Cheating Feels Good for a While

Li Muyang was speechless, but regardless, an increase in favorability was always a good thing.

As the favorability rating climbed to 20%, a new system notification popped up in Li Muyang's field of vision.

[Little Wild Grass's favorability has broken through 20% for the first time; cultivation progress has entered the second stage (out of five stages)]

[First-stage cultivation reward available for collection]

[Please select your first-stage cultivation reward (choose one of three)]

[Cultivation +1 (Qi Refining Stage 3rd Layer → Qi Refining Stage 4th Layer)]

[Residual Cloud Movement Technique]

[Mortal-grade Flying Sword x1]

Seeing this series of system reward interfaces, Li Muyang's spirits were instantly lifted.

Good! Very good!

After struggling for so many days, he had finally obtained a completion reward.

Li Muyang had assumed he would need to defeat that assassin to get a reward, but he hadn't expected that simply raising the girl's favorability would suffice.

The goal of this game was now very clear.

It was to max out Little Wild Grass's favorability to 100%. In this game, only favorability was real; everything else was just a facade.

There were still four more stages of rewards to be claimed.

If he could gain +1 in cultivation every time he cleared a stage, then by the time he finished this entire cultivation-style game, his cultivation could soar directly to the 8th Layer of the Qi Refining Stage!

Not to mention that this reward was a choice of three; besides cultivation, he had other options.

Looking at it this way, a single game could provide five rewards... the rewards for this cultivation-style game were quite generous. No wonder the difficulty was so high.

After a moment of thought, Li Muyang painfully gave up the +1 cultivation reward and chose the Residual Cloud Movement Technique martial skill instead.

Although the feeling of getting something for nothing was great, he now possessed the Endless Spirit Rice Jar, so his cultivation would rise quickly; increasing his cultivation level wasn't his top priority.

What Li Muyang lacked right now were cultivation techniques and defensive spells.

The cultivation techniques for outer sect disciples of the Demon Refining Sect were the lowest-grade common goods, and the spells he could access were mostly chores-related ones like the Cloud and Rain Art; there weren't many proper combat spells.

While a mortal-grade flying sword was good and could quickly boost his combat power, Li Muyang had already seen a low-grade spirit tool as a potential reward, so he had little interest in this mortal-grade sword—what if he encountered a spirit-tool-level reward next time? Wouldn't this mortal-grade sword be a waste?

Therefore, after careful calculation, Li Muyang chose the Residual Cloud Movement Technique.

Whether in reality or in a game, learning skills to run away and save one's life was always the most reliable path. As long as he was alive, everything else could be discussed.

As Li Muyang selected the Residual Cloud Movement Technique, the contents of the manual appeared in his mind.

[Residual Cloud Movement Technique: A demonic cultivation technique from the mysterious Black Cloud Stronghold. It uses demonic blood to temper the body for rapid progress. When activated, it instantly increases movement speed and reaction speed (cost already exempted)]

[Side effect: After using the Residual Cloud Movement Technique, the user will enter a blood-thirsty state and must replenish fresh blood in a timely manner]

Along with this introduction, a set of bizarre, rapid-tempering movement techniques using demonic blood flooded his mind.

Li Muyang blinked in surprise, feeling the overbearing and tyrannical nature of the manual's contents, as well as the so-called—cost already exempted?

Did that mean the techniques given to him by the game system wouldn't have any side effects?

That was another new discovery!

Most demonic cultivation techniques, while fast to master, often came with various side effects.

The way the Blood Demon Path cultivators in the tutorial turned into monsters was likely a side effect of their techniques.

But the demonic arts given by his own cultivation system had no side effects... this was truly awesome!

The system was really powerful! It was letting him cheat! And cheat hard!

Cheating is fun for a moment, but cheating forever is always fun!

Li Muyang happily browsed through the newly added Residual Cloud Movement Technique in his mind and began to study this demonic art that used blood to temper the body, preparing to buy some demonic blood at the mountain market to temper his body once he logged out of the game.

However, in the dim, shadowed forest, the little girl who had been silent for a long time in the bamboo basket on his back suddenly spoke up.

"Um... Big Brother..."

The little girl, who had been silenced by Li Muyang's dismissive words earlier, seemed to have made a decision.

She hesitated, but still spoke.

"Let's go back to the stronghold. This forest is very dangerous..."

The little girl had actually taken the initiative to ask Li Muyang to return.

Li Muyang's train of thought was interrupted, and he felt a sudden surge of curiosity.

"There's danger in the forest?"

He looked at the gloomy mountain forest before him and asked, "Are you talking about the wild beasts in this forest? Or the monsters?"

The little girl shook her head and said, "It's not the monsters in the forest, it's..."

The little girl hesitated at this point, seemingly struggling with whether or not to tell Li Muyang a certain secret.

Ultimately, she bit her lip and said, "Big Brother, the truth is that a mysterious monster has been hunting me from the shadows these past few days."

"Back when the Human Trafficker was around, it feared him and didn't dare get close, only appearing in my dreams."

"But now that the Human Trafficker is gone and you've left the village, that monster could attack us at any moment now that we're in these woods."

As soon as the little girl finished speaking, three dialogue boxes suddenly popped up before Li Muyang's eyes.

[A monster that appears in dreams? Are you talking about a Dream-Eating Demon?]

[You lying little brat, do you really think I'd believe you again?]

[...(Please enter your own custom dialogue)]

Seeing the three dialogue boxes appear, Li Muyang blinked.

Finally... it triggered!

He had failed so many times before, unable to pry any key information out of the little girl.

Yet now, through a stroke of unintended luck, he had raised her favorability to 20, and without him even having to ask, the little girl had confessed on her own.

Looking at the content of the two dialogue boxes, Li Muyang hesitated for a moment.

He always felt that the options provided by this system were too formulaic and limited in utility. He had followed the system's prompts to progress the plot before, only to get stuck every time; ironically, it was only after he started doing his own thing that he cleared the first stage in one go.

Thinking of this, Li Muyang first saved his progress before speaking.

"You mean to say that if we go back to the village, we won't be attacked by the monster?"

Li Muyang entered his own dialogue, ignoring the responses provided by the system.

The little girl hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Maybe... that monster is very afraid of the Human Trafficker, and there must be people in the village even more powerful than him. We should be safer back in the village than out here."

No sooner had the little girl finished speaking—sounding quite unsure of herself—than Li Muyang, carrying the bamboo basket on his back, turned around and began to sprint in the direction they had come from.

This action showed he had completely trusted the little girl's words and was following her suggestion to return to the village.

Such an abrupt move left the little girl stunned.

"Ah? Big Brother, you're just going to believe me like that?"

Even though he had been deceived so many times before and had even exposed her lies, he was now trusting her so easily...

The little girl in the basket was bewildered; what exactly was this Big Brother thinking?

Little Wild Grass realized once again that she truly could not understand this strange Big Brother at all.