The Favored Son of Heaven

“Please provide the name of the sect to be founded.”

Qin Fen was stunned for a moment. Didn’t he fill out the form with the name ‘Dragon Hall’? Why was the system still asking him for a name? Could it have been registered by someone else?

“Beneath the Heavens Assembly.”

“The sect name already exists. Please change the name.”

“War Gate.”

“The sect name already exists. Please change the name.”

“Neo War Gate.”

“The sect name already….”

“….”

Qin Fen continued to list off names over a dozen times. In the end, he realized the negatives of having too many people. The names for sects had been snatched clean by others.

With a subtle sigh, Qin Fen opened his mouth and said, without any hope, “Dragon Hall.”

“Dragon Hall. Please confirm.”

“Confirmed!” Qin Fen didn’t know what to say. What in the world was going on?

“Dragon Hall. Please select the location of the sect in Hell City.”

A flat digital map unfolded before Qin Fen. There were countless dots of light in a variety of colors, telling him that these places were territories held by sects. He was only allowed to set foot at the edges of Hell City.

“Then let’s do right here at the north side.”

“Dragon Hall has been founded successfully….”

The scene before Qin Fen’s eyes changed a few times, and he found himself in a run-down thatched hut. The hut was around a hundred square meters in size, and space within was completely barren. There was nothing at all.

Qin Fen walked out of the room and raised his head to look at his sect’s signboard that was on the thatched hut. The words ‘Dragon Hall’ was written with a writing brush. It was so shabby that it seemed that it could break at any moment.

This was really too realistic. Qin Fen laughed before hearing the system’s voice sound out once more. “Excuse me, do you wish to engage in renovations for your sect?”

“Does it require money?” Qin Fen asked the question he was most concerned with.

The system’s voice didn’t respond. Instead, a digital price list appeared before Qin Fen. There were thousands upon thousands of designs, styles, and decorations, and each one of them had a different price. Qin Fen didn’t even spend thirty seconds looking at the list.

Qin Fen used the search function to select ‘free’.

After discovering that not a single one of the renovations was free, Qin Fen simply closed the price list without any reservations.

“The Federation really knows how to make money.” Qin Fen snorted. The Federation may be able to swindle other people of their money through selling renovations, but do you think you can swindle me?

Qin Fen sneered and opened his e-mail. He replied to those who wanted to become an apprentice to him: I have opened a sect. The location is artificial satellite number four. The sect’s name is Dragon Hall.

Searching for messages one by one was far too slow. Qin Fen simply used the system to perform the search. He selected every message that contained the word ‘apprentice’ and replied to them all at once.

He made a quick revision in his reply, saying that a payment was required to enter the sect. Qin Fen then gave the system temporary privileges and quickly logged out from the Sky Battle Net.

The scope of notification through messages was far too small, yet using the advertisement channel cost money. Qin Fen recalled that he had some fame on the forums, so he simply advertised his sect on the forums.

Qin Fen took off his helmet and Zhang Xiangyang and several recruits, who had long since been waiting nearby, quickly huddled over.

“How did it go, Old Qin?”

“Did you succeed?”

“Why don’t you look happy at all? Don’t tell me you lost?”

“It’s okay. Just try again if you couldn’t do it! Us bros will pitch in money for you!”

Qin Fen laughed. Pitch in money? They probably would be able to gather quite a bit. However, it was still better to rely on one’s own skill when it came to earning money. It was best not to swindle money from others.

“I succeeded. Dragon Hall, at artificial satellite number four….”

Qin Fen didn’t even finish speaking when the recruits around them dashed to their respective beds. Each one of them put on their helmets over their heads.

Seeing how excited his comrades were, Qin Fen really wanted to know what sort of reaction they would have once they saw that money was required to enter his sect.

Qin Fen shook his head. He didn’t want to think about this problem.

Qin Fen turned on his desktop computer and entered the two-star and three-star forums where he was quite famous. He quickly typed out the title, ‘Artificial satellite number four, the Dragon Hall is accepting disciples, two hundred dollars a year per person. Sect Master: Thirty-Six Hours.’

By the time Qin Fen finished his second advertisement post on the two-star forums, someone had already responded to the post. Qin Fen made on the three-star forums. Soon, his post had been clicked over two hundred times and had over a hundred replies. The reply rate was so high that it shocked Qin Fen quite a bit.

As he opened the thread, Qin Fen suddenly felt a wave of resentment assault him.

You want money when recruiting disciples for a new sect? Are you crazy? 

Thirty-Six Hours, is there anything in your head besides money? 

Can you be even more shameless, Thirty-Six Hours? Two hundred dollars!? 

Thirty-Six Hours, do you even have a shred of a martial artist’s honor? 

Of the hundred or so posts, ninety percent were posts of curses, criticism, or condemnation.

It took him quite a while to get through all these posts, but Qin Fen gradually came to understand something. Aside from the large sects, there were very few sects that charged a fee for joining in the Sky Battle Net.

Though there were some medium-small sects who charged a fee, the prices were small and reasonable. Ten, twenty dollars was already stretching it.

What was wrong with two hundred dollars? Though Qin Fen knew that the price wasn’t cheap, he knew that many yearly memberships of fitness gyms cost more than two hundred dollars, yet there were still many people going to them.

Qin Fen returned to the two-star forums to check out his post there. It was the same situation. There were large quantities of derisive posts.

Qin Fen didn’t feel the slightest resentment when it came to these derisive posts. Instead, he thanked these people for their derisive posts. As long as there were people making posts like this, his thread would be bumped to the top of the forums. This could be considered a type of free advertising.

