“[Qi Conversion]?” Naturally, Sisa was confused. After all, how would upgrading [Qi Conversion] help out in making the couple notice Arthur’s existence? From what she knew about the skill, it would only reduce the time it took for him to convert a point of qi into something else.

However, from how Arthur explained it to her, it seemed that he was certain that [Qi Conversion] would be key in completing the quest.

“Yes, [Qi Conversion],” Arthur replied. “As long as I upgrade the skill up to a certain level, the time it takes for me to convert qi into Inferior Spirit Slag would become negligible enough where I would be able to amass a pile of it within a short amount of time.”

“Well, yes, I know that,” Sisa said in response. “But how does that relate to making the people notice your existence? Wouldn’t it be better to just amass an incredibly large amount of Inferior Spirit Slag before dumping it in one go in front of them?”

“Funnily enough, that’s actually the last step of my plan,” Arthur said, chuckling. Soon, he gave off the feeling that he shook his head as he continued, “However, you’re missing one thing here, Sisa. I could totally do that, easily giving them the shock of a lifetime. But what about after that? There’s a high chance that they would just think they were dreaming and move on from it, forgetting that it ever happened.”

“You know how there’s a saying that goes ‘Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern’? Well, that’s what I’m aiming to do here.”

He then explained to Sisa, “By upgrading [Qi Conversion], I could reduce the amount of time it takes for me to amass a considerable amount of Inferior Spirit Slag. This is key to the plan. After all, once a long time passes after a certain occurrence, people are bound to forget it.”

“Hence the reason why I call my current plan Operation Three Days,” he added.

“Does the name mean anything?” Sisa could not help but ask.

“Other than the plan taking three days to bear fruit, not really,” Arthur replied with great confidence.

Ignoring Sisa’s loud sigh, he continued, “For this plan to work, I would need to increase Qi Capacity and upgrade [Qi Conversion] to as high of a level as possible. With that, the first day of the plan involves me amassing enough Qi Capacity to increase it by 10 points.”

“After that, once night arrives, I’ll exchange it, hopefully making the man wonder and think whether he had really taken Inferior Spirit Slag from the pile or not.”

“Then, I move onto the second day, amassing enough Inferior Spirit Slag to increase Qi Capacity by another 10 points. Just like before, I exchange it at night. This time, the man would wonder if there was someone filling up the pile.”

“After that comes the third and final day,” Arthur said, his tone now seemingly playful at this point. “The goal for that day is to amass enough Inferior Spirit Slag to obtain 10 System Points. Unlike before, where I would exchange it at night, I would instead exchange it at day, right in front of the man.”

“Then, I hastily upgrade [Qi Conversion] to as high as it could go before frantically converting all of the qi I have.”

With a laugh, he then concluded, “Before their interest over the phenomenon fully dies off, I drop a large pile of Inferior Spirit Slag in front of them, making them realize that I exist.”

“And that’s basically how Operation Three Days works,” he said before asking Sisa, “Don’t you think it has a high chance of succeeding?”

“I don’t know,” Sisa replied. “But it is indeed even better than just relying solely on [Spirit Aura].”

With Sisa more or less agreeing that the plan was good, Arthur went ahead and started his plan, converting 20 points of qi into 2 kilograms of Inferior Spirit Slag within 16 hours. By the time he was done, it was already deep into the night, prompting him to move onto the next step of the plan.

Ding!

Would you like to exchange 2 kilograms of Inferior Spirit Slag for 20 System Points?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Yes.”

Ding!

You have exchanged 2 kilograms of Inferior Spirit Slag for 20 System Points.

After that, he spent all of his points on upgrading Qi Capacity, increasing it from 20 to 30 points in an instant. Seeing that the cost to increase his capacity from 30 to 31 was now 3 System Points, Arthur continued to convert qi into Inferior Spirit Slag, knowing very well that time was of the essence for this part.

Fortunately, while he was in the midst of converting qi into Inferior Spirit Slag, the next day had arrived as the man was making his way to the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag to grab a bit more. Of course, Arthur had his [Spirit Sense] active, wanting to see the reaction of the man, and eventually, the couple.

