Liao Li

In a secluded courtyard within Tie Jun City.

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

Before him stood a frail girl who was less than five feet tall and looked like a child.

The girl's purple hair was wildly disheveled. She had slightly pointed, slender ears and mysterious purple patterns on her face.

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

"Become my disciple." Qi Yuan gave the order bluntly.

The girl showed no hesitation upon hearing this. She immediately dropped to her knees and kowtowed to Qi Yuan.

"Disciple Liao Li greets Master!"

As she bowed, the system notification finally sounded in Qi Yuan's mind.

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

That was right!

This frail figure was the "outstanding disciple" candidate Qi Yuan had found only after searching through nearly the entire inventory warehouse of the largest slave market syndicate.

A hidden "genius" with a base return multiplier as high as 30x!

"Bind!"

Qi Yuan chose to bind her without hesitation. Information about this disciple immediately appeared on the system panel.

Name: Liao Li

Race: Chuan Li Clan

Realm: Star Traveller, Second Stage

Attribute: Lightning

Cultivation Path: Warrior

Base Return Multiplier: 30x

"Lightning attribute too? Heh, not bad. This means I can keep farming cultivation experience for the Thunder Domain!"

Qi Yuan nodded in great satisfaction.

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

"Yes, Master."

Liao Li, Qi Yuan's newly accepted Second Disciple, silently rose to her feet.

Logically speaking, even a slave would be somewhat surprised if her master suddenly demanded that she become his disciple.

Yet there was no surprise on Liao Li's face. In fact, there was almost no trace of anything resembling human emotion.

This was the most common result of prolonged control by a Biological Chip: one's emotions were suppressed to the extreme.

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 microchip from his Auxiliary Brain.

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

"Pssh~"

A thread of Origin Power surged from his body and instantly smashed the control terminal into powder.

At the same time, Liao Li, who had worn a dejected and indifferent expression moments ago, 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 small 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 and sold at someone else's whim."

"What? You were one too?"

A little life finally returned to Liao Li's eyes, though she still showed a faint nervousness and wariness as she looked at Qi Yuan.

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

"Do something?"

Qi Yuan paused, then shook his head with a laugh. "There's nothing you need to do. I already told you, I wanted to find a disciple, and you happened to be suitable."

"If you insist on doing something, then just cultivate diligently from now on."

As he spoke, Qi Yuan added inwardly, And be a little more generous with the returns too.

"Really... just as a disciple?"

Liao Li still found it hard to believe.

Buying a slave to make her a disciple?

Th-this sounded unbelievable no matter how she thought about it.

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

Even she herself did not understand what could possibly make her worth the other party's attention.

Seeing the suspicion on her face, Qi Yuan smiled inwardly but did not explain further.

Even he was somewhat unclear about the system's standards for judging "talent."

But he knew one thing: the higher the base return multiplier, the better the "talent" had to be. As for exactly what aspect made it better, only time could tell.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Yuan flipped his hand and took out a Second Stage Force Battle Suit that he had confiscated after killing San Yan and the others.

"This is a Second Stage Force Battle Suit. Once you inject Origin Power into it, it can instantly cover your entire body. Consider it a welcome gift from your master."

He controlled a thread of Origin Power to carry the silver-white battle suit toward Liao Li while secretly communicating with the system and designating 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 been saving as quickly as possible.

"Huh? For me?"

Liao Li received the Force Battle Suit blankly. After she cautiously injected a thread of Origin Power into it, the suit immediately spread like flowing water and swiftly enveloped her entire body.

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

Feeling the powerful force continuously surging through the silver-white battle suit, shock inevitably 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 had the chance to obtain one!

If she had not seen her father use one before, she might not have recognized such a treasure at all!

At that moment, the way she looked at Qi Yuan gradually changed.

He had given away such a precious treasure so casually. Could he truly intend to raise her as a disciple?

"Th-thank you, Master."

She spoke to Qi Yuan with some awkwardness.

"Haha, good disciple. When your master has money, I'll buy you an even better one!"

Qi Yuan laughed heartily.

Because just then, the system notifications had sounded in his mind as well—

Successfully gifted one Second Stage Force Battle Suit to disciple!

Base Return Multiplier: 30x. Beginning return.

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

Return reward: One Third Stage Force Battle Suit. Stored in System Space and available for retrieval at any time.

"A Third Stage battle suit!"

Qi Yuan's spirits lifted slightly.

Although Force Battle Suits of the same stage had no distinctions such as low, middle, or high grade, the price gap between each stage was even more outrageous.

A Third Stage Force Battle Suit cost at least tens of billions of Eternal Coins!

A Second Stage battle suit worth ten million had turned into a Third Stage battle suit worth tens of billions of Eternal Coins in an instant. The feeling of his wealth skyrocketing was simply incredible!

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

Having a high base return multiplier really was wonderful. A casual critical hit could yield hundreds, even nearly a thousand times the return.

It seemed he would never have to worry about money again!

"You just escaped your predicament, so your mind must be in quite a mess right now."

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

"Yes, thank you, Master."

Liao Li had gone through a great deal today, and her thoughts truly were in chaos.

She did not put on any airs after hearing him. She gave Qi Yuan a slightly solemn bow, casually chose a room, and moved in.

After she left, Qi Yuan quickly began considering his plans for what came next.

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

Before long, a rough plan took shape in his mind—

He would focus on both making money and cultivation!

He needed to use the cultivation experience returned by the system to rapidly raise his realm, while also reasonably allocating his return opportunities and accumulating vast wealth through gift returns.

After all, whether it was buying more powerful secret techniques, weapons, and battle suits, entering the Virtual Universe to attend lessons and study, using certain special functions, or even nurturing disciples, all of it would require enormous 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< I saw that everyone wasn't too satisfied with the version posted at noon and felt that part of it was unpleasant, so I made some adjustments. I've already deleted that uncomfortable section. Please forgive any inconvenience it caused you all~~

Everyone is welcome to keep supervising and point out any other unpleasant parts~~~