Chapter 41 Jingwei and the others were in two different camps...

Fang Bu Shou moved the ruler away, and Shen Cangyu said the same thing as what she had recorded in her book.

He found the handwriting unfamiliar, but now he believed it—it was her own handwritten note.

“Your words are just like what Wenjing said back then,” Fang Bushou said. “No wonder we are fellow disciples.”

Shen Cangyu felt that the annotations in the book were incorrect, and Pei Wenjing also felt that the annotations in the book were incorrect; their views coincided.

When Shen Cangyu saw Pei Wenjing's notes in the book, she slammed her hand on the table and stood up in anger. She was about to go and discuss it with Pei Wenjing when she discovered that he had already gone with his senior sister and the others to search for Wuliangsheng and was no longer in Kunlun.

She had no choice but to leave disappointed.

Fang Bushou strolled around the hall, then suddenly spoke in a high-pitched voice: "We are all disciples who have just entered Kunlun, you all started from the same point. Some of you are just smarter, and some of you are just duller. You know you are duller, but you don't try to learn or ask questions, so how can you possibly learn?"

As soon as Fang Bushou spoke, everyone looked at him. But the next moment, they understood the meaning behind Fang Bushou's words, and their gazes shifted to Shen Qingyan in the corner.

The disciples in the classroom had all grasped the secrets of condensing the golden core, but Shen Qingyan was still completely clueless.

Shen Cangyu glanced at the comments section beside him, and sure enough, upon seeing this scene, the comments began to attack.

So what?

So what?

[If we can't do it, we can't do it. Anyway, we have a cheat system, so we don't need any golden pills to use skills.]

[That's hilarious! They're still engrossed in their cultivation, completely unaware that the protagonist is agonizing over which cheat ability to choose from in the shop: Which one should I get today? (Laughs while covering mouth)]

[They can even write three chapters in a lecture... This is too much! I don't want to watch the lecture, I want to see people get slapped in the face!]

[Want to see them proven wrong?]

[If there's no face-slapping moment, a walkthrough or some storyline would be nice too!]

The system can also receive information from the bullet comments in real time. As soon as it sees that everyone is urging, it quickly hints to Shen Qingyan to speed up the progress of the strategy.

"Look at everyone around you, they all look down on you. Can you stand this? Don't you want to turn the tables? Don't you want to get revenge on them? You need to quickly build up your goodwill with the important NPCs and win them over as soon as possible. Only when your honor points are high will you have more points to exchange for cheat codes! Once you have cheat codes, you won't have to put up with this anymore!" The system cheered him on.

"I don't want to," Shen Qingyan mumbled.

He has never been ambitious, nor is he good at maintaining relationships. If someone bullies him, he will feel sad, but he will forget all his troubles after just one night.

He wasn't very interested in the comeback and revenge the system talked about, but the system kept urging him to follow the storyline and work hard to earn honor points.

He was all alone in this world, and the system was his only friend. He had no direction; he would go wherever the system told him to go.

"You may let others go, but they won't let you go. You're not dreaming or playing a game. If you die here, you're really dead. You may not have any ambitions, but think about your family. They're waiting for you at home. Do you really want to die here?"

Upon hearing "family," Shen Qingyan's expression finally changed. He bit his lip and said, "Okay, I promise you, I will listen to you and follow the main storyline, and I will become friends with them..."

Shen Qingyan finally agreed to do the task, and the system breathed a sigh of relief. The revolutionary task had finally made a historic leap. It was just about to give him a slap and then a sweet date, and say some nice things to Shen Qingyan.

But then Shen Qingyan looked at Ming Zhao in the distance, and then at Shen Cangyu.

Shen Cangyu: "?"

system:"?"

The system guessed his intention: "What are you going to do? I told you to boost her favorability, so you're going to boost hers?"

Shen Qingyan replied, puzzled, "Can't I? Didn't you tell me to build up my favorability with important NPCs? Isn't Shen Cangyu an important NPC? Why can't I build up my favorability with her?"

Shen Qingyan retorted, "You're lying. I don't remember the original plot, but I know that Shen Cangyu is the female lead, and she is an important NPC."

Shen Qingyan was unusually stubborn on this point.

The system stammered for a long time, but fearing that Shen Qingyan would really go to Shen Cangyu, it shouted angrily, "It's no use trying to win her favor. I'm telling you this, she's not as good as you think. She's a big bad person, and she hates you. If you don't believe me, then go ahead and see if she'll even talk to you!"

The system suddenly raised its volume. Shen Qingyan sensed its anger, but didn't understand what it was angry about, so he could only go along with what it said.

"Then I won't look for Shen Cangyu, I'll go find Pei Wenjing instead, isn't Pei Wenjing an important NPC too..."

The system was furious, but considering Shen Qingyan's personality, it had no choice but to patiently persuade him: "You and Pei Wenjing are competitors. You want to take away their resources. If you try to build a good relationship with them now, he will resent you and turn against you when you take away his resources. Since that's the case, why bother building a good relationship with him?"

Shen Qingyan harbored no ill will toward Shen Cangyu and Pei Wenjing. He had watched their story unfold in the past, but now he had simply become a part of it.

