Lu Mingyuan certainly had no idea that Xiaoxiang Academy was about to create a Divine Ability based on "Buying a Hundred Fowl with a Hundred Coins."
In fact, even if he had known, he wouldn't have been surprised. After all, there weren't that many fools in this world.
He'd already set an example. Surely others could learn from it.
And as long as they weren't like pirates who simply copied it outright, Lu Mingyuan would be delighted.
Still, he wouldn't pay too much attention to it. For now, the most important thing was to create an Agricultural School Divine Ability.
That way, he could spend Qi Luck Points openly without inviting envy, while also hiding his other identity more securely.
Probably no one would guess that Anonymous, whom they had decided was a master of mathematics, was just a lowly son of a farming family—and a mere one-star cultivator at that.
By all logic, anyone who could create the supplementary section of the [Chicken-Rabbit Cage Divine Ability], with all those problems, answers, search functions, and question-setting functions, must have grasped certain mathematical principles—principles no one had ever proposed, or even discovered, before.
By the rules of experience in this world—"understand something, gain enlightenment, and reap the rewards"—even if Anonymous hadn't been a master before, he must have become one by now.
Even if the Divine Ability hadn't been the work of a single person, but of a small team—say, around ten people—that would still have been enough to raise all ten of them to the Master rank, or even the fourth star.
So those investigating the matter focused their searches on cultivators at the fourth star of the Master rank and above, or on prodigies whose Talent Qi had suddenly surged and whose progress had leaped forward during this period.
Not on an ordinary nobody like Lu Mingyuan.
What was there to pay attention to in a one-star cultivator?
As for Lu Mingyuan's recent progress of a tenth of an inch in a month—
Hey, everyone's progress had been off the charts this month. Yours wasn't anything special.
Honestly, pick ten people who'd been seriously grinding through problems at the academy, and eight of them would have made the same kind of progress.
Even so, Lu Mingyuan still felt a little unsafe. To put it plainly, he lacked a sense of security. He felt he needed to establish a normal identity, one with no extraordinary connection whatsoever to Anonymous. That way, he could hide deeper and stay safer.
But honestly, if he considered the fields and specialties of the various schools, the School of Mathematics and the Mohist School—both scientific disciplines—were clearly a better fit for Lu Mingyuan. After all, he'd studied science in his previous life.
If he studied science in this life too, perhaps he could achieve even more.
Here was the problem: if Lu Mingyuan came up with a mathematical theorem or a law of physics that had never appeared in this world before, then by rights his Talent Qi ought to make a great leap.
But if the theorem wasn't his own invention, and he'd plagiarized it from the achievements of his previous life, that would create a major problem.
If he simply plagiarized, his Talent Qi wouldn't improve much at all, so others would surely notice that something was off.
Wouldn't that be like openly saying, "There's something wrong with me. I'm suspicious. Come investigate me!"
And even if Lu Mingyuan didn't plagiarize, but devoted himself to research and came up with a scientific discovery that even he hadn't known in his previous life, he'd still inevitably draw on many theories from his past life as a foundation, knowingly or otherwise.
When he presented his results, he still wouldn't be able to make them airtight. There would definitely be something suspicious.
Besides, theories he took for granted might be brand new to everyone else.
You kept coming up with new theories, but your Talent Qi didn't increase.
That was definitely suspicious.
After all, nobody was a fool.
If there was nothing wrong with the world, then the problem had to be with Lu Mingyuan himself. Besides, as a transmigrator, he couldn't stand up to close scrutiny. His every word and action might reveal a tell, knowingly or otherwise.
So, for now, Lu Mingyuan needed to live and study like an ordinary person in plain sight.
Of course, he wouldn't abandon the knowledge from his previous life. He would slowly reveal it to this world, step by step, through his other identity: Anonymous.
That was why Lu Mingyuan had chosen to create an Agricultural School Divine Ability as soon as possible, then plan his way into the Agricultural School. He simply couldn't choose the scientific fields he was already familiar with. As for the humanities, he really wasn't interested. There was nothing he could do about that.
And what would happen if someone uncovered the truth?
Well, would they cut him apart?
