Chapter Eight: A

“There is no turning back in life; we can only move forward. Just a heads-up, there will be another version of Journey to the West in the future. Haha, I believe it will be utterly irresistible for everyone.”
The moment this post appeared, it lifted the spirits of his fans, yet left them in a bittersweet turmoil, soon followed by a flood of playful threats.

“Brother, you’re not allowed to torment my dear Xuanzang anymore, or my beloved Pigsy—especially our man, Wukong. Oh, will our Fairy Zixia appear in the next story? Who else will show up? Give us a spoiler, come on, it won’t get you in trouble.”

“I don’t care! If you make it any more heart-wrenching, I’ll revolt. Give me back my Fairy Zixia!”

“You mean brother, you made me cry so much last night that my eyes were all swollen this morning. You bully!”

“Whoa, what did I just see? Are you sure you meant that in an innocent way, or am I just reading too much into it?”

“Ugh, she meant her eyes, of course! She cried all night, so of course they’re swollen. You’re terrible for thinking otherwise.”

“…”

In less than half a day, hundreds of comments had poured beneath Su Tong’s post.

Su Tong smiled faintly but didn’t reply. His eyes were bright, and he chuckled to himself, hoping that day would not be too far off. He figured he’d be scolded again then, but even so, nothing could change the ending.

Su Tong was in high spirits now. With the help of the Little Demon, he checked on the faith energy he currently possessed. Ha! Thanks to his stellar performance the night before, he had gained over three thousand faith points in just one night and half a day, and the number was still slowly climbing.

“Little Demon, does this mean I’ve completed the task?” Su Tong asked as he lounged in bed. He was a bit nervous, since failure meant his ‘little guy’ would shrink by five centimeters—even in its dormant state.

It was broad daylight and Su Tong still hadn’t gotten up—not because he didn’t want to, but because before he went to sleep last night, he started suffering the system’s punishment, and now his little guy had been in ‘battle mode’ for twenty-four hours straight.

With that state, he really couldn’t face anyone, nor could he go anywhere. He had to avoid Xiaoyu and Xiaoxiao even for the most basic necessities.

Between ‘battle mode’ and hemorrhoids, Su Tong was in utter misery.

“Heh heh, Host, I’ve already submitted your task. The system accepted it and considers the task perfectly completed. I always thought it was called the Heavenly King System and only faith gained through singing would count, but it turns out telling a few jokes and stories works too.” The Little Demon was obviously up to no good—his words nearly drove Su Tong up the wall.

If he’d had to endure hemorrhoids for two days, and his little guy fighting for twenty-four hours, only to fail the task, where would he even go to cry?

“Does the system know how unreliable you are?” Su Tong said irritably.

The Little Demon snorted, “It has no intelligence. All it does is issue tasks, rewards, and punishments. Unlike me—I’m a demon with wisdom.”

“A demon with wisdom?” Su Tong was puzzled. “But you said you were the system’s assistant before. I thought you were sent by the system. Aren’t you two on the same side?”

“Pfft.” The Little Demon seemed to look down on the system and snapped, “You’re the one sent by the system! Your whole family is sent by the system!”

“Then where do you come from?” Su Tong laughed. This Little Demon was quite amusing.

“With your intelligence, it would be hard to explain,” the Little Demon sneered.

This system assistant was really arrogant. Su Tong teased, “Honestly, I think it’s your own intelligence that’s not up to the task.”

The Little Demon was indignant: “If you keep it up, I won’t help you anymore, hmph.” But from its tone, it didn’t sound particularly confident.

Su Tong was no pushover either. With a look of disdain, he said, “We’re in the same boat now. If I mess around, I’ll be eliminated, and you won’t escape either, right?”

The Little Demon was shocked: “You… you’re a real demon, aren’t you? How did you figure that out?”

“Well, obviously. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in life. I might have been a good person in my past life, but I know that good people rarely get good rewards. They aren’t good at expressing themselves, and if you don’t speak up, who will know you exist?” To be fair, in his past life, Su Tong had been weighed down by his parents’ illnesses from a young age. Their misfortune made his own life extremely hard, but he bore it all without complaint, his pure heart moving the entire nation and earning him the title of one of the top ten filial sons.

If not for his filial piety, and the media reports, after his birth parents passed away he would never have been adopted by a pair of wealthy, childless, kind-hearted people.

Su Tong believed that being reborn was already a tremendous blessing, but life had to begin again, and the Divine Stone System would never help him unconditionally; he had to give something in return.

“That’s right—the system requires the host’s faith energy. That’s your contribution. As for what you gain, I can tell you that the wonders of the system are far beyond your imagination,” the Little Demon said solemnly. “Now that you’ve completed your task, the system has unlocked some features. If you want to use them, you’ll need to exchange faith energy.”

