Walking through several corridors, Ren Qingquan followed the sales woman and arrived at the library.
"Here is the library. Senior may write a copy for your own usage, but please don't take any book outside of the library." With that word, the sales woman left. "If there is nothing else, Lu 'er will take her leave."
Seeing it, I saw Ren Qingquan pull the remaining spirit stones from [Storage] and give it to the woman, calling it his gift for her help. Bowing to him, the woman left Ren Qingquan alone in the library.
The Weapon Refining Association's library is quite small in size. So I easily scanned all of the books inside within two minutes. Thanks to those books, I finally gained some understanding of the cultivation world. To not raise any suspicions, I told Ren Qingquan to spend some time reading the books there.
The book he pulled is titled 'A Basic Knowledge On The Forces Of Cultivation World'.
In summary the book talked about the level of forces in cultivation worlds, which are separated into four levels, depending on the highest stage expert those forces can consistently nurture.
The highest level being top level force with Immortal Ascension stage expert. In total, there are only seven top level forces in the cultivation world. The Immortal Alliance, or officially known as Loose Immortal Alliance that the guard talked about before belong to this level.
Next, there are first and second rate sects. They can consistently nurture a Tribulation Transcender and Void Unity stage expert respectively.
Last, there are third rate sects which can't consistently or even nurture a Void Unity expert at all.
By the way, the Pure Wave sect belongs to a second rate sect.
How do I know? Because inside the book, there is also a list of sects with the name Pure Wave Sect listed among second rate sects. They were last updated a hundred years ago though. So, I am not sure what grade the Pure Wave Sect is right now.
That also means there is at least a Void Refining level fossil hidden in the Pure Wave Sect!
Once Ren Qingquan finished reading the book, I sent him a notification.
[Congratulations for completing 'Quest: Learn Common Knowledge'. You have been rewarded with 1000 points.]
With his kidney safe, Ren Qingquan sighed in relief and casually spent his time in the library. Soon, the sun inched closer toward the horizon and evening arrived.
I sensed Ren Qingquan feeling bored from reading books. Which made him come to a decision, 'Let's walk around the city!'
Exiting the library, Ren Qingquan followed my map and reached the Weapon Association's lobby which looked like an expensive boutique.
On the sofa made of expensive looking pelt, the guard that leads Ren Qingquan here is chatting with the saleswoman Lu 'er, both of them seem extremely close.
I can hear Ren Qingquan turn sour when seeing that lovey-dovey scene.
When the guard saw Ren Qingquan arriving at the room, he quickly walked toward him with a smile, "Greeting senior, do you need any assistance from me?"
"I am planning to tour the city."
"Then let me guide you around, senior." The guard quickly walked toward the association's entrance following Ren Qingquan.
Before that, he doesn't forget to kiss his palm and blow it toward the far away Lu 'er who quickly blushed. Seeing such a scene I rolled my nonexistent eyes.
Ren Qingquan also seems a bit uncomfortable as he said, "Umm.. you can just stay here, I can walk around by myself. Also, can you prepare a room for me at the association? I already got an association badge with me."
***
As it is currently evening, some of the surrounding stores have started to close. Unlike the modern day where the nightlife is pretty lively due to the existence of lightbulbs. In this world, the means for mortals to have light in the middle of the night is only through candles or oil lamps.
While Ren Qingquan walked through a street that is still lively, I detected a skirmish or to be exact, a bullying happening inside an alley several hundred meters away through [Scan]. Soon after, Ren Qingquan also heard it and followed the sound toward that alley.
Seeing the scene of a boy getting bullied by several other kids inside, Ren Qingquan hid himself as he observed from afar. The boy that is currently getting bullied wore a blue silk cloth that has been dirtied from the beating he received.
While beating that boy, those kids are smiling smugly.
One of the kids seemed to be satisfied as he laughed, "Hahaha! Is this the genius of the Su family?! Aren't you just trash that can't cultivate now? Haven't you always looked down on all of us because your talents were slightly higher?"
The other kid replied, "Don't call him that, big brother. I mean, let's not call him a genius of the Su family. After all, he might be disowned by the Su family soon."
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Upon hearing that, the surrounding kids laughed in gusto.
Hearing the words those kids spoke, I was a bit shocked as several thoughts flashed through my mind.
My first thought is, Holy shiet, their provocations are extremely colorful and ruthless.
As for my second thought, the boy getting bullied is most likely a child of luck! I am sure I've seen this protagonist template somewhere before. The sentence one of those boys spoke next directly doubled my certainty.
"Hahaha, indeed. His mother already left him and went to god know where. What is stopping his other family from discarding him."
Yeah, that boy already ticked two tropes here.
Genius turned trash? ✓
Missing parent? ✓
Ren Qingquan also came to the same conclusion as I saw him activate Turtle Divination and stare at the bullied boy.
