“Protect someone?” Xiang Ning asked, puzzled. He took a sip from his cup, then waited quietly for Fang Zhenyuan to explain. 

“That’s right, you need to protect someone. Have you read the news lately? The person you need to protect is called Annot, a celebrity from Azura spreading the message of peace among her fans there. She’s basically the ambassador of peace backed by the Peace Faction,” said Fang Zhenyuan. 

Xiang Ning paused. To be honest, he wasn’t familiar with pop culture, but Fang Rou had mentioned her a few times over the past few days. She seemed to like Annot’s songs and wanted to drag Xiang Ning to her concert after hearing that Annot was coming to Marsh City. 

“Why don’t you send someone else? Many people out there are stronger than me,” remarked Xiang Ning. While he was capable, it was probably better to send someone stronger for such an important task, right? 

“This is a special case—Miss Annot strongly dislikes strangers and usually only takes bodyguards under eighteen years old on Azura. Of course, there’ll be other martial artists watching from afar. If anything happens, all you have to do is hold out for a minute and reinforcements will arrive as soon as possible. There’s even long-range snipers that’ll help you. All I’m saying is that it’ll be a relatively easy job. What do you think? If you agree, I’ll let you pick out a breathing technique for yourself,” Fang Zhenyuan chuckled. 

Xiang Ning finally saw Fang Zhenyuan as the old fox he was. Although he didn’t fully understand the hidden message, he knew that if something happened to Annot, the problem would involve both Azura and Earth.

It looked like a simple task, but in reality, it was a delicate situation.

He had just taken the man’s daughter, too. If he refused the assignment, he would probably be chased out of the house. He thought about it… It should be fine, right? It was a good opportunity to impress Fang Zhenyuan. As for the breathing technique… was he a person who cared about material possessions? 

“Alright, what do I have to do?” 

“I’ll give you the specific details later. Hmm, alright, that’s it then. I’m old, I get sleepy early.” 

Xiang Ning nodded and stood up. “Rest early then, Uncle. I’ll be heading off, too.” He opened the door and left the study. 

As he watched Xiang Ning leave, Fang Zhenyuan pinched the skin between his brows and took out his phone. “Old Zhao, are you sure that dragging Xiang Ning into this is a good idea?” 

“The kid shouldn’t be limited to Earth. I want to raise him up to his full potential, and for that to happen, he must leave his homeworld. This is an opportunity for him.” 

“But you know how it is on Azura. It isn’t just the Battle Faction trying to kill Annot, even the Peace Faction is looking for an opportunity for an ‘accident’ on Earth to rally people and further condemn the Battle Faction. It doesn’t matter which side succeeds, someone will end up being the scapegoat. Xiang Ning will be in a dangerous position.” 

“I considered both sides, but humanity can’t afford to wait. I’ve met many prodigies and raised them, hoping they’ll become generals of the next generation. It is a pity that they still weren’t the people I wanted. So far, Xiang Ning is the only one that I think suits the job.” 

“Alright, I understand. Right, what do we do about the Seven Deadly Sins and the mutants?” 

“That’s outside our jurisdiction, let’s leave it to the professionals.” 

…...

Xiang Ning headed downstairs after he left the study. He had wanted to meet Fang Rou, but gave up after some thought. It had been an emotionally intense day and he was exhausted. He was about to send Fang Rou a text when he saw Fang Rou’s text on his phone and realized that she had the same thought. Scratching his head, he bade Fang Hao, who was snacking in the living room, farewell and left. 

His ride home on the Windbreaker put him in a good mood. Since he was bored, he checked his interface for his stats. 

Level: Tier four, one-star martial artist 

Mental Power: Tier four, one-star spiritual cultivator

Techniques: Advanced Breathing Techniques, Telekinesis, Keen Observation, Taunt, Combat Instinct, Comprehension, Disguise, Eight Gates 

Martial Skills: Mountain-Splitting Slash, Triple Slash, Shadowmist Ghost Step, Charging Toss 

Special Object: Sovereign’s Throne 

Items: None 

Fury Points: 937,300

Awaiting collection: Spatial Leap Technology

Xiang Ning almost ran over the speed limit when he saw that he had over nine hundred thousand Fury Points. There was so much he could do with them! He could learn more skills, and no longer had to be so calculative when it came to cultivating his martial skills and Mental Power. 

However, he also remembered that his system had leveled up. He vaguely remembered that it would level up again at tier seven, and between every level-up was a phase. 

First, he noticed that increasing his cultivation now required many more Experience Points. He had only needed thirty thousand points when he was a tier three, nine-star, but now, advancing one star would require fifty thousand points. He also used to only need a hundred Fury Points to increase one Mental Point, but now it required a thousand. 

The raffle showed the biggest change. Healing pills were no longer available, because they weren’t effective for martial artists tier four and above. One pill usually had a ten percent healing ability but now, one pill was only zero point one percent effective. So now, something called healing potions had replaced the pills.

Xiang Ning was sad to see the pills go, but the potions were enticing. They could be orally consumed to replenish ten percent of one’s strength, or topically applied to speed up healing. 

As he read the details, he realized it was a weaker version of recovery fluid. The price of entering the raffle hadn’t changed, so at least it wasn’t too brutal. 

“Eh? There’s a button to do ten draws, one for a hundred draws, and a custom button? That’s very convenient.” Xiang Ning thought about it, then decided to do ten draws. He was lucky enough to obtain two healing potions. Although there was a smaller chance of winning them compared to the pills, since they were more effective, he accepted the change. 

Xiang Ning looked at the number of Fury Points he had and decided to splurge. He had run out of pills, so shouldn’t it be time to stock up? 

But…. 

“Hehehe, I knew it. System, do you hate me because I had too many Fury Points? I spent a hundred thousand Fury Points and all you gave me was twenty-one bottles? My record was ninety-three consecutive ‘Thank you, please try again’ messages, but now you’ve broken it! I managed to lose six hundred and sixty-six consecutive times!” Xiang Ning almost hit a tree by the side of the road. Thankfully, no one saw him as he was in the quiet countryside. 

“Wait, this is an extremely bad result. Based on my past experience with the system, it means something very good is coming.” He tapped to enter the raffle a hundred times. 

“Congratulations! You received one healing potion.” 

Xiang Ning was speechless. 

have a great day! - doge

Bamboozled by the system! - Chacha

Hey guys! 

tldr; We've just received news that this novel COULD be discontinued due to low sponsorship. This novel will be given a little more time before a decision will be made. It all depends on whether sponsorship increases in the near future!

Long version:

Thank you for still being here, we're all still having fun with the memes :) but there's no other way to announce it - unfortunately, this novel is currently at risk of being discontinued. 

To the VIPs who have been sponsoring us all these times, we are eternally grateful for your support. To those who had yet to sponsor this novel, there are a number of ways you could help us and ensure that this novel survives! For those who can, please consider becoming a 'Champion' of this novel + subscribing for advanced chapters! That way we can continue to translate the shenanigans of the MC and enjoy the memes XD. For those who can't, it will be extremely beneficial if you could leave a positive review or share the novel with people you know. Increasing the view count would definitely help!!

Once again we are grateful for the support that all of you have given so far. Regardless of the outcome, this will be an experience and journey that we will cherish forever. Cheers~

--doge & chacha