Seized by the System

“Hmph, all you’ve got is a sharp tongue. If that’s the case, we’ll just make it a battle of wits then! I just want to see if the sky in this realm is able to subdue me by even a bit!”

Zhi Nan’s gaze turned cold as he swept across the trio. With a swish of his robe, he then disappeared from their sight.

Gu Buwei was slightly astonished at the sight, which prompted him to ask, “That demon lord has is quite thick-skinned, how is it possible for him to turn so angry from embarrassment? Also, it seemed like Bodhisattva was seemed to be acquaintances with him, could you tell me why so?”

Bodhisattva had no choice but to say, “That’s because the Venerable One rubbed salt into his wounds. If there’re no vitality on the other planets, he won’t be able to make a fresh start, which means he will have to continue being restrained by the Heavenly Axiom of this realm.

“A similar matter happened in the Upper Realm; he managed to approach the limit twice, but he was always stopped by the True Dragon together with the Will of the Heavens themselves. Every time his past is mentioned, he finds it pretty hard to control himself. Furthermore, he isn’t what one would call a sane person… Forget it, there’s no gain in you both knowing this, so I will continue telling you some matters that have happened before instead.”

Hearing this, Gu Buwei shared a glance with Vigilante A before they both nodded at the same time.

“Go ahead, Bodhisattva.”

Bodhisattva Spirit King then continued to reveal gossip about Zhi Nan.

As it turned out, Zhi Nan had tried to popularize the Paradise Realm multiple times while he was in the Upper Realm. He tried to sell it as a place where people would not have to go through birth, aging, sickness, and death as well as a place where they would be able to live forever without a care in the world.

Although he meant well, he was too eager for success, so he tried to use Enchantment on everyone so that they would give up their physical bodies to enter Paradise Realm.

He stirred up a lot of trouble and involved hundreds of countries, so the True Dragons had no choice but to intervene.

By then, he had already turned into a demon lord with immeasurable strength.

The True Dragons that had been sent to subdue him were merely two youngsters, so they were no match for him. It was practically a disaster waiting to happen.

Then, the Will of the Heavens appeared, and he was defeated in the hands of the young True Dragons. He immediately became the laughing stock of the demons, and the matter scarred him for life.

As Bodhisattva spoke about this “Will of the Heavens”, a weird smile briefly appeared on his face before it disappeared as quickly.

A human’s will is also the Will of the Heavens, and that proved to be true.

“I see. The only way to defeat that demon lord would be to summon the Will of the Heavens once more then. I will return to the mountain first, and discussion of this matter will resume at a later time,” said Gu Buwei calmly.

With that said, his figure started fading before he disappeared completely.

Bodhisattva Spirit King could only smile bitterly at the situation. He felt helpless, for it was not like he could go against his own words.

He thought to himself, ‘Maybe the Heavens of this realm will see him as an eyesore too. After all, that old friend of mine is too ambitious and too wild.’

The System could only groan at the current situation, “All that discussion was nothing more than a waste of time. We will still have to beg Daddy Axiom in the end. If I had known earlier, I would’ve gone and done it…”

Fang Ning berated, “Where did we waste time? After that discussion, I now know the true background of that fellow. I finally understand why it didn’t appear on the System Map despite standing right in front of us. I can’t make him red, so you can’t farm him.”

The System instantly replied, “I’ve already said so why long ago; it’s time for the System Map to get an upgrade. Quickly summon that old book of yours home, Richie. It’s been doing nothing but farming recently and I think it’s farmed more than thousands of monsters. That’s a few billion experience points. It’s been a while since I’ve obtained that many experiences points.”

“It’s because he isn’t even a living being to begin with!” Fang Ning continued, seemingly not having heard what the System had said at all.

“What?!” The System was shocked. “Then what exactly is he?”

“From what I’ve gathered from what Bodhisattva told us, I have a bold but illogical idea. He’s actually only…”

The System urged, “Only what?”

