Seized by the System

Soon, Ren Ruofeng ended the topic and passed the baton of conversation to Fang Ning. Fang Ning scanned the audience on the stage and cleared his throat. He really wanted to sing a song…

Of course, that was unacceptable and impossible, unless he somehow became the No. 1 Demon Deity under Zhi Nan. If that was the case, that behavior would be perfectly ordinary, in line with the numerous peculiar behaviors shown by demons that were documented in Anderson’s report. A song would be entirely normal!

Thus, Fang Ning spoke. “All of you are the pillars of our future. With your potential, you must be equipped with immense knowledge and insights that you wouldn’t need too much guidance from me. I’ll just share a word or two…”

…

That ‘word or two’ lasted the entire day.

The meeting started at 9 a.m. when the rosy sunrise still hung in the air. It was 5 pm. now, the sunset glow shining warmly from the West.

From the purpose and the future of the Ladder to Heaven, to the responsibility that the candidates in the audience had to bear on their shoulders. When Fang Ning was speaking, he told Anderson to look up for more information for further elaboration whenever he felt like it.

Initially, these talented candidates were brimming with excitement and interest on the speech. Now, they were barely alive…

They were in a state of disbelief. How could the stoic Vigilante A be such a chatterbox?

At the same time, they were filled with admiration. Only a True Dragon would have amassed such deep knowledge about this world, and could easily quote multiple literary works and references.

They thought they had obtained great memory after their cultivation, and they had read regularly to widen their horizons. Only now after listening to the speech, they realized whatever they had in their minds were only the tip of the iceberg in his mind….

There had been multiple occurrences where he had inserted quotes and stories into his speech that they thought were made up on the spot. However, when one of them discreetly checked them on their mobile phones, the quotes and stories actually exist…

What an energetic Dragon God huh…

A resigned thought came across their minds. Once upon a time, they heard a legend that Vigilante A could have a week-long meal. Would they be forced to listen to a week-long speech too?

Of course, these people would not know how long Fang Ning had suppressed himself with all the hermitting he had done in the System Space with no access to new games and novels. Even when he went out to ‘play’ once in a while, there would be no sincere audience around. Since there was a bunch of students as his captive audience now, of course Fang Ning would talk to his heart’s content. They were trapped and were required to pay attention to him!

Once a person was in recluse for too long, they would behave similarly even though they might be separated by the Internet.

His physique was trained by Sir System, and unlike these audiences of his, he was still brimming with energy. Also, it would take him another year to feel hungry again… Now, he finally understood why the high school headmasters could still talk nonstop even though the students prayed for the assembly to end.

Suddenly, Fang Ning came to a halt. The pause had a hint of yearning.

Everyone suddenly snapped their heads upwards and looked to the stage. Is this finally ending?

Meanwhile, a voice echoed in Fang Ning’s mind.

[The System is processing…]

[The System is processing…]

[The System has decided to fight for justice.]

‘Oh my god, Sir System, you’re back at it again,’ the ‘Manly Man’ Fang Ning returned to his original state.

The talkative Vigilante A stopped for a moment before announcing to the audience, “Alright. I have other matters to attend to. I will take my leave. Please do enjoy your conversation.”

Ren Ruofeng felt an overwhelming relief after hearing that. If he had known better, he would never have invited him. In his plans, both Vigilante A’s True Dragon God and the local in him were introverts. What happened today that the hero ended up talking non-stop? How inconceivable…

Indeed. Even though he was deemed to be wise like a Zhuge reincarnate, it was still difficult for him to understand the minds of people.

The people below the rostrum looked visibly relieved. Ah, they are finally released from hell and suffering.

Ren Ruofeng cleared his throat, “It’s getting late. Let me also share a thing or two…”

Huh? The 18 warriors exchange shocked glances, too astonished to do anything else.

Suddenly, one of them exclaimed softly, “Ah, I get it, this is a way for the higher-ups to test our resilience! Climbing the Ladder to Heaven is similar to hiking a mountain, and both activities require high resilience as a basic requirement. Without resilience, how could we achieve success?”

Everyone who listened paused and blinked. That’s true! This is the Venerable Dragon God that they are talking about, how would a person as important as him spout nonsense intentionally?

His time must be extremely precious; he worked 24 hours, 7 days a week, while maintaining at a peak performance with no lethargy and constant efficiency.

The latter part of the statement was what frightened them. Maybe an ordinary person could also pull all-nighters for two or three days, but it would be impossible for them to stay energetic throughout. Now, this busy entity actually spared one whole day to test them; how great a blessing this was!

Immediately, they sat straight and alert, listening attentively once more.

Unfortunately, the Venerable One left, probably due to the disappointment from realizing that they were not paying attention.

Out of the 18 people, 17 of them turned and looked at one person.

