A Cheat for You

"The Divine Crocodiles had appeared, and that kid Zhou Yi still had no means of protecting himself."

Seeing the Divine Crocodiles attack, Li Yu halted and hurriedly issued an order to the Heavenly Book Spirit.

"Heavenly Book Spirit, have that kid Zhou Yi exchange for a group protection buff. Find one among those Buddhist Artifacts. As for offense, have him exchange for sword qi first."

Whether it was a protective skill or offensive sword qi, both came from physical items Li Yu had collected. That way, there was no need to consume system energy.

"Even a landlord has no surplus grain! I only have a thousand-odd energy points, and I still need to save them for showing off. How could I waste them so casually?"

Li Yu smiled and shook his head before continuing onward.

"Taking a stroll on Mars. It would be hilarious if a satellite caught me on camera."

Li Yu walked as he entertained himself with that wicked thought.

With the system in hand, Mars's environment could not affect Li Yu. Exchanging for a little air only cost a few energy points. He could directly exchange the air into his lungs, saving himself even the trouble of breathing in.

Fine, he was simply bored.

"I should hurry over and catch a ride!"

Li Yu truly could not stand this sky-filling sandstorm. A streak of escaping light rose beneath his feet as he flew toward the Five-Colored Altar.

Near the ruins of Da Lei Yin Temple.

Zhou Yi saw a woman lying motionless on the ground, and his heart immediately tightened.

"Heavenly Book Spirit, I want to exchange."

A living life was dying before his eyes, and fear of death surged into his heart. Zhou Yi began to panic.

"Your Majesty, given the current situation, you need to exchange for one protective skill and one offensive skill. Please make your selection."

The Heavenly Book Spirit waved a hand and cast out a light screen covered in densely packed exchange options.

"There are too many. It's making my eyes spin. Just pick a few suitable ones."

Seeing that dense mass of options, Zhou Yi nearly developed trypophobia.

"Your Majesty, for protection, I recommend the Vajra Empowerment Incantation. For offense, I recommend Grand Void Sword Qi."

"Fine. Exchange them immediately."

Zhou Yi sounded impatient. With danger at hand, his thirst for power had become impossible to suppress.

"Exchange successful."

The Heavenly Book Spirit waved a hand, and a spiritual light shot into Zhou Yi's body. Zhou Yi felt his entire body heat up as immense power surged wildly within him.

"My body is like vajra; no evil may invade."

A Buddhist chant rang out. Golden light fell like rain, scattering brilliant golden radiance over everyone. Their bodies seemed to have been coated in a layer of golden splendor, dazzling and magnificent.

"It's actually a group buff?"

Zhou Yi stood frozen for a moment, then hurriedly asked the Heavenly Book Spirit, "This skill is a group buff? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Your Majesty, do you not need a group buff? Do you not have a group of subordinates with you?"

The Heavenly Book Spirit looked at Zhou Yi with an innocent expression.

"Uh... fine!"

Zhou Yi was left speechless.

This was actually Li Yu's doing. Through the System connection, he had watched that woman die before his eyes, and he could not bear it. If he could save one more person, he would save one more. It did not take much effort anyway.

Golden light spread across everyone's bodies, leaving them utterly astonished.

"Ah? This is..."

"Huh? I think I've gotten stronger!"

"Yes, yes. I don't feel tired anymore either."

After the golden light covered their bodies, everyone clearly felt their fatigue vanish, while their strength increased considerably.

"Zhou Yi!"

Liu Yunzhi suddenly glared at Zhou Yi with fury. "You released this golden light. So you really were hiding something! Zhou Yi, how dare you keep it for yourself? Hand it over now."

"Zhou Yi? Him?"

Hearing Liu Yunzhi's words, everyone turned to look at Zhou Yi, their expressions becoming strange.

"Clang..."

The golden light around Liu Yunzhi flashed violently, producing a sound like a ringing bell. Liu Yunzhi felt a tremendous force slam into him, causing him to stagger and nearly fall headfirst to the ground.

