17 - To Tell... or Not to Tell

*yaaawn*

Finally rousing from his slumber, the first thing Fang Lin saw was the system notification he had missed last night. (Wha!!? Requirement? What's that about? Speaking of which, I wonder if now is a good time to bring the 'system' matters up to them. I'm not too worried about the reaction from Yang Xin but more from Ziyun. More so when she found out the truth about their 'engagement'....sigh)

Taking his eyes off the system messages, what entered his sight were the girls, still in their birthday suit, huddled in a circle and whispering to each other about something. Um..? What the heck are they doing? As much as I enjoy the view... can you girls at least put on some clothes first before having a private meeting? Also... don't you know that at our levels, this level of 'whispering' is pretty much the same as talking normally?

Still not noticing that Fang Lin was awake, the girls continued their 'secret' talk with each other. Not wanting to eavesdrop, Fang Lin chose to interrupt them.

---cough---

"Morning girls 😊" spoke Fang Lin which startled the girls before turning towards him with a little glare, Ziyun especially. Uhm...? 😕 What's with that look? Did he do something wrong? Was he moving too much in his sleep and interrupted their rest or something?

Upon seeing Fang Lin's 'innocent' face, the girls gained tick marks on their forehead before sighing as if giving up. "We definitely need some more helpers... otherwise..." said Yang Xin suddenly which gained the approved nods from both Ning'er and Ziyun. (Huh? What's this about helpers?) thought a now very confused Fang Lin.

"Anyways... let's clean ourselves up and bid our farewells to the Heavenly Marks Family. There are things we must do after all and the less delays the better." finally said Fang Lin after not getting any clues about what girls meant by needing 'helpers'.

In order to not have too much delays, they decided to all just take the bath together. Ziyun had a surprisingly tough time walking straight though and kept glaring at Fang Lin intermittently. Realizing the reason why, Fang Lin could only let out a wry chuckle as it was indeed his fault for going a bit overboard considering it was her first time. Ning'er and Yang Xin however have stronger body constitution and were a bit better off than Ziyun.

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"Oh, morning, brother Nie Li." greeted Fang Lin with a refreshing smile which completely irritated Nie Li and the rest of his clan members in the dining hall reserved for entertaining guests. They all had bloodshot eyes and bags under them for some reason. Un? Did they not have a good rest or something? This immediately mystified Fang Lin. One person getting no sleep... nothing strange, but the whole clan? How odd...

Looking at Fang Lin's confused and 'innocent' face, Nie Li couldn't help but had his mouth twitch as a tick mark appeared on his forehead. "Haha... good morning to you too brother. Don't worry about our sloven appearances. It seems that 'someone' had a lot of fun last night and the noise kept us awake. Nothing to worry about..."

Nearly choking on his own spit from the reply, Fang Lin finally realized that he forgot to put up a silencing magic, or inscription during his... exercise last night. When the girls heard Nie Li's remarks, their faces turned bright red and nearly died of shame from the stares everyone were giving them. This in turn, embarrassed them even more as they turned towards Fang Lin with even more resentment than earlier.

(S-shit...! I really messed up this time! But can you blame me though? My girls are just too hot that I couldn't think straight!) thought Fang Lin as he cried both tears of regret and satisfactions at the same time in his heart. On the outside however, his brow didn't even wrinkled in the slightest from that offhand jabbing from Nie Li. Even if he didn't point out any names, anyone here could think with their toes and figure out who Nie Li was talking about.

"Cough, really? I didn't hear anything. Whoever they are, you should definitely give them a good scolding as making too much noise at night isn't a good thing." finally said Fang Lin with a righteous looking face clearly trying to sell the image that he wasn't the one at fault. (Pfft...! T-this... this guy is way too shameless! Look, even his women are averting their eyes and pretending not to know him now!) thought everyone in the surrounding.

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After sitting through the most awkward breakfast ever, Fang Lin and the girls finally bade farewell to Nie Li and the Heavenly Marks Family. Yang Xin had also promised a cooperation deal with the patriarch due to Nie Li's status as a master alchemist and friend which nearly dropped everyone's jaws to the floor when the bomb was dropped. This naturally elevated Nie Li and father's status and position within the family. That poor elder Nie Wei had no idea whom he was messing with...

After moving a good distance away, the teleportation circle was fired up and the group can now be seen in the City Lord's office once again. "Father in law, did the interrogation yield anything fruitful?" asked Fang Lin, curious of Shen Ming's fate. It was no doubt that it would be a miserable one though.

Taking a moment to look the girls surrounding Fang Lin, his daughter excluded, Ye Zong sighed in his heart. (This kid... when did he even have the time to gather these two. One was someone's fiance... ex-fiance now, and the other was the director of the alchemist associations at that. Wasn't he supposed to be the quiet kind of guy that doesn't interact with people easily? Is that the kind of men females go for nowadays?)

"Hm... we actually did get quite a few incriminating things from him. Sadly, we still can't publicly make a move against them as the Sacred Family could just claim it as the action of a rogue element..." said Ye Zong with a bit of frustration in his voice. "We still need at least one more incriminating lead which would be the decisive factor to when we can strike at them openly."

Hearing what the City Lord said, Fang Lin had a deep frown on his face. (Damn, to think that getting an elder of Sacred Family wasn't actually enough still... If catching Shen Ming still wasn't enough, then what will? Maybe catching Shen Hong himself making a move, or maybe a spy of theirs? But we already routed most of those filth out of the picture. OH speaking of making a move, didn't his adopted son, Ye Han try to poison the City Lord? Where is that prick currently at anyways?)

