Chapter 15: I didn’t do anything?

Ling Huan, overwhelmed with guilt, knelt in the main hall for a full hour.

He had to admit, his father truly had a talent for scolding people.

He was, without a doubt, a pressure monster—one hour, two hours, an hour and a half—he kept cursing at him with never a repeated insult.

If all his father’s curses came true, Ling Huan would now be a pig missing a screw in its brain, eyes staring blankly as a sentry, drool hanging from his lips, and the only thing he could say would be, “Ah ba ah ba.”

Such aggression—Ling Huan decided he should learn a thing or two.

Fortunately, his parents were busy.

Soon enough, the two hurried off again, leaving behind just one phrase: “We’ll deal with you when we get back!”

[System upgrade complete]

[View now?]

The system interface suddenly popped up, giving Ling Huan a fright.

So that’s why it hadn’t spoken or given out any villain tasks all week—it was upgrading?

This made Ling Huan nervous.

Could this upgrade be meant to deal with him exploiting bugs and rewards?

He didn’t want to look, but he was afraid of missing out on some new feature after the upgrade that could cost him his life.

As the saying goes, “Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated.”

Besides…

The system didn’t even give him a [No] option…

He could only press the [Yes] button.

The interface popped up instantly.

First was the status bar.

Name and cultivation could be skipped over, but there were two new sections: [Wealth] and [Influence].

Oh?

He clicked on [Wealth], and a small window immediately appeared, with several subdivisions.

Spirit Stones: 100

Magic Treasures: None

Pills: None

Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures: None

Assessment: A poor villain with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Ling Huan was a little speechless.

Why did it have to insult people, too?

Hmm? There was a line of tiny text below?

[The higher your rating, the higher the chance that items stored in the system space will increase in grade or quantity.]

Damn!

Looking at it this way, the rating was pretty important!

That meant, as long as he could hoard like a packrat…

Would things really start multiplying, the more he stashed away?!

A packrat’s dream skill!

He would never have to worry about things rotting or spoiling, nor about his treasures depreciating over time!

Wuhu!

Although Ling Huan could see at a glance, this was just the system forcing him to become a stingy iron rooster.

However, it seemed this [Wealth] only accounted for items from the cultivation world.

As the eldest young master of Lingyun Chamber of Commerce, there was no way he only had a hundred spirit stones.

Looks like there was an ownership issue—it only counted what belonged to him.

But what exactly was counted as his?

Touching it himself?

If he could figure this out, he’d have a lot of room to operate.

Just think, if just touching something made it his, he could sneak into sect or clan warehouses, touch everything during an inventory, and instantly possess a million… no, even ten million spirit stones!

And he wouldn’t even offend any clans—talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Left hand to right hand, conjure a million spirit stones from nothing.

But Ling Huan felt it wouldn’t be that simple.

Still, he could try it later—he could experiment with his little sister’s stash.

She had spirit stones he had given her.

But…

Sigh…

All thanks to his own stupid moves.

He’d put this aside for now and test it later.

Now to look at [Influence].

It was completely empty inside…

Only a short assessment.

[Assessment: A cannon fodder villain so worthless even a stray dog would bite.]

…

So, if it wasn’t an influence from the cultivation world, it wasn’t counted?

And there was an explanation of the [Assessment] in [Influence] as well.

[The higher your rating, the stronger your backers, and the higher the quality of talents attracted by your reputation.]

“Backers” and “talents”… Was the system trying to make him start his own sect?

So the system didn’t just want him to be an ordinary villain, but one who could both fight and had powerful backers?

If he couldn’t win, he could call in an elder; if the elder lost, call an even older one—then give the protagonist more and more opportunities?

Tsk…

Well, that could wait too.

Figuring out the boundaries of the packrat feature was more important right now.

Just as Ling Huan was about to exit, he discovered that besides the status bar, there was now a task bar.

Well now, it really was like playing a game.

Let’s take a look.

Opening the tasks, he saw the tasks were divided into several categories.

Main Tasks—must complete.

Daily Tasks—optional, but missing too many would be punished.

Timed Tasks—must complete.

…

He opened the main tasks—none for now.

The daily tasks were rather interesting.

Do One Evil Deed a Day: You must commit at least one bad deed every day.

The more you do, the better the rewards, no upper limit.

There was even a comment— As your evil deeds accumulate, even if it’s just petty theft, you too can become a villain feared by all!

…

A villain cultivated like this—wasn’t that just hilarious?

But this was good too; it wouldn’t push him past his bottom line.

He could steal a chicken, then pay someone to return the money later.

Timed Task…

Hmm?

There was one.

Timed Task: Prevent Yin Luoling from approaching Jiang Yue and shatter her plot to steal your teacher.

It was clearly a villain system, so why did it always describe Yin Luoling as some heinous villain?

And “shatter her plot” at that.

But the damn system had spoken—what could he do?

Let’s go…

Wait a minute… that’s not right, how did Yin Luoling know about Teacher—oh, maybe his parents mentioned it while traveling for business?

That made sense—explained why Yin Luoling went to Liuyun Pavilion only to buy herbs and pills.

She was probably hoping to learn alchemy from Teacher?

Come to think of it, he had seen a small alchemy furnace in Teacher’s room before.

Meanwhile, Yin Luoling had already arrived at Jiang Yue’s residence.

Time to begin her talent recruitment plan.

In her previous life, she and this ugly-faced teacher hadn’t had much interaction.

The teacher only appeared at the Ling Manor’s dinner table during New Year’s Eve.

But every time, Ling Huan had made snide remarks.

Even when her foster parents rebuked him, Ling Huan had always resisted.

His words were deeply hurtful.

Yet the teacher had never complained—always dutiful and silent, always hiding away in the small courtyard of the east garden, guarding her own little world.

If not for killing Ling Huan and a Prince Pan, being hunted by a Golden Core expert and awaiting death, she’d never have known—the teacher had killed that Golden Core expert with a single blow.

Only then did she learn that the ugly-faced teacher was, in fact, a Nascent Soul expert.

She was only gravely poisoned, and after that attack, she’d died, leaving behind a cultivation method and a set of acupuncture artifacts for her.

In this life, if she could win her over, she would be a tremendous ally!

That was why Yin Luoling had come!

She knocked on the door!

The moment Jiang Yue opened it, she immediately spoke, staking everything on this first move!

She understood what mattered most to a cultivator!

She knew what a cultivator valued!

“Teacher, appearance is but an external thing. Eventually, it fades away—a pink skeleton at best! Teacher, I can cure your poison! I can restore your strength!
As for your face, I don’t think it matters at all!”

Bang!

Early in the morning, before she’d even eaten breakfast, Yin Luoling had a door slammed in her face.

[Task complete!]

[Jiang Yue now harbors doubts about Yin Luoling!]

[Assessment: Perfect!]

[Jiang Yue has been successfully angered by Yin Luoling!]

Huh?

Ling Huan, walking down the road, was left bewildered.

I…didn’t even do anything?