Taking a Knife to Your Dreams

We were only just getting started!

Lin Bai chuckled inwardly.

See? I told you emotions were the easiest things to stir up, especially in an innocent young scholar with a head full of dreams. Just take a knife to those dreams—every stab hits home!

When the reward (Spirit +1) arrived, Lin Bai felt as though he had downed a can of Red Bull. His mind immediately perked up.

All the fatigue he had accumulated since transmigrating vanished.

The effect was instant.

Working your ass off was for suckers. The Golden Finger and transmigrators were the perfect match!

"Lin Bai, I considered you a kindred spirit. Why would you make up a story to humiliate me like this?" Luo Congwen's eyes were bloodshot, and he panted heavily, clearly furious beyond measure. He glared at Lin Bai and said darkly, "You know the Luo Family's standing in Jiamao City. Tell me the original story in full, and I'll let this pass. Keep making things up, and I'll make sure you can't even leave the Luo Residence."

He told one story, and now they were restricting his freedom?

Were there no human rights in ancient times?

Having learned how this society worked, Lin Bai knew Luo Congwen was telling the truth. Within Jiamao City, at least, the Luo Family's young master really could throw his weight around with impunity.

But was Lin Bai afraid?

If he had been, he would never have entered the Luo Residence in the first place!

Besides, he now had a Golden Finger.

Fortune favored those who braved danger.

[Negative Emotions branch unlocked: collect ten instances of negative emotions directed at you. Reward: Spirit +3.]

With the initial task complete, the emotion system immediately issued a follow-up task.

Looking at the furious Luo Congwen, Lin Bai cupped his hands. "Brother Luo..."

Luo Congwen had yet to recover from the story. He interrupted coldly, "Don't call me Brother Luo. You're just a storyteller. What gives you the right to call me your brother?"

"I'm not a storyteller," Lin Bai said calmly.

"What, do you have some grand background?" Luo Congwen sneered.

Lin Bai tapped the tabletop at his leisure. "Your father brought me here."

"My father?" Luo Congwen froze.

"Yes, son!" Lin Bai nodded, quietly slipping in a joke at Luo Congwen's expense before continuing, "Young Master Luo, don't you think my arrival was a little too convenient?"

Luo Congwen looked at Lin Bai and sank into thought. Then his expression suddenly soured.

Lin Bai sighed. "Brother Luo, you're taking the prefectural examination next year, yet you spend all day neglecting your studies and thinking only of seeking immortals and pursuing the Dao. Old Master Luo feared you would ruin your future if you carried on, so he asked me to talk some sense into you."

Luo Congwen snorted coldly. "So you made up a story to disgust me?"

"This isn't a story. It really happened. When Ning Caichen was found, his backside... it was too horrible to look at..." Lin Bai closed his eyes as though unwilling to recall that wretched sight, then sighed. "Brother Luo, seeking immortals and pursuing the Dao isn't as wonderful as the storybooks make it sound. Accomplished cultivators aren't necessarily moral people. Before they become immortals, they're people first. People have all seven emotions and six desires. Take you, Young Master Luo—if you really succeed in cultivating someday, will you forget your parents?"

Luo Congwen fell silent.

"Obviously not." Lin Bai shook his head. "Resources in the Cultivation World are limited. To seize those limited magic treasures and medicinal herbs, to fight over those limited opportunities for immortality, the strong devour the weak. That's the norm in the Cultivation World."

"Longevity is humanity's ultimate greed to begin with. If cultivators truly embraced tranquility and nonaction, they would naturally accept birth, aging, illness, and death instead of scheming for eternal life.

"Seeking longevity is an act of defiance against heaven. Immortals pursuing it have stronger desires than mortals do. When mortals fight over resources, their own weakness forces them to exercise restraint. But cultivators have abilities far beyond ordinary people. Why would they restrain their desires?

"Brother Luo, what does a vast family fortune amount to in a cultivator's eyes?

"Suppose you really met a sword immortal. What makes you think he would treat you especially well? Wake up! More often than not, Ning Caichen's fate is the ending awaiting ignorant fools like you."

"I don't believe it." Luo Congwen's expression grew somewhat savage.

"I have plenty more secret tales from the Cultivation World. A foul-smelling zombie donned a painted skin to seduce a scholar, then flayed him and gouged out his heart while he was lost in lust. A Demon Devil Incarnation took the form of a Buddha, setting traps for young cultivators to drain their masculine vitality..." Lin Bai casually invented a few premises. Each time, the young scholar fell beneath lust's bone-scraping steel blade.

"Enough." Luo Congwen looked at Lin Bai, expressionless. "Leave. Tell the old man my Dao Heart is firm. I won't turn back."

Look at you!

Weren't you threatening to keep me here a moment ago?

Now you're throwing me out yourself?

Is that all the brains you have?

An ordinary person would have taken the offered exit and left.

But Lin Bai was no ordinary person.

He had a transmigrator's pride. Even without great skill, he had great nerve.

