After six hours of torture, Fan Yueyin’s test ended.

In the end, Li Ao couldn’t forge a capable enough sword. After wobbling on his feet like a drunkard for an hour, he passed out. While a pair of servants carried him away, Qing Yan managed to succeed at the last moment.

Then she fell headfirst into the furnace and burnt half of her hair...

When Li Ao woke up, he was back at the brothel, where Zhu Qiu watched over him.

Asking around, he only learned that Fan Yueyin wanted him back at the estate early in the morning and nothing else.

After delivering the message, Zhu Qiu gave him a bottle of ninth-grade rejuvenation pills.

Unbeknownst to Li Ao, Zhu Qiu had been working more and more at Fragrant Grass as an aide to Master Jiao, and now became a Novice Alchemist himself. Before leaving to cultivate, Zhu Qiu told him to expect some good news, but didn’t tell anything else about it.

After cursing Zhu Qiu for making him nervous, Li Ao closed his door and sat on his bed.

Sighing at his disheveled appearance, Li Ao took out five emerald-gleaming pills out of the bottle.

These Rejuvenation Pills were different from Healing pills or Antidote pills. Rejuvenation Pills affected the consumer’s vitality—it wouldn’t heal wounds directly like Healing pills but could only help the body accelerate the process. If the body wasn’t in any shape to repair itself, they could only help the cultivator hang onto their last breath for a little longer.

Also, if someone ate them when they had no wounds, the increased vitality had magical effects in intimate relationships...

Spreading the five pills on the ground, Li Ao took out his formation rods and planted them around him in a pentagram. This was a common ‘Gathering Formation’, and depending on the proficiency and number of flags, it could actually enhance the power of the treasures used within its boundaries.

Li Ao was already beyond the realm of a Formation Apprentice, steadily making way towards Intermediate Level.

In Apprentice level, he had learned seven grades of Gathering Formations, one Illusion Formation to create a phantom of himself, three utility formations to light a fire, block sounds, and conceal tracks, as well as five production formations to create various talismans and engravings on swords.

These were the only ones recorded on the Elementary Formations manual. After all, the manual didn’t dwell much on the technicality of the Formation Arts. To learn more sophisticated formations, Li Ao would have to buy different booklets or, as he had seen once, what they called a ‘Skill Magazine’.

Since he had around a hundred points left, Li Ao was thinking of buying one in his spare time to test his luck.

But healing came first.

After planting all five pills inside the pentagram, Li Ao sat in the center of the formation. Planting both hands on the ground, his cultivation base started revolving with Qi, emanating a heavy aura that caused trembling around the room. A bronze aura escaped from his pores and caused the scene to look like an ancient painting.

The five pills around the formation trembled at first, then quivering, started breaking down. Piece by piece the pills dissolved into semi-transparent green liquid that consisted of medicinal power.

A cultivator’s body would, generally, reject a certain amount of a pill’s medicinal power. This percentage depended on the constitution and immunity of the cultivator as well. Someone who ate a lot of Qi Gathering Pills, for example, would only get half the result after a while.

A consolation to that fact was that the higher purity a pill was, the lower that amount would be. A %100 Purity pill could be infinitely used, theoretically, but higher stages of cultivation couldn’t sate themselves with Qi Gathering Pills alone.

Also, %100 Purity Pills were a luxury. Li Ao, even now, used average %50 or %60 Purity pills.

The gathering formation aided in the fact that Li Ao could just extract the majority of the medicinal power as liquid Qi to aid in digestion. Some Alchemists would use the same thing for pills they created for self-use.

But such medicinal liquid had a very short shelf-life, so it wasn’t preferable for marketing matters.

Leading the medicinal liquid into his mouth, Li Ao drank the five wisps of liquid Qi. In a few seconds, his heart began pumping out bronze blood that washed over the rest of his body, causing a heavy heartbeat to resound inside the room. The bronze aura seeping out of him solidified around his eyes, then with a thought disappeared.

Meditating for thirty minutes, Li Ao recovered most of his physical strength and stood up. He stretched a little, then looked out the window to the night sky.

‘’Now it’s two moons?’’

Li Ao watched the blue and silver moons in the sky for a while, then retracted his gaze.

