Chương 7: A Fatty, Every Xianxia Main Character’s Best Friend.

While I am busy entertaining myself, Ren Wangzhen asked Ren Qingquan.

"Sigh, your father don't seems to trust your old grandpa. So, Qingquan, how do you think I should handle this matter?" I could feel Ren Qingquan's nervousness as his mind raced. The speed of the collision between thoughts is so fast that I could barely overhear them through the connection from [Anchor]. I think I can hear some keywords like "protagonist," "villain," and "don't wanna mess with Ren Xuan" among them. Should I say Ren Qingquan being the first creature anchored to me might be fate?

His thought process is exactly the same as mine! While I felt Ren Xuan sounded like a protagonist, is just a mere coincidence. Ren Qingquan took it to heart and devised a way to avoid getting involved in whatever mess usually followed a protagonist. With his plan ready, Ren Qingquan checked in his memory on how the original Ren Qingquan usually responded and followed suit. With a faint smile, he said.

"Grandpa, I think it is better to let the past go. Instead, we need to throw an olive branch at him secretly. After all, he is a talented member of Ren's family. Of course, we still need to make some public show of targeting him slightly. Otherwise, other people might think we are a pushover." I could see that both Ren Shiluo and Ren Wangzhen wore a surprised expression on their face. Ren Shiluo's laughter soon reverberated throughout the courtyard.

"Hahahaha! As expected of my son, this small setback wouldn't affect you much. You have greatly matured instead!" Well, if only Ren Shiluo knew his son had stressed himself to death over this 'small setback'. Feeling a bit awkward, Ren Qingquan could only smile when listening to Ren Shiluo's praise. (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠) Ren Wangzhen smiled toward Ren Qingquan.

"Good, good, good. You actually thought of a pretty good plan. This plan will also allow us to pull some more people to our side by showing our generosity and love for talent."

"Then, I'll use Qingquan's plan and try to show our generosity by inviting Ren Xuan to our faction." Ren Wangzhen said while boiling another pot of tea. While Ren Wangzhen boils his tea, Ren Shiluo continued to nag Ren Qingquan for a few minutes before allowing him to leave the courtyard. The moment Ren Qingquan left the courtyard, I saw Xiao Cai suddenly appear.

"Young master, let me lead you to your room." Ren Qingquan shook his head.

"I am injured and couldn't train. Right now, I feel a bit bored and wished to walk around the family residence."

"Then, please allow me to accompany you." Xiao Cai said while following behind Ren Qingquan. Ren Qingquan simply nodded. While Ren Qingquan randomly travelled around the Ren family's residence. I activated Ren Qingquan's [Scan] and began collecting data regarding the surrounding area. With the help of [Calculate], I forcefully remembered the information about Ren family's residence and some of its residents. With the extra calculation power, I began analyzing the people around Ren Qingquan. First is Xiao Cai.

By comparing her energy with Ren Qingquan's grandfather, Ren Wangzhen. I am sure Xiao Cai's strength is at the Martial Saint level at the very least. Which is two big realms above the current Ren Qingquan. There is simply no way a normal maid would have such strength. But if I include Ren Qingquan's father in the calculation, everything is perfectly normal. From original Ren Qingquan's memory, I know that Ren Shiluo doted on Ren Qingquan.

The original Ren Qingquan hasn't turned into a useless arrogant young master under that insane level of doting is a miracle in itself. Although it seems he turned into a crybaby instead. So, with the fact that Ren Shiluo is actually a hidden Martial Emperor level expert. Secretly giving Ren Qingquan a super high-level maid is perfectly normal. I guess I don't need to worry that Xiao Cai will suddenly kill Ren Qingquan. Which will cause me to lose contact with the physical world.

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While I am spending time analyzing Ren Qingquan's relationship based on the information from the original Ren Qingquan's memories and the information I just got. A whole day has already passed by. Although injured, Ren Qingquan remains a Martial Master. So, after spending most of the day, he succeeded in helping me [Scan] most of the Ren family residence. What a pity though, with Xiao Cai always watching, he didn't manage to kill any animal to devour their soul and collect data regarding points.

Nevertheless, I still sent him the map I've promised as a reward for scanning the Ren family's residence. [Congratulations on completing Newbie mission 1! You've been rewarded with a System Map function.] [Host may open the map by thinking of 'System Map' or through the personal panel.] Ren Qingquan read the notification and said to Xiao Cai, "I am returning to my courtyard." Xiao Cai nodded and led Ren Qingquan to his courtyard.

After Ren Qingquan entered his courtyard and saw Xiao Cai leave, he immediately opened his personal panel while still standing in the gate leading to his courtyard. [Name: Ren Qingquan Point: 0 Realm: First Stage Martial Master Martial arts method: Flame Tempering Method. Martial arts technique: Iron Palm (Beginner). System function: Devour, Scan, Calculate, Map.] Then he opened the System map, which is the 3D map I'd just learned to make when he'd fallen unconscious before.

