Fortune Trait: Breath of Geng Metal

The night wind swept through the mountain forest and across the clearing, rustling the branches and leaves overhead.

A silvery light spilled across the clearing, bringing the contours of the young man's excited face into sharp relief.

Lu Yang let out a long breath, and the surging heat in his chest gradually subsided with it.

He turned his gaze to the Flowing Light Flying Boat in his system inventory.

Even through the pale blue screen separating him from the inventory space, the flying boat's outline was clearly visible.

It was pale gold from end to end, its hull engraved with layer upon layer of formation patterns. The intricate, abstruse lines shimmered faintly with a dark golden glow in the dim light. One glance was enough to tell how magnificent it was.

A seven-story tower rose from the center of the boat, with upturned eaves and exquisitely carved window lattices. A row of tiny bronze bells hung beneath the eaves of each floor. Even with the boat at rest, he could imagine how crisply they would chime in the wind.

A slightly shorter building stood on either side of the tower, their staggered arrangement giving the whole boat the appearance of a small floating palace.

As for the rooms and furnishings inside, he couldn't see them clearly through the system inventory and could only imagine them from the description.

A refining room, an alchemy chamber, a spirit beast pen, spirit fields and a nursery... all of them aboard a flying Law Treasure. Simply reciting the names made it sound impossibly luxurious.

Lu Yang was itching to take it out right now, leap aboard and explore every corner, inside and out.

This was a supreme-grade Law Treasure flying boat!

Even an ordinary Law Artifact flying boat cost an outrageous sum on the market.

A Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator would have to tighten his belt for quite a while to save up enough Spirit Stones to buy one.

As for a supreme-grade Law Treasure flying boat, only a tiny handful of Golden Core Realm experts could possibly own one.

But on second thought, bringing the boat out would cause far too much commotion.

If a hundred-zhang-long tower ship appeared out of thin air at the edge of the Golden Sun Mountain Range, its spiritual light would illuminate half the mountain like daylight, even in the dead of night.

Forget passing fellow disciples; even the sect's elders might be alerted.

It was better to wait until he needed it.

Lu Yang restrained his eager anticipation and, with a thought, took the Flowing Light Flying Boat's control formation plate out of his inventory.

The plate was about the size of his palm, made of a dark golden spirit metal he didn't recognize. It was heavy in his hand, cool and smooth to the touch.

The surface was likewise covered in dense formation patterns, even finer and more tightly packed than those on the boat's hull. At its very center was a pale blue spirit crystal the size of a bean, its faint light pulsing on and off like a sleeping heart beating quietly.

He played with it for a while before carefully putting the formation plate away in his Storage Bag.

Once he had put it away, Lu Yang silently considered his schedule for the days ahead.

The Gold-and-White Sword-Scar Waistband needed refining, the storage ring needed refining, and so did the Flowing Light Flying Boat's control formation plate. He couldn't skip any of the three, and they would probably take quite some time.

But every one of those things was immensely useful to him, so he certainly couldn't begrudge the time.

Lu Yang shook his head, put his schedule out of mind, and turned his attention back to the system panel.

He selected the Mid-Level Rebate Card in his system inventory and assigned it to the purchase of the Azurite Jade Liquid at today's auction.

The words on the panel churned and shifted, finally settling into a large line of text flowing with golden light.

[Purchase successfully designated. Random reward multiplier: 10. Congratulations, host, you have obtained 1,000,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones!]

Lu Yang's pupils widened abruptly.

"..."

He opened his mouth, but for a moment no sound came out. In the quiet forest around him, all he could hear was his own heartbeat pounding against his eardrums like a drum.

Holy shit!

The maximum multiplier!

Ten times!

He'd bought a drop of Azurite Jade Liquid for a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and now he was getting a million back on top of it?

A million Low-Grade Spirit Stones!

That was a fucking million!

Even if many Golden Core Realm cultivators with somewhat meager resources pooled everything they owned, they probably couldn't scrape together that much!

Lu Yang realized his luck lately really had been ridiculously good.

After using so many Rebate Cards, he'd landed the maximum multiplier most of the time. He seemed to have gotten stuck at four times only twice.

But even four times was already the second-highest multiplier.

He couldn't help smiling. Had he become the child of destiny after the system awakened?

Why was his luck so good every time he drew a multiplier?

Of course, good luck was always a good thing.

Who wouldn't be happy to get several times more Spirit Stones back?

Lu Yang rubbed his face hard, forcibly suppressing the excitement that was almost ready to leap out of his throat.

He turned to the attributes section of his panel and fixed his gaze on Tycoon's Confidence.

After he had spent a hundred thousand at today's auction, the upgrade prompt had lit up.

With a thought, Lu Yang chose to upgrade it.

[Tycoon's Confidence (level 6): Receive 32 Low-Grade Spirit Stones every shichen. (Money is the foundation of a tycoon's confidence. Spend 300,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones to upgrade.)]

Thirty-two every shichen meant a full 11,520 Low-Grade Spirit Stones a month!

That was more than 130,000 a year!

Among Qi Refining Realm cultivators, that figure would crush the competition like Mount Tai bearing down on them.

Even among Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, it was no paltry sum.

Better yet, the requirement for the next upgrade was only 300,000 in spending.

And he now had more than a million Low-Grade Spirit Stones in hand!

In other words, he had more than enough to upgrade it again.

One more level, and his monthly passive income would double again.

Lu Yang stared at the line for Tycoon's Confidence for a long while, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.

A deep, warm satisfaction welled up in his heart, like downing a cup of scalding spirit tea in the depths of winter.

Today's trip to the auction had brought him enormous gains.

