Creating a Divine Ability

On Zhengyang Street in the east of Changfeng City.

A youth dressed in a green shirt was slowly walking out of Qingshan Academy.

At this moment, the sun stretched his shadow out long and thin.

After stepping out of the academy gates, the youth did not hesitate; he lifted his feet and continued walking east along Zhengyang Street.

A long while later, the youth arrived at a slightly more secluded and narrower alley.

This alley was called Guihua Lane.

Guihua Lane earned its name because both sides of the street were planted with a wide variety of osmanthus trees.

As for its original name, it was no longer possible to verify.

Whenever late summer turned to early autumn and the osmanthus flowers bloomed, the alley would be filled with an endless fragrance of various osmanthus blossoms, a truly rare sight.

Usually, this season was also the peak time for delicious treats like osmanthus cakes, osmanthus pastries, osmanthus tea, and osmanthus wine.

The youth arrived at the entrance of Guihua Lane and, without stopping, walked straight into the alley.

No sooner had the youth entered than a crisp, childish voice rang out.

"Brother Mingyuan is back! Brother Mingyuan is back!"

Hearing this, the youth looked toward the source of the sound and saw a doll-like little girl, about seven or eight years old, running toward him.

Beside where the little girl had been sitting, a middle-aged woman was busy embroidering.

"Aunt Yun!" Lu Mingyuan greeted the middle-aged woman.

"Mingyuan is back! Xiaoxing, slow down, don't trip."

The little girl ran to Lu Mingyuan's side, and he habitually scooped her up into his arms.

"Has Xiaoxing been a good girl today?"

"Xiaoxing has been very good. I even helped Mother carry the stool just now."

"Our Xiaoxing is that capable?"

"Of course! Xiaoxing is very capable, very capable indeed."

As the little one spoke, she lifted her small head, her eyes filled with pride.

"How capable are you?"

"This capable, this capable..."

The little girl said, gesturing with both hands, though the circle she made kept getting bigger and bigger.

"Xiaoxing, remember to come to Brother's house the day after tomorrow. Brother will continue your lessons, you hear?"

"Mm, Xiaoxing knows! Goodbye, Brother."

After bidding farewell to the mother and daughter, Lu Mingyuan continued on his way. Along the path, he encountered many acquaintances, and of course, he didn't forget to remind the children to come to his house for lessons the day after tomorrow.

These lessons were, in fact, actual lessons.

Every few days, Lu Mingyuan would organize a group of children at his home to teach them how to read and write. Occasionally, he would also tell them little stories.

Fortunately, these children cherished the opportunity. Thus, in the eyes of these children, Lu Mingyuan was a gentle and kind big brother.

If this were his previous life, teaching others like this would have surely made Lu Mingyuan a detestable super Devil King; he would never have had such a good reputation.

Of course, he didn't do this purely out of kindness.

Lu Mingyuan often considered himself not a good person.

The reason for this actually had to do with the situation at Lu Mingyuan's home.

Lu Mingyuan's father, Lu Xin, had joined the army to participate in a war against the Demon Realm shortly after Lu Mingyuan was born, and he never returned.

Only young Lu Mingyuan and his mother were left, an orphan and a widow, relying on each other for survival.

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

Although this was a world of transcendence, filled with countless powerful individuals, miraculous abilities, and myriad cultivation techniques, heart ailments were difficult to cure, and even physicians were helpless against them.

After his mother, Cui Ying, passed away, Lu Mingyuan was left all alone in the house.

At the time, Lu Mingyuan was only eight years old. Although he was clever from a young age and could take care of himself, the neighbors were worried and would send him food every now and then.

Therefore, Lu Mingyuan could be said to have grown up eating the "hundred-family rice" of Guihua Lane.

Teaching these children to read and write was, in a way, a form of repayment.

As for whether that was truly the reason, Lu Mingyuan believed it to be so, and that was that.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lu Mingyuan finally returned home. The moment he closed the front door, he let out a long, relieved breath.

At this moment, he could no longer suppress the joy and anticipation in his heart, which was thumping wildly in his chest.

He couldn't help it; he was just too excited!

Fortunately, Lu Mingyuan's body was sturdy enough to hold his heart firmly in place. Otherwise, he would have been worried about his heart jumping right out of his chest.

After a brief moment, Lu Mingyuan calmed his nerves and went to the kitchen to prepare his evening meal.

After eating and bathing, he lit a stick of incense for his parents.

