Li Muyang was somewhat speechless, but no matter what, an increase in favorability was always a good thing.
Because as the favorability rose to 20%, new system messages popped up in Li Muyang's field of view.
[Favorability of Little Wild Grass has broken through 20% for the first time, cultivating progress has entered the Second Phase (out of five phases)]
[First Phase Cultivating Reward available for claim]
[Please choose your First Phase Cultivating Reward (choose one out of three)]
[Cultivation +1 (Qi Refining Realm Third Layer → Qi Refining Realm Fourth Layer)]
[Remnant Cloud Movement Technique]
[Ordinary-grade Flying Sword X1]
...
Seeing this series of system rewards, Li Muyang's expression immediately lit up.
Good! Very good!
After so many days of effort, he finally got the game clearance rewards.
Li Muyang had thought that he would get the clearance rewards only after defeating that assassin, but it turned out that he could get the rewards just by cultivating the girl's favorability.
The purpose of this game became very clear then.
That was, to max out Little Wild Grass's favorability straight to 100%. In this game, only favorability was real, everything else was illusory.
And there were four more stages of rewards waiting to be claimed.
If he could gain +1 cultivation each time he cleared a phase, then after clearing the entire cultivating system game, Li Muyang's cultivation could soar directly to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining Realm!
Not to mention, the rewards were still a choice of one out of three, aside from cultivation, he still had other choices.
From this perspective, one game could provide five times the rewards... No wonder the rewards of this cultivating system game were so ample, it explained the high difficulty.
After a moment of thought, Li Muyang finally chose the Remnant Cloud Movement Technique over the painful decision to give up the +1 cultivation reward.
Although getting something for nothing felt great, he now had the limitless Spirit Rice tank, and his cultivation could rise quickly; therefore, the growth in cultivation wasn't urgent.
What Li Muyang was lacking now were cultivation techniques and spells for self-defense.
The cultivation techniques available to Refinement Demon Sect's Outer Sect Disciples were the most basic, and the spells they had access to were mostly for menial tasks like the Little Cloud Rain Technique, with few serious spells.
An ordinary-grade flying sword would indeed be good and could quickly enhance his fighting ability.
However, Li Muyang had already seen rewards at the level of low-grade Spiritual Artifacts, and wasn't too interested in this ordinary-grade flying sword reward – what if he encountered a reward at the level of Spiritual Artifacts next time? Wouldn't that make this ordinary-grade flying sword a waste?
So after some careful calculations, Li Muyang chose the Remnant Cloud Movement Technique.
In both reality and the game, learning the ability to escape and save one's skin was definitely the most stable choice. As long as one was alive, everything else could be discussed.
As Li Muyang chose the Remnant Cloud Movement Technique, the content of this secret manual emerged in his mind.
[Remnant Cloud Movement Technique: A cultivation art of the mysterious Black Cloud Fort's Demon Cultivators, uses demon blood for quick body refinement, able to instantly increase movement speed and reaction speed (cost exempted)]
[Side effect: After using the Remnant Cloud Movement Technique, the user will enter a bloodthirsty state, requiring timely replenishment of fresh blood]
Accompanying this introduction into his mind was a set of bizarre body refinement techniques using demon blood for rapid cultivation.
Li Muyang blinked in surprise, feeling the dominance and aggressiveness of the content of the secret manual, as well as the so-called – cost exemption?
Did it mean that there were no side effects with the cultivation technique given by the game system?
That was another discovery!
Although most Demon Cultivator techniques provided quick results, they often had various side effects.
Like the newbie tutorial where Demon Cultivators of the Blood Demon Path transformed into monsters, that should be the side effects of their Blood Demon Path techniques.
But the Demon Techniques given by his cultivation system didn't have side effects... This was seriously amazing!
The system was really empowering! Bring on the cheats! Bring them on hard!
```
Having a game cheat is fun for a moment, constantly having it is always fun!
Li Muyang, feeling pleased, flipped through the newly-added "Remnant Cloud Movement Technique" manual in his mind and began to study this demonic technique of Body Refinement using demon blood. He planned to exit the game later and go down to the market at the foot of the mountain to buy some demon blood for Body Refinement.
But in the dimly lit mountain forest, the little girl who had been silent for a long time in the basket on his back suddenly spoke up.
"Um... Big brother..."
The little girl, previously silenced by a dismissive remark from Li Muyang, seemed to have made some sort of decision.
She hesitated, but still spoke.
"Let's go back to the fort, it's dangerous in this forest..."
The little girl actually took the initiative to ask Li Muyang to go back.
Li Muyang's train of thought was interrupted, and he became somewhat curious.
"Danger in the forest?"
He looked around the gloomy woods and said, "Do you mean the wild animals here? Or monsters?"
But the little girl shook her head and said, "It's not the monsters in the forest, but..."
At this point, the little girl hesitated again, as if she was struggling with whether or not to tell Li Muyang something.
But in the end, she bit her lip and said, "Big brother, actually, there has been a mysterious monster secretly chasing after me these past few days."
"When that trafficker was around, it feared him and didn't dare to get close, only daring to appear in my dreams."
"But now the trafficker is gone, and you left the fort, big brother. Now that we are in this forest, that monster could attack us at any moment."
As soon as the little girl finished speaking, three dialogue boxes suddenly popped up in front of Li Muyang.
[A monster appearing in dreams? Are you talking about a dream-eating demon?]
[A dead girl full of lies, do you think I would still believe you?]
[...（Please enter custom dialogue content）]
With the three dialogue boxes before his eyes, Li Muyang blinked.
Finally... the triggering happened!
He had failed so many times before and couldn't pry the key information from the little girl's mouth.
But now, unintentionally, he had raised the little girl's favorability to 20, and without Li Muyang having to ask, the little girl actually volunteered the truth.
Looking at the contents of the two dialogue boxes, Li Muyang hesitated for a moment.
He always felt the options provided by the system were too formulaic and limited in effect. He had been following the system's prompts for the storyline, but kept hitting roadblocks. On the contrary, when he let himself go, he cleared the Second Phase all at once.
With this in mind, Li Muyang first saved a checkpoint, then finally spoke up.
"So, you mean to say that if we go back to the fort, we won't be attacked by monsters?"
Li Muyang entered his own dialogue, not using the responses provided by the system.
And the little girl hesitated once more before saying,
"Maybe... that monster is really afraid of the trafficker, and in the fort, there must be people even scarier than the trafficker. If we go back to the fort, we should be safer than being outside."
No sooner had the little girl finished speaking than Li Muyang, still carrying the basket, abruptly turned and began sprinting in the direction they had come from.
This move signified that he actually believed the little girl and was following her advice to return to the fort.
This sudden action left the little girl dumbfounded for a moment.
"Eh? Big brother, you believe me just like that?"
Even after being deceived so many times before and having exposed her lies, now he so readily believed her...
The little girl in the basket was a bit bewildered, wondering what on earth this big brother was thinking.
Little Wild Grass, once again, realized that she truly couldn't understand this strange big brother at all.
```