As the few silhouettes gradually moved closer to the couple’s house, Arthur eventually saw the true appearance of the silhouettes, with there being three of them. Seeing how many had arrived to meet with the couple, he could not help but let out a slightly disappointed sigh. “And here I thought I’d be able to finish that requirement in one go.”

Nevertheless, he continued to focus his attention on the three silhouettes, two male and one female. One of the two guys wore a full set of leather armor as the air of a battle-hardened warrior could be felt from him. With an expression that had a hint of ruthlessness under the man’s determination as his gaze showed his astute battle experience, it was natural for Arthur to think that this man might be part of some sort of military regiment from a kingdom. Then again, he only thought of that because he remembered he was in a cultivation world. Of course, he wasn’t certain about this.

“I guess this is the Third Uncle Qin mentioned last night,” he muttered to himself, taking note of the man’s slightly weathered face as a few gray strands of hair could be seen around his ears.

After that, he focused his attention on the other guy, who seemed to look like an older version of Jian. Realizing this, Arthur could not help but mutter, “Is he Jian’s older brother? A close relative perhaps?”

Then again, considering how Jian usually exuded an amicable and gentle aura around him, the aura the man exuded was a sharp contrast, giving Arthur the feeling that he was looking at a blade with a sheathed edge from a certain perspective. Not only that, but the pressure he felt from the man was multiple times greater compared to Jian and Qin. In fact, even the man Qin called her Third Uncle exuded great pressure as well.

As for the woman that came along with the two, she looked to be slightly older than both Jian and Qin. However, her age only seemed to make her charms more pronounced, only wearing a simple long-sleeved dress with only light makeup on her face. If Arthur were to see a woman like her in his previous life, he was sure that he would only see someone like her in commercials or movies.

Eventually, the three of them met up with the couple as Qin hastily hugged the somewhat old man. “Third Uncle, you’re finally here!”

“Hahaha! How would I not be? After all, you called me here,” said Third Uncle in response, letting out a chuckle that made the atmosphere joyful.

On the other hand, Jian and his older lookalike firmly hugged each other with light smiles on their faces.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve last met, brother,” Jian told the man, to which the latter responded with a light nod. “Yeah, it has been a long time.”

“Ehem.” Just as the two pairs were about to start reminiscing and catch up on what the other side missed, the woman that came with the two men let out a light cough, prompting everyone to look at her as she asked them, “Aren’t you forgetting someone else? Jian? Qin?”

“How would we forget about you, Lady Guang?” Jian said in response as he released his brother from his embrace. Scratching his head, he moved closer to her as he asked, “Would you like to be embraced as well?”

“Although I would’ve accepted your offer at any other time, we can’t really waste too much time on pleasantries, right?” said the woman named Lady Guang, slightly smiling as she looked at the others. “After all, you didn’t just invite us over for a housewarming party, right?”

Hearing that, Qin could not help but let go of his Third Uncle as she looked at Jian with slight worry. Seeing her slightly worried expression, Jian slightly smiled and patted her on the head before nodding at the three. Taking on a slightly serious expression, he then said, “Keen as always, Lady Guang. Let’s head inside.”

With that, the five of them slowly made their way to the humble abode of the couple as Arthur watched everything unfold with great interest.

“If only there was popcorn in this world,” he could not help but say, thinking of the entire situation as an interesting arc to a drama series. “Then again, I’m a spirit vein, so I won’t be able to eat popcorn in the first place.”

“Speaking of which…” Although he thought that it would be better for him to postpone exchanging Spirit Slag for System Points later, which would allow the three new people to take note of his presence more easily, he decided to exchange all of the Spirit Slag right now. Not long after, he gained 400 System Points as 80 grams of Spirit Slag remained in front of the bluish-white octahedron.

After that, he resumed converting his qi into Spirit Slag, recalling the mental note he had regarding upgrading [Qi Conversion]. With that thought in mind, he wondered if it was possible to make [Qi Conversion] fully automatic, just like how his [Spirit Sense] was automatically reactivated by the system once the duration of the skill was up.

