Divine Ability Stones

Great Gan Kingdom, Changfeng City.

Today was the second day since Lu Mingyuan had created the "Mathematics Divine Ability: Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage," and also the second day since he had sent it to the Divine Ability Treasury to be sold on consignment.

It was already the Hour of the Dog. Lu Mingyuan, exhausted from a full day's work, was lying on his soft, big bed, once again refreshing the Divine Ability Treasury. He wanted to check how his divine ability was selling.

At that moment, he had focused all his attention on the Divine Ability Treasury, anxiously waiting for the "results."

Lu Mingyuan had plenty of confidence in the divine ability he had created and thought it was sure to sell well. But this was still his first time, and it hadn't exactly become a bestseller yet. On top of that, he had invested nearly all the Human Luck and Earth Luck Points he'd saved over the years. Naturally, he couldn't help feeling anxious about the outcome.

He was constantly worried he'd lose everything.

What if he turned out like most people, struggling to create a divine ability only for no one to buy it? It wasn't just a matter of losing money; if that happened, he'd have no way to turn things around.

Although Lu Mingyuan had transmigrated here and possessed knowledge from another world, which meant he could still make a comeback, that would throw his previous plans out of alignment. He'd have to plan out his future all over again to avoid inviting disaster.

This world could be a dangerous place!

In fact, Lu Mingyuan had checked the Divine Ability Treasury several times during the day, only to find that fewer than twenty copies had sold.

No matter how confident he was in himself, he couldn't help losing some of that confidence when faced with those results. He didn't want to end up getting proven wrong.

So Lu Mingyuan kept checking the Divine Ability Treasury, hoping to calm the turmoil in his heart and regain some confidence.

The sales of this divine ability really would affect his future plans, so he had no choice but to be careful and cautious.

Coming up with another reasonably perfect plan for his life wouldn't be easy.

So no matter how calm he seemed on the surface, there was always a hint of panic in his heart. It wasn't that Lu Mingyuan was a coward or afraid of trouble; this matter really was very, very important.

Just then...

Huh? Why had the sales suddenly gone up so much?

Lu Mingyuan stared blankly at the sales figures for his Mathematics Divine Ability in the Divine Ability Treasury.

He remembered that before dinner, the total had still been stuck at thirty-five. How had it suddenly jumped to three hundred and sixty-five just over the course of a meal?

Could it really have taken off?

At the thought, Lu Mingyuan seemed to drift into a daydream. His eyes were vacant, but an unusual smile spread across his face.

A moment later, he abruptly snapped back to his senses and lightly tapped his forehead. Stay calm. Stay calm. This is nothing. Maybe I'll sell even more in the future.

Although Lu Mingyuan tried to reassure himself, the smile on his face only grew brighter and brighter.

It was part relief, part pride.

As if responding to him, the sales figure suddenly rose by another dozen or so, then continued climbing, one or two at a time.

What was going on?

Had someone been promoting it for him?

Although Lu Mingyuan still didn't understand what was causing all this, he had finally put his worries to rest.

As expected, he really was a genius born once in a generation.

Even a divine ability he'd thrown together on a whim could become a huge hit...

After admiring his own extraordinary brilliance for a good while, Lu Mingyuan finally stopped making that smug face. It was time to get down to business.

He had sold 398 copies, which meant he had 39,800 Luck Points in the Divine Ability Treasury.

Mm, a few more had sold.

Looks like he could afford to buy that now.

At the thought, Lu Mingyuan turned to the section of the Divine Ability Treasury where treasures were sold.

The treasure section was an exclusive sales category belonging to the Divine Ability Treasury. It only sold treasures unique to the Treasury; no one else could list items there on consignment.

That was unlike the Divine Ability and Classics sections, where the items were sold by other people.

And for some reason, the Divine Ability Treasury couldn't sell physical goods. It could only sell things like knowledge, such as divine abilities and classics.

Of course, that didn't apply to the treasure section.

Actually, if you thought of the Divine Ability Treasury as a virtual network, it made sense. A virtual network could only sell virtual goods—except this one could also sell its own physical goods.