Staring at Luo Congwen, Lin Bai continued playing his invented role and earnestly urged him, "Brother Luo, listen to me. The waters of the Cultivation World run too deep. They aren't for you. Studying hard and taking the examinations is the proper path. A scholar who spends all day dreaming of Immortal Cultivation is even more laughable than one who goes into business. You could very well end up violated like Ning Caichen and die an unnatural death..."

"Get out!" Beside himself with fury, Luo Congwen smashed his teacup against the floor. He pointed at Lin Bai, his lips trembling. "I told you to get out! Didn't you hear me? This instant! Right now! Get out of my sight!"

[Anger from Luo Congwen +1]

With rewards rolling in one after another, Lin Bai was even less inclined to leave. He looked stubbornly at Luo Congwen. "Brother Luo, I can't go. I pledged to Old Master Luo that I wouldn't leave until I persuaded you. Otherwise, he won't pay me. Let's keep talking about the Cultivation World!"

"A serious illness calls for strong medicine. You yearn for Immortal Cultivation because you don't understand the Cultivation World. I know plenty more tales of cultivators who met tragic ends. I'll take my time telling you all of them..."

It was as though Lin Bai had stabbed him straight in the lungs.

His face dark, Luo Congwen pulled a banknote from his sleeve and held it out before Lin Bai. "Take the money and get out!"

[Anger from Luo Congwen +1]

"Old Master Luo promised me a hundred taels." Lin Bai looked at the banknote without so much as blinking.

Swish!

Three more banknotes appeared, each worth fifty taels.

"Two hundred taels." Without allowing any argument, Luo Congwen stuffed the banknotes into Lin Bai's hand and said through gritted teeth, "Take them and disappear. Now."

There we go—the money to open a restaurant!

Lin Bai smiled, leisurely tucked the banknotes into his pocket, and cupped his hands toward Luo Congwen again. "Your Dao Heart truly is firm, Brother Luo. Admirable indeed. I'll take my leave. A deal may fall through, but goodwill remains. If you ever want to hear more stories, come find me anytime!"

With that said,

Lin Bai rose and walked out, and the emotion system harvested another instance of anger from Luo Congwen.

Lin Bai was in an excellent mood.

The rewards from his Golden Finger were secondary. What mattered was that it had given him enough confidence.

His original plan had been nowhere near this bold and aggressive. He had genuinely intended to build a good relationship with Luo Congwen and proceed gradually.

After all,

A transmigrator only had one life. If he squandered it through recklessness, it was gone for good.

But after the systems attached themselves to him, just a few simple tasks had forcibly turned him into a radical risk-taker.

Most importantly, it had worked.

Not only had he completed his tasks, he had secured his startup funds as well...

The unexpected taste of success had thoroughly corroded Lin Bai's firm resolve, swiftly drawing him into the wonderful world of the Golden Finger.

Lin Bai wasn't worried about his scheme coming to light. Luo Congwen, single-mindedly devoted to Immortal Cultivation, wasn't on good terms with his father.

In theory, the young scholar wouldn't go to his father to verify such a trivial matter.

Even taking a step back,

If his swindle really was exposed,

Lin Bai believed he could find a way to handle it.

Through his experiment with Luo Congwen, he had discovered that carrying out the system's tasks was quite easy.

Perhaps by the time Luo Congwen realized what had happened, Lin Bai would already have grown into a big shot the Luo Family couldn't afford to offend!

He had to admit,

A Golden Finger really could give a person immense confidence.

Servants hurried past Lin Bai one after another, all looking excited, as though something major had happened!

Lin Bai stopped a guard. "What happened?"

The guard recognized Lin Bai and knew he had been spending time with their young master these past few days. Not daring to slight him, he stopped and answered respectfully, "Young sir, everyone's going to see the molester."

"A molester?" Lin Bai froze. They had those running around in broad daylight in ancient times, too?

Seeing his confusion, the guard patiently explained, "You haven't been out recently, young sir, so you don't know what's been happening. These past two days, all sorts of strange things have happened in the city. Someone's chickens were hacked to death for no reason. Someone jumped off the city gate tower and died. Others have been molesting young ladies and married women in the streets. Everyone's frightened, and the constables have been run ragged arresting people everywhere. They just caught another one..."

What was going on?

Lin Bai froze.

Were there more transmigrators, or did other people have systems too?

He couldn't help making that connection.

After all,

He had only transmigrated to this world seven days ago, and today, countless systems had attached themselves to him!

Both transmigrators and system users were capable of the strange acts the guard had described.

Who knew what tasks a system might assign? Someone who charged ahead and carried them out without regard for anything else would absolutely look like a lunatic.

Seeing Lin Bai standing blankly without asking anything more, the guard hesitated, then cautiously backed away a few steps before turning and running out of the courtyard to watch the excitement.

Lin Bai came to his senses and hurried after him. It seemed he had missed quite a lot during his three days at the Luo Residence.

If those troublemakers outside really were others like him, that was good news for him, too.

Whether their experiences were good or bad, they would provide invaluable lessons for his own future development. At the very least, they could keep him from falling into plenty of pitfalls.