Love, Gun, Cupid

Tuesday passed in the same way. His brothers had some strange misunderstandings about his relationship with Senior Sister Hehuan, so they were very understanding of his fatigue and his decision to cancel his soccer game. They patted him on the shoulder with an expression that all men understand.

Lin Jiade was indeed an exhausted ox, but he never plowed anyone's field.

That evening, the raw materials he ordered online arrived. The potion he was going to prepare was for activating the Vine Spell, a protective spell, but its effect was only for fun.

When it is activated, Lin Jiade can wrap the stems of vines such as grapes, wild roses, Virginia creeper, and ivy in certain areas, and the protective effect is self-evident.

Having magic is better than having none, especially since vine magic allows for some new tricks. After taking the potion and mastering the spell, Lin Jiade immediately used his mind to direct the wild roses to entwine his arms.

The thorns on the side of the wild rose stem that had been touching his skin disappeared. Lin Jiade didn't notice it at first, but instead picked a flower and gave it to Du Juan.

Du Juan smiled and took it, admiring it for a few seconds before letting go. The flower instantly turned into particles of light and dissipated into the air.

"This is a false appearance of energy manifestation. If it is separated from your body for too long, it will not be able to maintain its material form and will turn into energy and dissipate into the air."

Lin Jiade dispelled the spell, then cast it again, with a gap of about fifteen seconds. This time, he conjured grapes, picked off a branch, and fed it to the cuckoo.

Du Juan understood what he meant. She chewed on the non-existent fruit, feeling it transform into energy and flow into her body. Seeing Lin Jiade's expectant expression, she smiled and said, "You're still a bit short of using this to replenish my mana."

"No, it's just to give you a taste of something new. If the energy you lose were so easy to replenish, you wouldn't need to draw energy from love."

Du Juan nodded: "Go ahead, these grapes taste a bit sour to me, but they're just right for Jasmine."

Lin Jiade scratched his head sheepishly: "Ah, you figured it out."

“I know everything,” the cuckoo replied.

The last person to say that was dumbfounded when he saw an amnesiac recall the name of his childhood sweetheart from a super, super, super long time ago. Lin Jiade thought.

The voting has ended, and combined, the votes are Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Chapter 49 Drinkwater 4

The young man originally wanted to surprise Jasmine on Wednesday night, but halfway through his afternoon class, the back door of the classroom opened. He turned around and saw a senior from the Baiyun Charity Club waving at him, so he got up and went outside.

The club members had informed the department beforehand, so the teacher let Lin Jiade leave without any surprise. He quickly caught up with the senior student and asked, "What mission?"

"The fire department received a fire alarm, and according to the caller's description, it might be related to magic." The senior student looked helpless. "After all, we're in a third-tier city, so it's inevitable that the clubs will have to be mobilized to deal with these things."

In geography textbooks, the Empire has only one first-tier city: Brilliant City, located 350 meters above Legion City. Its brilliance also makes Legion City and its surrounding area the world's first artificial perpetual night zone.

According to Du Juan, a quarter of the 100,000 master-level magic researchers officially registered with the Empire and possessing first-class magic reside in Sky City.

The capitals of the thirteen continents and their respective political, cultural, and economic centers are second-tier cities of the empire, and those with slightly less overall strength are third-tier cities. They are both important and unimportant; at least, there aren't many people here who possess magic or witchcraft.

The senior who complained to Lin Jiade possessed "Number" from the Six Arts of a Gentleman, a magic that requires a tremendous amount of mental effort to achieve success, so he was probably the most resistant to field missions in the club.

Lin Jiade didn't think much of it. His magical research was simply a matter of brute force, taking up relatively little time. Moreover, the more tasks he completed, the more points he could earn, which he could then exchange for more powerful spells and the materials needed for his research.

The exchange system has a game-like feel, but the setting that the stronger the magic, the greater the cost of researching it proves that it is a pay-to-win game—a "dark game" that doesn't care about the feelings of casual players or free-to-play players, and has extremely low ratings but high income.

Lin Jiade was in high spirits, but then he suddenly realized that this was a disaster and he shouldn't be smiling, even if the disaster benefited him.

He coughed, put on a serious expression, and went downstairs where the car was already parked. The car window rolled down, and there was Mumian driving, Hehuan in the passenger seat touching up her makeup, and Jasmine in the back seat looking at her homework as if it were an enemy—nothing had changed.

He opened the back door and got into the car. Without turning around, Hehuan said, "Be careful on one side. The feng shui there is not compatible with our personalities."

"So, does that mean something bad is going to happen?"

Hehuan sighed helplessly: "If I could calculate that far, I would live in Brilliant City and be a superior person (in physics)."

