The sanctuary of Old Man Feng's clinic felt a world away. Back within the oppressive, energy-rich atmosphere of the Azure Cloud Sect, Lin Feng's problems snapped back into focus with the sharpness of a guillotine. Zhang Li's economic siege was effective. Without contribution points, he was trapped. His System points were a finite resource, and the meager energy he could draw from the environment with the Basic Qi Gathering Technique was a pathetic trickle compared to what a steady supply of spirit stones could provide.
He spent two days in a state of simmering frustration. He practiced the Qi Gathering technique until his meridians ached, the memory of Su Lian's words about "harmony" feeling more like a distant dream than a practical philosophy. How could he find harmony when the system around him was designed to crush him?
On the third day, as he was listlessly practicing a basic footwork pattern in a secluded corner of the training grounds, the System interface flashed with a new, urgent prompt.
[ New Quest Generated! ]
[ Quest: A Necessary Acquisition. ]
[ Objective: Acquire the Sun-Moon Pendant from the residence of Core Disciple Luo Yan. ]
[ Reward: 300 System Points, Mid-Grade Spirit Stone x1. ]
[ Failure: Stagnation. A hero must be resourceful! ]
Lin Feng froze, his footwork faltering. Acquire? It was a euphemism, and a flimsy one at that. This was theft. Plain and simple.
"System, clarify. You want me to steal from a Core Disciple?" he muttered under his breath.
[ The Sun-Moon Pendant is a low-grade artifact that gathers ambient Profound Energy. It is of negligible value to Core Disciple Luo Yan, who possesses far superior resources. For the Host, it will significantly increase cultivation speed. This is a logical and efficient allocation of resources to facilitate hero development. ]
The System's tone was, as always, cheerfully pragmatic. It saw no moral dimension, only an optimization problem. The pendant was underutilized; he needed it; therefore, he should take it. The risk-reward analysis was clear.
But Lin Feng's analysis wasn't so clean. Core Disciple Luo Yan. He'd heard the name. A prodigy, rumored to be in the Foundation Establishment realm. Stealing from him wasn't like stealing from Zhang Li; it was a capital offense. Getting caught meant death or, at best, a fate worse than death—having his cultivation crippled and being thrown into the Spirit Mines.
And yet... the reward was immense. 300 Points. A Mid-Grade Spirit Stone. The System was offering him a way to smash through Zhang Li's blockade in one fell swoop. He could buy a better cultivation technique, stockpile resources, and finally start climbing in earnest.
He thought of Su Lian's words. "You can be the hand that holds the blade." Was this what she meant? Using his wits, his "blade," for his own survival? Or was this the action of the dissonant soul she had sensed—the self who watches justifying the actions of the self who acts?
The pressure mounted. The silence in the dining hall, the mocking looks, the closed doors at the Assignment Hall—it all coalesced into a single, desperate need for a breakthrough. The System was offering a ladder out of the pit. Did he have the luxury to refuse because the rungs were made of someone else's property?
That night, under the cover of a moonless sky, he moved. Dressed in dark, nondescript clothing, he used the basic footwork technique and his modern mind's understanding of surveillance blind spots to navigate the sect's outer regions. The residences of Core Disciples were not in the crowded outer disciple quarters, but higher up the mountain, nestled in small, individual compounds with rudimentary privacy barriers.
Luo Yan's compound was quiet. A simple wooden fence surrounded a small garden and a single-story building. According to the System's intel—which he had to trust—Luo Yan was away on a month-long mission. The only protection was a basic ward on the front door.
[ Suggestion: The western window of the main chamber has a faulty formation rune. A temporary gap appears for 3.7 seconds every 42 minutes due to an energy flux in the mountain's ley line. ]
Of course the System knew. It was terrifyingly competent. Lin Feng waited, his heart a drum against his ribs, counting the seconds in his head. When the time came, he saw it—a barely perceptible flicker in the soft glow of the formation around the window. He moved, a shadow among shadows, slipping through the gap and into the dark interior.
The room was spartan, smelling of sandalwood and ozone. Moonlight sliced through the window, illuminating a low desk, a meditation cushion, and a simple wooden stand. On that stand, glowing softly, was the Sun-Moon Pendant. It was a beautiful thing, a disc of polished white jade encircling a smaller piece of black obsidian, pulsing with a gentle, rhythmic light as it drew in the faint energy of the night.
His fingers closed around it. It was warm.
Guilt, sharp and acidic, burned in his throat. This wasn't a quest item in a game. This was a person's possession. However "negligible" it was to Luo Yan, it wasn't Lin Feng's to take.
[ Objective Complete. ]
[ Reward: 300 System Points, Mid-Grade Spirit Stone x1, has been added to your inventory. ]
The notification felt like an accusation. He had done it. He was a thief.
He turned to leave, the pendant clutched in his sweaty hand, when his eyes fell on the desk. A small, framed drawing sat there. It was a skilled sketch of a smiling, middle-aged woman. Next to it was a letter, the script elegant and flowing. A single line caught his eye in the moonlight: "...Mother, I pray this finds you in better health. The spirit herbs I sent should ease the pain in your lungs. I will secure the Sun-Moon Pendant for you next month; its energy-gathering properties will be a great comfort..."
The world dropped out from under Lin Feng's feet.
Negligible value?
The pendant wasn't for Luo Yan's cultivation. It was for his sick mother. A comfort. A son's gift.
The System's analysis had been catastrophically, inhumanly wrong. It had seen an artifact and calculated its energy output. It hadn't seen the love, the duty, the humanity attached to it.
The Mid-Grade Spirit Stone in his inventory felt like a lead weight. The 300 points were tainted. He stood there, frozen in the dark, the stolen warmth of the pendant searing his palm. He had crossed a line, not for survival, but for convenience. And in doing so, he had likely stolen a fragment of comfort from a dying woman.
The harmony Su Lian spoke of shattered. The dissonance between the man who wanted to be good and the man who had just committed a vile act for power was now a deafening roar in his soul. He had acquired the resource, but the price was a piece of his conscience. And staring at the portrait of the smiling woman, he knew, with a sickening certainty, that it was a price he could never afford to pay again.