Chapter 128  : Only The Useful Could Live Longer

[Ma Dechun’s Aggro has risen exponentially. His Aggro is now full, and is now filling up an Aggro Bar to 20%.]

Fang Ning did not read his novels, nor did he play his games. Instead, he was reading news online and browsing Weibo for headlines to understand the current changes when he suddenly received a notification.

Hm, these cells should be single cells, why would there still be a prison bully? Who’s that strong? His mind immediately supplied him with a face of a certain evil genius, Anderson. Who else, really?

Fang Ning quickly went to the prison area. The one locked inside Cell No.3 must be that newcomer Ma Dechun.

He flipped the game book open.

[Ma Dechun. Sex: Male, Hobbies: Anything related to gambling. Age: 69. Identity: Unemployed.]

𝔫𝙤ѵ𝑒𝙡.com

[Alignment: Evil.]

[Power Level: Mug-Level 1 . Description: Redundant. Will break on contact. Note: His rare Awakened Superpower gives him immense potential.]

“We’ve stopped an evil genius with great potential before he could even act. This feels amazing.” Fang Ning closed the game book and walked towards the cell. This was the first time Fang Ning came across an evaluation of a great potential. It’s obvious that if this old man were to have the time to grow, he would probably be a huge threat too.

Also, it must be mentioned that Fang Ning would have a blurred out face when he adopted the human form in his System Space. He would not appear with his identity of Fang Ning in fear that he might accidentally exit the System when he was overwhelmed with excitement. That would of course cause him serious consequences.

Still, it was worth mentioning that Fang Ning was cautious whenever it came to hiding his identity. Especially when he found about the trump card of the Truth Department’s, it reinforced his idea that his preparation was absolutely necessary. If one day Vigilante A’s identity could not be used anymore, he’ll still have Fang Ning, his true identity, to provide him cover as he continued his cultivation.

As Fang Ning came to the prison area and studied his environment, he saw that the three convicts all had their eyes closed. However, all of them were communicating via telepathy.

Elder Feng said, “Nope, I’m not calling it.”

Anderson pushed, “3 points, call the Landlord.”

Ma Dechun supplied, “Not calling it either.”

///

Anderson proclaimed, “Spring.”

Elder Feng sighed, “We lost again.”

Ma Dechun complained, “Why are we always losing? I only have one final card left, but I still couldn’t play it! You must’ve been cheating…”

Anderson deadpanned, “Elder Feng, why don’t you educate him about what cheating actually is?”

///

[Ma Dechun’s Aggro has risen exponentially. His Aggro is now full, and is now filling up an Aggro Bar to 10%.]

Fang Ning nodded. This man was captured by Sir System, but he had no idea who the System was. Thus, he could only blame all of his misfortune on Fang Ning the host. His thought process was entirely understandable, and it was amazingly convenient and gave Fang Ning such a strong boost that the latter had no complaints about things.

Still, the prison bully was indeed Anderson. His ‘Hobbies’ column was left at ‘Not Applicable’, but somehow he looked as if he was thoroughly enjoying the game. Maybe this was his attempt at hiding how lonely he actually felt inside? Pfft, using those words on such an evil person was almost insulting to the vocabulary itself.

“What are you doing? How dare you start a game of Landlord when you’re supposed to repent on your wrongdoings? Do you think your prison officer-” Fang Ning caught his words as they slipped from his mouth. Realising that it was not a flattering name, he immediately started to spit in disgust. “Bah! Look at your bad influence! From now on, you’ll call me as your warden. Soon there’ll be actual prison officers taking up their duty here. I’m only here temporarily to fill in the vacancy.”

“Apologies, Mr. Warden. We were just trying to comfort the newcomer. Now, this old man has stopped asking meaningless questions like ‘Where am I? What happened to me? What can I do to escape.”

Fang Ning was honestly impressed by that. Yes, Anderson was a true evil, but he was also a true genius. Look, his ideas were one step ahead of what Fang Ning could think of! Even he grew reluctant to let Sir System make the evil genius into an equipment after hearing that. It felt like a waste of talent there…

“Good job. Hm, I think you’re a suitable candidate for a temporary leader for the inmates we have here.” Fang Ning considered Anderson.

Elder Feng immediately recalled what Anderson said when they were in the game of Landlord. “Only the useful live longer,” the man said. As long as someone could display their value, they would then extend their life.

