Fate Trading System – Chapter 103

Plan A

Rise in Another World 15

Waiting

Huh?

What the hell?

Su Xin was a bit confused. The gentle and beautiful ex-fiancé who she had just fought with suddenly proposed to her. What’s this rhythm? (This is an internet expression meaning “What’s going on?” or “What’s the deal?”)

“This… I’m afraid I can’t accept.”

Who the f*ck even knows you?

“I’m afraid that after returning home from the academy, I’ll have to take on my family’s task, which is to choose a young lady from among the four great families to be my wife, or perhaps another magician with extremely powerful magical abilities. I don’t have a good candidate right now, except for you.”

Mu Yao said with a bland expression, his brows slightly furrowed, looking very troubled.

“That sounds really unfortunate, but that’s your business, not mine. Although I’m flattered that you’ve taken a liking to me, I don’t want this honor.”

Su Xin shrugged, indicating that she didn’t want to be involved in this kind of thing.

There are plenty of miserable people in this world, and Su Xin isn’t a saint who has to take care of everyone.

“Don’t you need to consider this? After all, you’re a woman, and you’ve already started to make a name for yourself…”

Mu Yao’s voice trailed off as he spoke. Looking at this vibrant woman who had just narrowly defeated him, he realized that what he was saying didn’t seem to fit her at all.

Someone like her would definitely not care about those constraints. The person she’d want to be with would surely be someone she likes.

Mu Yao quite admired Su Xin and wanted to develop their relationship further.

“It seems you know my personality. Of course, I won’t follow those people’s demands and marry someone I don’t know. That’s not happening. Besides, I won’t be going back to the Duanmu family. I’m not interested in any of that stuff at home. What right do they have to control me anyway?”

They even want to manage her marriage. She could just as easily wander around outside and not go home.

She’s different from Mu Yao; she doesn’t need to shoulder any family responsibilities or produce offspring.

After Mu Yao returns, he’ll definitely compete for the position of clan leader, and with his strength and the degree to which he’s favored, the position of clan leader will surely be his.

Once in that position, he’ll have to shoulder the corresponding responsibilities. Su Xin doesn’t have to.

For the first half of her life, she was treated as useless. Why should she care about anything now?

Mu Yao fell silent, nodded, indicating that he understood.

“Well… sorry to bother you.”

“No worries. If we can’t be lovers, we can be friends.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I hope you find some women with brains to be your wives when the time comes.”

“…Alright.”

Mu Yao awkwardly accepted the blessing.

Su Xin’s final match at this level was about to begin. Her opponent was her good friend, Yu Si.

They both knew they wouldn’t go easy on each other. This was something they both understood clearly.

On the battlefield, there are no fathers and sons, and naturally, no friendships either. However, it wasn’t a fight to the death, just a match until a clear winner emerged.

Su Xin lost, but she accepted the defeat wholeheartedly.

However, in terms of overall strength, Yu Si couldn’t beat Su Xin. Su Xin’s most impressive skill was close combat.

When it came to magical power alone, Su Xin couldn’t match Yu Si.

The academy held a competition once a year, a trial every ten years, and recruited new students every twenty years.

Ten years passed quickly, leaving people with no time to react.

It seemed like in an instant, everyone had aged, yet time hadn’t left traces on many people. After all, ten years was nothing to sneeze at (不足挂齿 – This is a chengyu meaning “not worth mentioning”) for magicians.

In the world of ordinary people, a decade was enough for them to grow from naive, passionate youths into young adults who could analyze situations, get married, have children, and establish careers. Another decade, and they’d all be old.

Su Xin had spent her days without keeping track of time, just like those ten years in the secret realm, which passed in the blink of an eye.

It sounds long when you say it, but when you break it down, it’s so short.

It’s like having a hundred yuan. When you hold it in your hand, you think it’s a lot. But when it becomes two fifties, five twenties, ten tens, twenty fives, or a hundred ones, it suddenly seems insignificant.

Su Xin hadn’t seen her cat for a full ten years. She didn’t know what the girl called Nan Cheng looked like now.

But she often dreamed of her, in the form of a cat, very cute.

The time to enter the Sky-reaching Tower was drawing near. This was a trial eagerly anticipated by all who had never been inside, and Su Xin’s excitement was particularly intense.

She wondered what it would be like when they met again.

Su Xin had become more free-spirited, neither high-profile nor low-key, just doing as she liked. Over these ten years, her relationship with Yu Si had grown even closer, and the cold girl would occasionally talk to her now.

Their dormitory attracted a lot of attention, after all, three peculiar people lived there.

Li Xiuxiu’s “tonnage” had become increasingly terrifying over the years. Su Xin couldn’t persuade her otherwise; she was just easily hungry, but she didn’t slack off when it came to exercise.

Li Xiuxiu would occasionally make self-deprecating jokes, saying that when she couldn’t beat an opponent, she could still crush them with her body.

But her earth-based magic was indeed quite outstanding, both tanky and high in damage output.

