"Oh my gosh! He actually won!"
The entire Jiaolong Plain erupted as they watched Yang Chengzhi sway unsteadily on the arena.
The bottom-ranked fighter at number three hundred on the Dragon Ranking had defeated the peerless genius ranked first!
Yang Chengzhi struggled to keep himself upright on the arena. He looked at Xiaoyaozi, who lay in a pool of blood, then tugged at his bloodied face and laughed.
"Never thought you'd lose, did you?"
"I didn't expect it either. I'd actually prepared to die at your hands."
"Maybe Heaven finally took pity on me, Yang Chengzhi, for once."
Yang Chengzhi muttered to himself. His gaze slowly turned toward a certain direction, where a group of Zhenguan Academy students stood. At a glance, he picked out the figure he most wanted to see.
As he looked at that figure, Yang Chengzhi fell into memories.
"Little Yun Chang, do you want to cultivate?"
"Of course I do, but I don't have any Spirit Crystals, and no cultivator is willing to teach me."
"I'll teach you! I have Spirit Crystals, too."
He had been twelve that year, just starting down the path of cultivation. He had taught her everything he knew and given her all his Spirit Crystals, while he trained hard on his own.
"Little Yun Chang, this is a third-grade cultivation technique. Take it."
"Thank you, Brother Chengzhi, but I'd rather have a spirit sword."
"Okay."
He had been sixteen that year, and his cultivation had begun to bear fruit. To fulfill Little Yun Chang's wish, he had ventured into Nine Heavens Mountain five times to hunt spirit beasts, sustaining serious injuries. In the end, he used the Spirit Crystals he'd earned to buy her a third-tier spirit sword.
"Yun Chang, Jian Shan Academy accepted me. I'll be able to learn more profound techniques and martial skills now."
"I want to go, too."
"Okay."
He had been eighteen that year, and his extraordinary talent had caught Jian Shan Academy's attention. To fulfill Little Yun Chang's wish, he had knelt outside the academy gates for three days and nights. In the end, he moved the instructors, and they let the two of them study at the academy together.
"Brother Chengzhi, Zhenguan Academy's entrance exam is coming up soon. Let's take it together."
"Okay."
He had been twenty-three that year, and his cultivation had reached Spirit Master Stage Five. His reputation as a genius had spread throughout the region, and the academy's vice president had even taken an interest in him and planned to accept him as a personal disciple. Yet again, he chose to fulfill Yun Chang's wish. He turned down the offer and resolutely set off with her for the imperial capital.
"Yun Chang, I got a fifth-tier martial skill as an academy reward. Here, it's for you."
"No, keep it for yourself."
"Yun Chang..."
"Yang Chengzhi, please stop following me. I don't want people to get the wrong idea."
He had been twenty-four that year, in his first year at Zhenguan Academy. With his Spirit Master Sixth Stage cultivation, he had made it into the top one hundred of the Dragon Ranking and received that fifth-tier martial skill as an academy reward. But Yun Chang no longer needed his help. Someone ranked first on the Dragon Ranking had taken his place.
He was still the same person, but she was no longer the girl she had once been.
"It's not that I'm inferior to him. I just gave you everything I had." Looking at that face, both strange and familiar, Yang Chengzhi's eyes filled with sorrow.
What did winning matter? The past was gone for good. There was no chance to start over.
You deserve to die!
A roar rang out across the silent Jiaolong Plain. A figure appeared in front of Yang Chengzhi in an instant. Before anyone could react, they saw him raise one hand high, lightning crackling around it, and bring it down toward Yang Chengzhi.
He meant to kill Yang Chengzhi!
The crowd cried out in alarm.
Yang Chengzhi watched the hand come crashing down. A look of relief crossed his face as he slowly closed his eyes. He didn't plan to resist, and he wasn't capable of it.
Whoosh.
A breeze swept past Yang Chengzhi's ear. He had kept his eyes shut, but realized he was still alive.
"War Emperor, what are you doing?"
Spirit Emperor Zhou Wuji appeared out of thin air in front of Yang Chengzhi and blocked the attack.
The man who had tried to kill Yang Chengzhi was Xiaoyaozi's father, the head of the War Emperor Clan: War Emperor Xiaoyao Zizai, a mighty Spirit Emperor!
"The murder of my son demands blood!" Xiaoyao Zizai was a huge, burly man, and his voice boomed like a bell.
Yang Chengzhi was already struggling to stand. Xiaoyao Zizai's voice shook him off balance, but Zhou Wuji caught him. With a wave of his hand, Zhou Wuji signaled for the instructors below to take Yang Chengzhi away.