Lu Mingyuan knelt before the altar and said in a deep voice:

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

He paused for a moment before continuing: "Also, I am going to awaken tonight. Please watch over me."

At this moment, Lu Mingyuan seemed to recall the happy times he had before he turned five.

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

"Yuanyuan, Father will definitely send you to the academy in the future. You must study hard then, don't be like me, only able to be a low-ranking soldier for my whole life."

In a trance, Lu Mingyuan seemed to see his gentle and kind mother, as well as his firm yet strict father.

At the Hour of the Dog, the world turned dim and hazy; the night had already begun.

It was almost time for Lu Mingyuan's awakening.

As for Lu Mingyuan, he was lying quietly on his bed, looking forward to the arrival of that moment.

He had been looking forward to the awakening, to extraordinary powers, and to divine abilities for a long time.

Suddenly, Lu Mingyuan thought of many things—the excitement he felt when he awakened the memories of his past life at fourteen.

He thought of his eagerness and anxiety when he first began to understand this world.

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

In an instant, Lu Mingyuan, lying on the bed, suddenly closed his eyes.

It looked as if he had "fainted" again.

In reality, Lu Mingyuan's consciousness had already arrived in his Soul Space.

This Soul Space looked very similar to the virtual illusion of the Quanxue Divine Ability, both having that feeling of being surrounded by nothingness.

However, the contents within were different.

In the Soul Space, there was only the river water beneath Lu Mingyuan's feet, a milky-white gas about one and a half inches long floating in the air, a dim black stone, a crimson ball of light, and a bright yellow ball of light.

Lu Mingyuan recognized all of these, as he had already made preparations in advance.

The river water beneath his feet was actually his soul, the manifestation of his soul.

And the milky-white gas floating above the center of the river was the Talent Qi nurtured within his soul.

Regarding Talent Qi.

It is well known that in this world, only the Talent Qi within the soul can communicate with the extraordinary energy in the mysterious space—namely the Spiritual Qi of the human race, the Demonic Qi of the Demon Race, and the Ghost Qi of the ghost tribes...

With these extraordinary energies, living beings can perform extraordinary feats that exceed the limits of the physical universe, such as releasing divine abilities, spitting water or fire, or even changing size...

In other words, if you do not have Talent Qi, no matter what method you use, you have no qualification to utilize extraordinary energy, and there is no possibility of ever truly coming into contact with it.

Furthermore, for the human race, the Soul Space only opens at the moment of adulthood at eighteen, allowing one to see their own Talent Qi. Only then can humans come into contact with extraordinary energy—Spiritual Qi.

Any younger than that, and it is impossible.

At least, that is indeed the case nowadays.

The reason it is called Talent Qi is that only by studying classics diligently can one make the Talent Qi grow rapidly.

As for that crimson ball of light.

Lu Mingyuan knew it was his Human Luck, which could also be called destiny.

It is called Human Luck because it is born from a person every day, even every moment, continuously.

If divided by the standard of luck, Lu Mingyuan currently generates 1.5 points of Human Luck per day.

Well, the speed at which this Human Luck is born is indeed related to the length of a person's Talent Qi.

Lu Mingyuan's pool of Human Luck was about 2021 points. It didn't look like much, but it was the accumulation of his entire life since childhood.

Of course, he had consumed a small amount in the past.

As for the function of Human Luck, it can accelerate the speed of thought; one point can accelerate it for one hour, doubling the speed...

As for that bright yellow ball of light, it was also luck, but it was called Earth Luck.

Earth Luck is not something everyone can possess; it is generally only held by nations, sects, and other such powers.

As for how Lu Mingyuan obtained this Earth Luck, it was actually a pension given to his family by the government.

Because Lu Mingyuan's father was once a small squad leader and had performed military service, he was awarded 1000 points of Earth Luck.

In the end, Mother Lu transferred it all to Lu Mingyuan.

According to the common knowledge Lu Mingyuan had gathered over the last decade, Earth Luck does not have the effect of accelerating thought speed like Human Luck, so when both Human Luck and Earth Luck can be used, most people will prioritize consuming Earth Luck.

In addition, Earth Luck can be traded.

This point differs from Human Luck, which can only be generated and used by oneself.

Therefore, Earth Luck can sometimes be used as currency, or even as salaries for officials, tuition for academies, pensions for soldiers, and so on.

And this is also the reason why Lu Mingyuan is able to possess Earth Luck. If Earth Luck could not be traded, then it is very likely that Lu Mingyuan would never have encountered it in his entire life.

