you having any difficulties?" Du Juan asked.

“No, on the contrary, isn’t this really making some kind of food?” Lin Jiade pointed to the ingredients and said, “Peanuts, raspberries, sweet potatoes, bananas, sugarcane, reeds, honey, purslane, chopped up, mixed with enough water, put in a pot and simmered for at least four hours, then I take it out myself and eat at least 300 grams.”

Du Juan explained, "The Papastathopoulos people lived in an extremely narrow basin running from north to south. The land was barren, and the produce was abundant because it spanned multiple climate zones, but the yield was still considerable for these people who used primitive farming methods... you know."

The very first lesson in the study of celestial energy science, which examines various extraordinary systems across different worlds, elucidates the view that: it is not the manifestation of extraordinary power that determines people's lifestyles and social organizations, but rather people's lifestyles and social organizations that determine the manifestation of extraordinary power.

"Why?"

"Because imagination is the boundary of the manifestation of supernatural power, while matter is the means by which those who pursue supernatural power reach that boundary."

Just as the Taoist tradition of Longhu Mountain has remained stable over the past thousand years, the practices used by Taoists on Longhu Mountain in the past are no different from those used now.

A thousand years ago, when gunpowder was used in warfare, Taoist priests discovered its wonderful uses in exorcising evil spirits. Gunpowder was added to the ranks of exorcism magic, which was an expansion of the manifestation of extraordinary power.

Now they wield assault rifles equipped with grenade launchers and optical sights. The same magical principles, but a different way of using gunpowder—this is an innovation that uses matter to reach the boundaries of imagination.

Therefore, even if the essence of the cultivation method remains unchanged, as it transforms from a gunpowder jar into an assault rifle equipped with a grenade launcher, magic—a supernatural power discovered by humankind on its own—has become increasingly powerful with the progress of society.

Conversely, because Papastathopoulos are relatively primitive, their imagination has very limited boundaries, and their methods of using matter to reach those boundaries are also very primitive. This makes their magic incredibly simple, and therefore most suitable for you in your current state.

Lin Jiade nodded. He didn't quite understand yet, but Du Juan was right. It was precisely this kind of simple magic that was suitable for an outsider like him.

Then, he looked at the second ritual of the triple ritual.

Paying the price is exactly what it sounds like: an ordinary person who decides to learn magic has to pay for their studies, and the price is in the form of silver coins.

The more silver coins one has, the better the effect of the burial ceremony, and the more outstanding the basic abilities of the magic researcher transformed from an ordinary person.

"Even a barbarian at the tribal level knows that there's no future in free-riding, and miracles happen when you spend money," Lin Jiade couldn't help but complain.

Although it hurt, some money had to be spent. So he simply took out all his savings at once, and even cut all unnecessary expenses for the next two months to strengthen his financial foundation.

Since the magic doesn't specify the exact year the silver coin is from, freshly minted silver coins can also be used in magical rituals, so this item was added to Lin Jiade's online shopping list along with the previous pile of ingredients.

As for the sand needed at the end of the ceremony, there is plenty at the nearby construction site; you can get it by simply asking around and offering a pack of cigarettes.

“It’s ironic. I didn’t become Jasmine’s tutor for her money; that was just an excuse,” Lin Jiade said self-deprecatingly. “But now, I have no choice but to become her tutor for the money.”

Du Juan didn't comment; she was in contact with the liaison unit on the Universal Empire side to report that her chosen lover, Lin Jiade, was learning magic.

At present, she is the only Celestial being active in Fuxing City, so the relevant unit quickly processed her request. A few minutes later, the form she filled out and the photos of the magic book she took were submitted together.

The Papastathopoulos magic system is classified as Class 4C, where 4 indicates that the magic system originated in a primitive tribe, and Class 3 indicates that it is relatively weak in terms of lethality.

As long as individuals report regularly, do not use magic to disrupt social order, and obey the Empire's orders, the official authorities have a relatively lenient oversight of humans who possess Class C and Class D magic.

However, magic researchers are strictly prohibited from participating in any competitive or real-world-related events to prevent them from exploiting their asymmetric advantage over ordinary people for personal gain.

Cupid conveniently helped Lin Jiade complete the registration with the relevant authorities, thus legalizing his research into magic before he actually learned it.

Otherwise, his online orders for tonight alone would be captured by the system using keywords, uploaded to a large database for comparison, and it would be easy to conclude that he is preparing to bury himself in magic.

After that, a professional holding Level 1 (modern-day standardized) magic will visit the unregistered researcher, and the accompanying special judicial personnel will determine the fate of the illegal researcher.

Stripped of their supernatural powers, forced to pledge allegiance to the Empire, death, or becoming research material in a laboratory. Unregistered researchers have only four choices.

Cupid couldn't offer protection, as this was a human family matter. She briefly explained the situation to Lin Jiade and then reassured him to sleep, but after learning that he could learn magic, the young man couldn't fall asleep at all.