I sat in the lotus position in the center of my meditation chamber. The silence around me sharply contrasted the chaotic storm of information swirling in my mind.
The "Grandfather Alchemist" was gone. More accurately, he was now mine.
The harvest from Jin Hao's ring was exquisite. I gained a lifetime of alchemical experience, thousands of pill formulas from a higher realm, and the soul insights of a man who nearly reached the peak of his craft before his ambition led to his downfall. The information settled into my mind, organizing itself like a well-cataloged library.
I opened my eyes, a satisfied smile on my lips. "The protagonist has lost his guide. He is now blind."
A new notification from the System Maker appeared in my vision, urgent and flashing.
[Alert: Subsystem Host 'Jin Hao' has encountered a High-Grade Anomaly.]
[Action: Host 'Jin Hao' has rejected the item due to extreme paranoia.]
[Command: 'Refund/Devour' initiated.]
[Transferring item to Master System...]
I furrowed my brow. Rejected? Jin Hao, the greediest man in the novel, rejected a treasure?
A spatial rift opened above my desk, and a dark object dropped onto the wood with a dull thunk.
I stood and walked over to examine it. It was a gourd. Black as the void, with pulsing crimson veins. Even without touching it, I felt waves of tyrannical power radiating from it. It was ancient, malevolent, and powerful beyond anything I had experienced in this realm.
[Item Analysis: Demonic Refining Gourd.]
[Grade: Shattered Divine Artifact (Repairable).]
[Origin: Upper Realm.]
[Function: Can inhale any matter, energy, or living being and refine it into 'Origin Liquid.' Origin Liquid can be consumed to increase cultivation without impurities or used to upgrade the quality of other treasures.]
I stared at the gourd, my blood running cold.
This was a better version of my own system.
My System Maker required me to create subsystems, find hosts, wait for them to die, and then harvest. It was a long process.
With this gourd, you simply tossed things into it, people, swords, pills, rocks and it produced liquid power. It was the ultimate cultivation cheat.
And Jin Hao had found it.
He discovered it less than an hour after I stripped him of his ring.
I paced the room, my mind racing. I had underestimated the "Protagonist Template." I thought that by taking his ring, I had crippled him. I was mistaken.
The Heavenly Dao of this world, the plot armor, or whatever you call it, was actively trying to rewrite the narrative. As soon as the protagonist lost his "golden finger," the universe altered events to provide him a replacement. Not just any replacement. This gourd was arguably better than the ring. The ring required him to learn alchemy. The gourd only required him to kill and loot. It fit his personality perfectly.
If Jin Hao had kept this, with his ruthlessness, he could have thrown half the city into this gourd within a month. He would have risen to incredible power.
"He rejected it," I murmured, realizing the incredible luck or rather, the effectiveness of my psychological maneuvering.
Jin Hao was a transmigrator, yes, but he was a cowardly and traumatized one. My "Grandfather" extraction show had terrified him. He looked at a frightening artifact and assumed it was another trap. He was so scared of being a "side character who dies early" that he discarded a Divine Artifact.
I let out a low laugh, but it lacked humor. It was the laugh of a man who realized he was precariously walking a tightrope over a pit of vipers.
"I have to keep an eye on him," I whispered. "Always. If I look away for a second, he'll trip over a rock and find a god-slayer sword."
But now, I faced a problem.
Jin Hao had ordered the system to "devour" the gourd. He expected a reward. If the system simply made the gourd vanish and gave him nothing, his paranoia would turn toward the system itself. He might discard it. I needed him to keep the Treasure Devourer System. It was my control over him and the only way I could track his location and intercept the absurd treasures the universe kept presenting to him.
I needed to give him a taste, a hit of the drug. I needed to support his delusion that he was the chosen one and that his "system" was working for him.
I glanced at my storage ring. I needed something powerful. Something that would give him a significant boost, enough to make him feel invincible without truly threatening me.
I selected two bottles.
One contained Marrow Cleansing Fluid, a potent liquid that removed impurities from the body. The other held five Burst Qi Pills. These high-energy pills were typically used by soldiers in desperate situations for a temporary boost in power. However, if consumed by someone with a strong enough body (or someone with plot armor), they could lead to a permanent increase in cultivation, albeit with an unstable foundation.
"Perfect," I said. "High growth and a shaky foundation. Just what a villain needs as a protagonist."
I placed the items into the system's transfer interface.
"System," I commanded. "Process the 'Devour' reward for Host Jin Hao. Convert the 'energy' of these items and inject a direct stream of pure Qi into his meridians. Make it flashy. Make him feel like a god."
————
Jin Hao still sat in the rubble, staring at the empty spot where the frightening gourd had been. A minute passed.
"Did it work?" he whispered. "System? Did you eat it?"
Suddenly, a golden light exploded in his vision. It was majestic.
[Devouring Complete!]
[High-Grade Energy Source Processed.]
[Reward: Massive Cultivation Infusion + Body Reformation.]
"Yes!" Jin Hao cheered as he scrambled to his feet. "I knew it! Good riddance, you demon pot!"
A torrent of energy surged into him from the void. It was not the gentle trickle he felt during meditation. It was a firehose.
Heat roared through his veins. His muscles spasmed, and his bones creaked as the Marrow Cleansing energy coursed through his body. Black sludge seeped from his pores, the impurities of a life of mediocrity being purged.
It hurt. It hurt like hell. But to Jin Hao, it was the sweetest pain imaginable.
"Power!" he gritted out through clenched teeth. "This is what it feels like! This is what the protagonist experiences!"
The barrier to the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation, a wall he had stared at for two years, crumbled.
BOOM.
Fourth Layer.
The Burst Qi essence poured into his Dantian, expanding it and stretching it to its limit. He felt like a balloon on the verge of bursting, but sheer excitement held him together.
BOOM.
Fifth Layer.
The torrent finally slowed to a trickle, leaving him in the center of the dark cellar, his body glowing with a faint light. He was covered in foul smelling black grime, and his clothes were tattered from the energy release, but he felt incredible.
He clenched his fists. The air popped audibly.
Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation.
In one night, or rather, in one hour, he had jumped from the Third Layer to the respectable Fifth Layer. He had bypassed two years of hard work. He was now stronger than most of the junior guards who had bullied him.
He examined his hands, watching the faint aura of Qi ripple over his skin. A wild laugh bubbled up from his chest.
"Two layers," he cackled. "Just by recycling some trash demon artifacts. Imagine what I can do when I find real treasures."
He turned and climbed out of the cellar, stepping back onto the street. He began to walk back toward the Jin estate, his stride long and purposeful.