Being at the receiving end of these stares, Xue Feng remained unfazed, sitting upright as usual.

“This guy probably got quite some extra points in this test…” Someone grumbled.

“Right, he had the same expression from start to finish. That’s so similar to the Venerable One that it’s almost unsurprising that the Venerable One would repeatedly grace him, such as inspiring him with refined magical energy, or directly guiding him until he reached the paramount realm in the cultivation of Body-Sword Unity afterward.” someone added, his voice spiked green with envy.

Unlike others, all of them knew the entire process of how Xue Feng made his name. Since they challenge each other often, they would of course need to investigate each other inside out.

///

After he left the crowd in the hall behind, Vigilante A flew freely in the air. Ah, the outside air was always the freshest.

Meanwhile, Fang Ning was making a fuss in the System Space.

“You promised that my holidays would last 10 days; you promised that I would be the one handling this meeting; you promised that you would not interrupt my performance…”

“You promised that you will only share a word or two.”

“Um,” Fang Ning could not muster a reply to that, and immediately resorted to forced defense, “There isn’t too long of a speech for a learned person! To quote Confucius, ‘Many? Not many’.”

“That’s Sir Zhou’s quote…” ¹

Fang Ning ignored this presumptuous idiot, and instead decided to go to a place and continue his singing.

That night, the Draconic Penitentiary had a rare occurrence — a carnival was held.

Apparently, this was specially held by the Warden to encourage these evil souls in their efforts of rehabilitation and hard work.

The night passed quickly, and these wicked souls once again went to work, this time with renewed vigor.

Fang Ning was ecstatic. He immediately spoke to Sir System in glee, “See, I told you there were thousands of people who wanted to listen to my songs!”

The System did not reply. Instead, it started to roll a clip.

It was the souls that were busy doing their jobs in the first and second floor in the Draconic Penitentiary. They moved a variety of construction materials tiresomely, entirely attentive in building the dreamed architecture that Fang Ning had made numerous revisions on.

At the second floor, the Arena was built, magnificent and majestic as the Roman Colosseum. The only task left was to rush the decorations at the exterior of the arena. It would probably only take another month for it to be complete.

At the same time, on the lowest floor on the first floor, a multi-layer, narrowly arranged and gigantic maze designed to ensnare demons was under constructing too.

With Sir System’s continuous hard work throughout night and day, the labor force had greatly spiked. The latest construction machinery that was moved in contributed to the increase in construction efficiency too.

When the evil souls were working, they were muttering reminders to each other.

“Tuck your tails in, everyone, and stop slacking. Sir Anderson cannot see that we’re just using 80% of our effort, but the Warden being the Warden was much more powerful. He’s found out about us.”

“What he’s doing now is to punish us, indirectly telling us that if we persist in our ways, we will have a very bad time.”

“That’s right. This music festival was much stronger than other eerie techniques that forced demonic tunes into our minds. Even us demons could not withstand it…”

“Actually, this is because the Sir had such a powerful Spiritual Sense that when he developed emotions the more he sang, his Spiritual Fluctuations spread everywhere. Coincidentally, we are all in our soul forms. How could we be unaffected?”

“Exactly. This is almost comparable to Sir Anderson’s teachings. I could still hear the echoes in my head…”

After he saw everything, Fang Ning automatically filtered these conversations. The only truth that he was glad about was that as long as these evil souls maintain their present working state, the first and second floor of the Draconic Arcane Realm would be complete very soon. It would probably be up and running at the beginning of September.

He could not do anything but to exclaim, “The labor efficiency difference between a 100% effort and 80% in work is so huge it’s astonishing.”

Besides, it must be noted that the latter amount of effort would also contribute to additional bugs that would require patching.

“Sir Big Spender, your exclamation seemed quite out of place, isn’t it? Look at you, changing the topic at hand. Here, I just found out that you can learn a new skill. Look at this Scripture of Overcoming Misfortune,” said the System.

“What are you up to?” Fang Ning took the black scripture that appeared out of nowhere, his hackles raised in alert, “This is from Monk Zhi Nan, so there must be something missing in it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve finished theorizing it, and any missing pieces have all been patched up. Within the scripture is a tonality skill called Demon Singing Buddhist Mantra that is very suitable for you. With your singing talent, you would yield twice the result with half the required effort, and your cultivation will be formidable.”

“Hmph, good that you finally came to that realization,” Fang Ning answered with mirth after he received the System’s recognition. Then, he happily flipped the scripture open and started to read.

With one glance, Fang Ning became elated.

“Sir System, you’ve finally got something right. You’re indeed my soulmate. This time, my path is formed!”

After his cheers, Fang Ning excitedly started to learn, and did not stop even during the night.

“Humans are indeed complicated,” sighed the System as it stared confusingly at the diligent Host.