After Lu Lin joined Rao Wu’s team, they spent the few remaining days scouring the forest with the Sprites to weed out and execute the Bugbear remnants. On his own, this might have been a daunting task, but with the aid of the emboldened Sprites, the party managed to scour the entire forest in three days. Within this period, they slaughtered just under fifty or so Bugbears.

Since his ring was almost full, Rao Wu reluctantly buried the corpses and only stored the soul cores.

And so it was that on the appointed day, Rao Wu and Lu Lin bid farewell to the Sprites amidst a glorious fanfare. The child chose to go alone because he feared the consequences of exposing the Sprites to the strange technology. Somehow, he sensed that the test was supposed to be a secret, and he did not want any harm to befall the innocent Sprites.

After half a day of walking, Rao Wu finally returned to the clearing he initially arrived in. Intriguingly, as if sensing his presence, a large patch of grass slid aside to reveal a metal platform. Having already experienced this once, Rao Wu and Xian Da confidently climbed onto the platform.

Durr…

The platform descended, and the patch of grass once again slid over, blocking the sunlight. A series of lights flashed on moments later, illuminating the momentarily dark elevator shaft. Within a few more seconds, the platform reached its destination, where the familiar disembodied voice greeted Rao Wu.

“Congratulations on clearing the first stage, contestant. Please approach the assessment chamber.”

Fortunately, there was only one room outside the elevator, so Rao Wu did not have to guess. He exited the elevator and returned to the familiar cold, steel room with a circular platform. Just like before, an ‘appendage’ like device protruded at the center, it’s ‘eye’ tracking Rao Wu and Xian Da.

When Rao Wu walked onto the platform, the appendage began its debriefing. “Congratulations on clearing the first stage, contestant. Before rewards are handed out, could you please state the reason you chose to eliminate the Bugbears, despite only needing to survive for thirty days.?”

Rao Wu’s ears perked up, and his eyes drew on a crafty look. “Before I answer, does my answer affect the rewards?”

“Not exactly.” The system replied. “Your rewards have been calculated based on your actions and cannot be reduced. However, if the Administrator is satisfied with your reply, there might be additional rewards.”

“Hmm…” Rao Wu hesitated, but after weighing his options, he decided to tell the truth. Crossing his arms, he said, “I wanted Lu Lin to join my team, so I chose her side.”

“Is that so? Then, do you consider your actions as righteous? The Bugbears are a terrible blight that eat and kill without concern for sustainability. Without your intervention, the Sprites would have been rendered extinct in a few months or years.”

Rao Wu sheepishly smiled as he scratched the back of his head. “Eh, I don’t think so. I mostly helped out of selfish reasons. I killed all the Bugbears because it’s the only way to make sure they don’t repeat this in a couple of years. Uncle Twilight always says, “If you’re gonna do something, make sure you do it right.””

“Intriguing. So you admit to rendering an entire species extinct just to satisfy your selfish purposes?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Rao Wu weakly chuckled, but he ultimately held his ground. “Still, I guess it’s true. But, I’d do it all over again if it got Lu Lin on my side.”

“Final Question. Do you not consider it unwise to admit to being a genocidal killer? Your answer would be much better received if you said you did it to save the Sprites. Think carefully, as this could affect your bonus rewards.”

Rao Wu’s brows scrunched up in thought. Just as he wavered, Xian Da, who sat on his shoulder, growled and then nipped his ear. “Ow.” Rao Wu yelped in protest but ultimately chuckled as he ruffled Xian Da’s head. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Rraff!”

Buoyed by Xian Da’s encouragement, Rao Wu’s lips curled in a confident grin as he said, “Yeah, rewards are nice, but I won’t lie for it.” Patting his chest, Rao Wu declared, “A man is only as good as his word. I won’t lessen myself for some extra points. Yeah, I killed the Bugbears because I’m selfish. That’s just the way of the jungle. Defend your own, take what you want and slaughter only as much as you need. It’s just that, in this case, I needed to kill all the Bugbears to get what I wanted.”

