Chapter 72: Divine Will (1)

""Yes!" the disciple replied."Um, can I stay here I can gather herbs and refine pills, and know a bit of medicine!" Free Spirit definitely didn't want to leave. If they left, what would happen to the...Chapter 72: Divine Providence 1

"No wonder I thought your clothes looked familiar; they're the staff uniform here," Nangong Xuxin said, pointing out a detail that everyone had noticed but hadn't recalled.

"Mm-hmm, it's a perk! Of course, I wouldn't be rude about it!" Free-and-Easy nodded. It seemed like he wasn't addressing the main issue.

"... How did you end up working here" Nangong Xuxin asked further.

"This all starts with a pancake..." Free-and-Easy's expression became somewhat odd, and at this moment, everyone couldn’t understand what he meant, but they soon would.

A pancake!

“You got thrown in jail just because of a pancake”

"You little fool! How could you buy something so expensive That's asking for trouble!!"

The capital’s prices are high, but they couldn't possibly be that high..."

“This is outrageous! You came here to participate in the Dragon Gate competition and were actually assigned work here instead!”

"The officials really are incompetent. But this works out for us; otherwise, we wouldn’t know how to get through this place…"

Hearing Free-and-Easy's explanation, everyone was shocked one moment and relieved the next. In the end, they could only be thankful that he had been assigned here so cluelessly, or else today they wouldn't have gotten another chance—now they were still there, listless.

This outcome even surprised Free-and-Easy; he thought that Gu Xing and the others didn’t need his help, and all he needed to do was complete his work for money!

Back then, when Free-and-Easy had been taken to where he is now, he started working. Because he had arrived early and worked day and night without rest, it happened six days before the competition began.

Free-and-Easy’s task was to complete some facilities in the first stage of the Dragon Gate competition within a few days; then if interested, he could assist with repairs during the second phase. The third phase required no assistance from anyone.

Originally, Free-and-Easy wouldn’t have been brought here since he was just a servant accompanying someone to the competition. However, today’s organizers were different from before and didn't know about him.

The previous staff thought that they had released him when they saw him gone and ignored it. Thus, Free-and-Easy became a construction worker in this competition zone, giving him an opportunity to understand some of the competition's details.

At that time, Free-and-Easy found this interesting besides feeling amused by his situation; he also thought it was amusing that the facilities had some flaws. He felt that since he came here, he might as well add a bit more difficulty—not just for fairness, but to make this competition zone better!

Free-and-Easy quickly adapted to the construction and maintenance work. He even found an opportunity to secretly modify part of the competition’s design drawings without being noticed—just enough to improve its perfection.

In the past, if someone had access to the original blueprints, they could find flaws that would allow them to pass through this place easily. But now, even showing competitors the blueprints wouldn’t help; it was designed specifically to test their skills honestly with no shortcuts possible.

This wasn't Free-and-Easy being biased toward anyone; he simply wanted to make things more fair for everyone—even Gu Xing would have to work hard to pass. But Free-and-Easy believed that based on his abilities, Gu Xing could definitely get through it.

The sole purpose of this was to ensure no one had better conditions than Gu Xing!

After getting used to the place, he relied on his superb skills to catch the attention of a supervisor and gained more responsibilities. He not only got access to the entire construction plan but also had the authority to maintain facilities.

This pleased Free-and-Easy greatly, though he didn't realize how much pressure this placed on the martial students while simultaneously shattering Prince Four's hopes.

Prince Four originally possessed the original blueprints. They didn’t match because of Free-and-Easy’s minor modification turning his painstakingly obtained valuable blueprint into useless paper.

No one knew about these things, as Free-and-Easy hadn't mentioned them and others couldn't have guessed it. Even Miss Granddaughter was only a bit suspicious but quickly dismissed the idea since she thought there wasn’t enough time for such an impact.

Moreover, there were already experts designing this place, naturally making their designs better than Free-and-Easy’s skills could surpass. He shouldn't have anything to do with it!

"There's an extra token here; you three can take one each!" Miss Granddaughter said after distributing the tokens.

“I don’t want one!” Princess Kexin shook her head, feeling somewhat repulsed by the token.

"I won't need it either. Give it to Caiyi; she needs more." Zero Blue Princess shook her head as well; after all, she was a princess with greater authority than Kexin.

Princesses are eventually destined to be sent away by the king or used in political maneuvers, but as a princess, her status would remain. She is an only child whose father holds significant power across the country.

Zhang Caiyi was from a military family that had started to decline; if not for her grandfather's influence, they wouldn't be considered a prominent military clan anymore.

