Chapter 18

Huangcheng No. 1 High School would have bragging rights for ten years!

He, Yu Hongyuan, would be Li Yang's underling from this day forward!

Yu Hongyuan stood in front of Li Yang and called to the crowd of onlookers, "Move along, move along! Don't block the way!"

Then he turned back to Li Yang. "Shall we head back?" His attitude had done a complete one-eighty; he was just short of baring his teeth in a grin.

Li Yang: "..."

Yu Hongyuan said eagerly, "The driver's already waiting outside."

Li Yang didn't want people gawking at her like she was a giant panda, so she simply left with Yu Hongyuan.

Chen Song: "..." Before he could get a word out, they were already out of sight.

When Li Yang left the provincial capital, Chen Xiangrong personally came to see her off. When she returned to Huangcheng No. 1 High School, Principal Sun personally came to welcome her back.

The treatment made Yu Hongyuan's eyes shine with envy.

After returning to her little apartment at school, Li Yang slept for a full day and night before recovering.

The three-day practical exam had been exhausting. In particular, she hadn't felt anything while she was concentrating on fighting the dahlia at the end, but the fear had set in afterward.

That dahlia had been as tall as a small mountain!

Its two huge heads had been full of sharp teeth like knife points!

Its body could even spew poisonous mist!

How terrifying!

Li Yang watched the practical exam footage again, her heart pounding harder the more she saw.

One small mistake and she could have lost an arm or a leg...

The quarantine zone was truly terrifying. She still needed to go into the agriculture department.

Li Yang opened the system panel again and checked her detailed stats.

Name: Li Yang

Lifespan: 40 years / 50 years

Physique: 95

Spirit: 90

Note 1: Only 40 years of lifespan remaining. Please harvest plants as soon as possible to obtain more lifespan.

Note 2: Physique Points cannot be increased further. Please draw Starlight into your body as soon as possible.

Li Yang was rather puzzled by the wording of Note 1.

When she'd had only one year to live, "only" had been perfectly reasonable. But now she had forty years, and it was still saying "only"! Wasn't that a bit unintelligent?

Then again, Li Yang reconsidered. The system was called "Longevity." To something called "Longevity," forty years might not amount to much.

As for the second note, Li Yang couldn't do much about that either.

She had no idea how to draw Starlight into her body, and she didn't want to try it rashly. She could only wait until she enrolled and see.

Li Yang sighed softly. "I wonder if those Star-Attracting Pills are still..."

Just then, her phone chimed.

Li Yang took it out and saw a delivery notification. A package from the provincial capital had been placed in the parcel locker downstairs.

From the provincial capital?

Mr. Zhong?

Could it be the Star-Attracting Pills?!

Li Yang hurried downstairs and retrieved the package. She wasn't worried about danger; as long as she was in the city, and especially at school, she was very safe. There was no need to be as cautious as she had been in the quarantine zone.

When she opened the package, she found a small ebony box, an old-fashioned book beside it, and a letter sealed with wax.

Li Yang took out the little ebony box and opened it, drawing a sharp breath.

Brilliant Starlight shone with a dazzling radiance.

Of course, to an ordinary person, they were just four pitch-black pills, but in Li Yang's eyes, they were dazzling.

"So he really did have a 'clear conscience.'" Li Yang's opinion of Zhong Kun shot up.

In truth, she and Zhong Kun had only talked about it. Even if he hadn't given her anything, that would have been that. The Zhong Family was so wealthy and powerful; how would Li Yang have dared go to their door and ask?

But Zhong Kun had not only sent Li Yang four Star-Attracting Pills, he had also thrown in a copy of the Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique.

Li Yang had just picked up the book when she heard a beep.

[Detected: Star-Attracting Pill ×4, Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique ×1. A new function will be unlocked shortly. Please wait.]

A little while later, Li Yang's system panel changed.

Name: Li Yang

Lifespan: 40 years / 50 years

Physique: 95

Spirit: 90

Cultivation technique: Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique

Pills: Star-Attracting Pill

Note: Only 40 years of lifespan remaining. Please harvest plants as soon as possible to obtain more lifespan.

Note 2: Physique Points cannot be increased further. Please draw Starlight into your body as soon as possible.

Note 3: The Star-Attracting Pills contain too many impurities. Spending lifespan to purify them is recommended.

Note 4: The requirements for cultivating the Basic Star-Wielding Cultivation Technique have been met. Lifespan can be spent to cultivate it.

Li Yang: "!"

She'd just been thinking forty years was plenty, and now she had new ways to "spend her life."

Chapter 18

Li Yang looked at the Star-Attracting Pills in the little box and murmured, "Didn't they say the Zhong Family's products beat everything else on the market hands down? Why did the system decide they have too many impurities?"

She took one out. The pill was about the size of her thumb. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary traditional medicine pill: pitch-black, with a faint herbal fragrance.

But when Li Yang focused on it, she could see the brilliant, dazzling Starlight on it. For comparison, it had at least as much Starlight as the man-eating flower.

"Grade One High Stage?" Li Yang guessed.

