A Newcomer Joins the Group

Just then, someone in the chat group tagged everyone. Lin Yu opened it and began lurking.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: @Everyone, it shows that I can invite a newcomer again, so I'm going to send the invitation now!]

[Huang Rong: Oh, come on~ It's just an invitation. I was getting my beauty sleep, and you woke me up.]

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: Hmph! Is something this important less important than your sleep?]

[Yan Lingji: Another newcomer?]

[Huang Rong: Hmph! I don't care. I want to see who gets invited today.]

[Shi Hao: Big Sister Group Leader, hurry up and invite them! I can't wait!]

Little Dot, who was still chasing the little red bird, stopped and walked over to the foot of the Willow God's tree to wait.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: Everyone's here, right? Then I'll begin.]

[Ding~ Everyone, please congratulate Xiao Yan on joining the chat group.]

"Dou Qi turned into horses?" Seeing the name, Lin Yu guessed it had to be that world.

[Xiao Yan: Is this... my golden finger?]

As soon as Xiao Yan joined the group, he sent a message.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: Welcome to the group, Xiao Yan. Newcomer, show us a photo!]

[Lin Yu: Newcomer, show us a photo! +1]

[Huang Rong: You disturbed my beauty sleep. You'd better be handsome, or you're done for.]

Meanwhile, Xiao Yan had just finished a day of cultivation without making any progress when a mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his head.

He froze. Could "it" be behind the disappearance of my cultivation these past few years?

Xiao Yan instinctively linked the two strange occurrences together.

After all, in the novels from his previous life, didn't golden fingers have to absorb cultivation before they awakened?

Yao Lao, still inside the ring, saw Xiao Yan looking angry one moment, puzzled the next, and then overjoyed.

He couldn't help worrying that he'd absorbed too much over the past few years and sucked the boy silly.

[Xiao Yan: Holy shit, why is there a big swindler in this group?]

After calming down, Xiao Yan had glanced at the messages in the group and suddenly noticed the group leader's name.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: Who are you calling a big swindler? You'd better explain yourself, or I, the group leader, will make you eat more than you can stomach today!]

Seeing Xiao Yan call her a big swindler the moment he joined, Su Xiaoxiao couldn't contain her anger. She even put off uploading the "Dou Qi turned into horses" she had been about to share.

[Xiao Yan: Didn't this group leader say she was some big shot and go on about how powerful she was? Then she said she could predict your futures and asked you for all kinds of benefits, right?]

Xiao Yan sneered inwardly. Heh, watch me expose your tricks, you big fraud.

[Huang Rong: No. The group leader uploaded our movies straight away. She did take a few benefits, but it was an equivalent exchange. She's not as bad as you say, is she?]

[Shi Hao: Yeah, yeah! You must have the wrong person. Big Sister Group Leader couldn't possibly be that bad.]

Almost everyone came forward to put in a fair word for the group leader.

After reading their messages, Xiao Yan scratched his head and wondered if he had guessed wrong.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: I made it clear to them from the start that their worlds were movies and novels in mine. I didn't swindle anyone.]

Su Xiaoxiao was furious. Why would she have nothing better to do than rack her brains creating a persona that could fall apart so easily?

[Xiao Yan: Sorry, great group leader. I misunderstood you. I thought you were the kind of big swindler I remembered.]

Xiao Yan also realized he had misunderstood her and hurried to explain and apologize.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: Hmph, I won't hold it against you this time. If you're this reckless again, I won't forgive you.]

As she spoke, Su Xiaoxiao also uploaded the script for Xiao Yan's world.

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: One more thing. If someone you recognize shows up in the future, keep your mouth shut and leave them to me. I'm counting on this little bit of income.]

After learning that the person invited this time was a transmigrator from Earth, Su Xiaoxiao also gave him a warning in advance, so her business wouldn't be snatched away next time.

[Xiao Yan: Got it.]

[Xiao Yan: So I'm a novel character too. Sigh, life really is full of unexpected twists.]

