Tower of Origin: I Evolve All Rewards

Chapter 318: Chapter 318: Gratitude Without Chains

The Gratitude Without Chains Heart was one of the most important campaign rewards so far.

Its description was clear.

[SSS Grade Gratitude Without Chains Heart]

[Effect:

Separates genuine gratitude from debt-binding, emotional ownership, rescue obligation, benefactor authority, and voluntary captivity structures.

Special Use:

Can stabilize rescued individuals who feel guilty for rejecting harmful benefactors.]

Yu Qingmei read the description and closed her eyes.

"This is exactly what we lacked."

Lin Xian’er’s voice became softer than usual.

"Dawn Benevolence turns kindness into leverage. This cuts the leverage without teaching children to distrust kindness itself."

That distinction mattered.

If children learned that all kindness was dangerous, Dawn would still win in another way.

Protection could not become cynicism.

Qin Yuheng placed the Heart in a sealed shared chamber, not the Qin Estate alone. Under the Council Without Crown framework, it would be used by trained child-path healers, not as a Qin-owned tool.

The first trial use was with the eight children from the Smiling Road.

One boy still felt guilty.

"They chose us," he said. "Maybe we made them sad."

The Heart pulsed gently.

Yu Qingmei sat beside him.

"You can thank someone for giving food. You do not have to give them your future."

The boy cried.

Not from terror.

From release.

Good.

The tool worked.

Meanwhile, interrogation of the captured sponsor representative revealed a route to Dawn Benevolence’s outer retreat. Not headquarters. An outer retreat where gratitude ceremonies were performed.

But Qin Yuheng did not strike immediately.

Why?

Because the representative’s memory carried a trap phrase:

When the chain breaks, call the dawn witness.

Qin Mo analyzed it.

"If we raid the retreat and break the wrong ceremony, it may trigger a remote witness imprint. They may gather data again."

"How to stop it?" Qin Yuchen asked.

"Either suppress the witness signal or make the ceremony fail before it calls witness."

Lin Xian’er frowned.

"Can we lure them into using the witness under controlled conditions?"

Qin Mo looked horrified.

"Why do merchants always suggest controlled disasters?"

Lin Xian’er smiled.

"Because uncontrolled disasters are bad for business."

The plan formed slowly.

They would not raid the retreat first.

They would create a false scholarship verification event publicly supported by regional standards. Dawn Benevolence would likely try to infiltrate, either to discredit it or to test the Gratitude Without Chains pattern.

Qin Yuheng disliked using children as bait, so the event would not include vulnerable children. Instead, it would involve adult volunteers, academy trainees acting under consent, and illusion-protected decoys.

Dawn preferred soft chains. They would be tempted to test.

Before the event, Qin Yuheng opened the Floor 134 chest.

[Primordial Origin Evolution activated.]

[Target:

SS Grade Gentle Chains Valley Chest]

[Available Evolution Paths:]

1. Quantity Multiplication

- Possible Result:

Gentle Chains Valley Chest x???

- Useful for many anti-gratitude tools.

2. Quality Enhancement

- Possible Result:

SSS Grade Sovereign Chainless Gratitude Chest

- Higher chance of supreme anti-binding treasure.

3. Talent Evolution

- Locked.]

This time, Qin Yuheng hesitated.

The campaign needed distributed tools again. But Dawn Benevolence was a high-level gratitude-binding enemy. A supreme anti-binding treasure might be necessary for the retreat or future headquarters.

He chose Quality Enhancement.

[Quality Enhancement successful.]

[SSS Grade Sovereign Chainless Gratitude Chest]

The chest opened.

[Chest Contents:]

SSS Grade Benefactor Authority Severing Lamp x1

SSS Grade Gratitude Memory Purification Water x1

SS Grade Soft Debt Bracelet Detector x1

SS Grade Emotional Obligation Contract Burning Seal x1

SS Grade Rescue Without Ownership Doctrine Tablet x1

The Benefactor Authority Severing Lamp became the key.

It could expose when a benefactor role had become authority over another’s future.

The doctrine tablet was copied manually, not magically, and used for healer training.

The fake scholarship verification event began five days later.

It was held in a public academy hall.

Parents, teachers, officials, and academy students attended.

Qin Yuheng did not stand at the center.

Yu Qingmei did.

Lin Xian’er explained clean scholarship contracts.

Wei Chen’s family demonstrated safe escort procedures.

Zhao Tianyu, surprisingly, gave a blunt speech:

"If a sponsor tells you to hide things from your family, hit them. Or report them. Reporting is usually better."

Qin Mo whispered, "That was almost educational."

Halfway through the event, the Benefactor Authority Severing Lamp flickered.

Three attendees carried hidden Dawn gratitude threads.

They were not attacking children.

They were measuring the new doctrine.

Qin Lian marked them.

Qin Yuheng waited.

One agent approached an academy trainee decoy and said gently, "Some roads only open to those brave enough to trust privately."

The lamp flared.

Qin Yuheng stepped forward.

"Then open it in public."

The agent froze.

The hidden thread tried to call dawn witness.

Qin Mo activated suppression.

The call failed.

Captured.

All three agents were taken alive.

This time, no data escaped.

A clean win.

Small.

But clean.

Mo Cangyan, receiving the failure report, smiled faintly.

"They are learning."

Then his smile vanished.

"Send word to the Ash Bell Courier Shrine. Burn it before they arrive."

Dawn adapted.

Blood Sun adapted.

The network began sacrificing weaker nodes.

That meant the next operation would be a race.