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Though it sounded contradictory, Qin Ruqing understood, having felt the same.
It seemed alive in her hand but lacked the typical signs of life, like reacting to the environment or needing sustenance.
Unlike the Earth Spirit, which would ask Qin Ruqing for blood and diligently perform tasks in return, this gas showed no such behaviors.
Sighing, Qin Ruqing put the gas away and explained, “I found this with the Earth Spirit, growing on a tree. I knew it was special and wanted to ask you, but I didn’t expect even you wouldn’t know.”
The ancestor chuckled. “Do you think I’m omniscient? The world is vast and filled with secrets beyond our reach.”
Qin Ruqing nodded, then took out one last item, pushing it towards the ancestor with a smile. “So, the most important thing now is to improve our strength and level. Once you successfully form your Golden Core, our Qin family can apply to upgrade our status. As a Silver Family, we’ll have access to more knowledge, and some secrets might naturally be revealed.”
The ancestor chuckled and shook her head.
To this girl, forming a Golden Core seemed as easy as playing.
But when her gaze fell on the clear liquid in the jade bowl, her fist tightened involuntarily, her emotions stirred.
Finally, the day had come.
During the year the three children were away in West Ridge, the ancestor had been preparing herself for forming her Golden Core.
When she received Qin Ruqing’s urgent message, her first thought was why she hadn’t formed her Golden Core yet.
If she had, the child might have felt more confident and less fearful.
Now, looking into Qin Ruqing’s eyes, they shared an unspoken understanding.
The ancestor waved her sleeve to collect the jade bowl, then said, “Once I reach peak condition, I will begin my Golden Core formation in seclusion!”
That night, Qin Ruqing returned to her long-missed courtyard.
She pondered one thing: her system was quite useless.
Other people’s systems were like encyclopedias, providing story insights and warning of dangers.
Her system, however, knew nothing.
Annoyed, she summoned the system and scolded it, “System, you know nothing! If you were smarter, you’d know what that purple gas is!”
The system, surprised to be blamed out of nowhere, responded:
[I’m not a story system or an encyclopedia. Of course, I can’t know everything.]
This requirement was clearly giving the system a hard time.
Qin Ruqing crossed her arms and glared at it. “Can you create an identification function? Something I can use to identify what an item is. Does the shop have this for sale?”
The system’s screen dimmed slightly, as if guilty. 【The shop doesn’t have it, but… it’s in the lottery pool.】
What the…
Qin Ruqing’s eyes widened. “I knew your shop didn’t have anything useful and kept waiting for updates. Turns out all the good stuff is in the lottery pool! Who wrote your program? Must be a genius who worked on exploitative game mechanics in their past life. This is outright deceit!”
Good items weren’t put in the shop because they could be bought with points.
The tantalizing gold and purple tier items were in the lottery pool, making people desperately try their luck.
This wasn’t just deceit; it was both grinding and monetizing!
Furious, Qin Ruqing started ranting, while the system played dead.
After venting, Qin Ruqing calmed down, resigned to the fact that exploitative mechanics are the norm, and one still has to grind and spend money.
She then reviewed her recent progress.
Firstly, she had reached Foundation Establishment and advanced her Dao Physique!
These directly boosted the “Outstanding Junior” task progress, and the progress bar had jumped past halfway!
Clearly, Qin Ruqing’s development was the backbone of this questline!
Due to these major breakthroughs, even the system didn’t dare to shortchange her and rewarded her with two lottery chances.
Qin Ruqing felt a bit appeased and thought, fine, at least you have some sense.
Apart from that, she had already claimed the family industry task reward, which had helped her save up for a ten-draw in the lottery.
To her surprise, although other tasks hadn’t progressed much, the system had triggered a new mission.
Main Quest: The Path to Advancing the Immortal Family.
Quest 1: Elevate the Family to Silver Rank (Lower Tier).
Requirement 1: Peak Combat Power: At least one Core Formation cultivator. (Not met)
Requirement 2: Industries: At least three purple-tier industries. (Met)
Requirement 3: Prosperity Value…
Requirement 4: Family Members…
Qin Ruqing looked in surprise at this newly popped-up main quest.
She had known about this quest for a while, but why was it only showing up today?
Well, when the system was activated, the Qin family was already a ranked family, but their prosperity value had dropped significantly, making it impossible to trigger the quest.
Now, they were just one step away from ranking up, so the main quest finally appeared.
After examining it closely, Qin Ruqing wondered, “Hey, why are the requirements for this Silver Rank family different from those of the Celestial Bureau? The Celestial Bureau doesn’t require this much!”
The system calmly replied: [The system’s standards are different from external ones. The host only needs to meet the system’s evaluation standards.]
Qin Ruqing scoffed, thinking the system was being difficult.
Not only did she need to meet the Celestial Bureau’s requirements, but she also had to fulfill the system’s demands.
Looking at the industry requirements, it was outrageous—she needed three purple-tier industries!
If she hadn’t discovered the Stalactite Spirit Cave and Cold Mysterious Ice Cave earlier, even her ancestor achieving Core Formation wouldn’t have been enough.
What made Qin Ruqing feel a little better was that although the requirements were high, aside from the peak combat power, she met all other criteria.
Now everything was in place; they just needed a stroke of luck.
After coming to this realization, Qin Ruqing focused her attention on the Family Reputation task.
She had nearly completed the industrial tasks, having gone around the West Ridge and stabilizing things in the South Ridge.
There wasn’t much room for further operations in the industry.
Therefore, Qin Ruqing’s next priority was to focus solely on the reputation task!
The Hundred Clans Conference was practically tailor-made for this task!
As long as she could make a name for herself at the conference and become a renowned genius across the four regions, she believed there was no way she wouldn’t be able to complete this task!
In the following days, the Qin family chose an auspicious date to officially promote Qin Ruqing to the position of Sixth Elder of the Qin family, marking it in the family tree.
The identity badge for her elder status, which had previously been unmarked, finally transformed from a semi-finished product into a completed one.
At that moment, the newly appointed Sixth Elder of the Qin family was squatting in the medicinal field, feeding her newly raised little pet.
Oh, it was the spirit of the small earth block. It required two drops of blood every day; without it, it wouldn’t work. One drop was given before work, and another after finishing.
Qin Ruqing had tried to lower its “salary,” but clearly, the little earth block was intelligent and refused to accept such an unreasonable pay cut, so she could only grudgingly give up.
Squatting in the rows of the medicinal field, Qin Ruqing looked at the misty mountains in the back due to the dense spiritual energy and suddenly sighed.
“I wonder how my brother is doing. He went to the North Ridge to manage the family branch, but it seems like there’s been no news. I sent him a message that I’m back, but he hasn’t replied… I’ll have to ask him another day.”
The medicinal garden was very quiet, just like the Qin family during this period.
Logically speaking, with a new Foundation Establishment member in the Qin family, there should be a grand banquet to celebrate.
Last time, when the clan leader established his foundation, only a small gathering was held.
This time, they should celebrate properly.
However, the Qin family did not.
Even with the recent opening of the registration for the Hundred Clans Conference, the Qin family didn’t participate.
They had unusually chosen to keep a low profile, as if saving their energy for something.
They were waiting.
Waiting for the result of the ancestor’s retreat, waiting for the Qin family to rise to Silver Rank.
At that time, the Qin family would participate in the Hundred Clans Conference as a Silver Rank clan, and then hold a grand banquet that would attract the attention of the entire Southern Region—that was what they truly desired!