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Chapter 60 The Only Way to Peace
The day after the Weixian Agency held its public speech, Chen Xuan received more than ten phone calls early in the morning.

They were all calls from places where he used to work.

Whether it's a fast food restaurant or a major IT company, they're all asking the same question: Do you have the willingness to go back to work?
"What's going on? Could government agencies possibly boost the employment rate?" He was completely baffled.

“It didn’t increase the employment rate; it significantly reduced the number of people willing to work.” Lin Qing sent him a video link. “Take a look at this.”

Chen Xuan opened the video and saw that the pedestrian square was full of tents. Where there was no place to set up tents, people simply sat on the ground and did nothing but chat and play cards. In addition, it was a beautiful autumn day with a clear sky, and the atmosphere of comfortable life was full of life.

The problem is, today is not the weekend.

Chen Xuan suddenly realized that this group of people were not heading to the zoo or any other park. Their purpose in gathering here was probably only one thing: "ability"!
He was both amused and exasperated. "Do they think abilities are like radiation? The closer to the point of invasion, the higher the chance of mutation?"

“Look at the city’s real-time map again. That area is completely paralyzed by traffic jams.” Lin Qing shrugged. “Maybe half of Jiangcheng’s residents have gone there to join the fun. If the botanical garden hadn’t been sealed off, they probably would have rushed into another world in droves.”

Chen Xuan couldn't help but sigh. The general public was so pragmatic. What was erosion? What were wanderers? What did they care? All I wanted was my superpowers, was that wrong?

More importantly, people aren't worried about scarcity, but rather about inequality. If someone gains skills just by sunbathing in the square, while others toil away at their jobs and get nothing, isn't that a huge loss? No wonder my previous employer called to inquire about my work situation; they were severely understaffed.

He did not anticipate this side effect after forcing the government to surface.

"Does this kind of situation not occur when the government offices in your area make their information public?" Chen Xuan asked Lin Qing curiously.

"How could that be? Robots and AI have replaced the vast majority of jobs, and prosthetics are easier to obtain than ordinary abilities. It's normal for most people to be idle, whether the authorities make it public or not."

Well, it seems we can only wait for this storm to pass, Chen Xuan thought. Once people have a correct understanding of the probability of their abilities being activated, social order will perhaps return to normal.

Of course, there is another possibility: that society will never be the same again.

For example, there are many discussions online that say the industrial age has ended and humanity is about to enter the age of capabilities, but he knows in his heart that the new era of the next ten years is more like a combination of the two.

"Mr. Chen? I've left your package here."

A deliveryman placed a square cardboard box on a small table at the shop entrance and then sped away. His electric tricycle was overflowing with packages.

"So some people are still focused on their work." Chen Xuan opened the package and found that it contained a dark blue fabric wallet.

When did I ever buy this? Nobody uses wallets these days.

He picked up the box and glanced back, discovering that the sender's address and recipient's address were exactly the same. He immediately realized that this thing had been sent by the Ability Shop.

Opening his wallet, Chen Xuan indeed saw a "pay slip" and five hundred-yuan bills.

工资条上面写着9月薪酬构成：LV3店长基础工资15000元+混乱绩效0元+伤残补助0元+其他补贴0元，总计15000元整。

He almost dropped his wallet on the ground!

Could the salary be any more stingy? A job with a monthly salary of 15,000 sounds pretty good, but he earns more than ten times that just by selling elixirs!

Besides, didn't I only have five hundred yuan in my wallet?

Chen Xuan took all the money out of the account and counted it again. There were indeed only five 100-yuan bills. What happened to the remaining 14500 yuan in wages? Was it all embezzled by the finance department?
However, when he opened his wallet again, he found five more bills inside.

Chen Xuan was slightly taken aback, and then belatedly took out his phone and found that he had indeed received a withdrawal text message in his inbox.

After fiddling with it for a while, he finally understood how to use the wallet. It could only withdraw, not deposit, and the maximum amount that could be used was his entire salary. If you were to say this thing was magical, it really was quite magical; a seemingly ordinary wallet actually had a world of its own, capable of holding far more banknotes than its own volume. But if you were to say what it was useful for, it wasn't very useful either. Its convenience and ease of use were far superior to electronic payments, at least Chen Xuan couldn't think of any use for it at the moment.

