Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 31 Liaoli
In Iron Army City, in an extremely secluded courtyard.

Qi Yuan sat at a stone table in a pavilion in the courtyard.

In front of him stood a thin little girl, less than 1.5 meters tall, who looked like a small child.

The girl had extremely messy purple hair, slightly pointed and slender ears, and mysterious purple patterns on her face.

Although he was slender, his body was taut when he stood, exuding a strong sense of power.

"Become my disciple," Qi Yuan commanded directly.

Upon hearing this, the girl-like figure knelt down without hesitation and kowtowed to Qi Yuan.

"Disciple Liaoli greets Master!"

As the figure bowed down, the system notification finally sounded in Qi Yuan's mind.

[Target: Liaoli, base return rate 30x, can be bound!]

That's right!

The thin figure in front of him was the 'outstanding disciple' that Qi Yuan had found after searching almost the entire warehouse of the largest merchant group in the slave market.

A hidden 'genius' with a base return multiplier of 30x!
"Bind!"

Qi Yuan chose to bind without hesitation, and immediately the information about this disciple appeared on the system panel.

Name: Liao Li

[Ethnicity: Li people of Sichuan]

[Realm: Stellar Level, Second Order]

[Attribute: Thunder]

[Cultivation Style: Martial Artist]

[Base return rate: 30x]

"The attribute is also lightning? Heh, not bad, this way I can continue to grind experience in the lightning domain!"

Qi Yuan nodded with great satisfaction.

"Get up." He looked at the kneeling figure in front of him.

"is teacher."

Upon hearing this, Liao Li, the second disciple who was thin and had just become Qi Yuan's apprentice, silently stood up.

Logically speaking, even a slave would be somewhat surprised if his master suddenly asked him to become his apprentice.

However, on Liao Li's face, there was hardly any trace of human emotion, let alone surprise.

This is the most common manifestation of the unlimited suppression of personal emotions under the long-term control of biochips.

Qi Yuan silently shook his head as he looked at the disciple's empty gaze that seemed to disregard everything, but in the end, he removed a tiny black chip from the auxiliary computer.

This is the control terminal corresponding to the biochip in Liaoli's brain.

"Chi~"

A wisp of primal force burst forth, instantly pulverizing the control terminal into a cloud of dust.

At the same time, Liao Li, who had been wearing a dejected and indifferent expression, seemed to suddenly freeze—

After a moment, she looked at Qi Yuan with some disbelief.

"Why, for?"

"I'm taking on disciples, not looking for slaves."

Qi Yuan stood up with a faint smile, looking calmly at the thin figure in front of him.

“I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I can generally empathize with you. After all, not long ago, I was also a slave, just like you, being arbitrarily controlled and sold.”

"What? You too?"

Liao Li's eyes finally showed a bit of liveliness, but when she looked at Qi Yuan, she still revealed a faint tension and wariness.

"So...you rescued me because you want me to do something for you?"

"doing what?"

Qi Yuan was taken aback, then shook his head and smiled, "There's no need to do anything. As I just said, I'm looking for a disciple, and you're just the right person for the job."

"If I had to tell you what to do, then just work harder in your cultivation from now on."

As Qi Yuan spoke, he added in his mind, "Make sure you return it quickly too."

"Is it really just as a disciple?" Liao Li still couldn't quite believe it.

Buying slaves to be disciples?

This... this kind of thing just sounds unbelievable.
After all, she was just an ordinary second-tier stellar slave, with neither powerful bloodline nor special background.

Even she herself didn't understand what was so appealing about her that the other person valued her.

Qi Yuan smiled inwardly at her suspicious expression, but did not offer any further explanation.

He himself was not entirely clear about the system's criteria for judging 'qualification'.

However, he knew one thing: those with higher base return rates must have better 'qualifications'. As for the specifics of why they were better, only time would tell.
After a moment's thought, Qi Yuan flipped his hand and took out a second-tier Force Armor that he had previously seized from the three-eyed man and the others he had killed.

