Advancing to Sequence Eight: Swindler

In the living room, Nan Fusheng recalled what the teacher had taught in class today and decided to try meditating.

He sat cross-legged, focused his mind, and calmed his breath. Meditation required tranquility first—feeling oneself, feeling nature. That was the first step.

Nan Fusheng had few distracting thoughts to begin with, so he quickly settled into complete stillness. His consciousness silently sensed his Insect Martial Soul, sensing the faint yet tangible soul power within it. For preliminary meditation, reaching this point was enough. One first had to sense one's Martial Soul and soul power, keeping one's spirit closely connected to them. Only after doing this well could one proceed to true meditation.

Within his mind, the Insect Martial Soul slowly wriggled. Nan Fusheng suddenly felt as though he had sensed something from the world of insects.

Though it was weak, once the time was right, it might not be impossible for it to break free of its cocoon and become a butterfly.

Weak as they were, insects possessed tenacious vitality. They were the most numerous creatures on the continent, and they had endured for countless millennia.

Even mighty Soul Beasts were on the verge of extinction, yet insects still lived upon this land just as they had tens of thousands of years ago.

A faint realization came over him, and Nan Fusheng vaguely sensed tiny presences silently pouring into his body from the air, merging with his still-very-weak soul power. The fusion was neither fast nor plentiful.

Yet he could clearly feel his soul power gradually increasing through that fusion. Though it grew only bit by bit, the increase was stable and continuous.

After an unknown amount of time, Nan Fusheng naturally awakened from his meditative state. His entire body felt refreshed. So this is what cultivating soul power feels like? Not bad.

Nan Fusheng checked himself and found that his soul power was already nearing level two. With about one more day of cultivation, he would likely break through.

Cultivating soul power from Soul Scholar to Spirit Master was not difficult. As long as one possessed Innate Soul Power, even if it was only half a level, one could reach level ten through hard work. The only difference was how long it took.

Although Nan Fusheng possessed only one level of Innate Soul Power, and had obtained it through Steal, his physical constitution was not weak. The Potion system itself was a gradual ascent from "human" to "god." At present, his cultivation speed was roughly equivalent to someone with level-three Innate Soul Power.

Just then, an excited shout suddenly came from next door. "Great! I have a little sister now!"

Hearing that voice, Nan Fusheng knew that the Silver Dragon King, Na'er, had officially moved into Tang Wulin's home. That also meant he had to speed up his progress. At the same time, he could conduct an experiment he had previously envisioned.

Nan Fusheng slowly closed his eyes and recalled several phrases with intense concentration:

"The Auspicious Life of Mysterious Yellow."

"Fusheng Xuanhuang Heavenly Monarch."

"God of Life, Profound Yellow."

"Lord of Life, Profound Yellow Heaven."

Nan Fusheng repeated those phrases over and over in his heart. Suddenly, he felt as though the air around him had stopped moving, becoming viscous and strange.

Though his eyes were tightly shut, Nan Fusheng felt a light explode before him.

Nan Fusheng opened his eyes, and billowing gray fog filled his vision—hazy, blurred, boundless.

Once the "Swindler Potion" entered Sefirah Castle, Nan Fusheng continued repeating those words. A ball of intertwined golden, yellow, and red light slowly emerged before him.

Nan Fusheng reached out and grabbed the ball of light, opened his mouth, and tossed it in. The entire process was completed in one smooth motion, without the slightest hesitation.

Immediately afterward, Nan Fusheng found his face turning red, while similar changes occurred across the rest of his body.

He was certain that he now looked like a steamed shrimp, yet his spirit seemed to detach itself, transforming into countless fine needles that merged into drops of Potion and pierced into individual cells.

It was a sensation of being able to "observe" cells without a microscope. Nan Fusheng stood there, "watching" the intruder enter the most minute regions of his body.

During those few seconds, he felt like a robot undergoing modifications to its components and circuits.

After an unknown amount of time, an image of himself appeared in Nan Fusheng's mind, like hearing his own singing through an earpiece.

With the help of that strange reflection, Nan Fusheng discovered that he could precisely control his facial expressions and bodily movements.

At that moment, he clearly knew that he had successfully advanced and had become a Swindler.

Nan Fusheng directly left Sefirah Castle and began familiarizing himself with his abilities:

Charisma: Could increase his charm.

Eloquence: Made his words extremely persuasive.

Mental Interference: Created illusions to deceive opponents.

Swindlers delighted in deceiving others and were skilled at sweet-talking people. They were also agile and quite fast.

As mentioned before, Potions needed to be digested. Normally, digesting a Sequence 9 Potion through acting took around one to two years. The fastest could do it in a month.

Nan Fusheng, however, had spent nearly six years. There was nothing to be done about that—who became a Beyonder while still an infant?

Nan Fusheng had officially begun acting the part when he was four to five years old. It was only shortly before awakening his Martial Soul that he had fully digested the Potion.

Now, as Nan Fusheng sensed his condition, his soul power had smoothly reached level two, and his physical constitution had improved further. His cultivation speed was now roughly equivalent to someone with level-five Innate Soul Power. Once he finished digesting the Potion, it would likely improve even further.

However, there was still one problem ahead: money.

Becoming a Spirit Master required money. If this had been ten thousand years ago, he could have hunted Soul Beasts, but now Soul Beasts were nearly extinct. The only remaining way to become a Spirit Master was to purchase a Soul Spirit.

Soul Spirits were expensive, and given Nan Fusheng's family circumstances, the most he could afford was the cheapest randomly drawn Soul Spirit, which cost only

thirty thousand Federal Coin.

Nan Fusheng's family was not wealthy. "Poverty" was the source of all quarrels. His father had run away from home three months after he was born, while his mother had been made into his Marionette. Under such circumstances, raising him safely to adulthood had consumed more than half of the family's savings.

Thus, after turning four, Nan Fusheng would sometimes take odd jobs wherever help was needed. Clearly, most industries did not need a child laborer. After all, the Federation had laws prohibiting the employment of child labor—unless one was a Spirit Master.

Those willing to hire Nan Fusheng fell into two categories. The first pitied him and wanted to help. From them, Nan Fusheng would accept only food as payment. The second were human traffickers. From them, he stole whenever he could, never showing mercy.

By pinching and saving, occasionally getting an extra meal from a few small-time thugs, and adding the family inheritance, he had scraped together a little over thirty thousand Federal Coin.