Enter, Destined One

"Very good! I knew you had it in you, a woman is a woman after all, and the instinct to continue the bloodline is stronger than reason or morals, I'll check back on you guys regularly, make sure to multiply as much as possible… And don't worry about anything, one generation of it is absolutely fine-"

Edrick applauded the performance, which had turned out even better than he had expected, it was pretty much like training dogs, but with people, everyone loved dogs, even Anoteros liked these creatures, even when they tried to maul him to death for doing reprehensible things to their owners and he had to break their necks.

"Lord Anoteros! What the-? I mean, My Lord, a young man of the description you mentioned just arrived in town!" a man whose appearance was somewhat familiar bursted into the scene, doing his best to not look at the performance.

"Ah, you're one of Fanqia's brothers? Where is he?" fixing his attire and dusting both shoulders, Edrick stood up and walked up to the messenger.

"Aherm… He- He entered right through the small tunnel next to our house actually and lingered around as if waiting for something for a while… He is just like you described! Brown hair, fierce crimson eyes, and when I asked him, he said his name was Xiao…" exclaimed the young man, feeling instantly in danger as Edrick approached him, he remembered what had happened to his brother for merely speaking up last time.

'Surely I didn't offend him by barging in like that?' since everyone knew that he and his family were currently doing a job for the lord, people had pointed out to him that Anoteros was currently inside this house as he rushed through the filthy streets.

He swallowed his saliva, he knew who these two people were and what they were currently doing… Was rather unsightly, the lord was having some fun with them.

The man looked around, his gaze falling on Linmin, the servant had been the one to mercilessly murder his brother last time, so he was also wary of him.

Edrick raised one hand, and slapped it down on the courier's shoulder.

"Very good work" and then he just walked past him, to the outside, his servant carrying a chair of good craftsmanship, Fanqia just humming a happy tune.

Bending the knee, he took the risk and asked a question :

"Lord Anoteros, what of my female relatives?" sweating like never before, the lord had a knack for somehow making himself look threatening in all circumstances, the way he just suddenly stopped upon hearing the question, just stopping, not looking back or anything else.

"Oh… Yes, I did say I was going to release them, didn't I?"

"Well, it's a pity really, but there is no one left to be released" shrugging like he had just announced something inconsequential, the town lord just went on, his two wives passing by without a single care for anyone, be it the the family they had just tormented, or the messenger who was momentarily struck by shock.

"I- Fanqia! Why didn't you protect them?" asking a question incredulously, there wasn't even anger or sorrow in his voice, just sheer, unbridled incomprehension.

"Mmh? Sorry, it isn't my place to tell Lord Anoteros who he can or can't ravish, and besides, it's their own fault for being so damned feeble, these whores didn't even realise that they were lucky to be used even just once"

'The hell… What the hell happened to you, Fanqia?' he watched as the three most prominent figures in town disappeared after taking a turn.

Meanwhile, a young man of average height, his features rather basic save for the uncommon colour of his eyes, was just standing around, feeling rather dumbfounded.

'Am I not in the right place? But the tunnel is the exact same as described in the novel!' he thought to himself, being awfully certain that the few lines vaguely describing this passage were accurate to the sight he now beheld himself.

'System! Help me!'

No responses came, as per usual, the protagonist of the novel did not rely on the system at all to progress, as his was just like everyone else's.

'Lousy worldbuilding… With your hundreds of power systems!'

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Xiao sighed.

His adventures in another world were off to an awful start, having been transported into the world of the rather poorly written novel he had been reading as the protagonist, he had reveled in this position of power, after all, Xiao was absolutely an overpowered protagonist, every minute bad thing that happened to him was then followed by immense good fortune and near instantaneous pay-back to whoever had offended him.

Because, as everyone knew, getting picked on once was a humiliation that could only be washed away by spilling the blood of an entire family tree.

Reading it had given him a few headaches, but living it? It sounded incredible, the story was also a harem story after all! Power and women, what else was needed?

'Seriously, where is she? I hope the timeline isn't different from the story… It was exactly the same thing until now' and he was rather eager to get his cherry popped with the illogically plump peasant girl that actually had a rare support-type cultivation physique.

Fanqia was supposed to be the first girl to get into the protagonist's harem, she was also the least interesting one, but when you were the one experiencing everything, this sort of thing instantly increased in value.

'If memory serves well… She is supposed to show up right as Xiao is entering the town… Thinking that he is some sort of rich vagrant due to his more refined clothes, she offers to give him a tour in exchange of a single coin… Then one of her sisters goes missing and Xiao helps in freeing her from the town lord…'

Honestly, that mini arc was rather boring and he skimmed through a big part of it, this was all just an excuse for the readers to not question too much why Fanqia would fall in love with the protagonist and follow him after that, the truth was certainly that the writer wanted to introduce smut early to catch some attention.

'Shameless behaviour'

"That's a nice sword you got there"

"Why, thank you- Oh" Xiao turned around to see the deep-toned gentleman addressing him, but only saw a wall, he had to crank his neck up to actually face that person.

'What the hell? This isn't a character in the novel!'

"Hello?" he took a step back from the man who could probably suplex a bear, his attention quickly diverted as he noticed two, drop-dead gorgeous women accompanying him, clearly there was nothing to fear, he was in the presence of a man with good tastes.

Though-

'That purplish-red eye colour… Velvet?' that instantly rung a bell as he distinctly remembered wondering if the author was stupid for thinking that velvet was an actual colour, well, as it turns out, velvet as in fact the name of a colour and it was supposed to be the atypical trait of Fanqia's eyes, but then, why was that most voluptuous, refined lady there also in possession of such an eye colour?

'And who is that flat-chested cutie?'

"Hello, my dear people mentioned the arrival of a peculiar stranger in town…"

"...I am the lord of this town, Edrick Lucien Anoteros, judging by your garbs and blade of refined craftsmanship, you must be heading to the Myriad-Arm Sect…"