Liu Xun leaned against a tree before sitting down in a lotus position. As he closed his eye, he slowly began to fall into deep meditation. Before sinking deep into the subconsciousness, the young man decided that he should browse the system store.

System, how do I access the store?

[Host, please say 'Open System Store' to access this function.]

Open System Store.

All of a sudden, a large array of transparent light blues screens bombarded Liu Xun as he was covered with a large catalog containing countless treasures and skills. Each individual screen displayed an item as well as its cost, usability, effectiveness, and many other basic details.

Browsing through the virtual images, Liu Xun could detect many great treasures being sold in the system store. Each of them varied in usage and power levels. Some were suited for users as weak as mortals, others could only be studied once reach Mortal Severing Stage. Each of these limits and adaptability greatly affected the price of a skill or treasure as it is marketed based on such functions.

Legendary items and skills such as the Three Lives Bodhi Sutra, Immortal Heaven Desolating Saber, True Samadhi Flames of Enlightenment, Grand Eight-One Trigram Tao Immortal Array, Immortal Rebirth Pill...and many other items were displayed at the front showcase. Their prices were of course exorbitant, ranging from several million to billions of system credits.

There were even the completed editions of the Crimson Beheading Dragon Ax, Shadow Grasping Illusory Steps, and many other arts. Though they largely ranged within the ten to hundreds of thousands of system credits. This revelation had indeed surprised Liu Xun as he did not expect the low-class Crimson Beheading Dragon Art which is said to only last till Bone Tempering be worth slightly over forty thousand credits. It was only when he realized the words 'Nascent Soul limit' that he finally understood the true depth of this weapon art.

It would probably be considered a true SSR-ranked gacha prize (1.5%) and was thoroughly inflated since the odds of obtaining it as an SSR prize is lower than 1.5%, knowing that there are other SSR prizes in the pool. Knowing the great ones, chances are there will be more meme prizes like the fireball talisman available than legitly usable skills and treasures.

Well, I won't be able to afford most of these items any time soon. System, can we narrow the search range to something affordable. Somewhere between 900 and 1100 system credits, if possible?

[Affirmative, narrowing search.]

The number of transparent screens drastically reduced as less than a hundredth of the screens was left open. Nevertheless, the number of options easily exceeded the thousands. Curious, Liu Xun then browsed through whatever the system offered that is worth between 900-1100 credits. The array of items were large, yet the majority of them were of rather low quality or significantly restrictive.

Curse puppet doll. Yinyang reversal pill (fragmented dregs). Orion star array (fragment). Demonic Possession Stone (shattered).

Countless items of questionable quality such as these were revealed. Many had lots of restrictions and side effects.

Take for example the Curse puppet doll which could curse a cultivator up to the core inversion realm, its restrictions are that it is non-lethal and that there would be 30% of the target's cultivation backlash even in success. In failure, one's life is forfeit. The chance is also proportional to the cultivation strength difference, thus resulting in the effectiveness and useability to drop significantly.

The Yinyang reversal pill is a famous pill known to fix a large proportion of mismatched heavenly bodies. It is one of the most desired pills since children with mismatched rare constitutions mostly do not have the choice but to choose alternative paths or completely give up on cultivating due to large backlashes. This pill basically fixes almost all of the problems from the very start with little to no adverse effects. Yet, the fragmented dregs would barely even contain 1/100 of the efficacy, along with the questionable effectiveness and potential mixing with other herbs. Consuming it was basically playing with one's life, one may easily rise above the rest or just explode on the spot.

The Orion Star Array is a famous sect array that could repel even Dao Formation experts if properly set up. Yet, this fragment is probably only 1 piece of perhaps over hundreds of pieces of the true full array. Understandably, one can obtain insights and perhaps even build a core inversion repelling array with suitable practice, Liu Xun has not even dabbled in the arts of array arranging and Fengshui. It was basically useless at the moment for him.

The Demonic Possession Stone was probably the most appealing item to Liu Xun. Looking through the various items on display, Liu Xun chanced upon this item with a 50% discount. Priced at a generous 1050 system credits after discount (originally 2100 credits), it offers the temporary possession of a peak core inversion demonic cultivator into the host's body. Yes, one could already predict that this is far from good news. Yet, the demonic cultivator is unable to violate the host's true will, and some of the insights that the demonic cultivator displays would be physically absorbed by the host through muscle memory.

This would sound like a favorable trade, yet other limitations were mentioned. If the demonic cultivator is unwilling to act, the host cannot force him/her to move against their own will. What insights the host can obtain is based on what the demonic cultivator shows. Lastly, though at the core inversion stage, the effectiveness of the possession and martial prowess displayed is still largely reliant on the host's body cultivation and usage of weapon skills. In other words, a dragon in an ant's body is obviously less suited than a dragon in a snake's body.

Furthermore, after the possession, there is likely to be significant backlash depending on the degree of overuse of the body. Imagine channeling a river through a dam, the dam can only hold and release as much water as its walls can bear. If the amount is too taxing on the walls, it may crack or at worst even burst apart. Power does come at a price after all.

System, what are the criteria for discounted items?

[Discounted items vary between transaction periods, host. Each time the store refreshes per week, a few new items would be placed on discount. The item on discount is largely dependent on the system's, creator's, or subscriber's discretion. This week's list consists of ten items, of which only the Demonic Possession Stone (shattered) is within your budget. The discounted amount is also largely up to discretion as well.]

So basically I am at all of your whims, huh? Sounds pretty unpleasant.

[Do not worry, host. The system, creators, and subscribers are generally fair. We all are just bored and await to be entertained.]

That statement is far from reassuring though.

The young man sighed as he finally reached the end of the list of items that he could purchase at the moment. Most of the objects were largely useless and unsuitable for him. Perhaps, it would be better to just reserve his voucher for a future discount.

System, how long until the store refresh?

[The store refreshes in 5 days, host. Is the host planning to buy anything this trip?]

Hmm, no. The items that I can afford are largely unsuitable or have limited use.

[Tch.]

Wait, did you just display your annoyance?

[What does the host mean, the system is clearly faultless and unbiased. It must be your imagination.]

Oh well, I won't bother arguing with you. Close System Store.

Liu Xun thought as he rolled his eyes.

[Affirmative.]

The neutral voice sounded out as the transparent blue screens vanished one by one.

All that was left was Liu Xun who was meditating in the darkness. He could remember the passing of the recent events, the system's arrival, the meeting with Senior Qin, his first hunt against a bear, then this journey, meeting up with Millie. Many of these events happened just within the span of barely over two weeks. He had also risen from an unawakened to qi gathering stage 4 within this short time frame.

Perhaps, people would be suspicious of his success. Yet, the concealing aura was basically a saving grace as it allowed him to hide his cultivation from most people. Still, Liu Xun found it difficult to reveal his prowess according to his displayed strength. Many fights often forced him to push beyond his normal limits, much less his suppressed one.

Oh well, there is no point thinking further into this right now.

The young man thought as his thoughts slowly faded away. Slowly, he dropped into the depths of his consciousness.