8: Chapter 8 was a trap.

Lu Siye retracted his fist with satisfaction and sat back down on the sofa.

The nine postures of the 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' were not just for training; they also helped him control the strength of his entire body.

Therefore, Lu Siye would not experience the kind of situations seen in novels where one couldn't control their strength after a Breakthrough and ended up damaging objects.

He picked up the 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' from the table.

This one pirated novel had been upgraded into a peerless Cultivation Technique for him. He wondered what world-shaking martial arts the other dozen or so pirated novels could be upgraded into.

He was full of anticipation!

Lu Siye casually grabbed a book titled 'Transmigration: Through Wind and Clouds, Staying Low-Key Until Invincible Before Coming Out of the Mountains'.

He tore off the plastic packaging from the book, rubbed his large hand over the exquisite cover, and silently chanted in his heart with great anticipation: "Upgrade!"

Time ticked by, but the System's notification sound did not ring, and the pirated novel in his hand showed no reaction.

Confused, he opened the exquisite cover.

Suddenly, he froze, staring straight at the pirated novel in his hands. His eyes widened, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

He threw away the pirated novel, carefully approached the plastic bag filled with pirated novels, and tremblingly tore open the packaging of another one.

One, two... five... nine...

There were eleven in total. Each one had an exquisite cover, but as soon as he opened them, they were all blank pages. Forget words; there wasn't even a single punctuation mark.

Furthermore, the paper used to bind the pages was incredibly fragile; it tore apart at the slightest touch.

"Damn it, how dare you sell your Fourth Master eleven books of blank paper..."

Lu Siye's eyes turned red, and the veins on his forehead bulged. A voice in his heart kept trying to calm him down, telling him to just treat it as a lesson he paid for.

But the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed a blank book and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Two minutes later, Lu Siye, having sprinted two kilometers, returned to the spot where he had bought the books.

Looking at the empty space in front of him, devoid of any people, he angrily threw the book in his hand into the flowerbed nearby.

The pirated novel struck like a hard brick, embedding itself deep into the soil.

"You old geezer, you'd better hope your Fourth Master never catches you, or I'll make you write eleven Wuxia novels on the spot."

Lu Siye came in a rage and left in a rage.

Back in his room, Lu Siye picked up all the blank books from the floor and threw them all into the plastic bag.

He sat down on the sofa, picked up the Cultivation Technique from the table, and opened it. Looking at the large expanse of blank pages at the back, he rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

The blank pages at the back of the 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' in his hand hadn't been there before the upgrade; it was because only about ten pages of content for the first layer appeared after the upgrade, resulting in the subsequent pages being blank.

"System, can this Cultivation Technique be upgraded again?" Lu Siye placed the Cultivation Technique on the table and asked tentatively.

"Yes!" the System replied.

"Alright then, upgrade!" Lu Siye was overjoyed.

As soon as he finished speaking, the Cultivation Technique on the table began to act up again. The pages flipped rapidly, and countless strokes, characters, and patterns appeared out of thin air, imprinting themselves onto the blank pages and radiating a golden, divine glow.

After two minutes, just like before, the upgrade ended, and the content for the second layer of the Cultivation Technique had appeared on the paper.

"System, why didn't you have a notification sound this time?" Lu Siye asked curiously.

He realized that at some point, the System had become reticent, even though it used to pop up a notification sound every time he performed an upgrade.

"In accordance with the host's request three hours ago, the System has enabled automatic default and silent mode."

Three hours ago?

Lu Siye recalled that it seemed to be when he was upgrading the red dates, and because he really couldn't hold on anymore, he had told the System to stop talking nonsense.

"Uh... sorry about that, System, you aren't angry, are you?" Lu Siye asked cautiously.

"The System is not a living entity and has no emotions, so naturally, it will not be angry." The System's voice remained cold.

"That's good. Turn off automatic default and silent mode." Lu Siye let out a sigh of relief.

System Daddy was the key factor in how he would survive in this dangerous world; he couldn't afford to provoke it.

"Ding~ Disabled."

After confirming that the notification sound was back on, Lu Siye checked the System panel.