"This is a Tier 2 Force Armor. Once Force is injected, it can instantly cover your entire body. Consider it a gift from your master."

He controlled a wisp of the Force to lift the silver-white battle suit and fly towards Liaoli, while secretly communicating with the system to select it as the 'gift' to trigger the return.

Now that he has disciples, he naturally wants to use up the one-time return opportunity he has accumulated.

"Huh? For me?"

Liao Li took the Force suit somewhat blankly. After tentatively injecting a wisp of Force into it, the suit immediately spread rapidly like water, enveloping her entire body.

"This, this feeling, could it be... the legendary divine battle armor?!"

Feeling the powerful energy surging within her silver-white battle suit, a look of shock appeared on her face.

This is a treasure known as the Divine Armor in her tribe, and it has always been reserved for the most powerful tribal chiefs throughout history!
If she hadn't seen her father use it before, she probably wouldn't have recognized this treasure!

At this moment, her gaze toward Qi Yuan gradually took on a slightly different hue.

Such a precious treasure is given away so easily; does the other party really intend to train me as a disciple?
"Thank you, teacher."

She spoke to Qi Yuan with some unease.

"Haha, my good disciple, I'll buy you something even better when I have more money!"

Qi Yuan laughed heartily.

Because just now, he had already heard the system notification sound in his mind at the same time—

[Successfully gifted a second-tier Force Battle Suit to the disciple!]

[Base return rate 30x, return begins.]

[The gifted item has brought great joy to the disciple, triggering a 30x critical hit reward, with a final return multiplier of 900x!]

[Reward: One Tier 3 Force Armor, already stored in the system space, available for collection at any time.]

"Tier 3 Battle Suit!"

Qi Yuan's spirits lifted slightly.

While there isn't a clear distinction between high, medium, and low grades within the same tier of Force suits, the price difference between each tier is far more dramatic.

A Tier 3 Force Armor would cost at least tens of billions of Eternal Coins!

A Tier 2 battle suit worth tens of millions of yuan can be transformed into a Tier 3 battle suit worth hundreds of billions of Eternal Coins in the blink of an eye. The feeling of such a sudden increase in wealth is just too amazing!
He looked at Liao Li, who was standing to the side, his eyes filled with expectation.

A high base return rate is great; a single critical hit can yield hundreds or even thousands of times the return.

It seems I won't have to worry about money anymore!
"You've just escaped, so your mind must be quite confused right now."

Qi Yuan smiled at Liao Li and said, "All the rooms in this courtyard are empty. You can choose any one and go rest for a while. We can talk about cultivation later when you've calmed down."

"Yes, thank you teacher."

Liao Li's experience today was quite bizarre, and his mind was indeed somewhat confused at the moment.

Upon hearing this, she didn't act coy. She gave Qi Yuan a slight bow with a touch of solemnity and then casually chose a room to stay in.

After she left, Qi Yuan quickly began to plan his next move.

Now that he has successfully escaped from Thunderstorm Star and has received disciples with good returns, it's time to use the system to quickly improve his strength!

Soon, he had a general plan in mind—

That means emphasizing both 'making money' and 'cultivation'!
You should not only use the cultivation experience provided by the system to quickly improve your realm, but also allocate return opportunities reasonably to quickly accumulate a large amount of wealth through gift-giving and return.

After all, in the future, whether it's purchasing more powerful secret techniques, weapons, battle suits, entering the virtual universe to attend classes and learn, using some special functions, or even training disciples, all of these will require a lot of money.

In this powerful world, money may not be everything, but you can't do anything without it!
"By the way, before that, shouldn't I find a powerful backer?"

>Oo< Seeing everyone's feedback that the version posted at noon wasn't very satisfactory, and was a bit problematic, I've made some minor modifications, removing that unpleasant part. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
We welcome continued feedback and suggestions from all experts. Please point out any shortcomings.
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(End of this chapter)