Chapter 45: Good feelings, good feelings up, good feelings downdo...

"What's going on? The assessment just started, how come someone has already unlocked the stone tablet?" Lu Yuan hadn't recovered from the shock yet.

From the time they landed in the illusion to the time they gathered, it took no more than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Mingzhao pondered, "Even if he deciphered the star map, it would still take him time to get there. I remember Shen Qingyan doesn't know many mental arts, nor has he inherited any Daoist techniques, unless..."

Unless he really got incredibly lucky and landed right next to the monument.

Shen Qingyan looked at the gleaming stone tablet in front of her, then glanced at her own hand.

He had just landed on the mountain, and with nothing around him, he decided to walk down the mountain path. Unexpectedly, his foot slipped as he went down the mountain, and he tumbled all the way down the path, crashing straight into a large rock.

He was so shocked by the impact that he saw stars, and it took him a while to recover, his hand pressed against the stone. A dazzling white light flashed before his eyes, and a heavenly sound echoed from afar.

Shen Qingyan took a closer look and saw the character "壹" (Yi) flashing white light on the stone tablet. It turned out that the large stone he had stumbled upon was the stone tablet that he needed to unlock for this assessment.

He had thought he was going to fail the assessment this time.

Unexpectedly, this is an incredibly lucky start.

The system hummed beside him, "If it weren't for this system's intervention, you wouldn't have been able to complete the task so easily."

"Huh?" Shen Qingyan's eyes widened. "So it was you who was helping me?"

The system proudly declared, "I hacked into the illusion's system and specially arranged this landing point for you. Didn't expect that, did you!"

Shen Qingyan exclaimed, "System, I didn't know you had this kind of function? That's amazing!"

Hearing his praise, the system almost perked up and said, "This illusion is like a giant calculator. Give me a little more time and I can crack all the passwords."

"So you were my biggest asset all along," Shen Qingyan exclaimed.

At this moment, the system quietly glanced at the real-time bullet comments on the side.

[Get the cheat code]

[Tears welled up in my eyes. This useless system has finally developed a second function besides empty talk.]

Tears welled up; the unscrupulous contractor has finally struck.

[Quickly take the top spot! If we take the top spot and take that... that... that drug, Yanzi can use his cheat abilities whenever he wants, right?]

[Just wondering, what's the point of taking the medicine? Can't the cheat ability be activated easily? Why do you need to take medicine? (Sorry, I skipped the plot a bit too abruptly XD)]

[Replying to the comment above, the reward for this assessment is a spiritual elixir. Consuming it will unlock the inner core. The protagonist hasn't been able to obtain the inner core before, so this is probably the plot point... Making dumplings specifically for this is a bit too deliberate...]

[You can't just activate the cheat code randomly; each skill activation requires consuming mana. After acquiring the Inner Core, the maximum mana bar will increase. You can think of it this way.]

【111】

The system chuckled slowly, "Of course! We're bound together, after all. Who else would treat you so well besides me? As long as you work hard and accumulate honor points quickly, I can also gain power from them to level up. Once we both become stronger, this world will be ours!"

Infected by its emotions, Shen Qingyan shouted along with it, "Good!"

Seeing the overwhelmingly positive reviews in the comments section, the system was now full of energy and said to Shen Qingyan, "Use your remaining honor points to exchange for a convenient mini-map. I'll send you the coordinates of the next location to be unlocked. You follow the map's instructions, and I'll continue to unlock the coordinates for the next location. Let's work together and strive to take the top spot!"

“Okay!” Shen Qingyan replied, but suddenly remembered a crucial point, “Then… will the elders see you deciphering this process?”

He skipped the decryption process and went straight to the result, fearing that the elders would notice his abnormality and cancel his assessment.

"Don't worry," the system said. "Huang Menglu can maintain the illusion by manipulating Taoist magic outside the illusion. She can transmit her voice to your ears by speaking, but she cannot see all the scenes in this illusion."

The system patted its chest confidently: "In other words, she established a set of rules but couldn't monitor the world. As long as we can find the loopholes, we can quickly complete the task and become the first person to pass the assessment."

*

"The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: Heaven is round and Earth is square."

In the pitch-black alley, Mingzhao clasped his hands together and then opened them to the sides.

The upper circle of the semicircle gradually becomes transparent, and fine bright spots appear on the surface. These bright spots correspond exactly to the star map above their heads, and the name of each star is faintly visible.

Mingzhao looked at the manuscript paper that Shen Cangyu showed her, and then shifted her gaze to the concept of a round sky and a square earth.

Five stars lit up in the circular sky, while the rest of the stars dimmed. Then, five rays of light shot out from the lit stars and fell to the ground.

Then, buildings on the ground grew up like grass and trees, transforming into the shape of the capital city where they lived.

The circular sky dissipated, leaving only five glowing cursors on the ground, which corresponded precisely to the locations of the five stone tablets that needed to be unlocked for the assessment.

