Chapter 9: Conspiracy?

The sun was soon peaking over the horizon, everyday mortals woke up and started their day, some opened their shops, some started seeling things on the streets while others drank away their sorrows.

Looking at her sleeping form made him start thinking, should he ask her to put on a mask to not attract any young master coveting her beauty?

Especially with this martial arts event taking place, there are bound to be some of them attending.

Right now they were rouge cultivat- cough... I mean self-guided practitioners who had no background.

Although she came from a medium-sized sect, he doubted whether they would come over here to help seeing as how they didn't even bother to come and help her when she was on the verge of death or contact her.

Getting up from the bed he went to the couch to start cultivating. The entire night he hadn't said a word, just his presence alone was enough to comfort her, which was all he knew what to do.

Sitting down he turned on his epiphany phase and began to run the Azure Soul Cultivation technique.

Quickly the 100x talent came into play and his cultivation began to soar.

3 hours passed and he only managed to break through once reaching the middle-level foundation establishment phase which kind of disappointed him since he had been used to breaking through multiple realms in one sitting.

If Yinling had heard him say this she would probably want to beat him within an inch of his life.

Seeing that she was still sleeping, he decided to check if she was still breathing just in case...

Seeing her still alive he decided to go outside and get a mask, he was not going to risk his life and cross paths with a young master.

Going out of his room he went downstairs and asked for directions to a store that sold masks recommended by the blonde front desk lady.

Seeing the city again still left him mesmerized a bit but he quickly focused and went the way he was told.

Along the way, he kept using the system to spy on people's cultivation to get a better idea of how the cultivation levels were here.

[

  name: Li Yin

  age: 40

 energy control: 2%

 talent: 5s

 cultivation: Qi condensation 2nd level

]

[

 name: Ye Chen

 age: 18

 energy control: 1%

 talent: 4s

 cultivation: Body Tempering 6th level

]

There were a lot of people on the street walking but he soon arrived at the place he was recommended.

Seeing the plaque of the store name left him with an odd feeling.

"Masked C. Predators huh... now what could that c mean?"

Not bothering to care enough, he went inside and browsed the masks they had on display. Luckily there weren't many people so he quickly found two masks he wanted, including one for himself.

Going up to pay he realized something was off "Wait a second... how am I going to pay for these"

"Shit I left without asking her for money" he thought. Quickly looking around, he noticed an old man in the corner of the store browsing some masks.

Approaching the older-looking man in the corner, he was about to ask him if he would be willing to pay for his masks but suddenly he received a notification

[Ding! Quest has been issued]

[Trick this old bag of bones into buying the masks you want]

[Reward: New System function, Gender change function]

"????"

Looking at the rewards left him speechless, "Are you going to make me do something system??"

[...]

"SYSTEM!!!" he screamed internally.

[...]

Focusing back, he checked the details of the old man to get a better idea of how to trick him.

[

 Name: Ye Futian

 Age: 78

 Cultivation: Body Tempering 4th Level

 Talent: Low-Grade affinity (1 second)

 Energy Control: 1%

 Skills: 

 Slong punch(elementary/yellow)

 Weapon: Simple Iron Sword

 Description: A lonely old man on the verge of death but seeking to assault his next-door neighbor's daughter with force at night undercover as his final act.

]

"..."

Should he get rid of this old man? Maybe he can trick this old man into buying the two masks he wants then rob him in an alleyway or something.

Getting closer to the old man he gently threw the masks he got behind his back towards the old man to make them seem like they fell off the shelf.

"It looks like those masks took a liki-" he was cut off mid-sentence when he heard something smash against the shelf and onto the floor hard.

Looking down he saw the old man on the floor unconscious with the masks lying near him.

Perhaps he may have used a bit too much force when throwing those masks. If it were another person he may have felt bad but seeing the intentions of this old man he felt good to have done this.

Healing the old man enough so he won't die and cause a search party, he found that he had a storage ring on his ring finger which surprised him.

Storage rings are expensive, this old man must have used his life savings to buy this ring for him.

Taking it off he quickly put his energy into the ring and found he had some money which was enough to pay for the masks.

While he was at it he bought two black cloaks as well.

Paying for them, he quickly left the store and onto the streets.

"System give me my rewards, I want to see this new function you have"

[Ding! Quest has been completed]

[Congratulations! You have received gender change function]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Storage Space function]

[Host is now able to store non-living things in an unlimited storage space]

"Finally... I was beginning to get worried about how I would carry all the stuff I found, although I found this storage ring, the space in it is too small" 

Taking out the masks and putting them in his system storage, he decided to wear the storage ring to not make people question where he takes things out of.

As he was walking back to the inn he suddenly heard a commotion in the street.

"Did you hear, a big shot from a 8 star city just arrived"

"Really? Why are they coming to such a small place like this"

"Are you dumb? The city lord has been announcing this martial arts event for months, where have you been?"

"..."

"Brother you might want to see a doctor"

Hearing them talk, he knew he needed to head to the inn fast.

If he were to come across a big shot and set his eyes across his handsome face, would he directly be blasted into a blood mist?

