The fundamental reason why the impulse ultimately didn’t turn into action was: the great master suddenly switched on the living room’s satellite TV, which proceeded to broadcast one news report after another about missing persons and large-scale building collapses caused by mass brawls, terrifying Wei Jing so much that he immediately abandoned his original plan.
This world was too terrifying. He missed the place where he had lived for twenty-three years, what a warm and peaceful land it was!
“Wait a minute!” He looked up with tears in his eyes, trying to move the great master with sincerity. “I-I’m a beginner. I don’t know how to knit a sweater. Is it really a good idea to entrust such a glorious and great task to me?”
The great master seemed genuinely touched; his gaze became exceptionally tender. “It’s okay, darling. If you don’t know how, you can learn slowly. I believe in you.”
But I don’t believe in myself. Wei Jing was filled with melancholy and decided to find someone to share his suffering.
In this huge, solitary villa with no neighbors for miles, the only living beings he knew of, besides himself, the little dragon cub, Great Master Qin, and the old butler, was the wild boar spirit Xiao Bai.
This wild boar spirit, who had come looking for trouble and ended up being forcibly kept as a cook, was soon summoned before Wei Jing. His dark, pudgy face was full of vigilance as he looked at “Tu Shihua,” the great demon in his eyes, and asked cautiously, “What do you want?”
“Take this book and study it well.” Wei Jing said with a serious face, handing over a bag as well. “Starting today, you have six days. You must finish knitting a sweater by then, otherwise…”
Otherwise what? He didn’t say, leaving the other to imagine the endless possibilities.
The wild boar spirit stiffened and looked down at the book cover: Illustrated Guide to Knitting for Beginners?!
What the hell was this?
He then opened the bag to find a pair of silver knitting needles and a pile of dark green balls of yarn. Completely baffled, he looked at Wei Jing, flustered and stammering, “K-Knit a sweater? Me? F-For who?”
“For yourself.” Wei Jing looked at him calmly, thinking to himself, how nice, you’re knitting for yourself. Unlike him, who had to both complete the system’s task and deal with the great master’s whim. His life was just too miserable.
The wild boar spirit’s mouth twitched. “But I don’t wear sweaters.” What kind of nonsense was this? He was a dignified four-star strongman, why did he have to do such a sissy thing!
“That’s okay. Whether you wear it or not, you still have to knit it. Go for it.” Wei Jing’s heart was calm, with even a tiny hint of pleasure. Ah, he was finally no longer suffering alone. How wonderful.
Bullying someone who was bent on killing him truly came with no guilt whatsoever.
“Don’t just stand there. Get started quickly.”
Wei Jing urged. He would never admit that the real reason he had summoned the wild boar spirit was because he couldn’t understand the contents of those books himself.
The wild boar spirit’s dark face flushed red. “B-But, I don’t know how!”
“It’s okay. If you don’t know how, you can learn. Take it slow; you’ll get it eventually. I believe in you!” Wei Jing said unhurriedly, then suddenly realized how familiar those words sounded. After a moment’s thought, he exclaimed inwardly: Hey, wasn’t this exactly what the great master had said to comfort him earlier!
Sure enough, when the great master said that, he must have been secretly delighted!
How utterly devious!
On the large display screen, the burly, dark-faced young man with a miserable expression sat side by side with the slender, pretty young man. Their expressions were strikingly similar, frowning one moment, sighing the next, as they clumsily tried to thread the yarn onto the knitting needles…
“Tch.” The great master suddenly made a sound.
The old butler immediately asked, “Master, your orders?”
Sitting on the single-seater sofa with an unreadable expression, the great master was silent for a moment, then asked, “What’s the situation with the two pigs I brought back yesterday?”
“Currently, one is locked in the wild boar spirit’s bedroom, and the other is hiding in the kitchen.” The old butler keenly sensed that this wasn’t what the master had intended to say at all; he had deliberately changed the subject.
The pig hiding in the kitchen was clearly terrified of the little dragon cub’s “tyranny” and, after running all over, had temporarily found a hiding place.
