Su Luo closed the diary and with a casual wave, the diary vanished.
For a moment, he felt a sense of relief, as if he had vented his emotions in an unconventional way.
After a while, the system sent a notification.
【Diary completed. Please watch a 30-second advertisement to receive your reward.】
What the hell?
Watching ads? What kind of system is this? So low-class! Who ever heard of a system that needs ad sponsorships?
This is so embarrassing.
But for the sake of the reward, I’ll endure it. 30 seconds is just 30 seconds. Let’s watch it.
【Diary completed. Reward: Constitution +1, Strength +4, Cultivation level increased by one stage.】
【Special ability obtained: My Pain is Greater Than Yours.】
【When attacked, you can transfer 10% of the damage you receive to a designated target.】
What the...
Tears welled up in Su Luo’s eyes!
He thought the system would give him some useless rewards, but this was way beyond his expectations.
Although he wasn’t sure how Constitution +1 and Strength +4 were calculated, he could feel that his body had become stronger and more resilient.
The cultivation level increase was easy to understand. Originally at the early stage of Qi Refining, Su Luo had now directly advanced to the mid-stage.
The cultivation levels in this novel were set as follows: Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Void Refinement, Great Ascension, Tribulation Transcendence, and Immortality.
Each level was divided into early, mid, late, and peak stages.
Advancing one stage directly saved him a lot of time that would have been spent on cultivation.
As for the special ability, it essentially gave him 10% damage reduction and 10% damage reflection.
If I take 90% of the damage, you’ll also take 10%. Truly, my pain is greater than yours.
If the rewards are always like this, do I even need to work hard?
Of course, I do. Everything I’ve gained is the result of my step-by-step, hard-earned cultivation.
Opening the diary again...
It’s not Su Luo’s fault for thinking about cheating. It’s the author’s fault for being too lazy to create new villains, recycling the same ones over and over.
Su Luo was naturally one of them. In other novels, a villain like him would be gone in a few rounds.
But in reality, Su Luo had to constantly do sit-ups, being defeated over and over again but miraculously surviving, only to return at the right moment to be humiliated by the protagonist. He was even worse off than the Wolf from "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf."
Even by the end of the story, Su Luo’s combat power could barely keep up with the protagonist’s.
What does that mean?
Without the protagonist’s plot armor, achieving this required paying an enormous price.
Things like practicing demonic arts, burning through his potential, accumulating hidden injuries, and even sacrificing his lifespan.
To make it to the end, Su Luo spent the latter part of his life in constant pain. Even when he wasn’t in the story, he had to endure the lingering effects of his injuries. The pain was worse than giving birth to ten children at once.
But now, with the diary, he might not even need to cultivate to keep up with the protagonist.
So why bother cultivating?
Indeed, once you accept your lazy self, you become invincible.
......
At the same time, in the Li family of Autumn Wind City.
Li Siyi pointed at the diary in front of her and asked her maid, “You really can’t see this?”
“Miss, see what?”
“Never mind, you may leave.”
The diary had suddenly appeared in front of her, startling her. She thought someone was ambushing her and immediately slashed at it with her sword.
But the diary remained completely undamaged.
What was even stranger was that Li Siyi could make the diary disappear or reappear at will.
On the cover of the diary was written: Su Luo’s Serious Diary.
Li Siyi’s face instantly darkened, thinking this was some trick of Su Luo’s.
But then she realized Su Luo didn’t have the ability to do something like this.
For Li Siyi, reading someone else’s diary was beneath her, especially Su Luo’s diary. It was so lowly that she wouldn’t even use it to wipe the floor for fear of dirtying it.
But the diary was too mysterious. Li Siyi couldn’t resist and opened it to take a look.
【...Not very capable but acts like she’s the best... Oh, she doesn’t have much intelligence anyway, so it’s fine...】
The more Li Siyi read, the angrier she became. In the end, she threw the diary on the ground and stomped on it several times.
If it weren’t for the fact that the diary couldn’t be destroyed, she would have burned it already.
“How dare he call me an idiot? And he says he can tolerate me just like he tolerates all the idiots in the world? That’s what I want to say! Do you know how much I have to endure you every day?”
“You don’t even know what you’ve done, always clinging to me shamelessly, and yet you have the nerve to criticize me?”
“How dare you slander me? I can’t tolerate this anymore.”
Li Siyi grabbed her sword and stormed off to confront Su Luo.
Wait!
Halfway there, Li Siyi stopped.
“What if this is a trap?”
Li Siyi summoned the diary again. Since only she could see it, it couldn’t be used as evidence.
If she went to the Su family now, she’d just be making a fool of herself.
Besides, how could I, a living person, be a character in a novel?
Maybe this is just my inner demon...
After some thought, Li Siyi calmed down and smirked coldly: “A petty trick. Good thing I’m smart, or I would’ve fallen for it.”
But the more she thought about it, the less convinced she became.
In the end, she suppressed her anger and read the diary again. After calming down, she realized she had overlooked something important.
It was about her ancestor’s treasure.
Li Siyi hurriedly searched through the main hall.
The object used to prop up the table wasn’t obvious, but even in the Li family, there weren’t that many tables. If she looked carefully, she would find it.
This... this is real...
Li Siyi found the object and removed its disguise, revealing a treasure—a crystal-clear, crescent-shaped pendant.
The Clear Moon Pendant!
She had seen this in her family’s books when she was a child. It was indeed her ancestor’s treasure, and the patterns on it matched the descriptions in the books exactly.
It was said that the Li family’s rise was due to this pendant.
But it had gone missing later.
So, what the diary said was true?
Li Siyi was no longer calm.
......
The next evening, Li Siyi’s 18th birthday banquet began as usual.
Su Luo, also 18 years old and quite handsome, had dressed up for the occasion. He didn’t deliberately dress poorly—his character demanded it.
Dressing up nicely just to be beaten in style.
As for the diary, Su Luo had written a lot more the previous day, taking every opportunity to insult Li Siyi, hoping to milk some rewards.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work. He got nothing.
The system explained that only diary entries related to the current plot would yield rewards, and they had to be connected to recent events.
So writing about mid or late-stage plot points wouldn’t give any rewards.
Su Luo’s dream of becoming overpowered in a few days was shattered.
But before leaving, Su Luo decided to write a little more.
【It’s been a few days. September 1st, clear weather.】
【I wrote a lot yesterday but forgot to mention something important.】
【Today, I’m giving Li Siyi a birthday gift—the Su family heirloom, the Starfall Jade Bracelet. Pretty extravagant, right?】
【Actually, this heirloom isn’t anything special. It doesn’t have any unique abilities.】
【But it’s needed to activate the Clear Moon Pendant. Right now, the pendant can only function at 30% of its full power.】
【Just from this, it’s obvious what fate awaits the Su family—stepping stones for the protagonist.】
【Tonight, Li Siyi won’t accept the bracelet. Giving it to her is just to show it off to the protagonist, setting the stage for future events.】
【In the end, it will all fall into the protagonist’s hands, contributing to his strength.】
【So, wherever the protagonist goes, he finds treasures. All the good stuff is prepared for him.】
After jotting this down, Su Luo prepared to attend the banquet.
This time, the reward was pretty ordinary—just a few points in agility and defense. His cultivation level didn’t even increase.
Probably because the diary entry was too shallow.
......