Creating Divine Abilities

On Zhengyang Street in the eastern part of Changfeng City.

A young man in a green robe was slowly walking out of Qingshan Academy.

The sun stretched his shadow long, long behind him.

After leaving the academy gates, the boy didn't hesitate. He set off east along Zhengyang Street.

After a long while, he reached a somewhat quieter, narrower lane.

It was called Guihua Lane.

Guihua Lane had gotten its name from the many varieties of osmanthus trees planted along both sides of its main street.

As for what it had originally been called, no one could say anymore.

At the end of summer and start of autumn, the osmanthus bloomed in abundance, and the lane filled with the boundless fragrance of flowers in every shade. It was a rare sight.

This was also the perfect season for all sorts of delicacies made with osmanthus to flourish: osmanthus cake, osmanthus pastries, osmanthus tea, osmanthus wine, and more.

When the young man reached the entrance to Guihua Lane, he didn't stop, but walked straight in.

He had only just entered when a crisp, childish voice rang out.

"Brother Mingyuan's back! Brother Mingyuan's back!"

Hearing her, the young man looked toward the source of the voice and saw a dainty little girl, about seven or eight years old, running toward him.

Beside the girl sat a middle-aged woman, who had been embroidering.

"Aunt Yun!" Lu Mingyuan called out to her.

"Mingyuan's back! Xiaoxing, slow down. Don't fall."

The little girl ran up to Lu Mingyuan, and out of habit, he scooped her up into his arms.

"Has Xiaoxing been good today?"

"Xiaoxing's been very good. I even helped Mother carry a stool just now."

"Our Xiaoxing is that capable?"

"Of course! Xiaoxing is really, really capable."

As she spoke, the little girl lifted her chin, pride shining in her eyes.

"Just how capable?"

"This capable, and this capable..."

As the little girl spoke, she gestured with both hands, making the circle wider and wider.

"Xiaoxing, remember to come to Brother's house the day after tomorrow. I'll keep teaching you all then, okay?"

"Mm, Xiaoxing knows! Goodbye, Brother."

After saying goodbye to the mother and daughter, Lu Mingyuan continued on his way. Along the way, he ran into many familiar faces. Of course, he didn't forget to tell the children to come to his house for class the day after tomorrow.

These classes were, in fact, real classes.

Every few days, Lu Mingyuan gathered a group of children at his home and taught them to read and write. Sometimes, he also told them little stories.

Fortunately, the children treasured this opportunity. In their eyes, Lu Mingyuan was a kind and gentle big brother.

In his previous life, if he'd taught other people, he would absolutely have been a loathsome super demon king. He wouldn't have enjoyed such a good reputation at all.

Of course, he wasn't doing this purely out of kindness.

Lu Mingyuan often thought of himself as no good person.

The reason he did this was actually tied to his family circumstances.

Not long after Lu Mingyuan was born, his father, Lu Xin, joined the army in a war against the Demon Realm. He never returned.

That left the young Lu Mingyuan and his mother, a lonely pair of mother and son who could only depend on each other.

A few years later, Lu Mingyuan's mother, Cui Ying, passed away, overcome with grief.

This was a transcendent world, full of powerful people, divine abilities as plentiful as rain, and countless cultivation techniques. But heartache was hard to cure, and even the physicians were helpless.

After his mother, Cui Ying, died, Lu Mingyuan was left alone at home.

He was only eight years old then. Though he had been bright from a young age and could take care of himself, the neighbors still worried about him. Every so often, they brought him food.

So Lu Mingyuan had, in a sense, grown up eating meals from every household in Guihua Lane.

Teaching the children to read and write was, in its own way, a form of repayment.

Whether that was really the reason or not, Lu Mingyuan believed it was, and so it was.

About fifteen minutes later, Lu Mingyuan finally returned home. The moment he closed the front gate, he let out a breath of relief.

He could no longer suppress the joy and anticipation in his heart. His heart thumped wildly.

He couldn't help it. He was excited!

Fortunately, Lu Mingyuan was sturdy enough to keep his heart firmly in his chest. Otherwise, he would have been worried that it might leap right out.

After a short while, Lu Mingyuan calmed his nerves and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

After eating, he bathed and changed clothes, then lit an incense stick for his parents.

Kneeling before the altar, Lu Mingyuan said solemnly:

"Father, Mother, your son has grown up and can take care of himself now. You don't need to worry..."