“Forget it, I can’t say it now. Let me confirm things first.” Fang Ning had hesitated for a moment, but finally decided against revealing his statement.

“Don’t say it then, you’re merely trying to grab my attention… That would be impossible to do, since I’m not as curious as humans.

“Now, give me back the body. I have to go check on the black dog since it’s currently going around looking for materials for an oil lamp. I’ll have to be on alert, I don’t want Zhi Nan kidnapping it,” muttered the System nonchalantly.

Once Gu Buwei left, Bodhisattva Spirit King and Vigilante A made small talk before Bodhisattva Spirit King invited Vigilante A to continue their conversation at his home.

Vigilante A rejected the offer and said that he had some matters to deal with, before flying off immediately.

Bodhisattva Spirit King could only watch Vigilante A’s fading silhouette. He shook his head and heaved a deep sigh.

In this day and age, being the Bodhisattva was no easy matter. Lots of people pray to him, but those that light incense along with their prayers are little to none. Furthermore, nobody in the Association of Spirit Kings knew how to manage finances, so their finances have been in the red for as long as he can remember.

He had a bunch of mouths to feed at home too, but thankfully the eldest one of the household knew how to hoe their own row…

Bodhisattva Spirit King then descended back onto the bluestone plain as he wanted to speak with the great green insect. He wanted to ask the other party if it could transfer some funds over.

After all those countless days and nights of effort, numerous purified places had already appeared in the Demonic Realm and those places could now be accessed.

There was no point in waiting for the entire realm to be converted, since that would be too inefficient and the time taken to achieve that would be too long.

Furthermore, it would be just like Vigilante A’s Morality City as it would require a lot of funds.

Most of the times, building infrastructures required a lot of investment, so only established organizations would be able to bear the burden.

Once Bodhisattva Spirit King descended, the great green insect jumped down from its platform and flew towards the Bodhisattva before he could even say anything.

It anxiously asked, “Where did the Great Azure Dragon go?”

“Oh, Brother Dragon had some matters to deal with and has already flown off,” replied the Bodhisattva, “I…”

“I knew something like this would happen…” interrupted the great green insect before it continued dejectedly, “My previous father was the same. Every time I achieved something great, he would say that he would treat me to a meal, but he never stuck to his words.

“I’ll be leaving now, Father Chong. Since there’s nothing else for me to deal with here, I’ll see if that pair of returned customers are still waiting for me.

“Business hasn’t been very well recently. The pair of customers told me that most people are saving up for in case of a natural disaster, so they can’t come chasing true happiness first. People like them that can afford to return to spend more come few and far in between, so I have to treat them like VIPs or something.”

Bodhisattva was stunned at this and could not reply at all. In an instant, he felt like he had not cared enough before, since he had no idea that the great green insect was short on food. He thought that its business would have gained even more popularity from before.

However, it did have a point. Most of the people that seek for true happiness were regular folk, and with the low number of rich people, an even lower number of rich people wanted to seek for true happiness.

Now that a natural disaster was imminent on the outside world, most people were busy looking for ways to survive, so they would never come seeking for true happiness. At the end of the day, seeking true happiness was merely something born out of leisure…

Unfortunately, Bodhisattva could not find time to share a meal with the great green insect either, since once it started eating it would not stop for a few days…

At this moment, a voice sounded from above them.

“I have always been true to my words, so why would I not fulfill a promise? Follow me, I’ll have Chef Fang cook up enough for four meals, so you’ll be able to eat your fill.”

The great green insect’s eyes glimmered before it flew up into the sky.

“Great Azure Dragon, I knew you would be different from my previous father…”

Fang Ning laughed bitterly in secret; if he had not reminded the System, it would not have forgotten but it would not have cared either, so there would be no saying when the promise would be fulfilled.

The great green insect landed firmly on Vigilante A’s shoulder and just before it left along with him, it turned to look at Lu Er.

