Chapter 1 The Name: Xin Yuan

【Name: Xin Yuan】
【Type: Weapon】
【Quality: Perfect】
【Attack Power: High】
【Effect 1: Unyielding Iron. Passively triggered, reduces the user's sanity by 300 points when held.】
【Effect 2: Shakes Mountains and Drains Seas. Passively triggered, automatically suppresses surrounding natural disasters when held.】
【Effect 3: As You Wish. Actively triggered, inject spiritual energy to change size and weight. The more spiritual energy injected, the greater the change.】
【Effect 3 Cost: At least 100 spiritual energy points】
【Effect 3 Cooldown: None】
【Equipment Requirements: Strength attribute greater than or equal to 15 points】
【Note: Demons are easily subdued, but the restless mind is hard to tame.】

This staff named Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) came from an anonymous seller.

The seller posted information about this equipment in the small circle of information merchants, asking for a full 28,000 game coins, and leaving a message that no haggling would be accepted.

Due to the recent overall increase in the number of players, there is slightly more game currency in circulation on the market than before, and prices have risen slightly.

Currently, a perfect-grade weapon that can be used normally and has no obvious shortcomings

has a transaction price

that has risen to 14,000 to 18,000 game coins.

The anonymous seller's asking price of 28,000 game coins is almost double the average price!

It's more outrageous than robbing a bank.

The circle of information merchants is neither big nor small.

All information merchants have close ties with powerful organizations and private guilds.

28,000 game coins are indeed a huge fortune that individual players find difficult to accumulate,

but for large organizations, it is not an unattainable astronomical figure.

Other information merchants who received the news turned around to contact organizations to ask if there were any potential buyers,

but Mule decisively asked Li Ang directly through a friend link. The latter hesitated for less than five seconds before transferring the game coins to Mule's account.

When those interested organizations had determined to fund the purchase of this equipment,

it was already too late.

Mule bought the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) for Li Ang, and handed it to him in the Flawless Forge shop.

"28,000 game coins... before the Doorway Contest, it could have bought almost two or even three perfect-grade equipment."

Li Ang smacked his lips, looking at the Qi-level staff placed in his backpack.

As a perfect-grade weapon, this Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) has quite peculiar characteristics.

The first of the three effects automatically reduces 300 points of sanity when held, which is equivalent to imposing a negative buff on yourself as soon as you start.

Sanity is less affected by the player's personal attributes and depends on the tenacity of their will.

Even Li Ang, whose psychic ability has reached level six, only has a total sanity of 1600 points.

If a weaker player picks up the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey), their sanity might be halved, and they might even go crazy on the spot.

The second effect, Shakes Mountains and Drains Seas, can automatically suppress surrounding natural disasters, including but not limited to avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes, etc. It might be effective in certain situations and can be considered a bonus.

And the only active effect, As You Wish, changes the size and weight of the staff.

The effect is so reminiscent that it instantly brings to mind the legendary Ruyi Jingu Bang (The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod) –

"It can be bigger than the universe, or smaller than a needle. It subdues tigers and dragons everywhere, and eliminates demons and monsters in all directions. Raising it to point at the sky darkens the sun, and makes gods and ghosts tremble."

Of course, although the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) looks and has effects very similar to that golden cudgel, or the "Heaven River Stabilizing Divine Iron,"

there is still a considerable gap in the effects.

First of all, the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) is normally as thick as an eyebrow and nearly two meters long. It requires injecting spiritual energy to become bigger or smaller.

Even if you pour in 2,000 points of spiritual energy, it will not reach the level of the Jingu Bang in Journey to the West, which can stand upright like a pillar supporting the sky after becoming larger, and can crush monsters all over the mountains with a single roll.

As for shrinking it down and putting it in the ear, it is even more difficult. Not only does it consume a huge amount of spiritual energy,

but the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) will return to its original state after a period of time without injecting spiritual energy.

If you put it in your ear, you will accidentally exceed the time limit,

and the result will be that the staff suddenly returns to its original state and pierces your head.

Adaptation is not random compilation, and parody is not nonsense.

Although the Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey) is far inferior to the genuine Ruyi Jingu Bang, and cannot imitate that monkey's classic pose,

Li Ang is still quite satisfied.

His biggest problem now is that ordinary weapons cannot keep up with the strength of his body after the divine power restriction is released. They break after being used for a while, and it is better to just hammer them directly with his fists.

The Xin Yuan (Mind Monkey)'s hardness, however, does not have the problem of natural damage.