He paused before continuing. "Also, your son is going to awaken tonight. Please watch over me."

At that moment, Lu Mingyuan seemed to remember the happy days before he turned five.

"Yuan'er, come, try the osmanthus cake Mother made. It's so delicious and sweet."

"Yuan'er, Father will get you into an academy one day. When you do, study hard. Don't be like me, stuck being a low-ranking soldier for my whole life."

In a daze, Lu Mingyuan seemed to see his gentle, kind mother and his resolute but stern father.

It was the Xu hour. The sky was dim and yellow, everything was hazy, and night had begun.

The time for Lu Mingyuan's awakening was drawing near.

He lay quietly on his bed, waiting for that moment to arrive.

He had been looking forward to awakening, transcendent power, and divine abilities for a long time.

Then Lu Mingyuan suddenly thought of many things: the excitement he'd felt when he first awakened his memories of his previous life at fourteen.

He remembered how, when he had first started learning about this world, he'd been eager to try things out, yet nervous and uneasy.

He thought that if his memories had awakened sooner, he might have been able to save his parents.

At a certain instant, Lu Mingyuan suddenly snapped his eyes shut.

It looked like he had "passed out" again.

In truth, his consciousness had already entered his Soul Space.

The Soul Space looked much like the virtual illusion of the Quanxue Divine Ability, with nothingness all around.

But the things inside were different.

The Soul Space held only the river beneath Lu Mingyuan's feet, a milky-white wisp of qi floating in the air about an inch and a half long, a dull black stone, a crimson orb of light, and a bright yellow orb of light.

Lu Mingyuan recognized all of these. He had already made preparations in advance.

The river beneath his feet was his soul, its manifestation.

The milky-white qi floating above the middle of the river was Talent Qi, nurtured within his soul.

As everyone knew, only Talent Qi in the soul could connect with the transcendent energy in the mysterious space: Spiritual Qi for humans, Demonic Qi for the Demon Race, Ghost Qi for the Ghost Race...

With this transcendent energy, living beings could perform feats beyond the limits of the physical universe, such as releasing divine abilities, spraying water, breathing fire, or even growing bigger or smaller...

In other words, without Talent Qi, no matter what you tried, you had no way to use transcendent energy, and you couldn't truly come into contact with it at all.

Moreover, as far as the human race was concerned, the Soul Space only opened when someone turned eighteen. Only then could they see their Talent Qi and come into contact with transcendent energy—Spiritual Qi.

Before that, it was impossible.

At least, that was how things worked at present.

Talent Qi was called that because only by studying the classics in depth could one rapidly increase it.

As for the crimson orb of light—

Lu Mingyuan knew it was his Human Luck, also known as Luck Points.

It was called Human Luck because it was produced by people every day, even every moment, ceaselessly.

By the standards used to measure Luck Points, Lu Mingyuan could produce 1.5 Human Luck Points a day at present.

Mm, the rate at which Human Luck was produced was indeed related to the length of a person's Talent Qi.

Lu Mingyuan's orb of Human Luck contained about 2,021 points. It didn't look like much, but it was the sum of everything he'd accumulated since childhood.

Of course, he had spent a little along the way.

As for what Human Luck did, it could accelerate the speed of thought. One point could accelerate it for an hour, doubling the speed...

The bright yellow orb was also Luck Points, but it was called Earth Luck.

Not everyone could possess Earth Luck. It was generally held only by powers such as nations and sects.

As for how Lu Mingyuan had come to possess this Earth Luck, it was the government's compensation to his family.

Since Lu Mingyuan's father had been a squad leader and had earned military honors, the family had been awarded 1,000 Earth Luck Points.

His mother had later transferred all of them to Lu Mingyuan.

Based on what Lu Mingyuan had learned over the past decade or so, Earth Luck couldn't accelerate thought the way Human Luck could. So when both Human Luck and Earth Luck could be used, people usually chose to spend Earth Luck first.

Also, Earth Luck could be traded.

That was different from Human Luck, which could only be produced and used by oneself.

So Earth Luck could sometimes be used as currency, or even as salaries for officials, tuition for academies, compensation for soldiers, and so on.

That was also how Lu Mingyuan had come to possess Earth Luck. If it couldn't be traded, he might never have encountered any in his life.

Besides Human Luck and Earth Luck, there was also Heaven Luck. But few people had ever obtained it, or even seen it. At least, Lu Mingyuan had only heard of it.

