Seized by the System

After Fang Ning had been reprimanded by Sir System, he bid farewell to the Bodhisattva Spirit King and left the Spiritual Insect Realm.

“Collecting a hundred quintillion Merit Points may be difficult, but leveling up isn’t as hard, Sir System, so how about you level up to level-100 first?” Fang Ning suggested during the journey when the idea suddenly occurred to him.

“That’s impossible. At least collect a hundred million Merit Points first.” Sir System would not be deceived by Fang Ning.

“Damn it, you’re always acting smart when you shouldn’t be. Then, when you’re supposed to be smart, you act dumb instead,” Fang Ning grumbled before flying back home.

“Home is still the best.” Fang Ning leaned on the sofa as he took a sip of tea.

However, only after a moment of leisure, Ren Ruofeng came rushing in through the door.

“Venerable One, may I know if you’re free right now?” He seemed very anxious.

“Yes, what’s the matter?” Fang Ning was getting a headache, and thought, ‘Perhaps I should just let Sir System seize me instead…’

“Oh, I’d just asked a few specialists to design an ultra-high density ecosystem residential building, and they need the all-purpose bacteria developed by the God of Plagues to treat the large amount of daily waste and maintain the balance of the ecosystem. It’s just that we’re not sure what had happened to him, because he suddenly became uncontactable. Would the Venerable One know his whereabouts?” Ren Ruofeng asked anxiously.

Fang Ning was momentarily at a loss for words. Who could have expected that instigative guy would some day be needed by others for his assistance?

Sure enough, as long as one had some form of a proper business, one might come to be useful to others one day.

He could only reply, “The God of Plagues has done too much evil and has already met his end…”

“…” Ren Ruofeng was stunned, staring at Vigilante A for the longest time without speaking.

Fang Ning remained expressionless, giving off a “that’s just how things are, so what can you do to me” attitude.

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing we can do about it. I suppose I’ll have to come up with something else.” Ren Ruofeng sounded somewhat frustrated.

“There’s no need for that. He should’ve left behind some research results, so why not find someone else to take over the research?” Fang Ning suggested.

Ren Ruofeng shook his head. “He may have done a lot of evil, but he was a god after all. No matter how intelligent mortal scientists can be, their wisdom is limited, so they won’t be able to understand his research reasonings.”

Mortals may not be able to do it, but there’s someone who definitely can. In fact, this is the karma he left behind, so he must be the one to solve this,” Fang Ning said firmly.

“Who is it?”

“A monk.”

…

Black Robe’s Villa in the USA.

Ruo Renfeng, Vigilante A, Black Robe, and Zhi Nan all sat together in the living room around the coffee table.

“That all-purpose bacteria is crucial to the welfare of hundreds of millions of people, so we humbly ask you to lend us a hand. We’ll definitely prepare a generous reward.” Ren Ruofeng was already aware that this white-faced monk was the Great Demon Saint Zhi Nan, so he spoke with utmost sincerity.

“This matter started with my predecessor. Naturally, it should end with me. Dear almsgiver, you don’t have to be so courteous about this,” Monk Zhi Nan said with a smile.

“Now, that’s the way to go. Tell me, if he’s only reciting scriptures all the time, how many people can he educate? Focusing on researching science and technology is the right path to take,” Sir System said to Fang Ning.

“Indeed, an outsider, by studying our local science and technology, has already acquired the qualification to become a saint. Meanwhile, we as the local inhabitants have been falling far behind,” Fang Ning sighed.

“Well, this is the advantage of being a transmigrator. Isn’t this just like what’s described in all those novels you’ve read? Creating firearms in the first year, artillery weaponry in the second year, steam engine in the third, and then entering into capitalism in the fourth…” Sir System’s tone of voice was filled with envy and distaste.

Fang Ning heard this and was instantly impressed by Sir System’s way of understanding the situation.

He expressed his agreement. “Yes, I understand now. Although the Upper Realm hasn’t been walking the path of technology due to its prohibition by the saints, these gods themselves have actually explored all kinds of different paths and brought them to full fruition. It’s only that these ideas couldn’t be practiced in reality. Now that they’ve come to Earth, they could finally put the ideas in their minds into practice. With their high level of wisdom, they would naturally be able to perform well. As for us locals, we lack such an advantage.”

“For this theory of yours, I’ll give 10 points,” Sir System said satisfactorily.

Monk Zhi Nan was not a dilatory character. After agreeing to help, he left alongside Ren Ruofeng.

