Long Live System

His aunt Xian and cousin Bing were appaled by the beast he received, ranted on his behalf, and tried to keep him from using them. On top of that, unlike the other members of the clan who succesfully contracted grimoires, Yue Yang received the b.a.r.e minimum of support money. Bing was really displeased by the attitude of the other branchs of the clan, while Xian was more saddened.

Despite that, Yue Yang was quite happy.

The Quintet Seeking Golden Mice, as it was their real name, were non-combat weak puppet beasts specialized in scouting and treasure hunting. They could act in any kind of terrain and situations as long as they were within the attributes of wood, water, fire, earth and metal, and they wouldn't be attacked by other beasts.

They had found the hidden items left by Yue Yang's parents. They would be twice more usefull to him than they would be for fictional Yue Yang. Fictional Yue Yang didn't have the Instant Dungeon skill, with hidden treasure c.h.e.s.t in the differents instances. While he would fight and improve his skills, he would let the mices search for the c.h.e.s.ts, and maybe other hidden gems.

They were created by the Ghost Genius Yue Gong, grandmaster of puppet making. He remembered that fictional Yue Yang had made impressive puppets, especially his "daughter". While he liked action heros, he liked the ones who could craft (smithing, alchemy, enchanting, engineering) even more. He intended to learn runes, smithing and alchemy from the shop before going to Tong Tian Tower, so he could make his own construct-type beasts. As bonus, he could also make his own equipment.

Once he got alone, he contracted them and had them explore his room. They found 15 gold coins, 62 silvers coins and around 100 copper coins, 2 diaries left by his parents, and a necklace with a black coloured jade pendant.

He knew the diaries and the pendant were much more precious than they seemed. He could see the diaries were protected, but even with his lv2 Divine Vision he didn't see what was special about it. If not for the mice and the forknowledge he would have dismissed it.

With the pendant in his possession, his Earth and Heaven Cultivation skill improved at an accelerated rate. He got to level 7 in 2 days, level 8 after 5 days and level 9 after 15 days. From level 6 to level 9, one had to link the 12 energy channels of the body. The next step, to pass from level 9 to level 10, was to connect all of them together. With his knowledge of the body (field medecine, accupuncture, massages), he expected to reach that stage in 2 weeks. His improvement with the Earth and Heaven Cultivation had a positive effect on his Mountain Tiger Body cultivation. He got it to level 7 in 5 days, level 8 in 10 days, and expected to reach level 9 in 2 weeks.

He didn't notice his changes, but his cousin and aunt did. His skin complexion had improved, his muscles had become more defined without bulking, and he almost glowed with vigor. While Ah Xian was able to take it in stride, Bing was charmed, and the wrestling, teasing and massages didn't help. She liked him like a brother, but also saw him as an attractive young man.

Before she simply didn't mind him touching her, but now she started to enjoy having physical contact with him. Whenever he took her in his arms she would lean against him, and she started to get aroused when they ended in suggestive positions during sparring or when he gave her massages. She was embarrassed by the thoughs she was having about her cousin, yet she liked the fact that he found her beautiful, and when he joked that he would keep her to himself, she couldn't suppress images of herself with him from crossing her mind. She was a widow, married by proxy to a guy who died before he could do anything, so she wasn't ignorant about what a man and a woman could do in private. She knew people didn't want to marry her, so being with her skilled, handsome, caring cousin didn't sound bad at all.

She could also feel the results of her training with Yue Yang. In 3 weeks, she achieved as much as what she would usually accomplish in 3 months, and that wasn't counting her learning Division Propagation. She couldn't help but admire him and be extremely grateful for that, and she wondered how she could repay him someday.

During those 2 weeks, he got to level 15. His Shadow Concealment and Forest Lord Scouting got to level 14, his Fierce Fist, Revolving Guardian and Binding Fighter got to level 12, and his Hidden Hand and accupuncture got to level 15. His field medecine got to level 10, and his Angel Hand got to level 13. His summoning and Instant Dungeon reached level 10, and concerning the ID, he unlocked the Garden instance, which was full of plant-type monsters.

In the dungeons, he aquired 5 gold coins, 80 silver coins, 34 lesser dark essence stones and 7 lesser blood essence stones. Thanks to the Quintet Seeking Golden Mice, he was able to find the hidden Treasure C.h.e.s.ts each time he entered the dungeon.

These 15 Treasure C.h.e.s.ts gave him 63250 credits, 2 Wisdom Fruits, 3 Small Energy Potions, a Battle Halberd, a Basic Sword Techniques manual, an Alchemy manual and the Celestial Steps manual. The energy potions could restore 20% of Life and Stamina over 15min. The Battle Halberd was a mid-rank mortal weapon, meaning it was suitable for lv4 Champions, lv5 Grandmasters and lv6 Elders cultivators. The Celestial Steps manual was a mid-rank innate skill, meaning it was suitable for lv4-5-6 Earth Innates to learn. It had 3 stages: Wind Steps, Thunder Steps and Light Steps.

He didn't learn the Basic Sword Technique as he already had a main weapon technique with the Yue Clan Spear, and a sub weapon technique with the Hidden Hand. Instead, he kept it to give his future subordinates. With his aquired credits, he decided to do some shopping.

He remembered that the runes in LLS were divided in 3 types: Heavenly Runes, the most common, and currently studied by the Sickly Beauty; Ancient Runes, above Heavenly Runes; Immemorial Runes, the most powerful runes, each one of them being unique. To use them, one must possess them. He remembered that Yue Gong's greatest puppets were made with Ancient Runes.

