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New fic alert! 🔥 Check out "My Cheat System"! A "definitely not cheating" player wreaks havoc in Genshin Impact (Obelisk vs. Stormterror!), Jujutsu Kaisen (Lightning Rasengan!), Dororo (Black Flash!), and more with his OP system (F10=invincible, F11=one-hit, F12=world-hop!). His past NPC flirting? Yeah, a real Genshin harem is about to teach him a lesson! 😂 Worlds include Genshin, JJK, Tower of God, Darwin's Game, Dororo. Read it now! 👉 [Visit Profile]
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"So this is what business negotiations are like? On the surface, everything seems calm, but underneath, it's like turbulent waves clashing against each other!"
Nolan and Ningguang stepped out of Liuli Pavilion, having just concluded their negotiations with the heads of several merchant guilds.
Since they had already discussed the distribution rights individually before, the terms had mostly been settled. This meeting was simply to make the final decisions.
In short, the guild leaders had to bid on the spot—the better the offer, the larger the regional sales rights they would receive.
At first, everyone was amicable, appearing to prioritize mutual benefit, but as the bidding progressed, they started subtly pointing out each other's weaknesses without breaking their composed expressions.
It wasn't a shouting match, but this seemingly civil yet cutthroat exchange was an eye-opener for Nolan.
He felt like he had learned a lot.
"Haha, if you're interested, come find me when you have time. I'll teach you how to do business," Ningguang said with a smile.
"That sounds great! Getting business lessons from you, the great merchant, is something countless people would dream of!"
Nolan nodded eagerly.
"Enough with the flattery," Ningguang said, the corners of her lips curling upward as she looked at him. "I still have government affairs to handle, so your duties as my attendant end here. I'll overlook yesterday's offense."
"Hehe, thank you for your generosity, Lady Ningguang!" Nolan said cheerfully.
After parting ways with Ningguang, Nolan returned to his Wonderland and lay down on a soft sofa.
He focused on controlling several of his "Lumine's Sword Gods", stationed in the Beast Realm and the underground mines of The Chasm, using them to hunt monsters.
Luck was on his side. One of the "Lumine's Sword Gods" in the Beast Realm, about 200 kilometers east of the Shadow Bear's territory, discovered an oasis amidst the desolate wilderness.
Without hesitation, Nolan directed the "Lumine's Sword God" to descend from the air and begin exploring.
He had a strong feeling that there would be something valuable here.
And he was right. The oasis was small, only about 2,000 to 3,000 square meters in size, and the "Lumine's Sword God" quickly completed the search.
Eventually, it found something mysterious in the center—a small pond.
When the "Lumine's Sword God" dove into the water, he realized that despite the pond's small size—only around ten square meters—it was unusually deep!
Even after diving 30 meters, there was still no bottom in sight.
As the "Lumine's Sword God" continued descending, several pitch-black snake-like creatures appeared around it.
They resembled the serpent-like monsters he had encountered in the ocean while traveling to Inazuma.
Before Nolan could act, the creatures released thick clouds of dark green poison that surged toward the "Lumine's Sword God".
Of course, such attacks had no effect on the sword god, as it was merely a manifestation of sword intent.
Since the creatures had made their move, he saw no reason to hold back.
Instead of forming a golden single-handed sword, the "Lumine's Sword God" transformed into countless razor-thin filaments.
The moment they solidified, the "Lumine's Sword God" spread its arms wide as if channeling some mysterious force.
The golden threads rippled outward in waves!
The dark snake-like monsters didn't even have time to retreat into the shallow-space dimension.
The instant the golden filaments reached them, they were sliced into pieces!
+2155 Adventure EXP
+1923 Adventure EXP
+2245 Adventure EXP
The notifications of gained Adventure EXP flooded his interface before gradually slowing down.
Just when Nolan thought the battle was over, even more snake-like creatures appeared.
It seemed that the "Lumine's Sword God" was too conspicuous in the water.
Even though these creatures had witnessed their kin being effortlessly slaughtered, their low intelligence drove them to continue swarming in.
Nolan had no complaints—if anything, he welcomed them.
While the intense battle in the Beast Realm raged on, a floating purple sphere drifted down from the second floor of the Wonderland.
"Miss Makoto, why did you come down? Weren't you catching up with your sister?" Nolan asked the small purple orb.
"Ei is focused on her training. She doesn't want to chat with her big sister anymore. Sigh~"
Raiden Makoto sounded dejected.
