Love, Gun, Cupid

Du Juan said, "Don't expect me to be of much help in this matter. Killing someone could affect my graduation project. Mortals are under my protection, but dragons are not."

Jasmine replied, "I understand. I never intended to owe you any favors."

"Very well, then I look forward to your decision."

Du Juan disappeared, and Jasmine collapsed onto the sofa. The joy of the date had eased her physical and mental pain, but with the bad news Du Juan brought, that pain began to torment her again.

In the darkness, she curled up, hugging her knees with her arms, finding some sense of security in that.

Meanwhile, when Lin Jiade returned home, he had already taken it for granted that Du Juan would lounge on the sofa in various positions playing on her phone, and that she would look up and greet him when she heard any noise.

The house was unusually quiet today. He called out, but no one answered.

"Strange, did they go out?" he muttered to himself.

Football prediction: Champions League knockout stage second leg, April 14th, Paris Saint-Germain vs. Bayern Munich.

Real Madrid vs Liverpool, April 15th

Choose one team you think will advance; if they do, there will be an extra chapter. Note that this is about advancing, so please refer to the first leg score when making your choice.

Chapter 47 Digestive Potion

Du Juan returned shortly afterward, and just as Lin Jiade was about to brew the potion, she suddenly said, "I'm sorry."

"Ok?"

"nothing."

Lin Jiade brews enhancement potions, which, in a sense, are the daily diet of skilled hunters among the Papastathopoulos. Meat, berries, peanuts, and cassava constitute the main ingredients of the potions.

It didn't suit Lin Jiade's taste, but because it wasn't as sweet as last time, Lin Jiade felt neither nauseous nor had the urge to go to the toilet to guard the cracks in the net after eating it.

Half an hour later, Lin Jiade felt a warm sensation flowing through his body. He looked at his arm in surprise and said, "So fast?"

Du Juan replied, "If you want the potion to work, you must exercise as much as possible during its three-day effective period, even if you experience minor strain, such as joint pain or muscle soreness."

Lin Jiade was about to go to the community fitness equipment area for a good workout, but Du Juan stopped him, saying that magic potion research should not be exposed to the public eye.

"This isn't some kind of magical research; it's clearly magical training," he thought.

Since there are limited ways to exercise at home, Lin Jiade did a few sets of squats after warming up. This was something Du Juan's mother and daughter talked about, and Du Juan then relayed it to her.

Lin Jiade didn't know why the lady specifically mentioned squats, but he felt that squats could strengthen the legs, and you can't play football without a pair of strong thigh muscles, so he did as she suggested.

Besides squats, Lin Jiade also does push-ups and lifts dumbbells. After all, he is not a fitness enthusiast, but only dabbles in some of these activities because of his interest in football.

Fortunately, enhancement spells, being low-level magic at the primitive tribe level, emphasize adaptability; Lin Jiade could digest the potion even by doing push-ups at home.

Lin Jiade remembered his record, and the potion helped him easily break it... even though he only did three more.

This was a small step for him to digest the potion, but a giant leap toward strength.

The young man was full of energy thinking about Jasmine, but when he was about to do another set, he felt a weight on his back and almost bit his tongue. Cupid's touch spread across his spine.

Miss Du Juan has a fertile figure? You really can't judge a book by its cover. Lin Jiade thought.

“Miss Dujuan?” He swayed slightly. “If it’s a prank, then let’s stop here. I need to continue digesting the potion.”

"I only sat down here out of kindness so that you could digest the potion."

Lin Jiade felt a slight itch in his abdomen, followed by a tightening of something like ribbons. He looked down and saw pink hair wrapped around his waist and abdomen; Du Juan was thus bound to him.

He understood the hair's toughness, so he sighed and prepared to exert force with his arms. Just then, he swayed, felt an even greater weight behind him, and shouted, "Miss Dujuan, what did you add this time?!"

Du Juan patted Lin Jiade on the shoulder and said, "Don't forget, I'm different from humans. I can change my weight, my body shape, my face, and even my gender... Would it be better if I became Jasmine?"

"No, that's not necessary!"

"You're panicking. It seems that Jasmine has really captivated you."

"Well."

Lin Jiade let out a painful groan, and Du Juan's voice grew even heavier. He only heard her say in a light tone, "I'm talking to you, but you're thinking about Jasmine. You've got guts."