The first item in the treasure section was something everyone wanted: the Divine Ability Stone. It cost ten million Luck Points.

The Divine Ability Stone was actually the one everyone received for free when they awakened. It could help people create divine abilities by lowering the strict requirements for creating one.

Without it, it was still possible to create a divine ability, but then hardly anyone in the world would be able to do so. The Divine Ability Treasury wouldn't have hundreds of millions—even over a billion—of divine abilities listed in it.

Most of those divine abilities weren't very good, of course, and hardly anyone would bother learning them.

But when the waves washed away the sand, a few nuggets of gold always remained.

Naturally, the Divine Ability Stone came with a hefty price tag: ten million Luck Points.

That was the official price, and they couldn't be traded anywhere else.

It wasn't that they couldn't be traded; rather, the Divine Ability Stones were in Soul Space and couldn't be taken out or transferred. So the only way to buy one was through the Divine Ability Treasury.

It was a monopoly.

So if anyone wanted to create a second divine ability, they had to spend ten million Luck Points on a Divine Ability Stone.

Otherwise, they'd have to study the principles behind divine abilities and then try to create one themselves. But Lu Mingyuan had never heard of anyone creating a divine ability without a Divine Ability Stone.

So the Divine Ability Stone was essential for creating divine abilities.

By that calculation, Lu Mingyuan still hadn't made his money back. He was nowhere near breaking even. He had sold fewer than forty thousand Luck Points' worth so far.

Forty thousand was a long way from ten million. It wouldn't be easy to make up the difference.

As for the price of the Divine Ability Stone... how should he put it? It was expensive, but not expensive.

It was expensive in the sense that hardly anyone could afford it.

But considering what the Divine Ability Stone could do, it wasn't expensive at all. After all, there were people who could afford it.

As for where the different kinds of Luck Points came from...

First, there was Human Luck. A one-star cultivator generated one Human Luck Point per day, a two-star cultivator generated two, a three-star cultivator generated four, and a four-star cultivator generated eight...

So let's say a powerful cultivator had just advanced to four-star. In a year, he would generate 8 times 365 days, or 2,920 Human Luck Points.

At that rate, even if he didn't spend a single point, after saving for a hundred years, he'd have only 300,000.

To save up ten million, he'd need more than 3,300 years.

Honestly, that was far too long.

And as far as Lu Mingyuan knew, people in this world couldn't live that long. Most people's natural lifespan topped out at around two jiazi, or roughly 120 years.

Even those who lived longer wouldn't live much longer than that, and no one could live past 200.

So if an ordinary person relied on saving Human Luck, they'd never be able to afford a Divine Ability Stone in their lifetime.

Fortunately, everyone received one for free when they awakened. Otherwise, there wouldn't be many divine abilities in the world at all.

Saving Human Luck didn't work. What about Earth Luck?

Lu Mingyuan didn't know much about Earth Luck. Ordinary people couldn't get their hands on it. But his father's compensation back then had amounted to only one thousand Earth Luck Points, so that option could be ruled out too.

As for Heaven Luck, he had absolutely no idea how to obtain it.

If none of those methods worked, then how could he get ten million Luck Points?

Hmm...

Since one person couldn't get that many, he could try gathering them from other people. He could pool their Luck Points together.

There was strength in numbers!

As it happened, the Divine Ability Treasury let people sell divine abilities and books on consignment. So most people in this world relied on selling divine abilities and books to earn Luck Points and gather them from others.

When everyone added a stick of wood, the flames rose high!

Take Lu Mingyuan's divine ability, for example. It was priced at 100 points. If he sold 100,000 copies, that would make ten million Luck Points, wouldn't it?

But aside from some well-known divine abilities, such as the Taoist School's Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits, the Confucian School's Encouraging Learning, and the Mohist School's Weapon Summoning, very few ever reached that level of sales.

Still, Lu Mingyuan thought his "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage" could do it.

He had confidence in himself.

Sure, he looked pretty ordinary in this life.

But a person had to be confident. Otherwise, what was the difference between them and a salted fish?