Zhang Kuang walked through the bar district, watching the young men and women coming and going. Suddenly, being able to understand French felt wonderful, as though many of the barriers between them had fallen away.
Then he spotted three smoking-hot Middle Eastern beauties walking out, laughing and joking. This surprised him greatly. After all, the Middle East was a place that imposed very strict demands on women, so seeing these beauties being so hot and uninhibited was quite unexpected.
The Paris night breeze carried the scent of alcohol and perfume, leaving Zhang Kuang increasingly clearheaded.
He strode out of the bar district, his heart pounding-not from nerves, but excitement.
The retreating figures of those three Middle Eastern beauties were still imprinted on his mind: tall and smoking hot. One of them had glanced back at him, something impossible to put into words in her eyes.
"Calm down, calm down." He took a deep breath, suppressing some of the burning heat brought on by that Dragon-Tiger Pill.
But just then, a fragrant breeze drifted over.
"Hey, are you following us?"
Zhang Kuang looked up and realized he had unwittingly reached a relatively quiet street. The three Middle Eastern beauties from earlier were leaning against a black Mercedes-Benz by the roadside, smoking long, slender ladies' cigarettes and watching him with interest.
The speaker was the tallest of the three, at least 175 centimeters by his estimate, with long chestnut hair and deeply sculpted features. A tight black dress outlined her stunning curves. Her French carried a distinct Arabic accent, but she spoke it fluently.
"I... wasn't following you." Zhang Kuang's mind raced. The perception granted by that Qi Gathering Pill let him clearly distinguish the different perfumes on the three women, as well as-a certain aura he could not quite describe, that of his "own kind."
Not cultivators, but some similar sort of... beings with an extreme craving for the opposite sex?
"Oh?" Another girl, with short hair and wheat-colored skin, wearing leather pants, laughed wildly. "Then you stared at us for at least five seconds outside the bar."
"Three seconds to admire us, and the extra two to figure out how to hit on us." The third girl chimed in, her voice much softer and sweeter. She had big, wavy curls and wore a white slip dress. She looked the most innocent, but her eyes held a knowing familiarity at odds with her appearance.
Zhang Kuang froze for a moment, then smiled.
These three were interesting.
"All right, you saw right through me." He spread his hands and made a joke with his newly acquired precision in French. "Then let's introduce ourselves properly-my name's Zhang Kuang. I'm Chinese, I arrived in Paris three days ago, and my wallet was stolen, but I'm still here and in a pretty good mood."
"You were robbed and you're still in a good mood?" The tall girl raised an eyebrow.
"Because the guys who robbed me should be in the hospital by now," Zhang Kuang said casually.
The three girls exchanged looks, then laughed together.
The short-haired girl in leather pants was the first to offer her hand. "I'm Lina, from Qatar. This is my roommate Aisha-" She pointed at the tall girl. "And this is Matilda, from Lebanon."
"Lebanon?" Zhang Kuang was a little surprised. "Then you..."
"What about us?" Matilda-the curly-haired girl who looked the most innocent-blinked. "We aren't the kind of Middle Eastern women who cover themselves from head to toe. I came to Paris when I was eight, and those two came when they were fifteen. Now we have only one identity-"
"The France Study-Abroad Squad!" all three said in unison, laughing without restraint.
Something stirred in Zhang Kuang's heart.
The France Study-Abroad Squad. He liked that name.
The so-called France Study-Abroad Squad was a group of women who cast aside every shackle imposed by their home countries and let the demons of human nature perform to their utmost.
While back in their home countries, even a glance or a touch from the opposite sex was an offense and a crime, here they were willing to accept any whipping and exploration without limits.
That was the definition of the France Study-Abroad Squad, and they were also the best companions for cultivators like Zhang Kuang.
Good, good, good. This kind of France Study-Abroad Squad was exactly what cultivators like Zhang Kuang loved most.
"So, you're... second-generation rich?" he asked tentatively.