“Answer acknowledged. Running answer by Administrator. Administrator is satisfied with your reply. 3000 Additional Chaos Points Awarded. One Cultivation Technique may be purchased free of charge.”

“Cultivation Technique?” Rao Wu’s brows furrowed at the strange term. “Don’t you mean soul techniques?”

Soul techniques were skills used by soul trainers to aid their soul pets in battle. Highly ranked soul techniques could even rival monster techniques. As a result, they were very highly sought after. To date, Rao Wu had yet to learn a soul technique. Once he did, it would be much easier to fight on the frontlines alongside his soul pets like he wished. Rao Wu, however, had never heard of a cultivation technique. Uncle Twilight had never mentioned it to him.

“Do you wish to learn the purpose of Cultivation Techniques? 100 Chaos Points will be deducted from your balance.”

Rao Wu’s eyes nearly popped out in shock. The reward hadn’t even entered his hand, yet the system was already devising ways to siphon them. Fortunately, Rao Wu wasn’t so small-minded. Feeling like the information would be vital to his future, he nodded and said, “Please, tell me.”

“Chaos Point Deduction Complete.” After a pause, the system began its explanation. “As you may already know, hybrids and beastkin are incapable of using a vast majority of soul techniques—”

“No! No, I don’t know,” Rao Wu quickly interrupted. Maybe this was why Uncle Twilight never bothered teaching him soul techniques? “Why can’t we use soul techniques?”

“Not all. Most.” After correcting him, the system continued, “Soul techniques allow the soul to temporarily mimic a monster’s soul to perform certain skills that are otherwise unique to that soul monster. This is why it is much easier for soul trainers to learn soul techniques of monsters they are already contracted to.”

“I understand that much. How does that affect beastkin, though?”

“Beastkin have a monster’s soul and body. Just like a fire sprite, can never learn water techniques, so are beastkin’s techniques limited by their race. Beastkin, much like soul monsters, grow by strengthening their bodies and skills through extracting ki from cores. Unlike beasts, however, soul cores are poisonous to beastkin, and so techniques are required to refine these cores before consumption.”

Rao Wu was an intelligent child, so he rapidly picked up on the consequences of this revelation. “So, this also affects hybrids? Our techniques are limited by our monster race?”

“Yes. However, hybrids are more fortunate than pure beastkin. Hybrids are capable of using human-centric soul techniques. Most of these techniques are support-related, however, as the human soul does not have an intrinsic attribute. Unfortunately, the soul techniques that mimic other soul monsters cannot be learned, or it might destroy the hybrid’s body through rejection.”

“Oh, I understand.” Rao Wu nodded, having digested the new information. In the future, if he wanted to learn soul techniques, he had to search for either fox-related techniques or human techniques. Having internalized that information, he quickly switched to another avenue, “So, with a cultivation technique, I should be able to consume a monster core, right?”

“Yes. The cultivation technique will purify the monster core for consumption. The cultivation technique’s level will determine the obtained soul energy’s purity and amount.”

“Okay, and do I have to worry about the soul monster core type? Like my soul pets?”

“Yes. You must determine your attributes, and consume the related attribute to foster your growth.”

“Oh. Okay. Final Question. You know how we have Soul Student up to Soul Emperor. Is there something similar for cultivation techniques?”

“Yes, there is. You already know it, in fact. The Phases and Stages attributed to Soul monsters also apply to beastkin.”

“Ah, thanks,” said Rao Wu as he beamed with gratitude. Considering he had never heard of cultivation techniques before now, they were probably exceedingly rare. Already, he had begun to see the advantages of choosing the hardest difficulty. The additional information and rewards were not available to other difficulties.

“If you have no more questions—”

“—I don’t.”

“Your scores will now be displayed. Please pay attention.” A holographic screen projected by the ‘appendage’ began listing the scores as it spoke. “

Test Objective: Survive for 30 Days.

Objective Completion Rate: Full

2500 Chaos Points Awarded.

Bonus Rewards:

Monsters slain: 350 Bugbears (5 pts each), 6 Bugbear Lords (20 pts each).

