After reading the system panel, Ren Qingchen frowned. To be precise, he frowned upon reading the word inside the bracket next to points talking about devouring souls.

Checking his surroundings, Ren Qingchen dashed toward a huge boulder. Sitting with crossed legs, I saw his mental power fluctuate weirdly. After closing his eyes for five minutes, he suddenly opened both of his eyes.

While still in a meditative position, Ren Qingchen muttered something while holding his chin. "Is this system a soul type weapon?"

He continued to close his eyes and soon, his mental power fluctuated once again. The way it fluctuates is different from the previous one. After another five minutes, his mental power fluctuation changed once again.

This continued until half an hour passed. In total, he fluctuates his mental power using six different ways. Opening his eyes once again, I saw him frown. "All of my soul detection methods are ineffective. It either means this system is not related to my soul or used an extremely powerful method to hide from my detections."

Eh? So he is busy detecting his soul this whole time? Does that mean mental power and soul have some relation to each other?

With the test done, he stared at the screen and asked. "System, what kind of existence are you?"

Waiting several minutes, he saw no answer and decided to look for the answer himself.

Checked the other two functions. First, he opened the map function. Once Ren Qingchen opened it, he could see a circle shaped light at another corner of his vision. Inside, a topographic map is shown with a dot at the center. Beside the dot at the center of that circle, there are also several small blue dots scattered around.

Probably curious about what the dots mean, he went toward the nearest place marked with a blue dot which is actually marking the items containing energy I detected from [Scan].

Once he arrived, I saw Ren Qingchen's face turn shocked. "A century year old Spring Vine!"

With a gentle movement, I saw him slowly pull a vine attached to a tree. After he was done, he placed them in his backpack.

Visiting another blue dot, he saw yet another century old plant. After picking them up, he muttered. "So, the blue dots mean precious plants?"

He visited the blue dots I marked on the map one by one. That is until he went near a certain blue dot. After being this close, I found out it is actually a beast. Changing the color of that dot into red, he immediately saw it.

Ren Qingchen quickly ran toward the place marked by the red dot. There, he saw an eagle perching atop a tree at the exact location that red dot pointed.

Changing his sight between the eagle and his map several times, he muttered. "So, the map can also detect nearby living creatures?"

Perhaps he stared at it too hard. But, my automated program actually detected his stare as an input and opened another screen.

[Name: Unknown

Realm: Qi Refining

Cultivation Method: ?

Magical Technique: ?

Note: An Eagle.]

After thinking for a moment, I saw him dashing toward that eagle. Unsheathing the sword at his waist, he spent a trace of his spirit qi and activated some kind of stealth technique. Sneaking toward that eagle, Rem Qingchen immediately slashed the eagle once it was within his range.

Without even the chance to chirp, that eagle immediately died. After it died, the automatic [Devour] program was activated and sent a notification to Ren Qingchen.

[Remnant soul detected. Do you wish to devour it?]

When asked that question, Ren Qingchen didn't immediately say yes and instead returned another question. "Whose soul is it?"

This time, I saw Ren Qingquan decided to answer as he typed while sitting at his bed.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

[This soul comes from the eagle you just killed.]

"So this system can indeed answer questions. Is it conscious or..." Near the end, his muttering turned incomprehensible. Soon, he gave an affirmative answer, "Yes, please devour the soul."

Hearing his muttering, I can only say, Holy shiet! I think I am getting too used to Run Qingquan's brain level. So, when Ren Qingchen is baiting an answer to test whether his system has consciousness or not it directly caught me by surprise. I actually forgot to stop Ren Qingquan from answering him.

I guess Ren Qingchen will do more and more tests like this in the future. Should I tell Ren Qingquan about this? With his limited intelligence I am afraid he might get duped by Ren Qingchen.

Well, maybe later. Currently my soul watching soul is tickling and I sensed a possible interesting drama from this development. Living in this godforsaken darkness is incredibly boring even if I can see many people's lives at once.

Meanwhile, at this time, the automatic [Devour] program activated once more and sent a notification to Ren Qingchen.

[Ding! Successfully devoured 5 points!]

For your information, my automatic program turns some action into a passive thing by occupying some of my calculation power. Of course I can still activate things manually. Just like humans can subconsciously breathe but after being reminded about it, they can still breathe manually.