The "ranking system" in this world was actually quite simple. Whether it was Star Wielders, mutated creatures, or even the pill in front of her, they all seemed to be ranked by the amount of Starlight they had.

Although Li Yang's Spirit Points had reached 90, that only put her at the top among ordinary people. Real Star Wielders probably had much higher values than hers. It was just like Physique Points: 95 was the limit for ordinary people, but a First-Grade Star Bearer's Physique Points started at 100.

Li Yang cautiously gave it a try. "Spend one month of lifespan to improve the Star-Attracting Pill's quality."

System: [You have no experience in pill refinement. After attempting to refine the Star-Attracting Pill for one month, its quality has decreased.]

Li Yang: "..." Well, aren't you something? I said improve it, so how did it get worse?!

Li Yang was gradually figuring out how the system worked. If she invested too little time, there was a good chance it would slack off, so for now, its smallest unit was a year.

It wasn't that Li Yang couldn't bear to spend a year of lifespan. She was worried about the Star-Attracting Pill... Even the cheapest one cost a hundred thousand!

What if she ended up ruining it?

Losing both lifespan and money would make Li Yang cry.

Forget it, forget it. She couldn't catch the wolf without risking the child. She had to take this step.

"Spend one year of lifespan to improve the Star-Attracting Pill's quality."

[You have no experience in pill refinement. After persisting in refining the Star-Attracting Pill for one year, you have improved its quality to Grade One Eighth Stage.]

Li Yang looked closely at the Star-Attracting Pill. Its Starlight was still dazzling, and she couldn't see much difference... Had it probably been Grade One High Stage to begin with, only for her to ruin it a little, so now it had simply risen back to where it started?

One year for one stage...

That cost a lot of life!

After some consideration, Li Yang decided to invest another year and try again.

[You have almost no experience in pill refinement. After persisting in refinement for one year, you have improved the Star-Attracting Pill's quality to Grade One Ninth Stage.]

Li Yang was somewhat dissatisfied.

She'd sunk two years of her life into it, and it had improved by only that tiny bit?

Was this pill even harder to improve than her Physique Points and Spirit Points?!

"Hmm... My pill-refining experience increased... Could it be that what's actually improving is my pill-refining skill?" The thought made Li Yang feel a little better.

As long as her pill-refining experience increased, it shouldn't be so hard to refine pills in the future, right?

Li Yang let out a soft breath and said, "Spend three years to improve the Star-Attracting Pill's quality."

[You have almost no experience in pill refinement. To improve the Star-Attracting Pill's quality, you decide to spend one year studying pill-refining knowledge.

[You have a tiny bit of experience in pill refinement. You begin refining the pill again, improving the Star-Attracting Pill's quality to Grade Two First Stage.

[Drawing on your limited pill-refining experience, you realize that the Star-Attracting Pill's quality exceeds your abilities and you cannot improve it. But you are stubborn and insist on trying. The Star-Attracting Pill's quality remains at Grade Two First Stage.]

Li Yang's head buzzed as she read. She had spent five years of her life, only to arrive at the conclusion that the Star-Attracting Pill's quality exceeded her abilities and would be very difficult to improve further.

Trash system!

It had cheated her out of her lifespan!

She wasn't spending any more!

Li Yang was so angry her liver ached, but the system never volunteered a response or gave many reminders. She had to use her life to test everything herself.

After collecting herself, Li Yang analyzed the situation calmly. "It wasn't a complete waste. At least I gained pill-refining experience... This Star-Attracting Pill was already pretty good to begin with. With my current abilities, it's probably impossible to improve it any further..."

As for the earlier note, Li Yang had figured out the pattern there too. From the system's point of view, the Star-Attracting Pill's quality was poor. Forget Second Grade—it would probably find even Third- or Fourth-Grade pills lacking.

But Li Yang had her own limitations. She was only "Gradeless" right now, so managing to raise this Grade One High Stage Star-Attracting Pill to Second Grade was already quite good.

Probably no one in real life would be so foolish. Who would spend five years doggedly working on a single First-Grade pill?!

Li Yang looked at the Second-Grade Star-Attracting Pill and murmured, "If it were a Grade One First Stage Star-Attracting Pill, could I improve its quality easily?"

Unfortunately, even a Grade One First Stage Star-Attracting Pill cost a hundred thousand.

She couldn't afford it.

Li Yang put the Star-Attracting Pill away and looked at the cultivation technique.

Rather than rashly starting to cultivate it, she first opened the letter Zhong Kun had left her.

The stationery carried a faint, pleasant fragrance, and Zhong Kun's handwriting was much neater and more elegant than his manner of dress.

The contents, however, were quite irritable. It began: [Big liar big liar big liar...]

Li Yang cleared her throat, skipped past three whole lines of "big liar," and looked at the words that followed.

[All right, I was too stupid. This is behind us, and you're not allowed to bring it up again! I've given you all the Star-Attracting Pills I owed you with a "clear conscience," and I've also transferred an extra fifty thousand to your account as hush money! Remember, it's hush money! Hush money means you're not allowed to tell anyone what happened during the practical exam!]