Chương 18: Being A Stalker Is Extremely Rewarding

After analysing the pros and cons, I sent my advice to Ren Qingquan. [After analysis, System suggests you focus on qualities over quantities while practising the Soul Swallowing Technique.]'Qualities over quantities?' [According to the data that System has collected, higher-level fish have a much better side effect to energy increase ratio.] [So, the host should only swallow the soul of a fish at Martial Master level or above, while using the soul of a normal fish to increase your points. This method lets you level up more effectively.] [Furthermore, the host can use your points to further increase Devour's range and accuracy during selection. This way, the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique will continue to decrease, and your level-up speed will become even faster.] Ren Qingquan nodded slightly in understanding.

'Alright then. But let's stop for today. I am already feeling uncomfortable from the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique.' I agreed with Ren Qingquan's decision to stop. After all, if he accidentally enters qi deviation, things will become extremely troublesome. Just like that, Ren Qingquan continued his routine for another month and successfully amassed a whopping 104 points. After a month of recuperation, Ren Qingquan has finally stopped experiencing the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique.

In addition to the 104 points and Ren Qingquan's recuperation, I've also come across several interesting pieces of news and carried out several experiments over this month. The interesting news I mentioned concerns Ren Xuan, the man who beat the original Ren Qingquan in the important clan tournament. Around twenty days ago, Ren Xuan successfully entered the Martial Spirit Sect as he planned.

He joined as an outer sect member and often went to the Endless Mountain, where many ferocious beasts dwell, to hunt and gather plants. Thanks to Ren Xuan's 'muttering under his breath' illness, I found out that he's at the final stage of concocting a medicine that'll allow someone to extend their lifespan, which I've been frantically copying. Ahem, anyway, he plans to give it to the medicine peak's peak master, who'll start looking for that kind of medicine in at most half a year.

He planned to give that medicine in exchange for being accepted as the elder's direct disciple. Ren Xuan also occasionally mentioned that he needed to be a direct disciple before Ren Shiluo went insane and chased after him because of Ren Qingquan's death. When I heard it, I was a bit confused until I remembered that Ren Xuan was the one who had beaten the original Ren Qingquan to death from stress. The more I hear Ren Xuan mutter to himself, the more I feel the amount of knowledge he holds is abnormal.

The main abnormality is that I've heard him planning about things that haven't happened yet. To be honest, some of the information kinda scared and excited me at the same time. For example, I've heard Ren Xuan is planning to join a rebellion that hasn't started yet, and that rebellion will affect the whole world and even bring down the Azure Empire. During that rebellion, Ren Xuan said he planned to steal some treasure amid the chaos before fleeing to the cultivation world.

That's right, Ren Xuan actually knew about the cultivation world! Although I've never heard him specifically mention where it is. After hearing all that, even though the conclusion I've reached is ridiculous, I dare bet my grandpa's underwear that this guy either has a simulator that can predict the future or is a regressor! If Ren Xuan were a normal kid, I would've just thought he was afflicted by an ancient Chinese version of the eight-grader syndrome.

But during the time I observed him, Ren Xuan was actually extremely scheming, to the point of being scary. I've seen eight people get duped by him, yet they still call him buddy. If that's all, I'll think of him as a genius. But Ren Xuan has also shown many inexplicable skills, such as alchemy, talisman crafting, or some weird technique I am not even sure about.

Although there are many cultivation-related books in the Ren Family library, the only cultivation spells I've directly seen are the photocopy technique used by the old man in the Ren Family library and Xiao Cai's healing skill. This world also doesn't use alchemy to refine magical pills, nor does it have talisman-drawing techniques.

The most they can do is craft medicine pastes or pills with an effect slightly better than that of medieval humans on Earth, mainly thanks to special materials such as ferocious beasts and magical plants. Furthermore, I am 100% sure that what Ren Xuan does is the kind of alchemy often seen in xianxia stories. I've seen him concoct a pill that fucking floats and shines with gentle golden light once he opened the furnace! Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

There's also some nonsensical dragon pattern on the pill, which made the pill look like something straight out of a manhua. Based on how good he is at those cultivation arts like alchemy and talisman, and how many fancy phenomena he summoned through them. His attainment should be incredibly high. That's also why I concluded Ren Xuan is someone with a cheat. After all, even something as ridiculous as me could exist and become a fake system. Just an extra regressor or simulator won't be able to destroy my worldview.

As for the interesting experiment, it's also related to Ren Xuan. After learning of his specialness and with excess points at hand, I tried to experiment by placing more of my abilities on Ren Xuan. I connected myself to the [Scan] I'd anchored on him. I spent some energy and willed another skill to anchor itself to Ren Xuan. I watched as 10 points of energy around me disappeared. In exchange, I can now use the [Devour] ability through Ren Xuan. I already knew I could do this, so this part didn't surprise me.