At the same time as Ren Qingchen gained his first point. On Ren Qingquan's bed, I sent him a notification.

[Ding! Successfully devoured 5 points!]

That's right! Ren Qingquan actually thought the exact same thing as me and took 50% of Ren Qingchen's income. That means when Ren Qingchen devoured a soul, 50% went to me, 25% went to Ren Qingquan, and only the remaining 25% can be used by him.

Returning to Ren Qingchen, after getting his first 5 points. I saw him trying to open the shop function. But, as there are no items currently sold there, he only got a notification.

[Shop function is currently locked]

Ren Qingquan sighed while sitting in his bed. 'What a pity, my system shop only sells barely useful things or items that only I can use like the refined spirit qi generated from Immortal Tempering Technique. Otherwise, even with only refined spirit Qi suitable for him being sold at the system shop, it will be enough to make Ren Qingchen work like a mule.'

'For now, I can only lock the shop function until there is a suitable item to be sold.' Then, I heard him continue. 'It's not like I never thought of just secretly devouring the souls of the people killed. But, even I know people will work harder when there is incentive to do that work.'

When I heard his plan, I decided to remove the limit from the system shop and allow him to create anything that has been scanned. Writing a new message, I sent it to him.

[Congratulations to the host for completing a hidden mission: Pyramid Scheme Expert. System shop has been upgraded. From now on, the system shop can create anything the host has scanned using your own 'Scan' or the 'Scan' from your subsystems.]

Ren Qingquan read all that and immediately commented. 'System, don't you think your reward comes just at the right time? Can you actually manipulate it? Then how about giving me a mission to sleep for 8 hours which rewards 1 million points?'

[Nope. The system mission is random and released based on the host's current condition. Please see System's sincere smile if you don't believe it. (｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡)]

Ren Qingquan : (¬_¬)

After gaining that upgrade, Ren Qingquan opened the shop function for Ren Qingchen. Of course, he doesn't immediately add it randomly.

First, he asked me 'System, can you create a refined spirit qi for Ren Qingchen?'

[Yes.]

Then, he continued. 'Add it to his shop. Also, place his absorbed spirit qi and the items he gathered previously to the shop.'

[Done.]

To be honest, I know there are so many ways this can go wrong. But I'll let Ren Qingquan have his fun this time. If push comes to shove, I will just make Ren Qingchen devour his surroundings and summon that space crack thing to kill him.

Waiting until Ren Qingchen killed another beast and a notification telling him he gained 5 points rang. Ren Qingquan sent the message he had prepared.

[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the shop function.]

Ren Qingchen stopped skinning the beast upon seeing the sudden notification. Increasing his dismantling speed, he immediately opened the system shop once he was done.

Looking at the shop that has been filled, I saw his face turn shocked upon seeing the list of items.

[Shop

A Trace of Refined Spirit Qi: 2 points each.

Detail: A trace (1/1000 strand) of Spirit Qi refined by the host. It will immediately be sent to the host's body.

A Trace of Absorbed Spirit Qi: 1 point each.

Detail: A trace (1/1000 strand) of spirit Qi refined by the host. It will immediately be sent to the host's body. Excess Spirit Qi will be retained and automatically added once the host's dantian can contain it.

Century Years Old Vine: 1 point

Detail: -

Morning Dew Petal: 1 point.

Detail: -

Four clawed Branch: 1 point.

Detail:-

...]

The refined spirit qi is already understandable. As for the plants, I just named it according to the word muttered by Ren Qingchen while he picked the plants.

After regaining his composure, Ren Qingchen stared at the refined spirit qi and absorbed spirit qi while muttering incomprehensible words. Once he stared at the part selling plants, he had a thoughtful look on his face. "This list of plants."

Pressing to purchase the Four Clawed Branch, Ren Qingchen spent 1 point. Looking at the branch, he muttered. "As expected, this system is actually capable of listening and seeing my surroundings! Calling this Sweet Chrysanthemum Branch with a nonsensical name was truly the right step!"

Ren Qingquan: (☉⁠｡⁠☉⁠)

System: (☉⁠｡⁠☉⁠)