238: With the manager absent, Xiao Kai took over.

"Hehehe!"

Zhou Yan neatly organized the large and small items.

Even if it would only stay tidy for a while before being messed up again, he was still accustomed to tidying up first.

After dealing with these, Zhou Yan casually tied up his hair and changed into a loose, comfortable outer robe.

His entire demeanor softened considerably.

During this period, to maintain the effect of his title and maximize its efficacy, he had always worn clothes that leaned towards a domineering and handsome style, even choosing his dragon robes with this in mind.

Because once he put on such a neutral-style outer robe, he would appear somewhat effeminate.

He really didn't know if there would be a chance to adjust this in the future; it was indeed not very appropriate as it was now.

He was destined to be famous throughout the world in the future. If one or two perverts did something to his portrait, the mere thought of it was disgusting.

After all, when he looked in the mirror, he had ideas about himself, so it was hard not to speculate about others with base thoughts.

Shaking off these distracting thoughts, Zhou Yan rubbed his hands, ready to tally up his gains from this expedition.

The string of dinging notifications in his head before he fainted, and the screen full of red dots when he opened his panel, almost made him mutate on the spot and jam his fingers into his temples, spinning them wildly.

Although his dao body could resist such damage, it was indeed very painful and bizarre, so he held back.

Zhou Yan first clicked on the dragon boat Festival event and claimed the rewards for the challenge one by one.

Originally, in these leaderboards, ordinary players could at most get a participation award, such as experience points, a small amount of currency, and small gift packs.

Those with a bit of skill or who were willing to spend money might break into the top 500, receiving special rewards like titles and avatar frames, and there was also a chance to drop a Star Soul.

But because there were no other players, Zhou Yan, relying on the output of the true top contributor, Kun Gou, monopolized all the first places on the leaderboards with zero contribution.

Thus, he obtained 7 Epic Titles and Avatar Frames, as well as seven perfect quality Star Souls.

Unfortunately, the avatar frames were duplicates, so the latter six were converted into an equivalent amount of coupons, which were immortal fate stones.

Looking at the long string of numbers for the coupons in his inventory, Zhou Yan felt a bit conflicted.

"I never thought there'd be a time when I didn't care about coupons."

"Back on Blue Star, compared to other rewards, I valued coupons that could be directly exchanged for money more, at least enough to get a decent meal."

"Sigh, people really fall fast."

Without looking further, Zhou Yan casually recorded a ten-second selfie video and uploaded it to another event.

The video page was empty; it seemed this reward would also be available when tallied tonight.

He hadn't paid attention to the rewards for this event back on Blue Star, only heard they were quite generous. Now, he could look forward to it.

Finally, there was "Zongzi Fun," a mini-game about eating Zongzi, which, like the dragon boat race, was a purely civilian event.

Zhou Yan no longer cared for the items it gave, so he skipped it and turned his attention to the rewards of the Constellation Challenge.

"Let's see if these seven titles are useful."

Zhou Yan eagerly clicked on them one by one, but the result was...

"Huh? Is that all?"

Looking at this string of 'xxx Conqueror' titles, not only were the names similar, but the special effects were also quite tacky.

After reviewing the list of attributes, Zhou Yan shook his head repeatedly.

These titles did provide attribute bonuses, but the magnitude was too small, all 1% or 2% increases, and the types of attributes added were also limited.

Isn't this a joke?

Did those big spenders waste so much time and money on the leaderboard just for these meager rewards?

Although he grumbled, Zhou Yan dutifully equipped all the titles into his title bar.

Complaints aside, titles that didn't significantly alter his appearance or inner self were fine to equip.

Anyway, unlike online games, there was no limit to the number of equipped items here.

Indeed, after equipping these titles, Zhou Yan had no other obvious changes except that his eyes appeared brighter, as if they held stars.

But this was also a bit frightening.

His temperament was already somewhat neutral, and with a pair of captivating eyes, he himself was almost unable to distinguish whether he was a Reserve Holy Son of Qingxu Grotto-Heaven or a Reserve Holy Son of Joyous Union Sect.

Fortunately, "Dragon Phoenix Appearance" could still hold its own. As long as he matched his clothes well, his overall appearance remained in a neutral-to-masculine state.

Next were the rewarded Star Souls.

[Jiao Mu Jiao - Star Soul]

[Realm: Lv. 1]

[Vitality: 100]

[Magic Power: 25]

[Trait: Dragon Fights in the Wild]

Casually clicking on the attributes of one of them, Zhou Yan felt a sense of unreality.