“I’ll be honest and tell you everything now. I am willing to tell you the secrets to Death Snipe, warden. The other two only knew certain parts of it, and I taught them everything they knew. Also, the key to Death Snipe is Phantom Glimpse, and I’ve never taught that to anyone else.”

This successfully piqued Fang Ning’s interest. The cash reward from the Truth Department for this mission had went up to 500 million, but there were no signs of Death Snipe even though Vigilante A had explicitly asked for it. He thought the Truth Department was withholding it from him. He never knew that they were really unable to access this skill, much less give it to him.

As expected, the System Notification pinged right after Elder Feng gave a detailed description of the skill.

[The System obtained Death Aura Secret Skill: Death Snipe. It contradicts the present Martial Art System, so the System has chosen not to learn it. The System has expended a large amount of EXP to theorize the perfect version of the skill.]

Fang Ning asked the System, “Are you planning to let me learn it?”

The System disagreed. “I’m going to let the two dogs learn it. Even though they are great in sniffing out our enemies, they’re unable to be mobilized in battle, and that wouldn’t change for a long time. Since they can’t participate in direct combat, I’ve thought of getting them to hide and snipe at people. I’ve noticed that they have excellent hiding abilities during our last battle. The Yellow Dog was exceptionally good at that, I nearly missed it if it weren’t for the spot it had on the map.”

Fang Ning was sold. “Your intelligence is beyond me, Sir System.”

“Haha, I’ll take your sincere flattery as a compliment then,” laughed the System.

“Since Feng Gensheng seemed to have finally sobered up, we could start asking him to be our coolie. Say, I remembered you mentioned something about making a pill that could regenerate vitality so the soul could maintain its form. How do you actually do that?”

“We’ll just give him one Vitality Pill. Our medicinal herbs are all from the Truth Department, though, and they are of good quality. They are very expensive in the market, so it’s better if we could use the inferior version of the pill. It’ll be much cheaper for us. That fellow doesn’t need to cultivate anyway, so it should be good as long as it could keep him alive…” The System murmured.

Fang Ning snorts. “Well, that’s totally in line with your miserly ways. Don’t worry, President Zhao and the others are actively searching for places to plant them. Besides, I’ve also gotten the news that there’s a large number of investments pumping into this industry. Soon, the market will be filled with cheap versions of the vitality herbs, and soon it’ll be much more affordable for us to feed them.”

The System was relieved. “That’s good news.”

[The System expended 1,000 EXP and used Basic Alchemy to cultivate 10 Variated Vitality Pills from multiple Jasper Liquorice Roots and 10-years Ginseng. The pill could assist souls in absorbing vitality.]

Fang Ning started grumbling after he finished reading the notification. “There’s no problem with the Jasper Liquorice Roots, but didn’t the box of that ’10-years Ginseng’ have a written label of ‘Eternity Ginseng’ on it? I thought there was a story behind it, but it seems like we have been clickbaited here…”

“What? Did they scam us? In the Maxims, this ginseng would only need to have the normal amount of vitality absorbed in them for a total of ten years. There isn’t even a need for them to absorb vitality for more than ten years! I thought Eternity Ginseng was what the Truth Department named these things, but I never thought that they were giving us a much inferior version of the real deal! No, I will not let that happen. We must let them compensate us with the real Eternity Ginseng!”

Fang Ning sighed in disappointment. “There’s no way that they could compensate that to us. An eternity is way too long of a time period for this to be realistic. Just send Zheng Dao over and see what they come up with.”

After the conversation between Fang Ning and the System ended, Fang Ning tossed a pill into Feng Gensheng’s cell. “Feng Gensheng, you did well this time. This is your reward. Remember, you must turn over a new leaf. It’s unrealistic for you to transform yourself entirely, but it’s still possible for you to be a good-natured spirit.”

“Yes, yes, Sir Warden,” agreed Elder Feng as he took the pill. With just one touch, he knew that the pill he held was one of great quality, and it could probably only be cultivated by a True Dragon and no one else. With one pill, he could probably stabilize his soul form and live for another year. Immediately, hope bloomed in his chest as he spoke, “Thank you, True Dragon, I will definitely change my ways and be a good, responsible spirit.”

Fang Ning no longer bothered himself with them playing Landlord. He was willing to give them some temporary freedom as they would start working soon enough.

