Chapter Eighteen: The Interface of Bloodlines

Lin Fan frowned and asked, “Who are all these people? I don’t know them, so why am I getting negative emotion points from them?”

Still, he didn’t stop what he was doing. He kept scrolling down, going through more than two hundred entries before finally reaching the Bai family.

“Negative emotion points from Bai Xuefeng, +999!”
“Negative emotion points from Bai Shaotian, +999!”
“Negative emotion points from Bai Haixiao...!”
“Negative emotion points from...”

Lin Fan did a quick calculation—the Bai family alone had contributed about twenty thousand negative emotion points, while the remaining seventy thousand came from countless strangers.

“Who’s so kind as to do something so outrageous on my behalf that so many people are feeling negative emotions towards me?” Lin Fan rubbed his nose, suspecting that someone must have acted in secret to trigger so much animosity against him. But rather than resent this person, he actually felt grateful.

“What a good person! They knew I needed negative emotion points right now!”

With a sigh of admiration, Lin Fan excitedly opened the shop and directly bought fifty Body-Tempering Fruits.

“Haha, it feels great to be rich!”

Laughing heartily, Lin Fan began stuffing the Body-Tempering Fruits into his mouth one after another. Waves of powerful energy surged through his limbs and bones. After ten fruits, he finally felt his body growing stronger.

After twenty, he felt a sense of fullness throughout his body, but he didn’t stop.

Boom!

When he finished the fortieth fruit, a loud buzzing sound erupted in his mind, leaving him momentarily blank. Then, delight washed over his face—he could sense his dantian! He had actually reached the Qi-Gathering Realm!

Ding!

“Congratulations, Host, for advancing to the Qi-Gathering Realm. Bloodline interface unlocked!”

“Hahaha, truly a great benefactor, an incredible benefactor!” At this moment, if he could meet the one who had caused trouble on his behalf, he would have kissed them. Without that person, who knew how long it might have taken him to break through.

Although he had always doubted whether eating Body-Tempering Fruits could actually help him reach the Qi-Gathering Realm, and had previously used many to help his family grow stronger, now he was simply too wealthy to care about waste.

Diligence pays off for the one who keeps eating; he had finally broken through, and the system had even opened a new interface, filling him with joy.

He had just entered the initial stage of the Qi-Gathering Realm, which was divided into early, middle, and late phases. Now, he could condense vital energy and begin practicing cultivation techniques. This was the source of his excitement.

Many of the ultimate techniques from his previous life, though different in their rules from this world and thus not directly usable, could still be adapted. With some tweaks, he could cultivate them.

But now wasn’t the right time to modify any cultivation techniques. He still had ten Body-Tempering Fruits left. He wanted to see if consuming them would increase the threads of vital energy within him. Quickly, he finished off the remaining fruits.

When he checked his dantian, he found the vital energy had only increased by a thread!

In the Qi-Gathering Realm, the early stage required one hundred threads of vital energy, the middle stage required a thousand, and the late stage, ten thousand.

Under normal circumstances, it took ten days of cultivation to condense a single thread of vital energy. With a good technique, this could be reduced to nine, eight, or even seven days per thread.

It was said that top-tier techniques in the kingdom could condense a thread every three days.

The Lin family’s Tyrant Body Technique could do so in six days, already considered a high-level method.

Many newcomers to this realm mistakenly believed that vital energy threads were easy to draw in, thinking they could absorb a large amount of energy in a day. But vital energy and vital energy threads were not the same.

In fact, with standard techniques, only the energy absorbed in ten days could be condensed into one thread. The key to the Qi-Gathering Realm’s strength lay in the number of threads one could form.

Of course, relying on techniques alone, most people would take a long time to complete the Qi-Gathering Realm. For those with inferior methods, it could take a lifetime.

Thus, the value of rare treasures became evident. Many such treasures could instantly increase the number of vital energy threads.

For example, a ten-year-old Purple Gold Ginseng could instantly add around ten threads.

But such treasures were not something the average person could afford.

Lin Fan had no intention of buying these treasures, since the Body-Tempering Fruits produced by his system were superior to Purple Gold Ginseng.

High quality and affordable—what more could one ask for?

All it took was a bit of negative emotion points. No losses, no scams!

What Lin Fan wanted most right now was to modify his previous life’s cultivation techniques. Only then could he grow stronger quickly; relying solely on the system was never a good idea.

