Love, Gun, Cupid

She canceled the spell because she didn't want humans to see her private memories. Now, the only humans left in the house are Ice Cave and Hehuan, who are practically invisible to the Reed Warbler, just as the Reed Warbler ignored Teacher Yang's near-death experiences.

Neither Hehuan nor the Ice Cave intended to provoke her. Weiying was extremely bored, so she checked her phone and found that her game account was being banned. Because of a rude incident in a game, she and her teammate, whom she thought should take the blame, had a heated argument and reported each other, resulting in both of them being punished by the system.

At this time, she had two things to do besides sleeping or playing games. But now, she was thinking about someone, so sleeping was not an option. So she turned on Lin Jiade's computer.

Lin Jiade's computer password was a very superficial one: his birthday. Wei Ying entered it correctly the first time and opened the game platform. Lin Jiade's game library contained more than twenty games and a wallpaper software. Most of them were PvP games, and the rest were either free for a limited time or discounted to the point of being irresistible. The playtime of these games was very short, averaging less than 30 hours.

On Lin Jiade's gaming platform, wallpaper apps are the most frequently used. When Wei Ying opens the wallpaper section, football, anime, and landscape images are the mainstays of his wallpaper app, with images of Kinomoto Sakura and Daido Seitoyo being the most common.

"No wonder Jasmine was the first one," she muttered. "So it's because she's emotionally attracted to this kind of thing?"

She logged into Lin Jiade's account, and before starting a new game, a familiar feeling came from the living room. She looked over there and saw the ice cave looking restless.

Ice Cave was just a mortal, but she carried a faint scent that belonged to her older sister. Now, that scent had intensified, and Ice Cave's body was becoming even more excited... As a result, she contacted Lin Jiade to replenish her energy.

Based on what her sister had said before, it was hard for Wei Ying not to think that the ice cave was one of the plans prepared by Du Juan to stall Lin Jiade. Lin Jiade needed the ice cave, and the ice cave needed energy, so Lin Jiade would definitely replenish the ice cave's energy in a timely manner.

She had seen the ice cave several times before, so she understood that Lin Jiade would become tired after replenishing the ice cave's mana, which reduced the possibility of him causing trouble for Du Juan and the potential damage he might cause.

If that were all, it would be fine. Wei Ying was a little worried because her sister had done something else to the ice cave. Under the guise of replenishing the ice cave's magic, these methods were used on Lin Jiade.

Between Lin Jiade and her sister, she should choose her sister... but what's with this subtle unease?

Wei Ying's feelings were ambiguous. She couldn't sort out her thoughts. When Lin Jiade returned, she didn't take the initiative to speak to her. Lin Jiade only looked at her for a few seconds before turning away, which made her feel increasingly disgusted.

Ice Cave was taking a bath, and then lured Lin Jiade into the bathroom. Although she used to be a man, she was now seducing men like a woman, and the usual reserve of a woman was nowhere to be seen in Ice Cave... At this moment, Wei Ying's displeasure reached its peak.

She's the kind of person whose emotions translate into action, so she immediately left the computer and walked out of the room in the shape of jasmine.

The bathroom door opened silently, and Lin Jiade sat on the toilet like a lamb to the slaughter, a towel covering his eyes. Bing Dong's greedy and lewd expression fell into Wei Ying's view.

There was no need to refer to Jasmine's expression; her displeasure manifested as indifference on her face. The guilty Ice Cave clearly lacked the ability to distinguish between the original and the counterfeit. Thus, a counterfeit Jasmine was driven away by another, more convincing counterfeit Jasmine.

After closing the door, Wei Ying revealed a predator's expression to the unsuspecting Lin Jiade. Since her sister wasn't around, no one could stop her. The idea of ​​deleting Lin Jiade and then recreating the character card came to mind. As long as the memories were preserved, the recreated Lin Jiade would still be Lin Jiade.

She pointed her fingers like a sword and aimed at Lin Jiade's heart, but when her fingers touched Lin Jiade's chest, they lost their strength and went down as if she wanted to cut him open. But in Lin Jiade's perception, he was only being teased.

