Chapter Thirteen: The Lottery Interface

Lin Fan looked at the expectant faces of those around him and smiled. “It’s nothing major. I just need a good blacksmith to forge a blade for me—at least at the treasure-grade level.”

“A blacksmith? We have one in Snowy City!” Li Ji immediately responded, “There’s an old blacksmith there whose every work is treasure-grade. Warriors from many nearby cities seek him out for weapons!”

“Li Ji, you must be talking about Master Maochengzi,” Ouhu’s eyes brightened at that. Both he and Li Ji hailed from Snowy City, so he immediately guessed who Li Ji meant. However, his expression quickly turned somber. “But getting that old fellow to forge a weapon is incredibly difficult.”

Lin Fan had only mentioned it offhand, thinking there probably wasn’t such a blacksmith nearby—he’d already searched everywhere, visiting all the best smithies. He’d only said this to keep the others from feeling indebted to him. Who would have thought such a craftsman would be so close? But from the sound of it, Ouhu implied that having Master Maochengzi forge a weapon wasn’t easy at all.

“Oh? What makes it so difficult?” Lin Fan asked, mildly curious.

“The first challenge is the price—it’s especially steep. He charges double what others do for a weapon, even at the same grade.”

“The second challenge: your weapon must catch his eye. You have to draft a design, specifying length, width, and weight. You basically have to design the weapon yourself.”

“He won’t make standard weapons. If your design doesn’t appeal to him, he won’t make it,” Ouhu said helplessly, spreading his hands.

“And then there’s the third challenge—the hardest of all. After he finishes forging your weapon, you must name it. If he’s dissatisfied with the name, even if the weapon is done, you won’t get to take it,” Li Ji added, equally helpless. He’d only thought of Master Maochengzi just now, forgetting these requirements until Ouhu reminded him.

The first two obstacles weren’t insurmountable. The high price could be managed by pooling resources. Designing your own weapon was tough, but doable if you knew what you wanted and your design caught Maochengzi’s interest. But naming the blade? Who could guess what names might please Master Maochengzi? If you failed to hit the mark, all your efforts would be wasted. It was said that hundreds of weapons had piled up in his backyard, abandoned because their names failed to satisfy him.

“Haha, what a character! Now I’m convinced he can forge the blade I need. His conditions aren’t so bad!” Lin Fan laughed. He asked the innkeeper for brush and ink, and after a moment’s thought, he began to sketch with bold, decisive strokes. Soon, a sharp, elegant blade took shape on the paper.

He carefully annotated the drawing with the blade’s length, width, thickness, weight, the exact design of the hilt, and the curvature of both blade and edge—everything precisely rendered.

“Drifts of Snow!”

Finally, Lin Fan wrote the name beside the drawn blade and composed a poem:

“A glint of cold light in the dust, suddenly splitting the nine heavens. Corpses floating by the millions, only the drifts of snow remain!”

Blowing the ink dry, Lin Fan handed the drawing to Li Ji. “Brother, I’ll trouble you to take this to Maochengzi for me. I’m sure he’ll agree to forge it. Just let me know his price, and I’ll be sure to bring enough when I collect the blade!”

“No problem! I’ve had my fill of fun in North Xiao City these days and was just about to head back to Snowy City. I’ll take care of it for you. Here’s my jade token—let’s exchange contact details, and I’ll notify you when the blade is done!” Li Ji accepted the drawing and presented his jade token to Lin Fan.

Lin Fan knew this world’s jade tokens functioned much like telephones on Earth, though they only allowed for voice messages, not real-time calls. He exchanged contact details with Li Ji, Xiao Shuihan, and the others, and then the group dove back into their drinks.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Young Master, the family head requests your presence. The Bai family members are at the manor!”

After about half an hour of drinking, a voice came through the private room’s door.

“I understand. I’ll head back now,” Lin Fan replied. Glancing at the tipsy faces of Xiao Shuihan and the others—and noting that Spicy Pepper had slipped away at some point—he smiled and exited the room.