"Rich?" Lina laughed even more wildly. "My uncle is a member of Qatar's royal family, and my father is the chairman of an energy company. Aisha's father is one of the biggest property developers in the United Arab Emirates. As for Matilda's family... tsk, her maternal grandfather has marriage ties to the Saudi royal family."
"Stop." Zhang Kuang raised a hand. "I get it. You're the kind who came to Paris not to study, but to eat, drink, and have fun?"
"Of course we still have to study," Aisha said, elegantly exhaling smoke. "But life can't be all studying. Paris is such a wonderful city. Wouldn't it be a wasted trip if we didn't enjoy ourselves?"
Matilda added softly, "We're going to watch football tonight. A PSG match. What about you?"
"What a coincidence. Me too." Zhang Kuang smiled. "I'm a professional footballer."
"Oh?" All three girls immediately perked up.
"I haven't signed yet. I'm on trial," Zhang Kuang said honestly. "But I'll sign soon."
As he said this, his voice carried a certainty that felt unfamiliar even to him. Was it confidence brought on by the Dragon-Tiger Pill? Or had the Qi Refining First Layer given him something to stand on? He did not know. But he knew the way the three women before him looked at him had changed.
"How tall are you?" Aisha suddenly asked.
"185."
"Pretty solid." Lina stepped forward and squeezed his arm. Then-she froze.
"This muscle density..." she murmured, looking up at Zhang Kuang with an even subtler expression. "Are you really an ordinary player?"
Zhang Kuang's heart lurched, but his expression remained unchanged. "I just train a lot."
He had guessed it-Lina had grown up among royalty and wealthy businessmen, encountering plenty of elite bodyguards and special forces soldiers, and had an instinctive ability to judge the strength of a person's body. The muscle density and the feel of an ordinary person's bones under her touch would never be like his were now.
"Interesting." Lina let go and glanced back at Aisha.
Aisha stubbed out her cigarette, walked up to Zhang Kuang, and tilted her head up to look at him-at 175 centimeters, she was almost eye to eye with him in her heels.
"Zhang Kuang," she said his name with unexpectedly accurate pronunciation, "what are your plans tonight?"
"I was going to head back to the hotel and sleep," Zhang Kuang said, looking into her deep-set eyes and feeling his heartbeat speed up again. "But now-"
"Now?" Matilda poked her head out from behind Aisha and asked softly.
"Now I think having an in-depth exchange with the France Study-Abroad Squad would be a pretty good choice too."
All three women laughed at once.
Lina laughed the wildest, Aisha's smile was full of meaning, and Matilda's was the most innocent, but her eyes had already betrayed her.
"Get in." Aisha opened the Mercedes-Benz's door. "I know a place."
Zhang Kuang was not someone who had never seen the world.
Although his 2027 self had only been a delivery driver, he had at least been a regular of Number 38 at Red Romance-he considered himself someone who had seen a few things.
But tonight, he discovered that his past so-called "experience" did not even count as beginner-level before truly top-tier players.
They lived on the top floor of a luxury apartment building in the Sixteenth Arrondissement-the entire floor. Their three suites were connected, with the walls between them opened up, covering more than four hundred square meters. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows stood the Eiffel Tower, its lights dazzling at night.
"Drinks." Lina pulled a bottle of vintage champagne from the liquor cabinet and opened it with practiced ease.
"Music." Matilda connected her phone to the Bluetooth speakers, and low electronic music slowly flowed through the room.
"Sit." Aisha patted the enormous white sofa and sank into it first.
The instant Zhang Kuang sat down, he felt as though he had entered some meticulously designed hunting ground-but he could not tell who was the hunter and who was the prey.
Or perhaps everyone was both.
After the first glass of champagne went down, the mood changed.
"Are you a virgin?" Lina asked bluntly.
Zhang Kuang nearly choked. "Of course not."
"Good." She leaned closer, her perfume wafting straight into his nose. "Because we don't feel like teaching a beginner tonight."