Fortunes And Foundations

The night streets of Brightmoon City were brightly lit with Spirit Stone lamps. The colorful banners of the shops and restaurants added to the lively atmosphere of the city.

Lu Feng landed in front of the building he visited in the afternoon. His own shop. A shop that would've been good enough had he not regained the memories of his host body and met people from the Baihu Clan.

But now, the shop, even if it had three floors, would feel dainty for his about-to-be-acquired rich taste.

Inside the shop, Song Jin was seated at a corner table and working on something, while Hai Jingzi was instructing the craftsmen and builders.

Both Song Jin and Hai Jingzi saw Lu Feng walk in and stood up to greet him and inform him of the progress.

Hai Jingzi who was excited to see the old building renovated into a luxurious shop, couldn't help but proclaim with glee,

"Brother Lu, it'll be a tough deadline, but we'll complete all the work in time for the VIP auction. It's going to look amazing!"

Lu Feng scratched his chin as he spoke, "I came here to talk about that. First, I'd like to tell you something... I'm the young master of the Baihu Clan... But that changes nothing, whether It's my name or our plans. The other reason for my presence is...

"I want this entire building to be demolished... If you guys can, we should acquire more of the surrounding land. I want a brand-new building, luxurious inside and out, and as many Storeys as we could reasonably build within the time and budget."

A slew of different emotions brewed within Song Jin and Hai Jingzi, both displaying a countenance that looked like they were suffering from a case of acute constipation.

'What the fuck!? He's the young master of THE Baihu Clan!? And what's with his demands!? Does he think we could just do something like that in a couple of days!?' Both Song Jin and Hai Jingzi had the same thoughts.

Just as Song Jin was about to speak, he was stopped in his tracks by Lu Feng's actions. Lu Feng displayed the Baihu Clan token and then he took out a high-grade space pouch. He placed the pouch in Song Jin's arms.

Stunned, Song Jin was hard-pressed to string a sentence together, "How... How much... How much money is in this Bai... Brother Lu!?"

"Fifty million Spirit Crystals!" Lu Feng answered with a proud smirk.

"You... You mean there's five zero, fifty million Spirit Crystals in here and you want me to spend it?"

"Yeah, but not all of it, are you crazy!? Put it on the books, like I said, I want the building demolished and a new one constructed in its place immediately. And here's a list I made. Acquire all the materials in the list," Lu Feng took out a list.

1. Ninefold Nirvana Pill.

2. Core Perfection Pill.

3. Essence Nourishing Pill.

4. High-grade Berserker Pill.

Each pill variety was followed by the list of materials needed to refine the pill.

Lastly, there was a truly stupendous amount of formation and talisman supplies. High-grade inks, High-grade papers, miniature scribe sets, blank formation discs, formation flags, precious metals, elemental crystals, beast cores, and special botanicals. The list was long and exhaustive.

Before Song Jin could say anything, Lu Feng instructed, "Spend whatever is necessary on the building and then buy as many sets of materials as possible. I don't think there'll be much left, but if there's anything, treat it as a bonus for your future work."

Lu Feng said his piece exited the building and bolted off into the night.

'He came, He babbled, I blinked, He disappeared' With strange emotions, Song Jin examined the High-grade space pouch.

"Fifty fucking million Spirit Crystals. That's Fifty billion Spirit Stones." Song Jin sighed with a heavy heart, "Turns out Brother Lu is a real Young Master and the kind that's truly extravagant."

Hai Jingzi whose eyes were now bloodshot grabbed onto Song Jin's waist, "Brother Song we should use all our contacts and means to save as much as possible. If we even save a million, we'll be rich."

"I know..." Song Jin escaped from Hai Jingzi's grip around his waist.

"If there's enough money, we could even build the Heavenly Court of Legends, much less this. Contact the Captain of the city guards, and tell him we have some premium paid work. Request him to send everyone he could spare."

Hai Jingzi nodded his head like a chicken pecking at rice and rushed out of the building.

***

Before coming to meet up with his employee-partners— Lu Feng opened up the list Song Jin provided in the afternoon and referenced it with the Pill scriptures, scrolls, and recipes he received from Elder Fu at the Lotus Plaza.

After consulting with Li Wei, he picked the four most suitable pills. The formation and talisman materials were for an experiment he wanted to cook up.

He wanted to make something equivalent to a smartphone on Earth. As the scummy telecom operators proved time and again, it had a huge potential for all kinds of purposes.

On the way back to his room, Lu Feng had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. Like the creepy uncle who successfully lured kids with candied haw, he was pressing his hands together in anticipation of what was to become his shop.

***

When Lu Feng was back in his room, he saw a note by the bedside.

The note conveyed that Li Wei and the rest of the personnel have made arrangements for their stay and that he will be shadowed to ensure his safety. The note also mentioned that he shouldn't hesitate to call them if he needs any help.

'Just like we discussed... Safety huh, according to Uncle Wei's words when discussing the attack on me, he seems to imply that some doofus from the Holy Palace set me up out of jealousy.'

'He even warned me to be careful at the VIP auction as this particular doofus along with his Holy Palace brethren were likely to attend.'