Sitting back inside the formation, he took out a bottle of Qi Gathering pills and poured them as well.

In an hour he replenished most of his Qi, and felt that somehow his Spirit Qi Cultivation was a lot more connected with his Physique Cultivation.

Though he abhorred admitting it, Fan Yueyin’s, or that dog Sun Jian’s test was quite a solid method to stabilize his Physique Cultivation. There were a few discrepancies between his control of body and Qi before. Now, his movements felt a lot more natural.

Feeling the aches all around him, Li Ao threw the rudimentary training idea in his head away and opened the system interface.

The blue interface cast a low aquamarine light on his face that irritated him.

‘’Isn’t there anything to turn down this thing?’’

Li Ao fiddled around, but finding nothing he sighed and opened the Universal Store.

Since he had plenty of time before going to Sun Estate, and had no desire to sleep, he wanted to check out those Skill Magazines.

Searching through the general store, Li Ao saw at least a few million pages of results—perhaps the biggest number he had seen in a while. Considering there were at least a few thousand items each page, there were around a...trillion?

‘’Is there such a high demand for this?’’

‘’Or is this trash?’’

Just as he remembered, each Skill Magazine cost 50 Universal Coins. The image shown by the system was a dark booklet with a question mark on it, and there were no authors or any other information regarding ownership. There were only a few lines of text.

*Tier-1 Skill Magazine*

*Description: Contains three random learning materials submitted to the General Store. Ceiling of the technique is limited by the Agent-Rank, and price range is limited at a maximum of 5000 Coins.*

*May Contain: Divine Spark(Fateful), Cultivation Art(Extremely Low), Magical Art(Extremely Low), Martial Art(Extremely Low), Formation Manual(Low), Forging Manual(Low), Alchemy Manual(Low), Enchantment Manual(Low), Crafting Recipes(Low), Pill Recipes(Low), Tool Recipes(Low), Formation Recipes(Low), Comprehension Booklet(Average), Combat Techniques(Average), Recovery Techniques(Average), Movement Techniques(Average), Immortal Literature(High), Mortal Literature(High), Five Studies Notebooks(High) ...*

*Warning: Each Tier-1 Skill Magazine doubles in price after every purchase!*

*Cost: 50 Universal Coin*

*Review(999.999.999+)*

Li Ao didn’t make the mistake of clicking the reviews this time. Reading the description, he could understand just how much of a dogshit thing this Skill Magazine was.

‘’This must be why I only remember the name.’’

Such traumatic requirements must have erased his memory of this Skill Magazine's descriptions.

This thing was just pure gambling!

A game of luck!

‘’Immortal Mortal Literature? Each of them cost like one point!’’

There was a very large chance he would suffer a major loss but...

What if he hit it big?

Allure of a Magical Art especially made his inner gambler hesitate.

Magical Arts were a little different from his Scarlet Path, which was a family martial art. Martial Arts required someone to make use of their body’s meridians to project certain kinds of power. Some even required specific breathing exercises and postures to learn, which required a great amount of effort in itself.

Even further, when someone cultivated a specific type of Martial Art, their body would be hardwired towards that particular school. Their muscles and meridians would be attuned, and any other kind of martial art would be infinitely difficult to learn unless one had Dual-Meridian Body. In worst cases, conflicting Martial Arts could cripple a cultivator’s fighting skill.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For that reason, most geniuses would only cultivate two or three martial arts at most even in the Great Wei Dynasty.

Magical Arts had no such limitation. They might require a specific way of breathing, but that was it. They operated with Spirit Qi and required hand seals to produce power. Though affinity was as important as Martial Arts, one could still learn Magical Arts with enough effort. That effort was, of course, much greater than one would need to study a suitable Martial Arts.

Still, the more Magical Arts a cultivator knew, the more trump cards they would have. Unfortunately for Li Ao, they were low in supply and the Great Wei Dynasty didn’t like Spellcasters and Taoist Cultivators because of past conflicts. Li Family had a few Magical Arts in their treasury but Li Ao never bothered to learn them before because of his laziness.

Now, faced with the chance to obtain one for an infinitely lower price, Li Ao’s mouth watered.

‘’After all, it is only fifty coins.’’

‘’I can just complete a first-grade mission to compensate it...’’

‘’Right?’’

