The next morning.
Moyuan pocketed the scholarship the school had issued him and headed straight for the renowned Treasure Pavilion in Hecheng.
The Treasure Pavilion was a store catering specifically to the Awakened. It offered an all-inclusive variety of rare treasures and exotic items, where anything could be purchased as long as one had Mystical Crystals.
As for why he was going to the Treasure Pavilion, it was naturally to buy a reliable weapon to defend himself.
The school had announced that a week from now, several major high schools would jointly organize a minor test to evaluate the students' cultivation progress over the past week.
It could also be considered a mock exam, seeing as the large-scale nationwide examination would take place in a month's time.
All candidates would enter the forest outside the city for the test, and only those who passed would officially be admitted to university.
If someone failed—well, too bad. Even if they had connections that reached the heavens, there was no way they would enter a university.
After all, Monster Beasts outside were eyeing the Human race with covetous hostility, and the state had no desire to waste resources cultivating a good-for-nothing.
"The world inside the city sure is prosperous!"
Gazing at the bustling downtown and the surging crowds of people, Moyuan let out a deep breath.
"The breath of the city."
In his previous life, in order to rapidly increase his strength after entering university, he had spent almost all his time shut away, rarely venturing out to experience the outside world.
Aside from cultivating, he hunted Monster Beasts, or else fought with classmates for rankings on the Heavenly Rankings, racing against time day after day without even a moment to enjoy life.
"I say, kid, did you really not consider investing the scholarship the school gave you into the List of Gods?"
Just as he was failing to daydream about a wonderful future, an old voice reached Moyuan's ears.
"Old Man Jiang, do stop eyeing these few Mystical Crystals of mine. These crystals of mine have a purpose, and I can't give them to you right now. Once I have money in the future, I'll give them to you."
Moyuan cradled the back of his head and rolled his eyes.
Ever since the school handed him the Mystical Crystals yesterday, this old man Jiang had been nagging him about this tiny stash of crystals since last night.
He had originally wanted to toss some Mystical Crystals into the List of Gods; after all, the List of Gods had already recognized him, and he couldn't be stingy, could he?
As a result, would you guess what happened? The List of Gods was powerful, yes.
But it was too damn hungry for Mystical Crystals. The pathetic amount of crystals in his own pocket wasn't even enough to get stuck in the teeth of the List of Gods.
Currently, the List of Gods could devour Mystical Crystals to summon deities to possess the wielder's body, and as for who got summoned—
Wasn't that entirely dependent on how many Mystical Crystals you threw into it? As long as the crystals were sufficient, even Erlang Zhenjun, the God of War of the Divine Realm who manifested his sanctity, could be summoned.
As for the strength after being summoned, naturally, it was immensely powerful.
Yet for now, it was still too much of a chicken rib to him; he wasn't going to encounter any danger in the city.
Even for the Monster Beast exam a month from now, he was confident he would rank near the top, so why waste that unjust money to summon a deity?
"What earthly use is that? What's so good about buying this pile of garbage weapons in you mortals' world? A bunch of scrap copper and iron. You should know that back in the day, the lowest-ranking foot soldiers in the Heavenly Court used Divine Weapons at the very least. (Weapon grades are classified as: Mortal Weapon, Sharp Weapon, Divine Weapon, Divine Artifact, Super Divine Artifact, Supreme Divine Artifact.) As for the Mortal Weapons you want to buy, what's so great about them?"
"That's fine then. I'm not asking for any Divine Artifacts; you just pull out a Divine Weapon for me right now and I'll hand the Mystical Crystals over to you immediately, guaranteed down to the very last coin."
Moyuan said with absolute certainty.
"Uh, (￣m￣）well... it's not that I won't give you one, it's mainly because during that great war between the Heavenly Court and the Demon race, eight or nine out of ten Divine Artifacts were smashed into fragments, and I don't have any Divine Artifacts on hand either."
When Jiang Said this, a trace of helplessness leaked through his tone.
"Well, there you have it. You can't give me anything right now, so if I were to hand all my Mystical Crystals over to you, wouldn't that be like using meat buns to beat a dog—never to return?"
"I can give you a cultivation technique."
"Pardon me, but does your old self really think I lack cultivation techniques?"