“Mm.” The great master responded casually. “Later, tell the cook that I’m giving him six days to hatch a litter of piglets. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise?” The old butler was somewhat bewildered. Hatch a litter of pigs within six days? Was he hallucinating, or had the master lost his mind?
The great master smiled, looking utterly at ease. “Otherwise, I’ll chop off his trotters.”
The old butler lowered his eyes respectfully. “Understood, Master.” He had finally figured it out: the master was jealous.
In the living room, Wei Jing stared gloomily at the yarn in his hands, which seemed to be nothing but tangled knots and uneven stitches. Then he glanced beside him at the neat, perfectly formed bottom edge of the sweater the wild boar spirit was knitting. He couldn’t believe he was this inept.
He had actually lost to a pig!
What a humiliation.
“Xiao Bai, why are you learning so fast?” They both started from the same point. Was it really fair for you to secretly race ahead like this?
The wild boar spirit’s heart skipped a beat, thinking his little trick had been discovered. He stammered, “B-Because I’m a four-star strongman, u-unlike a weakling like you!”
Wei Jing stared at him resentfully. Did knitting a sweater have any connection whatsoever to being strong or weak?
Seeing that Wei Jing remained silent, the wild boar spirit assumed he had already seen through the truth. He lowered his head in frustration. “Y-You didn’t say earlier that I couldn’t use special abilities. How could I possibly learn how to do something this… womanly…”
Huh?
Huh!
Special abilities?
Wei Jing’s spirits instantly lifted. Feigning calm, he countered, “So you used special abilities to knit a sweater?”
The wild boar spirit instinctively thought Wei Jing was about to come up with some new scheme against him and quickly caved in. “…I was wrong.”
“Show me exactly what you did.” Wei Jing struggled to suppress his laughter, already sensing he had discovered a path to the light.
This was a world where magic and martial arts coexisted, how could he have forgotten? This was the absurd, unscientific world he himself had created!
Knitting a sweater? Hmph, he could break the mold too!
The wild boar spirit shot him a suspicious glance, but not finding anything unusual, obediently demonstrated.
Wei Jing watched intently. The boar extended his hands, and faint, nearly imperceptible white light shot from his fingertips, attaching to the knitting needles. Then…
The needles moved on their own, as if injected with thought and vitality, knitting by themselves! Following the patterns shown in the open book beside the boar, stitch by stitch, they mechanically repeated the process in perfect imitation.
Most importantly, they knitted quite fast. The wild boar spirit had merely put on a show from start to finish, his actual involvement minimal.
“…” The level of faking these days was terrifying.
“Th-That’s it.” After the demonstration, the wild boar spirit’s heart was pounding with anxiety.
Wei Jing felt a mix of envy, jealousy, and resentment, which ultimately condensed into a faint response: “I see. You can leave now. Just remember to finish knitting the sweater.”
He probably couldn’t replicate this “cheating” method.
The wild boar spirit had repeatedly emphasized that he was a four-star powerhouse. Wei Jing knew full well that the cultivation levels in this world were divided into nine ranks, from one-star to nine-star, in ascending order.
Great Master Qin, according to his own setting, was a nine-star powerhouse. But Tu Shihua… he didn’t even have a single star. A complete waste, a weakling, a dramatic mess.
Wei Jing looked sorrowfully at his own hands, pale, slender, and fair. They were so nice to look at, but what good was that when he couldn’t even knit a sweater!
He wanted to cry. How miserable.
Wait a minute!
He had written the character settings. He had invented the power rankings. Hell, he had constructed this entire world, word by word. So couldn’t he just rewrite his own fate?
A surge of excitement coursed through Wei Jing. He stared at his hands and shouted with all his might: “Grant me power, Master Wei!”
With a loud thud, the little dragon cub was so startled that it dropped its big milk bottle.
Almost simultaneously, Wei Jing joyfully discovered that a small, translucent white light had appeared in the palm of his hand.
In front of the surveillance screen, the great master suddenly stood up, staring at the screen in disbelief.