According to the backstory of his Identity Token, Ye Han who was supposed to be groomed into the next City Lord was pushed aside because of Fang Lin. To make matters worse, the person he took a liking to, Ye Ziyun, was also betrothed to Fang Lin as well. Taking away both his position and woman, made Ye Han resented Fang Lin more than anyone in the whole of Glory City and just about everyone and their cats know of this. And some years ago, Ye Han had disappeared completely and no one knew where he went to this day.

That reminds him, didn't that prick also tried to poison Ye Zong? Well then, what to do about that? As Ye Zong is not part of his 'summons', he can't actually use any equipment or item bought through it. Sure, he could also try to cure it with his alchemy knowledge obtained from Nie Li however... there might be accidents such as not being there when it happened... or the poison end up being much stronger than original and the like... tch.

After a bit of thinking, Fang Lin decided on buying an equipment for himself that can be used to deal with all kinds of poison instead no matter how powerful it is. This way, he can get some extra protection against another form of attacks and he could also help the girls as well when the situation arises. For such an item, one perfectly fits the bill for his desired specs, the 'Sky Poison Pearl'.

[S-rank: Sky Poison Pearl - 650,000]

Looking at that enormous points requirement, Fang Lin couldn't help but had his mouth twitched. Sigh... couldn't be help, it is after all, a very heaven defying item that can deal with any and all kinds of poison. Even one such as the 'Absolute God Slaying Poison' that was used on Jasmine after all. While Fang Lin was contemplating on the best ways of getting more EP, Yang Xin was talking with Ye Zong about further cooperation deals and promised to give full supports when he wants to deal with the Sacred Family.

Wait a sec... Yang Xin, maybe... "Xin'er, I have a request. It should be very simple to do with your status." suddenly uttered out Fang Lin. Ye Zong who heard the very intimate way of addressing Yang Xin, nearly choked on the tea he was sipping, which made Ziyun panic a little and went to rub his back in worry. (--cough---cough-- !!Wha... what the hell? Xin'er? I was kind of suspicious about it but... to think that I was right...!)

Unperturbed by Ye Zong's reaction, Yang Xin answered simply "What is it? As long I can do it, I'll have it done as soon as possible." Hearing that reply was like music to his ears as Fang Lin grinned a bit. "Well nothing big. I just need gather a massive amount of weapons and armors in the shortest amount of time and without making too big a wave as it might send false alarms to the Sacred Family. As for money... well, I can take care of that and just release a few more elixir formulas."

"Weapons and armors? Sure, it's not something difficult at all. But why? And what about the grades?" asked Yang Xin in a curious tone. "Grades don't matter as much but higher grades are of course better. What's important is the quantity. I'm going to need them at least in the thousands" replied Fang Lin in a nonchalant manner.

*PFFFT!*

Hearing the number, Ye Zong who was again sipping on his tea, sprayed everything out in front of him. Ziyun who was standing near almost got hit by tea mist produced by him. "Th-thousands!? W-why do you need that many? Are you trying to fund an army or something?! O_O" asked a gobsmacked Yang Xin. When she heard the request, she thought it would at most be a couple of handful, a dozen or so at most, but... thousands...! That's more than enough to arm a good portion of the whole of glory city!

Unconcerned by their wide eyed stares, Ning'er excluded as she had an idea of why he wanted that many, Yes, it's fine if you can't get the high ranks but try to get them if you can. The most important however is still the numbers. As for why I need them... hm its for a little 'forging' project (by forging of course I mean through the system... not technically lying)" answered Fang Lin simply.

(What the hell could you possibly be planning to 'forge' with that many weapons and armors!?) thought Ye Zong in a minor agitation. He really should stop putting things in his mouth when this kid starts talking... one of these days, he might choke himself to death due to shock or something.

As for Yang Xin... she only sighed a bit and accepted it. If she were to spend more time with Fang Lin later on, might as well start getting used to the crazy things he does sooner than later.

"Ah, before I forget, Father in Law, I wanted to get your permission to take these girls into the Heavenly Boarder for a little training. I could get it from Elder Sheng as well but since we're already here..." asked Fang Lin to which Ye Zong easily accepted. With Fang Lin's current strength... along with that lass from the Xiao family and more importantly... that.... cat.... his little girl should be pretty safe.

After concluding their talks with the City Lord, the groups right away started walking towards the entrants for the Heavenly Boarder. "Fang Lin~ I won't be able to go with you as I still have some duties with the associations. There is also that favor you asked me, I want to get to that quickly since you wanted them as soon as possible." suddenly said Yang Xin which brought the group to a pause.

Turning quiet for a bit, Fang Lin thought about his earlier decisions to tell them about the 'system'. Then, looking into the eyes of both Yang Xin and Ziyun, he finally made the decision. It's now or never... if either says no now, chances are their decision will be the same as later anyways. That's just how these girls are after all.

*Phew*

Taking a deep breath, Fang Lin opened his mouth "That's fine... but let's get into the Heavenly Boarder first. I... have something to tell you Yun'er and Xin'er."

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author note:

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You know... I really thought hard about who to summon next. At first, I was thinking about the Fate universe, Artoria (saber). But then I realized, even if she knew how to fight... she's still a knight type who only knew how to fight straight up and fairly. Then I thought about Scathach, Cu Chu Lain's teacher. But then I realized I know nothing about her and personality...

As for those guys that suggests fairytail characters... well I actually never really read/watched that show aside from some random clips on youtube. Also from what I gathered about them characters, too much friendship this and nakama that. It also seem like 'killing' isn't really their thing either.

As for the queen and yandere/psycho types like Esdeath and karasuba... ooh too intense of a personality in one person and would definitely clash a lot with the other girls. I'm not really sure how to handle the conflicts that will arise in the harem if I should add her into the mix.

Honestly, I'm stumped on who to summon next... Sigh, who knows. I'll think more on it later.