When system cheat becomes rampant!

What a sinister ability!

Thankfully, he had cut off contact in time, otherwise the energy channels in his entire hand might have been decomposed, rendering all his cultivation over the past few days futile!

The power of "Return to the Original State" clearly surpassed his control, he couldn't manipulate it with his Spiritual Power; instead, it was the opposing force that guided him, causing the uncontrollable mist to revert the paper back into wood pulp.

However, Xiang Beifei also saw hope, for with this ability, it meant he could guide the sacred stone back to its state before corruption, which in a sense, was equivalent to repairing the sacred stone!

Should he try it right away?

Xiang Beifei was weighing this matter in his mind.

He eventually decided to attempt it a little, to see if he could get the sacred stone to work.

Spiritual Power spread out once more, enveloping that wisp of mist. The mist interwove with his Spiritual Power, forming a small cyclone.

He still dared not fully attempt to guide the mist to act upon the sacred stone, for a slight carelessness could result in "Return to the Original State" overcorrecting and reverting the sacred stone back to its most original form, that is, before his father had inscribed his intentions on it, or to before it was even made into a sacred stone, at which point the sacred stone would be essentially ruined.

So, he only tried a little bit.

That wisp of breath followed his Spiritual Power and landed on a corroded gap on the sacred stone.

Indeed, the corroded gap on the sacred stone began to swell, and a streak of black air gradually peeled off, then dispersed into the air, while the tiny specks that had been corroded away gradually congregated, filling in some of the pit on the surface of the sacred stone.

However, it only lasted for less than two seconds. The aura from the Basket Constellation invaded Xiang Beifei's fingers again, his fingertip's energy channels began to be decomposed and dissipated, and at the same time, the aura on the surface of the sacred stone became chaotic!

Xiang Beifei's expression was serious as he immediately forced the Spirit Gathering Book closed!

He still couldn't completely block that force.

Xiang Beifei had only repaired a tiny bit of the sacred stone, and it was uncertain whether it had had any effect.

He picked up the sacred stone and made an imprint on his notebook; the sacred stone revealed strands of ethereal aura which landed on the paper, forming those intermittent inscriptions. Find adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

The text was still not fully restored, and comparing it to when Elder Luo had given it to him, there was not much difference; the missing parts were quite serious.

Xiang Beifei felt somewhat disappointed.

But just as he was about to put the sacred stone away, he suddenly glanced over a line of text and was taken aback!

Because a new line of text had appeared on the paper!

[...of, having forgotten themselves, he wasn't like this before, he even forgot that he was a martial artist, he didn't cultivate...]

Xiang Beifei was extremely astonished; he double-checked, and indeed, this line of text was newly formed!

"Return to the Original State" actually worked!

Xiang Beifei couldn't help but feel excited!

He soon calmed down and began to analyze this sentence.

If the sentence were to be fully supplemented based on its meaning, the beginning should be added as "what of," and guessing further, it was probably something like "doing what of, having forgotten themselves."

So who does it refer to? Who wasn't like this before?

"He even forgot he was a martial artist, he didn't cultivate—didn't cultivate?"

Xiang Beifei frowned.

"Or is it—he had no cultivation?"

Who could forget they were a martial artist?

Who could have no cultivation?

Aside from Xiang Beifei, his son, there seemed to be only one other person whom Xiang Tianxing was so concerned about.

"Grandfather!"

This thought flashed through Xiang Beifei's mind!

There was one thing that had puzzled him for a long time, ever since he could see other people's system interfaces.

In this world, everyone had a system interface, various in kind and many in number; every person would awaken their own system during their senior year of high school.

But only his grandfather's system was a blank expanse of white, giving off the impression that... the system was broken!

Could this sentence be referring to his grandfather's system issue?

"Could it be that what he was looking for was the answer to grandpa's cultivation?" Xiang Beifei mused.

In this world, other than him, no one else could see someone else's system.

He should be the only one able to see other people's systems.

Grandfather's system problems were clearer to him than to anyone else, but Xiang Beifei could also be sure of one thing—grandfather truly was not a martial artist!

Had he really forgotten?

A multitude of questions filled Xiang Beifei's mind.

----

Xiang Beifei felt invigorated; he opened the Spirit Gathering Book again and began to draw upon the "Revert to Simplicity" power in the original awkward manner, to see if he could recover more information.

When it was about to get out of control, he pulled back again.

Xiang Beifei eagerly made another imprint of the aura from the sacred stone.

However, to his disappointment, the pieces of information revealed this time were too fragmented to piece together into a complete sentence.

[Can]

[Shixi Text]

[Presenting yellow pupils]

[According to the current]

[Five Services]

[It's Not Necessarily So]

[At Bone Mountain]

...

These terms were indeed new, but the issue was that they were just a few words, complete unto themselves and incoherent. They could not be connected to the context, nor could they be combined together.

Xiang Beifei was unable to control the direction of the repairs to the pioneering stone. At this moment, he was more like someone patching a bit on the east wall and then a bit on the west, unable to focus on one area to repair, resulting in even if some terms were restored, they were irrelevant, a waste of effort.

