Seized by the System

“Resurrecting them is not a pressing issue. You should withdraw their souls and let them rest, along with William’s fiancé…,” Fang Ning commanded, “lest they disappear completely.”

“This is such a hassle, but I’ll help seeing that you cooperated well just now,” the System muttered.

System Notification: [The System searched through all the souls in the Arcane Realm of the Heavenly Axiom, and found the essence of the souls of Bai RuoCang’s family.]

“Their souls are gone. My guess is the demon rats have eaten them. The only thing left behind is the essence of their souls. What should we do? Even if they reincarnate as bugs, they would be completely mindless. It is practically hopeless to recover their memories because a huge part of a person’s memories is carried within the soul. The essence of a soul can only carry a limited amount of memories unless the person’s a Saint,” the System said.

Fang Ning was aghast yet disappointed by what the System said.

“I guess not everything goes the way you want it to. What’s important is staying true to your own principles no matter what. Keep the essence of their souls in the Draconic Arcane Realm, I’ll talk to Xiao Cang later and see what he thinks about it,” Fang Ning said reluctantly, and did not pressurize the System again.

After all, he knew that the System was not omnipotent.

“That’s simple. I’ll get it done now,” the System promised Fang Ning.

Fang Ning peeked into the Draconic Arcane Realm, curious to find out where the System is keeping the essence of all the souls. However, he was stunned by what was in front of him.

“I’m so full after eating. It feels good to be able to sleep here in peace and comfort.” In the herb garden, Chong Daqing was lying on a piece of the Ginseng King’s leaf. He was snoring and murmuring to himself in his sleep.

“When did it come in here?” Fang Ning was filled with confusion.

“Why do you seem so surprised? It always slips in without permission. I have already lost count of the number of times it did that,” the System grumbled.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

The System said in a contemptuous tone,” What’s the point of telling you? You would just shrug it off. I think Chong Daqing has managed to sneak in all those times because it recognizes the scent of the Gate of Vitality. It’s here to examine the growth of the Ginseng King. The door that absorbs the vitality energy has to be placed outside, or the vitality energy in here would lose its source.”

After listening to the System’s explanation, Fang Ning was still somehow bothered.

“That doesn’t sound right. We’re in the Arcane Realm, and it’s quite impossible for him to walk through the Gate of Vitality,” Fang Ning was dumbstruck.

“You have a point. You should just ask him,” the System was confused as well.

Fang Ning walked into the herb garden, and greeted the Whitestone people. Suddenly, a string of white dots appeared out of nowhere and landed on the Ginseng King’s leaf.

“By placing them here, they can absorb the essence of the ginseng and this might help to recover their memories. At the very least, they would be able to remember who they are. I noticed that this ginseng plant is not like any others. That red-backed woodpecker actually awakened its innate ability after consuming the sap of the ginseng plant. This plant is the first in the world that is known for having this ability. I’m pretty sure it has some kind of unique powers,” the System explained.

“Thanks for your explanation,” Fang Ning finally understood why Chong Daqing was constantly holding onto the Ginseng King.

Fang Ning took a few steps lightly and stopped before the Ginseng King. It has a lush growth of stems and leaves.

The Ginseng King was moving its head and waving its leaves to greet the owner of the herb garden. Anyone would agree that the plant had developed into a sprite; even the Whitestone people who are known for their honesty would agree.

Fang Ning nodded and bent his body. He pointed his finger and poked Chong Daqing in his stomach.

“Hey, wake up. Why are you asleep here?”

“Who’s talking to me? I think I’m dreaming. I’ll just go back to sleep,” Chong Daqing continued sleeping after stretching his body.

Fang Ning reached out his finger to touch the leaves, and a string of dew fell down.

“Is it raining? I thought I instructed those stupid rocks to not water the Ginseng King?” Chong Daqing jumped straight up from his sleep.

“That was me,” Fang Ning sounded annoyed.

“Oh, I see. Did you come here to cook for me? Unfortunately, I am not hungry yet, but you can save it for later,” Chong Daqing was pleased to see Fang Ning.

“No one’s cooking for you. How could you come in here without permission? The Venerable Dragon God only allowed me to come in here freely,” Fang Ning responded.

“Oh, so you’re talking about this. I used to need to get in here by squeezing myself through that door. I filled up my stomach just now, and I could freely enter into this place after that. I don’t even know how it happened,” Chong Daqing stretched out his arms and scratched his head.

“I think I know what happened,” The System suddenly said, “It’s entirely engulfed the powers of the Land of Sanguinity. Besides obtaining its existing powers, I’m afraid it’s also awakened some of its hidden abilities.”

“I get it,” Fang Ning came to a sudden realization, “This arcane realm has the ability to connect to anywhere in the universe, and it acts as a portal to other planets. Chong Daqing got lucky just by lying down and doing nothing. Your intuition was correct all along, Chong Daqing is the biggest winner among us.”

“Chong Daqing didn’t even do anything but he got the most out of this. On the other hand, we were driven up the wall several times,” the System sounded bummed.

“He’s the type of guy who can easily win five million dollars in a lottery by doing nothing at all,” Fang Ning sounded calm because he knows that not anyone was as lucky as him to have been seized by the System.

“That can’t be. I need to make it suffer,” the System felt unjust.

“Just let it be. This is its luck, you should stop being so petty about it,” Fang Ning commented.

“It clearly took advantage of me. If it wasn’t for my extraordinary powers that forced the Heavenly Axiom to consolidate its strength, he would never get such luck!” the System vented.

“Look at you, you’re arguing irrationally. Fortunately, this ability was given to someone on our side. We would be in deep trouble if it was obtained by the demons.”

“I could have had billions of experience points…” the System mumbled.

“I’m lazy to argue with you. I’ve already found out the reason, and it’s not a big deal. Although Chong Daqing is gluttonous, it’s never stolen any food. It’s just here to sleep.”

“In that case, you can continue sleeping, but make sure you take extra caution about the white dots. They are Xiao Cang’s family, please do not startle them.”

“I got it. It’s not like they are edible anyway. I will never touch them,” Chong Daqing turned his body around and continued sleeping after changing the leaf he was sleeping on to a dry leaf.