1870 Chaos Points Awarded.

Difficulty Multiplier (x4): 17,880 CP.

Administrator’s Favor: 3,000 CP.

Total Points Awarded: 20,880 CP.

Deducting Cultivation Technique Tutorial Costs: 19,880 Chaos Points Awarded. ”

Rao Wu’s eyes nearly glazed over as he followed the rapidly flashing numbers. However, he did glean some pretty useful information from the presentation. The rewards system seemed to heavily incentivize killing soul monsters. The Bugbear Slaughter gave him almost as much Chaos Points as clearing the entire floor. Was the system pushing him to kill more monsters in future tests?

Rao Wu’s suspicion was temporarily pushed to the side as a table appeared on the screen.

“Please select how you would like to spend your Chaos Points.”

Encyclopedia

Next Test Information

Soul Techniques

Soul Cores

Cultivation Techniques

Special

Items

After revealing the options, the system gave Rao Wu a quick rundown of each section. The Encyclopedia, as the name implied, was a book of knowledge that covered countless subjects. Whatever Rao Wu wanted to learn could be taught at a price (if it was available). The Next Test Information section provided insight and suggestions for the next test. The information was split into Basic, Overview, and Comprehensive. Each level revealed more details at increased costs.

Soul Techniques, as previously explained, contained a vast library of soul techniques that Rao Wu could learn, carefully categorized to make parsing easier. Rao Wu could either sell or purchase soul cores and soul crystals from the Soul Core tab. The Cultivation Techniques tab hosted several cultivation techniques categorized by rank and species.

Finally, the Special Items had only ten items in its list, but each one was jaw-breakingly unique.

It took Rao Wu a few moments to familiarize himself with how to operate the holo-screen. Once that was done, he opened each tab to get a taste of the prices. Sure, he had just over 20,000 Chaos Points, but only now would he realize just their true worth.

The Encyclopedia did not give him much insight. Some items cost 10 CP to learn, while others could go as high as 1,000 CP. Heck, something called the ‘True History’ cost 10,000,000 CP.

Rao Wu immediately closed that tab after seeing the frightening amount. He then checked the Next Test Information. Basic Info cost 500 CP, Overview cost 1000 CP and Comprehensive cost 2000 CP. Rao Wu swallowed hard as he read the costs. If not for the Difficulty multiplier, these alone would have fleeced him dry! Rao Wu made a mental note to save 2,000 CP no matter what and then moved on to the next tab.

“What the-!?” Rao Wu shut down the tab a mere second after opening it. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and then tentatively opened it one more time. Just as he suspected, his eyes did not deceive him. The cheapest Soul Technique was about 3000 CP, and the prices just kept climbing until something called Chaos Fall, which cost 20,000,000 CP.

Rao Wu pretended to ignore the scary prices, and weakly said, “Uh, can you somehow prioritize the techniques for Gray Fox species?”

“For 50 CP, the list will be filtered by recommended techniques.”

‘You money-grubbing…’ Rao Wu swallowed his grievances and assented to the filter. The system got to work, removing every technique that Rao Wu could not learn. In the end, there were ten techniques. However, of these ten, Rao Wu could only afford five. Amongst these five, two techniques called Doppelganger and Soul Burst caught Rao Wu’s eyes.

Doppelganger, which cost 3,500 CP, was a low-level soul technique attributed to the gray fox species. Its users could create a fake copy of themselves to confuse their enemies in battle. Full mastery of this technique could result in ultra-realistic mirages and the ability to alter the doppelganger’s appearance.

At 4,000 CP, Soul Burst, on the other hand, was a neutral human soul technique. It sacrificed, at minimum, 10% of a soul trainer’s soul energy to boost their soul monster’s attack. It was a situational technique, but Rao Wu felt it could save him in a pinch.

Rao Wu stored the prices in his mind, and then pushed to the next tab. The youth, who was most interested in the soul core section, quickly searched for a beast/dark soul crystal. Indeed, the store had multiple 2nd Phase beast/dark soul crystals, each priced at 1000 CP. The corresponding soul cores were much cheaper at 50 CP each.