All I can say is that the store has a knack for pranking the store manager.

"Mr. Manager," Lin Qing's call interrupted Chen Xuan's inner grumbling, "your guest has arrived." He looked up at the stairwell and saw that the visitor was Liu Shuyue.

……

"Is Miss Lin still not fully recovered?" Liu Shuyue asked, sitting on the sofa as she watched Lin Qing pour tea. "You didn't swindle her out of a large sum of money under the guise of a transaction, and then make her work for you to pay off her debts, did you?"

"Don't say that! Am I such an unscrupulous shopkeeper?" Chen Xuan coughed twice. "Her situation is rather special. She can't go back to her original world and is currently homeless, so I let her stay at the shop temporarily and work as a shop assistant."

"……very nice."

"What?" The other person's voice was too soft, and he didn't hear it clearly at first.

“It’s alright. The situation in Yunzhou is worse than I expected. King Qi isn’t just making empty threats; he really intends to take action against the Liu family and the surrounding towns. I saw troops stationed outside Jiufeng City, and there were also rogue cultivators attacking the Liu family inside the city.” Liu Shuyue recounted what she had seen and heard in detail. “They were already restless before I arrived, and now that they know I’ve joined forces with the Liu family, King Qi is likely to intensify his actions.”

"Do you still think you have nothing to do with the Liu family?" Chen Xuan was more concerned about this than the commotion caused by Prince Qi.

She nodded slightly. "If I was a baby taken from the Liu family, then I must have seen other babies during my more than ten years of growing up in the Lotus Cloud Sect. But then again, I really hadn't thought about parents before. The sect doesn't teach these things either. I seem to have been sitting in the main hall cultivating my techniques since I can remember. What if I'm mistaken..."

"I can help you confirm that."

"How do we do this?"

"Just draw some blood," Chen Xuan said. "Your blood, Liu Zhiyuan's blood. If it's convenient, it would be best if you could also draw some of Liu Qing's blood."

"A blood test for kinship?" Liu Shuyue suddenly became uncertain. "Can this kind of folk practice really be accurate?"

"What 'blood test for kinship'? It's a DNA test!"

"Drip blood?" Liu Shuyue thought for a moment, "Okay, what you said should be reliable, I'll get your blood in a bit."

"Hey, no rush. I need to prepare a few syringes first; they'll be useless if the blood gets contaminated." Chen Xuan quickly stopped him. "Let's deal with the problems of the people of Yunzhou and the Liu family first. What are your plans?"

“I originally thought that King Qi would not really harm innocent people. His purpose in forcing me to go to Yunzhou was to gather a group of rogue cultivators to capture me. If it were just a game of cat and mouse, I could handle it on my own. But his current actions have undoubtedly disqualified him from being a ruler of a country... His danger is even greater than that of ordinary demons.”

After a moment of silence, Liu Shuyue slowly said, "In my eyes, he is someone who must be eliminated."

"Unfortunately, my abilities are limited, and I am unable to break into the royal city under the heavy protection of the Imperial Guards and cultivators, especially since I have to relearn many of my handy combat spells..." As she said this, she looked at Chen Xuan with a deep gaze.

Chen Xuan slightly averted his gaze, pretending nothing had happened. He knew the other party wouldn't go back on their word, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that this was laying the groundwork for a future transaction.

She continued, "Furthermore, the people of Jiufeng City are not like the famine refugees from Qingzhou, who are willing to abandon their homes and lands to migrate to the Wanshan Wilderness. People always have a sense of wishful thinking, because the executioner's blade has not yet truly fallen on them. Even if it does fall, they will still hope that King Qi will spare them after killing all the Liu family members."

"Therefore, after much thought, I have only one choice: to crush the enemy's threat head-on in Yunzhou!"

"No matter how many soldiers the enemy sends, no matter how many cultivators they gather, we will make them suffer a crushing defeat!"

"If I cannot defeat the power of the King of Qi here, then it is even less likely that I will win in the royal city."

The stories of Bolan Ancient and Modern Village also contain records of this.

However, most of those feats ended in failure, because winning against overwhelming odds or defeating a stronger opponent is never an easy task.

However, now that she has the unconditional support of Mala Village, the obedient Liu family, and a shop manager who can solve any thorny problem, this most difficult path doesn't seem so hard to walk anymore.

(End of this chapter)