Host: Lu Siye

Fear Value: 617

Cultivation: Five years

Martial Arts Technique: 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' (First Layer)

Special Item: evil-exorcising fruit knife

"System, which Realm of Ghost can this amount of Cultivation years deal with?" Lu Siye asked curiously.

"The world the host is in is not a Wuxia world; Cultivation cannot be compared with this world's Cultivation System!"

"..." Lu Siye was speechless!

"Then what's the point of having Cultivation years on the panel?"

"Visualized values can intuitively display changes in the host's strength, which is more conducive to motivating the host to grow!"

"That makes so much sense!" Lu Siye was actually rendered speechless.

He now deeply suspected that after binding to him, this System realized it had come to the wrong world and just gave up!

Closing the System panel, Lu Siye rubbed his chin and began to think.

"As for the Fear Value, I remember my Fear Value was 937 before. Upgrading the first layer cost 20, and upgrading ten red dates cost 100... which means upgrading the second layer cost 200?"

Lu Siye's eyes widened. Good grief, the consumption for the second layer was ten times that of the first layer.

Heartache aside, he still needed to improve his strength. Otherwise, if he encountered an evil Ghost next time, it would be a question of whether he could successfully survive.

Picking up the Cultivation Technique from the table, Lu Siye began to read. The second layer added nine new postures, each of which looked much more difficult than those in the first layer.

Eighteen minutes later, he had completed these nine movements with ease, without the slightest difficulty.

This confirmed once again that his talent was indeed excellent.

For the rest of the afternoon, Lu Siye was in the process of Cultivating.

However, he no longer dared to upgrade ten red dates at once like before, choosing instead to upgrade them two at a time.

Until nine o'clock in the evening, after eating the fortieth upgraded red date, clearer and louder Dragon roars and Elephant trumpets appeared within his body. Waves of heat radiated from his skin, distorting the surrounding air.

Body like a furnace, blood waves born from within!

'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' Second Layer, Major Achievement!

Although the divine art had reached Major Achievement, the cost was that he didn't have many red dates left. It seemed he needed to restock.

He opened his phone and clicked on Taobao.

Lu Siye directly purchased two bags of red dates and one bag of red ginseng from the nearest merchant, adding a note for the boss to send it via the fastest SF Express.

Just as he was about to close Taobao, his eyes suddenly caught a merchant selling martial arts manuals.

With a "why not try" attitude, Lu Siye randomly selected two Secret Manuals and placed an order, again adding a note for the boss to send it via the fastest SF Express.

However, he didn't rest immediately. Instead, he took out the 'Body Forging Art' that the tower-like man, Meng Jianmin, had given him.

Originally, Lu Siye had intended to upgrade the 'Body Forging Art', but the System actually said it couldn't be upgraded, which left him scratching his head.

Could it be that the Cultivation Technique was too basic, and its own limit had already been fixed?

Whatever, if it can't be upgraded, then it can't. Start Cultivating!

The 'Body Forging Art' was not as complex as the 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art'; it mainly consisted of a stance-training exercise and a very simple set of fist techniques.

Lu Siye only spent half an hour to bring the 'Body Forging Art' to Major Achievement, but he didn't feel that his strength had improved by much.

He checked the System panel again.

Host: Lu Siye

Fear Value: 217

Cultivation: Thirty years ('Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' increased by twenty-five years, 'Body Forging Art' increased by five years)

Martial Arts Technique: 'Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art' (First and Second Layers); 'Body Forging Art'

Special Item: evil-exorcising fruit knife

His Cultivation had increased from five years to thirty years—a six-fold increase. Honestly, it was quite satisfying to see!

He just didn't know which stage of Ghost thirty years of Cultivation could deal with.

Feeling the scorching Qi and blood surging within his body, Lu Siye had an intuition that if he encountered that Delivery Ghost who had knocked on his door back then, he could just pin it down and beat it up.

"Only a little over two hundred Fear Value left. It seems I need to replenish it." Looking at his Fear Value, Lu Siye immediately felt a sense of urgency.

He opened the exorcism app and began to look for tasks.