Military families aren’t necessarily martial arts clans, and some may have no martial background beyond one generation of talent. Zhang Caiyi’s family once included great generals but later generations couldn’t live up to their ancestors’ prowess, gradually declining.

While the Zhang family still held significant military influence, they lacked martial strength, making it difficult for them to maintain control over other military personnel; now they felt this pressure acutely.

Consequently, the Zhang family urgently needed someone with formidable martial abilities to sweep through and assert dominance. Unfortunately, the clan’s inherent talent in martial arts was rather low across the board, with rumors suggesting that Zhang Caiyi is their only hope due to her exceptional aptitude.

"I can’t accept it!" Zhang Caiyi shook her head.

"Alright, don't waste time anymore, here you go!!" Free-and-Easy handed the token to Zhang Caiyi.

"" Zhang Caiyi was a bit puzzled why Free-and-Easy would hand it to her; did he just pick someone randomly

"None of them want it and yet you give it to her Just picked someone randomly" Princess South Palace asked indifferently, voicing out Zhang Caiyi's thoughts.

"One doesn't want it, one can't use it, while she cannot accept it. It’s obvious that she needs it but is just too embarrassed!" Free-and-Easy answered.

""..."" Zhang Caiyi was speechless for a moment.

Although what Free-and-Easy said was somewhat direct and simple, it was indeed the truth; among the three girls, she needed it the most.

"I..." Zhang Caiyi opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Free-and-Easy.

"Don't be shy about this. It’s yours now. You two should run over there quickly. The gate out is also simple and doesn’t have any traps! I need to keep an eye on the token behind..." As he spoke, Free-and-Easy suddenly changed his mind. "Uh, forget what I just said, you shouldn't listen either..."

"A token behind!" Miss Master's eyes lit up.

"You mean there’s a token here" Princess Zero Blue asked.

"Well, that, I can’t tell you. You guys guess yourselves!" Free-and-Easy acted like he didn’t know anything and quickly walked away, though it seemed he wasn't in much of a hurry.

"If you want the token, follow me!!" Lone Star suddenly turned around to follow after Free-and-Easy.

Free-and-Easy’s intentions were clear: there was another token and he was heading for its location. Since he wasn’t walking fast, it was obvious he wanted others to go find it. And Lone Star followed just so she could spend more time with Free-and-Easy; in her opinion, they had plenty of time anyway.

"Boss, don't follow me! You two should do your own thing, and let them be at their fate!" Free-and-Easy immediately said.

""At their fate...""

The phrase "at their fate" meant that he was just giving a hint; whether they could find it depended on them, not guaranteed.

"I understand, but I want to be with you!" Lone Star said firmly.

"If you act like this, my goal is too big and hard for me to explain!! Then I won't get paid at all!!" Free-and-Easy shook his head, yet Lone Star remained unyielding.

"Alright then. At most I’ll do that. Later on I’ll meet up with you guys; you two go out first!" Free-and-Easy said again.

""Okay!"" Lone Star nodded in agreement and turned to leave.

"Miss Master, you should also stay away from me and go have fun with Boss!" Free-and-Easy pointed at Miss Master.

"But I want to be with Kexin and Zero Blue..." Miss Master explained her intention; it seemed that Free-and-Easy had already guessed this.

"You can go chat up Zhang Caiyi instead, she suits you more!"

"Why" Miss Master was puzzled. Was Zhang Caiyi better than Kexin and Zero Blue It didn’t seem so!

"I think she’s a bit more masculine, maybe your taste is similar; you both like women!!" Free-and-Easy replied casually.

""...""" Everyone fell silent, especially Zhang Caiyi who was rather frustrated. She certainly didn't act like a man!

"That's right but I’m not interested in her! I prefer women more; Princess Kexin is the best, even Miss Third can’t compare to her!" Miss Master spoke straightforwardly.

""...""" Everyone fell silent again.

"Not quite. While this Princess Kexin is very gentle, I feel that Miss Third is better but it really depends on your taste!" Free-and-Easy responded, just his personal opinion.

"Really" Miss Master looked at Free-and-Easy with a puzzled look, wanting to confirm her own preference.

""Yeah!!"" Free-and-Easy nodded.

"I believe you! I decide to have both!"

""..."""

[bookid=1784657,bookname=Ablaze Alchemy Craze]

Got notified by the editor that this work will go on sale tonight at midnight. All of you with votes, please give a few to my young sprout...ins just to buy this book," Lü Lingyu had a lot of complaints about this and looked at the secret manual but couldn’t see any particular value in it.Free-and-Easy only smiled as he packed up his items...