Ultimate Scheming System

"Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xu Que’ on defeating Big Panther and successfully acting tough. The reward is 10 act tough points."

"Ding! Congratulations to host ‘Xu Que’ on defeating Big Panther. The reward is 400 experience points."

The system beep sounded in his head.

Xu Que froze.

What the, I… killed someone?

Xu Que felt rather astonished as he only wanted to test the power of Soaring Dragon Nine Transformations. He was surprised at the fact that it took merely one punch in the first form to brutally kill Big Panther who had a natural God-like strength.

"Dragon… This… This is a dragon alright!"

Suddenly, a feeble, trembling voice filled with an expression of fear, could be heard.

Then, the group of Water Back villagers uniformly knelt on the ground with terrified looks as they tremble in fear. They faced Xu Que and pleaded:

"Ah! Immortal elder, immortal elder! Please have mercy!"

"We were ignorant, immortal elder, please forgive us and let us live!"

Eh? What’s this?

Xu Que froze for a moment.

"Puff!" "Puff!"

Before he even knew it, he could hear muffled sounds coming from behind him.

Xu Que turned around to look and was stunned.

Several Pan Shan villagers, without a care for their injuries, also knelt down along with frightened faces and begged for mercy.

Back at Xiao Rou who froze in her tracks, she had her eyes filled with utter fear.

How could this be?

Xu Que couldn’t swallow the dramatic turn of events. It was understandable that the Water Back villagers were kneeling down to him but witnessing the Pan Shan villagers kneeling to him was intolerable.

Especially Xiao Rou whose eyes were filled with fear. Xu Que was crushed.

"Fellow villagers, what are you all doing, get up! I am only dealing with these bad guys. I have no intention to harm you people!"

He quickly dispersed his Qi, followed by the abrupt disappearance of the dragon figure around him. He faced the Pan Shan villagers and called out.

The villagers continued to kneel with the same petrified faces. All of them are too scared to speak.

Xu Que panicked, looked at Xiao Rou and said, " Wh-What is happening? Tell the villagers to rise! I don’t mean any harm."

Xiao Rou regained her attention. After that, she looked at Xu Que with fright and replied, "You… You are an immortal cultivator…"

"What immortal cultivator!? I am the same as you people. We are all human!"

Xu Que was astonished. Was being a cultivator this scary? It seemed like they were worshipping an entity of deity of some sort."

"Xiao Rou, don’t be afraid. I really mean them no harm. Tell me, what exactly is happening?"

"Really?" Xiao Rou spoke timidly.

"Of course!" Xu Que nodded.

Upon the reply, she became less pale from being frightened and regained her composure.

Following that, she explained to Xu Que regarding the immortals.

It turned out that to the east of the Pan Shan and Water Back village, there was a group of cultivators called the Celestial Sect.

It also turned out that in a hundred kilometer radius, all villages, including the Pan Shan and Water Back villages were under protection by the Celestial Sect.

However, the villages had to offer ration once a month. If a particular village had killed a wild beast, they can use the core of the beast to replace the ration tribute.

If under any circumstances, they have neither enough demon cores nor ration to tribute, the village will come under punishment.

Celestial Sect’s people will personally come to the village and capture several men and bring them up into the mountains. No one will know how and when they died, without any trace.

That was the reason the villagers were so afraid of cultivators.

After hearing the explanation, Xu Que was brimming with rage.

It was clear to him that the Celestial Sect were bullies. They took advantage of the fact that they were cultivators to extort from the villagers, causing them to live in fear.

"You people never thought of revolting before?"

Xu Que couldn’t help but ask but when the words came out of his mouth, he felt that he just gave himself a slap in the face.

It was a stupid question. No matter how weak, the people of Celestial Sect would at least have trained and went through the Qi Refining Stage and would have honed their skills to a certain level. The villagers wouldn’t have a chance to defeat them.

"We wouldn’t dare…" Xiao Rou nodded and replied. She did not— in any way, thought that Xu Que’s question was stupid.

Feeling disappointed with himself, Xu Que leaned towards Xiao Rou and said, "Xiao Rou, I’ll go back home first. Please help to tell the villagers that I am unapproving of the Celestial Sect people. Tell them to get up and not be afraid of me. I really mean no harm to the village."

On his way, he met the several men along with the rest. They were late.

They saw him and panickedly asked, "Little brother, are you hurt? What happened to Big Panther and company?"

"Ah, I believe you!" Xiao Rou nodded profusely and not as afraid of him as before.

This made Xu Que heave a sigh of relief. He looked ahead at the Water Back villagers briefly and said, "Oh yes Xiao Tou, continue to let those Water Back people kneel. Tell them not to go until the Sun has set."

After telling her what to do, Xu Que left for the inner part of the village, where men were gathered ready to deal with the Water Back Villagers.

Xu Que blocked their path and shouted out, "Fellow villagers, there is no need to go anymore. I have already taught them a good lesson and ordered them to kneel and reflect on their actions."

"Ah, really?" the villagers shockingly asked.

Xu Que laughed and replied, "Of course, it’s true. I can even defeat the wild beast. Big Panther is nothing!"

The villagers became cheerful by the minute and exclaimed, "That’s Little brother for you!"

"Eh ya! I’m flattered." Xu Que laughed widely. He loved these moments of subtly acting tough.

Back to Xiao Rou’s home, Xu Que immediately laid on the small, wooden bed and let out a perplexed sigh.

He supposed that he cannot talk on such relaxed terms with the men after they discover his identity. They would be too scared to speak with him casually.

"Hai, never mind, I suppose. I won’t be here forever anyway. After I help them on this tribute issue, I will be out of here. I have to explore this vast realm."

"Xu Que regained his spirit and immediately sat up on the bed.

He rolled his eyes to signal the system.

Immediately, the character information interface popped up in front of him.

Host: Xu Que

Cultivation Stage: Foundation Building Stage Level 1 (Small progress)

Experience Points: 600/2000

Acting Tough Points: 15 points

Skill Path: <>, Beginner’s Level

Ability: <> (Progress 0.1%, Control up to First form)

Job class: None

Position: Consort Prince of the East Wilderness, Fire Country

"Eh, the progress of Soaring Dragon Nine Transformations became 0.1%? Is it because I just used it?"

Xu Que let out a shocked expression. Apparently, the skill could be progressed via usage. However, the speed of progression is rather slow. He was unpleased with it.

After feeling down for a bit, he immediately opened his deposit space and shifted his attention to the bunch of magic and skills he had stolen from the Celestial Sect safe.

"A good time to give the recycling function a try." Xu Que thought aloud and started scanning through the skill descriptions.

"Lightweight art, eh. I could use that. Shall keep it." The first skill book he saw was Celestial Sect’s foundational skill . Xu Que recalled that he had yet to train on a martial stance type of skill and became excited in the moment.

He continued browsing and saw many Celestial Sect related skills.

"Fire Cloud Fist, Flame Slash, Dark Fire Sword Art… None of them looks useful!"

He browsed ten different skills and shook his head in disapproval one after another.

After all, I am in the Fire Country and cultivators here mostly have fire-nature spiritual root. People mostly train with fire-related skills.

However, Xu Que felt that all these skills were too common and weren’t Celestial Sect’s real deal. He decided to keep the Lightweight art skill book and the rest were recycled by the system.

"Ding! Recycling of successful. Acquired 3 points of Skill Essence."

"Ding! Recycling of successful. Acquired 5 points of Skill Essence."

"Ding! Recycling of successful. Acquired 8 points of Skill Essence."

"Ding! Recycling of…"

…