In fact, besides Human Luck and Earth Luck, there is also Heaven Luck. However, very few people have ever obtained or even seen Heaven Luck. At the very least, Lu Mingyuan has only ever heard of it.

Inside his Soul Space, Lu Mingyuan stared blankly at the dim, pitch-black stone before him, feeling extremely excited.

"This is the famous Divine Ability Stone."

This Divine Ability Stone is the essential material used to create divine abilities.

Through it, one can easily create a divine ability without having to thoroughly research every single principle behind it first.

Therefore, this Divine Ability Stone is a shortcut to creating divine abilities.

From this perspective, the Divine Ability Stone is indeed precious. However, it is a consumable item; once a divine ability is created, the stone disappears completely.

As for obtaining a second one, that is much more difficult.

Consequently, many people, out of caution or a lack of confidence, do not use the Divine Ability Stone gifted at awakening even by the time they reach forty or fifty years of age.

And the reason for Lu Mingyuan's excitement is that he intends to use this stone tonight.

Today, he is going to create a divine ability. For this, he has already waited for many years.

If his hypothesis is correct, then he will surely succeed tonight. And when that time comes...

Thinking of this, Lu Mingyuan no longer hesitated and directly extended his consciousness toward the Divine Ability Stone before him.

The moment his consciousness touched the stone, Lu Mingyuan understood the specific method for using it.

Now, the next step is to create the divine ability.

First, set the category of the divine ability: is it an illusion type, a physical type, or an energy type?

The divine ability Lu Mingyuan wants to create is, of course, an illusion type.

Since it is an illusion type, the next step is to structure the rules of the illusion.

After structuring the rules of the illusion, Lu Mingyuan continued to add content to it.

Since it is an illusion type, it is necessary to set certain conditions for clearing it; otherwise, this divine ability could not be created at all, or rather, Lu Mingyuan would not be able to afford the cost.

After a while, once everything was settled, Lu Mingyuan sensed it and realized that for this divine ability to fully form, it would require the assistance of exactly 2,000 Qi Luck Points.

Lu Mingyuan had long known about this. Subsequently, he invested all of his Earth Luck and a portion of his Human Luck into it, waiting quietly for the divine ability to take shape.

During the wait, Lu Mingyuan felt deeply emotional. This could be considered the simplest of divine abilities, yet it still required 2,000 Qi Luck Points. Then what about more complex ones? Would they require even more?

Not to mention Earth Luck, which the average person simply does not have.

As for Human Luck, before his awakening, Lu Mingyuan could only vaguely sense it, so he hadn't dared to use it too many times over the years. He had only performed a few tests of mental acceleration, which probably consumed only a few points. Combined with the fact that he had been more intelligent than others since childhood and possessed more Talent Qi than the average person, he had managed to save up just over 2,000 points of Human Luck.

However, this was just barely enough.

If it were other ordinary people, their Talent Qi would be about one inch at adulthood. Even if they didn't spend a single point, they would still have to save for another two or three years to have any hope of constructing the simplest divine ability.

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

It really is a case of a clever housewife being unable to cook without rice!

There's nothing in the pockets!

Time passed quietly while he waited.

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

The divine ability had fully formed.

Only then did Lu Mingyuan finally feel completely at ease.

After waking up on his bed, the first thing Lu Mingyuan did was use his own Talent Qi to draw in Spiritual Qi and activate his divine ability upon himself.

A moment later, he nodded with satisfaction.

"Now that everything is ready, whether I can take off or not depends on this move."

Perhaps due to some concerns, Lu Mingyuan did not speak these words aloud, only thinking them in his heart.

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

Actually, Lu Mingyuan wanted to set the price lower to facilitate its spread, which would ultimately lead to more profit.

But the Divine Ability Treasury has regulations: any divine ability must cost at least 100 points. He had no choice, so he had to leave it at that.

This Divine Ability Treasury, while called a treasury, is actually a virtual network. It doesn't require any other instruments; as long as one is a person, they can connect to it at the age of six and use it to buy and sell things.

However, items within the Divine Ability Treasury can only be traded using Qi Luck.

Whether it is Human Luck or Earth Luck, both are acceptable.

And the standard for dividing Qi Luck is actually measured according to the Qi Luck Points of this Divine Ability Treasury.

Whether it is one point of Human Luck or one point of Earth Luck, both are considered one point of Qi Luck.