It rolled its eyes and said, “That one’s called Lu Er and he said that you’ve forgotten to fulfill your promise, so I waited for half a day. Bring him along since he won’t eat a lot too…”

The great green insect was an honest Abe of an insect, but it exposed its true character with the final statement.

Hearing this, Lu Er felt quite touched. The number of legs that the Lord Insect Prime had made it easy for him to lick its boots, so he was happy that all his effort had not been for naught.

Vigilante A nodded his head at the great green insect’s words and spoke at the flying sword beneath him, “Bring him along with us.”

Lu Er, however, immediately rejected, “There’s no need for the great hero to waste any effort, I know where to go so I’ll go there myself. It won’t even take me an hour. There’s no need to care for me, when I arrive I’ll just order whatever to eat.”

Hearing this, Fang Ning exclaimed, “Who would’ve thought that Lu Er, who used to be nothing more than a lackey, has also gotten himself some good fortune. The distance between here and Qi City is at least a few thousand miles, and yet he can arrive so quickly. How amazing.”

“Hmph, his cultivation method is wrong and his heart isn’t in the right place, so he’ll be entering deviatory psychosis soon,” grumbled the System simply.

“Huh,” said Fang Ning in surprise, “why isn’t Bodhisattva doing anything about it?”

“Ask him yourself, not like I would know,” deadpanned the System emotionlessly.

Fang Ning looked at Lu Er, who was playing himself up to Vigilante A, and felt a complicated feeling rise in himself.

Only a while ago, Lu Er was nothing more than a knock-off version of himself.

Fortunately, the System seized control of his body, which gifted him with the opportunity to order around all while living a life of leisure.

He harbored no ill feelings towards Lu Er, and Lu Er had even managed to help him quite a bit too. Otherwise, if the great green insect had really left, that would have been quite troublesome for him.

He then told the Bodhisattva, “Bodhisattva, this subordinate of yours seems to be quite problematic cultivation-wise.”

Lu Er felt his heart drop; what problems did he have?

Bodhisattva turned back to glance at Lu Er and furrowed his eyebrows. He shook his head as he sighed, “Ah, I was too busy converting the Demonic Realm and worrying about worldly matters. I’ve been lacking, for I didn’t take notice of you.

“Since the great hero has spoken, I’ll recognize you for running about and toiling hard, since it is obvious that your legs are quite agile. This ‘Divine Legs Scripture’ is yours now, chant it from time to time and it will stop you from entering deviatory psychosis. If you have a higher comprehension of it, you might even be able to fully comprehend it to its supremacy.”

Lu Er could not believe what he was hearing. How was that possible? An unattainable reality that he had made up on the spot was actually realized right after the Venerable One said something?

The Venerable Dragon God was actually such a noble person with exemplary conduct, which was to be expected of the Eastern Pharos; in comparison, his previous acts and behaviors were foul and sordid, he could not even call his acts humane.

A blink of an eye later, while his emotions were fluctuating, a passage of scriptures appeared before his mind’s eye.

After he memorized the scripture passage, Lu Er felt an immense gratitude towards Vigilante A and Bodhisattva. He immediately promised himself that he would definitely repay their gratitude tenfold.

The Venerable One had first led him back onto the right path and rectified his sins, he then pulled him from deviatory psychosis with a single statement. He had practically given Lu Er a God-given opportunity.

With such huge grace granted to him, how was he going to repay it? He immediately fell into great distress.

Fang Ning was incredibly pleased at the situation. He never expected that he would really become a big shot, since he was able to influence someone’s fate with a single statement alone.

This was something that he needed to get used to…

“Mr. Rich Boss, what you so happy for? It’s not like you gained some great advantage,” said the System in confusion.

“What do you know? To humans, sometimes spiritual satisfaction is far more important than material things,” grumbled Fang Ning.

“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll be able to give you satisfaction spiritually too, just give me all the money in your small treasury.”

“You’re in over your head, so keep dreaming.”

How could Fang Ning agree to that? Without his small treasury, could he still become a big shot?