Seeing the illusory 3D map of the Ren family, Ren Qingquan played with it by zooming in and out before focusing on the one showing his room.

'Hmm? What is this white dot here?' I heard his doubt and sent a screen toward him. [Ding! The white dot is the host's current location.] Ren Qingquan was surprised by the screen that suddenly appeared in front of him. But seeing it's just my reply to his question, he relaxed while pointing at a blue dot in the 3d map.' Then, what about the blue dot and yellow dot here?' [The blue dots mark creatures other than the host. The bigger the dot, the stronger the target is. The yellow dots are dead things that contain some energy.] Ren Qingquan nodded at my explanation and planned his next move.

'Tomorrow, I'll begin looking for creature to kill and complete the system's second mission.' After preparing that simple plan, Ren Qingquan seems to be satisfied with his own genius idea and sleeps without a care in the world. While he slept, I focused on the [Scan] attached to his father and grandfather. But because of the short range of the [Scan] attached to them, I didn't hear any important information. At most, I could hear Ren Shiluo gossiping about some useless thing to people I don't know.

What should I do with information like the first wife of the Yu family actually never soaked her feet, or the gossip that the second elder of the Liang family's child has finally given birth to a son. The worst is that I accidentally heard that the child actually looks nothing like the father. Instead, he looks more similar to the madam's guard. (¬_¬) Wait a moment. Actually, I think the last information might be useful. But I don't even know who the second elder of the Liang family is.

After listening to more useless information, I turned my attention to Ren Wangzhen's [Scan] and found that he had already fallen asleep. With nothing to do, I simply listened to the gossip Ren Shiluo shared for half an hour till the sky outside was completely dark and the people Ren Shiluo spoke to left his courtyard. Then, I saw Ren Shiluo begin doing some paperwork. But because the information I got from Ren Shiluo's [Scan] is kinda blurry, I couldn't see what he is working on.

Compared to Ren Qingquan's [Scan], which feels like seeing things in ultra-HD resolution. The [Scan] attached to Ren Shiluo and Ren Wangzhen feels even lower than seeing something in 144p. Soon, Ren Shiluo also fell asleep, and I truly ran out of things to do. To be honest, I envy those people. Since I got stuck in this dark space, I think I've lost the ability to sleep. Even so, I don't think I feel tired at all. The only difficult thing is fighting boredom while being stuck in a space devoid of anything.

So I tried to waste time by watching how the points in the dark space I was in moved. Until finally, morning arrived in the world. While Ren Qingquan is still sleeping, a loud explosion-like noise comes from the gate of his courtyard. Accompanying the loud voice are the sounds of something heavy falling to the ground, followed by a boy's shout.

"Young Master Ren, I've come to pay you a visit!" Ren Qingquan who was still deep asleep, was jolted awake upon hearing the loud noises. He sat on his bed while scratching his head before looking toward the door with half-opened eyes. After yawning a few times, Ren Qingquan exited his room and saw a fat boy sitting in a corner of his courtyard. The boy looks around fifteen years old with a fat body that seems to weigh a hundred kilograms.

I could feel Ren Qingquan's confusion as he dug deep into the original Ren Qingquan's memory to find the fatty's identity. After thirty seconds of standing in a daze while digging his memory, Ren Qingquan finally remembered it and smiled at the fatty while walking toward him.

"Fatty Zhang, how come you visit me so early in the morning?" After Ren Qingquan went to dig his memory, I've also looked at the information regarding that fatty from the original Ren Qingquan's memory. That fatty is the original Ren Qingquan's best friend and also a core member of the Zhang family. An established family in the Azure Empire that has resided in the capital city for a long time and mainly dabbles in medicinal trades.

In terms of overall power and influence, the Zhang family is roughly equal to the Ren family, which controlled an entire city and its surrounding area. As for that fatty, he is called Zhang Jixiang. He is basically the manager of the Zhang family's medicine store in Burning Sky City. The original Ren Qingquan knew him because Ren Shiluo and Fatty's father are close buddies who've often explored the world and had survived several life-and-death situations together.

That makes Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang extremely close. While I recalled the information about Fatty Zhang, Ren Qingquan had arrived at the stone table in a corner of his courtyard and sat in front of Fatty. Ren Qingquan first apologized to the fatty.

"Fatty Zhang, I am sorry for being unable to pour some tea for you. I've just woken up and haven't prepared my tea set." Fatty Zhang waved his hand and said in a loud voice.

"There is no need at all. I've heard Young Master Ren has been injured and is currently in a slump. So, I come this morning to ask you to drink at my tavern!" I am utterly speechless at Fatty's suggestion. Which sane person would bring an injured person to drink booze in the morning?