He left the System Prison area and continued reading the news. Half a year had passed, and the world has experienced enormous changes. China, specifically, had undergone immense changes. With the popularization of the Basic Cultivation of the Spirit, some confidential information had slowly begun to become common knowledge for the public.

Some special incidents relating to the Superpowered and the Cultivators could now be published on the internet without being restricted. Gone are the days where any signs of these news would immediately warrant removal. Of course, it was still a very conservative approach as compared to some more liberal countries. According to some online forums, some cultivators in the West has started to organize numerous underground competitions long before this. After the Flame Meteor Incident, the large groups of Awakened Superpowered Individuals had pushed the scene to become even more unrestricted. Now, a large number of the Superpowered in the west could participate in the business world and showcase their talents.

China, however, was much more conservative in this manner. Only a very limited number of prestigious educational institutions have established their own Vitality Academy, and added basic cultivation-related courses into their syllabus. From the categorization, identification, and the plantation of Vitality Crops, to the systematic usage and daily application of vitality in numerous industries, all of these were taught in these academies while relevant research was done.

This could all be possible only because of the technical support gained from both the Truth Department and the Special Affairs Department.

Of course, the actual methods and ways of cultivation were not included. If one was interested to learn the arts of cultivation, he would need to take a test and get himself into the District Special Affairs Department and undergo a stringent selection process. These candidates who got into the department via examinations could also never compare to those that were handpicked into the Truth Department’s Institute for Special Training since they were children. These were the true cream of the crop, the core and elite of all candidates. Only they would have access to the complete education of cultivation.

On the other hand, the management to those that no longer belong to the common folk had become way stricter than it used to be. The rogue cultivators and the Awakened Superpowered have joined the lineup of the Extraordinaires, and are all now under tight oversight.

The Interim Measures for the Administration of Extraordinaire was gearing up to its release, and it would soon be adopted into proper execution.

Long story short, the Interim Measures require all Extraordinaires to cultivate the Basic Cultivation of the Spirit, and register their identity at the Nets Above Snares Below as an Extraordinaire using the spiritual sense signal. People who did not register will not be able to enjoy the related benefits, and they were not allowed to enroll in any official organizations to learn, nor could they apply for any jobs related to cultivation. It was also forbidden for them to buy any cultivation materials using official channels. Basically, they could only work as an ordinary human. It was similar to the function of an account.

A person’s spiritual sense signal was similar to DNA in that it was unique to every individual. Once a person was registered, the true identity of the Extraordinaire in question would be set in stone, and it would be almost impossible for any identity fraud to occur after that. Fang Ning recalled the incidents of identity fraud that happened before this. He knew that spiritual sense signal would definitely become the default way to verify the identity of the Extraordinaires in the future.

Suddenly, he remembered that he still had that Mechanical Puppet. How then would he be able to hide it? Fang Ning immediately brought his concern to the System.

The System shrugged. “I have no idea how to do that either. However, it is worth noting that the Mechanical Puppet has a long-ranged remote controlled function, and that could help you forward the spiritual sense signal. Why don’t you just grab one of the inmates in our prison and let them be the dupe for your spiritual sense?”

Fang Ning gave it some thought, but finally shook his head. “This is a permanent, once-in-a-lifetime issue. What if one day one of our inmate wound up dead? Wouldn’t it be troublesome then?”

“What else could we do?”

Fang Ning looked at his spiritual sense human form that he was now adapting, and an idea struck him suddenly. “Say, do you think my dragon form and human form would have different spiritual sense signals? It should be counted as two different living organisms.”

The System replied, “That I’m not sure. You could seek for Anderson’s advice. He must be able to give you an answer if he could innovate such an ultimate technique like Spiritual Slash.”

Fang Ning nodded in agreement. “That’s what I thought. It seems like Anderson will still be of use to us. I think you shouldn’t use him as an equipment ingredient for now.”

The System said a simple “Okay.”

Anderson was indeed a genius. That was undeniable. They somehow managed to spot the truth out of everything. In this System Prison, Fang Ning would never show mercy to those who have committed hideous crimes. Only those who are useful would live, and the one who are useless will be used as ingredients.

Even though Fang Ning was still a shut-in as he was before, his mentality has long changed after spending a long time farming monsters alongside the System.