Chapter 20: No Risk No Reward

Ouyang Qianye sat with his legs crossed, with his attention focused down the path through his shack, across the poll of his blood. One of his hands still lingered over the rectangular brick, with his back to the wall and then his other hand was over his waist.

He was watched her work across the shack, taking the herbs that she had hug over the wall and then she walked over, taking a bowl sized mortar and its pestle along with her.

This was not the first time that she had to clean up blood and corpses in the aftermath of his actions. The original Ouyang Qianye had not asked her about why she did what she was currently doing. He had not wanted to seem lesser for his ignorance in front of his maidservant.

That being said, Qianye learned eventually through the future of the novel as the story continued to follow her that the liquid that she was going to make from the the herbs and other ingredients—translated from elven tongue it was called Innocence—was something exceptional at cleaning up blood and all the different nastiness’s of dirt that plagued things.

Qianye chuckled a little to himself as he thought, ’Chu Xuan was once poisoned badly and they didn’t have the pills to heal him immediately. When she forced him to drink the thing he spent weeks shitting and puking constantly.’

It was a terrible end to live through honestly. What made is that much worse was the fact it could be made from some of the more common and accessible herbs around. The ingredients could be found easily in any lively forest.

So, it helped a lot that the shack he had been tossed into was nestled right by one of the forests of the sect.

Watching her now, Qianye decided on doing something that he had been hesitant to do all this time. Knowing that the rules of the sect were as they were and his condition, he didn’t at first want to show himself something that would very well make him happy only to have her taken from him soon.

However, he found himself unable to contain his curiosity now.

Qianye focused on her and opened her status.

Target: [ Name has been forsaken ]

Alignment: [ Esteem ]

Relationship: [ Loyal Servant ]

Destiny Grade: [ Fated ]

Fortuity Value: [ 1950 ]

Luck Grade: [ C ]

’As expected of someone like her,’ he laughed to himself mentally as his brows raised a little.

That being said, if he were being honest, from remembering one of the hypest moments of what should have been her future arc, he was left a little disappointed. ’But, considering that I am only towards the early stages of the novel, it should be safe to assume that Fated must be one of the lower ends of Destiny grades. Thinking of it like that, it’s hard to believe that for someone with a physique of her potential she is only this low...’

After all, as far as he knew about what should have happened with her from spoilers—since he was no where near finishing the book—even after the main story pivoted away from Chu Xuan as the protagonist, she should have continued to be an impactful character.

Thereupon, Qianye’s eyes narrowed a little, and he remembered the man that he had just killed, and Meng Jue. His attention went back to her Fortuity Value, and then he tried something he had yet to:

Speaking to the system.

’What happens if I kill someone that is Destined? Am I given all of their Fortuity? What would be the benefits and risks involved if there are any?’

To his shock, he actually received a response, however, it was not one that he was expecting:

[ Error 777: Free trial period has yet to conclude. Unable to provide an answer. ]

’Motherfucker, free trial?! What damned free trial?! My life is a free trial?!’

[ Error 777: Free trial period has yet to conclude. Unable to provide an answer. ]

Ouyang Qianye grimaced in extreme disgust and exasperation.

’Tell me when the free trial ends then!’ He glared, clenching his jaw looking at the black error screen with purple writing that was in front of his face.

[ Your free trial ends in 05h 32m 47s. ]

[ The better your performance against Destiny during this free trial period, the greater your rewards. ]

Qianye’s expression sobered significantly at that notification.

’In five hours... that should be the end of the day. And my performance against Destiny means...’ He thought of Meng Jue’s plot against him, and all of the consequences that would have come about from it.

The crack, rustlings and the snaps of the dried herbs resounded through the shack accompanied by the thud of the pestle in its mortar.

As he found himself wandering in his thoughts about the book he also couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

’If only I had known that I could have been transmigrated into this damned story.’ Such fanciful thoughts came to him.

It was only natural that they did because ultimately a lot of the time, especially when you consume so many large bulks of different online, long running stories, it becomes very difficult to seriously track everything that is happening at all times.

Many times you find yourself reading passively, missing details and only the really surprising or biggest moments stick with you.

Especially for what should have been a basic slop novel.

As a result of this, although Ouyang Qianye had been a reader of the book, ultimately, he was a flawed soothsayer.

He didn’t remember all of the details of things that should be happening far down the line. And with all of this incomplete knowledge then came the biggest issue, ’The more that I change to benefit myself now, the more unreliable my already dubious plot knowledge becomes.’

Ouyang Qianye watched her glance back at him, holding the mortar with the fully ground herbs in it. She had been walking out of the door when she turned and gave him a faint not, saying to him, "I will return shortly, master."

He nodded faintly at her, and then he waited silently, listening for the sound of her walking away.

"Sheiße..."1 he grumbled to himself the hand that was on his knee raised to scratch his head.

His hand lowered back down to his knee. She would be headed to the pond to get water for the innocence and then boil it, giving him perhaps ten to twenty minutes alone. Maybe longer if she immediately went to clean up the corpse outside after she was done.

There was only one other thing that was associated with Destiny within his immediately accessible vicinity.

’The way the system spoke, clearly there is more that it says I could do to earn better rewards later... Whether the time she is gone is enough or not doesn’t matter,’ he drew in a calming breath. ’I just have to risk speaking with a demon.’

Scheiße/Sheisse (German): It’s a common German expletive roughly equivalent to ’shit’. It is pronounced SHY-suh