When system cheat becomes rampant!

Ye Changfeng and Xiang Beifei appeared atop the cliff, where a cool breeze brushed past, carrying a hint of chill.

The cliff was empty and desolate, devoid of other figures.

"It's this aura! It's those things... Ghost Whiskers of Remnant Visage! They must have been here just now," Xiang Beifei said in a heavy tone.

The strange aura here was very similar to what they had encountered in the City of the Old Days!

Ye Changfeng's gaze swept over the cliff, and he, too, sensed a powerful presence here — but in reality, everywhere in the foreign wasteland harbored strong residues of presence, left as markers by desolate beasts as they passed by, mainly to deter other desolate beasts and establish their territory.

"There's a dead miasma worm here."

Ye Changfeng found the corpse of a green-haired worm on the cliff and crouched down, a short sword appearing in his hand. This sword, no more than three inches long, twinkled with sword light as it touched the green-haired worm's body. The tiny sword emitted a sharp glow, constantly crisscrossing over the worm's carcass, probing it.

After a while, Ye Changfeng's expression turned serious.

"This green-haired worm has Long Guocheng's footprints on it," Ye Changfeng said solemnly.

"Long Guocheng?"

"He stomped it to death."

Ye Changfeng looked at the exploded remains of the green-haired worm, which had been crushed until only a layer of skin remained.

This green-haired worm was very weak, merely the most ordinary early Qi-Controlling desolate beast, at the very bottom of the food chain, easily trampled to death in droves by any martial artist.

"Long Guocheng is still at the camp; he couldn't have come here, and we didn't come here during the day either, so there's only one possibility," Xiang Beifei's expression grew somewhat grave.

"It was brought here by that kind of desolate beast."

Ye Changfeng poked at the green-haired worm's body, his face slightly changing.

Xiang Beifei also noticed the scratch on the top of the green-haired worm's head and said, "The worm's brain is gone, do they eat brains too?"

This was something Xiang Beifei had not expected since Jiuzhou's pioneer database had sparse records of these creatures, with a name Xiang Beifei had casually made up.

Did the Ghost Whiskers of Remnant Visage happen upon the brain of the green-haired worm squashed by Long Guocheng in their hunting, by chance?

Or had they been quietly following them and then deliberately sought out the brain of this worm they had crushed to eat?

Xiang Beifei's gaze flickered for a moment.

If it was the latter, then the situation was not quite right.

Why would it specifically eat a green-haired worm stomped on by Long Guocheng? Was it trying to obtain some information from this worm?

Ye Changfeng collected the miasma into the space within his sword and then stood up, scanning the vast forest below with a grave expression. "Some desolate beasts are not simply about eating brains."

"You mean to say..." Xiang Beifei seemed to faintly grasp something.

"Let's hope it's not what I'm thinking." Enjoy more content from empire

Ye Changfeng looked at Xiang Beifei, a trace of worry evident in his eyes.

Xiang Beifei thoughtfully regarded Ye Changfeng, then turned to gaze into the night, looking at the distant mountains and murmuring, "So, what exactly might the Ghost Whiskers of Remnant Visage get from eating the brain of this green-haired worm?"

—

—

After returning to school from the foreign wasteland, everyone was disheveled, with ragged clothes. Walking through the campus, no one even recognized them.

In that ghastly place, one had to be constantly on edge, enduring threats from various powerful desolate beasts. Protecting oneself was hard enough, let alone caring about one's appearance.

After returning to the dormitory and cleaning up well, they rested for a full day. The next morning, everyone gathered in the Dean's office of the Martial Arts College, preparing to depart for Qingzhou University.

The annual freshman competition was held in turns at different universities, and this year, it was Qingzhou University's turn to host.

However, before departing, Ye Changfeng needed to take his team to meet with Wei Tong, the Dean of the Martial Arts College.

Wei Tong was a literary Daoist but, as the Dean, naturally wanted to make his presence felt. He requested to meet this year's team participating in the elite freshman competition to give a pre-departure motivational speech.

The Dean's office was extremely large, giving off a very first impression of orderliness!

Inside the pen holder were specially made square compartments with various pens arranged by length from longest to shortest. The books on the shelves were grouped by similar spine colors and arranged from tallest to shortest, with not a single gap between each book.

Even a pile of used documents on the desk was stacked perfectly square, with not one single sheet protruding, all corners aligned as if cut with a knife.

There was not a hint of disarray in this office; it was extremely orderly, to the point of seeming somewhat pathological.

Xiang Beifei couldn't help but feel surprised and perplexed as he looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, the Dean with his hair slicked down by hair gel as if printed by a machine, not a single strand out of place.

[Host: Wei Tong]

[SSR level, Methodical System]

[Realm: Late God Refining]

...

"No wonder the office is so orderly."

Xiang Beifei couldn't help but take another look around the office. Honestly, this was the first time he had seen such an orderly office, and he doubted he would ever find a second one like it.

Wei Tong was a literary Daoist, probably just in his early forties, a couple of years older than Ye Changfeng.

He had an ability named "Orderliness," which allowed him to automatically organize things methodically. His system tasks usually involved handling various trifles and making them orderly.