He hadn't realized before that they were on opposite sides. The system's words were like a rope, binding him tightly and dragging him backward, the distance between him and them growing ever wider, as if separated by the Chu River.

The system told him, "You came here to be the protagonist. They are all NPCs. They are not important. Don't treat them as living people. They exist for the sake of the plot. They are just stepping stones for you."

"NPC... is it just an NPC?" Shen Qingyan's eyes flickered.

The system firmly told him, "Yes, an NPC is just an NPC."

*

When the news spread that Shen Qingyan had failed to cultivate the Golden Core in class, someone laughed and said, "Isn't Shen Qingyan known as the Divine Farmer? I thought he was someone powerful, but I didn't expect him to be unable to even cultivate the Golden Core."

Several lessons had already been held, and their progress had accelerated to the teaching of mental techniques, but Shen Qingyan remained at the Golden Core stage and had not yet entered the realm of enlightenment.

Fang Bushou taught Shen Qingyan several times, but in the end, he still turned his sleeves and left with the words "This child is incorrigible."

Seeing that Shen Qingyan had not yet cultivated his golden core, the teachers in the later classes had no choice but to skip him during the teaching and instead teach the other disciples mental techniques.

Everyone else was chatting and exchanging their experiences learning about mental techniques, but Shen Qingyan sat alone in the corner.

He watched the others laughing and joking, and thought dully to himself that he was the same way in reality.

But the thought flashed through his mind and he quickly put it aside. He buried his head in his arms and drew a few hearts on a piece of paper with a charcoal pencil.

Different levels of affection correspond to different NPCs' favorability towards him. He is not good at studying, but if he wants to increase his honor points, he can only rely on building good relationships with others and increasing his presence by relying on their favorability.

Now, thanks to his "Divine Hand of Shennong" golden touch, he is quite famous in Xingxiang Hall. Xingxiang Hall disciples like to refine various elixirs, relying on the external assistance of elixirs to cultivate their inner elixir. Therefore, many Xingxiang Hall disciples also grow herbs.

If the herbs fail to survive, they will seek Shen Qingyan's help. Shen Qingyan is always responsive to requests; he will help them whenever they ask.

Through these efforts, he also gained a lot of goodwill.

He couldn't tell whether those people were sincere or not, but the system whispered in his ear, "Whether they are sincere or not, once your halo is strong enough, even if they are fake, they will eventually become real."

He looked at Shen Cangyu in the distance. People around her were laughing and joking. She was just sitting there quietly, and people would automatically gather around her.

He envied Shen Cangyu when he was reading the novel. She always knew exactly what she wanted, she never seemed confused, and she had a kind of magic that could attract other people's attention.

The system nonchalantly replied, "Don't envy others. What you want, I can give you too, as long as you do as I say."

"It'll be alright, won't it?" he thought.

"Qingyan?" a voice came from afar.

Shen Qingyan stared at his textbook and looked out the window. A familiar figure appeared at the window; it was a disciple of Xingxiang Hall named "Dongtang." He had interacted with her when he was on duty at the spiritual fields of Xingxiang Hall.

Dongtang looked at him curiously and asked, "Why are you here all alone?"

Shen Qingyan took the book off his head and replied, "My master has punished me to stand here until I have memorized all the incantations before I can go back."

"Will Fang not punish you?" Dong Tang frowned.

Shen Qingyan scratched his neck and whispered, "Yes..."

Dong Tang snorted coldly and said, "Fang Bushou has always been biased. He only treats those disciples who grew up in Kunlun well. He never even gives a second glance to disciples like us who came from the outer sect."

As she spoke, she suddenly fixed her gaze on Shen Qingyan: "We outer sect disciples have formed a mutual assistance alliance. Would you like to join?"

"The Tongmenghui?"

“Yes,” she said, “we have no connections, no family background, and no bloodline. In the inner sect, disciples like us are at the bottom, suffering oppression and cold looks. We formed the Alliance to help each other.”

Shen Qingyan was still hesitating.

Dongtang placed her hand on Shen Qingyan's hand and smiled, "Perfect. If you have any questions in class, we can help you solve them. With so many of us, if we each say a word, we'll surely be able to teach you. That way, you won't have to stand as punishment anymore."

Her hands were slightly cool, but when they covered his hands, they inexplicably warmed him. This was the first time someone had shown him affection without expecting anything in return.

"But I..." He didn't actually understand anything, and he couldn't help them at all.

"No buts," Dongtang said, tossing the book out of his hand and pulling him outside. "Just agree to it. You'll join our Tongmenghui from now on. They'll be so happy to know you're here, since everyone's been waiting for you."

He was pulled outside, where a warm summer breeze blew through the window, and flowers bloomed all around.

Shen Qingyan belatedly realized that he seemed to be about to make a new friend.

That's great.

Unbeknownst to him, as Dongtang ran forward, several black veins rose from her neck, but were concealed by her collar.

She seemed to sense something was wrong with her, raised her hand to press down on her neck, and pressed down a black bead that had risen to the surface of her skin.