Chapter 80: Hesitation

Before long, Fan Bei had already activated the “Technique Exchange” module in the system, then chose to perform maintenance on the butler system.

Within the golden-tier cultivation technique practiced by the other party, there was a method to suppress one’s strength, perfect for concealing oneself at critical moments.

Thus, his maintenance proceeded without any obstacles.

Next, he witnessed the true flair of the wealthy.

“Lin Zhongqing consumed 7 million spiritual points to exchange for the technique ‘King’s Jade Command’ from an unknown source. The technique is now available for extraction.”

Seven million spiritual points?

That had to be a technique of a level above gold, surely.

He’d previously seen the other party only ever recharging ten or twenty spiritual cores at a time and assumed it was due to limited funds. Now it seemed it was simply that she couldn’t be bothered to recharge any more.

With such thoughts, Fan Bei hurried to examine the technique. Its name sounded impressive—he only hoped it wasn’t all show and no substance.

“King’s Jade Command: an advanced method for manipulating the essence of the void, allowing for highly efficient control of spiritual matter, thus influencing physical substances and developing a variety of supernatural abilities.”

“It includes techniques such as body-shaping, armor condensation, speed enhancement, and many more.”

After skimming the general description, he found it to be written in the clearest, most straightforward language, as precise as a technical manual—very unlike those cryptic, nebulous cultivation arts. It was something he could actually follow step by step and test the results for himself.

This was what a true cultivation method should be. Those that were vague, full of ambiguities and mystical nonsense were, without a doubt, the work of charlatans.

Only what could be put into practice and falsified was genuine—everything else, no matter how grandiose the claims, if untestable, was worthless.

Currently, he was at the bronze tier, where the need to control spiritual matter had become apparent, and this advanced technique arrived just in time to fill that gap.

With the “Father of Systems” bound to him, he no longer feared attacks on his mind or soul, but the protection of his physical body was still a glaring weakness.

Thus, his daily cultivation regimen gained yet another essential component.

……

Another week passed. On August 25th, while Fan Bei was testing his new armor, he received another notification from the “Father of Systems,” this time with an urgent banner alert.

“The host of the Good Person System has suffered severe injuries and is near death. System creator’s immediate attention required…”

“Uh, is this the prelude to a fatality?”

Fan Bei quickly checked— the first system’s host, Da Bai, was right by his side, enjoying his protection; the other host, Lin Zhongqing, was always the one bullying others, not the other way around.

Of the three systems, only the host of the Good Person System, Lang Sheng, was a true weak point—yet he happened to hold a prized territory.

At present, only the “Mission Guidance” module had been activated for him. Though he could improve his spiritual cultivation by completing protection tasks and exchanging for refined spiritual points, Fan Bei hadn’t yet had the chance to install any other modules, leaving the situation precarious.

It hadn’t been long since he started exchanging power, just a little over a month, and Copper Fortress was far from wealthy, nothing like Lin Zhongqing’s resources.

Lang Sheng, at best, had reached peak bronze tier, perhaps just touching silver, but his background was too humble, lacking the necessary techniques, and his combat ability was weak.

Now, it seemed, he too had reached the point where a tall tree attracts the wind.

Fan Bei thought this perfectly natural. He opened the system logs, began to examine the host’s situation, and simultaneously started maintaining the other system modules.

“At this moment, the host’s strength is far below that of the system creator. Maintenance possible.”

After a moment’s thought, Fan Bei granted him modules and abilities such as “System Shop,” “System Achievements,” “Soul Mute,” and “Heart Link,” and, as before, uploaded computer science knowledge to boost the Good Person System’s intelligence.

As for “Level Up and Attribute Points,” since defeating evil spirits would always drop spiritual cores—a trait that might reveal the system’s non-uniqueness—he decided not to add that module.

After all, both Da Bai and Lin Zhongqing had it, but fortunately those two would never cross paths. Lin Zhongqing and Lang Sheng, however, could very well meet, even joining forces in battle.

As for the System Shop, he decided to let the system intelligence cover for it, hiding service functions from direct view, accessible only through system calls, with an extra layer of interface.

Only after all this did he turn to the current scene.

Beneath a bronze-hued dome, at the center of a public square, the people of Copper Fortress watched as their once-formidable leader, President Lang, was pinned beneath someone’s foot.

Their faces were complex—this man had once been ruthless and domineering, but he had kept the fortress safe and stable.

Over the past two months, he’d suddenly changed his ways, implementing measures even better than those in Silver City. Many believed he was just spinning tall tales.

But it turned out all of it was real. Food was plentiful, wages rose, rent fell, subsidies for childbirth and children were enacted…

Many had begun to truly accept him. For people at the bottom, if those in power showed even a little mercy and left them a way to survive, they would be endlessly grateful, struggling on. As for past grievances, they often chose to forget. Call it weakness or incompetence, but it was the only way to survive.

“Wolf Wei! You killed my father! Bet you never thought this day would come—my day of vengeance!” A half-grown youth, face twisted with rage, shouted at Lang Sheng on the ground.

He completely ignored that his father had deserted in battle and been executed by military law, blaming it all on Lang Sheng. Of course, such scapegoating was not wholly unwarranted.

Behind him stood two men in their thirties and a woman in her early forties.

“Shaochong, enough talk with the likes of him. Kill him, and you’ll be the lord of this fortress. Then we’ll go to Silver City to file the paperwork, and from then on, everything here will be yours!” The middle-aged woman smiled warmly, handing him a sharp boning knife.

Wang Shaochong took the knife, hesitating, and slowly approached Lang Sheng.

He raised the blade.

At that moment, Feng Erjin, a scrawny man who’d been watching from the side, suddenly darted forward, driven by some impulse.

“Brother Wang, you can’t! President Lang is a VIP Level 2 member of the Silver Chamber of Commerce. If you want to kill him, you have to send a telegram and get their approval. Don’t throw away your future so recklessly!”

Lang Sheng lay on the ground, dazed, watching it all unfold.

Wang Shaochong hesitated at these words. The authority of the Silver Chamber was something that had been carved into everyone’s hearts over the years.

They all knew that Wolf Wei had managed to keep the fortress alive by exploiting loopholes and the Chamber’s blind spots, and only then won their recognition—otherwise, they’d have been crushed, and everyone would have become lifelong puppets and servants.

For some reason, the two men and the woman merely frowned at Feng Erjin’s intervention instead of acting rashly, urging Wang Shaochong:

“Nephew, if you don’t do it yourself, who will listen to you? Who will obey you? If you can’t even avenge your own father, what kind of man are you? Don’t forget, your brothers died during the escape!”

Wang Shaochong still wavered. So what if his father and brothers had died? He’d survived through great hardship—he absolutely did not want to face that terror of death again!

If he acted rashly, the Silver Chamber’s people might just kill him after the fact and annex the fortress outright.

Others might not know, but as Wang Kui’s son, he knew a bit more—his father always said, of all people, never cross the Chamber; they were the sky here, the kings.

So he said slowly, “Let’s send a telegram first, ask the bigwigs in the Silver Chamber.”

He then said coldly to Feng Erjin, “Uncle Feng, you were friends with my father. Please go send the telegram yourself.”

Watching this unfold through the live system feed, Fan Bei shook his head. Indeed, villains die for talking too much, and hesitation leads only to failure.

Feng Erjin secretly breathed a sigh of relief at this, nodding repeatedly and agreeing at once to send the telegram himself.

“Wait, I’ll go with you,” said a young man behind Wang Shaochong, stepping forward.

Feng Erjin did not refuse, nor did he dare to, and led the man away from the square.