Inside the Soul Space, Lu Mingyuan stared at the dull black stone before him, trembling with excitement.

"This is the famous Divine Ability Stone."

The Divine Ability Stone was the essential material used to create divine abilities.

With it, one could create divine abilities with ease, without needing to fully understand every single principle behind them.

In that sense, the Divine Ability Stone was a shortcut to creating divine abilities.

It was indeed precious. But it was also consumable: once a divine ability was created, the Divine Ability Stone vanished completely.

Getting a second one was much harder.

So many people, out of caution or because they lacked confidence, didn't use the Divine Ability Stone they received upon awakening until they were in their forties or fifties.

Lu Mingyuan was excited because he was going to use his tonight.

Tonight, he would create a divine ability. He had been waiting for this for many years.

If his theory was right, he would surely succeed tonight. And when that happened...

Thinking this, Lu Mingyuan didn't hesitate. He sent his consciousness straight toward the Divine Ability Stone.

The instant his consciousness touched the stone, Lu Mingyuan understood exactly how to use it.

Now it was time to create a divine ability.

First, he had to choose its category: illusion, physical, or energy?

The divine ability Lu Mingyuan wanted to create was, of course, an illusion-type one.

Since it was an illusion, the next step was to establish its rules.

Once he had established the rules, Lu Mingyuan added more content to it.

Since it was an illusion-type divine ability, he had to set certain conditions for clearing it. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to create it at all—or, rather, he wouldn't be able to afford the cost.

After a while, everything was ready. Lu Mingyuan sensed that the divine ability would need a full 2,000 Luck Points to take shape.

He had known that already. He put all his Earth Luck, along with some of his Human Luck, into it and waited quietly for the divine ability to form.

While he waited, Lu Mingyuan couldn't help sighing. His divine ability could be called the simplest kind, yet even it required 2,000 Luck Points. What about more complicated ones? Would they need even more?

Never mind Earth Luck, which ordinary people didn't have at all.

As for Human Luck, before awakening, Lu Mingyuan could only sense it vaguely. So over the years, he hadn't dared to use it many times, only conducting a few tests to speed up his thinking. He had spent only a few points, more or less. And since he had been brighter than others from childhood and had more Talent Qi, he had managed to save up a little over two thousand Human Luck Points.

But that was only just enough.

For ordinary people, Talent Qi was about an inch long when they came of age. Even if they spent not a single point, they would still need to save for another two or three years before they could hope to construct even the simplest divine ability.

"No wonder, no wonder ordinary people wait so long after reaching the required age before considering creating a divine ability."

This was like asking a clever housewife to cook without rice!

There was nothing in the purse!

Time slipped quietly by as he waited.

Before long, the Divine Ability Stone before Lu Mingyuan disappeared completely, leaving behind only a transparent phantom.

The divine ability had fully taken shape.

Only then did Lu Mingyuan finally relax.

After waking on the bed, Lu Mingyuan immediately used his Talent Qi to draw in Spiritual Qi and activate his divine ability on himself.

A moment later, he nodded with satisfaction.

"Everything's ready now. Whether I can take off depends on this one shot."

Perhaps out of some concern, Lu Mingyuan didn't say the words aloud. He only thought them to himself.

A moment later, Lu Mingyuan connected to the Divine Ability Treasury and uploaded the divine ability, setting its price at 100 Luck Points.

Actually, Lu Mingyuan wanted to set the price lower, which would make it easier to spread—and, in fact, earn more money.

But the Divine Ability Treasury had a rule: all divine abilities had to cost at least 100 points. He couldn't do anything about it, so he had to leave it at that.

The Divine Ability Treasury was called a treasury, but it was really a virtual network. No other device was needed; anyone could connect to it at age six and use it to buy and sell things.

But everything in the Divine Ability Treasury could only be traded using Luck Points.

Human Luck and Earth Luck could both be used.

The standard for measuring Luck Points was, in fact, also based on the Divine Ability Treasury's points.

Whether it was one point of Human Luck or one point of Earth Luck, each was counted as one Qi Luck Point.

However, once they were traded here, Qi Luck Points could no longer be converted back into Human Luck or Earth Luck. They could only be spent in the Divine Ability Treasury.

It was like putting money into a website. You could buy and sell whatever you liked there, but if you wanted to withdraw your money, you were dreaming.