"Ice Cave, stop with the fuss, hurry up!" Lin Jiade urged, bewildered. "The Holy Land has opened, and Teacher Yang... no, Yang Xuemeng is hiding inside. I must get there as soon as possible... um."

Lin Jiade felt the force landing on his body become rougher, the pain mixed with the dull ache of his wounds, the pleasure mixed with the side effects of the Lionheart spell, allowing Lin Jiade to see a completely new door.

Going from one battle to another is more exhausting than imagined. Lin Jiade lay there for half a minute before he felt alive again.

He took off his towel, tidied himself up, and came out to find Ice Cave sitting there blankly. He went over and tapped her on the head, saying, "Even if it's to replenish your energy as quickly as possible, you've gone a bit too far!"

I didn't do anything!

Ice Cave felt utterly wronged. She was just sitting there when "Jasmine" came out and shoved a bubble-like substance, sealed in a transparent spherical container, into her hand. She hadn't done anything, yet she was being blamed for "Jasmine's" misdeeds.

She wanted to tell the truth, but Wei Ying, who was already sitting in Lin Jiade's bedroom playing on her computer, cast a cold glance at her. The chill in her gaze froze the ice cave from revealing her true thoughts, so she had no choice but to take the blame.

Chapter 97 The Road to the Holy Land (1)

"Anyway, you should replenish your energy quickly," Lin Jiade said.

He went to change his clothes—shields could be refreshed, bodies could be repaired, and misaligned bones could be corrected, but the battle damage to his clothes was irreversible.

Lin Jiade's fighting style meant that he would ruin a set of clothes with every battle. Today, he had fought twice, and two sets of clothes were already destroyed. When he changed into his third set of clothes, he felt a foot covered by a stocking sliding down his calf.

He knew whose feet they were. After he finished dressing, he turned around and touched Wei Ying's ear pockets. Wei Ying tilted her head and grabbed Lin Jiade's hand with her shoulder.

Lin Jiade pulled his hand away and found a strand of hair in it. He didn't intend to return it to Wei Ying, but instead put it in his pocket, saying, "When I come back after this battle, I'll..."

Before he could finish speaking, his vision blurred, and when it returned to normal, he found himself sitting on a sofa, next to an ice cave where a ritual had just been prepared and was about to be replenished with magic.

He thought about it and realized that his words just now sounded like he was setting a flag, no wonder Wei Ying wanted to teleport him out. At this time, the ice cave had completed the ritual. This time, she had only recovered about one-third of her energy, so she only felt one-third of the pleasure and two-thirds of emptiness.

Lin Jiade stood up, looking impatient. Bingdong had no choice but to get up as well. Her legs went weak, and she was about to sit back on the sofa when Lin Jiade reached out and put his arm around her back, pulling her into his arms.

He let go, but the ice cave showed no sign of letting go. On the contrary, her weight pressed down on him. He tried to push the ice cave away, and the ice cave's skin felt hot to the touch.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked.

"It's nothing, it's a normal phenomenon after consuming energy." Ice Cave buried her head in Lin Jiade's arms and murmured, "Lin Jiade, I love you so much."

Lin Jiade couldn't help but sarcastically remark, "Your love is so superficial."

"Can I take Teacher Yang's place?" Bing Dong hugged Lin Jiade even tighter. "You lost her, and I can sense that you're a little sad... I don't mind playing someone's substitute if it makes you feel better."

"No need, stop talking nonsense. I probably won't forget the scene of you crying your eyes out last time for three or five years... Anyway, thank you."

Lin Jiade hugged Bingdong back, not out of lust, but simply to seek warmth from the person before him. He pressed his body down, resting his head on Bingdong's shoulder, and Bingdong instinctively leaned back to accommodate Lin Jiade's sudden intimacy.

"If possible, I'd like to get Ms. Yang back, but in the worst-case scenario..."

Ice Cave tilted its head, its cheek pressed against Lin Jiade's cheek. Lin Jiade felt something hot and soft, while Ice Cave felt itchy from the prickles of Lin Jiade's newly grown beard.

“Lin Jiade, I’ll do it then,” Ice Cave said softly. “I’m a superhuman now, and I need to get used to killing. Besides, it would be too cruel to ask you to kill a monster with Teacher Yang’s face.”

