Chapter Seventy-Four: The Deal

The next day, August 15th, the tide of evil swept in as expected, and this time, after gathering strength, it was even fiercer than before.

Fan Bei himself did only three things: he opened the main gate, released Little White, and then closed the gate behind him.

Afterward, he went about his daily routines with ease.

Lying in bed in his bedroom, the wailing of evil spirits faintly echoed in his ears; even thick rock walls and copper doors could not block it. For it was a sound that tore into the heart.

In the past, Fan Bei had to meditate for a while just to resist this howling. Now, he treated it like the sound of wind and rain, closing his eyes, sinking into his world of consciousness, gazing at the floating "Father of Systems" above the young paulownia tree, and a thought of "upgrade" flickered.

A line of text flashed across the cover:

"Book levels: Ordinary (white), Rare (green), Precious (blue), Legendary (purple), Epic (orange), Mythic (dark gold). To upgrade from Ordinary to Rare, the system creator must reach the Gold rank."

"Well, looks like it'll take another year or two to manage that. Better focus on cultivating my three hosts," Fan Bei dismissed the idea. He was only at Bronze rank; no matter how fast he improved, reaching Gold wouldn't be quick.

Still, he needed to devise a good cultivation method. With a reserve of a million points, he could afford to redeem one out of thin air—though the price would be steep, any method that promoted an early advancement was worth it.

"Redeem the highest-level mental cultivation method most suited to me..."

"Unknown Meditation Method One requires mental power 1... Unknown Meditation Method Two requires mental power 2..."

He couldn't be bothered to count all the zeros that followed, so he added an extra condition.

"Redeem within one million points..."

At last, options appeared.

"Secret Gold Rank Meditation Method of the Northern Lin Clan, 940,000 points; this method has been freely extracted and does not require redemption. Southern Ridge Trade Alliance Gold Rank Meditation Method, 920,000 points..."

Seeing the first entry, he immediately understood. The Gold rank method available for free extraction must be the one Lin Zhongqing practiced.

A few days ago, Lin Zhongqing had suffered a severe injury, even weaker than Bronze. Fan Bei seized the chance to perform system maintenance. It seemed that after the maintenance, the system intelligence had improved. Adding soul injury—often when one is most vulnerable...

If his guess was correct, the expected result had appeared.

He thought this, and instead of redeeming, he opened the "Butler" system page.

"View host attributes and skills."

Sure enough, the prompt he wanted showed up on the page.

"There is a significant power gap between the system creator and the host, but the system and host share absolute trust. All skills possessed by the host can be viewed and freely extracted."

Just as he expected; in terms of strategy games, this would be the key event passed, with the heroine's favor maxed out.

His decision to maintain the system and enhance its intelligence had indeed been wise.

Given this, he was not shy and began to review Lin Zhongqing's attributes and skills.

"Strength 12, Agility 13, Intelligence 8, Charisma 21."

Not exactly superhuman. Even though Gold rank sounded intimidating, the limits of the human body were clear. Flesh and blood, cell efficiency—before transcending the ordinary, it was impossible to surpass technological creations.

Energy must be conserved; the amount of work done, and the energy released, determined the power one could exert.

He then began to review the skills and knowledge possessed by the other.

"Secret Gold Rank Meditation Method of the Northern Lin Clan (Mastered), Modern Firearms Shooting Technique (Mastered), Driving Skill (Mastered), Modern Combat Technique (Mastered), Mental Link (Intermediate)..."

"Business Theory (Expert), Applied Mathematics (Expert), Etiquette (Expert), Modern Management (Expert), Modern Psychology (Expert)..."

After reading, and comparing these to his own low-level skills, Fan Bei was not disheartened but rather delighted—this meant he had much to learn and draw upon.

However, his Bronze rank meditation method was not yet perfected; before understanding the difference between the two, he could not rashly switch.

He focused his mind on the Gold rank meditation method, carefully examining its contents.

He then discovered Lin Zhongqing’s personal insights from cultivation.

"It's so hard to cultivate, but I mustn't show how much I'm struggling. By day, I must appear natural and at ease, as if it's effortless. At night, while everyone sleeps, I secretly practice under the covers."

"Stone, that fool, is about to catch up to me again. No, I'll only sleep two hours each night from now on."

Fan Bei couldn’t help but feel speechless. Lin Zhongqing’s behavior reminded him of those classmates in his previous life—pretending to be relaxed at school, then working furiously at home.

He read further.

"The old man said the focus of cultivation in the world of consciousness is to foster a mythic plant that aligns with oneself and concentrate all efforts on it. But that won't do—how would I showcase my genius then?"

"If outsiders ever enter my world of consciousness and see nothing but barren land, it would be so embarrassing. I'll have to build a grand castle, add fountains and pools. For plants, I'll cultivate a vast field."

"Right, I can manipulate the field—make it so wheat can be harvested repeatedly, and secretly nurture one stalk at the edge as my main focus. This way, I satisfy the old man's requirements and decorate the landscape."

Reading this, Fan Bei felt deeply moved—this was the origin story of a fake genius but real hard worker...

Poor Lin Zhongshi probably never realized that the gap in talent between him and his sister was minimal.

That fit the facts: siblings so closely related by blood could hardly differ much in cultivation aptitude. The trope of one genius and one waste from the same family mostly appeared in novels. In reality, it's usually a matter of early maturity, a better grasp of cultivation methods, and more effort, which makes one seem more outstanding.

Thus, Lin Zhongshi’s desperate efforts allowed him to catch up with Lin Zhongqing eventually. Though now, it seemed a bit late—people’s opinions of the two were already fixed, and investment in them differed greatly. These external resources were the true reason for the current vast disparity.

After reflecting on their experiences, Fan Bei began to summarize.

The Gold rank method, compared to the Bronze rank, had little difference in the basics, but was far richer in detail, with many specific techniques to help practitioners cultivate quickly.

The greater difference lay in its complete follow-up advancement methods: how to transform the core plant into silver, then into gold, each step mapped out; even a hint at how to convert it to mythic.

Through this nonexistent redemption, he understood one truth: redeeming a cultivation method was not truly creating something from nothing, but rather making a method that already existed in this world appear in one's hands—the immense mental power paid was likely for the act of peering into it...

Wanting "Father of Systems" to directly create a method seemed impossible, meaning its contents must be filled by this world.