Deep within the quiet chill of the ancestral cavern, a series of glowing blue prompts flashed once more before Ouyang Xian's double-pupiled eyes.
[ Ding! ]
[ Congratulations, Host, for Signing In at location: Blood Demon Sect's Ancestral Seclusion Ground. ]
[ Reward Received: 15,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. ]
[ Ding! ]
[ Congratulations, Host, for maintaining your Daily Log-In streak and opening your Weekly Special Gift! ]
[ Reward Received: 15,000 XP. ]
"..."
Ouyang Xian blinked, staring at the five-digit experience reward hovering in midair. A surprised exhale escaped his lips.
"Eh?"
He rubbed his chin, a bemused smile spreading across his pale face. When he had claimed his initial daily bonuses, the system had only offered him a modest trickling of experience.
He had received first Weekly Gift fifteen hundred XP at most. But now fifteen thousand in one go?
"Well now... maybe this system isn't quite as stingy as I thought," he muttered softly.
He brought up his personal interface panel to review his total assets. Between his daily sign-ins, streak bonuses, and the massive scrap-recycling haul from his storage ring, his current balance had ballooned significantly.
[ Current System Balance ]: • Experience Points (XP): ~30,000 • Low-Grade Spirit Stones: ~300,000
Sitting upon a massive pile of wealth and thirty thousand experience points, Ouyang Xian found himself facing a bizarre dilemma. He had plenty of capital, but he didn't want to squander his hard-earned XP carelessly on minor, short-term upgrades.
"What should I actually do with myself right now?" he mused, leaning back against the cold stone wall. His double-pupiled eyes flickered with uncertainty. "I'm sitting in seclusion as an Old Ancestor, but just staring at stone walls all day is going to drive me insane..."
Suddenly, a realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.
"Wait a minute..." Ouyang Xian froze, his eyes widening. "Am I an idiot? Why on earth haven't I thought about auxiliary paths?"
He slammed a fist into his palm.
"I literally possess the Double Pupils! A supreme trait that pierces through illusions, analyzes technical flaws, accelerates comprehension, and allows me to dissect complex structures in real time! Why wouldn't I learn secondary arts like Array Formations or Alchemy?"
It was the ultimate synergy. While ordinary cultivators spent decades memorizing complex rune patterns or medicinal pill formulas, his four pupils could deconstruct the intrinsic flow of energy within moments.
Yet, as soon as the excitement surged, a wave of reality doused his enthusiasm. He let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Right... I'm the ancestor of a impoverished, minor sect in the middle of nowhere. The Blood Demon Sect doesn't exactly possess a vast library of high-grade Array Formations or ancient Alchemy Scrolls..."
He slumped slightly, feeling the crushing weight of regional poverty. But a second later, Ouyang Xian paused. He raised a hand and slapped his own forehead in utter exasperation.
"Wait a second! What the hell am I overthinking this for?" he cursed under his breath, feeling like exploding himself out of sheer absurdity. "Why do I need a vast library right away? I can simply take whatever low-tier Array blueprints our sect does have, use my Double Pupils to analyze and master them, and then iterate on them! I can refine them, alter the rune lines, optimize the energy flows, and master them again! Repeat the cycle endlessly!"
He smacked his lips, thoroughly impressed by his own logic.
"Genius. I am an absolute, unadulterated genius."
Without wasting another second, Ouyang Xian reached into his robes and pulled out a dark crimson Communication Token carved from low-grade spirit jade. Channeling a sliver of his Half-Step Golden Core True Qi into the token, his commanding voice echoed through the spiritual line:
"Xue Wuhen. Bring every single Array blueprint, formation scroll, and foundational diagram currently stored in the sect's treasury to my Immortal Cave. Right now."
A second of dead silence passed through the jade token before a hurried, visibly flustered voice replied from the other end:
"P-Please wait a short minute, Old Ancestor! Xue Wuhen will be right there as fast as my feet can carry me!"
Ouyang Xian cut the connection and tossed the jade token onto his lap, a thoroughly satisfied grin spreading across his face. Was this the true privilege of being a high and mighty Sect Ancestor? One command, and the powerful head of a sect dropped everything to run errands?
