"Explain what happened today."
After Niu Shouren left, the smile faded from Wang Jianqiang's face as he stared expressionlessly at Chen Jiaojiao.
Chen Jiaojiao's delicate face paled, and she quickly defended herself, "Uncle, I didn’t ask Shouren to come. He insisted on following me."
Wang Jianqiang remained silent, his cold gaze fixed on her.
Chen Jiaojiao forced a bitter smile and continued, "In the past, the resources you provided were always generous, but the last two times, you only gave one Spirit Gathering Pill each—a drastic reduction."
"Shouren assumed it was because he hadn’t visited you in a long time, which might have displeased you. That’s why he insisted on coming today."
"I couldn’t stop him, nor could I explain properly, so I had no choice but to bring him along."
Wang Jianqiang’s expression softened slightly. "Really?"
"Absolutely true," Chen Jiaojiao nodded repeatedly.
Initially, Wang Jianqiang had suspected that Chen Jiaojiao brought Niu Shouren to pressure him, trying to extort more resources.
If that had been the case, he would have severed ties with her immediately, even at the cost of making enemies, refusing to give her another scrap of aid.
But after hearing her explanation, his demeanor relaxed completely.
"So that’s how it was."
Guilt flickered in his eyes as he placed a hand on Chen Jiaojiao’s shoulder.
"Jiaojiao, Uncle misjudged you..."
"Just now, you looked a little pale. Are you feeling unwell?"
"Come, let Uncle give you a thorough check-up."
……
Over the next month, Wang Jianqiang didn’t leave his residence, dedicating himself entirely to pill refining.
Ever since awakening his system, he had never failed in crafting pills.
A 100% success rate was nothing short of inhuman.
By the end of the month, all the medicinal herbs he had purchased were exhausted, yielding fifty flawless Body Nourishment Pills and fifty flawless Verdant Spirit Pills.
He had also accumulated a substantial amount of cultivation points.
During this time, Niu Shouren and Chen Jiaojiao visited a few more times.
After exchanging pleasantries, Niu Shouren would leave Chen Jiaojiao behind to "supervise" while he smugly departed.
Niu Shouren believed he had Wang Jianqiang under his thumb, gloating inwardly.
Little did he know—
The most formidable hunters often disguise themselves as prey.
Wang Jianqiang merely watched his performance with detached amusement, as if observing a clown.
To him now, Spirit Gathering Pills were mere pocket change.
Cultivation was inherently a monotonous endeavor.
Prolonged cultivation only made it more tedious, so he saw these interactions as a brief diversion between sessions.
Spending a little extra was no big deal.
……
Inside the dimly lit room, Wang Jianqiang stared at the 100 cultivation points displayed on his status panel. Without hesitation, he allocated all of them to the "Yanling Art."
Advancing the technique’s mastery would improve his pill absorption rate, making it the most efficient way to boost his cultivation at present.
His goal was to elevate the Yanling Art directly to its peak—Great Perfection.
Ding.
"The Yanling Art has reached its current maximum level."
"Spend 500 cultivation points to optimize and upgrade. Proceed?"
The system’s voice echoed in his mind, startling him.
Even cultivation techniques could be upgraded?
Glancing back at the panel, he saw that the Yanling Art’s proficiency had shifted from "Adept" to "Great Perfection," followed by a new option: "Optimize & Upgrade."
With his abysmal innate talent and the Yanling Art being a common, low-tier technique, his cultivation speed was painfully slow.
If he could enhance the technique’s grade, his progress would undoubtedly accelerate.
The thought sent a surge of excitement through him.
But when he noticed his remaining balance—a mere 5 cultivation points—his enthusiasm cooled instantly.
Reaching Great Perfection had cost him 95 points, leaving only 5 behind.
He was still 495 points short of upgrading the Yanling Art.
That wasn’t a small amount. Even if he refined pills nonstop, it would take nearly four months to save up!
Wang Jianqiang shook his head, deciding to table the idea for now.
He retrieved a flawless Verdant Spirit Pill and swallowed it.
With the Yanling Art at Great Perfection, his pill absorption efficiency had skyrocketed from 30% to 70%.
His cultivation speed more than doubled.
In just two days, after refining ten flawless Verdant Spirit Pills in succession, his cultivation broke through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining.
Just as he prepared to continue his cultivation and push straight to the sixth layer—
Chen Jiaojiao’s voice called from outside.
Wang Jianqiang decided to take a break.
Half an hour later, Chen Jiaojiao left contentedly, clutching a Spirit Gathering Pill.
After resting briefly, Wang Jianqiang resumed his closed-door cultivation.
Ten days later, a tremor ran through his seated figure as his cultivation advanced once more.
Breaking through from the fifth to the sixth layer of Qi Refining had consumed thirty-seven flawless Verdant Spirit Pills.
He set aside the remaining three, not planning to refine them himself.
Upon reaching the sixth layer, the effectiveness of Verdant Spirit Pills plummeted.
To break through again using them would require refining at least two to three hundred pills—a process that would take over two months even if he worked nonstop.
For ordinary cultivators, such speed would be astonishing.
But he was a cheater.
This pace was beneath him.
With a pulse of spiritual energy, he cleansed the impurities from his body and strode toward the External Affairs Hall.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