Besides, Qi Luck Points could also be used to create divine abilities.

That was why people suspected the Divine Ability Treasury had something to do with whatever caused humanity to awaken.

However, so far, no one had been able to prove it.

After uploading the divine ability he had created to the Divine Ability Treasury, Lu Mingyuan wandered around inside.

First was the Divine Ability section.

Confucian School Divine Ability: Encouraging Learning, 100 points.

"That's pretty cheap."

But Lu Mingyuan suspected it was the result of fierce competition. After all, the divine ability he'd just created had been based on Encouraging Learning, and it really was simple—practically anyone could do it. It had to be cheap.

Sure enough, its price had plummeted to the very bottom.

"But what about the author? Confucian School?"

"Confucian School? So the Qi Luck Points earned from this belong to the entire Confucian School. I wonder how they'll divide them up."

Agricultural School Divine Ability: Heavenly Timing: Responding to Heavenly Timing, 100 points.

"I'll have to learn this one sometime. I'm joining the Agricultural School, after all. I'll need to know its signature divine ability."

Lu Mingyuan smacked his lips, his expression serious.

Taoist School Divine Ability: Three Heads and Six Arms, 10,000 points.

"Good grief, good grief. They don't actually want to sell this, do they? What kind of price is that?"

Lu Mingyuan did a quick calculation. Setting Earth Luck aside, and assuming he didn't spend any Human Luck, he could earn 1.5 points of Human Luck a day. At that rate, it would take him 6,667 days to save up 10,000 points.

"Only eighteen years. Piece of cake."

A sour voice rang through the room. Actually, Lu Mingyuan could understand why the other person had set the price so high. They'd put in a lot of effort, after all.

This divine ability was indeed much harder to create than the one Lu Mingyuan had just made.

Feeling discouraged, Lu Mingyuan decided to browse somewhere else instead of staying here to get knocked down another peg.

Next, he turned his attention to the Classics section. The prices there were much easier on the eyes.

The Analects, Records of the Grand Historian, Thirty-Six Stratagems, Book of Changes, The Art of War, Classic of Mountains and Seas, Huangdi Neijing, and Lankavatara Sutra—all on sale, all on sale!

Just one point! Just one point, and you could take home a classic masterpiece!

Even Taoist cultivation classics like Laozi, Yinfu Jing, Huangting Jing, and Yunji Qiqian were all on sale for one point.

To be honest, when Lu Mingyuan had first awakened his memories of his past life and seen this, he'd been completely dumbfounded.

When he'd arrived in this world, where reading—and even writing—could make you stronger, Lu Mingyuan had thought he could easily level up by fighting monsters, win a beautiful woman, and reach the pinnacle of life. He'd thought he could live happily ever after.

But this world didn't leave a person any way out!

The classics, histories, philosophical works, literary collections—even poetry and lyrics—pretty much everything that ought to be here was already here.

And it wasn't just those. Liyuan Opera, Pingshu Huaben, the Four Great Classical Novels, Zhiguai, even mythology—this place had them all.

Of course, obscure works might be missing.

But if they were obscure, Lu Mingyuan wouldn't know about them anyway. So he'd been thoroughly depressed for quite a while back then.

Actually, there were a few loopholes. At least modern books really weren't in here.

For example, certain works like a certain overview, a certain selection, and a certain philosophy.

But if he actually published those, Lu Mingyuan might not live to see the next day.

This was a feudal society with supernatural powers. You'd have to be pretty bold to publish something like that!

Lu Mingyuan was a coward through and through, so all he could do was bury those ideas deep in his heart.

Modern fantasy and science fiction weren't here either, and Lu Mingyuan had considered writing some. But he figured nobody would read them.

People already had supernatural powers. Why would they read that stuff?

If nobody read it, he wouldn't make any money.

And if he wasn't making money, why write it? Just for something to do?

You might say that writing books could grant him power.

Well, writing books really could grant power. But he had to put his heart into the writing. Copying someone else's work wouldn't do; Lu Mingyuan had already tried.

But reading could also improve his strength, couldn't it?

Well, reading really could improve his strength. But it had to make people think. If they just skimmed through it, the effect was practically negligible.

Lu Mingyuan didn't remember many works that could make people think deeply, and most of those were things like Journey to the West. But those were already here.

So for the time being, he'd given up on the idea.

Still, if his current plan didn't work out, he'd have no choice but to become a plagiarist. There was no other way.