"They signed a life-and-death pact. Their lives are in their own hands," Zhou Wuji said calmly, watching as Yang Chengzhi was helped away.
Xiaoyao Zizai's eyes bulged as he glared at Zhou Wuji, his face filled with rage.
Zhou Wuji acted as if he hadn't noticed. He glanced at Xiaoyaozi, lying in a pool of blood, and sighed. "My condolences."
Xiaoyaozi, the undisputed number one of the younger generation, had flashed across the sky like a meteor, his brief life now over.
The ranking matches continued, but for everyone there, the Dragon Ranking tournament had already reached its conclusion.
The battle between Xiaoyaozi and Yang Chengzhi became the subject of conversation for everyone, along with the Mysterious Bookstore in distant Dubian Town that Yang Chengzhi had mentioned.
The news spread, growing and spreading, until it had reached every corner of the Azure Dragon Continent.
Ma Feifei rode Yun Qingyang back to Dubian Town.
Along the way, he finished the ending of Yang Chengzhi's Revenge Chronicle. Once the book was complete, it turned into a streak of golden light and flew ahead to the bookstore. Ma Feifei couldn't see the book's quality, but the system had notified him the moment it was finished that he had completed the Side Quest.
Ding! Congratulations, host! You have completed the quest and obtained Thousand Gold Formulas.
Ding! Congratulations, host! You have triggered the next Side Quest—Cultural Outreach.
Quest Details—Sell copies of My Fair Princess Part One.
Requirements: Sell at least ten thousand copies within three months. Price per copy: 10 Spirit Crystals.
Note: Ten thousand copies of My Fair Princess have been stored in the backyard.
Quest Reward: Grave Robbers' Chronicles (novel), Legend of the Swordsmen of Shu Mountain (novel), Pokémon (manga)
"Huh, they actually gave me a manga!" When Ma Feifei saw Pokémon among the quest rewards, his curiosity flared. Could reading manga increase his cultivation, too?
That couldn't be right!
"Even if reading manga can increase cultivation, why would they give me Pokémon? Wouldn't something like Dragon Ball make more sense?"
But since the system had given him Pokémon, Ma Feifei couldn't complain. Besides, by now, he had begun to understand a little about the books the system provided.
The books produced by the system all had completely different benefits hidden inside them. Some contained cultivation, others cultivation techniques and martial skills, and some even contained cures for people's illnesses.
Then, by that logic, could there be even more kinds of benefits?
"Could the benefit of Pokémon be the Pokémon inside it?" Ma Feifei suddenly let his imagination run wild. But it was only a passing thought. He quickly dismissed it as unrealistic.
For now, Ma Feifei felt his top priority was to return to the bookstore and check out Thousand Gold Formulas, as well as those ten thousand copies of My Fair Princess. The arrival of new books and a new quest filled him with energy from head to toe.
Yun Qingyang's dragon-form flight was incredibly fast. They reached Dubian Town in just one day. Maybe because they flew so high, Ma Feifei hadn't run into a single fellow "flyer" on the way there or back, so he hadn't even had a chance to show off.
By the time they returned to Dubian Town, it was already late. After saying goodbye to the Zhou siblings, Ma Feifei took Yun Qingyang to the backyard.
Inside one of the backyard storerooms for medicinal herbs, row upon row of neatly arranged copies of My Fair Princess stood waiting.
"Tsk, you can print ten thousand books at once, yet you still made me copy them by hand. What was the point?" Ma Feifei complained to the system as he looked at the books covering the floor.
Unfortunately, the system didn't respond.
Behind him, Yun Qingyang watched everything with curiosity, just as baffled as he was about why so many books had appeared in the backyard storeroom after they returned.
"Ten thousand copies. Can I sell them all in three months?" Ma Feifei shook his head, unsure.
At ten Spirit Crystals a copy, the book was truly exorbitantly priced for this era. More importantly, Ma Feifei still hadn't figured out what benefit My Fair Princess offered. After the Zhou siblings had read it, nothing had happened to them physically. Aside from Zhou Guanyu feeling a slight improvement in his cultivation, there had been nothing else.
Fine, if he wanted to force an explanation, perhaps they didn't meet the book's requirements and so couldn't gain anything from it. But now the system had given him ten thousand copies of My Fair Princess to sell. Would the books still have any special effects after leaving the bookstore?
If they were no different from ordinary books, with a good story but no cultivation benefits, and cost ten Spirit Crystals, who would buy them? Someone with too many Spirit Crystals to spare?
"This is miserable!" Ma Feifei sighed.
Before you continue