[You have organized two documents, orderliness value +20]

[You put on both shoes correctly, Orderliness value +20]

[You properly wore your coat, Orderliness value +20]

[You capped the pen after writing, Orderliness value +10]

[You locked the door after leaving, Orderliness value +10]

...

"That SSR-ranked guy is really something,"

Xiang Beifei contemplated.

In his daily activities, Wei Tong fundamentally did things right, which would bring him system values. Even something as trivial as dressing could count, and even brushing teeth or washing his face, such simple acts that he performed daily, would add to his system value!

According to Ye Changfeng, Wei Tong used to be his senior by three years at the Liberal Arts College, but due to being an SSR-ranked Awakener, he went to the Alliance after graduation and was only transferred here this year to become the head of the Martial Arts College.

Not long ago, Xiang Beifei specifically asked Ye Changfeng if he and Wei Tong fought, who would win?

Ye Changfeng was at the mid-stage of God Refining, while Wei Tong was at the later stage, a whole realm apart!

However, Ye Changfeng simply replied, "It would be unfair to him even if he used both hands."

Those of the literary Dao, their combat strength is trash!

But the people Jiuzhou Alliance needs are not just Martial Arts fighters; they also need those with higher-level systems to manage the entirety of Jiuzhou. Because of the suppression higher-level systems exert on lower-level ones, they don't need to fight. They only need to use the means given by their system abilities to manage the lower-level Awakeners, thus ensuring that life in Jiuzhou isn't too chaotic.

So, SSR-ranked individuals of the literary Dao, even if their combat power is rubbish, are still heavily utilized, and their status is high!

Wei Tong's system showed that he indeed had the ability to manage:

[You forced the rule-violating Ma Jia to admit her wrongdoings, Orderliness value +50]

[You forced Wang Yuan, who often broke walls, not to approach the southeast teaching building anymore, Orderliness value +50]

[You forced the senior students to comply with the newly enacted graduation regulations, Orderliness value +400]

...

Most of the Martial Arts students are not so well-behaved, but Wei Tong's SSR system, even if not strong in combat, had a high enough cultivation level to suppress all the unruly Martial Arts students and make them behave.

While assessing the five individuals, Wei Tong's gaze particularly lingered on Xiang Beifei for a moment before he slightly furrowed his brows.

He was also one of those from Liangzhou University who had an opinion about enrolling an N-level student like Xiang Beifei!

The reason was simple.

The N-ranking of Xiang Beifei stood out discordantly in the list of student names!

He was the only N-level student at Liangzhou University, and when Wei Tong was arranging the files of the new students, he encountered a problem.

Normally, when managing files, R-level students would be arranged in one column, S-level students in another, and SR-level students in yet another.

The number of students was distributed like a trapezoid, with the most R-level, followed by S-level, and the fewest SR-level. It looked orderly and neat.

Then there was Xiang Beifei, an uppercase N-level! Standing alone in his own column!

[Student file arrangement: R-level students 1837, S-level students 721, SR-level students 11, N-level students 1]

[This arrangement follows the principle of 'descending order of numbers' but not the principle of 'ascending order of system levels,' making the arrangement not orderly enough, task failed]

Wei Tong liked his files arranged neatly, organized by the idea of [the fewer the number, the higher the system level], but the stubbornly unique N-level Xiang Beifei conflicted with his idea of file organization completely!

After the first arrangement task failed, he reorganized the system task—

[Student file arrangement: N-level students 1, R-level students 1837, S-level students 721, SR-level students 11]

[This arrangement follows the principle of 'ascending order of system levels' but not the principle of 'descending order of numbers,' making the arrangement not orderly enough, task failed]

Wei Tong tried and tried but just could not reconcile the issue.

For someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder like him, this was extremely vexing!

The system issues a task for [arranging the student files]; if successful, it's worth ten thousand system values! Task failure meant he missed out on ten thousand system values!

So he held a grudge against the N-level Xiang Beifei!

Even harboring dislike and aversion!

It was not that he disliked Xiang Beifei as a person, nor his background. He didn't even understand what kind of person Xiang Beifei was, nor had he had any conflicts with Xiang Beifei's parents before.

He just detested the existence of Xiang Beifei's N-rank, which made it impossible for him to make the list of student names look "methodical." He couldn't complete various tasks because of it.

[Due to the N-level Xiang Beifei, the arrangement of the name list for the new students' physical examination was not orderly enough, task failed]

[Due to the N-level Xiang Beifei, the arrangement of the name list for the new students' simulation exam was not orderly enough, task failed]

...

Wei Tong had failed a bunch of file arrangement tasks issued by his system!

The reason he disliked Xiang Beifei was just that simple.

"To think he'd have an issue with me for this reason, weird indeed."

When Elder Luo told Xiang Beifei last time that the head of the Martial Arts College had serious issues with him, Xiang Beifei had thought it was because there were no SSR-ranked students among this year's freshmen.

But after seeing Wei Tong's system log, filled with failed tasks about student name lists not being orderly enough to increase system value, Xiang Beifei finally understood.

The reason that he was shunned by the head of the Martial Arts College.