The two returned to the hospital carrying each other's scent. Mu Mian was chatting with He Huan when Lin Jiade came over. Mu Mian pulled He Huan aside to make way for him.

Jasmine sat on a bench outside the hospital with an air of superiority. She glanced at the rosy-cheeked Ice Cave, grinned, but offered no comment.

"The ice cave says it sensed the gate to the holy land has opened. What's going on?" Lin Jiade asked.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” the person behind him replied.

Lin Jiade turned around and saw Jianlan standing there. She looked tired but couldn't hide her excitement. She said to Lin Jiade, "You saw me fight the enemy. In the end, she fled in panic and opened the door to the Holy Land. This door can be closed, but after I caught up with her, I used witchcraft to reinforce it and turned it into a temporary passage to the Holy Land."

"How much longer?"

“15 minutes,” Jianlan said. “Lin Jiade, do you want to go? I can’t bring too many people this time, so this trip isn’t as safe as I thought.”

"Could it be worse than what happened in the Mirror Realm last year?" Lin Jiade retorted.

"In the Mirror Realm, you had Miss Dujuan's life-saving method, but you've already used it tonight. In fact, given your condition, you still have three hours before you can use the Lionheart spell."

During this time, your only attack method is basic attacks... Even so, are you still going?

Lin Jiade nodded: "I'm not alone, I have you guys here. Maybe it's the influence of football, but I feel uncomfortable when you ask me to fight alone."

Has "brotherhood football turned into a harem-style game?"

"No, that sounds like I'm turning my soccer buddies into my harem, I'll have nightmares!"

Ice Cave reached out and tugged at Lin Jiade's clothes. Lin Jiade turned around and saw her embarrassed face, and he felt embarrassed too... Yes, he and Old Mu were playing brother football on the field, but now the brother has fallen into depravity, like a succubus in a doujinshi, exuding a lewd aura.

"The one I'm going to is the Holy Land Guardian who can still move around... I'm the only one who can resonate with the Holy Land."

Ice Cave said, "I want to understand the significance of the Holy Land Guardians to the Holy Land, and the nature of this power."

Kapok continued, "I'm going too. One of my sisters died tonight, and another is in the hospital being treated. The doctor said the chances of her surviving or dying are fifty-fifty. Ragnar Sigurdsson, I have reason to believe he is the culprit behind all these tragedies."

The name dimmed Jasmine's eyes. Lin Jiade said, "Jasmine, you stay here and recover well. Senior Hehuan, you too, take care of each other."

Hehuan's expression was full of worry: "How long are you going to be gone?"

“I don’t know,” Lin Jiade said. “If all goes well, it might be a few hours of searching and a final battle that takes only ten minutes.”

Kapok carried ample combat supplies, and being a swordsman herself, she shared the same supplies with Lin Jiade. Without needing to make any preparations, Lin Jiade followed Jianlan to the hospital's R-shaped courtyard. There, a black door opened, its frame filled with purple vortexes. The door seemed to be shrinking, but the surrounding runes held it in place.

"Isn't it a bit too few for just the four of us?" Kapok asked.

"In fact, there are eleven. I have already sent seven superhumans there in advance. However, this is the maximum force I can send out, given the many restrictions such as maintaining the scene, gathering the wounded, and preventing the secret of the holy land from spreading to everyone."

After explaining, Jianlan smiled and said with great confidence, "However, with me here, you won't lose so easily."

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Development of Magic (Two Chapters Combined)

Traveling with a master of sorcery was reassuring, so Lin Jiade set off immediately. Jianlan reached out and gently stroked his left arm, infusing it with black incantations.

"How so?" Lin Jiade asked.

Gladiolus explained, "Marking magic allows people with the same mark to sense each other within a certain range. With the widespread use of electronic devices and increasingly sophisticated location tracking, it has become a niche form of magic, but..."

“I understand, there’s no signal in the Holy Land, so communication isn’t very convenient.” Lin Jiade thought for a moment, “Isn’t there a spell to communicate?”

"If such a thing existed, cell phones wouldn't be used both on the surface and in the shadows of the empire."