However, once a transaction is made within this system, the Qi Luck Points can no longer be converted back into Human Luck or Earth Luck; they can only be consumed within this Divine Ability Treasury.

This is just like topping up money on a website; you can buy and sell things within it at will, but if you want to withdraw that money, you are simply delusional.

Additionally, when creating a divine ability, one can actually use these Qi Luck Points as well.

Therefore, people suspect that this Divine Ability Treasury should be related to the cause of human awakening.

However, to this day, no one has been able to verify this.

After uploading the created divine ability to the Divine Ability Treasury, Lu Mingyuan began to wander around the treasury.

First was the Divine Ability Zone.

Confucian School divine ability: Encouraging Learning, 100 points.

"This one is actually cheap."

However, Lu Mingyuan thought to himself that this must be the result of intense competition; after all, the divine ability he had just created was modeled after this Encouraging Learning. It was indeed very simple, something practically anyone could do, so it would be impossible for it not to be cheap.

Sure enough, the price had been pushed all the way to the bottom.

"But this author, the Confucian School?"

"The Confucian School? Does this mean that the Qi Luck Points earned should belong to the entire Confucian School? I wonder how they will distribute them when the time comes."

Agricultural School divine ability: Heavenly Timing to Heavenly Timing, 100 points.

"I'll have to learn this later. After all, I am going to join the Agricultural School, so I still need to have a 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 must not want to sell it, pricing it so high!"

Lu Mingyuan calculated briefly. Excluding Earth Luck, and assuming Human Luck is not consumed, he can currently harvest 1.5 points of Human Luck per day. Thus, 10,000 points would take 6,667 days to accumulate.

"That's only eighteen years, a small matter."

A sour tone echoed in the room. In truth, Lu Mingyuan could understand why the other party set such a high price; after all, they had put in much more effort.

This divine ability was indeed much more difficult than the one Lu Mingyuan had just created.

Feeling discouraged, Lu Mingyuan decided to go browse elsewhere rather than continue finding reasons to feel bad here.

Subsequently, he shifted his focus to the Classics Zone, where the prices were much more pleasant.

Records of the Grand Historian, Thirty-Six Stratagems, Book of Changes, The Art of War, Classic of Mountains and Seas, Huangdi Neijing, Lankavatara Sutra—all were on a massive giveaway, a massive giveaway.

For just one point, just one point, you can take classic secret manuals home.

Even Taoist cultivation classics like Laozi, Yinfu Jing, Huangting Jing, Yunji Qiqian, and so on, were also on a massive giveaway for one point.

To be honest, when Lu Mingyuan had just awakened his memories of his past life and saw this scene, he was completely stunned.

Coming to a world where one could become stronger just by reading or even writing books, Lu Mingyuan had thought he could easily defeat monsters to level up, win the heart of a beauty, reach the pinnacle of life, and live happily ever after.

As it turned out, this place didn't give a person a way to survive.

The classics, histories, philosophers, and collections, and even poetry and prose—basically everything that should be here was already here.

Not only these, but things like Liyuan Opera, Pingshu Huaben, the Four Great Classical Novels, Zhiguai, and even mythological stories were all present.

Of course, the obscure ones might not be here.

However, Lu Mingyuan didn't know the obscure ones either. So, he was truly depressed for a long time back then.

Actually, it wasn't that there were no loopholes at all; at the very least, modern and contemporary books were indeed not here.

For example, certain outlines, certain selections, or certain philosophies.

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

In this feudal society with extraordinary powers, if you dare to publish those, you would have to be incredibly bold!

As for Lu Mingyuan, he was the least bold person, so he could only keep these thoughts buried deep in his heart.

In fact, the modern fantasy and supernatural novels weren't here either, and Lu Mingyuan had wanted to write them. But he estimated that no one would read them.

Since people already possess extraordinary powers, why would they read those?

If no one reads them, wouldn't he fail to earn money?

If he isn't earning money, why write them? Just to be bored?

You say writing books can grant power?

Well, writing books can indeed grant power. However, one must write with heart. Copying definitely won't work; Lu Mingyuan had already tried that.

Then, can reading also improve one's strength?

As for that, reading can indeed improve strength. However, it requires the reader to think; if one just skims through it, the effect is basically negligible.

Lu Mingyuan didn't have many impressions, and even fewer that could make people think deeply, and most of those were like Journey to the West. However, those were already here.

Therefore, he had temporarily abandoned this idea.

However, if his current plan didn't work out, he would have no choice but to become a literary plagiarist; there was no other way.