But it wasn’t possible in the Lin family. There were too few techniques to reference. What he truly yearned for was the Heavenly Book Academy!

Yesterday, when Xiao Shuihan and the others mentioned enrolling in three months, the idea had taken root in his mind.

But then the Bai family had shown up, and he hadn’t asked for more details. Now, he’d broken through to the Qi-Gathering Realm.

He decided not to rush into cultivating a technique—if he started and then had to abandon it, it would harm his foundation!

It was like planting a grove of birches in the soil, then deciding to cut them down and plant poplars instead. The soil’s nutrients and moisture would already be depleted, making it harder for the poplars to thrive.

Growth would slow, or might not happen at all.

The metaphor wasn’t perfect, but the situation was similar.

“What’s this new bloodline interface that just unlocked?!”

Only then did Lin Fan recall that his breakthrough had unlocked a new interface. He opened the system in his mind, noticing a new bloodline tab beside the shop.

“Desolate Beast Bloodline, 100,000!”
“Primitive Shaman Bloodline, 100,000!”
“Shaman Bloodline, 1,000,000!”
“God Bloodline, 1,000,000!”
“Demon Bloodline, 1,000,000!”
“Great Shaman Bloodline, 10,000,000!”
“...”

Lin Fan scrolled through the list—there were tens of thousands of powerful bloodlines available.

Of course, these were only the ones he could see. Many more were shrouded in mist, inaccessible to him for now.

Even so, it was enough to excite him—until he saw the prices, which instantly cooled his enthusiasm. After counting all the zeros, he realized the lowest exchange rate was a hundred thousand negative emotion points.

If he hadn’t spent his points on Body-Tempering Fruits and instead used them on a bloodline, his cultivation might be terrifyingly powerful by now.

Lin Fan silently closed the bloodline interface, suddenly feeling poor again. The fleeting sense of wealth vanished.

There is no harm without comparison...

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Who was it that brought you to my side?

Was it the bright, round moon?

Was it the gentle mountain spring?

Was it the gentle mountain spring?

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Lin Fan first felt as if a thousand arrows pierced his heart—a pain that cut deep. Then it was as if his heart shattered into pieces, echoing with crackling sounds, leaving him cold to the core.

What had come to him was not the moon, nor the spring—

It was sorrow!

He wished someone would someday offer him a billion negative emotion points, promising three hundred billion more if he could spend the first billion within a month, even with all kinds of restrictions. He was certain that with the bloodline system’s prices, he could make anyone go bankrupt.

Buying a bloodline was even more expensive than developing a project in the Arctic!

He reopened the shop and bought another twenty Body-Tempering Fruits for his family, leaving him with twenty thousand points.

“Lottery!”

Perhaps because the points had come so easily, he spent them just as easily. Like a gambler who always loses and, even when he wins, quickly squanders it all, Lin Fan threw his remaining twenty thousand points into the lottery without hesitation.

And that was that...

“Crack—!”

Lin Fan gritted his teeth, veins bulging. Twenty thousand negative emotion points spent, and he’d gotten nothing.

The odds of winning seemed on par with walking down a winter street only to be hit on the head by a swallow’s droppings from the sky.

Or perhaps, more accurately, like a swallow that had migrated south flying all the way back in the dead of winter, overcoming countless hardships, then dropping its load just as you happened to look up—right on target.

Damn it, these odds were outrageous!

Nine tries, all failed, and the only thing he got was a Filipino steak, with a plate and cutlery as a bonus. Lin Fan was thoroughly exasperated.

Still, he summoned the steak in the end—after all, he hadn’t eaten breakfast, and tasting something from his previous life was a small comfort.

Besides, grinding his teeth on something seemed appropriate at a time like this.

Yet, the moment the steak touched his lips, he froze. All his pores seemed to open at once.

The steak was so delicious it defied belief—it could have been the handiwork of a divine chef.

Lin Fan quickly devoured the whole thing, still not satisfied. He could have eaten more.

“If not for the fact that each lottery draw costs two thousand negative emotion points, the chance to taste something this good would be worth it.”

He couldn’t help but praise the system—everything it produced was top quality, even the food won in the lottery.

Suddenly, he remembered the spicy hotpot and skewers from Old Black’s place, which he’d also won before but hadn’t yet summoned.

Without hesitation, he summoned them immediately.