Though, he placed the thought at the back of his head for now, not finding the need to reactivate [Qi Conversion] every hour too much of a hassle so far. With that, he returned his attention to the five that were now inside the couple’s house, specifically at the dining area.

As the three guests were making themselves comfortable in the couple’s house, admiring the few amenities the couple had from time to time, the couple was hard at work, making a few appetizers and snacks for the guests to munch on while the main course was still being cooked. After 10 minutes or so, both Jian and Qin served the appetizers to the guests, to which the three could not help but nod in surprise and satisfaction.

Since the main course the couple had in mind was stew, the two decided to accompany the guests for now, with the words Lady Guang said earlier to them still lingering in their minds.

Realizing that the atmosphere had changed somewhat, Jian looked at the others for a bit before asking Qin’s Third Uncle with a solemn expression, “Third Uncle, did you make sure that no one was following you?”

“Who would dare follow someone like me?” said Third Uncle with a slight frown. Though, this frown quickly disappeared as he continued, “However, your situation is indeed quite precarious, so I took a few precautionary measures before leaving. Fortunately, no one tailed me during my journey.”

Nodding in response to his words, Jian then looked at his brother and asked, “How about you, Cheng? Did anyone try to follow you?”

“Unfortunately, there were a few people that did try to tail me,” replied Cheng, only to add, “But I did take care of them before I continued, using all of the tricks I know to throw them off-track. As for the others… you know how that went.”

“Good to know,” Jian said, also nodding in response. With that, he looked at Lady Guang for a bit, only to wryly smile as he told her, “I’m certain Lady Guang made sure no one was following her, so there’s no need to ask.”

“Well, isn’t that a bit rude?” Lady Guang could not help but say with a slightly playful smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know how many people tried to follow me? How long it took me to take care of them?”

“Although I would’ve accepted your offer at any other time, we can’t really waste too much time on pleasantries, right?” Jian replied, using her own words from before. Realizing this, Lady Guang could not help but laugh before her expression turned solemn soon after. “Well, you know very well why I’m here. With that, let Xu Zhoucheng and Huang Yongzhen talk first.”

Hearing their names being mentioned, the two men looked at each other for a bit before nodding as Huang Yongzhen looked at the couple and started talking. “I’m sure you know what happened after Qin left the Huang clan. With the incident that took place back then, the clan leader fell into a state of comatose. So far, he still hasn’t woken up from it. Currently, the clan is lying low for now as they basically lost a great amount of power that day.”

“However, the clan leader’s first wife is still adamant about having the power of the clan leader be passed onto her in the meantime, acting in lieu of her husband,” he continued, glancing at Qin a few times.

As Qin remained silent throughout all that, Jian looked at his brother and asked, “How about the Xu clan?”

“Well, not really any better, to be honest,” said Xu Zhoucheng with a light sigh. “After you left the Xu clan in opposition of the agreement of being wed to someone from the Huo clan, the clan has also decided to lie low for now, not wanting the controversy regarding your departure from the clan to spread.”

“But of course, it doesn’t stop there,” he added, scratching his head from the annoyance of the situation. “Since the Xu clan knows that you’re with the esteemed young daughter of the Huang clan, the Xu clan has tried making a few deals with the Huang clan, hoping to kill two birds in one stone.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jian could not help but ask, even though he already had a hunch as to what that would be.

“You’re my brother, Jian. You already know what that means,” Cheng said in response. “They aim to split the two of you apart. They want the arranged marriages to continue, no matter what.”

Ding!

While Arthur was listening intently to the conversation between the five people, he obtained a notification from the system all of a sudden, prompting him to stop listening for a bit as he wondered what it was. After reading through the notification he had just received, the words that left his mouth soon after were…

“Oh no.”

You have received a narrative quest.