After testing the abilities I lent to Ren Xuan, I can finally conclude three things. First, as I already know, it's possible to lend more than one of my abilities to others. It's also possible to do so through distance, as long as the target has been anchored with at least one ability. Second, lending a second ability to others costs me 10 points, while lending a third skill costs me 100 points. I knew it because when I tried to add another ability to Ren Xuan, 100 points worth of energy started acting strange.

Of course, I quickly stopped and only lent Ren Xuan two abilities. After all, spending 100 points for things I don't need yet is simply too wasteful. By the way, [Anchor] isn't among the skills I can lend. Every time I try to grant someone [Anchor], the energy in the dark space around me goes berserk, showing me that I don't have enough points to do so. Lastly, the more abilities are lent to the same person at once, the stronger their effectiveness will be, and vice versa.

Ren Xuan's initial [Scan], which is only a few centimetres in radius, has increased several-fold after I anchored an additional [Devour] ability on him. But compared to Ren Qingquan's [Scan] and [Devour], the one on Ren Xuan is still trashy. While I am lost in thought and busy recounting my gains, I was interrupted by Ren Qingquan, who called, 'System, I plan to continue levelling today. So, I want to spend 100 points to upgrade the Selective Devour function!'

[You've successfully spent 100 points to upgrade the Selective Devour function.] Ren Qingquan opened the personal panel and saw the points he had gathered disappear once again. [Name: Ren Qingquan Point: 6 Realm: Third Stage Martial Master Martial arts method: Body Tempering Method. Martial arts technique: Iron Palm (Beginner). System function: Devour, Scan, Calculate, Map, Mission, Skill Learning, Selective Devour.] With 200 points in Selective Devour, Ren Qingquan went to the fish market like usual and collected some points in the morning. By afternoon, Ren Qingquan went to the processing area and waited for the chefs to arrive. He only occasionally targeted Martial Apprentice level fish souls and mostly focused on the Martial Master level fish.

After using the Soul Swallowing Technique on 10 Martial Master realm fish and around forty Martial Apprentice realm fish, Ren Qingquan's martial arts realm rose by three small stages. That means after swallowing all those souls, Ren Qingquan has reached the sixth Martial Master realm. That speed is simply cheating compared with other martial artists who need to work to the bone to increase their realm by even the slightest bit. Furthermore, he has collected a great deal of refined spirit qi within his body.

After using the Soul Swallowing Technique to raise his martial arts realm by three small stages, Ren Qingquan began to show a few signs of the Soul Swallowing Technique's side effects. This time, I asked him to stop at the first sign of side effects. As everyone knew, the larger the wound, the longer it would take to heal. So, I wanted to test whether letting Ren Qingquan recuperate when his soul hasn't been greatly affected by the side effect would shorten the time needed to recover.

[Host, you should stop swallowing souls.] Ren Qingquan paused.

'Why? Didn't I only stop when the side effect had become a bit more serious?' [System wanted to test whether stopping before the side effect becomes serious would result in higher level-up effectiveness.] Ren Qingquan seems to understand what I mean, as he stopped using the Soul Swallowing Technique and used [Devour] to convert them into points instead. He repeated the action for a few days, and after fifteen days, Ren Qingquan had gathered 52 points.

At the same time, I found that the side effect of the Soul Swallowing Technique had disappeared. What a pity that, based on my calculations, stopping when the side effect first appears and stopping when it becomes serious make little difference. Ren Qingquan needs 15 days to recover if he stops as soon as the side effect appears. Meanwhile, he'll need 30 days to recover if the side effect becomes serious.

However, if the side effects appear after Ren Qingquan swallows 200 fish souls, the serious side effects will appear after he swallows 400 fish souls. Of course, I still advised Ren Qingquan to stop as soon as the side effect appeared, rather than waiting until it had become serious. First and foremost, the number of high-level fish killed in the fish market is limited.

Only about 10 Martial Master fish and slightly more than 100 Martial Apprentice level fish are killed each day, and swallowing the soul of a Martial Apprentice fish is simply too inefficient. There's also the fact that waiting until the side effect becomes serious might be dangerous. After all, it's unknown how much the limit is before Ren Qingquan falls into qi deviation. Anyway, with the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique gone, Ren Qingquan continued his journey to swallow fish souls.

Before that, he spent 40 points on Selective Devour to improve his level-up efficiency. In the morning, Ren Qingquan went to the fish market as usual and waited until the afternoon to start his level-up spree. He targeted most of the Martial Apprentice souls and all of the Martial Master Master fish souls before stopping when the side effect had appeared. By the time Ren Qingquan stopped, his martial arts realm had risen by three stages, and he reached the Ninth Stage Martial Master realm.