Wiping his saliva, Li Ao’s finger hovered over the reviews section.

Tip of his finger quivered for some time, then with a scowl shot right up and smashed on the purchase button.

The screen in front of him flickered, and Li Ao saw the Skill Magazine’s price shoot up to 100 Universal Coins.

Sighing, confirmed the content transfer.

The space in front of his eyes warped, then an adorned bronze box appeared in front of him. It had dragon patterns all over it and seemed extremely familiar.

‘’Shit, it is that box!’’

Li Ao flipped open its lid and three beams of light landed on his lap.

Blinded for a moment, he reeled back, then found a jade slip and two booklets resting on his legs.

‘’A jade slip?’’

His eyes bright, Li Ao decided to save it for the last.

First booklet was titled ‘I Waited 7 Million Years To Become Overpowered!’, and seemed to be about eight thousand pages long.

Li Ao created a fire within his palm and burnt it to crisp.

‘’Fucking scammers...’’

Li Ao picked up the other book.

‘’My Psycho Immortal God Emperor Husband Is Actually My Long-lost Step-brother From The Mortal World’s Bussin—’’

Li Ao suffered a stroke and blasted the book into smithereens with a fireball. The explosion rattled the room for a moment, then everything fell quiet again.

‘’Fucking scammers!’’

Tearing up, beating his legs, Li Ao felt like crying. However, his eye came to rest on the jade slip then.

With a faint hope, he put it against his temple and sent his Divine Sense.

‘’Understanding Alchemy, Pill Making, and 100.000 Elementary Herbs.’’

Li Ao passed out right there and then. Drool escaped out of his mouth, and he murmured ‘’My coins, my coins...’’ until the shock wore off.

Sighing, cursing, Li Ao clenched the jade slip in his hand. Then, however, he stopped and shot to his feet.

‘’Can I give this to Zhu Qiu?’’

Since Zhu Qiu wanted to study Alchemy, and Li Ao had no interest in being an Alchemist, why should he not give it to him? It might even fill up another portion of his Perk Requirements.

It seemed possible?

After all, he had bought a large quantity of %80 Purity Qi Gathering Pills on the way, and both of them had used some.

But Li Ao wasn’t sure if that applied to the techniques. After all, anyone with a two digit IQ could think of a way to exploit System’s Universal Shop. There were a lot of options to buy with Universal Coins and make a monopoly of Spirit Stones in the outside world.

‘’Senior Dogshit~’’

In the end, he still had a reliable senior to fall on.

‘’Senior Dogshit?’’

‘’Senior Dogshit?’’

‘’Dogshit Senior?’’

‘’Senior Klein—’’

*Yes?*

‘’—Dogshi- Howdy, senior brother!’’

*Pray to heavens I am busy—*

‘’I am always praying for your safety and health. Have no doubt!’’

Bowing towards the void, Li Ao heard a snort.

*Be quick.*

‘’Can’t I just ask the well-being of my magnanimous senior?’’

*Not a dogshit like you. What do you want?*

Li Ao scratched his cheeks and raised the alchemy jade slip to the air.

Smiling, Li Ao waited in that posture for a whole minute.

‘’Senior Dogshit?’’

*...are you holding something?*

‘’Yes?’’

*Are you fucking retarded? Do you think I can see what you are doing from a few light years away!? You dog! You son of a dog!*

‘Holy shit, this guy can’t see me?’

Li Ao raised a middle finger to the air.

*I am going to look at the past now, and if I see you making a single weird movement you will be DEAD.*

‘’Of course not! How can I disrespect you, senior brother!?’’

Li Ao kept shoving middle fingers to the void with a wide smile on his face.

A few seconds later he felt something prick his nape and turned around. There was nothing behind him. Then he felt like an eye was upon him, but couldn’t understand where he was being watched. Making sharp turns around the room, he halted when Senior Dogshit let out a creepy laugh.

‘He wasn’t posturing? This guy can look at the past?’

‘Li Ao, you retarded dog!’

Li Ao threw himself to the ground and made nine kowtows towards the sky.

‘’My magnanimous senior brother! Blessed of the heavens, hero of the ages, your name resounds through heaven and earth with temple bells! Your presence is like the Sun, mother of all Phoenixes, and the Stars of the night sky...’’

