Jackpot!

A beautiful girl around 19 years of age was running in a forest with tattered clothes. Even with all the bruises over different parts of her body her figure would still mesmerize countless people. She would take a break now and then to catch her breath and wipe her tears before continuing her run.

'Who would have thought that the number 1 trading sect would fall just like that. I can't believe our sect elders would conspire with the enemies and kill my father. Now the enemy can easily take over our sect without any resistance. All the hard work of my father in building the sect would help others in the end.'

Emma gasped for air as she felt her heart becoming heavy with all the sorrows and betrayal. She was the number 1 beauty on her planet with admirers from all the corners but she didn't imagine that her beauty would bring such a disaster to her sect and father.

A noble family prince of a powerful martial sect expressed his love for her a few months back but Emma was not in a mood for love because her goal was to become the number 1 businesswoman on her planet. But the prince took her rejection as a matter of shame and disgrace and decided to capture her with force.

Fortunately, Emma's father instructed her to take a secret passage to a nearby forest before he was killed. Her father also emptied the sect's treasury and gave it to Emma instructing she could start everything from scratch in case the sect falls.

Emma caressed her storage ring as she ran and muttered to herself.

"Father, don't worry I will restart the sect and punish those people who sold us out."

Suddenly she heard the rustling of tree leaves. She realized, she had been discovered. Gritting her teeth she increased her pace and climbed a small cliff on edge of the forest.

"If only I had listened to the father's advice and focused on my cultivation instead of business."

Emma regretted her past decisions as she realized, without power aspiring to be the number 1 businesswoman was a joke. Her fate wouldn't be in her hands during times like this. Even if you have earned a mountain of gold through hard work, without sufficient power to protect it, it will be swallowed by someone eventually.

She climbed and climbed, before realizing she was already at the edge of a cliff with nowhere to go. She could already hear people coming in her direction.

"It seems like it's the end of my journey. Sorry, dad, I can't fulfill your task but if there exists another life, I would not be stupid like now."

ROAR!

Emma's soul shuddered when she listened to the roar coming from the sky and when she finally saw a metal monster, her pupils were dilated.

"NOO!"

[Congratulation host for gaining a diamond grade high potential soul]

Leo transformed into a handsome man and took the storage ring from a pile of meat paste. He was not disgusted by the scene as he knew, the external body was just a cloth to a soul. He could easily order dozens of clothes for the new soul.

"It's a pity that a beautiful flower has turned into a forest fertilizer."

Leo was slowly getting used to crushing flowers. All his previous poetic notions about girls were gone and replaced by realistic thoughts of the underworld.

"At least she has a great soul. Don't worry I will make sure that you will have another chance to redeem yourself."

Leo was lurking in the cloud-like a patient hunter all this time waiting for his chance. He had come to this planet an hour before and got a general gist of the power structure and decided to target Emma as she was a moving treasure with low cultivation.

Leo didn't want to take a risk in targeting a powerful cultivator as he had no idea whether his surprise attack would be effective or not. No doubt, he could manifest his soul which is equivalent to a soul master level but it's the power of his divine soul, not his cultivation.

"I think it's nearly time." without waiting for others to catch up, he quickly transported himself back to the underworld using the system portal.

****

"System update portal interface to level 2."

[System portal interface has been successfully up graded]

[Congratulations host, the transaction cost of the portal interface has been successfully reduced by 10%]

Leo used some of the treasures in the ring to first upgrade the portal to reduce the transaction cost. Leo frowned at the system message and asked,

"10% is not enough, system what is the maximum level?"

[Replying to host, level 10, which will reduce the transaction cost to an upper limit of 90%]

Leo gritted his teeth and decided to upgrade the portal to a maximum level. Many treasures inside the ring silently vanished. Leo felt his heart bleed but he knew he had no choice.

