Divine Art - Thanks for Playing

Swearing death-defying loyalty?!

As Zheng Lun finished speaking, Su Hu's face instantly turned green, and an urgent sense of having his foundations poached grew deep within his heart.

[Negative Emotion Points from Su Hu, +500...]

Di Xin laughed heartily, reached out to pull Zheng Lun up from the ground, and said, "General Zheng, quickly rise. From now on, you and I, lord and vassal, shall unite our efforts to make the Great Shang prosper!"

"This subject shall undoubtedly repay this with a death-defying allegiance!"

Zheng Lun's eyes were warm and moist, nodding forcefully as he made his vow.

What was his purpose in entering the secular world? Was it not to make a name for himself, gain recognition, enjoy a measure of wealth and glory, and secure a jade belt? Yet back in Jizhou, he had not been appreciated by Su Hu and had remained merely a grain transport officer. Now Di Xin valued him so greatly-bestowing both the title of General of the Guards and a jade belt-how could he not be moved to tears of gratitude and generate a heart of loyal devotion?

"Good, good, good! From now on, General Zheng shall attend at my side, and the defense of Chaoge City shall be entrusted to you." Di Xin reached out and patted Zheng Lun on the shoulder, then glanced around the surroundings and said, "If there is business, memorialize; if none, retire from court!"

"Great King, this subject has one matter to memorialize. The Grand Tutor has been away to the North Sea to suppress the rebellion of Yuan Futong for a full fifteen years. This subject requests that the Great King perform ancestral sacrifices to the Gods of the Heavenly Cycle tomorrow, to pray for the Grand Tutor, hoping he can suppress the rebellion soon and return in triumph to the court."

Hearing this, Bi Gan hurriedly used both hands to tightly grip his sliding trousers, looked at Di Xin, and said respectfully.

Pray to the Gods of the Heavenly Cycle?!

Wasn't that using sacrificial offerings to deal with the deities? What kind of spectacle would that be?

Hearing this, a sense of curiosity toward these ancient sacrifices immediately welled up in Di Xin's heart. Without delay, he nodded and said, "Granted."

After these words fell, the crowd respectfully retreated backward. Zheng Lun also moved to leave, but Di Xin grabbed him by the arm with a laugh and said, "General Zheng need not leave; henceforth you shall attend by my side."

Daji was still in the inner palace, and the Nine-Tailed Fox was by no means ordinary. He still had to count on this fellow Zheng Lun to protect him a little, lest he fall victim to the Nine-Tailed Fox's lethal schemes.

[Negative Emotion Points from Huang Feihu, +500...]

Almost at the instant the words fell, Di Xin immediately noticed a message flash across the system interface. Sweeping his gaze over it, he instantly saw that Huang Feihu was wearing an expression of utter depression. It seemed the man felt someone was shaking his position as King of Wucheng and dividing his military power, thereby generating a sense of crisis.

It was just a pity that this Huang Feihu, aside from having decent lineage, possessed mediocre skills-even inferior to his own Five-Colored Divine Ox. What did he have to compare with little Lun-lun?!

"Let's draw the lottery first, see what kind of cultivation art this system will actually reward me with, and then go meet Daji!"

Di Xin muttered inwardly, then patted Zheng Lun on the shoulder and led him in a hurried stride toward the inner palace.

The Great King is infatuated with beauty and so impatient; the future of the Great Shang is likely in peril... It is a pity that Grand Tutor Wen has yet to return in triumph to the court, leaving no one to rein in the Great King...

Bi Gan looked at Di Xin's departing figure, letting out long sighs. A distinctly uneasy feeling stirred deep within his heart, and after much deliberation, he decided to write a letter to Wen Zhong by the night's end, inviting him to return to Chaoge and use those Male-and-Female Golden Whip-which beat treacherous ministers below andfoolish rulers above-to fiercely discipline this tyrannical ruler!

Yet right at that moment, Di Xin had already casually found a stone by the roadside and sat down. Zheng Lun stood in vigilant guard with his arms crossed over his chest, his brows raised and eyes glaring fiercely as he protected him, looking very much like a loyal hound.

"The Lottery Center-so it's randomized right here!"

Di Xin flipped through the system and found the option for a Lottery Center. Inside was a Big Prize Wheel featuring various colored options, along with a pointer and a button. Below the button in the center of the wheel was a pair of parentheses containing the text (Lottery attempts: 1).

"One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, Eight-Nine Arcane Art, Five-Colored Divine Light, Universe in the Sleeve, Wondrous Dharma of Emptiness, Samadhi True Fire, Five-Element Escape Technique..."

Glancing at them all at once, Di Xin immediately felt overjoyed. If luck was on his side and he managed to draw Laozi's One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones in one go, wouldn't he be grinning so hard his nose bubbled with delight?

Even if he settled for second best and it changed to the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, that wouldn't be bad either. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, seventy-two transformations at will-this was a dream every youth yearned for!