Lin Jiade reopened the tactical map, observing his own vehicles blending into the friendly forces. Silence reigned inside. Just before reaching their destination, Jasmine transformed, and Lin Jiade successfully touched her thick tail.

He showed off his newly learned vine magic, conjuring roses and grapes for Jasmine. Of course, he didn't show favoritism, giving the flowers and grapes to the two people in the front seats.

Kapok gave a soft "thank you," but Hehuan was pleasantly surprised. She immediately put the grapes and roses into her mouth and chewed them together, her face beaming with sweetness.

The grapes weren't sweet to her; what was sweet was Lin Jiade feeding Jasmine. After just a few days apart, the couple she supported seemed even closer.

“It’s not magic,” Jasmine squinted at the direction from which the smoke was coming, “it’s witchcraft.”

Witchcraft is the power that humans acquire by imitating other races. With the number of other races decreasing sharply, and magic riding the wave of scientific development after the 15th century, the number of witchcraft users has decreased significantly.

Hehuan forced a smile and said, "I hope it's not some powerful witchcraft, otherwise the professionals stationed in second-tier cities (master-level magic researchers who possess first-class magic) would come here."

"Are those professionals really that scary?" Lin Jiade asked curiously.

Hehuan's expression somber: "It's not terrifying, it's despair. I've seen one of them, and I never want to meet the next one."

They drove directly into the scene of the incident. Some colleagues with memory magic had already altered the facts to make it seem like an ordinary fire, and the relevant departments would also control the information.

After the senior members of the club communicated with the fire department, a club representative went upstairs with the firefighters. Needless to say, Jasmine couldn't avoid this situation.

When she got out of the car, people looked at her with the same wariness they would have shown to a sorcerer suspected of being lurking in the thick smoke.

"I also……"

Just as Lin Jiade was about to get out of the car, Jasmine's tail wrapped around his waist and shoved him back into the car. She looked at Hehuan in the front seat, her face serious and cold, a side of Wei Yue that Lin Jiade had never seen before.

“Your legs…” Lin Jiade said.

Jasmine lifted her skirt, revealing the talismans pasted all over her calves and knees, and said, "I use these to maintain my health, but because they consume energy, I don't usually use them."

Then, she looked at Hehuan and said, "He's still a novice, take good care of him."

“I will, I swear on my own surname,” Hehuan replied.

Jasmine coldly replied, "Humanity's noble surnames are merely vines that parasitize the great tree of humanity. Sometimes they are decorations for the tree, but more often they are simply harmful."

Lin Jiade took out a potion and applied it to her eyes. He saw that the color around Jasmine's eyes resembled boiling flames. He didn't know what was causing Jasmine's agitation, and a heavy premonition weighed on his heart.

Jasmine went up to the floor where the incident occurred. A square piece of paper peeked out from her sleeve and turned into a fireball, breaking the door lock. She was the first to enter, and thick smoke formed a gray barrier that separated her from the people outside.

More square pieces of paper leaked from her sleeve, and a masked man emerged from the thick smoke, drinking water from a disposable paper cup.

Drinkwater, a hostile agent hired by a mysterious employer, possesses Class 2C psychological magic; details are unknown.

Jasmine mentally reviewed Azalea's information, a flame brewing at her lips. Drinking Water Brother waved his hand and said, "At least today, I'm not here to fight you."

"Then what is it for?"

"There were rumors that you were seriously injured and your strength was greatly reduced, and now it seems that this is indeed the case."

“It’s enough to kill you,” Jasmine said coldly.

“You can’t kill me, and of course I don’t intend to kill you either. I’m just a mercenary who does things for money,” Drinking Water Bro replied calmly. “Based on a certain assessment of your strength, I have a proposal.”

"I have nothing to say to you."

"You can be so ruthless, but what about your companion named Lin Jiade? Don't you care whether he lives or dies?"

"Don't even think about it!"

Enraged, Jasmine exhaled a mouthful of flame. The square piece of paper beside her spun rapidly, and the Yin-Yang symbol materialized on the paper. Following the flame, it transformed into a thunderbolt and rushed towards Drinking Water Bro.

Amidst the two-colored light, Brother Drinking Water stood firm, with smoke gathering in front of him to form a barrier, preventing either flames or lightning from advancing an inch further.

Jasmine rushed toward Drinking Water Bro, her sharp claws piercing the barrier in front of him, tearing and destroying it with brute force, until they could see each other again.

Chapter 50 Drinkwater 5 (Bonus Chapter for Advancement)

Drinking Water Bro aimed his palm at Jasmine's head. Jasmine turned to the side, and her thick tail swept across Drinking Water Bro's waist like an iron whip, slamming him against the wall.