Lying on his bed, he remembered the chime that reminded him to check the achievements and store page of the System.

'System. Achievements'

Achievement Unlocked:

A Crying Child Will Not Lack Milk- Beg for, and successfully receive a large chunk of money.

Reward: Might of the Divine White Tiger. Bloodline Atavism- Reform and purify the bloodline. ETA 24 Hours.

"What the fuck! So exaggerated!?" Lu Feng couldn't help but say it out loud.

He's now sure that the System is doling out rewards left and right.

'Is it because I've completed my mission or is there some other reason...'

'Store'

Store:

Shamelessly Hitch A Ride With Your New Family - 5 Skill points and a random skill card awarded.

'Ok, the system is definitely fucking with me...'

Open the random skill card?

'Yes'

A melodious chime sounded in Lu Feng's mind.

You've received the Sharpness skill card. Upgrade the skill once for free?

'Another godly skill...Yes'

Extended Skill upgraded:

Sharpness (Core, Level 1)

'Auto-upgrade skill tree.'

Fundamental Skills:

Breathing Technique (Master, Level 4)

Extended Skills:

Agility (Master, Level 4) - Upgraded. Perception (Innate, Level 2) Sharpness (Master, Level 4) - Upgraded.

Skill Points - 0

As the new and upgraded skills were activated, a powerful sensation surged through Lu Feng's body. Only this time, instead of his toes curling, he felt every part of his skin, organs, and bones, sliced across with the sharpest knife. The immense pain made Lu Feng blank out.

Several minutes later, when Lu Feng recovered from the pain and regained consciousness, the bed sheets were soaked with blood. Lu Feng felt weak and pained all over his body.

'Happens every single time...'

He couldn't help but wonder, usually when he was running around for Iris' tasks, the skills were subdivided and he had to toil for a long time- tens of years, before he could upgrade a single skill to Level 4.

Irrespective of what world he was in, or how the cultivation system was organized, Level 4, while it differed in name, had the same power.

'If this system continues to hand these points Willy nilly, It won't be very long before I'm a walking god!'

In all of the worlds Lu Feng transmigrated to or was born in, over the past eight lives, disappointingly, none of the cultivation worlds had realm after realm after realm one could hop onto, like an onion.

Lu Feng was thoroughly disappointed when he found out about this in his first life. It betrayed all his expectations from the Xianxia novels he read back on Earth.

All of the cultivation worlds were standalone, and though the worlds were vastly larger, sometimes several orders of magnitude larger than Earth, none of them had the infinite ladder to unendingly climb higher and higher to ever more powerful realms.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, he never had the downtime, patience, or chance, to wonder about what was beyond these gigantic worlds that were straight out of fiction.

Is it completely dark or is it just space with planets and stars? If so are there aliens? After experiencing everything he did, he concluded that he was journeying through a series of fucked up parallel worlds that would put any fiction to shame.

Through the thousands of cumulative years he spent with Iris, he gleaned enough information from their interactions and conversations that Iris and the system had an alien origin.

As Lu Feng was deep into his philosophical pondering over the nature of reality, existence, and his self, a loud continuous chime started sounding in his mind.

Achievement Unlocked:

Question your sanity, the nature of reality, the truth of existence, and other philosophical topics beyond your intelligence.

Reward: Knowledge Base. Try to unlock?

'Is this for real!?... Yes'

Checking for the fulfillment of conditions:

1. Completed more than twenty thousand tasks. ✅

2. Fulfill the System contract. ✅

3. Depressed & aimlessly pondering the mysteries of the Universe. ✅

4. The administrator has successfully departed the current universe. Checking.

5. The Interverse has been successfully sealed. Checking.

As Lu Feng awaited with bated breath, two new tick marks appeared on the list.

All conditions were successfully met.

After waiting for a while and receiving no further prompts, Lu Feng decided to summon it manually.

'Open Knowledge Base.'

A familiar jingle played in his mind.

You've unlocked the Knowledge Base. Puny Human, brace yourself, for here lies the answer to your questions. Find meaning to your worthless existence and cherish the knowledge that's known by but a few.

ETA 48 Hours.

'....'

Lu Feng had no words to describe the situation. One moment he was thinking about the system handing out rewards left and right and before he knew it, he came across something magical.

Magical and Edgy, are the only two words to describe whatever the fuck it was. Although the Knowledge Base was truly yet to be unlocked, he gleaned a lot of information from the prompts of the System.

The 'administrator' definitely referred to Iris; in checking whether Iris left the system, it's pretty obvious that Iris and by extension, the system, are tangible existences.

The final prompt that had significance was the one mentioning the sealing of the Interverse.

'Is it the name for parallel worlds and multiverses?'

And by referring to sealing the said Interverse, it's obvious that it's the method by which he was dragged from Earth, and the method by which he's able to move through the worlds. So each of the cultivation worlds he experienced were related but were located in different universes; parallel worlds to be exact.

The new information Lu Feng learned was truly mind-boggling. He was so excited that he could no longer sleep.

Deciding to cultivate, Lu Feng circulated his Qi, Essence, and Spirit energy in the path prescribed by the Immortal Vajra Scripture.

'It's going to be a long night...'

***