[Ding!]
[Masterful maneuver—turning a passive situation into an active one, skillfully borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha, and once again unlocking the heart of the Talisman Envoy!]
[Reward: 20 Spirit Stones]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! Your intimate relationship with the Joyous Sect’s Talisman Envoy has deepened, advancing to the third realm: "Close Friends and Neighbors"!]
[Reward: 50 Spirit Stones]
Lin Yu withdrew his hand, thoroughly satisfied.
Even while receiving a gift, he had turned the tables and given one in return.
Tsk tsk—who could argue with that logic?
Given the little painter’s personality,
she’d likely spend the next couple of days racking her brains over what to "repay" him with.
Ye Mengfu gently pressed her hand against her kangaroo pouch.
Her heartbeat gradually quickened.
She was certain—
this wasn’t nervousness or fear, but something far more complex and indescribable…
an emotion even she couldn’t untangle.
Just yesterday, she had instinctively resisted physical contact with Lin Yu.
Yet moments ago,
when his hand slipped into her pocket, she hadn’t felt the slightest aversion.
She’d simply… let him in.
A single card weighed no more than a gram or two.
But now,
her kangaroo pouch felt as if it held something six pounds heavy—a weight that pressed down on her.
Hadn’t she been the one giving a gift today, repaying the favor for the stickers?
So how had she ended up…
owing him an even greater debt?
"Wheel of Fortune, unbound, self-determined, free, romantic, serene, everlasting peace…"
Each word Lin Yu spoke melted like candy on the tip of her heart—
sweet and warm.
"Thank you… I’ll treasure it," Ye Mengfu murmured, her small hands clutching the sides of her pouch,
as if afraid the card might vanish.
Lin Yu rested a gentle hand on her back and chuckled.
"Ah, Xiao Fu, why thank me?
If anything, I should be thanking you—for giving me the most unique gift of my life."
"Let’s sit and chat, yeah? No need to keep standing like this."
Dazed and spellbound, the little painter had no will left to resist.
She obediently followed him to the edge of the bed.
What followed was, naturally, the delightful interlude of conversation and admiring her legs.
The little painter wasn’t like the little hacker.
With her, haste was ill-advised.
Pushing for intimacy or cracking lewd jokes at the wrong moment would only shatter the delicate rapport they’d just built.
High-level players succeeded in one universal way:
[Doing only what fits the moment.]
Low-level players failed for countless reasons:
[Texting like a hurricane, bombarding with "bird-watching pics" and demanding "show me yours";]
[Meeting in person yet moving like a glacier, still stuck on poetry and philosophy after forty-nine dates;]
[...]
With a socially anxious artist like her, silence was unnecessary.
Even a few idle words made him the more socially adept one.
While Mo Shangying was still fetching their meal, Lin Yu seized the moment for another major task:
System Mall Draws!
After completing Mo Shangying’s urgent mission,
he’d accumulated 600 sect contribution points.
Combined with the two free draws gifted by the system—
that meant five consecutive spins!
Such a thrilling endeavor demanded a calm and comfortable setting.
Entering the draw interface, Lin Yu swiftly operated.
Five needles appeared on the phantom roulette, spinning wildly.
Before long—
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You’ve obtained a treasure reward: Ghost Hand Talisman1!]
[Description: The ghost hand steals heaven’s secrets without form; it mimics techniques and seizes the profound. Use another’s skills to prove your supremacy.]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You’ve obtained a physical reward: Mortal Lacquerware!]
[Description: A mundane object from the mortal world, faintly echoing the splendor of a bygone dynasty.]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You’ve obtained an internal cultivation technique: Dreamwalking Art!]
[Description: Roaming the void in deepest dreams, crossing star-bridges to knock on heart’s doors. Pillow whispers steal worldly secrets, yet upon waking, no one lies beside.]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You’ve obtained a treasure reward: Nourishing Beauty Congee Recipe!]
[Description: Rosy cheeks defy frost’s touch; white hair reverses death’s grasp.]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! You’ve obtained a secret art reward: Drunken Flower’s Chant!]
[Description: Behind bed curtains in the inner chamber, strong drink reveals the dragon-tiger’s vigor.]
Lin Yu took a deep breath,
forcing himself to stay composed.
With the little painter beside him, getting too excited would seem unbecoming.
Five draws in one go—it brought back the thrill of cracking open card packs,
the eternal hope of pulling a golden legend in a single pack.
Scanning the system logs,
the rewards followed the same pattern as before…
human rewards, inhuman descriptions.
Well then.
Time to deduce their meanings one by one.
Starting with the fifth:
The bold, straightforward description made it clear what [Drunken Flower’s Chant] was.
"Drunken" meant inebriated.
"Flower" referred to the sect’s fairest blossoms.
"Chant" was… well, moaning.
In layman’s terms: The more I drink, the louder you sing.
What a technique! What a treasure!
Fourth one:
Skip. No need for overanalysis.
Second one:
[Mortal Lacquerware] was a physical reward.
Right now,
Lin Yu could sense it—
In his system, there was a carved lacquerware plate.
To put it in layman's terms: it was most likely an antique, and a genuine one at that.
As for its value,
Lin Yu wasn’t sure, and the system didn’t provide any details either.
No matter.
There was still a mysterious antique expert in the apartment!
He could ask her to take a look—perhaps she could give him a good price.
Truthfully,
the rewards worth pondering were only the first and third.
【Ghost Hand Talisman1!】
Just the "x1" indicated that this talisman was a one-time consumable.
Judging by its description,
it seemed to be a talisman for stealing or replicating the skills of a sect companion.
Given Lin Yu’s current intimacy level with his sect companions, he could only see the attributes and skills of two of his dao companions.
The Ghost Hand Talisman needed to test two things:
First, whether it could "seize heaven’s fortune" from sect companions whose attributes and skills were invisible to him.
Second, for dao companions with multiple skills, whether the replication was targeted or random.
Finally, there was the third reward.
【Internal Cultivation Technique: Dreamwalk Art!】
At first glance, the name and description made the Dreamwalk Art the most puzzling reward, requiring the most effort to decipher.
But when Lin Yu checked his status panel,
the biggest mystery became an open secret.
【Internal Cultivation Technique: Dreamwalk Art (Beginner)】
【Can designate one dream target per night】
【Friendly reminder: Dreamwalk Art is an Earth-rank internal cultivation technique of this sect. Its effects will improve with the host’s overall strength and sect status. At the beginner stage, the type of dream cannot be specified.】
A system that spoke plainly could indeed cut straight to the heart of the matter.
In other words, for now, he could randomly designate one of his female roommates
to dream about him tonight.
As for what kind of dream it would be—that was entirely up to fate.
Of course,
it might also be connected to whatever happened during the day.
After all,
thoughts by day become dreams by night.
With that in mind,
Lin Yu couldn’t help but glance at the little artist beside him…
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
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?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