The arm that hit the wall first twisted like a pretzel. He glanced at the furious Jasmine, then at the smoke shield blocking the doorway. It was one of the pieces of equipment sponsored by the employer and could withstand an attack from the other side for at least fifteen minutes.

From the beginning, this was not a case of witchcraft researchers studying a disaster caused by something out of control. In Fuxing City, where manpower was insufficient, it was a given that in the event of a sudden, relatively harmless disaster, it would be necessary to dispatch teams of alien races and students.

So, this was a trap he and his teammates set for the Red Dragon's offspring... Of course, it was also a lie; those people thought he was going to kill Jasmine, but that wasn't what his employer required.

Moreover, the mysterious person who directed him to the address of the pay-to-win sow is also worth paying attention to.

Based on his years of experience, Brother Drinking Water believed that the mysterious figure had ulterior motives towards Jasmine, and it was unclear whether he was friend or foe. Therefore, trapping Jasmine here was also a way to lure the mysterious figure out.

However... the strength of the enraged red dragon offspring exceeded his expectations.

Brother Drinking Water underestimated Lin Jiade's significance to Jasmine. As soon as he stood up, four pieces of paper turned into iron nails and pinned him to the wall, two on his shoulder blades and two on his knees. The Taoist talismans he couldn't see turned into golden chains and appeared at the ends of the nails, firmly pinning him to the wall.

"It's truly astonishing. Apart from the fire breath used as a feint, both the exorcising thunder magic and the later demon-locking spell are techniques from Longhu Mountain... even though they were replaced by gunpowder magic a thousand years ago."

The pain made Drinking Water Brother tremble, but the corners of his eyes curved into a joyful shape. He said, "So that's how it is. You can no longer use the magic of the dragon race, so you can only resort to tricks that even humans have abandoned."

“You still have companions. If you don’t want to die, tell them your story,” Jasmine said.

"Don't be silly, this is just a toy I found."

“Once your shield is opened, those humans will obviously be interested in your intelligence.”

"Pfft," Brother Drinking Water laughed even harder, "You're temporarily standing with the Empire, so you think you're a member of the Empire and under its protection?"

Indeed, among the minds that make up the empire, there are some ideas that believe that foreign races can be tolerated and absorbed, and serve the empire in the same way as ordinary people, and that social value rather than racial bloodline should be used to rank people in society.

But this mind is not monolithic; where there is tolerance, there is brutality; where there is openness, there is conservatism.

Some believe it is more valuable for you to serve the Empire; some believe it is more valuable for you to complete experiments as a test subject; while others only want you dead.

These ideas argued, compromised, and checked each other in their minds, eventually leading to the final decision... which, in practice, is our existence.

Face reality, son of the Red Dragon. The Empire will stand idly by in your personal tragedy. Whether you live, die, or successfully complete the experiment, it will be acceptable to the heads of Brilliant City.

You're not that important to the empire.

Jasmine fell silent. While she hesitated, Brother Drinking Water continued, "In order to achieve our goal, we will attack you and your helpers indiscriminately. That young man who has just stepped into this world is too weak."

However, he is ultimately your accomplice, an uncontrollable risk. Therefore, I have a suggestion: you remove him from your world, and we guarantee we will absolutely not harm him.

how is it? "

Jasmine knew that the reason these people who came to harm her cared so much about Lin Jiade and tried so hard to get rid of him was because Du Juan was behind Lin Jiade.

She couldn't rely on Du Juan's help. It was clear that Du Juan, for her own benefit, hoped that Lin Jiade would extricate himself from her predicament and pursue a more peaceful relationship, while abandoning her as a nuisance.

Du Juan was secondary; what Jasmine feared more was Lin Jiade's personality. Once he knew the truth, he would impulsively side with her and fight against the enemy.

He was brave and moving, but it was all in vain. He was likely to die, an ending that Jasmine could never accept.

A man like him deserves a better life and shouldn't be dragged into her troubles and mired in a nightmare.

However, is it really that easy to give him up, to give up the ray of light that shines into life? All those days since they met, in dreams and in reality, are beautiful memories for Jasmine.

Jasmine was agitated. In her frustration, she extended a claw and pierced through Drinking Water's body. Drinking Water twitched twice and then fell still, but his voice echoed in the room—

“Our proposal remains in effect until next Monday. Once it is determined that the young man is no longer helping you, all our plans against him will be nullified, and his safety will be guaranteed.”

The protective shield was breached, and Hehuan rushed in with the firefighters, followed by Lin Jiade's anxious face and Hehuan's embarrassed expression.

Hehuan tried to pull Lin Jiade away from the danger, but she grabbed his sleeve instead of his arm. As a result, the two opposing forces tore Lin Jiade's clothes to shreds.

Lin Jiade didn't pay attention to any of that at the moment. He rushed upstairs and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Jasmine was safe and sound.