Liao Li

In a secluded courtyard in Tie Jun City.

Qi Yuan sat beside a stone table in a pavilion within the courtyard.

Before him stood a petite, frail girl who was less than one and a half meters tall and looked like a child.

The girl's purple hair was extremely disheveled. Her long, slender ears were slightly pointed, and mysterious purple patterns covered her face.

Though thin and weak-looking, her body was taut as she stood there, giving off a powerful sense of strength.

"Take me as your master." Qi Yuan gave the order bluntly.

The girl did not hesitate in the slightest upon hearing this. She immediately dropped to her knees and kowtowed to Qi Yuan.

"Disciple Liao Li greets Master!"

At the same time as she bowed, the system prompt finally sounded in Qi Yuan's mind.

Target Liao Li. Base Return Multiplier: 30x. Available for binding!

That was right!

The petite figure before him was the "outstanding disciple" candidate Qi Yuan had found only after scouring nearly the entire inventory warehouse of the largest slave market consortium.

A hidden "genius" with a Base Return Multiplier of 30x!

"Bind!"

Qi Yuan chose to bind her without hesitation. Immediately afterward, information about this disciple appeared on the system panel.

Name: Liao Li

Race: Chuan Li Clan

Realm: Star Traveller Level 2

Attribute: Lightning

Cultivation Path: Martial Warrior

Base Return Multiplier: 30x

"Her attribute is lightning too? Heh, not bad. Now I can keep farming Thunder Domain cultivation experience!"

Qi Yuan nodded in satisfaction.

"Get up." He looked at the kneeling figure before him.

"Yes, Master."

Liao Li, Qi Yuan's petite Second Disciple who had just acknowledged him as her master, silently rose to her feet.

Logically speaking, even a slave would be somewhat surprised if their owner suddenly demanded that they become their disciple.

Yet Liao Li's face showed no surprise at all. In fact, there was scarcely any emotion resembling that of a human being flowing through it.

This was the most common result of having one's emotions endlessly suppressed through long-term control by a Biological Chip.

Qi Yuan silently shook his head as he looked into his disciple's hollow eyes, which seemed indifferent to everything. At last, he removed a tiny black chip from his Auxiliary Brain.

This was the control terminal corresponding to the Biological Chip in Liao Li's brain.

"Pssh—"

A thread of Origin Force surged out from his body and instantly blasted the control terminal into a cloud of powder.

At the same time, Liao Li, who had worn a dejected and indifferent expression, suddenly froze—

Only after a moment did she look at Qi Yuan in disbelief.

"Th-this... why?"

"I'm taking in a disciple, not looking for a slave."

Qi Yuan stood with a faint smile, his gaze calm as he looked at the petite figure before him.

"I don't know what you went through before this, but I can more or less understand how you feel. After all, not long ago, I was also a slave like you—controlled, sold, and traded at others' whim."

"What? You were one too?"

At last, a trace of life appeared in Liao Li's eyes. However, when she looked at Qi Yuan, there was still faint tension and vigilance in her expression.

"Then... you, you saved me because you want me to do something for you?"

"Do something?"

Qi Yuan was taken aback, then shook his head with a smile. "There's nothing you need to do. I already said it—I wanted a disciple, and you happened to be suitable."

"If I really had to ask something of you... then just work harder in your cultivation from now on."

As he spoke, Qi Yuan silently added, And make sure you give me some good returns too.

"Really... just as a disciple?"

Liao Li still found it hard to believe.

Buying a slave to make them a disciple?

No matter how she thought about it, it sounded unbelievable.

After all, she was merely an ordinary Level 2 Star Traveller slave. She had neither a powerful bloodline nor any special background.

Even she herself did not understand what there was about her that the other party valued.

Qi Yuan looked at her suspicious expression and chuckled inwardly, but he did not explain further.

He himself was also unclear about the system's standards for judging "aptitude."

However, he knew one thing: the higher the Base Return Multiplier, the better the "aptitude." As for exactly what aspect was better, only time could tell.

After thinking briefly, Qi Yuan flipped his hand and took out a second-tier Force Battle Suit he had seized after killing San Yan and the others.