"Ah... pure bliss," he chuckled.
True to his word, it took less than three minutes for heavy footsteps to echo down the long, torch-lit stone corridor outside the secluded chamber.
A tall, broad-shouldered, middle-aged man stepped into the ambient glow before the heavy stone doors of the cave. He wore a long black robe draped beneath a high-collared crimson cloak that fluttered with every step. Despite the silver strands weaving through his dark hair and the stress lines carved around his eyes, his features remained sharp and handsome.
This was Xue Wuhen—the current Sect Leader of the Blood Demon Sect and a formidable Fifth Stage Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.
Yet, despite his status as the ruler of hundreds of demonic disciples, Xue Wuhen stood before the closed stone door with his head bowed low, breathing shallowly. In his arms, he carefully cradled a bulky stack of dusty, leather-bound scrolls and ancient parchment blueprints.
"Xue Wuhen greets the Old Ancestor!" the Sect Leader called out, his voice trembling slightly with profound respect and underlying fear. "I have gathered every formation scroll in our treasury and brought them as requested!"
From deep within the cavern, Ouyang Xian's aged, echoing voice drifted out:
"Good brat."
With a casual wave of Ouyang Xian's sleeve inside the chamber, the massive stone door groaned, sliding open just a crack. A powerful, invisible tug of spiritual energy surged outward, neatly snatching the heavy armful of scrolls right out of Xue Wuhen's hands and floating them gracefully into the darkness of the cave.
Before the Sect Leader could even process the smooth movement, a small, dark leather spatial pouch shot out from the interior dark, flying through the gap and landing squarely in Xue Wuhen's outstretched palms.
Rumble...
The stone door instantly slammed shut again, sealing the cavern tight.
From behind the thick stone barrier, Ouyang Xian's raspy, authoritative voice echoed once more:
"Brat, inside that spatial pouch are two hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Take them and head out immediately to purchase a large quantity of Array Refining Materials for me."
"A-Array Refining Materials?"
Xue Wuhen froze on the spot, staring down at the unassuming pouch in his hands as if it were a venomous snake. His brain was completely short-circuited.
Why on earth does the Old Ancestor want Array materials? Is he planning to study Array Dao at his age? No, wait... more importantly, where in the world did he get this much money?!
Xue Wuhen's hands began to shake violently. One had to understand that the Blood Demon Sect's primary spirit stone mine—their most lucrative asset—only yielded a meager fifteen hundred low-grade spirit stones per month after accounting for mining costs and disciple wages! Two hundred thousand spirit stones wasn't just a large sum; it was equivalent to the sect's entire net treasury reserves for over a decade!
Hiss...! Two hundred thousand spirit stones?!
Inside the cave, Ouyang Xian used his Double Pupils to peer through the stone door, observing Xue Wuhen standing outside like a frozen wooden statue, staring blankly at the pouch.
Ouyang Xian narrowed his eyes and let out a cold, sharp snort.
"What are you standing out there like a brain-dead fool for? Are you waiting for me to come out and worship you, or do you want me to break all three of your legs?"
The harsh, terrifying shout cut through the quiet corridor like thunder.
Xue Wuhen jolted out of his trance, his face going instantly pale. Cold sweat broke out across his forehead as he hurriedly bowed toward the stone door.
"E-Eh?! No! No, Old Ancestor! It's not like that at all! I was merely stunned by your grand foundation!"
"If it's not like that, then scram!" Ouyang Xian barked, channeling the exact tone of a short-tempered, ancient demonic patriarch scolding an incompetent child.
"Yes, yes! This junior will scram right away!"
Xue Wuhen didn't dare linger for another fraction of a second. Turning on his heel, he kicked off the stone floor, his crimson cloak whipping through the air as he practically flew down the tunnel to escape.
Inside the dark cave, Ouyang Xian stroked his grey beard and nodded in self-satisfaction.
"Ah, scolding juniors really clears the lungs," he chuckled softly.
He knew precisely why Xue Wuhen was so utterly terrified. In the cultivation world, the gap between realms was an impassable chasm.
In the Qi Refinement Realm, the difference between minor stages was relatively small—each layer roughly doubled the cultivator's spiritual reserves compared to the last (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and so on).