The effect of increasing weight after injecting spiritual energy is also very suitable for Li Ang's style.

After getting the equipment, Li Ang tried it out at sea and found it was indeed very suitable.

He went to Mule to ask for the specific information of the anonymous seller, to find out which script world the equipment came from, or whether it was opened from a treasure chest.

The answer he got was that Mule didn't know the seller's information either – after confirming that Mule had enough money, the other party used the game mall's auction house system to sell the equipment to Mule privately.

The payment of game coins was completed by the auction house.

Therefore, Mule didn't even know the other party's personal nickname or player ID.

"Why make it so mysterious?"

Li Ang maintained his spiritual energy training while following behind Chai Chai, walking on the commercial pedestrian street, thinking casually, "It's not possible that this equipment was obtained by the seller through deception,

so they want to hide their identity,

to prevent the original owner who was scammed out of the equipment from discovering and settling the score..."

As Li Ang thought about it, he suddenly felt several familiar mental fluctuations in his spiritual sense.

"Hmm?"

He looked up and saw that the people walking towards him were several classmates from the high school class of Experimental Middle School.

There were both boys and girls, wearing fashionable casual clothes, walking and talking with laughter.

The final exams of Experimental Middle School were finally over, and of course they had to find time to go out and play during the holidays.

Li Ang noticed them, and several classmates also noticed Li Ang.

"Li... classmate Li."

Several people stood in place, their mouths open as if they wanted to say something, and greeted him awkwardly.

"Yeah."

Li Ang nodded in acknowledgement, his spiritual energy constantly on alert, clearly perceiving their thoughts.

After the Yindao City Incident, Wang Congshan was promoted to a player, and Li Ang's identity was exposed, making it impossible for him to return to campus life.

The Special Affairs Bureau said it would help settle everything,

find the teachers and students in the school, and block information about Li Ang and Wang Congshan.

Two classmates were permanently missing from the class, and with the Special Affairs Bureau agents constantly talking to people and asking questions, even a fool would know what happened to Li Ang and Wang Congshan.

While they were still immersed in the joy of the end of the final exams, Li Ang and Wang Congshan had already embarked on a completely different path.

"Out shopping?"

Li Ang smiled friendlyly at his classmates, "Is the semester over?"

"Ah..."

A male classmate was stunned for a moment, until someone next to him gently poked his waist with a finger, then he reacted and said awkwardly, "Yeah."

Li Ang didn't mind the other party's embarrassment and asked casually, "How is Teacher Shi?"

"Teacher Shi is fine. His fractured injury has completely healed. He even participated in the teachers' sports meeting a few days ago."

The classmate's tone was slightly stilted.

From their perspective, Li Ang had always been a strange person with excellent grades, strange behavior, withdrawn and unpleasant personality, few friends, and unpopular.

They had been in the same class for two years, but they couldn't even be considered familiar, just ordinary classmates.

"That's good."

Li Ang nodded. He still had some gratitude towards his class teacher, Shi Qingsong. When he first started looking for a tutoring job, Shi Qingsong provided a lot of help, helping to contact families in need of tutoring.

After saying this, the atmosphere became awkward again.

Several classmates stood in place, not knowing what to say.

Only Chai Chai, carrying large and small bags, was still chewing candied haws as if no one else was around, making crunching sounds – Li Ang had given her a lot of pocket money.

Liu Wudai, who wanted to express goodwill towards Chai Chai, even gave her a dozen bank cards with unlimited spending limits, to buy whatever she wanted.

Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere did not last long.

Xing Hechou sent a friend communication, 【Brother Li, are you free? Where are you now?】

【Free.】

Li Ang sent the address to Xing Hechou and asked in the friend link: 【What's wrong?】

Xing Hechou: 【There's another special situation with the stargate on the Mayotte Islands, which was in the news before. Can you come over and see what's going on? We'll send someone to pick you up.】

【Okay.】

After Li Ang sent this message, the sound of helicopter propeller blades stirring the air, from far to near, immediately came from the sky above the pedestrian street.

A helicopter painted black all over and bearing the Special Affairs Bureau logo slowly flew closer and hovered in the half-air above the pedestrian street.

Several heavily armed Mobile Task Force agents with long guns and short cannons on their backs were sitting in the cabin.

The helicopter hovered in mid-air, and the propeller blades stirred up a strong wind. The surrounding pedestrians retreated quickly.

Li Ang smiled at the dumbfounded classmates in front of him, stepped on invisible steps, and together with Chai Chai, walked into the cabin and sat down.

They took the plane and flew towards the direction of the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters.