Chapter 17: [Does the Luck-Intercepting Technique Have This Function?]

Lu Sisi ran away crying, and naturally, neither Chen Yan nor Xiao Zhao needed to go to the hospital anymore.

Xiao Zhao simply returned to the scenic area to continue acting as a shill.

After seeing Xiao Zhao off, Chen Yan finally let a trace of expected surprise show on his face.

His own Yuan Qi... had increased a little again!

Right after he "helped" that Lu Sisi face her tribulation early, the Miss choked on water, and the original appearance of drowning had the black qi dissipate from one corner.

And Chen Yan experienced the sensation from the plane a few days ago again:

The flow of luck around his body changed once more, with threads of Yuan Qi entering his body, becoming even smoother. The growth of Yuan Qi made him feel a hint of comfort all over, just like spring rain brushing the face, that cool yet soft taste was very enjoyable.

I... can increase my cultivation by helping others break their tribulations?

Am I cultivating Yuan Qi, or is it the Merit Great Method?

After Chen Yan stood in place and pondered for a moment...

If helping others could increase cultivation, Chen Yan wouldn't mind going out on the street every day from today on to help old ladies cross the road.

Things he couldn't figure out would be put aside for now; looking at the sky, it was time to go home.

Hmm? My stomach is a bit hungry.

Chen Yan looked at the direction to the left of the street; hmm, he remembered there was a KFC nearby, and today happened to be Thursday.

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A tall and graceful girl stood by the roadside, looking longingly at the clean and bright storefront ahead.

Inside the huge floor-to-ceiling window, it was bright and clean, and the poster featured an old man with a white beard wearing a white suit.

The girl was not focused on these things.

What attracted her attention were two little boys who had just walked out of this shop, gnawing on a fragrant chicken leg each in their hands.

(Waa... so hungry... want to eat a chicken leg...)

The girl's hair looked dirty, as if she hadn't washed it for many days, and many of her originally braided pigtails had come undone.

She wore an old-fashioned black cotton jacket, which was also dirty, covered in dust, with black patches and gray patches.

However, that small face looked clean, with gorgeous features and enchanting eyebrows and eyes.

She actually really wanted to go in and buy a chicken leg.

But...

There was really no money left in her pocket.

The last yuan had been spent when she made a phone call today.

Third Uncle hadn't said that money in The World Beyond was so easy to spend!

When she came out, Third Uncle had given her a few hundred paper bills from The World Beyond, saying that if she saved, she could live for a few months with this money in The World Beyond.

But she had only been out for ten days, barely managing to eat one meal a day, and yet she had spent everything until nothing was left.

The girl had actually been secretly observing outside the shop for a long time; guests entering this "Chicken Leg Shop" did not have any staff collect money at the counter, but instead everyone held that thing called a "mobile phone," scanning an electronic screen a few times...

Then they waited for the staff to prepare the food, placing it on the counter for the guests to pick up themselves.

Hmm... seems like there's a loophole!

·

After Chen Yan walked into this KFC, he took out his phone, ordered a Family Bucket for takeout, then found a seat nearby and sat down, scrolling through short videos on his phone while waiting.

After a while, Chen Yan looked up and checked the large screen above the counter.

Pickup: A0087

Hmm, it's mine.

As Chen Yan walked toward the counter, he could already see the pickup area, where a packed Family Bucket was placed.

Just as he was walking over, about to reach out and take it...

Whoosh!!

A figure swept past Chen Yan like the wind!

She grabbed the Family Bucket on the table, hugged it to her chest, turned around, and ran!

Chen Yan: Eh?!

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That figure, hugging Chen Yan's Family Bucket, crashed through the main door like the wind. In the blink of an eye, the other party had already run out of sight.

So fast that Chen Yan didn't even get a clear look at the figure.

He could vaguely make out that it was a girl, and she was wearing all black?

And just now, when the other party snatched the Family Bucket and ran past him, Chen Yan seemed to hear a crisp sound in his ears.

"Sorry!"

·

A few seconds later, Chen Yan finally came to his senses, widened his eyes to look at the now empty counter, and then looked at the street outside.

Chen Yan: What the hell?!

My Family Bucket! Where's my huge Family Bucket?!

I've been... robbed?

No!

Do thieves nowadays have such manners?

Didn't she just say sorry to me?

·

Two streets away, a figure swiftly turned into a side alley, ran all the way to the end, which was a construction site.

It was the end of the year; workers had gone home and work had stopped. The construction building on the site stood empty. The girl rushed to a rough concrete building five or six stories high, ran around to the back in one breath, and only then stopped. She quickly glanced left and right, confirmed no one was around in any direction, and stamped her foot.

Swish!

Her figure shot straight up to the rooftop!

Landing on the concrete slab of the roof, the girl finally let out a breath, turned around, and leaned half her body out to look down at the street below.

Hmm, confirmed no one was chasing her.

The girl spat out a mouthful of stale air and opened the Family Bucket in her hand.

As the lid was lifted, a greasy, oily fragrance drifted into her nose, and her stomach immediately betrayed her with a growl.

The girl pouted in a aggrieved manner, first placing the Family Bucket on the ground before her, then clasping her hands together with a solemn expression and muttering:

"Ancestor above, this disciple knows the clan rules strictly forbid stealing, robbing, kidnapping, or deceiving innocent people, but... this disciple had no choice.

This disciple broke the precepts and ended up in such a state for three reasons:

First, blame Third Uncle for teaching me things that were entirely wrong!

Second, blame that Chen family thief for being truly cunning and hiding so strictly.

Third, third, third..."

The girl spoke to this point, her lips trembled, she pressed her lips together in grievance, and continued:

"... Third, it is this disciple, this disciple simply could not endure the hunger anymore...

So, Ancestor above, if punishment is to be meted out.

Punish Third Uncle first.

Then punish that Chen family villain.

As for, as for this disciple...

I imagine Ancestor's wise eyes and benevolent heart will surely not punish this disciple, right?"

Having finished speaking, the girl seemed to finally take a long breath, sat back down on the ground, reached her dirty hand into the paper bucket, grabbed a piece of chicken, and bit down in one mouthful!

"Mmm... so fragrant..."

The girl's eyes widened.

·

Evening.

In winter weather, the sun sets early. Moreover, once the sun is gone, the temperature drops even faster; before the sky was fully dark, standing outside one could already feel the chill in the wind.

Chen Yan sat in the basement of the villa.

The previous owner had converted this into a tool room, storing various miscellaneous items, spare parts replaced from the household's electrical equipment, plus two toolboxes.

Chen Yan had cleaned a workbench spotless; the tabletop was covered with an oilcloth, upon which sat a set of carving tools and several strips of bluestone cut to over a meter in length, which Chen Yan used to practice carving runes.

At this moment, what lay on the table were clearly two jade plaques: one of green jade, one of Bai Yu. Both were ordinary, mass-market goods Chen Yan had bought from a jade shop today.

Chen Yan sat before the table, staring at the two jade plaques, lost in thought.

He had already conducted experiments after returning home. Of the two jade plaques, the Bai Yu had better quality; using the Nurturing Method to channel primal energy, it reached its capacity limit in less than fifteen seconds.

That green jade plaque was even worse; when the Nurturing Method channeled energy to the tenth second, two fine cracks suddenly appeared on the plaque's surface.

And Chen Yan remembered clearly that before leaving the house, when he tried with that jadeite thumb ring, channeling primal energy via the Nurturing Method continued for several minutes without reaching its limit!

Although, inherently, emerald jadeite was certainly of much better material quality than the two low-grade jade plaques.

But ordinary secular materials should not differ so greatly in capacity.

Chen Yan became even more certain that this thumb ring was no ordinary object.

It was just...

"Holding a golden rice bowl to beg for food."

Chen Yan sighed helplessly.

He knew it was a treasure, yet he did not know what use this treasure had.

With his current cultivation, he was truly unable to peer into the strange nature of this jadeite thumb ring.

Since the Old Grandma had placed this treasure in the safe and left it to him, why did she not leave an instruction manual or something similar?

Chen Yan pondered back and forth, finally making a decision: from today on, he would use the Nurturing Method to channel primal energy and nurture this thumb ring every day—time was short, just about one minute per day would suffice.

More than that, he feared it might damage the treasure.

