Seized by the System

In the southern mountain area of Qi City, there was a hill full of greenery and surrounded by clouds and mist. A huge dragon could be seen inhabiting the top of the hill, where it appeared and disappeared amidst the clouds and mist, making the scene look like a scroll painting from an ancient mythological era.

Indeed, this dragon was the form taken by Sir System…

It no longer lived at its previous farm villa, since no one was there to wait upon it anyway.

A wide and deep cave had recently been dug by a group of hired Greater Rats. It was long and winding, extending to at least a depth of more than ten kilometers. Its size could completely accommodate the immensity of the huge dragon, and since it was warm in winter and cool in summer, it would make for a comfortable dwelling place.

Fang Ning saw this scene through the System View and could not help ridiculing it, “Rice Bucket, are you planning to become a dragon for real and not be a human anymore?”

“What would you know? My Dragonization Ability has reached Mythical-grade. I want to constantly experience the profound mystery of the dragon form and prepare to level it up to Ancient-grade. Upgrading this ability is different from upgrading a treasure. The higher my proficiency is, the more I can save on the consumption of experience points, so if I diligently cultivate it, with enough years of cultivation, I can even level it up without consuming any experience points,” Sir System retorted.

“Well, I didn’t know that. You already know it anyway. Speaking of treasures, when can my Soaring Dragon baby go and explore the universe to search for a suitable empty planet so that our hands and feet won’t be tied again?” Fang Ning asked in turn.

“Oh, haven’t I told you before? You have to collect as much magical energy as one of Death’s magical bubbles, in order to be able to teleport a hundred light-years away. Have you managed to accumulate that yet?” Sir System scorned.

“I should be asking you that. Isn’t all the money with you?” Fang Ning said resentfully.

“Right now, magical energy can’t be bought with money. I just asked Robert and the clan leader of the Whitestone people, and they said that they’ve received a notice from the executive committee of the Humankind Community announcing that all magical energy savings are to become strategic reserve assets. Therefore, they’re prohibiting any unjustified lending and withdrawal in large amounts,” said Sir System resentfully.

“Ugh, what can we do then?” Fang Ning felt a headache coming on.

“Well, we can’t become an evil dragon, and rob the humans like the World of Spirits and Souls did.” Sir System sighed.

“Um, of course, that’s out of the question. Also, regarding the big cauldron incident, why wouldn’t you go and help them seal it off personally? They would’ve definitely sent over quite a lot of thank-you gifts for it,” Fang Ning suddenly asked.

“Why wouldn’t you go?” Sir System asked in turn.

“I haven’t learned the techniques…” Fang Ning said frankly. “I got a headache just from reading through those sealing techniques.”

“Exactly. For you to enjoy a novel, you’ll also need to use your brain,” Sir System derided. “I’ve told you just now that I want to focus all my time on cultivating the Dragonization Ability, so I can’t afford to waste any time at all, especially since that big cauldron isn’t life-threatening. I shouldn’t spoil the ship for a halfpenny’s worth of tar. If we meet a stronger opponent next time, and I haven’t managed to level up in time because I wasted my time on something else, then all will truly be lost.”

“You’ve spent one trillion points to level up my sword baby, so you still have 5.3 trillion experience points. Isn’t that enough to upgrade the Dragonization Ability?” Fang Ning was incredulous.

“It’s not enough,” Sir System said straightforwardly. “Do you think it’s that easy to level up this perfect Mythical-grade ability? This is a core ability, so if it’s leveled up to Ancient-grade, there’ll be changes to our endowment.”

“Oh, I see…” Fang Ning was a slacker, so he could only go along with what the top student said. He did not understand a word of it anyway, and the gap between them was increasing. He had already given up the thought of surpassing Sir System in terms of ability cultivation.

He could only say, “If that’s the case, you focus on cultivating your ability while I control the others through my Heavenly Book baby to work in preparation for the overall situation.”

“Now that’s more like it. If there’s nothing else, stop bothering me.” Sir System drove Fang Ning away like it was chasing away a fly.

…

In the Land of Heritage, at the eastern Concrete Jungle, beside the bronze cauldron.

A group of Lake-level cultivators surrounded the enormous cauldron and were busy with their work.

Other than them, there was no one else in the area.

According to the latest information, only cultivators of Lake-level and above were capable of resisting the cauldron’s curse.

This situation motivated many people to, once again, increase the rate of their cultivation.

However, they did not realize that their current cultivation rate was already very fast and was supplemented with the Favor of the Heavens and Earth from the Pioneering Era. They had been in a smooth process of cultivation without experiencing any invasion from external devils, thus allowing for such rapid improvement.

According to both the Underworld and the World of Spirits and Souls, a Lake-level magical energy was equivalent to a cultivation base of a thousand years whereas a Sea-level equated to a cultivation base of ten thousand years.

