A New Pirater Had Arrived

They had the idea for the new divine ability, the research materials, and Lu Mingyuan already had further plans. From here on, things would go smoothly; all that remained was to proceed step by step.

While Lu Mingyuan had been creating his new divine ability, many things connected to him had been happening across the country—or, more accurately, things connected to his alias, Anonymous.

Great Gan Kingdom, Central Capital, Imperial Study.

A booming voice suddenly rang out.

"Minister Lang, how is the matter I entrusted to you last time coming along?"

The speaker was a dignified middle-aged man. From his expression, he seemed rather anxious.

But what could possibly make Ye Zhiming, the emperor of Great Gan, so anxious?

Shouldn't an emperor always remain composed, never changing his expression even when Mount Tai collapsed before him?

As it turned out, just a few days ago, someone had reported that a divine ability had recently appeared, and its sales might surpass ten billion Qi Luck Points. Ye Zhiming had immediately ordered his prime minister, Lang Jingbo, to investigate the matter thoroughly and find a way to replicate it as soon as possible.

Ten billion Qi Luck Points was no small sum. It was nearly a fifth of Great Gan's annual Qi Luck Points revenue. How could Ye Zhiming not be anxious?

How could he not be green with envy?

As prime minister, Lang Jingbo understood how important this was. In the past, most classics and divine abilities had come from the various schools. Those outside them lacked the ability to do more than follow along and get a taste.

But this divine ability was different. For one thing, it was an illusion-based divine ability, simple to learn and extremely cheap to make. Yet its functions made it appealing to a broad market. And its creator had no intention of revealing himself.

That gave them an opportunity.

No—it gave everyone an opportunity.

Time was precious; every minute was money. So Lang Jingbo had spent the past few days actively coordinating with Great Gan's various departments, doing his utmost to get the job done.

"Your Majesty, we've collected almost all the questions. But there are still two difficult problems: 'quick search' and 'question generation.' We haven't made much progress on either, and it will take a long time yet."

The matter hadn't gone well, but Prime Minister Lang Jingbo could only report the truth. He hadn't expected the divine ability to be so difficult to replicate.

Even the masters and grandmasters couldn't manage it in a short time. What could he do?

"Not much progress?"

Ye Zhiming furrowed his brow. Those two functions were important, too. Without them, even if they made the divine ability and loaded all those hundreds of thousands of questions into it, probably not many people would buy it. That was a serious shortcoming.

"What about the Confucian School and the School of Mathematics? One built its reputation on illusion techniques, and the other specializes in mathematics. They can't do anything either?"

Ye Zhiming didn't believe it. Those masters and grandmasters were the finest minds humanity had to offer. There was no way they couldn't manage this. It was only an illusion-based divine ability, not one of those great divine abilities of the Taoist School.

Prime Minister Lang Jingbo bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, the Confucian School and the School of Mathematics say they'll need about a year. So..."

"A year?"

The answer clearly went far beyond Ye Zhiming's expectations. He'd thought half a month or perhaps a month would be enough. These two functions had never existed before, so he'd expected some difficulty, but he hadn't expected it to take this long.

In a year, the chance would be long gone.

"A year? Minister Lang, you should have the sales figures. How many copies of the Chicken-Rabbit Cage Divine Ability have been sold so far?"

"Your Majesty, I estimate two or three hundred million copies have been sold. Our human race accounts for seventy or eighty million of them."

"Two or three hundred million? That means two or three hundred billion Qi Luck Points. It's growing that fast? I remember it hadn't even reached a hundred million five days ago."

Ye Zhiming was astonished. He turned to Great Gan's prime minister, waiting for an explanation.

"Your Majesty, around two days ago, word got out that solving arithmetic problems could rapidly increase Talent Qi. Now everyone's talking about it, so sales of this divine ability have exploded over the past few days."

Ye Zhiming, emperor of Great Gan, had known for a long time that solving arithmetic problems could rapidly increase Talent Qi.

In fact, this had long been no secret to the royal family, the great lineages, and even the hundred schools of thought. They had discovered it centuries ago and had become very adept at using it.

They all had mature systems for training their clansmen and disciples.

Even Ye Zhiming himself had undergone similar training in his early years.

It simply hadn't been this efficient before. The gains had only been four or five times greater.

Now, with a large supply of problems—and with the training taking place in an illusion, where it was easier to focus—the growth rate could be raised to ten times its former speed.

Ten times!

Ye Zhiming knew exactly what this meant for ordinary people. If he wasn't mistaken, sales would surge even further, perhaps reaching a billion, ten billion, or even a trillion.