"Only level 1?"

"Doesn't that roughly equate to the bottom tier of Qi Refining Cultivators?"

"A mere Qi Refining level is too weak."

He looked at the attribute interfaces of the other Star Souls; they were all level 1, but their attribute distribution varied.

For example, the Jiao Mu Jiao - Star Soul had very high attack and relatively balanced other stats, or one could say no outstanding points, but its skill could double damage for burst output.

The Room Sun Rabbit, on the other hand, was a standard support template, capable of clearing abnormal statuses and sharing some damage.

However, their greatest strength lay in the fact that they weren't categorized in the pet or mount slots, but rather in the skill summon slot.

Just like summoning skeletons or zombies in some online games, they were NPC units.

Not only did they not occupy mount and pet slots, but they were also easy to level up; as long as they received enough experience, they could generally keep pace with their master's level.

Even in the Middle Stage of online games, such summoned creatures were hot commodities, not to mention Zhou Yan possessed seven at once; he could truly become a Great Master of Spirits.

Not to mention, after collecting all seven, he could summon an Azure Dragon by consuming a large amount of cooldown time.

That Azure Dragon not only possessed the attributes of the seven Star Souls but could also use their skills, almost like seven children combining into a Mini-Voltron.

Because of this, Star Souls were extremely valuable back then.

If someone dropped one in a BOSS battle, it could fetch a good price.

Zhou Yan once had a stroke of luck, dropping one while fighting Tail Fire Tiger, selling it for 120 yuan, which made him happy for a while.

Zhou Yan didn't hesitate, refining them all in one go and stuffing them into his skill bar.

These were truly good things!

Although they would definitely be weaker than when he was a World BOSS, they could enjoy player bonuses.

He thought about how in the Late Stage of the game, some people would bring their cultivated summoned creatures to fight return events.

A level 150 Star Soul Jiao Mu Jiao - Star Soul fighting a level 75 BOSS Jiao Mu Jiao - Star Soul, and even when the opponent entered its second phase, his own could transform into an Azure Dragon and also enter its second phase.

Then when he also developed to the Late Stage, it would be hard to say who the BOSS truly was.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yan couldn't wait to upgrade them, and then he realized.

"Holy crap! Where's my experience!"

In his inventory, there was only one Soul Transformation-level crystal, half a Nascent Soul crystal, and some miscellaneous small crystals.

The Body Integration-level crystals that should have appeared in his inventory, and the crystals that BOSSes of Kun Gou's level should have dropped, were all missing.

They neither appeared as crystals nor were they converted into experience points.

Zhou Yan immediately became enraged, directly opening customer service and first cursing out the AI, receiving a bunch of replies like "I don't understand what you mean, I am learning," and then applied to check his experience point ledger and combat records.

Then, he saw a desperate scene.

"What do you mean Duke Zhenguo's second phase is a prerequisite for the Kun Gou BOSS battle, and killing a prerequisite monster doesn't count as a kill?"

"What do you mean Kun Gou wasn't killed by me, he was already killed in ¿∑♦†¥øπ∂ƒß♦∆ years, and because the time span was too long, my participation progress was also cleared to zero, so there's no reward?"

"Can you even understand this string of garbled characters yourself!"

"Don't these words make you laugh when you hear them yourself!"

"Seeking the Dao designer, I..."

Ten hours later.

"My furious flames have burned out, and suddenly I feel absurd."

"It's just a temporary gain or loss, why should it disturb my mind?"

"It turns out obsession arises from greed and anger; letting go brings clarity. The Dao is in daily life, and also in a single thought."

After venting his anger, Zhou Yan felt his mind clear, no longer swayed by external things or personal sorrows.

Although the loss of that huge amount of experience points still pained him somewhat, he no longer cared.

It definitely wasn't because he got carried away with cursing and accidentally spoke that name aloud, even adding insulting words, which immediately made him feel suffocated, clutching his throat and struggling on the ground for nearly nine hours. No, definitely not.

Zhou Yan subconsciously touched his neck again.

Could that person really still be alive?

Recalling the long string of "Law Invasion" indicators on his panel just now, Zhou Yan felt more and more afraid.

But why was it fine when he secretly cursed before, but now it caused problems?

Was it because of Invoking the Gods?

A chill surged through his heart, and he remembered the celestial phenomenon he had witnessed that day. He dared not think deeper and simply continued to tally his rewards.

There wasn't much left, just that side quest.

Zhou Yan took a deep breath and clicked to settle the side quest.