Night fell.
Li Yu found a room in the main hall, exchanged a simple bed through the system, and arranged it a little to turn it into a bedroom.
"With the system in hand, life sure is comfortable."
Lying on the bed with his pillow propped high, Li Yu hummed a tune contentedly.
"The Supreme Heavenly Book's host asks whether battle experience and adventure experience can be exchanged."
The system's prompt interrupted Li Yu's self-indulgence.
"Huh? That kid Zhou Yi actually wants to exchange for those?"
Li Yu rolled over and sat up, scratching his head. "System, doesn't the Supreme Heavenly Book have exchanges like that?"
"No."
"Well..."
Li Yu smiled awkwardly. "I actually forgot to set up that category? Fine. Extract the survival experience and combat experience of ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts from the Resource Library, and make them available for Zhou Yi to exchange."
"Please set the exchange price."
"The price, huh... That kid doesn't want to train properly and still wants to cut corners? Categorize them according to cultivation level. Based on the exchange prices of equivalent weapons... double them for me."
"Setup complete. The Supreme Heavenly Book's new function has been activated."
"Mm!"
Li Yu nodded. "System, archive that kid Zhou Yi's exchange records later and let me take a look. I'm going to get some sleep first."
Li Yu turned over, yawned, pulled the blanket over his head, and went to sleep.
In another room.
Zhou Yi asked the Heavenly Book Spirit whether he could exchange for adventure experience and battle experience.
Unexpectedly, after the question, the Heavenly Book Spirit froze, stuck in place without moving.
"What's going on? Can something as sophisticated as a system crash too? You've got to be kidding, right?"
Zhou Yi stared at the sight in utter disbelief.
"Patch loading complete. System update complete."
"Your servant, the Heavenly Book Spirit, pays respects to Your Majesty."
The Heavenly Book Spirit became lively again and bowed to Zhou Yi. "Your Majesty, the Supreme Heavenly Book has finished updating and has opened its adventure experience and battle experience exchange functions."
"Patching? Updating and upgrading? Why does that sound so familiar?"
Zhou Yi shook his head and focused on the new experience exchange function. "Heavenly Book Spirit, introduce this new experience exchange function."
"Yes!"
The Heavenly Book Spirit instantly summoned a light screen, upon which a long list of exchange options was displayed.
"Hand-to-hand Combat Experience"
"Magical Artifact Manipulation Experience"
"Stealth, Evasion, and Parrying"
"Jungle Survival Experience"
"..."
"There are actually so many options? Although most of them are battle experience at the Wheel and Sea Realm, they're more than enough for me. This system upgrade is really considerate."
Zhou Yi was delighted as he looked over the long list of experience exchanges.
"I'm mainly adventuring in the jungle right now, so Jungle Survival Experience is essential. Stealth and evasion can increase my chances of survival and successful hunting, so they're suitable too. As for combat experience, both hand-to-hand combat and magical artifacts are indispensable. I really want to exchange for all of them!"
However, when he saw the long string of Energy Point costs listed after the experiences, Zhou Yi shuddered from head to toe.
"They're actually this expensive? The prices are double those of weapons and equipment?"
"Your Majesty, weapons and equipment can only be used temporarily, but these experiences will benefit you for life!"
The Supreme Heavenly Book's ultimate authority belonged to Li Yu, so the Heavenly Book Spirit could only speak in Li Yu's favor.
"Uh... that's true."
Zhou Yi nodded. "Heavenly Book Spirit, recycle all my resources and exchange them for Energy Points."
"Energy Point exchange complete. Your Majesty, you possess eight hundred and fifty Energy Points."
"Eight hundred and fifty points? That's so little!"
Zhou Yi looked at the exchange options. Even the cheapest, "Jungle Survival Experience," cost three hundred points. The most expensive, "Magical Artifact Manipulation," actually cost one thousand points.
"Jungle survival, and stealth, evasion, and parrying—those two are indispensable. I'll exchange for those first."
The two options together cost exactly eight hundred points. After the exchange, he would have only fifty points left. He would save those fifty points for emergencies.
"Begin exchange."
As the Heavenly Book Spirit spoke, countless unfamiliar streams of information flooded into Zhou Yi's mind.
All kinds of experience for surviving in the jungle—where to find water, where to find food, where dangerous enemies lurked, where safe caves could be found, which plants were poisonous, and which creatures were not to be provoked—countless pieces of information rapidly merged into Zhou Yi's mind.
The wildly surging experience turned Zhou Yi's mind into a tangled mess, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
After the Jungle Survival Experience was uploaded, the experience of stealth, evasion, and parrying came flooding in as well.
"It hurts!"
Zhou Yi clutched his head and sat on the ground, gasping for breath. He barely endured until all the information had finished entering his mind.
"Whew! That was torture!"
Zhou Yi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, rolled over, and climbed to his feet. When he looked around, a thought instantly surfaced in his mind.
"The surroundings are open. It will be easy for enemies to spot me, and easy for me to be ambushed. There is nowhere to conceal my body and no environment that can hide my presence. This is highly unsuitable for survival."
"Huh? It's already working?"
Zhou Yi chuckled, delighted. It may have been expensive, but this experience is excellent! It has completely become instinct. At my current level, even jungle survival experts can't compare to me.
Walking to the window, he looked toward the distant jungle. Hearing the faint roars of beasts from within, Zhou Yi instantly identified what beasts were making them and could even discern their movements from the sounds.
"A night wolf caught an arrow pig? And several night owls are nearby, stealing chunks of meat and tearing into them?"
His familiarity with the jungle and the behavior of beasts filled Zhou Yi with joy. "With this jungle experience, hunting will become much easier in the future. Wonderful. This is wonderful."
If Li Yu knew what Zhou Yi was thinking at that moment, he would surely laugh until he could not catch his breath.
All of this experience had been extracted from the consciousnesses of ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts. Naturally, it was intimately familiar with the jungle and thoroughly understood it.
At this moment, Zhou Yi was rejoicing while Li Yu slept soundly beneath his blanket. Neither of them noticed the abnormality hidden within this experience—a massive trap that could make someone cough up blood from sheer frustration!
The night passed.
Early the next morning, relying on his incomparably skilled jungle experience, Zhou Yi gathered a pile of sweet and delicious wild fruit from the mountains and delivered it to Li Yu.
"Patriarch, this disciple picked some wild fruit. Please enjoy it."
"Uh..."
Li Yu rubbed his still-bleary eyes and accepted the fruit Zhou Yi handed over, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Eating fruit first thing in the morning was bad for the stomach!
Well, in Zhou Yi's eyes, an exalted expert like Li Yu naturally did not partake of mortal fare.
"You've been thoughtful."
Li Yu nodded approvingly at Zhou Yi. "You seem especially spirited and eager to try today. It looks like you gained quite a bit."
"It was all thanks to Patriarch's guidance. This disciple has gained a little."
Zhou Yi replied with a smile.
"Mm. Since you have gained something, go test it out."
"Yes!"
Zhou Yi accepted the order, turned, left the main hall, and headed for the jungle.
With Jungle Survival Experience, as well as the experience of stealth, evasion, and parrying, Zhou Yi was brimming with confidence.
Yet he never imagined that all the experience he had exchanged for concealed an incomparably enormous trap. As for whether it would trap him to death... well, probably not?