The cultivation speed of spirits and devils with top-notch endowments was typically calculated in terms of a thousand years and ten thousand years.

Spirits and devils put a high value on power, so they would never take those lower-class spirits and devils with poor endowments as a standard for evaluating their magical energy.

Ren Ruofeng, Principal Xu, an old white man, a black wizard, and other cultivators of different races were following the guidelines of the few sealing technique manuals, casting their magical energy in an orderly fashion.

Golden rays of runes, like chains, were sealed onto the gigantic cauldron.

However, the gigantic cauldron stood firm on its ground, and the thick Yin Energy enveloping it did not weaken at all, appearing as if they had not caused the slightest change or damage to it.

The people looked calm and carried on with their duties.

From time to time, the curse would appear between the eyebrows of a cultivator. When that happened, a backup would be required to take the person’s place, and then alternate with another person again once the backup contracted the curse as well.

Some of those who were looking over from a distance could not help whispering among themselves.

From their end, the Lake-level cultivators were like ants while the bronze cauldron was like an elephant.

Their work seemed like ants tying up an elephant with straw rope…

“Will this type of seal work?”

“Since it’s from the two Venerable Ones, there shouldn’t be any problem with it.”

“There may not be a problem with the sealing techniques, but there may be issues with the people using it. They’ve been cultivating for no more than ten to twenty years, and even only a few years for some. With this kind of basis, how can we compare with the World of Spirits and Souls with their cultivation base of who-knows-how-many-years?” A middle-aged man, who had a wrinkly face and seemed as if he had been crushed by life, shook his head while sighing.

“Uncle, lower your voice. Keep in mind that the management chip might designate you as someone from the surrendering side, and put you through the conditioning process,” a person quietly reminded.

“Hey, what uncle? I’m only 35 years old,” replied the middle-aged man angrily. “I belong to neither the surrendering side nor the pro-war side, but the side of the realists. That’s reality. Those powerhouses with advanced cultivation are capable of withstanding the curse, so of course, they can talk about fighting until the end, but we’re civilians who can’t fight against it. This time, the mode of battle is different from before, because there’s no such thing as frontlines or backlines here. This is a mode where everyone is facing the enemy at the same time, and it’s easier said than done. If none of us can calm down and produce what we need, how are we supposed to face the enemy?” said that middle-aged man, hitting the nail on the head.

The others fell silent. What he said was not wrong. This was the terrifying part about the Era of Shenyuan.

Even during the Second World War, which was considered the largest-scale and bloodiest conflict in human history, there was still a huge space far behind the frontline where most people could safely produce weapons and train soldiers who would eventually join the battlefield.

However, right now, after they had finally mobilized the whole nation to retreat into the Land of Heritage, the enemy went ahead and placed a curse source in this trusted place, forcing the people into a state of passive defense, but this was too much of a passive war situation.

Their state of passiveness had driven many into despair. There might come a day in the future where they could win, but until then, many people had to live each day in fear.

‘Damn it. Is there not even a safe place at all? Do we truly have to live in fear every day?’ someone thought in agony.

At that moment, an old man in a Taoist robe mysteriously appeared. He looked around and said to the crowd, “Would you like to be safe? As long as you go home and worship this wooden tag, I guarantee you’ll no longer be disturbed by any spirits and devils.”

As he was speaking, he held a stack of sandalwood tags engraved with mystical patterns and began distributing them to the crowd.

The people hesitated and did not dare to carelessly accept it.

Then, a digital voice could suddenly be heard.

“A person has been detected trying to illegally delude the masses. Executing arrest mode.”

The old man in the Taoist robe who was distributing the wooden tags threw away the tags and started to escape, but a few rays of red light shot down from the sky and locked him firmly in place.

“Ah, here’s another fool from the Era of Barbarism who’s still unclear of the current state of affairs. Wake up,” someone sneered. “Now’s no longer the loose management structure we had before. Any odd movements will be dealt with as soon as possible.”

A short while later, a few tall looking mechs arrived and brought the swindling old man away along with the wooden tags he had been distributing.

“What was he distributing?” a person asked curiously.

“Why do you care about that? He’s probably a nobody from the Upper Realm who wanted to fish in troubled waters, taking advantage of the intrusion by the World of Spirits and Souls to get his share of profit,” said another person disdainfully.

“Seems like the current mode of management is still pretty useful. Otherwise, there may just be more chaos.”

“This is a jungle-like society, where the big fish eat the small fish while the small fish eat the shrimp…”

“Then are we the shrimp that end up getting eaten? How pitiful.”

“You wish. We’re the waterweeds. Whoever comes can harvest a bunch for themselves.”