[It is now midnight, imperial capital time. Chat group status refreshed.] [Group members: 10. Members who checked in yesterday: 10. Fortune points from group member check-ins have been credited to the host's balance: 50 × 10] [All group members have checked in. The host receives 100 fortune points (number of group members multiplied by ten).] [All group members have completed the daily task-first message. Fortune points have been credited to the host's balance: 50 × 10] [The host has completed today's check-in. Fortune points +100] [The host's current fortune points: 1,500 (balance) + 200 (host's check-ins yesterday and today) + 600 (group member check-ins) + 500 (group member daily tasks) = 2,800] [The host's lifetime accumulated fortune points: 3,800]
Dragon Soul Village, the village chief's residence.
It was past midnight. After settling Xiao Wu, whose emotions had barely calmed, into a guest room, Lu Chen returned to his own room, lay on his bed, and summoned the system panel.
"System Sis, show me the panel."
[System at your service (~﹃~)~zZ] [Host: Lu Chen] [Martial Soul 1: Azure Dragon. Click here for details: "+"] [Martial Soul 2: Spirit-Suppressing Spear. Click here for details: "+"] [Soul Power: Level 10] [Mental power: 200 (middle stage of the Spirit Connection Realm)] [Cultivation art: Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art] [Shop: Tier 1] [Fortune points: 2,800] [Lifetime accumulated fortune points: 3,800] [Items: Spoiler Notebook, Chat Group, Live Point Map] [Character favorability interface: Click here for details: "+"]
"Expand the group member favorability interface," Lu Chen instructed.
Today had been his first time using the notebook to reveal spoilers. He needed to check the results through the group members' favorability.
[Group member favorability interface opened- Ah Yin: 20 (new acquaintance) Liu Erlong: 25 (new acquaintance) Bibi Dong: 29 (new acquaintance) Angel: 35 (new acquaintance) Zhu Zhuqing: 39 (new acquaintance) Zhu Zhuyun: 39 (new acquaintance) Dugu Yan: 45 (familiar) Little Princess: 49 (familiar) Hu Liena: 60 (friendly) Xiao Wu: 69 (friendly)]
After reading the newly added group member favorability ratings on the system panel, Lu Chen nodded inwardly. They were more or less what he had expected.
System Sis was quite rigorous in categorizing favorability values, with strict classifications corresponding to each range.
A value of 0 represented "hatred." As the name suggested, it meant mortal enemies who would never rest until the other was dead, enemies who could not live under the same sky.
1-9 represented "disgust," manifested as refusing to communicate and harboring ill will. If they could trip you up along the way, they certainly would not hold back.
10-19 represented "indifference." Reason outweighed emotion during interactions. You would not be attacked without cause, but you certainly would not receive preferential treatment either. Most ordinary people fell within this range when meeting for the first time.
20-39 represented "new acquaintance," meaning you had made a reasonably good initial impression on the other person, significantly increasing the chances of successful negotiations.
40-59 represented "familiar." You could already be considered a friend who had left a fairly deep impression.
60-69 represented "friendly." At this stage, they would actively consider the other person's interests and stand on the same side on issues that did not cross their bottom line.
Favorability above 70 was more unusual, with finer classifications corresponding to different types of relationships.
The relationship types Lu Chen had currently unlocked were:
Friendship-70-79 (close friends), 80-89 (kindred spirits), 90-100 (dearest friends)
Family-70-79 (harmonious), 80-89 (flesh and blood), 90-100 (closest kin)
Romance-70-79 (yearning), 80-89 (enamored), 90-99 (beloved), 100 (unwavering)
Incidentally, only a tiny number of characters could reach 100 romantic intimacy, and once it reached 100, it would never decrease.
Lu Chen could not help marveling. It truly deserved to be called the Romance Continent, with love engraved into its underlying logic.
Of the three known relationship types, romantic favorability was the only one with a description exclusive to 100 points and the ability to never decrease. Even if only a tiny number of people could reach it, that was outrageous enough.
Ah Yin, Liu Erlong, and Bibi Dong, these three young... auntie-type beauties, had relatively mature, steady personalities. In common terms, they were not so easy to fool. Their favorability was the lowest among the ten, essentially all at the lower end of the new acquaintance stage. In other words, Lu Chen had only just left a positive impression on them.
Ah Yin's worldview had been thoroughly trampled by his notebook, leaving her so depressed that she questioned her life, yet her favorability still remained at 20. She really was gentle.
As for Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong, once he got around to revealing spoilers about Gangzi, it was hard to say about the latter, but Bibi Dong's favorability might drop straight below 10.