To be cursed at a few times for free advertisement? Qin Fen gently rubbed his chin. He felt that this was quite a bargain.

“Fuck, Old Qin!” One of the comrade recruits took off his helmet. He looked at Qin Fen with quite a shock. “Y-y-you’re that person who only looks at money. You’re Thirty-Six Hours? The man who most martial artists say lack a martial artist’s honor the most?”

“Holy shit! Old Qin!” A different recruit took off his helmet. His words were filled with shock as well. “You’re the guy who is known to be victorious in every battle. No matter how strong or weak the opponent is, you’re the money-sucking vampire that always comes out of a fight victorious. You’re Thirty-Six Hours?”

“Oh my god! Old Qin, so you’re that mysterious Thirty-Six Hours?”

“Respect! Old Qin! We actually need to shell out money in order to join Dragon Hall?”

“Old Qin, we’re all comrades here. Are there discounts for us?”

More and more recruits took off their helmets, and practically everybody was in deep shock, but at the same time, there was a bit of pride in their emotions.

The most famous person among two-stars and three-stars was actually their fellow countryman! Regardless of why he was famous, he was worthy of their pride simply by being the most famous person in the three-star and two-star areas.

Money-sucking vampire? Qin Fen was more or less flabbergasted. When did he come to have such a nickname?

“Old Qin, I really really want a discount!” Zhang Xiangyang jumped on Qin Fen’s bed. “Twenty percent off! Give us at least twenty percent off!”

“That’s right! Twenty percent off!”

The recruits quickly rushed him in great enthusiasm. Not one of them talked about making it free. Though they saw him riding a super-luxurious car on the day he joined the military, many people could tell that the car probably belonged to someone else.

It was impossible for a rich person to cultivate in the internal art of bitter work and the fitness exercise of fist forms. Anyone who was exposed to the Dragon Elephant Prajna Art knew that cultivating in this art would grow one’s power and energy, but the actual cultivation itself was exceptionally tiring. People only chose to cultivate in the Dragon Elephant Prajna Art if they had no other choice.

“Oh.”

His comrades’ eyes flickered like those of ravenous wolves. When faced with this group of eyes, Qin Fen could only nod.

“Actually, Old Qin. There are many ways to make money after opening a sect.”

Zhang Xiangyang’s words immediately caused Qin Fen’s eyes to sparkle.

“As a holder of a sect, you can submit an application to the system to become a tester when others seek to open a sect.” Zhang Xiangyang slowly explained. “If you prevent someone from succeeding, you’ll receive a fixed amount of reward points or items like a virtual Berserker Pill. You can choose to postpone the reward after you win, and if you continue to win many matches, your rewards will accumulate. For example, four wins in a row will give you two hundred points per win rather than the typical one hundred points per win. A seventh win after six wins in a row will give you three hundred points per win as a reward.”

Qin Fen slowly nodded. No wonder his first opponent and his second opponent kept on yelling about some reward. This really was a way to make money.

“Of course, if you have a loss while accumulating these victories, then all the accumulated rewards you would have gained so far will be wiped clean. This can be considered a type of gamble. Whether or not you choose to accumulate rewards is determined by how bold you are.” Zhang Xiangyang continued. “The more wins you get in a row, the more difficult the opponents the system chooses for you.”

Qin Fen nodded. This was quite a normal design.

“After opening a sect, the option to challenge a sect is available to you.” Zhang Xiangyang spoke with great interest. “As long as the sect you challenge is higher ranked than yours, you can get far more points after you win. The higher the rank sect you defeat in the challenges, the greater the rewards. This is quite natural.”

Qin Fen’s eyes radiated with light once more. Sects are ranked? That is great! Not only does the system give rewards if I beat them, I can also increase the reputation of my sect, recruit more people, and receive more money from people joining my sect.

“A high win rate will have the sect ranked high, and a highly ranked sect is a good thing. The sect will get something good for every rank up, like secret martial arts books, weapons. Once a sect reaches a certain rank, one can even receive an invitation to the Sacred Martial Hall.”

The Sacred Martial Hall? When he heard this name, Qin Fen couldn’t stop his heart from thrumming with emotion. This was none other than the sacred grounds where all martial artists of the Federation wanted to go!

Even if one was penniless, even if one was so poor that they didn’t have enough food to eat, as long as one was selected into the Sacred Martial Hall, then naturally one would have bright prospects upon smooth graduation from the Sacred Martial Hall!

Challenging sects? Qin Fen gently rubbed his chin. This choice wasn’t very attractive to him at first, but now it suddenly became incomparably attractive.

“Oh right. Defeating the sect-holder doesn’t mean that you win the sect-challenge.” Zhang Xiangyang had grasped Qin Fen’s thoughts and said. “Instead, it means charging in and defeating all the people present in the sect. For example, if there are a hundred people when you enter a sect, then….”

It would be one versus a hundred? 

Cold sweat appeared on Qin Fen’s head. Even if the hundred people took turns to fight one against one, anybody would get exhausted to death from fighting all these people, right? The sect-challenge was designed to be way too harsh.

“Of course, if you lose when you’re the one to make the challenge, the challenged sect will receive an equivalent amount of victory points.” Zhang Xiangyang beamed as he said, “Actually, there are many other ways to earn points, but they are simply a lot slower compared to the sect-challenge. You’ll naturally come to know this once you spend a long enough time with a sect.”

Qin Fen shrugged indifferently. It was enough as long as he could earn a small amount of money every day and could do battle with all sorts of decent martial artists, thereby heightening his experience.

The battle network allowed one to gain first-hand experience of the countless fighting techniques under the heavens, something impossible to do in reality.