The Champion’s Ring - Chapter 7

After he had obtained the item inside the chest, he proceeded on his journey,recruiting people. As he was heading out he heard someone call his name,” Chen Wei ! Chen Wei !”. He turned around only to find the village chief 

“Honorable Chen Wei! Sir, Please do ot use that old mare and please accept our gift, a new mare, a mare with black hair and it is a strong horse,” the village chief said, “she may be viscous and moody at times but she is the best horse around, and for someone like you sir, you are worthy of her.”

Finally, Chen Wei reached the last village with the new horse he received. He seeked the town’s mayor and asked imposingly for some men. The town mayor refused, retorting, “with a why should I? We have no need or obligation to help you or anyone else.And I don’t think that the backing of your clan can influence my decision either.”

Chen Wei glared at the mayor. The mayor stood his ground well and did not flinch even a bit, showing his stalwart characteristics. Unwilling to be outshone,he called his bodyguards and they dragged the mayor out of the town. When Chen Wei asked if anyone wished to be part of the clan, only a few showed their willingness until he promised to eradicate the entire community if enough people did not join. That, and the fact that Chen Wei really did have the prowess to go through with his supposedly bold claim moved people to join the now large crowd behind Chen Wei. The others that did not join, but were good enough to join, had their cultivation crippled, destined to be stomped on by others forever.

After a week of travelling back, Chen Wei finally returned home, triumphant. But much to his shock and displeasure, no-one gossiped about his extraordinary feat. Instead, he found that they were discussing his wretched brother. When he asked around, he was informed that his brother, Chen Yi had grasped an epiphany from a chance encounter in a secret realm and had advanced to the emperor body stage. To his surprise and amazement, Chen Yi was not bedridden for the large amount of power he had acquired upon advancing. Instead, he had found Chen Yi merrily conversing with others when he angrily seeked him out.

Looking back, he remembered saying to himself that it wouldn’t be that hard to overthrow his brother, but now, he found himself having to reconsider and modify his plans slightly. Nevertheless, Chen Wei still thought that his plan was going to work well, even if that brother of his had gotten slightly more powerful. 

Chen Yi on the other hand, was cultivating, stabilising his power, just in case. In the secret room, he freely exercised his newfound powers. They were certainly much better than what he had previously. Now, he could at least justify the large amount of resources spent on him for the past few years.

He saw in the system’s interface that he had the first level of the weather and lightning powers. To reach the next level, he would have to complete a task which would be unlocked after spending 500 points. Although this made Chen Yi a bit angry as he had no points left after the system took control of him and put his life at stake. When he asked the system why he had to spend points to see what he had to go to get to the next level, it replied, “Others will have to spend months, perhaps even years to even get the MINUTE chance to advance their most powerful skill to the next level. On the other hand, you can spend time just sitting behind boulders to get points to advance the tier for your skills. Don’t you realise how privileged you are?”

That made Chen Yi shut up, for a while, as it got him thinking about whether he could also upgrade the tier of the system’s skills, after all, he could also display the powers he got from the system, so it was quite a feasible idea. 

He asked the system,would it be possible to upgrade you and the skills you provide? The system replied, “You can upgrade me, but the way you do that is classified. The skills I provide can also be upgraded but you have too little points to do so.”

Then Chen Yi asked, “how can I gather and collect more points? Do you have any missions to help me with that?”

The system responded, “do you think I am your grandmother to spoil you and give you missions whenever you want?? Also, I think that you were too dumb in your past life to become an academic, which is why you turned to sports, which requires no knowledge at all- just brawn and high endurance. For otherwise, why would you not remember the justice points I painstakingly unlocked for you???”

Chen Yi smacked his head in annoyance and frustration,and thinking to himself, “Seriously?! Why is it that the system is not helpful at all when I need the system the most?!? ”

“Who told you that I am useless?” the system asked. Seeing that Chen Yi did not respond,the system added, “Who gave you a second chance at life? Who was it that helped you grow into a powerful person. Who has saved your life twice already?”

Chen Yi was quiet. He did not know what to say nor how to respond. The system was correct. It did help him survive and it did save him many times over. It did give him another chance at life. If it hadn’t been for the system, he would not be where he was now.

Chen Yi felt guilty because he actually felt the system was useless. He felt like he had nearly bitten the hand that had fed him.

He brushed his guilt away and continued exploring the capabilities of his powers. He tried to merge the basic skills he procured together. The first skill he got from the inheritance was a skill that could control the weather and he found that he could even control the lightning outside the window. He speculated on whether he would be able to control the divine lightning from his next tribulation. If he could, then he had a much bigger chance of surviving the entire ordeal. Thus, the skill he got could be life-saving.

The second skill he had inherited from the dragon god was a semi-passive skill that allowed him to control water to protect him. He found out that he could turn it into an active attack if he wanted to and combine it with the weather skill to make it an offensive attack- the water would reduce visibility and mobility. He could make a water current  via the moisture in the air and use it as a medium to intensify the damage done to the target. 

He also realised that he did not have any long ranged or AOE skills (as games termed them). When tackling the problem, he found that he could break a bolt of lightning apart into many different pieces. However, the effectiveness of the attack reduced by a margin of 20 percent every target he made the separate bolts attack. 

Overall, Chen Yi decided that he would attempt to gain new skills and cultivate more in order to refine and gain new skills by getting justice points by supposedly doing “justice”, for they were not only his lifeline but could also influence the whole clan’s future.

As he reflected he noticed it was already past dusk, and he quickly returned to his room ,where he plopped onto his bed and fell asleep.

On the other side of Chen Yi’s room, trouble was brewing, unbeknownst to everyone but a treacherous few in the clan.