Uh… judging from Ei's personality, she was probably just tired of answering too many questions.
Nolan chuckled and said, "If you're worried about Inazuma, you could always go see it for yourself once your soul recovers enough."
"You make it sound so easy," Raiden Makoto floated above his face and sighed. "Even though this place helps restore my soul's essence, the process is pretty slow.
"At this rate, it'll take years before I'm strong enough to step into the outside world again."
"That's quite a long time," Nolan admitted.
He pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered his "Soul Attribute" ability.
Perhaps he could generate an enhancement trait that accelerated soul recovery for Raiden Makoto.
Lately, whenever his "Spiritual Energy" resource maxed out, he had been experimenting with different traits—aside from granting some useful ones to Amber and Eula.
Most of the time, though, he had been trying to roll a unique, personal trait for himself.
Unfortunately, after multiple attempts, he still hadn't succeeded.
Rather than continuing this endless cycle, he figured it would be better to use it on someone who actually needed it.
He explained his idea to Raiden Makoto and asked, "What do you think of this method?"
"Hmm? You really do have a lot of strange abilities…"
Raiden Makoto was surprised but then playfully said, "Heh, heh~ In that case, I won't be polite. Hurry up and give me one of those traits!"
"Alright!"
Seeing that his "Spiritual Enegry" was full, Nolan immediately activated it and used it for Raiden Makoto.
A faint spiritual glow descended upon the purple sphere.
Soon, through the feedback he received, Nolan understood what kind of trait Raiden Makoto had obtained:
Soul Attribute · Cooking Enthusiast: This trait only appears in intelligent beings. Those who possess it can easily master various cooking techniques and gain inspiration for new dishes from daily life.
"...Uh, this trait..."
Nolan felt that this would be perfect for Xiangling, but on Raiden Makoto, it seemed a little out of place.
"Eh?" Raiden Makoto was surprised as she sensed her newfound ability. "You actually understand me quite well. I do enjoy cooking."
"I'm also quite skilled at it."
"Back when I was at home, I was the one who cooked for Ei. She, on the other hand, was completely hopeless at it."
"Despite being a god with intricate control over various forces, she was utterly helpless when it came to something as simple as cooking!"
She reminisced about the good old days.
Nolan listened for a while and learned about some of Raiden Ei's embarrassing past incidents. He chuckled and said,
"So Miss Ei had that kind of side to her, huh? But the trait you need didn't appear today—we'll have to try again tomorrow."
"Hmm, alright then. Thank you." Raiden Makoto bobbed up and down, expressing her gratitude for Nolan's help.
[Raiden Makoto Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 280 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.4 (300/400)]
"...Oh, right!"
Raiden Makoto suddenly remembered something and said to Nolan,
"I almost forgot. I came down here to tell you that I sensed a very faint divine will in the third-floor storage room. Is something wrong there?"
Upon hearing her words, Nolan immediately realized that it must be the residual will of the Salt God, Havria, within the Divine Salt.
This was great news.
He got up from the sofa and stood up, offering a brief explanation:
"I have the remains of a deity known as the 'Salt God' stored there. The divine will you sensed..."
"Should be a result of this space's 'Soul Nourishment' effect, which has successfully revived the remnants of her consciousness that were nearly completely worn away. I'll go check it out!"
With that, he headed upstairs.
Raiden Makoto was also somewhat curious, so she followed along.
They quickly reached the third-floor storage room and approached a glass jar containing the Divine Salt.
It had become even more crystalline and transparent, emitting a faint white glow.
"There really is a divine will inside... But the 'Salt God'? I don't think I've ever heard of her before."
Raiden Makoto leaned in for a closer look and admitted she was unfamiliar with the name.
"I heard she was a gentle and relatively weak god compared to others. She took her people into seclusion and lived in hiding. Plus, she was based in Liyue, so it's not surprising that you haven't heard of her."
As he spoke, Nolan carefully examined the divine will of the Salt God.
He found that her soul essence had simply grown stronger, but she was still a long way from truly awakening.
Since she hadn't woken up yet, this was the perfect time for him to use a Command Seal.
Although the game's description of the Salt God depicted her as gentle and non-confrontational, Nolan had never actually met her.
So, it was better to play it safe.
The Command Seal he set only had one rule:
"Under no circumstances may she harm me or anyone around me."