Su Tong was delighted: “What features have been unlocked?”

The Little Demon was displeased: “Host, don’t be so impatient. Let me explain some rules and information to help you use the system in the future.”

Su Tong suppressed his excitement. “Go on, I’m listening.”

The Little Demon began, “Human thought is truly magical—it can generate incredibly strong power, and faith energy is one of the most potent forms. Many religions need followers, which leads to endless conflict, bloodshed, and even loss of life. You can imagine. What you need to do now is become a national idol, gathering faith energy for yourself and the system.”

Su Tong was amazed. So that’s how it was—how extraordinary.

“The faith energy you gather can be exchanged with the system for resources you need. Of course, the more valuable the resource, the more faith energy it will cost. For example, if you wanted the system to turn you into a Super Saiyan… well, let’s not talk about that. With your current potential, collecting enough faith energy to transform into a Super Saiyan is so distant it’s practically impossible,” the Little Demon said.

Su Tong’s jaw dropped. Good heavens, the system could actually transform an ordinary person into a Saiyan from Planet Vegeta.

“Stop drooling. The system won’t give you access to such resources now. It’s only unlocked some training features to pave the way for you to become a superstar,” the Little Demon scoffed. “Even if those features were available, you could only look at them and sigh. With just over three thousand faith points, you can barely even boost your combat power by a few points.”

Su Tong rubbed his hands together. Even if he couldn’t have it yet, knowing there was such a goal gave him infinite motivation.

“Little Demon, show me what features the system has unlocked,” Su Tong said eagerly.

Immediately, the Little Demon pulled up the system interface in Su Tong’s mind.

“The system has unlocked the Star Training Space, which is basic infrastructure. It costs barely any faith energy to redeem. Also, all the songs and books from your previous world have already been unlocked; you already know that. As long as you have enough faith energy, you can redeem them.”

Su Tong looked at the Star Training page. Though he was prepared, he was still pleasantly surprised.

Vocal training room, guitar training room, piano training room, violin training room, dance training room, acting training room…

“To become a Heavenly King recognized by the system, you have to enter all these training rooms and master each to a grandmaster level,” the Little Demon said.

Su Tong’s eyes widened. Who were they kidding? Some people devote their entire lives to a single field and never reach that level, and now he was supposed to achieve mastery in all of them?

“Don’t underestimate the system. After you integrated with it, you’re no longer an ordinary person. Your musical aptitude is a hundred times greater. As long as you’re willing to learn, you can reach grandmaster level in these skills. Besides, the time ratio in the training rooms is different from the outside: 365:1. One year inside is only one day outside,” the Little Demon explained, dutifully, since it was stuck in the same boat as Su Tong.

“365:1? My worldview is shattered. Can such things exist in the world?” Su Tong could hardly accept it.

“Shattered, my foot. Did you ever imagine you’d be reborn in such a world after dying? Why weren’t you so shocked back then?” the Little Demon snickered.

Ignoring the Little Demon, Su Tong checked the training costs for each room. They were indeed low—one hundred faith points for a year of training, and you could leave early if you wanted, but the minimum charge was one hundred points per session.

What he needed most now was vocal training, and then to exchange for song accompaniments—otherwise, singing a cappella was just too underwhelming, reducing the impact many times over.

“Help me redeem this piece and this song,” Su Tong said, inputting several titles. The prices popped up, all over a thousand points. He couldn’t get them all with just over three thousand faith points, so in the end, he only chose one song and one piece.

“Okay, they’re already in your USB drive.” Even before Su Tong’s words had faded, the Little Demon responded, quick as ever.

Now, with only a little over three hundred faith points left, Su Tong felt a sense of urgency. He thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Little Demon, shouldn’t the people who worship me do so for more than just a moment? Faith energy should be generated continuously, right? But as soon as I spend the faith energy, it drops to zero. Isn’t that a huge loss for me? There are only about ten billion people in this world, and even superstar idols don’t have a billion fans. No matter how great my future achievements, there’s a limit.”

Thinking of the legendary Super Saiyan, Su Tong was envious. At this rate, even if the whole world worshipped him as a true god, he’d never accumulate enough faith energy to redeem that transformation.

“Don’t worry—the faith energy you spend will slowly regenerate, at a rate of about one-twentieth per day. For example, if you lose three thousand points, you’ll regain them at a rate of one hundred and fifty points per day,” the Little Demon explained.

Su Tong was relieved. As long as it wasn’t deducted permanently, he was fine.

At this moment, Su Tong was unaware that, after his live broadcast the previous night, the recording of Xiaoyu singing “Catching Mudfish,” which he’d uploaded to the Great Qin Music Library, was already gaining traction and beginning to shine.

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