You were the one who mentioned jasmine first!

The more he said, the more mistakes he made. He gritted his teeth and struggled against gravity. A tearing sensation spread through his arms, while the heat in his body rushed towards the pain, repairing and making him stronger.

Sitting on Lin Jiade's back, Jasmine rested her chin on her hand, looking at her phone as she said, "You know, Lin Jiade, every breakthrough you make is destroying your past self. To destroy yourself, you have to learn to be ruthless."

Warriors are like this, football is like this, and so is love. In order to become stronger, before the celestial realm was yet the name of Cupid and the Old Man of the Moon had spread across the thirteen continents of this planet, we learned how to be cruel to ourselves.

Abandon clothing, abandon the body, abandon appearance, abandon morality..."

Cupid looked at her palm, which transformed into a ball of energy, changing into various horrifying shapes according to her will. Lin Jiade didn't see this, otherwise he would have fainted from fright.

He couldn't even hear Cupid's words. To resist the pain, he immersed himself in introspection, perhaps as a form of escapism, but also as a form of focus.

When he felt the weight behind him disappear, he looked up and saw a pair of calves emerging from the slippers, with the area above the knees protected by the skirt... just like the first time he saw Du Juan.

"That's it. Any further exercise will only harm your body. Go and get some rest," Du Juan said.

Lin Jiade stood up, stretched his joints, and said to Du Juan, "I don't understand. It's just a bunch of ingredients, but after cooking and eating it, it has the effect of a professional athlete recovering from an injury in a liquid nitrogen device."

Du Juan explained, "Because the crops on this planet store energy, and the arrangement and cooking methods of certain ingredients can make the energy in the food easier to absorb."

The subsequent excessive training and mild physical strain are intended to expand your energy reserves and make you stronger; this is the principle behind enhancement spells.

Lin Jiade's mind understood, but his body couldn't. After showering, he fell asleep immediately. The next day, Du Juan woke him up again for extra training, this time with sit-ups.

Every time he sat up, Miss Dujuan's face would come into his view, very close, as if he could feel her breath and kiss her lips without even realizing it.

Lin Jiade couldn't control his thoughts about Du Juan. With such temptation in front of him, he was like a donkey with a carrot dangling in front of him, doing sit-ups with great pleasure.

"You can seek help from the society that houses magic researchers. Enhancement spells are considered a basic spell. Although the methods of this spell differ among various types of magic, the principles are the same. Someone among them should be able to help you."

Du Juan gave Lin Jiade advice. He absolutely trusted Du Juan in his magical research, so on Monday he sought help from the Baiyun Charity Association.

At that time, there were seven members of the club there, but most of them were from the humanities department and were not familiar with Lin Jiade. After greeting him, they didn't say anything more.

Lin Jiade initially didn't want to trouble Senior Sister Hehuan because she was surrounded by several people talking to her, and she looked very busy.

But when Hehuan saw him, her eyes lit up. She whispered something to those around her, and the crowd dispersed. She walked briskly to him.

What a good man, he thought.

In the end, he asked senior student Hehuan for help, but Hehuan had her own things to do, so she led Lin Jiade to the club's exclusive martial arts classroom.

In the vast arena, only Mu Mian, wearing a masked helmet and a black bodysuit, wielded a peculiar weapon that combined a gun and a longsword.

In a corner of the classroom, the plaintive sound of a violin filled the air from a player. Lin Jiade had no interest in music, but he had a deep memory of cartoons and songs played on the football field.

After listening for a few seconds, he recognized it as Yuki Kajiura's "I Talk to the Rain".

I didn't expect you to be a fan of anime and manga too. He thought.

Chapter Forty-Eight: "It's Very Big!"

He Huan pulled Lin Jiade to her side, and Lin Jiade was surprised. He Huan didn't have much muscle, but she was able to pull him.

"Kapok, our junior needs your help to train his enhancement magic, but please go easy on him."

After Mu Mian nodded, He Huan whispered to Lin Jiade, "Don't be stubborn. If you can't hold on, just tell them to stop. Mu Mian takes battles too seriously. If you try to be brave, you'll probably get beaten half to death."