When he turned to look, he found that the damage to his fingers was too severe.

The newly opened meridian in the little finger of his right hand had been reduced!

And to reopen these meridians would take at least two days!

"The loss outweighs the gain."

Xiang Beifei suffered heavy losses in order to obtain this information.

Since he could not fully control "Return to the Original State" and only restored these terms, his meridians were decomposing, which meant the time to reach the late stage of Meridian Opening was being pushed back by two days!

If he continued trying to repair the pioneering stone, whether he could get key information was one thing, but his cultivation was regressing!

This was a loss no matter how one calculated it.

"Late stage of Meridian Opening! I must reach it as soon as possible!"

Although Xiang Beifei was puzzled, after weighing the pros and cons, he still gave up the idea of continuing the repairs.

He quickly sat down cross-legged, preparing to reopen the meridians he had just lost.

----

The next morning, Xiang Beifei boarded the bus to go home.

Looking around, he saw that the system levels of people he encountered on the road were very low, mostly N grade.

There were hardly any R grades, and on this trip, he hadn't seen a single S grade.

That made him somewhat sigh with emotion.

After getting used to a place like Liangzhou University, where elites gathered, the awakeners he met were at least R grade, and S grades were a dime a dozen.

Whenever he went out, it was either to Qingzhou University or beyond the frontier to the desolate regions, spending his free time studying or cultivating, and when busy, fighting with people. These days, Xiang Beifei had hardly seen any N-grade awakeners.

What he saw more often were SSR and SR.

So when he saw so many N-grade awakeners on the bus, Xiang Beifei was stunned for a moment, the scene making him feel as if he was in a different world.

For an instant, he doubted whether he was out of touch with society.

In Jiuzhou, the most populous grade of awakeners was N grade.

It could be said that N-grade awakeners accounted for nearly over fifty percent!

Then R grade took up three-tenths, S grade one and a half tenths, and the next SR grade, SSR grade, UR grade combined did not make up ten percent of the total population!

N grade was the main group in this world!

But often, the ones with the least status were N-grade awakeners because their system levels were too low, their system tasks were outrageous, and they hardly had the means to cultivate, staying at the bottom layer. Most N-grade individuals could only follow the literary Dao. For them, living a nine-to-five life and being able to take care of their little families was good enough.

Thus, in the real society of Jiuzhou, life was dominated by practitioners of the literary Dao.

Starting companies, doing business, flipping properties, becoming celebrities, being laborers, engaging in infrastructure... To ensure the stable order of Jiuzhou, the alliance intentionally let the practitioners of the literary Dao lead the way in life. On one hand, it prevented major chaos, and on the other, it made management easier.

Although martial practitioners were very powerful in this society, martial practitioners generally worked in important departments, dealing with desolate beasts or capturing restless criminals, etc. Everyone had their own roles, and martial practitioners couldn't just use their powerful force to disrupt the orderly system of society.

The Jiuzhou alliance employed the top-tier, elite awakeners, their method of governance being highly centralized, with far-reaching powers, allowing them to manage this system world in an orderly fashion.

Of course, such a system inevitably brought about very obvious drawbacks.

But disregarding the higher-ups and their affairs, the lives of commoners were quite stable, after all, everyone was N-grade, using their system talents to make a living, each relying on their abilities, and perhaps being unintentionally exploited by others through their systems—

But isn't that true of any world?

Wealth and resources often concentrate in the hands of a few, and for commoners, it's good enough to mix warmth and fullness with a steadfast day.

The city guards of Jiuzhou normally ensured life could proceed as usual to the greatest extent, and commoners rarely encountered desolate beasts. Some people might go their whole lives without seeing what lay beyond the frontier in the desolate regions. Their lives were mostly very simple.

[Successfully rented out an apartment, sales value +6]

[Thoroughly cleaned an entire street, cleanliness value +2]

[Competed in drinking capacity at a dinner to secure a new client, effort value +1]

[Transported the ninety-seventh passenger, today's task progress 97/500]

As Xiang Beifei sat on the bus, observing the various logs of the N-grade systems, he felt as if he had returned to normal society.

Everyone was hustling for their system tasks, either dreaming of the future or living life step by step, and only when their system tasks were not involved, could everyone truly open up and chat happily.

Xiang Beifei was filled with emotions, and the bus quickly reached its stop.

He got off at the platform and checked the time. Since he had caught the early bus, it was only seven o'clock; Grandfather should still be at home at this time.

The restaurant usually opened at ten in the morning. Since he stopped going to the market, Grandfather didn't head to the store until after eight.

Walking towards his own old neighborhood, he pondered whether he should move to a different place. After all, he was now at least a semi-wealthy person. It didn't seem right to always let Grandfather live here. Otherwise, he might end up with another "Shocking! The genius youngster who can beat up SSRs actually lives in a slum!" type of headline-making "Yu Lei" report.

As he turned up the stairs, Xiang Beifei saw his Grandfather cleaning.

Xiang Beifei looked at Grandfather's system interface.

It was still a screen of snowflakes, without any system log.