No, wait—that was from his previous life.
Soul-searching?
He didn't even know if such a Divine Ability existed in this world.
And then there was hypnosis?
Wait, wait. There were all kinds of methods.
Of course, being discovered wouldn't lead to anything good. The other party couldn't just pretend nothing had happened—or put him on a pedestal, could they?
Nobody was a fool. Everyone knew how to maximize their gains.
As for what would happen if he was exposed—
Lu Mingyuan had no idea, and didn't want to know.
He, Lu Mingyuan, was a genuine native, an honest commoner born in Changfeng City, Great Gan Kingdom, on the Tianyun Continent.
He'd never heard of transmigration or rebirth, let alone Blue Star.
Soul Space.
Inside the Divine Ability Stone, as the final plow took shape, the Agricultural School Divine Ability Lu Mingyuan had created was nearing completion.
"Finally, it's done."
"Now all that's left is to invest Qi Luck Points."
"But for that, I'll have to ask my Jing Zhi for help. I, Lu, am going to live off a woman for once."
"As for whether it'll be comfortable? No idea. I'll have to try it first to find out."
At that moment, inside the space within the Divine Ability Stone, a neat row of around twenty different plows stood arranged in order.
There were curved-beam plows, straight-beam plows, and even a hand-pulled plow Lu Mingyuan had created himself.
Aside from the different types, each plow also came in several sizes, such as small, medium, and large, to suit different practical needs.
What's more, each one came equipped with three types of plowshares: left-turning, right-turning, and double-winged.
In short, this combination made it possible to choose the right plow for a variety of situations.
Actually, Lu Mingyuan wanted to take it a step further and make the plows fully customizable.
For example, aside from a few standard designs, everyone could choose different specifications and dimensions to create a plow of their own.
Take the hand-pulled plow. You could set the length and thickness of the shaft, choose whether it curved, and adjust the plowshare's angle and size, among other things.
That would completely solve the problem of plows.
But even though Lu Mingyuan had tried to define the details as precisely as possible and cut the Qi Luck Point cost as much as he could, fully realizing this would still take hundreds of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands of Qi Luck Points?
Jing Zhi's dowry didn't have that much.
And for anyone else, without the knowledge from his previous life, this would cost over a hundred million. Lu Mingyuan didn't want to attract that much attention.
So he gave up on the idea.
"For now, this will do."
Then Lu Mingyuan turned his gaze to the other side, where a pile of farm tools lay: hoes, spades, sickles...
In short, the tools needed for tilling the land were basically all there.
"This Divine Ability of mine could be considered a 'Complete Collection of Agricultural Tilling Tools.'
"With this, I probably won't need to bring anything with me when I go to the fields. I can do everything with a single Divine Ability.
"This should be pretty popular, right?"
Inside the Divine Ability Stone's space, Lu Mingyuan's eyes shone with hope.
But then he let out a long sigh.
"Ah, I'm still not strong enough."
"Otherwise, this wouldn't just be a 'Complete Collection of Agricultural Tilling Tools.' It'd be a 'Complete Collection of Tools.'"
"Then I could add pots and pans, tables and stools, beds and chairs, hammers, pliers, saws, chisels, all kinds of household tools, even bedding—everything. I'd have a monopoly on the whole market."
"Now that would make me a fortune."
"Ah, what a shame."
Lu Mingyuan shook his head. But he knew it wasn't realistic. He was just a lowly one-star cultivator. How could he dare monopolize a Divine Ability for everyday necessities? That would be asking for death.
It was just like someone in his previous life trying to monopolize every kind of household good.
A sure path to death.
"But once my Divine Ability comes out, I bet all sorts of Divine Abilities for everyday tools will appear before long.
"Yeah, more or less. I can just spend some Qi Luck Points and buy a few of them then."
"Besides, if they want to research this kind of Divine Ability, they'll have to buy mine first."
"Come to think of it, I'm not losing out. And the risk is low. I love it."
As he spoke, Lu Mingyuan nodded with such conviction that he seemed to genuinely believe it.
If you ignored the flicker of reluctance in his eyes.
Before you continue