Moyuan was somewhat speechless at Jiang Shang's words. Although he hadn't been a scholar of boundless learning in his past life, he had at least been a mighty expert who stepped into the Deity Realm.
All sorts of miscellaneous profound techniques and arts were known to him to varying degrees; if not for his current strength being far too weak, he would have loved to brew some pills and sell them.
As everyone knew, alchemy was a very lucrative profession, and with decent skill, it was an enterprise of tenfold profits.
Yet right now his strength didn't meet the standards, and on top of that, brewing pills right after just awakening his talent and bringing them out to sell would draw a bit too much attention. For now, he still wanted to keep a low profile.
"I can teach you to learn Divine Abilities!"
"Pardon me, I also... wait, what did you say? Learn Divine Abilities!"
Moyuan had originally wanted to refuse as well, but after processing the words, his expression instantly turned to shock.
Divine Abilities were things met with by chance and never by request. In his previous life, he had only obtained three Divine Abilities, yet he had swept everything before him all the way through.
Regardless of whether it was a proud genius of the Human race or the Demon race, he could beat his opponents until they had no power to parry.
Genius youths of the Demon race had to rely on bloodline awakening to acquire Divine Abilities, a matter of whether their bloodlines were pure or not.
If the bloodline was impure and mottled, well, then there was a high probability they would never awaken a Divine Ability in this lifetime.
The Human race was slightly simpler, relying on the seeds of Divine Abilities passed down from generation to generation.
Deity Realm experts with formidable strength would condense the Divine Abilities they had comprehended into a seed and pass it down to their descendants of the next generation.
As for whether one could comprehend it, that depended entirely on your comprehension.
What's that? You say what to do if you can't comprehend it? Naturally, you just let it sit, swap people out, and replace them with someone capable of comprehension.
The crux of the matter was that Divine Ability seeds were priceless and hard to find; you rarely saw anyone selling Divine Abilities on the market. After all, a Divine Ability was the symbol of a family.
Even more so, it was the foundation of a clan. It was no exaggeration to say that with a Divine Ability seed, even the most trash-tier Divine Ability would allow you to open a school of thought and establish a clan.
"So here's the thing, hand over a few thousand first and let me pick. If they're good, I can consider giving you the Mystical Crystals in my pocket."
Once Moyuan recovered his wits, he immediately flashed a grin and boldly opened his mouth with an exorbitant demand.
"Pah! A few thousand for you to pick through? You think this is a wholesale market? You kid are dreaming!"
Hearing Moyuan's shameless words from inside the List of Gods, Jiang Shang was hopping mad with fury.
"Don't get angry. If there aren't a few thousand, a few hundred wouldn't bother me either."
Moyuan immediately retreated to a secondary option. Of course he knew that several thousand Divine Abilities was impossible.
The reason he said that was simply adhering to the principle of "whether there are dates or not, take two swings with the pole first and see what happens."
"None!"
Jiang Shang had finally seen through him: if there wasn't any, this kid was just wasting time teasing him.
"Then just make do with a few dozen, then."
"None."
"A dozen or so?"
"None."
"A few?"
"Right now there are only three."
"That works. You old fellow, give me all three."
"Go eat dirt!"
"Ah, you're not even willing to give me three?"
Moyuan asked with a face full of distress.
"I can only give you one, and the price is five thousand Mystical Crystals."
"What, five thousand?!"
Moyuan was so frightened his soul almost left his body.
It wasn't that he couldn't afford to take out these five thousand Mystical Crystals, but if he did fork over those five thousand crystals, he would only have five thousand left in his own pocket.
"Take it or leave it, if you don't buy it, forget it."
After saying that, Jiang Shang stopped talking.
"Don't, don't, don't, I'll buy it. First let me see what kind of power these three Divine Abilities possess."
Moyuan hastily spoke up, terrified that a moment too late Jiang Shang would ignore him.
A Divine Ability for five thousand Mystical Crystals—even if it were fifty thousand, five hundred thousand, or fifty million crystals, people outside would still fight tooth and nail to buy it.
"Hmph."
Jiang Shang let out a cold snort. If not for the fact that rebuilding the Heavenly Court relied on this kid Moyuan, he wouldn't even have bothered to pay him any mind.
"Make your choice and let me know."
The moment his voice fell, three Divine Abilities appeared within Moyuan's mind.