Nurturing it slowly, he would wait until his cultivation was higher in the future, then slowly find a way to unravel the mystery.

·

Today he had wanted KFC outside but failed to get it; after busying himself so long upon returning home, Chen Yan felt he could eat a whole cow.

As for the matter of the Family Bucket being snatched... he could only let it go. It was only something worth a few dozen yuan; could Chen Yan really call the police and ask the restaurant staff to check the surveillance footage?

It wasn't worth it.

Touching his empty, shriveled stomach, Chen Yan thought, perhaps he should order takeout?

Hmm... eating takeout all the time is bad for the body; those takeout meals are heavy in oil, salt, and spice, actually because the ingredients are cheap or even not fresh, using strong flavors to mask this fact.

Moreover, the oil is mostly inferior quality oil.

Thinking this, Chen Yan tidied up the workbench, walked into the home kitchen, and washed his hands.

At home, there were still some ingredients.

In the refrigerator remained half a pot of rice left over from yesterday, and there was still a dozen eggs—now that Chen Yan had money, he had bought those so-called sterile eggs said to be safe to eat raw.

After buying them, Chen Yan had already eaten a few, but found nothing particularly special about them.

It just always felt like his mouth was full of the taste of money.

He took out two eggs, beat them evenly in a bowl, then scooped out a large bowl of white rice.

He directly poured a bowl of egg liquid over the rice, then used a spoon to mix it thoroughly.

Then he turned on the fire, put the wok on, added oil, and once the oil was hot, poured in the rice that had been drizzled with egg liquid and stir-fried it.

The fried rice made this way had golden grains, yet you couldn't see a single formed piece of egg.

This was a "Golden Fried Rice" that Chen Yan had learned from the Old Grandma.

Before taking it off the heat, he sprinkled on some salt, poured in a ladle of dark soy sauce, and tossed it a few more times.

Done!

In the spacious dining room at home, sitting beside a large round dining table that could seat ten, Chen Yan ate while doing what the vast majority of young people in this city did these days: he picked up his phone.

He didn't have many unread messages on WeChat — he wasn't the type to make friends far and wide, so he didn't have many friends.

The most recent one was from Hu Tiangou — Chen Yan's WeChat nickname for him was simply Hu Tiangou.

Hu Tiangou: Bro, how's the new place? I can handle the after-service. If there's any issue, just hit me up — I can help coordinate with the landlord.

Chen Yan looked at it. Mm, Old Hu's a decent guy. If he needs a place again in the future, he'll go back to him.

The second message was from Little Zhao.

Zhao Shanhe: Bro, I just had a thought — when I fell into the river back then, it wasn't you who kicked me in, was it? (dog head dog head)

Knowing this good friend was just joking, Chen Yan didn't take it to heart and played along with one line: "Guess?" (dog head dog head).

The third was from a name that looked rather unfamiliar: Someone Some Year.

Chen Yan raised an eyebrow. That name's kinda artsy, isn't it?

Someone Some Year: Mr. Chen, there's something I'd like to bother you about in person. I wonder when you'd be free recently?

Then Chen Yan remembered — this WeChat account had been added a few days ago when he was renting the place. It belonged to a subordinate sent by the villa's homeowner, the big boss.

Adding the other party's WeChat at the time had only been natural — in case any issue came up during his stay, he'd need a contact person.

After thinking it over, Chen Yan casually replied, "May I ask what it's about?"

He had been about to switch out first to find a variety show to watch with his meal, but unexpectedly the other party replied instantly.

"A small matter, about the house. Whenever you're free, I'll come by and bother you for a bit."

Chen Yan was a little puzzled, but after thinking it over, he replied: "I'm home these days, you can come by anytime."

A minute later, Chen Yan had already opened the playback page of a variety show to watch with his meal, when a WeChat pop-up appeared.

Someone Some Year: May I come by to visit tomorrow afternoon at three?

Chen Yan replied with an OK and stopped paying attention, focusing on watching the variety show.

After finishing his meal and cleaning up, Chen Yan went back to his room, sat cross-legged on the bed, and ran through the Qi Transport Technique twice.

Suddenly the phone rang again!

He picked it up and looked — caller ID: Hu Tiangou.