The Spirit Stones alone amounted to more than a million, and he'd also brought back the Azurite Jade Liquid, the Supreme-Grade Yellow Dragon Pill, the Gold-and-White Sword-Scar Waistband, a mid-level storage ring, the Flowing Light Flying Boat, a squad of Golden Core puppet bodyguards, and a mercenary contract capable of summoning peak Nascent Soul combat power...

In just one day, his fortune had leaped from tens of thousands of Spirit Stones to the million-stone level.

It seemed he couldn't afford to miss a single annual auction from now on.

As it happened, he'd also added Martial Aunt Liu Yaoyao's voice transmission mark.

With this insider around, he could ask in advance what good things would be at future auctions and make preparations early.

At that thought, Lu Yang shifted his gaze to the Beauty Module on the panel.

Originally, it had contained only two names: Lin Ying and Qin Nanyue.

Now there was another line—

Liu Yaoyao (affection: 10)

Unlike Qin Nanyue and Lin Ying's high affection, Liu Yaoyao's was currently a pitiful ten points.

It was still a long way from the sixty points needed to unlock the lowest reward threshold.

But Lu Yang wasn't in a hurry.

After all, Liu Yaoyao was already a Foundation Establishment Realm inner disciple, while he was just a minor Qi Refining Realm cultivator who had only just entered the outer sect.

Their circles were several levels apart to begin with, and they never normally ran into each other.

With no contact between them, raising her affection would naturally be all the harder.

For a long time to come, Liu Yaoyao's line would probably have to be set aside.

Fortunately, he still had Senior Sisters Lin and Qin.

Lin Ying's affection was close to the hundred-point mark. Once it reached a hundred, he could unlock the Beauty Cultivation function, along with an additional affection reward.

A reward was also waiting for him at eighty points with Qin Nanyue.

Those two were the ones he needed to focus his efforts on winning over right now.

Having sorted out his thoughts, Lu Yang chose to claim the affection reward for adding Liu Yaoyao.

The panel flashed.

[Host has successfully added Liu Yaoyao's contact information. Rewards obtained: 10,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones, Fortune Trait: Breath of Geng Metal]

[Breath of Geng Metal (mid-grade)]: With every breath, the user's breath carries wisps of the sharp Qi of the Metal Dao. Metal Dao Law Techniques gain a thirty percent increase in power and have a certain chance of dealing double damage.

Lu Yang's eyes widened, and his breath caught slightly.

It was a mid-grade trait!

The trait Qin Nanyue had given him before was low-grade. Swordsmanship Apprentice was useful, but its effects were limited.

Breath of Geng Metal, on the other hand, was a genuine mid-grade trait!

A thirty percent boost to Metal Dao Law Techniques, with a chance of double damage on top of that—wasn't that critical damage?

The scale of the improvement was on a completely different level!

Lu Yang vaguely recognized a pattern: the higher the cultivation of each beauty he added, the more generous the reward for adding her for the first time.

Lin Ying and Qin Nanyue were both in the Qi Refining Realm. Though their rewards differed, they were generally on the same level.

Liu Yaoyao, however, was in the Foundation Establishment Realm. She had given him a full ten thousand Spirit Stones alone, plus a mid-grade Fortune Trait. Her reward was clearly a level above the first two.

Perhaps it also had something to do with Lu Yang's own cultivation realm?

After all, his cultivation was a full major realm below Liu Yaoyao's.

With Breath of Geng Metal, his future path of pursuing both the Metal Dao and the Sword Dao was secure.

Lu Yang slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. It condensed into a wisp of pale mist in the cool night air, only to be torn apart an instant later by the wind in the forest.

He lifted his gaze from the panel and slowly swept it across the clearing around him, its surface dyed silver-gray by moonlight.

With that, he had finished taking stock of everything he'd gained at the auction.

He didn't know how much time had passed. The crescent moon had climbed directly overhead, illuminating the entire clearing as brightly as day.

From a distant valley came the occasional low hoot of a night owl, drawn-out and lonely.

Lu Yang looked ahead.

Wang Da and Wang San were still standing quietly where they had been, their postures unchanged.

Even their breathing was so faint as to be almost nonexistent, like two statues built of flesh and blood, waiting for their master's next command.

Lu Yang was silent for a few breaths before giving an order. "You two, stay near the market from now on. Don't cause a commotion; just keep a low profile. Whenever I come out of the sect, come and protect me."

"Yes!" the two answered in unison, without a single extra word.

Looking at their wooden yet resolute faces, Lu Yang suddenly thought of something.

He pondered for a moment, then continued, "Also, keep an eye on Li Yao for me. The moment he leaves the territory of the Golden Sun Mountain Range, notify me immediately."

"Yes!"

If Li Yao was merely spoiled and overbearing, hopping about inside the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect, Lu Yang couldn't be bothered to hold it against him.

But if he really dared harbor any crooked schemes, Lu Yang wouldn't indulge him.

Within the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect's territory, he couldn't make a move.

No matter how despicable Li Yao was, he was still a sect disciple. Kill someone on sect territory, and the Law Enforcement Hall would investigate to the bitter end.

A Golden Core cultivator killing a sect disciple, in particular, would cause quite a commotion if it came to light.

But as long as it happened outside the Golden Sun Mountain Range, it would be none of the sect's business.

Of course, if Li Yao knew what was good for him and behaved himself instead of provoking him, Lu Yang had no spare inclination to go looking for trouble with him.

It all depended on whether he would court death.

Moonlight spilled silently across the young man's calm face, outlining the faint, almost imperceptible cold smile at the corner of his mouth.