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As soon as he finished speaking, the Blue Silver Grass in Chu Ge's palm began to grow wildly.

The vines shot out like venomous snakes, heading straight for Xiao Yan's face.

They were just over a meter apart. At that distance, Xiao Yan didn't even have time to raise a hand.

The vines wrapped around her arms and climbed up along her waist, binding her into a cocoon in the blink of an eye.

"Wait, little cousin, you're serious?" Xiao Yan panicked.

Chu Ge didn't answer. He kept activating his Sequence.

The vines tightened around her.

Layer upon layer wrapped around her like a zongzi, until only her roe-deer-colored head remained outside.

Only then did Chu Ge stop.

He looked at the girl hanging helplessly in midair and smiled pleasantly:

"Well? Comfortable?"

"Comfortable, my ass," Xiao Yan shot back. "You try getting tied up like a roast and hung in the air."

"And your grass has thorns. They're poking my butt."

Her voice grew a little quieter, with a hint of grievance. "It hurts like hell. Let me down."

"Say thank you first."

"Thank you for what?"

"You got tied up and poked. Saying thanks isn't too much to ask, is it? You can't have all the good things to yourself."

"Ugh-" Xiao Yan nearly couldn't catch her breath.

Her younger cousin's shamelessness had a real method to it.

But she was his older cousin, and a beautiful girl at that. If she did whatever Chu Ge said, where would she put her face?

If word got out, a whole table of elders would take turns laughing at her over New Year's reunion dinner.

"If you want me to give in, dream on." She snorted and turned her face away. "Just leave me hanging here."

"Fine." Chu Ge nodded. "Let's see how long you can hold out."

With that, he picked up his unfinished can of cola and went into his room.

He only shut the door halfway.

If that silly roe deer in the living room cursed him, he didn't want to miss a single word.

Sure enough, she didn't disappoint him.

"Stinky Chu Ge."

"Bad Chu Ge."

"Big idiot."

"How could you treat me like this..."

In his room, Chu Ge sat in his gaming chair and went over their fight in his mind.

He was now at the ninety-ninth level of the Qi and Blood Realm, with 9,900 jin of strength.

Setting aside his Sequence's bonus, he was an adult man who worked out year-round. His pure physical strength was over 150 jin.

In other words, his actual strength had long since exceeded 10,000 jin.

Then there was Xiao Yan.

She was a true genius.

She learned everything fast-unreasonably fast.

They had trained together since childhood, and Chu Ge knew better than anyone how frighteningly fast this silly roe deer cultivated.

If her ambitions hadn't lain elsewhere than the martial path, and she hadn't been set on becoming a doujin artist, she would have entered the Black Iron Realm and become a proper martial artist long ago.

That said, she'd made a name for herself drawing doujin, too.

Her pen name, "Chu Xiao," was well known in the scene. She was a grandmaster-level figure and made plenty of money.

He just didn't know where she spent it.

Chu Ge had never seen a cent of the allowance the family gave her every month.

As a result, even though she was always the one who offered to treat him to grilled sausages, Chu Ge was always the one who ended up paying.

And she had a perfectly confident reason:

"Your older cousin already offered to treat you to grilled sausages, and you still expect me to pay? You have to pay. You can't have all the good things to yourself."

Back to the point.

Xiao Yan was at the ninetieth level of the Qi and Blood Realm. Once she activated her Sequence talent, [Enhancement], the thirty-percent boost brought her strength close to 12,000 jin.

And it was an all-around boost: speed, defense, endurance... everything went up a notch.

In that state, Xiao Yan's combat strength was already at the threshold of the first level of the Black Iron Realm.

If they really fought head-on, Chu Ge couldn't beat her.

Just now, he'd purely gained the advantage by letting her strike first and then countering.

Blue Silver Grass was only a one-star Sequence, but its strength lay in its toughness, making it perfect for overcoming hardness with softness.

On top of that, Xiao Yan knew he was playing around and had never intended to get serious. She hadn't even bothered activating Enhancement, which was how she'd ended up like this.

...She really is a silly roe deer.

Chu Ge called out to the system in his mind:

System, let me ask you. Can I only sign in for one-star entries, or is there a chance of getting higher-star ones?

[Answering host: You are currently in the Qi and Blood Realm and only have access to sign-ins for one-star entries. To unlock higher-star entries, you must enter a higher realm.]