“Well, that’s weird,” Jian could not help but say as he grabbed another kilogram from the pile. “I’m sure I grabbed a kilogram of Spirit Slag from the pile to prepare the field. But why does it seem like there’s now more of it? Am I hallucinating or something?”

As he pondered over it for a bit more, he made his way back to his field with another kilogram of Spirit Slag in tow. Seeing the seeds of doubt being planted in the man, Arthur knew that the plan was working. Perhaps even a bit too well.

Placing those thoughts aside, Arthur continued converting qi into Inferior Spirit Slag, taking over a day to amass enough Inferior Spirit Slag for exchange. Fortunately, with him starting to convert more qi once he had done the first step of the plan, the time at which he finished converting was also deep in the night, making him gleeful as he exchanged 3 kilograms of Inferior Spirit Slag for 30 System Points.

Allocating all of those points towards Qi Capacity, he now had 40 points of qi at his disposal. Though, following his plan, he knew that these 40 points would only come in handy at the very end. With that, he started to convert qi into Inferior Spirit Slag once more, stopping once he had amassed a kilogram of the stuff, or exactly 10 System Points.

Surprisingly, by the time he was done, the sun was already up as the couple made their way to the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag. From what he could hear through [Spirit Sense], it seemed that the man told his wife later into the day of the weird occurrence that happened at the pile. By the looks of it, the man wanted to confirm whether or not it was just his imagination.

“Look, Qin! The amount of Spirit Slag in the pile increased!” Jian could not help but say in shock as he looked at his wife. “Don’t you think there’s a bit more Spirit Slag available for us to use?”

“Hmm…” Qin went silent as she pondered over it, eventually replying, “Well, I’m not so sure, Jian. After all, you’re the only one between the two of us that’s constantly interacting with the Spirit Slag.”

‘I guess it’s about time for me to move onto the final phase,’ Arthur thought to himself as he commanded the system to exchange the Inferior Spirit Slag for System Points. Of course, just as the process of exchange was instant for Arthur, the appearance of one additional kilogram of Inferior Spirit Slag was also instant on the other side, making the couple look at the pile in silence as they saw a decent amount of the stuff being added to the pile.

“Did you see that, Qin?! Did you?!” Jian said with great shock on his face.

“Yeah… I did,” said Qin with a slow nod. After all, the scene they had witnessed just now was quite bizarre.

“Where do you think it’s coming from?” she asked soon after, to which Jian scratched his head in response. “I have no clue. Maybe it’s because we’re close to the pile?”

“Do you think someone’s listening to us? Someone way stronger than us?” Qin could not help but suggest.

“As far as I know, cultivators at the higher realms don’t have the ability to do this,” Jian said in response. “If anything, the only beings that can do this are gods.”

‘I guess they haven’t heard of formations, but it’s working in my favor,’ Arthur thought as he upgraded [Qi Conversion] as much as possible. Surprisingly, the skill went up to Level 10, reducing the conversion time to just 15 minutes. Seeing as to how the cost for the next level was 100 System Points, he decided to ignore it for now and wantonly convert all of his qi into Inferior Spirit Slag, amassing 4 kilograms of the stuff within 10 hours or so.

By this time, it was already late into the afternoon. After the couple had talked about the occurrence regarding the addition of a kilogram into the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag, they tried shouting, asking whether a god was listening to them or not? Though, with Arthur not responding to their shouts, they eventually gave up as they made the most of their day.

However, for some reason, the man, who Arthur now knew as Jian, made his way to the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag, deciding to ask one last time, “If there’s a god out there that’s listening to my pleas, please show proof that you are listening.”

“It’s showtime,” Arthur said with a chuckle as he exchanged the Inferior Spirit Slag for System Points, quickly adding 4 kilograms onto the pile that already weighed 20 kilograms at this point.

Seeing as to how the pile became bigger in response to his words, Jian instantly kneeled on the ground as he looked up at the sky with tears in his eyes before kowtowing, yelling out, “Thank you for your kindness…”

“God of Spirit Slag!”

Ding!

You have completed the quest [System Quest: The Makings of a True Spirit Vein].

“…”

“…”

“…what?”