Without a second thought, he immediately clicked to start the draw. The pointer instantly began spinning with a dazzling, dizzying speed as Di Xin shouted "Stop!" in his mind, and it then slowly began to decelerate.

"One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones... One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones... Eight-Nine Arcane Art... Eight-Nine Arcane Art..."

Di Xin clutched his hands tightly, continuously cheering and shouting for the pointer in his heart, hoping it would land on his most desired spot.

"Thanks for Playing!"

What the hell!

Di Xin almost leaped straight up. What on earth was this supposed to be?

This was the noble, grand, high-end, and miraculous Human Emperor System-how could such a bullshitting option like "Thanks for Playing" exist on the roulette wheel? Was this even acceptable?

How was anyone supposed to play this game!

He had finally managed to catch a single chance at a lottery draw, only for it to spin a "Thanks for Playing." Was this something a human being would do?

Then again, this broken system grew on Negative Emotion Points; being this deceitful, it was never a proper thing to begin with!

"Congratulations to the Host for drawing Thanks for Playing."

Yet right at that moment, the system's icy-cold voice rang out in Di Xin's mind.

"Congratulations? Heh, is this something a human would do? You shouldn't be called the Human Emperor System; you should be called the Scumbag System! This is what you call a randomized cultivation art? Where is the art?"

Di Xin sneered repeatedly, his disdain rising from within and stemming straight from his heart.

At that very moment, he even suddenly began to worry about his life in the Primordial World.

With such a bullshitting system, could he, a tyrant, truly rely on it to survive in this perilous calamity where all beneath the Sages were mere dogs, and even the Sages themselves nearly fell?

"Host, please wipe your eyes clean and see clearly-this is a cultivation art!"

The system replied with an icy-cold retort.

Thanks for Playing was a cultivation art?!

Di Xin was startled, and only then did he discover that a small golden point of light had indeed appeared within his mind. He hurriedly cast his consciousness into it, and in an instant, he felt his vision spin as a line of text materialized: [Thanks for Playing: This art is an active cultivation art that requires no cultivation and is mastered automatically. Its specific effect is that it can select an opponent and cause their purpose in an action to fail once. Its potency increases alongside the enhancement of the Host's abilities...]

Good grief, this Thanks for Playing actually really was a cultivation art!

Moreover, it looked somewhat perverted and possessed a sense of great power!

Staring at this line of small print, Di Xin couldn't help drawing in a cold breath of air. To directly cause an opponent's purpose in an action to fail once-didn't that mean as long as he was strong enough, he could directly cause Daji's intention to ruin the Great Shang empire through her seduction of him to fall through?

It might even make the objective of the Investiture of the Gods fall through as well.

[Negative Emotion Points from Su Hu, +50...+50...]

Yet right at that moment, Di Xin saw a string of Su Hu's resentment arrive within his system revenue records.

Presumably, Su Hu had by now snapped out of his dazed state, realizing he had been played for a fool by Di Xin, losing both his daughter and his major general Zheng Lun, while also trapping himself inside Chaoge City.

"Hmph, a double-crosser is indeed a double-crosser. Since you hold such a grudge, then honestly stay in Chaoge City from now on and be an Negative Emotion Points ATM for this Emperor."

Di Xin sneered inwardly, making up his mind to shear this fat sheep Su Hu until not a single tuft of wool was left.

At the same time, he also felt this system was quite miraculous, allowing him at the very least to know who harbored dissatisfaction and resentment toward him in their hearts!

Immediately following that, he suddenly realized that this system actually possessed the ability to remotely harvest Negative Emotion Points. This filled him with incomparable vexation—what a pity this era lacked the internet and smartphones; otherwise, relying on the pure Ancestral-An bloodline flowing through his body, tomorrow morning Laozi would have to call him Dao-brother, by tomorrow noon Dao Ancestor Hongjun would be walking arm-in-arm with him, and a few days later, Pangu Ancestor would cup his fists toward him and recite: "Who is the peak at the end of the Heavenly Dao? First came Pangu and then the heavens, while King Zhou Di Xin is still ahead!"

How hateful that the heavens gave no opportunity!

"Let's go meet Daji!"

With Thanks for Playing on his person, Di Xin was bold and skilled in his arts. He reached out to grab Zheng Lun's arm, intending to take the later-generation door-god and Heng General who guarded ten thousand households to go meet this famously devastating beauty-Consort Daji, whose moniker was virtually synonymous with the ruin of a nation-just to see how much of a femme fatale she truly was, and whether things would spiral out of control!

"Wait a moment..."

Yet having walked merely two steps, Di Xin's eyes lit up. The corners of his mouth suddenly revealed an extremely evil and bizarre smile as he raised his head and laughed out loud. That laughter caused Zheng Lun's body to shudder with successive chills, sending a mysterious creepy sensation down his spine as he silently mourned for the person who had caused the Great King to laugh...