"Zhou Yi, you actually dared to attack me?"

Liu Yunzhi glared at Zhou Yi with bloodshot eyes, his face filled with resentment.

"Idiot!"

Zhou Yi cursed at Liu Yunzhi, raised two fingers like a sword, and slashed through the air.

A cold, razor-sharp sword qi cut through the air. With a pfft, blood sprayed everywhere.

A monster severed into two pieces fell to the ground.

The monster was about ten centimeters long and as thick as a finger. It was neither snake nor crocodile, its entire body covered in black scales. It looked incomparably sinister and terrifying.

"Ah? What is that thing?"

"Was that monster the one attacking us just now?"

Seeing the monster's corpse, everyone could not help drawing in a cold breath. There was probably more than one such monster. If a great number of them came...

"So this is a Divine Crocodile? It's not much."

Zhou Yi looked at the Divine Crocodile split in half and curled his lips in disdain.

"Run!"

With a shout, everyone turned and fled.

Even though Liu Yunzhi wanted to use the crowd to force Zhou Yi to hand over what he had obtained, he had no choice but to abandon the matter for the moment.

"Clang..."

"Clang..."

As they fled, bell-like chimes kept ringing from people's bodies, knocking them off balance. However, the golden light was remarkably powerful, and the Divine Crocodiles' attacks did not truly injure anyone.

Zhou Yi caught up and killed those few Divine Crocodiles with a single sword strike.

Before long, everyone had run onto the Five-Colored Altar.

"Pant... pant... We finally escaped disaster!"

Everyone stood atop the Five-Colored Altar, gasping for breath.

After a while, the light barrier blocking the storm continuously shrank. Gradually, only a thin layer remained, covering the Five-Colored Altar. Endless sandstorms raged all around them.

"The Five-Colored Altar is absorbing the light barrier's power? Does the Nine Dragons Bronze Coffin need this power to activate and continue onward?"

Watching the shrinking light barrier, Zhou Yi nodded and asked in his heart, "Heavenly Book Spirit, where will this Bronze Coffin go?"

"Your Majesty, the Bronze Coffin will arrive at the Big Dipper Starfield."

"The Big Dipper Starfield? What is it like there?"

Zhou Yi became interested in the Big Dipper Starfield and hurriedly asked.

"The Big Dipper Starfield is a world where cultivators gather and heroes from every path converge. Once Your Majesty arrives in the Big Dipper Starfield, you will be able to contend with heroes from all corners."

"A world of cultivators? This is wonderful!"

Zhou Yi clenched his fists, his blood boiling with excitement.

"Zhou Yi!"

Liu Yunzhi's furious shout interrupted the exchange between Zhou Yi and the Heavenly Book Spirit.

"What is it?"

Zhou Yi turned and glanced at Liu Yunzhi, asking indifferently.

"You're still playing dumb?"

Liu Yunzhi pointed at the golden light around his body and said to Zhou Yi, "Do you want to keep it all for yourself? This golden-light spell—wasn't it something you got from the ancient temple? Everyone deserves a share. You want to monopolize it? No chance!"

"Exactly! Exactly!"

"This immortal opportunity belongs to everyone. It's unreasonable for one person to claim it all."

"Yes! Hand it over! Hand it over!"

Some jealous people also began shouting.

"You want me to hand it over? Why should I? Don't forget, if it weren't for me, all of you would have died on the way here. Not only are you ungrateful, you even want to steal my things?"

Zhou Yi's expression darkened.

"This thing belonged to everyone from the start. Giving us the golden-light protection spell is what you should do. If the rest of us obtained treasures, wouldn't we also be able to protect everyone?"

Liu Yunzhi put on a righteous expression and loudly rebuked Zhou Yi.

"Clang..."

"Clang..."

Another bell-like chime rang out. Two classmates beside Li Xiaoman and Ye Fan swayed as the golden light around their bodies flashed wildly.

"Ah! More monsters are coming."