144: Fragment Derivatives and "System" Wholesalers

Long Qianyuan's "express delivery retrieval" work did not end with the retrieval of Han Xiaofan, that "large item."

The logical fragment originating from the high-dimensional observer, during its descent into lower dimensions and its Fusion with Han Xiaofan, had quietly polluted and spawned a batch of "derivatives" as its scattered energy and information, like viral spores.

These derivatives were not complete fragments; they were more like "system afterimage" or "Law monstrosities" tainted by core concepts such as "analysis," "evolution," and "plunder."

They were scattered across various lower planes, attaching themselves to hosts encountered through various forms of Destiny, triggering "law worms" incidents far more diverse and chaotic than the Han Xiaofan case.

Long Qianyuan's welcoming flying boat transformed into a genuine "plane express vehicle," shuttling between various low-dimensional worlds where abnormal signals appeared.

He witnessed a dazzling array of "System" and their hosts:

In a magic plane, a down-and-out knight picked up an afterimage that called itself the "Strongest Knight System," thus embarking on a path of "devouring Demonic Beast Bloodline, analyzing enemy combat skills, and evolving his own armor."

He ultimately transformed himself into a monster with mixed Bloodline and armor that seemed to writhe like living flesh.

Wherever he went, Demonic Beasts degenerated, and combat skills were lost.

In a sci-fi plane, a frustrated mecha engineer was possessed by the "Hyper-Dimensional Tech Tree System" afterimage and began frantically "analyzing" and "optimizing" various technological creations.

This resulted in the entire galaxy's tech tree becoming severely imbalanced and highly unstable, causing the mechas created to spontaneously self-destruct due to Law conflicts, triggering a massive technological disaster.

There was also a Xianxia plane where an Alchemy apprentice obtained the "Myriad Pill Devouring System" afterimage.

Instead of performing Alchemy step-by-step, he directly devoured the essence of Spirit Medicine and plundered the Dao Rhyme of the Pill Furnace.

The Medicinal Pill he produced had bizarre effects: those who consumed them either experienced a surge in cultivation but had a weak Foundation, or they directly mutated into half-medicine, half-human monsters.

The fate of these hosts was largely the same: upon Long Qianyuan's arrival, the "system afterimage" within them was ruthlessly stripped away, and the hosts themselves were crippled due to their Foundation being destroyed or Law backlash.

Long Qianyuan's Seal bottles soon contained a row of "inferior pollution source" labeled with tags such as "Magic Plane Knight Monstrosity," "Sci-fi Plane Self-Destructing Engineer," and "Xianxia Plane Medicine Man Apprentice."

"Sigh, is there none that can actually fight?" Long Qianyuan sighed while labeling the newly retrieved "pollution source."

"They are all crude, inferior products, not even qualified to prop up Revered Master's flowerpots."

He felt this job was becoming increasingly boring; all he was retrieving was trash.

However, the situation soon took an unexpected turn.

In a strange plane centered around "card summoning," Long Qianyuan locked onto an exceptionally strong signal.

When he arrived in his flying boat, he did not see a single "law worms," but rather... a "System wholesale market"?

Inside a massive floating city constructed from energy cards, the flow of people was dense.

In the central square, a youth wearing luxurious card Revered Master robes but with the shrewd eyes of a merchant stood on a makeshift platform, enthusiastically hawking his wares:

"Don't miss out! The 'Myriad Realms Card Optimization System' trial version, a limited-time giveaway!

Just bind it with a wisp of Soul Origin and gain the supreme ability to automatically analyze card structures, optimize card combinations, and enhance card power!

Instantly transform from an ordinary card Revered Master into a Great Master of card creation!

First batch of one thousand trial slots, first come, first served!"

Below the platform, countless card Revered Masters were frantically crowding, scrambling to inject their Soul Origin into the thousands of faint light spots suspended before the youth.

Those light spots were the derivatives of the System fragments—copies of the "system afterimage"!

