A way to make money

"Hm?"

Liu Hao paused, then turned toward the doorway.

A frail figure was walking slowly toward him, his eyes full of curiosity.

By then, daylight had fully broken.

In the light streaming through the window, he could see the boy's distinctly ill-fitting coarse linen clothes, altered from worn-out clothes belonging to their father, Liu Jun.

The figure was his younger brother, Liu Yao.

For as long as he could remember having a younger brother, this was the first time Liu Hao had seen him get out of bed and walk around.

Clearly, after being bathed in moonlight and starlight the previous night.

Liu Yao's body had fully regained its health.

"You're up, little brother! Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"

"...I don't think so."

"Good. Come on, I'll show you what it's like outside."

Taking advantage of his greater height, Liu Hao draped an arm around Liu Yao's shoulders and led him out of the house.

Outside, Liu Yao looked around like a curious little baby.

It was understandable, though. After all, for him.

Perhaps today was the first day he had truly begun to connect with this world.

There were so many things he was seeing for the first time, all brimming with endless novelty.

Over the next while, Liu Yao became a walking collection of a hundred thousand whys, constantly learning about this rich, colorful world from Liu Hao while developing his grasp of language.

The sky, white clouds, the sun, the earth, flowers, grass, trees, ants...

Countless things that could not have been more ordinary to most people seemed so wondrous in Liu Yao's eyes.

At some point, Liu Jun quietly appeared in the doorway.

Watching the two brothers chatting so happily filled him with warmth.

Meanwhile, the flame of hope in Liu Jun's heart, extinguished when his eldest son proved unable to cultivate and become a Soul Master, rekindled now that his younger son's strange illness had been cured.

After all, statistically speaking, a Soul Master's children had a far greater than fifty percent chance of becoming Soul Masters themselves.

Since his eldest son could not cultivate, his second son was very likely to possess innate soul power.

Thus, Liu Jun's hopes for Liu Yao were even higher this time than his hopes for Liu Hao had been.

"Oh? Little Hao? Who's this little boy?"

Suddenly, an elderly voice sounded nearby.

It was the village chief, Old Gordon, whose house stood only three or four meters from Liu Hao's.

He was walking over with a cane, carrying an oilpaper parcel.

"Grandpa Gordon, this is my younger brother, Liu Yao. He's recovered from his illness, so I'm showing him around," Liu Hao said with a smile as he turned.

"Oh, so this is Little Yao. You're better now? Good, that's wonderful."

Old Gordon looked at Liu Yao with a kindly smile. "Come to think of it, this is my first time meeting Little Yao. Such fair, clear skin. The girls will definitely like you when you grow up, haha..."

At those words, Liu Yao's face instantly flushed red. He pressed his lips together and hid behind Liu Hao, clutching his older brother's clothes without daring to make a sound.

It was not that Liu Yao understood anything about relationships between boys and girls. He simply had never interacted with strangers before and was shy around them.

Liu Hao was somewhat speechless too. This little old man just loved teasing children.

Still, it was harmless enough. After all, he meant no harm.

"Little Hao, take these two chicken drumsticks. One for you and one for Little Yao, to build up your strength."

Before Liu Hao could think of a verbal "counterattack," Old Gordon handed over the oilpaper parcel, interrupting his train of thought.

"Thank you, Grandpa Gordon."

Helplessly defeated once again, Liu Hao could only stop thinking and accept the parcel.

Why once again?

Because Old Gordon had often teased Liu Hao like this before.

He seriously suspected that the little old man enjoyed the thrill of toying with people through words.

And after teasing them, he would even give them something nice, making it impossible to resent him.

"I'm off. Take your time eating, you two. Don't choke."

After giving them the drumsticks, Old Gordon promptly waved goodbye, nodded to Liu Jun, then turned and left.

That series of actions alone showed how thoughtful the little old man was.

He not only considered that Liu Hao and Liu Yao were not good with words and left of his own accord to spare them any awkwardness.

He also never spoke to Liu Jun from beginning to end, merely nodding in greeting, presumably out of consideration for the pride of the village's only lame Soul Master.

"Goodbye, Grandpa Gordon."

Liu Hao waved as well, watching the old man leave.