It wasn't a command that forced her to obey him, which was his way of showing respect to this deity he had never met.
It should be fine… Nolan nodded slightly after setting up the Command Seal.
"I see, so she was part of the 'pacifist faction'... When the Archon War first started, I had similar thoughts."
"But those gods kept provoking Inazuma. In the end, we had no choice but to eliminate every enemy that dared to invade!"
Raiden Makoto spoke with a hint of understanding in her tone.
"Oh? Is that so? Speaking of which, I'm actually really interested in the stories from the Archon War. Since we have time, why don't you tell me about that era?"
Nolan asked curiously.
"You want me to tell you stories?" Raiden Makoto swayed slightly and then said in a lively yet graceful tone,
"Hmm... Sure! Let's head down to the 'Meditation Room'—and while we're at it, we can go bother Ei!"
The little purple sphere bobbed up and down, seemingly nodding in agreement.
Raiden Makoto was certainly much more playful compared to Ei.
She just had to go and bother her younger sister—was it a natural habit for elder sisters to tease their younger siblings? Nolan found the thought amusing.
Still, he didn't refuse and instead nodded in agreement.
"Speaking of which, Ei still hasn't taught me and Lumine Musou no Hitotachi yet. I should find her in the next few days for some guidance."
Setting aside the matter of the Salt God for now, the two headed toward the Meditation Room on the second floor.
For the next few days, with a gentle yet mischievous older sister around, Raiden Ei found herself constantly exasperated.
A week had passed since the Salt God's will began to recover.
During this time, Nolan continued controlling the Lumine's Sword God to explore the Beast Realm and The Chasm.
In a newly discovered small oasis within the Beast Realm, there was a water pool infested with serpent-like monsters. On the day of its discovery, he eliminated all the creatures there, including a Golden King Beast, a Rank-90 Boss-class serpent beast.
Although it was only two meters long, its speed was incredibly fast, and it took Nolan quite some time to defeat it.
Clearing out this nest of serpents earned him approximately 760,000 Adventure EXP, a substantial gain.
Additionally, from clearing out the main mining area of The Chasm's underground sector, he gained another 980,000 Adventure EXP.
His current character stats now showed:
[Adventure EXP: 1,915,273]
With nearly 1.92 million Adventure EXP, leveling up twice wouldn't be a problem!
Aside from temporarily resolving the Black Mud issue in The Chasm, Nolan also spent the week training alongside Lumine under Raiden Ei's guidance to learn Musou no Hitotachi.
As expected of the Raiden Shogun's ultimate technique, it was an unparalleled sword art beyond comparison.
Even with his Divine-tier Sword Skill, Lumine's Authority, allowing him to grasp similar techniques more easily, it still took him a full week just to barely reach the beginner level.
Lumine, despite having prior knowledge, was hindered by her physical limitations, causing her to learn at a slightly slower pace than Nolan.
She estimated that she would need another one or two days to master the basics.
Once she achieved that, she planned to set off for Sumeru. Having already explored every region of Inazuma and gathered numerous treasures, it was time to embark on a new adventure!
Naturally, Nolan had no objections and intended to accompany her.
Meanwhile…
The Salt God's will had grown stronger, and she could awaken at any moment.
When the time came, she would be treated similarly to Raiden Makoto—temporarily residing in the Wonderland to aid in her recovery.
As for Raiden Makoto's Soul Attribute, after several attempts, Nolan finally helped her acquire a highly beneficial one that significantly enhanced her recovery speed:
Soul Attribute · Indestructible Soul: This trait only appears in spiritual entities. The bearer's soul defense is doubled, healing effects are doubled, and they cannot be completely eradicated.
Well… This trait was quite powerful, especially the last effect—"cannot be erased."
Although it didn't seem particularly useful inside the Wonderland, the doubled soul defense would stabilize her spiritual form, and the increased healing efficiency was exactly what she needed.
With this, her recovery time was cut in half!
Raiden Makoto was naturally delighted, and her favorability toward Nolan increased once again:
[Raiden Makoto Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 360 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.5 (260/500)]
Upon learning of this, Raiden Ei also developed a greater sense of appreciation for Nolan, who had helped her elder sister:
[Raiden Shogun (Raiden Ei) Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 220 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.8 (720/800)]
Nolan looked at Ei's affection level, which was nearly maxed out, and wondered…
Would he receive just one affection skill, or two?
He was a little excited to find out!
(End of Chapter)
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