Hm?

He answered casually, and Hu Shangke's excited voice came through the phone.

"Chen Yan, Chen Yan, there's some juicy gossip, want to hear it? And it's got something to do with you!"

Chen Yan, lazy and uninterested: "What now? Dengzi and Dong Wang made their relationship official?"

On the other end, Hu Shangke paused — his mood had clearly been broken, and he sounded a bit annoyed: "What?! This gossip actually has something to do with you."

"Oh?" Chen Yan grew a little curious: "Tell me?"

Hu Shangke's enthusiasm was roused again: "That place you moved out of before, remember? I even helped you move. Your old landlord left me his number back then, said the place was up for rent and asked me to help find tenants for him. Remember?"

Chen Yan actually didn't remember clearly. The day he moved out, Hu Shangke had indeed gone with him, and the landlord was there too. Still, one was a real estate agent and the other was a landlord — it made sense for them to chat.

"I remember. And then?"

Hu Shangke got excited on the other end: "Let me tell you — that landlord came into our shop today. All his tenants ran off, not a single one stayed, and he came to re-list the place.

Then he told us something absolutely explosive! Absolutely explosive!!"

He paused, then took a deep breath on the other end: "He told me…

One day after you moved out, he went over to collect rent, opened the door, and saw one of his tenants — uh, I think he said the surname was Wang or something…

The guy, butt naked, sprawled on the floor, already passed out.

But he was still spitting out of his mouth, mouthful after mouthful, spitting…

Spitting that stuff!"

Chen Yan was curious now too: "Spitting out what? Which one? Be clearer."

Hu Shangke snickered and said one word:

"Shit!"

Holy crap!

Chen Yan, who had been lying lazily taking the call, sprang upright on the bed at the words!

"What did you say? Say it again! Shit?

Out of his mouth, spitting… holy crap!!"

"And that's not all!

The landlord said he was completely numb at the time! In that apartment — on the table, on the floor, the sofa, the coffee table…

Spit was everywhere. That place was genuinely unlivable.

Then they called an ambulance and sent that bastard to the hospital. When he woke up, he didn't remember a thing.

But the doctor said they pumped his stomach and found remnants still inside…

Said… it was probably that he ate it himself, ate too much, stuffed himself until he felt sick, and that's why he threw up."

"Holy crap!" Chen Yan was speechless: "He ate it?! No way! Where the hell did that stuff come from in his house?"

Hu Shangke said darkly from the other end: "Did you forget what I said… when the landlord found him, that bastard was butt naked…"

Chen Yan: "…………"

"Because of this, all the other tenants in his apartment went ballistic and refused to stay there anymore—I can understand that, damn it, vomiting that stuff everywhere, who would want to live there! They were all clamoring to break their leases and leave. Your old landlord was so furious he had no choice but to come to us and ask us to find new tenants..."

Hu Shangke chattered on for a while longer, and only hung up the phone after sharing this huge scoop.

However, Chen Yan had already lost interest in the rest of what was said, merely offering a few perfunctory replies.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yan fell into deep thought.

Back then, to punish that guy surnamed Wang for his uncultured words and deeds in daily life, he had cast a Fate-Interception Technique on him.

By all rights, the Fate-Interception Technique should only have brought him some bad luck; at most, he might have tripped, sprained an ankle, suffered pain for a few days, or come down with a fever or a cold.

His own cultivation and Daoist attainment were too slight to produce anything more powerful.

The Fate-Interception Technique has this function too?

Holy crap!

If I ever see someone I dislike in the future, I can just hit them with this...

The damage isn't great, but damn it, it can make the other person have nightmares for the rest of their life!

·

【Tonight is New Year's Eve; 2024 is about to end. May everyone have a smooth 2025, full of health and happiness!

Ask for a few tips as a lucky money gift!

Not even a dime or two is too little; gold, silver, or even a cute donation is never too much~

There's also one more thing: although the contract is signed, because I dragged my feet for too long, even after expediting the process, the recommendation won't be available for a few more days.

That is to say, this book of ours will be running naked for quite a few days... Since the book started, there haven't been any recommendations, so it's good to keep running naked...

Let me play the victim here.】

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