The influence of Rakshasa Divine Power, her obsessive personality, her longing for her white moonlight, her hatred of Qian Xunji, and the sunk costs she herself did not dare look back on-with all these factors together, Bibi Dong's problems were certainly not something one or two rounds of spoilers could easily resolve.
Compared with these three adults, the favorability of Qian Renxue, the Zhu Family sisters, Dugu Yan, and Ning Rongrong was considerably higher.
All he could say was that young people accepted new things too quickly and too easily. Whether it was Lu Chen's identity as someone reborn or the goodwill he had subtly displayed in the notebook, both were imperceptibly influencing their impressions of him.
Xiao Wu and Hu Liena...
With Xiao Wu's intelligence, coupled with her wild joy at learning from him that her mother was not dead, raising her favorability to 69 in such a short time was consistent with her character.
But where had Hu Liena's 60 come from? Had she been farming points?
[Analysis indicates that your appearance almost perfectly matches her aesthetic preferences, host (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡.]
Got it. A sucker for good looks.
Closing the favorability panel, Lu Chen's heart leaped with excitement. At last, it was time for the part he had most looked forward to.
"System Sis, retrieve the cultivation art."
[Cultivation art "Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art" retrieved.] [Merciful Azure Dragon Sovereign, relieve suffering and bestow grace. Spirit Suppression upholds righteousness, guarding the eastern heavens. Seal the inner void fast, unmoved by the changing times. Let the five elements flow in circuits, revolving through mist. Metal dispels evil and filth; wood nurtures spiritual truth. Water washes away worldly troubles; fire renews heart and spirit. Earth condenses life's essence, securing the primal root. Auspicious scales protect the body; astral Qi accompanies it. A thousand calamities disperse; ten thousand misfortunes cannot invade. Yin demons flee far away; fortune's stars shine ever near...]
After reading through it in full, even Lu Chen, whose innate mental power far surpassed that of ordinary people, could not help feeling tired.
The general outline of the Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art alone was over two hundred characters long. Including the subsequent Soul Power circulation routes and certain special methods, it approached well over a thousand.
It also contained plenty of obscure, difficult terminology. In the end, Lu Chen had to rely on the detailed explanations provided by System Sis, combined with his powerful memory, to memorize everything by rote before he could remember all the cultivation methods of the Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art.
"Unfortunately, this cultivation art was completely tailor-made for me. I can't teach it to Grandpa. If I want to improve his cultivation aptitude again, I'll have to rely on immortal herbs." Lu Chen felt somewhat regretful.
To cultivate the Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art, one first needed at least Twin Martial Souls. That requirement alone would bar almost every Soul Master on the Douluo Continent. Second, those two Martial Souls also needed to possess the sacred and mental attributes, along with all Five Elements Attributes. Not a single one could be missing.
The restrictions were extremely strict, but in return, this cultivation art produced exceptionally outrageous results:
It absorbed power containing the five attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth from the world. With the Divine Attribute anchoring his body and the mental attribute guiding the process, it temporarily transformed the corresponding five internal organs into five-attribute Soul Power gathering cores similar to Soul Cores. Even a conservative estimate put the increase in Soul Power absorption speed at over fivefold, giving Lu Chen a pill to settle his nerves.
After all, the Azure Dragon inherently possessed three ultimate attributes: strength, wood, and lightning. Under normal circumstances, his cultivation speed would be far slower than that of Soul Masters with equal talent. Lu Chen had always worried that ultimate attributes would slow his cultivation, but now that problem had been solved as readily as bamboo splitting before a blade.
At the same time, through the cooperation of the sacred, mental, and Five Elements Attributes, Lu Chen could cultivate an extremely special protective astral Qi. Formed from the gathering of power of multiple attributes that escaped during cultivation, it not only possessed various miraculous effects, including healing, burning, and freezing, but would also strengthen without limit as long as Lu Chen remained in a state of cultivation.
Simply put, once he cultivated this layer of protective astral Qi, Lu Chen would effectively come equipped with damage-reflecting armor that could be strengthened infinitely. In the later stages, an enemy might very well strike him only to be killed by the reflected damage, then discover before dying that the damage they had dealt was less than what Lu Chen had healed...
They would truly die with their eyes open.
Aside from that, the Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art also included certain special cultivation methods, such as lightning arts, mental cultivation methods, physical cultivation methods, and so on.
Just reading their descriptions made Lu Chen unable to resist imagining the future.
[Congratulations, host. You have triggered an exclusive task: Complete one full circuit of the Azure Emperor Spirit-Calming Art's Soul Power cultivation route for the first time.] [Upon completing the exclusive task, the host can receive various rewards, including a beneficial title (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧.]
Lu Chen: What else is there to say?
I must start cultivating right now!
Before you continue