Li Ao began reciting several mantras and courtly heralds he memorized from his youth and slammed his head until it bruised.

*...are you really a monkey? Why am I a mother figure?*

‘’Oh the chosen of—’’

*Cut the bullshit. What do you want?*

Li Ao sat upright with a serious expression. ‘’Can I give away techniques I obtain from the System?’’

Klein, whom Li Ao couldn’t see at the moment, couldn’t help but slap his head. Why was this guy so overbearingly retarded?

*Have you learned anything through the system?*

Li Ao nodded, then slapped his thigh and answered with a yell.

*Don’t scream. Then you know the system deals with Arts and Manuals differently. Arts are one-time consumables. You can buy copies of it and distribute it, but you can not teach it yourself, nor sell it for any price.*

‘’What happens if I do?’’

*Copyright laws will most likely suck out your next twelve missions’ revenue.*

‘’...what?’’

*Multiply the Arts’ price by fifteen, and you will pay that price twelve times to the author.*

Cold sweat gathered behind Li Ao’s nape. Fortunately, he didn’t even have the time to think of such a lucrative business.

‘’What happens with manuals?’’

*They are educational material. Alchemy, Formations, Forging, Enchantment, or anything of the sort falls under fair use. Once you buy it, you own it. You still can’t sell it, but you can give copies of it to people.*

*There are Soul-locks to them, so people you give away any Art or Manual can’t spread them around.*

‘’Soul-locked...’’ Soul locks were generally used by Large Sects or Great Noble clans to protect their arts against demons, and perhaps humans.

There were plenty of ways to read a memory, after all, and demons were proficient in such devilish spells. To not give away their weakness, these arts would be bound to the soul of the cultivator and couldn’t be learned or recreated without a ‘Prime Source’. These Prime Sources could only be produced by a Sect Master/Family Head or their Heir.

‘’I understand.’’ Li Ao nodded at the air. ‘’Thank you, Senior Dogshit.’’

*Why can’t you let me go in humor for once?*

Li Ao chuckled, but Klein was already gone. He still had a few things he wanted to ask, but it seemed the man was truly busy with something.

Sighing, Li Ao brought the jade slip over to Zhu Qiu’s room. He knocked on the door, then entered when Zhu Qiu answered him.

‘’Here, some alchemy thingy. Don’t let others see.’’

He threw the jade slip at the man, then shut the door behind him.

Zhu Qiu cast a weird glance at the door, then at the jade slip on the ground. Sighing, he picked it up and put it against his temple to see what it was all about.

His eyebrows furrowed first. His expression turned weird as he read more and more, and once he reached the middle of the contents his eyes turned bloodshot. After making a quick sweep to the end Zhu Qiu shot to his feet.

‘’This is a treasure!’’

His breathing turned ragged. Sweat dripped down Zhu Qiu’s palms and his bloodshot eyes glowed with a bright light. Just now, he had seen recipes for more than a hundred pills! There were descriptions of a lot of herbs he didn’t know, but he also knew plenty that were similar! In fact, he felt like he could make many of them

Just those two alone was enough to pave a path for him to become a Master Alchemist!

However, the last quarter of the jade slip made him choke on his saliva.

There were recipes for grade six and grade five pills!

Anyone who could concoct a grade-six pill was already a Grandmaster Alchemist in the Bai Dynasty.

Furthermore...there were instructions on how to make Spiritual Pills.

Spiritual Pills had animalistic instincts, and they could cultivate in time like any other being.

‘’This...’’

Casting a look at the door, Zhu Qiu felt his heart weigh. He hadn’t done something worth this thing. He had no thoughts of how Li Ao acquired the jade slip. Since he didn’t say it was soul-bound, it had to come from a large legacy or something equally private.

After all, once he read the jade-slip, he felt being branded by the mark. It was a sickly, slap-like feeling on the back of his head.

Sighing, shaking his head, Zhu Qiu sat down again. He felt excited, but the weight of receiving this favor made him more troubled.

‘Do I even deserve this?’

Li Ao had no idea of Zhu Qiu’s troubles, nor of the jade slip’s true value.

Whistling, he went back to his room and got into the bed to rest a little more.

A few hours later, he began preparing to go to Sun Family’s estate.