Ignoring the surrounding kids with cannon fodder luck, he checked on the luck that kid had.
In terms of size, the luck that boy has is approximately equal to 2 Young Master Gu, which is the person with highest luck Ren Qingquan has ever checked. Their luck is still miniscule compared to Ren Qingquan though.
After beating the boy several more times until he fell unconscious, those bullies finally left. When he was sure there was no one looking, Ren Qingquan walked closer toward the boy in blue robes while activating his 'Don't Peek At Me, Pervert!' Technique and turning himself invisible.
Once the boy was within ten meters of Ren Qingquan, my [Scan] detected a special fluctuation coming from that boy. To be exact, it comes from the necklace that boy wore.
The fluctuation feels similar to the mental power coming from those powerful cultivators like the elders and peak master from Pure Wave Sect. There is also an unknown power that makes it slightly weirder and probably the reason I can only detect the fluctuation when located within 10 meters of that boy.
But that fluctuation isn't the one pulling my attention.
Due to the unknown power mentioned before, only at the current distance can I sense the amount of energy that the necklace contains.
To describe it in one word, it is enormous!
If I devoured it using Ren Qingquan [Devour], that thing could easily net me 100.000 points!
A whole 100.000 points! This is the greatest amount of energy I ever saw contained within an item. Even the amount of energy contained within the Pure Wave Sect's sci-fi style library still pale in comparison.
Combining the abnormal amount of points, the special mental power fluctuation that the necklace gives off, and a theory I have about the relationship between soul and mental power. I can confidently conclude there is actually the soul of a grandpa/grandma hidden inside, which makes that boy tick yet another main character cliche.
Expert in a ring (necklace edition) ✓
It seems during the time I got absorbed thinking about the necklace, Ren Qingquan has arrived at a decision. "System, what do you think of that boy? I am thinking of giving him a subsystem."
[System thinks he is a suitable host for the subsystem. His luck is quite strong and his strength is only at the Qi Refining stage.]
'Then quickly place the same subsystems as the one given to Ren Qingchen.'
[Do you wish to spend 1,111 energy and grant Lv 4 subsystems containing 'Scan', 'Devour', 'Create', and 'Transfer'?]
'Yes.' With Ren Qingquan's agreement, I spent 1,111 points and anchored four skills on that boy.
Once the boy has been given a Lv 4 subsystem, my attention returned to the necklace he wore. The more I stare at it, the more I feel my hand itching and my point hoarding illness to flare up.
Well, there is no need for two cheat to exist at once on the same person.
With that thought, I prepared myself to [Devour] the soul inside that ring. Of course I didn't tell Ren Qingquan about it as I want to take it all in my pocket, mwahahahaha.
＼(°o°)／
That extra power I scanned on the necklace's soul makes me a bit wary though. As it is a new thing and I am not too sure whether the Heavenly Will would go bonkers and attack Ren Qingquan if I devoured it, I decided to use a more cautious approach.
After calculating how I can obtain the greatest benefit, I decided to use [Anchor] on the necklace and granted it with [Devour] and four other skills, which is equal to a level 5 subsystem.
With this, although the amount of points I gained is only 40% of the total I should've gained if I used Ren Qingquan's [Devour]. I can still obtain 40.000 points from it (TAX not included). Which is the biggest amount of points I have received from a single item!
The most important thing is Ren Qingquan's life wouldn't be in much danger. Probably
Just when I am going to [Devour] that soul, I paused.
I almost forgot something important.
Focusing my [Scan] on the necklace, I activated the function to collect a remnant soul's memory. After all, the soul in this necklace should've counted as a remnant soul, right?
A whole minute passes but there is still no response from my [Scan]. This makes me a bit confused.
Do I need to upgrade my [Scan] further to sense the soul's memory, or is that soul actually different from a remnant soul, which makes my remnant soul memory reading function to be ineffective?
As there is a lack of data, I can't guess how many points I need to spend on an upgrade and which upgrade direction I should take.
Unwilling to waste points on uncertain bets, I quit thinking of ways to [Scan] that soul and directly devoured it.
When it is going to be devoured, the soul actually subconsciously resisted my suction force. Its resistance even caused [Devour] to enter a tug of war.
Seeing that, I decisively spent 10.000 points and upgraded [Devour] to increase its suction force. With the help of those points, [Devour]'s radius rapidly increased by more than two fold.
As time passes, the soul inside that necklace is slowly swallowed by the [Devour] I attached on that necklace.
A minute passes and a change is happening on that necklace.
After getting a quarter of its soul sucked by my [Devour], the special power released by that soul started to churn as more and more power was released from the ring.
Soon, the shadow of a beautiful female with an ethereal face appeared.
With her appearance, my gut feeling detected an extreme sense of danger which made me immediately warn Ren Qingquan.
[Host, run away from that woman, quick!]
Ren Qingquan's sense of danger has also been tickling as he quickly ran away without much thought.