Lin Jiade became serious and said, "Understood. Also, Senior Hehuan, may I ask you something?"

"Please speak."

"Senior Kapok Studies, are you male or female?"

“Good question, but I won’t answer it,” Hehuan whispered in Lin Jiade’s ear. “Just one hint: the kapok tree is quite large.”

What's big?

Just as Lin Jiade was about to ask further, Senior Sister Hehuan smiled and turned to leave, her black hair brushing against his neck and cheeks. When Lin Jiade looked at Mumian again, he couldn't help but feel a little more longing—a strong longing for Mumian.

He closed the door to the martial arts classroom, and Mu Mian tossed him a one-handed nylon sword. Lin Jiade grabbed it, curiously swung it a couple of times, and asked, "Is this thing sturdy?"

"I enhanced it with magic," Kapok replied in a muffled voice.

The man in the bodysuit opened the revolver on the hilt of his sword, spilling out colorful ammunition that gleamed like gemstones in the sunlight. Kapok assumed a fighting stance and said, "Just do your best. If you can't handle it, tell me."

Lin Jiade nodded. He remembered the example of Mu Mian using her sword to launch a mid-range attack and knock the alien criminal unconscious, so he simply retreated from the beginning, to a position diagonally opposite Mu Mian.

"You're on guard against my magic? Not bad, you're quite vigilant." Mu Mian, sword in hand, strode towards Lin Jiade. "Today, I will not use any magic."

The somber interlude ends here, replaced by a gradually rising, stirring rhythm and a seemingly meaningless vocal chant. "A Song of Storm and Fire," as its name suggests, is a piece perfectly suited to depicting battle.

When Hehuan finished her music class and came over, Mumian was applying ointment to Lin Jiade. The young man looked as if he had fallen from the third floor and been put into a washing machine for a few minutes, looking disheveled.

Hehuan was somewhat speechless and said to Mumian, "Didn't I tell you to hold back?"

"It was me who made Senior Kapok keep going."

Lin Jiade was in good spirits. He smiled and said, "This battle with Senior Kapok, or rather, this training session where I was one-sidedly beaten, fully utilized the potential of the magic potion I took."

This way I won't need inefficient sit-ups and push-ups, and I'll have time to do other things.

"Are you very busy?" Hehuan asked.

"Hmm, tomorrow night I'm going to take another potion and learn another spell. I'll be learning them alternately with enhancement spells... hiss."

"Don't talk," Kapok said in a muffled voice. "The medicine I gave you doesn't have a pain-relieving effect, but it's good for your health. Just bear with it."

Lin Jiade shut his mouth, looking pitiful like a puppy drenched in the rain. Hehuan patted his head with a mixture of amusement and sympathy. After Mumian left, she whispered, "Mumian really likes you."

"Of course the senior likes me. Who wouldn't love a live wooden stake delivered to their door?"

"No, the ointment you've applied will not only help your injuries heal quickly, but also improve your resistance to blows."

Lin Jiade exclaimed in shock, "So it was all to turn me into a better living wooden stake? You two didn't have this scheme against me all along, did you?"

Hehuan covered her mouth and laughed, "No, I want to say this is love."

So, you, the head of all the pairings, have a penchant for randomly pairing people up?

Lin Jiade rejected the idea of ​​Senior Sister Hehuan having a passionate fantasy. He was currently having a smooth relationship with Jasmine, so naturally he wouldn't be thinking about other women...

No, the gender of Kapok sage is still undetermined, and Hehuan's statement that "Kapok is very big" adds a terrifying possibility.

He laughed it off and the senior student, Hehuan, returned to the club headquarters with him. Of course, he didn't think that the senior student was attracted to his charm by traveling with him; she simply wanted to find a tall person as a backdrop to make herself appear smaller.

This world is so strange. Jasmine tries hard to become a mature adult, but unfortunately, she has the body size of a middle school student. Meanwhile, Hehuan is tall and has a slender figure, but she longs to be petite and cute.

When he got home, exhaustion caught up with him. Cooking and eating helped him wake up for a while, but he started yawning again immediately after finishing the meal. After asking him about his experience, Du Juan told him to go to bed.

When Lin Jiade woke up, it was already 1 a.m. He sent Jasmine an emoji, took a shower, and went back to sleep.