Waiting outside was his father’s personal bodyguard—the very man who’d advanced to the Qi-Attracting Realm thanks to Lin Fan’s Body Tempering Fruit. No wonder he was so respectful; that must have played a significant part.

Ding-dong!

“As the host’s negative emotion points have reached twenty thousand, the lottery interface is now unlocked. Three free lottery draws are awarded!”

Just as Lin Fan stepped out of the Four Seas Tavern, an emotionless voice sounded in his mind, making him pause briefly before continuing toward his family estate.

At the same time, he opened the Ascension System interface in his mind without hesitation, eager to see what this new lottery feature entailed.

Upon entering the system, he found that, alongside the shopping store and income log, a new lottery interface had appeared. Without delay, he tapped into it.

“Lottery interface: two thousand negative emotion points per draw!”

As soon as he entered, a line of text floated through his mind, followed by the appearance of a massive spinning wheel, its sections obscured by gray mist.

“I remember after teaching Xiao Fei and the others a lesson, my negative points were just at seventeen thousand. How did they jump to twenty thousand?” Lin Fan wondered, forgoing the lottery draw for now and checking his income log instead.

“Negative emotion points from Bai Xuefeng: +999!”

“Negative emotion points from Guan Feng: +999!”

“Negative emotion points from Bai Shaotian: +999!”

“Negative emotion points from Bai Shaoming: +378, +457, +654...!”

Lin Fan chuckled as he read. So the Bai family’s young master, after being carried home and his family learning it was Lin Fan who injured him, had contributed all these negative points.

He also recalled that when the first lady’s bodyguards contributed points earlier, there hadn’t been any notifications, unlike when he insulted Bai Shaoming or provoked Xiao Fei at the tavern.

“So it seems, if the person isn’t nearby, their negative emotion points don’t trigger pop-up notifications,” Lin Fan realized, then returned to the lottery interface. With the three free draws waiting, he began.

The wheel spun rapidly, gradually slowing as Lin Fan clenched his fist in anticipation, curious about what he might receive. Truthfully, his hopes weren’t high—anything useful at the moment would suffice.

Ding-dong!

“Congratulations, host! You’ve drawn a Godbreaker Crossbow, with ten bolts included. After the ten bolts are used, each subsequent shot will cost two thousand negative emotion points!”

As the wheel stopped, a virtual crossbow appeared at the pointer, and the system’s voice rang out.

“Draw again!” Lin Fan kept going, not retrieving the crossbow immediately—after all, his bodyguard was still present, and withdrawing items from the system was quite different from using a storage ring.

Ding-dong!

“Congratulations, host! You’ve drawn a string of spicy skewers from Old Hei’s shop in your previous life, with a side dish of sesame sauce!” The system announced again, making Lin Fan’s mind fill with black lines. Without hesitation, he drew once more.

Couldn’t this system be more reliable? Why was a supposedly grand ascension system giving him spicy skewers—why not just give him a bowl of hot pot?

If he could generate his own negative emotion points, he’d have hit a hundred thousand by now!

Ding-dong!

“Congratulations, host! You’ve drawn a bowl of Old Hei’s spicy hot pot from your previous life, with a bottle of chili oil included!” Lin Fan nearly stumbled to the ground.

Seriously? Was this system here just to mess with him?

His teeth clenched audibly as he fought the urge to bite the system in frustration.

Noticing Lin Fan nearly trip, the bodyguard glanced over, puzzled to see his young master radiating pure resentment.

“Draw again!” Lin Fan decided, since he’d already accumulated twenty thousand negative emotion points, he might as well risk ten thousand of them on more draws.

He was starting to doubt the system’s reliability, but with the new lottery interface, he was curious about what treasures might await.

What if he drew a peerless artifact? Lin Fan’s heart surged with anticipation.

Besides, now that he knew how to farm negative emotion points, losing ten thousand was nothing to him.

He almost wanted to wave it off—just a minor drizzle...