Lin Jiade asked in confusion, "Is this thing really that difficult to make? Many spells that are much more difficult to develop can be created, so why can't it be done in a place like this?"

"Using mobile phones makes it easy for you humans to monitor the words and actions of your fellow human beings and their information. But if you develop similar magic, information will be much harder to monitor."

Jasmine said, "In a society where supernatural powers exist, if communication is not regulated, the consequences it causes are completely uncontrollable. It may cause the centripetal force of the society to be greater than the centrifugal force, or it may cause the centrifugal force of the society to be greater than the centripetal force."

This wasn't my own thought, but rather what my former employer, the former lord of District 18 who took me in, said.

Jianlan nodded: "It's not just communications. Haven't you noticed that you have to search for all information involving superhumans on official websites, newspapers, radio stations, and television stations?"

From my personal... well, from Korobochka's memories, the centrifugal force of superhumans on society is greater than the centripetal force. After all, once people have power, they will naturally have the desire to break the rules to benefit themselves, right?

Therefore, while such spells have the potential to be developed, it's impossible to do so. Otherwise, it would be too convenient for superhumans with centrifugal force to form cliques and pursue their own interests, which would be terrifying.

Lin Jiade made a "I understand" gesture. Ice Cave was the first to cross the threshold, followed closely by Sword Orchid, then Kapok was the third, with Lin Jiade trailing behind. He turned around, and Jasmine and Hehuan saw them off with their eyes.

He seemed to want to remember this scene, so he stepped into the doorway. His vision was briefly filled with purple and black colors, and then he arrived in another city, Fuxing.

The seven-person advance team dispatched by Gladiolus left fluorescent markers along the way to guide them to the visible side of the Holy Land, the area where the Holy Land Guardians were active. These areas were lit up as bright as day, to the point of causing some light pollution.

Finally, they arrived at Sannam Dongdo University, one of the nodes of the Holy Land. If a monster from the dark side of the Holy Land could break through the Holy Land's guardians and enter the node, then that monster would be sublimated and gain the ability to enter reality.

An advance team was waiting there, along with three cars and a motorcycle to serve as vehicles. The incident happened so suddenly that Gladiolus's men could only use the vehicles that could get to the scene the fastest, while supplies were haphazardly piled in the trunks, to be sorted out later once things settled down.

The advance team commander reported to Jianlan. Lin Jiade remembered that the other party was the werewolf policewoman he had seen at the Fuxing City Police Department. It was last September. At that time, he and Jasmine were not yet a couple, but Jasmine was already jealous of him looking at the policewoman's gray, fluffy tail.

According to their conversation, the werewolf policewoman's name was Hannah. When Gladiolus introduced them, she emphasized that she was a werewolf, not a werewolf.

"What's the difference between these two?" Lin Jiade wondered.

Seemingly sensing his thoughts, Hana took the initiative to explain: "Werewolves are an independent species. Our ancestors came from Planet 5 and joined the Empire as allies. They are free to choose which affairs of the Empire they participate in."

Werewolves and vampires are artificial species derived from witchcraft and magic. They are normally human, but on the night of a full moon, they are forcibly transformed into beasts; the former transforms into wolves, and the latter into bats.

We don't transform, nor do we grow animal ears or big tails... Ultimately, we are two different species. If someone called you an upright ape, you wouldn't be happy, would you?

After the initial pleasantries, everyone's attention turned to Ice Cave. While everyone else was dressed impeccably like NPCs in a game cutscene, Ice Cave stood out with her magical girl outfit, looking like an inhuman player from a cutscene.

“These are our guardians of our sacred land,” said Gladiolus, “and also our guides on this journey.”

Ice Cave's attire was conspicuous, and her style was flamboyant—this was true in the deserted Fuxing City, but once there were people around, she was like a cat encountering strangers, hiding behind Lin Jiade.

"Where should we go?" Kapok asked.

“In the past, we would meet on the roof of the Ginza Building. It’s not a special place, but the captain would gather there.”

We received the blessings in a VIP box at the city's comprehensive gymnasium; only the captain knew about the rest.

"What about intelligence on the enemy?" Hannah asked.