The two vials of blue liquid sat on the mahogany table, shimmering in the sunlight.
To Su Yun and Fatty Zhang, they looked like magic potions. To Lin Hao, they were tap water mixed with a drop of blue food coloring and a tiny infusion of Reiki to make them glow.
The real magic was in the interface hovering invisibly above their heads.
"Drink," Lin Hao commanded. "It will taste bitter. It will burn. Do not spit it out."
Su Yun didn't hesitate. She uncorked the vial and downed it in one swallow. Fatty Zhang grimaced, muttered a quick prayer to his ancestors, and followed suit.
While they swallowed the placebo, Lin Hao focused his mind.
"System. Scan targets."
Two holographic windows popped up.
[Target: Su Yun] [Cultivation: None] [Talent: Level 3: Inferior Root]
[Target: Zhang Wei (Fatty)] [Cultivation: None] [Talent: Level 2: Waste Root]
Lin Hao wasn't surprised. In the natural world, Level 4: Common Root, like his sister had become, was rare. Level 3 was standard. Level 2 was effectively a disability for a cultivator; it meant your pores were so clogged you'd be lucky to light a candle after fifty years of meditation.
Fatty was essentially a stone.
"If I leave them like this," Lin Hao thought, "Su Yun will be a mediocre disciple, and Fatty will be a glorified janitor. They'll die in the first wave of the Ascension."
He looked at his balance.
[Upgrade Points (UP): 13,006,130]
He had the capital of a god. It was time to spend it like one.
He focused on Su Yun first.
[Target: Su Yun] [Upgrade: Level 3 -> Level 4 (Common Root)]? (Cost: 50,000 UP) [Upgrade: Level 4 -> Level 5 (Superior Root)]? (Cost: 250,000 UP)
Three hundred thousand points. A fortune that would have taken him a month to earn previously. Now, it was just 2% of his holdings.
"Confirm. Both stages."
[Deducting 300,000 UP.]
He turned his gaze to Fatty.
[Target: Zhang Wei] [Upgrade: Level 2 -> Level 3 (Inferior Root)]? (Cost: 25,000 UP) [Upgrade: Level 3 -> Level 4 (Common Root)]? (Cost: 50,000 UP) [Upgrade: Level 4 -> Level 5 (Superior Root)]? (Cost: 250,000 UP)
Three hundred and twenty-five thousand points.
He was pouring nearly a third of a million points into a guy whose main skill set was sourcing exotic snacks and bribing construction crews.
But loyalty was the one stat the System couldn't upgrade. Fatty had stayed when the tiger attacked. He had built this villa without asking questions. That was worth more than raw talent.
"Confirm. All stages."
[Deducting 325,000 UP.] [Total Deducted: 625,000 UP.] [Balance: 12,381,130 UP.]
The points vanished.
In the physical world, the reaction was instantaneous.
"Guh!"
Fatty Zhang dropped his empty vial. It shattered on the marble floor. He clutched his chest, his face turning beet red.
"Boss... it... it feels like lava!"
Su Yun was silent, but her body went rigid. She gripped the edge of the table so hard her knuckles turned white. A visible steam began to rise from her skin.
"Endure it!" Lin Hao's voice cut through their panic, laced with a trace of his Level 9 pressure to keep them focused. "The serum is burning away your mortality. It is rewriting your blood!"
It was a violent lie for a violent process.
Inside their bodies, the System was performing miracles.
Su Yun's Inferior meridians, thin and twisted, were blasted open. They widened, straightened, and reinforced themselves with crystalline structures. She was being carved into a masterpiece.
Fatty was undergoing an even more radical change. His "Waste" channels, which were basically solid rock, were being drilled out by the System's omnipotent force. His heavy, sluggish mortal biology was being forcibly optimized. The fat on his body seemed to tighten, his density increasing as his bone structure hardened to support the flow of high-grade Qi.
CRACK. POP.
Sounds of bone realignment echoed in the silent hall.
"AAAAHHH!" Fatty finally screamed, falling off his chair and curling into a ball on the floor.
Su Yun groaned, tears streaming down her face, but she refused to fall. She sat upright, trembling violently, forcing herself to ride the wave of agony.
Lin Hao watched them, his expression impassive.
He had just bought two Superior Roots.
In the cultivation world, a Superior Root was a "Heaven's Chosen." A sect would fight wars to claim just one disciple with this potential. They were the ones who could reach the Xiantian Realm naturally. They were the ones who could lead armies.
And he had just manufactured two of them in his living room for the price of a daily interest payment.
After five minutes, the steam faded. The red flush left their skin.
Fatty stopped screaming. He lay panting on the rug, sweat pooling around him.
Su Yun slumped forward onto the table, gasping for air.
But the air around them was different now. It swirled.
Even without a cultivation technique, their bodies were now high-grade vacuums. The ambient Reiki in the room was naturally drawn to them, sinking into their pores.
Lin Hao scanned them again.
[Target: Su Yun] [Talent: Level 5: Superior Root (Ice Affinity)]
[Target: Zhang Wei] [Talent: Level 5: Superior Root (Earth Affinity)]
"Stand up," Lin Hao said.
Fatty groaned and pushed himself up. He moved faster than usual. He looked at his hands. He felt... light. The heaviness that had plagued him his whole life was gone.
Su Yun stood. Her eyes were sharp, clear, and terrifyingly bright.
"How do you feel?" Lin Hao asked.
"Like I just shed a skin," Su Yun whispered.
"I feel..." Fatty bounced on the balls of his feet. The floorboards creaked, but he moved with surprising grace. "I feel like I could run through a brick wall."
"You probably could," Lin Hao said.
He walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out two manuals he had prepared (and upgraded) earlier.
He tossed a blue book to Su Yun. [Manual: Glacial Heart Art (Low-Grade Spirit Tier)]
He tossed a brown book to Fatty. [Manual: Mountain Tremor Sutra (Low-Grade Spirit Tier)]
"You have the talent of geniuses now," Lin Hao said. "Don't waste it. Read these. Memorize them. Tonight, you start cultivating."
He turned to the window, looking at the setting sun.
"Because tomorrow," he said, "we break the sky."