With prospects this bright, the royal family absolutely had to seize the opportunity.

It seemed they needed to move faster.

After a moment's thought, Ye Zhiming made up his mind. "Minister Lang, tell me—if we use Qi Luck Points to solve those two problems, how much would it cost?"

As the saying went, if you didn't have enough ability, you made up for it with money.

It seemed Emperor Ye Zhiming of Great Gan was about to spend Qi Luck Points to force the issue. He wanted to pile on a massive amount of them and build the divine ability that way.

"Your Majesty, 'quick search' would cost around nine hundred million. As for the much more difficult 'question generation' function, it would take twenty trillion."

Lang Jingbo had clearly prepared for this question. He calmly gave the figures.

"'Quick search' costs nine hundred million? And the 'question generation' function costs twenty trillion?"

Ye Zhiming knew that deriving a divine ability from scratch was expensive, but he hadn't expected an ordinary illusion-based divine ability to cost so much.

Nine hundred million just to find suitable questions through a simple search?

And the other function, 'question generation,' cost twenty trillion?

It was almost impossible to believe.

But after Prime Minister Lang confirmed the numbers, Ye Zhiming had no choice but to accept them.

Silence fell over the Imperial Study.

After a long while, Ye Zhiming finally broke it. He had made up his mind: no matter how much it cost, they had to create this divine ability as soon as possible.

The sooner they made it, the more they'd earn.

"Minister Lang, then have them derive 'quick search.' We can't do without it. As for the question-generation function—let's leave that for later. It won't affect the results for now."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Give the orders as soon as possible. Ideally, get it done today. You know how important this is to Great Gan."

Prime Minister Lang silently nodded.

Great Gan collected only around twenty billion Earth Luck a year. Even adding in its other projects, the state's total annual revenue was only about fifty billion Qi Luck Points.

The importance of this divine ability was self-evident.

As for the Earth Luck mentioned here, it was automatically collected according to a country's population and cultivation levels.

How was it collected?

A specific secret technique could gather a certain kind of special Qi Luck energy produced in excess by all lives within a given area, allowing it to be put to use.

This special Qi Luck energy was Earth Luck. It could be exchanged for Qi Luck Points at a one-to-one rate within the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network. In that regard, it was much like Human Luck.

Unlike Human Luck, however, Earth Luck could be used for direct transactions between people.

In fact, the salaries paid by the government included Earth Luck.

Earth Luck was called that because it was tied to the boundaries of one's territory.

Only the Earth Luck produced by someone within your territory belonged to you. If they went somewhere else, then naturally, it was no longer yours.

There were other restrictions, too. For instance, if someone resented the ruler of their territory, their Earth Luck couldn't be collected.

Also, Earth Luck accumulated slowly—at only one percent of the rate of Human Luck.

For every point of Human Luck a living being produced, they also produced an additional one percent of that amount in Earth Luck.

But if Earth Luck wasn't gathered using a secret technique, it would dissipate immediately. Unlike Human Luck, it wasn't automatically stored in the Soul Space. It was generated separately and could only be used after being gathered with a secret technique.

So, in a sense, Earth Luck was a kind of head tax.

A country's Earth Luck could be calculated from its population and average level.

For example, Great Gan currently had a total population of around three billion, with an average level of three stars, or four cun of Talent Qi. Each person generated four Human Luck Points a day on average, so Earth Luck amounted to four percent of that. That meant the entire country collected roughly one hundred and twenty million Earth Luck a day—or a little over forty-three billion a year, given three hundred and sixty-five days.

After deducting the shares for local governments, academies, the hundred schools of thought, and the great lineages, only about half reached the state treasury: roughly twenty billion.

But now there was a major project that could earn over ten billion in a single month. Who wouldn't be green with envy?

Even Emperor Ye Zhiming of Great Gan was no exception.

That was why he wanted to pirate—no, borrow a page from this divine ability and earn a little pocket money. What could he do? He was poor, and Anonymous was richer than he was.

At this thought, Ye Zhiming asked, "Minister Lang, have you found any clues about the creator, Anonymous?"

"Not yet. But I'll intensify the search. Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

In truth, Lang Jingbo couldn't help admiring Anonymous. He'd managed to hide so well that after nearly a month of digging through every corner of all three kingdoms, they still hadn't found a single clue.

Ye Zhiming sighed inwardly. He hadn't really expected them to find anything.

They'd tried fame and fortune, but neither had drawn the other out.

Just what kind of person was he? How could he resist all that?

Could he be a grandmaster who'd seen through fame and fortune?