Chu Ge understood and asked:

Then after I enter the Black Iron Realm, what's the chance of signing in for a two-star entry?

[One percent.]

...That's way too stingy.

Chu Ge now seriously suspected that the talent he'd awakened by touching the Awakening Stone today was the system itself... a Sequence that relied on probability to draw other Sequence talents.

If this really was Mother Earth's welcome gift to a transmigrator, it was a little too stingy.

[Don't be discouraged, host. After you break through to the Bronze Realm, you will unlock sign-ins for three-star entries. The chance of two-star entries appearing will also increase.]

All right, then. Chu Ge was just complaining. However lousy the system was, it was still better than nothing.

He went on, Are there any other functions? Tell me everything at once.

[Second ability: entry synthesis. Three entries of the same star level can be synthesized into one entry of a higher star level.]

[For example, after successfully synthesizing three one-star entries, you can obtain one two-star entry.]

Wait, what do you mean, "after successfully synthesizing"?

Chu Ge caught the key word. Instead of getting excited, he asked what was on his mind:

Can synthesis fail?

[Yes. The synthesis success rate is fixed at fifty percent and does not increase with your realm.]

Well, would you look at that. It's a card game.

You're forcing me to be a gambling addict, huh...

What happens if it fails?

[One entry is returned.]

Chu Ge fell silent for a long while.

This system was really heartburn-inducing to use.

[Third ability: entry equipment.]

[In this world, the lucky few favored by the goddess of fortune can awaken two Sequences at once.]

[But I am different.]

[Each time the host breaks through to a new major realm, you can equip one additional entry.]

Chu Ge's eyes lit up at that.

It was like getting another equipment slot every time he leveled up in a game.

Then what happens to the extra entries?

[They are stored in the system inventory. You can swap them in at any time when you need a particular ability.]

[Note: After each swap, that entry slot enters a seven-day cooldown. It cannot be swapped again until the cooldown ends.]

Having figured out the system's abilities, Chu Ge looked forward to tomorrow a little more.

Tomorrow's sign-in would definitely give him another one-star entry, but what if its ability was special?

He made up his mind: as long as the new entry was stronger than Blue Silver Grass, he'd swap it in on the spot.

The living room had been quiet for a long time.

Chu Ge got up and went out, ready to let her down.

The sight before him made him pause.

The girl wrapped up like a zongzi in Blue Silver Grass had fallen asleep. Her head lolled to one side, and her breathing was light and even.

"You can fall asleep like that..."

Chu Ge looked at her as if she were a monster.

This girl was truly a divine being.

Seeing her sleeping so soundly, he couldn't bring himself to wake her.

If he woke her while letting her down, he'd get an earful.

But whether the silly roe deer would wake up on her own was hard to say.

Chu Ge went back to his own business.

He returned to his room, sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and focused. Before long, he entered a state of cultivation.

The technique he practiced was called the Indestructible Golden Body. It came from the Chu Family's Scripture Repository and had been created by an ancient mighty figure of the family.

It drew elemental power through the meridians, cultivated the five viscera, refined the six bowels, and tempered all 208 bones to forge an indestructible golden body.

It was a purely physical cultivation technique.

When he practiced it, a faint layer of golden light would rise over his skin, making him look like a Buddha statue.

Blue Star's martial world emphasized cultivating both body and techniques to keep oneself balanced. Few people focused exclusively on either.

Chu Ge belonged to the category of people who had read too many novels in their previous lives.

He had an inexplicable confidence in body cultivation and always felt it was the strongest path.

Besides, Uncle Pangu was a body cultivator too.

As long as I'm strong enough, there's no one I can't beat.

If I can't beat them, it just means I'm not strong enough yet.

Time moved on.

Night fell, and neon lights lit up across the city.

Elemental power washed through his body again and again.

The golden light on his skin grew brighter and brighter, until it was as though a little sun hung in the room.

Light leaked through the crack in the door and spilled into the living room.

It fell on the girl's face. Her eyelashes twitched, and she mumbled, still half asleep:

"Mmm... Little Gezi, you bastard, you're shining a flashlight at me again..."

The corner of Chu Ge's mouth twitched as he cultivated with his eyes closed.

Young people sure do sleep well.

Time passed midnight.

[Ding! Today's entry sign-in attempts have refreshed. Would you like to sign in now?]

The system's voice rang out in his mind.

Chu Ge stopped cultivating, opened his eyes, and spoke two words:

"Sign in."