Qi flares. Techniques flash. A blade finds its mark. A beast larger than a house and more ancient than the forest around it collapses to the ground, dead.
Liu Wei wiped the last of the creature's blood off of his ornately decorated sword, revealing its glimmering edge that all but radiated power. One of the many boons he’d received in the past few years.
The him of the past would never have been able to contend with the beast that now lay before him, much less defeat it as handedly as he had. Seeing the proof of his growth before him put him in a reflective mood, one he indulged in only because his battle with the great beast would have scared away any other monsters in the area.
It was only three years ago that the elders of the Silver Dragon Clan had exiled him in all but name. Driving him and his mother to the edge of the lands and cursing him for being a weak, good-for-nothing failure. Now they bowed as he passed them in the halls. It gave him a heady sensation just thinking about it.
A flash of golden light brought him out of his reverie. The calling card of his benefactor.
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You have succeeded in slaying the ‘Great Beast of the Western Forests’!
You have been awarded an ‘Earth Rank Qi-Gathering Pill’!
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Liu Wei felt the weight of the pill settle into his hand as he read the text. A minor organization like the Silver Dragon Clan that existed on the fringes of the Murim would never be able to get their hands on such a treasure.
Without the “Heavenly Cultivator System” that he had acquired, he would never have been able to rise so high with his meager talent. But now, even the Heavens would tremble before his might!
But such ambitions were for the future. For now, he would settle for milking the clan for all it's worth before stepping out into the greater world.
He sheathed his beautiful sword and instead took out a knife from the storage ring on his hand. He walked over to the massive form of the slain beast and began to carefully slice open its furred hide. The system provided many great rewards for his efforts, but he wasn’t so stupid as to ignore the value the beast’s corpse had.
Its hide could be turned into leather armor that outperformed steel, its claws would become blades, and its meat would be served to the wealthiest of the draconic bloodlines. And all of that would turn into hundreds of gold scales for Liu Wei, a fortune for any not in the Murim.
Cultivators spent as much money as they made in their search for more power, and Liu Wei was no exception.
But while much of the beast would be dismantled and sold to a thousand different buyers, there was one part that he would be keeping to himself. He finished his cutting and reached his hand into the gash, grimacing at the still hot and wet feeling of blood and organs. When his hand touched something that was hard, but definitely not bone, he gripped it and pulled it out.
Out from the hole popped an almost spherical crystal, tinted red by the blood that covered it. The beast’s core.
Half of the corpse’s value lies in this crystal, the culmination of the beast’s centuries of life and growth. A powerful beast core had as many uses as one could imagine from pill refining to the creation of artifacts.
But Liu Wei had more than just his imagination.
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Would you like to sell ‘Earth Rank Beast Core’?
< Y / N >
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“Yes.” He said. The System had many great rewards for completing its quests, but if that was all he relied on, he wouldn’t have grown nearly as fast as he had.
With a muffled pop and a flash of golden light the core vanished from his hand. Like always, there was no force his Qi senses could detect. Where this system came from, how it worked, and why it did what it did were beyond him even after years of investigation.
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You have received 1,372 Coins!
You now have 10,116 Coins to spend in the Golden Pavilion!
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‘Finally!’
With a force of thought he opened the system’s “Golden Pavilion”. . .and found himself in a stone courtyard. He wasn’t shocked or surprised by this, after all, he’d been here many times before.
At the end of the courtyard was an open room decorated with hanging paper lanterns and hundreds of items of all shapes and sizes. Standing in the middle of the room was the vague outline of a humanoid person wearing golden robes. They had arms, legs, a torso and head, but beyond that, their features were indiscernible.
Liu Wei ignored the “merchant” and walked directly over to his quarry, an unassuming leather belt with a jade buckle. As he slipped it off the rack it hung on, a description of the belt appeared.
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Belt of Mountains and Walls
Artifact Rank: 6 (Legendary)
Description: Grants the wearer the sturdiness and strength of the mountain.
Cost: 10,000 Coins
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Months of saving had finally paid off as he showed the “merchant” the belt. They looked at the belt “discerningly” before raising their palm, only for a small pile of gold coins to appear on it. A counter in the corner of Liu Wei’s eye noted that 10,000 Coins had just been deducted from his account and he was down to just 116 Coins.
In the early days, he had scrambled to earn even 10 Coins to spend in the pavilion, now he considered what he had left to be chump change. The thought made him chuckle lightly.
He reappeared in the real world, belt in hand. He quickly threw it around his waist and sealed the clasp, feeling a rush of power fill him as he did so. He felt sturdy and immovable, just as advertised. He’d have to find a time to test the extent of its ability, trust but verify and all that.
Finally, he used his Qi to wrap up the corpse of the beast and shove it inside one of his higher-grade storage rings. Time was slowed to a near halt inside the ring so he wouldn’t need to worry about the body rotting before he could get back to the sect’s dismantlers.
Liu Wei mused on whether he should stop by one of the villages he passed on the way here. So many nights alone in the forest had him craving some “nightly company”.
Yet another flash of golden light wiped the lecherous grin off his face. The system had never given quests back-to-back before. There was usually a rest period of a month or two between them unless there was some kind of emergency.
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Warning! Warning! Warning!
Alternate System Bearer detected!
Emergency Task created!
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Emergency Task: Kill the Alternate System Bearer! (0/1)
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Liu Wei was stupefied. There were other people with systems like his? Why did he need to kill them? Were they some kind of threat?!
Countless questions rushed through his mind as an arrow of golden light pointed towards the west. The Western Forests marked the end of the dragon’s bounty and their influence, beyond here was just the mountains and the lands of the Outer Gods. So, unless the System Bearer was living in the mountains, they were almost certainly in the lands beyond.
But he couldn’t just go right now. The Silver Dragon Clan was expecting him back within a certain amount of time, if he didn’t return then what would happen to his mother? He was beginning to regret not making more friends on his climb through the ranks.
The System continued to flash in the corner of his vision, clearly insistent of the task’s importance. He sighed. He would return to the clan and prepare for a long journey, perhaps finding a place for his mother to stay outside of the clan’s reach, just in case.
He moved to head back the way he had come but gave one last look to the distant mountains before leaving.
“. . . I do not know who you are or why you must die, but know that none shall stop my ascension. Regret the choices that put you on this path for it ends at my sword.”
With his piece said, he began his journey home, to prepare for a much longer one.