“These are the places!” Mingzhao said. The next moment, the round heaven and square earth in her hand turned into powder and scattered. Her face turned slightly pale.

The concept of "Heaven is round and Earth is square" requires reading information from heaven and earth, which is too taxing for her. Most of the energy she stored in her body was used up here, and she will probably need to rest for a while before she can use other mental techniques or control the Swiftness Token to travel.

"Did you remember?" Mingzhao asked Shen Cangyu with concern.

"It's alright, I've remembered everything," Shen Cangyu said.

“Then you guys go ahead first, I’ll rest for a bit and then catch up…” Mingzhao said, and then she saw Shen Cangyu squat down in front of her.

“Get on, I’ll carry you over.” She patted her shoulder.

“But…” Mingzhao looked at her, then glanced at Lu Yuan, who was yawning and perched on Shen Cangyu’s shoulder after being possessed by the lizard.

“I’m not carrying you for nothing,” Shen Cangyu said. “We’ll take turns. Once you’ve rested enough, it’ll be your turn to carry me.”

Mingzhao hesitated for a moment, but still climbed onto her back.

It's assessment time right now, and time is tight. If she really stays to take a break, it will take her much longer than others. She originally thought that since Shen Cangyu unlocked the star map and she found the corresponding coordinates on the ground using the concept of a round heaven and a square earth, then they would be even.

After all, it's assessment period now, unlike in the classroom, where they are competitors... Mingzhao never expected that Shen Cangyu would lend her a helping hand.

Shen Cangyu carried her on his back, running as fast as the wind.

To be honest, she didn't care whether she, Lu Yuan, or Ming Zhao won the top spot in the end. As long as it wasn't Shen Qingyan, she didn't care who got the top spot.

She didn't care.

Elixirs are good, but she doesn't like this shortcut to improvement. She prefers to cultivate on her own; only the feeling of being grounded and grounded can give her peace of mind.

"How could this be?" the system suddenly cried out.

Shen Qingyan quickly asked, "What's wrong? What happened? Are you blocked by the firewall? Can't you crack the password?"

"No..." the system said weakly.

It's just a small test; the system could easily crack this little thing.

But the main reason it crashed wasn't that; it was the affection value interface!

In the user backend, you can see two pieces of information: one is the honor value interface, and the other is the favor value interface.

Honor points are their main way of acquiring abilities, but to increase their honor points, they need their host to make a name for themselves.

After Shen Qingyan's reputation as the "Divine Farmer's Hand" spread, his long-stagnant honor points suddenly surged, allowing them to gain more energy to exchange for points. However, as he came in without any new achievements, the rate at which his honor points increased slowed down again.

Gaining a large amount of honor points is a long and arduous journey.

But in addition to honor points, another system is being developed, namely the favorability system.

Shen Qingyan is a bit slow-witted, so the system doesn't expect him to become an overnight sensation. Instead, it has to find another way, focusing on his personality and having him interact more with other NPCs and build good relationships with them.

Since it couldn't advance his career, it resorted to a second-best approach: guiding Shen Qingyan to expand his social circle and help him enter the ranks of the most popular men.

As more people like Shen Qingyan, his honor points will naturally increase.

The system's plan was brilliant, and it proved to be very suitable for Shen Qingyan.

His foolish personality transformed into a pure and innocent heart in the world of cultivation, and many people felt that he was the most genuine, pure, and kind person, so they became friends with him.

The system watched the favorability rating steadily increase in the background and marveled at its own foresight.

But for some reason, the increase in favorability rating shown in the system has suddenly slowed down recently, as if it has reached a bottleneck. Just now, the system showed that "Mingzhao's" favorability rating towards Shen Qingyan suddenly dropped, from "close" to "stranger".

They hadn't even met yet, so why did Mingzhao's favorability suddenly drop?

The system was practically going crazy.

"What just happened? Did Elder Huang discover your presence?" Shen Qingyan asked anxiously.

The system ignored him and cleaned up the background data several times on its own, but the result remained unchanged. Sure enough, it wasn't a bug; Mingzhao had genuinely lost interest in Shen Qingyan.

The system lost its enthusiasm and said, "Mingzhao's favorability towards you has dropped."

Hearing its words, Shen Qingyan breathed a sigh of relief: "I thought something had happened to you. So that's what you were worried about... I only spoke a few words to her at the Alliance meeting. In class, she only played with Shen Cangyu and the others. It's normal that she doesn't like me."

"But..." the system said anxiously, "Without favor points, there are no honor points, and without those, we have no abilities and no way to unlock cheat codes!"

“It’s okay, it’s just one person. If she doesn’t like me, there are other people who do. We’ll always meet new friends,” Shen Qingyan said. “There will always be new people who like me, isn’t that what you told me?”

The system was silent for a moment before saying in a low voice, "You're right, we have other people."

Shen Qingyan clapped her hands to cheer it on: "Alright, system, cheer up! Send me the coordinates you unlocked, let's move on to the next goal!"