Jiangling Prefecture City, the Gu Family.
Gu Qingchuan invited the heads of the other three major families in the prefecture city—Song Jinghe, He Mingche, and Tang Yichen—to his home.
Once everyone was seated, Gu Qingchuan's gaze swept over the three men before him, and he asked:
"Fellow heads, you should all have some understanding of the System that has appeared recently. I wonder, what are your thoughts on it?"
Song Jinghe's eyes flickered slightly, his tone filled with admiration. "This System is truly miraculous; it is likely an Immortal creation."
"The divine Secret Manuals within it are countless. As long as one can learn them, their strength will definitely not be inferior to a Cultivator."
He Mingche quickly agreed, "Indeed! With the Dao Seed Martial Arts Cultivation System, as long as one reaches the Dao Seed Realm, they can have a Lifespan of 500 years."
"Just like that Bai Shuyan who defeated your son; the Blazing Sun Star Shattering Palm he used is a Martial Skill from the System Mall."
Hearing this, Gu Qingchuan's expression instantly darkened. "You all should realize that if the System spreads on a large scale, our four major families in the prefecture city might be completely wiped out. Are you not worried?"
Tang Yichen asked curiously, "Head Gu has a point. I wonder, what do you plan to do?"
Gu Qingchuan sneered, "First, we will spread rumors about the System, saying that once bound, one will face Possession and be controlled, forcing others to unbind it voluntarily."
"That way, we can keep the System firmly in our hands. Those commoners are simply not worthy of possessing the System."
Song Jinghe fell silent for a moment, his tone testing, "A good idea. But Head Gu, do you really understand the System? It couldn't be that you haven't even successfully bound it yourself, right?"
Gu Qingchuan's eyes froze for a second, but he quickly retorted, "How could I possibly not have bound the System!"
Tang Yichen, Song Jinghe, and He Mingche glanced at each other, their eyes full of deep meaning.
Tang Yichen spoke first, "We will consider Head Gu's proposal. We shall take our leave for today."
After saying that, he stood up and left.
Song Jinghe and He Mingche also stood up to leave, completely ignoring Gu Qingchuan's unsightly expression.
Once the three were far away, Gu Qingchuan angrily smashed the teacup in his hand and cursed loudly, "These fools are not worth plotting with!"
After Tang Yichen stepped out of the Gu Family gates, he turned to look at Song Jinghe and He Mingche beside him. "Let's add each other on wechat to facilitate future contact."
The two nodded one after another, quickly finishing the friend requests and creating a new wechat group.
Just after entering the group, Song Jinghe was the first to speak: "Gu Qingchuan can't bind the System himself, so he wants to drag our three families down with him. It's simply a pipe dream!"
He Mingche immediately chimed in, "Exactly! The Gu Family usually acts overbearingly. Perhaps many of their Disciples have done too many bad deeds, which is why they can't bind the System."
"For us, this is an opportunity. The Gu Family controls so many resources; it's about time they stepped aside."
Tang Yichen: "Indeed. Resources in Jiangling Prefecture are limited; the more the Gu Family takes, the less we have. This is the perfect chance to bring the Gu Family down."
"Although the System has a significant impact on us, with our years of accumulation, we have more of an advantage than the common people."
"Moreover, once the common people have the System, they can help us accumulate energy points. We can solve that by spending a bit of money."
"That makes sense!" Song Jinghe replied. "However, we must expose Gu Qingchuan's conspiracy so everyone can see his true face."
He Mingche then sent a message: "Don't worry! I recorded the conversation just now. I'll edit and upload it to the Forum immediately so everyone can see Gu Qingchuan's ugly face!"
Inside the Jishi Medical Clinic, sunlight poured down.
Liu Yi sat cross-legged in the courtyard, a faint halo of Law swirling around him.
The 129,600 world seeds inside his body shone brightly, and 100 Great Dao Laws meandered across the surface of the seeds like silver snakes.
After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid Qi, his eyes flashing with brilliance.
"As the subsystems increase, my deduction capabilities become ever more powerful."
"To obtain energy points, those System Hosts have been selling massive amounts of precious Secret Manuals. I've gained quite a bit of inspiration from these manuals."
"As expected, only by gathering the wisdom of the masses can one go further."
After a brief moment of regulating his breath, Liu Yi clicked on the Forum, and a trending topic immediately caught his eye: #Gu Qingchuan's Conspiracy Exposed#.
He clicked in curiously; the comment section had already exploded.
"Gu Qingchuan is simply insane! He can't bind the System himself, so he wants to rely on rumors to deceive everyone. His intentions are despicable!"
"Commoners? What grand air he puts on! I've noted down Gu Qingchuan's high-and-mighty face! In the future, whenever I see a Gu Family Disciple, I'll definitely give them a piece of my mind!"
"The Gu Family can forget about buying energy points from me! We ordinary people can't afford to associate with you!"
"The fairness system has given ordinary people a chance to get ahead, yet Gu Qingchuan dares to maliciously slander it. Even being cut into a thousand pieces wouldn't quench our hatred!"
"I heard long ago that the Gu Family uses their power to bully others. Now it seems they've probably done every bad deed imaginable, and surely couldn't bind the System, which is why they're doing this."
Liu Yi looked at the screen full of angry denunciations and laughed heartily. "Splendid! It seems that bringing down those vested interests is already showing initial results. Under the tide of the System, they are simply powerless to resist! They can only follow along."
"The System's current functions aren't perfect yet. I need to add some new features to make them even more inseparable from the System, and I can also make them increase their consumption of energy points."
"I have now comprehended 100 Great Dao Laws. I'll take this opportunity to give the System a comprehensive upgrade!"
"But I didn't expect the System to spread so quickly; it reached Jiangling Prefecture City in just this short while." Liu Yi chuckled as he looked at the comments.
This world was vast and sparsely populated, with inconvenient transportation, making the flow of information and goods very slow.
Yet the System allowed for communication across thousands of mountains and rivers, which was one of the reasons it was so popular.
"These System Hosts are really pushing themselves for energy points. As expected, only sufficient profit can stimulate the greatest initiative in people."
He opened the System backend and saw the number of people bound to the System displayed as 35.16 million. He couldn't help but gasp:
"The growth is too exaggerated! At most, Jiangling Prefecture has 70 million people, including unregistered households, and now nearly half have bound to the System."
Next, he checked the energy value: 130 billion.
Seeing this number, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"As the subsystems continue to increase, the acquisition speed of energy points is getting faster and faster. This is great; I no longer have to worry about not having enough energy points."
An excited light flashed in Liu Yi's eyes, and a faint glow rose around him as the phantoms of 100 Great Dao Laws appeared indistinctly.
"Now I can finally let loose and deduce the Great Dao, allowing the System to truly show its power."
But before fully deducing the Great Dao, Liu Yi decided to first upgrade the fairness system to version 4.0.
"I need to add some new functions that can allow everyone to quickly improve their cultivation while also reasonably accelerating the consumption of energy points. In this way, the System's operation can form a virtuous cycle."
Thinking of this, he instantly connected all subsystems and activated the surplus computing power.
Over 30 million subsystems operated simultaneously, like instantly starting over 30 million cheat brains.
A massive amount of computing power surged forth, and Liu Yi felt as if there were no longer any difficult problems in this world that could not be deduced or analyzed.
He quickly composed himself, focusing all his attention on the deduction work for System 4.0.
Countless data streams flashed and reorganized rapidly before his eyes as he went all out to deduce the new version of the System.