Their destination was, of course, the huge greenhouse where the all-purpose bacteria was being developed, and it was located in the Sahara Desert in Africa.

Since Fang Ning had nothing better to do, he went along with them too. That was a place where he had visited once before, and it was during that particular visit that he truly realized the wisdom of the gods.

Even though it was just someone like the God of Plagues, who kept going around committing evil, his wisdom was still far above the genius of these mortal scientists.

The four of them were all extraordinary beings. It took less than a few minutes for them to travel halfway around the globe and arrive at the huge greenhouse.

Ren Ruofeng naturally had the access rights to the facility, and so did Fang Ning.

After they had introduced the two monks to the person-in-charge at the base, the researchers all seemed rather astonished.

Western priests were often involved in scientific research, and there were even historical records of their achievements. An example of this would be the father of modern genetics⁠—Catholic priest Father Mendel. On the other hand, they had never heard of monks doing research as well…

This was their point of ignorance. Perhaps there used to be fewer figures like this in the past, but after the turn of the new century, there were quite a number of highly educated monks who continued to be actively involved in research activities.

Nonetheless, since these were guests of Ren Ruofeng and the Venerable Dragon God, they still were respectful toward the two monks when requesting for their guidance and taking over the relevant research materials.

As for Monk Zhi Nan, his breadth of mind was certainly remarkable.

He was not bothered by the doubts in these researchers, and followed them to the experimental area for the all-purpose bacteria. Then he began to study the research materials left behind by the God of Plagues.

Those materials he left behind did not include any printed theses, much less any research data.

What the researchers had managed to collect as research materials were only the video recordings of his experiments and the samples of those all-purpose bacteria.

Therefore, they had no way of continuing the research… They could not be blamed for this at all.

When the gods carried out experiments, it was naturally sufficient for all research data to be kept record of in their souls instead of in the external word

Nevertheless, relying only on these simple materials, it did not take Monk Zhi Nan long to detect their essence.

He raised his head and turned to Ren Ruofeng and Fang Ning. “This is a type of god-created item that is developed using the void lending method, which was by borrowing power from the Heavenly Axiom in advance to make the creation impeccably perfect.”

“Yes, you’re right. The God of Plagues once boasted to me about this method of his,” Fang Ning said, feeling impressed.

“Unfortunately, he did not complete it after all, but had only accomplished it halfway through,” Monk Zhi Nan said, shaking his head. “Let me complete the rest then.”

At this moment, Black Robe suddenly joined his palms together and reminded, “Master, doing such a thing will consume a lot of your luck and destiny. That God of Plagues was an evil god, so he may not care about such details, but you need to keep them in mind.”

Zhi Nan smiled. “You’re right to remind me of it, but this is my karma that has to be resolved.”

“What are they talking about? Why can’t I understand any of it?” Sir System sounded confused.

“It’s very simple. Don’t you remember? When Zhi Nan used the method of putting stars into dormancy to earn recognition from the Origin of Time and Space, he also received great destiny that can help him get through many difficult situations. However, this method must not be used excessively. He’s always used it twice. If he uses it again this time, it would be his third time. This is what we call ‘do not do anything more than three times’. This is common sense, and it’s fixed. I’m afraid he may not have the chance to use it ever again. Otherwise, it’s very likely that his qualification to become a saint becomes depleted,” Fang Ning sighed.

“That’s good then. I was still worrying that method of his was really impossible to guard against. If he uses it this time and can’t do so anymore in the future, then I won’t have to worry about this any further.” Sir System was rather happy about it.

Ren Ruofeng expressed his utmost gratitude, “Thank you for your hard work. If you ever need anything in the future, just let us know.”

Zhi Nan nodded and said, “Almsgiver, you’re too courteous. Please be at ease for now. If I need any assistance later, I’ll send my apprentice to inform you.”

Ren Ruofeng did not want to stay and disturb him any longer, so he left the experimental area with Fang Ning.

“This master is really a benevolent person. He’s even willing to consume his own luck and destiny for this,” he said to Vigilante A, sounding amazed.

After all, normal people would not be able to do something like this.

“If you knew who his predecessor was, you would be even more amazed,” Fang Ning said.

“Uh, who was his predecessor?” Ren Ruofeng asked out of curiosity.

“The Great Devil Saint Zhi Nan.”

Ren Ruofeng gaped at him, dumbstruck. That Great Devil Saint who was stirring up trouble everywhere had now become a generous monk?

‘This world is changing too fast. I should pay closer attention to it.’