What surprised Long Qianyuan even more was that the youth host himself did not seem to be fully controlled by the "System."

Instead, he used a peculiar method to "control" and "replicate" the system afterimage within him, treating it as a commodity that could be "sold" in bulk!

Through this method, he not only avoided System backlash but also gathered massive amounts of Soul Origin and Power Of Faith, steadily increasing his strength in a bizarre manner.

"A bit interesting," Long Qianyuan muttered, stroking his chin, his interest piqued.

"Is this guy a business genius? Or did he just stumble upon this by accident?"

He concealed his presence and observed with great interest.

The youth, whom we shall temporarily call the "Card Merchant," had accumulated energy within him that reached a critical point after successfully "selling" hundreds of system afterimage.

A trace of cunning flashed in his eyes, and he formed hand Seals, quietly shouting:

"Power of the Systems, heed my command! All streams return to the Origin, forge my Card Divinity!"

In that instant, all the system afterimage he had "sold," regardless of where their hosts were, trembled violently.

A portion of their accumulated energy, analyzed card knowledge, and even parts of the hosts' Soul Power surged across space, converging into the "Card Merchant," like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!

The card Revered Masters who had purchased the "System" instantly felt their bodies hollowed out.

They collapsed onto the ground, their cultivation plummeting, while the "System" within them dimmed and nearly dissipated.

The "Card Merchant's" aura instantly skyrocketed, and a faint, powerful "Divinity" card, woven from countless card Law and chaotic System logic, subtly appeared behind him!

"Hahaha! Success! I am the ultimate winner!" The Card Merchant laughed wildly, feeling the surging power within him.

He planned to wait for the "Divinity" to stabilize, then retrieve all the afterimage and completely devour them.

At that time, he would become the sole "Lord of the System" in this plane, controlling all card Law!

"A good idea, unfortunately, the raw Materials are inferior." A lazy voice suddenly rang out.

The Card Merchant's laughter abruptly stopped.

He turned around in horror, only to see Long Qianyuan had appeared before him at some unknown time, curiously poking the illusory "Divinity" card behind him with a single finger.

"You... who are you?!" The Card Merchant was utterly terrified.

He realized that the power he had just acquired—enough to crush everything in the plane—was like paper in front of this person; he couldn't even move!

"Quality inspector," Long Qianyuan stated concisely, flicking his finger lightly.

The "Divinity" card, which had condensed the energy of thousands of system afterimage and countless card Revered Masters' Soul Origin, instantly disintegrated like a popped balloon, reverting into the purest energy and countless tiny, struggling system afterimage light spots.

Long Qianyuan waved his hand, roughly shoving all the afterimage light spots and the massive surge of energy into an extra-large Seal bottle, labeling it: "Card Plane, System Wholesaler (includes one portion of inferior Divinity Materials)."

As for the "business genius" Card Merchant, the instant the "Divinity" was stripped away, he was instantly reduced to ashes due to the exhaustion of his Soul Origin and the backlash, without even having time to scream.

"Tsk, playing with fire," Long Qianyuan shook his head, tossing the newly retrieved "large item" into the flying boat's storage.

Looking at the increasing number of varied "pollution source" bottles in the storage, a thought suddenly occurred to him: "So many 'System' remnants... if I bundled them up and sold them to those 'System operators' (although the last Architect was crushed by Revered Master, there might be others), I wonder how many chaos primal stones I could get?"

Of course, this was just a boring thought.

Cloud Court was not lacking in such resources, and selling trash would damage his prestige.

"Forget it. I'll just bring them back and see if Revered Master is interested in using them as flower fertilizer," Long Qianyuan yawned, setting the coordinates to return to Cloud Court.

Although this "Ascension reception" mission didn't present any decent challenges, the variety of "samples" collected was quite rich, making the trip worthwhile.

He just wondered what kind of expression the Court Master, who focuses on fish keeping and gardening behind the Star Gazing Hall, would have when he saw this pile of "inferior pollution source."