With quick footsteps, he arrived at the inn and reached his room. Only 20 minutes have passed since he left for the masks so she should still be asleep.

Opening the door he saw her sitting on the couch cultivating, although her hair looked messy she still looked beautiful. 

Going to the couch, he sat right next to her, he decided to explore the concept of energy manipulation since it seemed like the best path right now to quickly improve his strength, plus to see if there were other ways to utilize it.

Turning on his epiphany phase, he tried forming the spear he created earlier but this time he tried to create it faster.

Last time it took him 1 hour, but this time he was able to create it within 5 minutes.

Looking at the darker hue of red on the spear, he smiled, it meant he had found a better way to compress his energy in a shorter amount of time.

"Now I see what I was doing wrong, I hesitate too much in moving forward that I sometimes miss the best time to build some parts of it, maybe this time I should rush it" he thought.

Quickly with his 10,000x comprehension speed, the amount of time for creating the spear was steadily reducing.

5 minutes...

3 minutes and 51 seconds...

2 minutes and 10 seconds...

1 minute...

With each attempt his speed in finding shortcuts and getting rid of redundant steps increased allowing for faster timing.

At the same time, he kept hearing the familiar beeping sound but not as frequently as he used to. 

[Ding! Energy Control +1%]

[Ding! Energy Control +1%]

...

Opening his eyes, although his cultivation base had not improved, he felt like he could easily defeat dozens of his former self.

Looking at his panel, he felt amazed at his progress.

[

 Name: Jun Xiayou

 Age: 15

 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Middle(stable)

 Talent: High-Grade affinity (9 seconds)

 Energy Control: 17%

 Skills: 

 Azure Soul Cultivation Technique (Mastered/yellow-middle), 

 Blue Wave Movement Technique (Mastered/yellow-high)

 Speed Slash (Mastered/yellow-top)

 Energy Spear Technique (elementary/Immortal level)

 Human harmonization healing technique(elementary/Eternal level)

 Weapon: Midnight Shadow Sword (low level yellow)

 Description: Homeless pig bum trying to eat swan meat...

]

Just a few days ago he was only a lowly level 5 body tempering cultivator, now he is a glorious foundation establishment cultivator with strength beyond his realm.

Although he had no clue as to how exactly much more powerful he was than a cultivator with the same cultivation, he felt he could easily defeat them with just 1 finger.

"It seems energy manipulation is the way to go, but it's weird... every single person I have spied on seems to have a low energy manipulation percentage, the highest I have seen is only 3, is it because I'm only at a 5-star city?" he thought.

Getting rid of such thoughts, he realized someone had been staring at him, turning his eyes to the left he saw Yinling staring at his spear with a burning gaze.

With a serious expression he spoke "Young lady... my eyes are up here"

Seeing her lost in her world staring at his spear, he retracted it so she could focus back on him. "I guess it's time for me to honor the deal, but remember, this technique is not something you can learn at the moment, you need to first improve your control over your energy"

Hearing him speak on the subject, she decided to ask something that had been bothering her since she saw him using this technique "Did you discover this?"

A little taken aback he answered, "What do you mean?".

"I meant were you the one to discover you can shape your energy, last time I checked no one I have met has ever mentioned this when teaching me the basics about cultivation" she questioned.

With a puzzled expression, he spoke "You mean to tell me... you don't know what this is?"

"Obviously... otherwise why would I be asking you" she retorted.

Feeling a bit of sweat starting to form he asked her to clarify what she meant "So no one taught you this? maybe they thought you weren't ready for this"

Her voice trembled with a mixture of sarcasm and deep-seated sorrow. "I don't know if you're aware, but..." She paused, her words choked with emotion, "My elder sister is seen as a once-in-5000-years genius. At just ten years old, she managed to easily reach the level that I have struggled my whole life to achieve."

Tears began to form in her eyes, yet she forced herself to continue, desperate for someone to understand her struggle.

"We both began our cultivation journey at five, born on the same day. Yet, our fates couldn't have been more different.

While I was born with Medium-level affinity, she... she was born with a Saint-Level affinity.

Such a slight difference in the beginning, yet it has defined our entire lives."

Her voice dropped to a whisper, laden with a sense of foreboding. "If someone as monstrous as my sister doesn't even know about this... then... then"

With eyes wide open he didn't need her to finish her to know what she was implying.

"The first time I saw you using this technique, for some reason it felt like my mind suddenly became clearer, although at the time I just ignored it but... I just feel like there is something more to this"

Hearing her words caused him to look at what was going on, why were people's energy control so low, why did Yinling feel that her mind suddenly became clearer?

At first, he thought it could just be a coincidence or perhaps the location they were in is low level but hearing Yinling's story plus so many people having such low energy control is past being a coincidence.

"if that's the case, are you sure you want to learn this, Look, I don't mean this in a bad way but earlier when we were in the cave, it didn't seem like you have gotten over what happened to you when I found you"

Looking at the color drain from her face, he knew he had hit the nail on the mark. 

"Yinling... honestly are you sure you want to pursue this path?"