[Congratulations host, the portal interface has reached the maximum level. A new function has been unlocked as a reward. Please check the system space]

Leo didn't expect to unlock a new function. He was just trying to reduce the transaction cost before he would convert all the goods in his ring. Leo hastily checked the system space.

[All in one chat interface: The host can use this interface to communicate with people whose soul is linked with the host. It has an inbuilt exchange platform where things can be exchanged using mutual consent]

Leo was pleasantly surprised by the new function. Now he could finally interact with Alice anytime. To be honest, he felt lonely doing everything alone in the underworld. He had no one to share his happiness or frustration, without knowing himself his heart was turning colder and colder without the warmth of friendship or love.

Apart from the chat feature, the exchange platform seemed very useful too. He could use this platform to exchange different treasures. If any of his followers needed something he could buy it in the underworld market and put it on the exchange platform for a nominal price. If nowhere available he could create it himself using the creation system for a price.

Now it's time to convert the treasures into crystals. Since the transaction cost had been reduced to a bare minimum level he could get the maximum price.

"System, convert everything in the ring to crystals expect treasures that could help me build my foundation." Leo was too lazy to even take a look inside the ring.

[Conversion successful. You have gained 5233 sin crystals]

Leo heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, he had hit a jackpot and could finally shed his poverty for good. He also checked the storage ring and found that there were still many kinds of spiritual flowers.

"Just what was the background of that sect? It seems like I need to target powerful trading sects from now on. Well, what I am waiting for?" But suddenly a saw a system notification that poured cold water into his plan.

[Host can use the portal to travel only once a week]

"Thinking back, a week has already passed after my last travel. Cool downtime is a bit annoying but it is manageable. I can consolidate my gain using the gap. System, tell me about the spiritual flowers in the storage ring?"

[Replying to host, these are spiritual flowers that have the essence of strong metals as they grew in different mining areas. They help in building the host's foundation. Since the host's soul mark is a truck, it's strongly recommended to walk in a metal element path]

"Metal element ah? It makes sense as it is symbiotic with the truck mark in my soul. Currently, I have an ice element body, I guess I have no choice but to replace it. Before I order a new metal element body in the market and start my cultivation journey, I need to complete 2 things."

Leo worked for a few hours and came up with a new system for Emma which he named as 'Strongest trading system.' He wanted to fulfill the final wish Emma had and also use her talent to gather more treasures.

[Countdown for the reincarnation 23:59:59]

"Now all that is left is to give a mission to Alice. Since her people are in the middle of a war, it is a waste if she doesn't use the opportunity to collect some souls."

So he created 50 simple badges that can collect the souls around a 100m radius with an inbuilt counting function using a few crystals. After giving it some finishing touches and pushing the update button, Leo relaxed.

'Now I can finally focus on my cultivation.'

****

Alice's soul harvesting system suddenly received an update. Alice who was just reading some books suddenly saw a new system notification.

[Mission Harvest: Host has the opportunity to collect souls in the ongoing war. System reward would be based on the number of souls harvested. To help the host, the system is providing soul harvesting badges. Please, collect it in the inventory]

When Alice saw the badges, she immediately knew what to do. Within a few minutes, she wrote a letter to her father who was leading the troops on the border. Saying, to select the 50 strongest warriors and pin the badges to their clothes or body armor.

She explained that it was a magical item she created using her new cultivation technique. It would help in counting who killed more, which was a good way to calculate rewards later. Also, she mentioned that she would give a special reward to the person with the most kill count.

She didn't mention anything about soul harvesting as it would project her and Mark as evil cultivators. She decided to keep it a secret for herself. Although she felt a little guilty deceiving her honest father, she had no choice but to carry out the mission to become stronger in a short period.

She sent a box full of badges along with the letter using a spirit beast specially nurtured in the Royal Palace. Spirit beast looked similar to an eagle in her previous life but it was very huge with a body size of 2 to 3 times a normal eagle.

After sending the spirit beast away, Alice muttered to herself "Hopefully, it reaches in time."