The academy had issued exploration missions to various places more than once, and the three of them spontaneously formed a small team, completing each mission perfectly.

After ten years, their tacit understanding was more than sufficient.

The trial of the Sky-reaching Tower was finally about to begin.

“Furan, why are you so excited about this?”

Li Xiuxiu asked while munching on chestnut cake, not understanding why Su Xin was in such high spirits.

Isn’t it just exploring a place they’ve never been to before? It’s so dangerous in there. Although there are many good things, you have to walk a lot.

Li Xiuxiu actually didn’t want to do anything. She had no grand ambitions, didn’t want to pursue any positions, and didn’t care about becoming stronger. She just wanted to go home after graduation, eat, drink, and wait for death.

It sounds like a life devoid of interest.

But even if life is boring, you still have to live on, because you never know when a surprise might be waiting for you.

“Because it can make me even stronger!”

“Oh, oh, oh.”

The other two people in the dorm were cultivation maniacs, Li Xiuxiu knew that.

Su Xin wanted to become stronger to complete missions and protect those she could protect. With enough strength, one could walk sideways (横着走 – An expression meaning to be so powerful that one can do as they please).

Yu Si’s motivation for becoming stronger was purely the pursuit of her martial way, striving to reach her peak. Everything else seemed to have little to do with her.

Little One, I miss you a bit. Do you miss me?

If Nan Cheng could respond, of course she would miss her.

Life after returning to the clan wasn’t very pleasant.

When people saw she wasn’t dead, who knows how many were happy, but also how many harbored secret resentment.

Nine-lives cats are such precious magical beasts that once one dies, it’s gone forever.

In fact, many powerful species don’t die from natural disasters or human calamities, but from their own undoing.

No matter how long-lived they are, without leaving descendants, there’s no way to continue the lineage.

Whether it’s historical inevitability or not, all powerful species suffer from the same problem: reproduction.

For the Nine-lives cat clan, the probability of producing offspring was getting smaller and smaller. They valued every clan member highly, and those geniuses who could bring glory and pride to the clan were even more prized.

So when it was discovered that Nan Cheng’s attack was a set-up, subtle fractures began to appear within this seemingly united species.

In just ten short years, Nan Cheng had died four times.

The signed magical master-servant contract could actually be manipulated because Nan Cheng’s bloodline was stronger than Su Xin’s.

Every time Su Xin was injured, she could feel it clearly, but when Nan Cheng was seriously injured, she concealed it well.

Losing one tail was equivalent to dying once. When the last tail disappears, it’s when this cat dies.

Including the first time, Nan Cheng now only had four tails left.

The glory won at the extreme cost of these deaths was undoubtedly enormous. Nan Cheng had reunited the species, and those clan members harboring rebellious thoughts were nailed to pillars as punishment.

Although the Nine-lives cat clan wasn’t exactly her one-man show (一言堂 – An idiom meaning a place where one person calls all the shots), she wielded considerable power and influence.

Nan Cheng was elected as the clan leader of the Nine-lives cats. As the leader and a powerful figure, she also had to bear the mission of ensuring the clan’s reproduction.

Nan Cheng had been troubled recently, troubled about mating.

Spring had arrived, once again a time when all creatures were stirring with desire.

Over the past decade, Nan Cheng had rejected countless advances from male cats, using the excuse of “not feeling it.”

The clan elders found this strange. What was there not to feel? It was their animal instinct, after all.

In Nan Cheng’s heart, there was someone hidden.

She really wanted to leave the Sky-reaching Tower to see Su Xin, but getting away wasn’t so easy.

On the seventh floor of the Sky-reaching Tower, power was balanced, with each faction keeping to itself. However, this was only a forced surface equilibrium. If anything were to disrupt it, war between them would break out at the slightest provocation.

Expansion was the instinct of every species.

They wanted better and larger territories, desiring to rule and dominate.

Unable to get away, Nan Cheng could only secretly wait for Su Xin’s arrival.

Ten years had passed. She wondered how her master was doing now. She must have grown a lot.

“Your Majesty.”

A small cat entered, its expression reverent.

“Do you have news?”

“Yes, the Sky-reaching Tower will soon be opened again. Many humans will enter at that time. This is a good opportunity.”

Magical beasts eat humans, and if the mages are of the same element, it greatly enhances their cultivation.

“Don’t act rashly. Make sure our people behave themselves and don’t go down below. It’s fine to eat those fighters and mages, but don’t forget about the eighth floor.”

The eighth floor is also inhabited by human mages and fighters, but they’re more formidable than the common folk outside. Any random person from the eighth floor would be considered a master outside, but their perspectives and goals are different.

The mages outside pursue becoming high-level mages their whole lives, but those on the eighth floor aim to become gods.

“Understood.”

“Your Majesty, about the mating issue…”

“Impossible.”

“Your Majesty, consider the bigger picture!”

“You may go.”

Nan Cheng looked out the window and sighed.

Master, I’m waiting for you.

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