“Yes!” Rao Wu celebrated with joy. He had been seriously worried about Xian Da’s dark attribute. Due to consuming solely beast cores, the Dusklight Wolf’s dark attribute had lain dormant. As a result, despite hitting its second phase, Xian Da had yet to exhibit a single dark-attribute skill. These crystals and cores would go a long way to strengthening, and then balancing the Dusklight Wolf’s core attributes.

After affirming Xian Da’s future evolution path, Rao Wu confirmed the presence of second phase pure-beast crystals and cores. They were priced at 500 CP and 20 CP each—considerably cheaper than their beast/dark counterparts.

Rao Wu then found pure plant-type soul crystals and cores for Lu Lin. The cheapest of all, plant soul crystals and cores cost 300 CP and 5 CP, respectively.

And so, ironically, Roa Wu found that his weakest monster’s upkeep somehow cost the most.

“Ruwu~” As if reading his mind, Xian Da howled in embarrassment and told Rao Wu to forget about it.

“Baka, did you forget our promise?” Rao Wu softly rapped Xian Da’s head, and then said with a teasing smile, “We’re going to be Emperors together, remember? This is an investment in our bright future.”

“Rraff!” Emboldened by Rao Wu’s words, Xian Da barked and then huffed its chest. It swore to justify Rao Wu’s trust in it.

“Hehe. That’s more like it.” Seeing that Xian Da’s mood had improved, Rao Wu turned to the tabs. “Alright. We’ll calculate how much we’re buying later. Let’s finish the tour.” With those words, he moved on to the Cultivation Techniques.

Having learned from the Soul Techniques tab, Rao Wu was prepared for the exorbitant prices attached to the even rarer Cultivation Techniques. Without batting an eye, he quickly said, “Filter by Recommended.”

“Deducting 50 Chaos Points. Filtering Complete.”

Following the system’s announcement, the endless list was trimmed down to ten options. Rao Wu, following the logic of most expensive, is most worthy, almost chose the fifty million Chaos Points worth Nine-Calamities Purgatory Fox Cultivation Technique. But, just as he was about to pick that one, something drew him to the second-placed, forty million Chaos Points, simply named Trickster.

Rao Wu did not know why his gaze kept pulling to the simply named cultivation technique. To better inform his decision, he read the brief summary attached to both.

Nine-Calamities Purgatory Fox: Scion of the end times, wreak havoc upon the world with infinite power and destruction! Feast on suns and pluck the stars to paint the landscape. Your power is eternal, and the universe’s laws shall bend to your will!

Trickster: What pleases a fox more than a few laughs? Trick your enemies into destroying themselves. I assure you, there’s nothing more hilarious.

One promised infinite power and potential, while the other spoke of fun and laughs. At first glance, it was apparent which one an inspiring Emperor should choose.

“I’ll take the Trickster.” If Rao Wu were older, he might have gone for the first. However, for the mischievous little brat, he much preferred a life of pranking his friends over, causing chaos and destruction.

There was a pause as if the system could not believe its ‘ears.’ “Are you certain?”

“Yeah,” confirmed Rao Wu with a nod. “I like it better.”

“Transaction Confirmed. The Trickster Cultivation technique will be awarded as you leave this test location.”

Rao Wu did not understand what that meant but chose not to press it. Instead, he finally moved on to the final tab: the Special Items. There were ten distinct items, each with very unique prices.

Ragnarok’s Blood Essence (Automatically Awarded upon completing all tests) Heart of the Immortal Supernova Phoenix (10,000,000 CP) Sun Wukong’s Inheritance (5,000,000 CP) Frozen Tears (3,000,000 CP) Raijin’s Drum (2,000,000 CP) Yggdrasil’s Seed (500,000 CP) Egg of Unknown Origins (250,000 CP) Undying Heart (100,000 CP) Broken Emperor’s Armor (50,000 CP) Fruit of the Talking Tree (x24) (500 CP each)