After burping, Luo Dong didn't immediately close his eyes and go to sleep.
He remembered the words in the system mission—"show happiness."
So he curled his lips into a bright smile.
His eyebrows and eyes curved, his mouth stretched open, revealing smooth, bare pink gums.
His whole little face scrunched up with the smile, his eyes narrowing into two crescent-shaped slits.
Still smiling, he waved his little hand.
He wanted to reach for Bibi Dong's dangling hair and make her happy.
A baby's smile, pure and utterly untainted.
Bibi Dong stared at that smile, frozen in place.
His little face was turned toward her, smiling without reservation.
Those eyes, narrowed into slits, brimmed with contentment and delight.
Something in her heart gave a gentle thump.
Sour.
Warm.
A feeling she had never experienced before broke through the earth and emerged.
It was the complete opposite of hatred.
Hatred was cold and hard, a force that tore everything to shreds.
But this feeling was warm and soft.
As she watched, something deep in her heart seemed to be slowly mending itself, stitch by stitch.
The maternal love she had been born with, as a mother, was being awakened little by little by that smile.
In the three years since Qian Renxue's birth, she had never once felt this way.
Whenever she looked at that daughter, all she felt was numbness and resistance, with a thick wall of ice between them.
But now, the baby she had picked up smiled at her, and a crack appeared in that wall of ice.
After taking a deep breath, Bibi Dong turned her gaze away and quickly gathered her robe closed.
Clearly, she didn't know what to do with this feeling.
Just then, the system panel in her mind lit up.
[Daily Quest Complete] [Reward Issued: Soul Power Level +1] [Current Soul Power Level: Rank 84]
A vast surge of Soul Power appeared out of nowhere within Bibi Dong's body.
It was gentle, not violent, and held an energy that made one's heart tremble.
It flowed automatically into her existing Soul Power without the slightest rejection or conflict, as if she had cultivated it herself.
From Rank 83 to Rank 84.
In a single instant.
Feeling the surge of Soul Power within her, Bibi Dong's pupils contracted sharply.
She was stunned.
It wasn't as though she had never seen heavenly treasures that could increase Soul Power. The Spirit Hall treasury held quite a few.
But they all shared one problem—unstable foundations.
After taking them, one had to spend a great deal of time refining them. As Soul Power increased, they also left one with a shaky foundation that required further cultivation to shore up.
But this time, the increase had been perfectly stable.
The new Soul Power was incredibly solid, its foundation as firm as if she had earned it through years of arduous cultivation.
If she hadn't seen it and experienced it for herself, she would never have believed such power existed on the continent.
Then, the surging excitement overwhelmed her shock.
It was real.
This system was real.
One feeding, one rank of Soul Power.
Such speed, such quality—it was unheard of in the history of the entire continent.
If things continued at this pace...
The time it would take her to break through to Titled Douluo would be shortened to a degree she didn't even dare imagine.
Killing Qian Xunji was just around the corner.
Bibi Dong clenched her fingers, using all her strength to force down the excitement threatening to spill over.
She couldn't rush. Not yet.
Meanwhile, the system's notification sounded in Luo Dong's mind as well.
[Mission Complete] [Reward Issued: 100 Points, Special Constitution: Flawless Body] [Flawless Body activating...]
A warm current rose from his Dantian and slowly flowed toward his limbs and bones.
Luo Dong felt as though warm water were being poured inside his body.
The current wasn't fierce. It moved slowly, like a stream gently soaking into a parched riverbed.
Where it passed, his meridians, bones, and flesh all underwent some subtle change.
The change wasn't painful.
On the contrary, an indescribable comfort welled up from the deepest part of his body.
Every cell was breathing with delight.
[Flawless Body activation complete] [Effects active: Perfectly digests all food and energy, no need for excretion, 100% energy efficiency, continuously strengthens physical constitution]
Luo Dong carefully felt the difference.
It really was different.
The milk he had just drunk was now being digested by his body with astonishing efficiency.
Every bit of nutrition was broken down, absorbed, and sent throughout his body, with nothing wasted.
And he truly didn't need to relieve himself.
For a baby, this was simply an unfair advantage.
Most babies could absorb at best sixty or seventy percent of their milk. He absorbed all of it.
Over time, the nutritional accumulation alone during infancy would give him a massive lead.
And the milk Bibi Dong fed him was no ordinary milk; the energy it contained was different from that of ordinary people.
In the future, perhaps he could also have her condense her Soul Power into an energy liquid, mix it into her milk, and feed it to him.
His points had also arrived.
On the Main System Panel, the points column changed from 0 to 100.
Luo Dong thought to himself, opened the system shop, and gazed at the dazzling array of goods, feeling thoroughly pleased.
There were low-tier pills costing a few dozen points and god-tier treasures costing tens of thousands.
From cultivation manuals to special permissions, it had everything.
What pleased him most was the "Task Release Permission" option.
The system description was crystal clear: the host could spend points to issue customized quests to a bound user.
The host could write the quest content themselves. The harder the quest, the richer the system's reward upon completion.
It also required more points.
In other words, he could use points to "direct" Bibi Dong to complete certain quests.
Daily Quests were simple and cost few points;
Higher-tier quests were more complex and cost more points.
This was a trump card.
A card that could change the situation at a critical moment.
He could use it alongside the system's Daily Quests, or issue targeted quests based on the circumstances.
The initiative was in his hands.
Luo Dong was quite satisfied with this permission.
Points were hard currency. They could buy things and issue quests.
In this world, they were his greatest backing.
But right now, he had only one hundred points, not enough to do anything major.
The good stuff in the shop cost thousands of points, and issuing a high-difficulty quest wasn't cheap either.
One hundred points was only his first pot of gold.
He had to spend it carefully.
Luo Dong mulled it over as he felt the warm current inside his body gradually settle.
Just then, he felt Bibi Dong gently lay him on the bed.
Bibi Dong had gathered her robe closed. She stood by the bed, looking down at him, and the Subsystem Panel in her mind lit up again.
[Daily Quest Triggered] [Quest: A Gentle Bath] [Quest Content: Give Luo Dong a bath. Keep the water at a suitable temperature and use gentle movements to make him feel comfortable and safe. Clean him thoroughly.] [Quest Reward: Soul Power Level +1] [Quest Deadline: By the end of today]
Bibi Dong looked at the quest on the panel, and her eyes lit up again.
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