In the Foundation Establishment Realm, the scaling became far more brutal; each stage was roughly ten times stronger in raw spiritual energy than the previous one (1, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000).
However, the leap from Foundation Establishment to a Half-Step Golden Core was astronomical. Although a Half-Step Golden Core cultivator was technically still sitting at the peak of the Ninth Stage of Foundation Establishment, the fact that they had successfully condensed half of a core meant their spiritual energy density was at least fifty times stronger than a peak Ninth Stage cultivator!
To a Fifth Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like Xue Wuhen, Ouyang Xian wasn't just a superior; he was an absolute apex predator who could obliterate him with a casual flick of his wrist. One slap, and Xue Wuhen would be sent straight to meet his ancestors.
Smirking to himself, Ouyang Xian turned his attention to the stack of scrolls sitting on the stone table beside his meditation mat. Unrolling the very first leather scroll, his four pupils focused, shifting as they swept across the complex, fading crimson ink diagrams.
"Tier 1 High-Rank Array: Illusory Mist Spirit-Devouring Array..." he read aloud, shaking his head with a light scoff. "What a grand, arrogant name for a simple Tier 1 defensive-fog formation."
Despite his verbal commentary, he didn't slack off. Closing his eyes, he channeled his Double Pupils to their absolute limit, dissecting every rune node, every energy pathway, and every spiritual anchor point drawn on the scroll.
Time flowed silently within the subterranean dark.
Three weeks passed outside the Immortal Cave, heavy footsteps echoed once again. Sect Leader Xue Wuhen bowed deeply before the sealed entrance, holding a fresh, heavily bulged spatial pouch in his hands.
"Greetings, Old Ancestor!" Xue Wuhen called out respectfully. "This junior personally sent our most trusted elders to the surrounding commercial cities to purchase the Array Refining Materials you requested. However... due to the barren nature of the Wasteland Domain, only Tier 1 and Tier 2 materials were available in sufficient quantities."
Rumble...
The heavy stone door creaked open just enough for a suction force to grab the spatial pouch, pulling it inside before the door slammed shut with a heavy thud.
"Good. Now scram," Ouyang Xian's grumpy voice bellowed from within.
Truthfully, Ouyang Xian had zero actual anger toward Xue Wuhen. He was simply thoroughly enjoying his roleplay as an ancient, volatile demonic patriarch.
"Yes, yes! Junior takes his leave!"
Xue Wuhen didn't hesitate for a single moment. He spun around and practically sprinted down the corridor, not daring to stay a second longer lest the Old Ancestor decide to test a technique on him.
Inside the cavern, Ouyang Xian emptied the new pouch. Dozens of raw spirit ores, formation flags, blank talisman papers, and spatial ink bottles tumbled onto the floor.
"Time to get to work," he muttered, a competitive spark igniting in his eyes.
From that day forth, Ouyang Xian's daily routine was strictly divided into three distinct pursuits:
Personal Cultivation: Circulating his internal energy to stabilize his fragile foundation.
Dao Comprehension: Utilizing his Double Pupils to observe the microscopic threads of the World Laws.
Array Refining: Physically carving runes, setting formation flags, and attempting to construct operational Array bases.
Even with the insane analytical capabilities of his Double Pupils, real-world execution required physical muscle memory and delicate hand control. His first few dozen attempts at refining formation flags ended in spectacular fashion—runes misaligned by a hair's breadth instantly collapsed, causing raw spiritual materials to burst into flames or crumble into useless ash.
Yet, Ouyang Xian didn't care in the slightest.
Whenever a pile of expensive materials was ruined, he simply opened his system interface and recycled the charred, useless scrap. The system's Recycle Function converted the damaged remnants directly into fresh XP!
It was an absurdly broken feedback loop: He used his daily Sign-In feature to generate free Spirit Stones. He used those Spirit Stones to buy raw Array materials through Xue Wuhen.
He used those materials to practice Array Refining. When he succeeded, he gained an operational Array; when he failed, he recycled the ruined scrap to the System for XP!
He was grinding three different professions simultaneously without losing a single cent of real value.