"This is a second-tier Force Battle Suit. Once you inject Origin Force into it, it can instantly cover your entire body. Consider it your greeting gift from your master."

He controlled a strand of Origin Force to lift the silver-white battle suit and send it flying toward Liao Li. At the same time, he secretly communicated with the system and designated it as the "gift" that would trigger a return.

Now that he had a disciple, he naturally needed to use up the return opportunity he had accumulated as soon as possible.

"Hm? For me?"

Liao Li accepted the Force Battle Suit in a daze. When she cautiously injected a thread of Origin Force into it, the suit immediately spread like flowing water and swiftly wrapped around her entire body.

"Th-this feeling... could this be... the legendary Godly Battle Suit?!"

Feeling the powerful force constantly surging through the silver-white battle suit, shock involuntarily appeared on her face.

In her tribe, this was a treasure known as a Godly Battle Suit. Only the strongest tribal chiefs of each generation had ever been qualified to obtain one!

If she had not seen her father use one before, she likely would not even have recognized such a treasure!

At this moment, the look in her eyes as she gazed at Qi Yuan gradually changed.

He had given away such a precious treasure without a second thought. Could it be that he truly intended to raise her as a disciple?

"Th-thank you, Master."

Somewhat unaccustomed to it, she spoke to Qi Yuan.

"Haha, good disciple. Once your master has money, I'll buy you something even better!"

Qi Yuan laughed heartily.

Because just then, the system prompt had sounded in his mind once more—

Successfully gifted one second-tier Force Battle Suit to disciple!

Base Return Multiplier: 30x. Return commencing.

Detected that the gifted item brought considerable surprise to the disciple. Triggered 30x critical reward. Final Return Multiplier: 900x!

Return reward: One third-tier Force Battle Suit. Stored in System Space and available for collection at any time.

"A third-tier battle suit!"

Qi Yuan's spirits lifted slightly.

Although Force Battle Suits of the same tier had no distinction between low, middle, or high grades, the price gap between each tier was far more outrageous.

A third-tier Force Battle Suit cost at least tens of billions of Eternal Coins!

A second-tier battle suit worth ten million had become a third-tier battle suit worth tens of billions of Eternal Coins in an instant. The feeling of such explosive wealth growth was simply incredible!

He looked at Liao Li standing nearby, his eyes filled with anticipation.

A high Base Return Multiplier really was wonderful. A casual critical hit could bring returns of hundreds, even nearly a thousand times over.

It seemed he would not need to worry about money in the future!

"You just escaped from your predicament, so your mind must be quite confused right now."

Qi Yuan smiled at Liao Li. "All the rooms in this courtyard are empty. You can choose whichever one you like and rest first. We can talk about cultivation after you've calmed down."

"Yes. Thank you, Master."

What Liao Li had experienced today was rather surreal, and her mind truly was in chaos.

She did not put on any airs after hearing him. After giving Qi Yuan a slight but solemn bow, she casually chose a room and moved in.

After she left, Qi Yuan quickly began considering his next steps.

Now that he had successfully escaped Lei Bao Star and acquired a disciple with a decent multiplier, it was time to use the system to rapidly raise his strength!

Very quickly, a rough plan formed in his mind—

He would focus equally on "making money" and "cultivating"!

He needed to use the cultivation experience returned by the system to rapidly improve his realm, while also allocating return opportunities wisely and using gift returns to quickly accumulate tremendous wealth.

After all, whether it was buying stronger secret arts, weapons, and battle suits, attending lessons and studying in the Virtual Universe, using certain special functions, or even nurturing disciples, all of it required vast amounts of money.

In this powerful world, money might not be able to do everything—but without money, one could do nothing at all!

"Right. Before that, shouldn't I find myself a powerful backer?"

>O.o< Seeing that everyone was dissatisfied with the version posted at noon and found it rather unpleasant, I made some slight revisions and removed that uncomfortable part. I ask all of you to please forgive any inconvenience caused to your reading experience~~

Everyone is welcome to keep offering feedback and pointing out any unpleasant parts~~~