After receiving the group file Su Xiaoxiao had sent, Xiao Yan began questioning his life. He kept feeling that everything around him was unreal.

[Zhang Sanfeng: Young Friend Xiao, there's no need to take it so seriously. Reality and illusion, truth and falsehood-how can you tell them apart? It's enough to know that you're alive, and that the people you cherish are there beside you.]

Zhang Sanfeng spoke up to counsel him. After all, there really were people who took it so seriously that they killed themselves in search of a little proof of reality.

[Xiao Yan: Mm, I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Daoist Zhang.]

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: All right, let's go through the usual procedure. The chat group's functions...]

Su Xiaoxiao also began explaining the chat group's functions and earning points.

After Zhang Sanfeng's advice and Su Xiaoxiao's interruption, Xiao Yan came to terms with it too. He still had Xun'er and his father. They were people he cherished, living people of flesh and blood. Who dared say he was a paper character?

[Huang Rong: Tsk, the person invited this time seems to have a bit of a character problem. Running into a girl's room in the middle of the night?]

Huang Rong was already in a bad mood, and when she saw Xiao Yan sneak into a young girl's room late at night and even touch her, she immediately went on the attack.

[Xiao Yan: I... I was helping Little Sister Xun'er nourish her meridians.]

Seeing his embarrassing past exposed, Xiao Yan still tried to argue his way out of it.

[Huang Rong: Pah, scumbag.]

[Ning Caichen: A role model for our generation. Impressive.]

[Omniscient and Omnipotent: All right, all right, stop arguing. This is their family business. Little Sister Xun'er herself didn't object, yet here you are objecting.]

After Su Xiaoxiao stepped in to smooth things over, things finally settled down.

"But now it's time to solve my cultivation problem."

"You damned old man, are you coming out or not?" Xiao Yan shouted at the ring through gritted teeth.

Although he knew what their relationship would be like later on, he couldn't help being angry now. The old man had made him endure so many years of scorn for nothing.

"..." But after Xiao Yan spoke, it felt as though a crow had flown over his head. Why did it seem like he was putting on a one-man show?

"Stop pretending, you damned old man. I know you're in there. Still not coming out? If you don't, believe it or not, I'll throw you and the ring straight into the latrine." When Yao Chen failed to respond no matter how he called, Xiao Yan resorted to threats.

"Ahem, youngster, no need to be so hot-tempered."

Just as Xiao Yan was wondering whether he had yet to awaken, a transparent soul emerged from the ring.

"So you're the one who's been absorbing my Dou Qi for three years. Do you have any idea what I've been through? Hand over the Flame Mantra." Xiao Yan held out his hand, gesturing for Yao Lao to give it to him.

"And don't attack me. I'm not with the Hall of Souls. You've seen enough of me these past few years to know that." Afraid that mentioning the Flame Mantra would provoke Yao Lao, Xiao Yan hurried to explain.

"How do you know so much? Who are you, really?" Yao Lao's carefree expression froze in an instant. His face grew solemn as he circled Xiao Yan several times.

"I'm the Xiao Clan's Third Young Master. Would you believe me if I said I can see the future?" Now that Xiao Yan had a golden finger, he had completely let loose.

"Oh? Then tell me what happens in the future." Yao Chen didn't believe him at all, but he still intended to hear Xiao Yan out.

"In the future? On the night my engagement is broken off, I take you as my master. Then, under your guidance, I gradually rise to prominence. But you're captured by the Hall of Souls, and I have to endure countless hardships before I finally rescue you..."

Xiao Yan spoke half-jokingly about what would happen in the future.

"Emm." Yao Lao stroked his chin and looked at Xiao Yan, lost in thought.

Hmm, his soul fluctuations are normal, his head isn't feverish, and there's nothing unusual about his body. Preliminary diagnosis complete: he's probably mentally ill.

In the end, Yao Lao reached this conclusion in his heart.

"Hey, what's with that look, like you're taking pity on an idiot? I told you, every word I said is true." Xiao Yan looked at Yao Lao, unhappy.