At the same time, he added another point to Old Gordon's tally in his mental notebook.

He thought that perhaps he should use the system to help the old man someday, though he did not yet know what the man wanted most.

Still, he could find out by asking later. There was no rush.

As for now.

Grrr-

The aroma of meat seeping out of the oilpaper parcel in his hands made Liu Hao's stomach growl traitorously.

However, he did not follow Old Gordon's suggestion of giving himself and his younger brother one drumstick each.

Instead, he returned inside, cut up both drumsticks with a knife, put the meat into the porridge, and stirred it evenly.

That way, everyone in the family could have some meat.

As he ate the delicious rye porridge with chicken, Liu Hao's long-neglected taste buds seemed to dance, and he shoveled porridge into his mouth so fast his hand nearly left afterimages.

In no time at all, his bowl was empty.

The lingering taste of meat in his mouth truly left him wanting more.

So he chose the simplest solution: cheat!

"System, can you simplify making money for me? I want to make big money!"

"Ding! Host request received: make big money. Simplification in progress...

One simplification opportunity consumed. Remaining opportunities: 5. Simplification successful. Money-making methods, including selling labor, buying high and selling low, violent plunder, and others, have been simplified to: system vitality recycling and conversion.

The host only needs to take a living organism that possesses a certain degree of vitality but has completely lost its ability to resist,

such as various plants, animals, insects, birds, beasts, and so on, and touch either the organism or an object currently controlling its movement. The system can then recycle that organism's vitality.

Recycled vitality will be stored in the system as Life Value.

The host may spend stored Life Value to exchange for currency on the Douluo Continent."

He sucked in a breath.

Well, damn. Liu Hao could only marvel.

I just wanted to make money. Why did this damn system give me something like a farming-and-trading system?

Still, although the feature seemed complicated, it could actually be summed up in one sentence: trade lives for money. Ahem, no, trade other creatures' lives for money.

And the range of creatures was very broad, from insects and plants all the way up to every kind of animal.

Although it sounded convenient, it also seemed a little cruel.

Exchanging other creatures' lives for his own wealth.

It had a bit of a demonic cultivator's flavor to it.

Liu Hao felt conflicted, but after just three seconds, he worked it out.

He only needed to avoid indiscriminately hunting creatures with intelligence. As for plants...

Plants that aren't Soul Beasts have no intelligence and can't move. Surely they don't feel pain. Probably?

As for insects...I won't sell the ones that don't bite. For those that do, I'll just leave a few to breed.

Liu Hao silently settled on his money-making plan, recited the system's "incantation" over his father's medicine, and, after watching him drink it, headed out with his younger brother.

It was still morning, and the sun was not too fierce-the perfect time to gather herbs.

The reason he had only gone to gather herbs yesterday afternoon was that he had needed to wait for Su Yuntao to come to the village that morning to awaken Martial Souls.

In a backward village like this, anyone who wanted a free Martial Soul awakening had to wait for the Spirit Hall's Soul Masters to make their annual visit. Anyone who missed it would have to wait until the following year.

Afraid of missing it, Liu Hao had stayed home.

As they walked, Liu Hao stopped from time to time, either introducing the roadside plants to his brother or answering his questions.

Children of this age were at their most curious, because this was how they came to understand the world.

Even Liu Hao, who had transmigrated with an adult's soul, had been curious about everything when he first encountered this wondrous new world in person.

There were not many trees on this mountain. Most of the vegetation consisted of grasses, shrubs, and the like.

However, because people often came up the mountain to quarry bluestone, venomous insects, snakes, ants, and such were rarely seen.

That was also why Liu Hao dared to climb the mountain alone at such a young age.

Of course, now that he had the system, he was even bolder, daring to bring along his five-year-old brother.

While gathering the medicinal herbs his father needed, Liu Hao tried using the system to recycle the vitality of some weeds.

"Recycling successful. Life Value +0.1."

"Recycling successful. Life Value +0.2."

The weeds whose vitality the system absorbed rapidly withered.

However, Liu Hao had to pull the weeds out of the soil before he could recycle them.

That was a little troublesome, but still manageable.

Besides, he had a bold idea concerning this system feature.