"Quick! Follow me!" Li Nanzhu suddenly lowered her voice. Grabbing the others who hadn't quite reacted yet, she dashed toward the grotto where they had hidden previously.
"What's wrong, Junior Sister? Are there pursuers?" Duan Xianxing was startled, hurriedly looking back with caution.
"Not pursuers! It's something big! Something incredibly good!" Li Nanzhu didn't look back, her small face filled with excitement and urgency as she ran out of breath.
The others were bewildered, but seeing how urgent she was, they didn't have time to ask and hurriedly followed.
The group rushed back into the grotto, giving the staying Rong Yuying, Zhu Yinxi, and the others a start.
"What's happened? Is something wrong?" Rong Yuying looked at the panting group, thinking they were being hunted by a powerful enemy.
"No time to explain!" Li Nanzhu wheezed, her eyes shining with an incredible brightness. She quickly pulled out her identity jade pendant and flags, her mind racing to calculate a certain possibility.
First, she rapidly transferred her excess points from her pendant to her Fifth Senior Sister, Feng Qingping, leaving herself with only 40 points while keeping the three flags she had just snatched from the Xuan Tian Sect.
Then, her gaze swept across Rong Yuying and Liu Qingyang before finally settling on Liu Qingyang. Her eyes held a determined look that said, 'You're the one.'
She steeled herself. If this method violated the rules, it was better to implicate her... no, rather, of course she should find her best friend to experiment with!
"Liu Qingyang! Come here!" Li Nanzhu's eyes flickered with a mischievous light.
Liu Qingyang felt a chill down his spine from her look and instinctively took a half-step back. "Wh-what?"
Li Nanzhu didn't bother wasting any more words. She pinned the dazed Liu Qingyang against the rock wall and snatched his solitary flag with movements that could only be described as rough.
Now, after some manipulation, the points in Liu Qingyang's jade pendant were also reduced to forty.
"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? This is a robbery!" Liu Qingyang was stunned by her sudden actions, his face a mix of confusion and grievance.
"Quiet!"
After confirming that both of their points were at forty, Li Nanzhu quickly shoved Liu Qingyang's previously confiscated pendant back into his hand. Then, she pointed at her shoulder and said urgently, "Quick! Hit me! Then take the points from my jade pendant! Hurry!"
"Huh?" Liu Qingyang was completely baffled. The others were also dumbfounded.
Li Nanzhu: "Don't ask! Just do what I say! Hit me now, then take the points from my pendant! After you take the points, snatch these three flags from my hand too!"
Liu Qingyang looked at Li Nanzhu, then at the equally confused Mu Wenyan, Duan Xianxing, and others. He couldn't make heads or tails of it.
But out of trust for Li Nanzhu, he followed her instructions and symbolically tapped her shoulder lightly.
"Ouch!" Li Nanzhu cried out in exaggerated pain, slumping weakly to the ground while quickly touching her jade pendant against Liu Qingyang's.
A flash of light signaled the rule had taken effect!
The points on Li Nanzhu's pendant instantly dropped from forty to twenty, while Liu Qingyang's points rose from forty to sixty!
"Quick! Take those three flags too!" Li Nanzhu didn't forget to command from the ground.
Following her orders, Liu Qingyang 'snatched' the three flags from her hand.
With the flags changing hands, the rules judged once more!
Because Li Nanzhu lost the flags, her points were halved again, dropping from twenty to a measly ten.
As for Liu Qingyang, because he captured three flags, his points jumped from sixty to ninety!
This series of changes happened in a heartbeat. Aside from Li Nanzhu and a thoughtful Feng Qingping, everyone else was staring in shock.
Duan Xianxing's eyes widened. "Junior Sister, what are you doing?! You gave all those points and flags you worked so hard for to him?"
He looked between Liu Qingyang and Li Nanzhu in disbelief. He would bet his life that his Junior Sister had no romantic interest in Liu Qingyang; after all, that red hair made him look like a delinquent!
Rong Yuying also frowned slightly, clearly not understanding the point of this maneuver.
However, seeing the bright ninety points on Liu Qingyang's pendant and her own ten points, Li Nanzhu wasn't dejected. Instead, her eyes burst with a brilliant light as she slapped the ground excitedly. "It worked!"
Only Feng Qingping kept her eyes fixed on the changing points, her mind rapidly calculating. Suddenly, she snapped her head up, her eyes flashing with the same light as Li Nanzhu's. She cried out, "I get it!"
She finally understood what her Junior Sister was trying to do!
She grabbed Li Nanzhu, who was about to continue the experiment, and said excitedly to Liu Qingyang, "You! Don't move! This time, let our Junior Sister rob you!"
Li Nanzhu looked at Feng Qingping in surprise. "Fifth Senior Sister! You understand?!"
Feng Qingping nodded vigorously, her face flushed with excitement. "Quick! Try the reverse!"
The others also sensed something was off and gathered around.
Li Nanzhu's spirit soared. She leaped up from the ground, fiercely snatched Liu Qingyang's pendant again, transferred his points, and repeated the process.
Liu Qingyang's points dropped from ninety to forty-five, while Li Nanzhu's rose from ten to fifty-five!
It didn't end there. Li Nanzhu snatched the three flags Liu Qingyang was holding again, and the points changed once more!
Now, Li Nanzhu had eighty-five points, while Liu Qingyang had twenty-two point five.
"Do you see it now?" Li Nanzhu held up her suddenly wealthy pendant, her voice rising with excitement. "The points! The total points increased!"
A dead silence fell over the grotto, broken only by the sound of heavy breathing.
Duan Xianxing lunged in front of Liu Qingyang, staring intently at the number 22.5, then whipped his head toward the clear 85 on Li Nanzhu's pendant. His mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.
"Seizing half... then seizing half again..." he muttered to himself. His gaze shifted from confusion to horror, and finally to wild joy. "Good heavens! This... this rule loophole is too huge!"
Mu Wenyan took a deep breath. Even as one who was usually steady, he couldn't hide his shock. "Defeating someone takes half their points, and taking a flag earns points while penalizing the other... If two people cooperate and 'plunder' each other repeatedly, because only half is taken each time, the remaining points won't hit zero, while the seized points stack... The total points will indeed snowball larger and larger!"
Only then did everyone reach a realization!
The rules stated: Defeating a disciple of another sect allows one to seize half of their current points; seizing a flag also triggers a penalty where the opponent loses half their points.
However, the rules did not forbid 'voluntary' or 'coordinated' transfers of points and flags!
What did this mean?
It meant that as long as two disciples from different sects cooperated, A could let B defeat them so B could gain half of A's points. Then A could let B take the flags, allowing B to gain points again while A suffered the point-halving penalty.
Through this back-and-forth, the total points actually increased out of thin air!
Just now, through Li Nanzhu and Liu Qingyang's demonstration, the total points between the two had gone from eighty at the start to one hundred and seven point five.
Although the growth wasn't staggering because the base numbers were small, the trend was undeniable!
This was clearly exploiting the settings of the 'point plunder' mechanism to engage in a bug-like score farming!
Rate on N.U.