Since he wanted to make his own enchanted creations and had already aquired Alchemy, he decided to buy runes from the Shop. Since there was a big gap in power between Heavenly and Ancient runes, he only searched for Heavenly Runes, and got the skill for 25 000 credits. He also got the Shadow Clone for 25 000 credits, the Structural Grasp skill for 10 000 credits, the Smithing and Mechanic skills for 3000 credits, leaving him with 17 350 credits.

[Name: Yue Yang - Age: 19 - Race: Human Male

Level: 15 - Rank: Braveman - Alignement: Neutral Moral

Occupations: Apprentice Summoner - Titles: Yue clan's third young master, Yue clan's failure

Life: 100% - Stamina: 100% - Qi: 100% - Bonus points: 40

Strenght: 97 - Constitution: 131 - Agility: 107 - Dexterity: 117

Wisdom: 184 - Spirit: 183 - Charisma: 288 - Luck: 265]

[Twin Star Inherent Skill: Divine Vision lv2 - Counterfeit lv2

Summoning lv10

Instant Dungeon lv10

Structural Grasp lv1

Shadow Clones lv1

Yue Clan Spear Technique lv16

Earth and Heaven Cultivation Technique lv9

Mountain Tiger Body Cultivation Technique lv8

Shadow Concealment Technique lv14

Forest Lord Scouting Technique lv14

Celestial Step lv1

Fierce Fist Technique lv12

Revolving Guardian Technique lv12

Binding Fighter lv12

Hidden Hand Technique lv15

Accupuncture lv15

Field Medecine lv10

Angel Hand Massage Technique lv13

Heavenly Runes lv1

Alchemy lv1

Smithing lv1

Mechanic lv1 ]

[3 Wisdom Fruits, 3 Energy Potions, Battle Halberd, Basic Sword Technique manual, 61 lesser dark essence stones, 10 lesser blood essence stones, Yue Qiu's Diary, Yue Yang Mother's Diary ]

While the Shadow Clone was a nice technique to have, he was still limited by the amount of qi necessary for each clone. He was limited to 1 clone, lasting 1 hour without using qi or getting hurt. That was still 1 hour every other day to study runes and alchemy.

Since 15 days had passed after receiving the Puppet Mice, Yue Yang though about the events to come. Fictional Yue Yang was supposed to achieve innate qi some time after Yue Bing's departure, and soon after that meet Yi Nan as he went to register at the Mercenary Guild. His aquisition of innate qi would also be sensed by the officials of Da Xia Empire, and a bounty would be offered to find him. He wondered if the ID would be able to hide it, as he didn't see the need to alert the whole world.

The following 2 weeks passed in roughly the same manner with a few differences.

With the appearance of the Garden, Yue Yang spent more time daily in the ID, 1 hour per instance. The Garden provided a new challenge to him. The enemies were treants and carnivorous plants, and both could detect his presence through the vibrations of the ground made by his steps. The treants had eyes, so their sensitivity to vibrations was low, but not the carnivorous plants. They were so s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e he couldn't sneak. And when he stayed immobile, they seemed to smell him.

It was hard to distinguish between normal plants and monsters, he had to be wary of branch strikes from above, and vines and roots attacks from bellow. The thorns on their vines were poisonous, and the heads released numbing spores affecting both the body and the senses when they were hit. He couldn't use accupuncture or the Binding Fighter on them, the small weapons of the Hidden Hand did little damage, the only reason the Fierce Fist and Revolving Guardian worked on the treants were due to his strenght, and he wouldn't be able to use it on the carnivorous plants if not for his speed to avoid the thorns.

Even then, he was poisoned a lot, and had to buy a lot of antidotes. He aquired the skill Poison Resistance, and vowed to raise it a lot. His Shadow Concealment and Forest Lord Scouting improved a lot with these camoufflaged and s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e enemies. He got lesser plant essence stones, poisonous thorns and good quality wood as loot. He was really sad there was only 1 Treasure C.h.e.s.t per day instead of 1 per instance. He would have loved to open 3 of them daily.

He used his Structural Grasp on as many items as possible, starting with simple ones, and slowly moving to more complex ones. It worked a little like a sonar. He needed to get used to the feedback, to process the amount of informations received. The same was necessary for the Shadow Clone. The first time he received the memories of a clone that lived for 1 hour, he got a headache. The Celestial Steps were used to either enter close-combat with an enemy group or distance himself. He didn't have the mastery to move between enemies in short distance and fast enough yet. Heavenly Runes and Alchemy advanced slowly but steadily. It was only theory for the time being, and once he got good enough with Shadow Clone to make more than 2 and improved his qi capacity, he would move to practice. And only at that time would he start to work on Smithing and Mechanics, as he was in no rush to advance them.

Bing had become more affectionate with him. Before, he was always the one to initiate physical contact. She just accepted it at first, then enjoyed it. Now, she initiated it; a one-armed hug and a kiss on the cheek as greeting, to wish him a nice afternoon or a good night, linking arms when they moved somewhere together, even if it was just between the living room, the backyard or his room.

Because of that, these last 2 weeks she took her out twice. Though he acted as if it was just to relieve stress after all the training they did, these outings were basically dates. The first one was to do a bit of shopping after a late lunch in a restaurant, and wandering around the better part of the city.

The second time they spent the afternoon at the edge of the forest near the city, with a packed snack. This time it was more about relaxing and enjoying nature, and he ended up cuddling her quite a bit at the shade of a tree, not like she didn't enjoy it. He was very tempted to kiss her at the end, but it had to wait until he met Luo Hua, Qian Qian, Yue Yu and the Bloody Queen. He wanted her to see him being interested in other pretty girls while still liking her, so she could see that she wouldn't be his only one. He prefered to show it rather than just saying it.

Soon enough, these 2 weeks came to an end.