Busy in his endless loop of learning and refining, the days blurred together until a crisp, mechanical chime echoed through his mind, signaling the completion of his very first full month in this world.
[ Ding! ]
[ Congratulations, Host, for maintaining your Daily Log-In streak for 30 consecutive days! ]
[ You have received your First Monthly Gift Pack! ]
[ Would you like to open the Monthly Gift Pack now? ]
Ouyang Xian paused his array carving immediately, wiping the soot off his forehead as his eyes lit up with intense curiosity.
"Yes! Open it right now!"
He leaned forward, eagerly waiting to see what high-tier rewards the system would drop on a monthly milestone. Would it be mountains of XP? Rare spirit herbs? Supreme artifacts?
[ Ding! ]
[ Monthly Gift Pack Opened Successfully! ]
[ Rewards Received ]: 1.Golden Core Realm Divine Ability : "Thousand Miles Shrinks to Inches"
2. Currency: 1,000,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones
3. Experience Points: 10,000 XP
4. Spiritual Treasure (Low-Grade): Spirit-Refining Mirror ]
[ Skill Overview: Thousand Miles Shrinks to Inches ] A spatial Divine Ability usable at the Golden Core Realm and above. A single step compresses space, allowing the user to cross up to ten thousand miles in an instant.
Special Attribute: Zero operational energy consumption! ]
[ Item Overview: Spirit-Refining Mirror ] A rare auxiliary treasure. Automatically absorbs, purifies, and compresses ambient spiritual qi in the surrounding environment. Can be utilized as a passive cultivation aid, an infinite energy core for complex Arrays, or a portable energy battery. ]
Ouyang Xian stared at the glowing rewards list, his mouth hanging slightly open before he burst into a booming, ecstatic laugh.
"Damn! I really misjudged you! You actually dropped a zero-cost spatial Divine Ability and a million spirit stones?!" he shouted, clapping his hands together. "Looks like you really aren't stingy after all, System!"
Fully energized by his massive haul, Ouyang Xian plunged right back into his intense training regimen. He integrated the Spirit-Refining Mirror directly into his cave's floor, using its dense, purified qi to power his array experiments.
Weeks blurred into more weeks. Under his relentless practice, he completely mastered every single Tier 1 Array available in the sect's library, optimizing their rune structures to operate at double their original efficiency. From there, he aggressively pushed forward into dissecting Tier 2 Arrays.
Before he knew it, the end of his second month arrived.
[ Ding! ]
[ Congratulations, Host, for maintaining your Daily Log-In streak for 60 consecutive days! ]
[ You have received your Second Monthly Gift Pack! ]
[ Would you like to open the Monthly Gift Pack now? ]
"Open!" Ouyang Xian commanded instantly, rubbing his hands together in high expectation, waiting for another legendary Divine Ability or a million spirit stones.
[ Ding! ]
[ Monthly Gift Pack Opened Successfully! ]
[ Rewards Received ]: 1. Experience Points: 3,000 XP
2. Currency: 100,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones
3. Cultivation Base Expansion: +10 Years of Cultivation ]
Fwump!
A surge of warm, dense spiritual qi suddenly erupted within his inner dantian, instantly fusing into his spiritual sea. His internal reserves expanded significantly, and his Half-Step Golden Core aura grew notably denser and more potent.
Yet, despite his cultivation strengthening, Ouyang Xian's face turned completely dark.
He stared at the meager three thousand XP and one hundred thousand spirit stones on the screen, his lips twitching.
"Shit... I take it back. You are stingy!" he cursed under his breath, glaring at the floating panel. "Where's my Divine Ability?! Where's my legendary treasure?!"
The system screen flickered lightly before displaying a dry, unbothered text response:
[ Host, as previously stated: I am a system, not your Sugar Daddy. Rely on your own diligence and stop praying for gacha luck every month. ]
"..."
Ouyang Xian choked on his own breath, staring at the snarky text before letting out a long, exasperated sigh.
"Whatever..." he muttered, shaking his head with a wry smile. "Ten years of cultivation isn't bad anyway."
Adjusting his dark robes, Ouyang Xian sat up straight on his cushion, his Double Pupils shining with renewed focus as he picked up a blank formation flag.
"Back to the grind."