Isn't This a Game? Why Are You All Cultivating for Real!

Chapter 141: Chapter 141: A Matter of Convenience

Zhou Xiao stared at Zhan Sheng for a moment. "Have you commanded in games before?"

Zhan Sheng nodded. "You could say that. I’ve commanded in similar situations."

Zhou Xiao shot to his feet. "I’ll have the Feique Sect disciples figure something out. The demon beasts have an air force, which makes it hard for us to move."

When you’re playing a game, the one thing you need most is a commander.

This demon beast invasion is basically a small-scale siege battle. It’s best if someone steps up to lead.

The only shitty thing about this game, though, is that you can’t use voice chat for commands.

It completely cripples a commander’s effectiveness.

No matter how skilled Zhan Sheng was, right now she could only offer a few suggestions.

She didn’t know the players’ combat strength, and with her current abilities, she couldn’t go out to scout the demon beasts’ terrain. She was completely blind to the situation outside.

It was too far.

After giving Zhou Xiao her suggestion, she asked the system, "If I go to Open my Spirit Root now, how long will it take for me to get back online?"

System: "By the time you get back, the battle will probably be over."

"..."

Zhan Sheng thought for two seconds before making a decisive choice: she would Open her Spirit Root first.

There was nothing she could do by sticking around now anyway.

Just like the system, she could only stand by and watch.

Zhan Sheng returned to the novice area, hoping the veteran players could hold on. She didn’t want to log into a game only to have it be over right after she started.

After making her preparations, she consumed the Spirit Root Inner Core for Opening her Spirit Root and logged off immediately.

Before logging off, she saw her time.

Five hours and fifteen minutes.

It was a long time.

And it was calculated based on real-world time.

’I’m not sure if this talent is good or bad,’ she thought.

After logging off, she immediately started searching online for information about starting in a Broken Sect.

She then found the Yunzhou Continent website run by Han Tian. It not only had a current topographical map of Wang’an County but also one for another major city, Liu Xian City.

This was undoubtedly what Zhan Sheng desperately needed right now.

Meanwhile, the System immediately notified Song Jiulai. "Holy crap, she really has a Metal Spirit Root."

"Huh?"

Song Jiulai, who was already approaching the vicinity of the Fourth-rank Demon Beast, was also shocked to hear this. "You mean that female player with the surging energy, the one named Zhan Sheng?"

"That’s right! Five hours and fifteen minutes—that’s a Metal Spirit Root, no doubt about it. Shuitan only took three and a half hours. Look how much she surpassed that."

"Holy crap!"

Song Jiulai found it incredible as well.

She originally thought it might cap out at four hours, but she never expected it to go all the way to five.

What kind of heaven-defying talent was this?

For a moment, Song Jiulai was extremely tempted.

The System said, "Should we send her to a Major Sect? The Sea View Sect would go crazy with joy. She might even have a shot at getting into the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect..."

"No." Song Jiulai’s heart ached a little at the thought. "Her talent is actually too good. It’s too conspicuous. Attracting that kind of attention wouldn’t be good for us."

Someone like Shuitan was just right—talented, but not excessively so, and not so conspicuous.

Metal Spirit Roots are cultivated in secret by all the Major Sects. If we sent her away and they asked how we discovered her, what if some idiot decided to come to the Longevity Sect to investigate?

A Metal Spirit Root of Zhan Sheng’s age only being in the Early Stage of Qi Refinement was already completely illogical.

You could bluff your way through with a Purple Spirit Root, but you really couldn’t with a Metal Spirit Root.

A Metal Spirit Root was supposed to be a heaven’s chosen prodigy no matter where they went.

She did a quick calculation. "With our current resources, it’s not like we can’t afford to raise her. Let’s have her stay here for now."

In the Early Stages, her cultivation might not progress as fast as in other sects due to the lack of Spiritual Energy, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

We have mental methods like Palm Thunder. If things get really desperate, I can take Zhan Sheng to Demon Cave Valley to train.

The Spiritual Energy is abundant there, and there are plenty of demon beasts. It’s a perfect spot.

System: "She also seems to be part of the Commander System. She looks like she’s from a national team, but I’m not entirely sure."

"A commander?"

Song Jiulai jumped. "That’s even better! The Sect is short on commanders right now. We definitely can’t send her away."

Song Jiulai didn’t care if she was on a national team or not—what she needed right now was talent!

Having settled the matter of Zhan Sheng, Song Jiulai arrived at the Yin Sha Deer’s location with the fastest speed she could manage.

It was a journey that would normally take a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator two days, but she had forced her way there in just a few hours.

Admittedly, her route was relatively close to this Fourth-rank Demon Beast.

The moment she stepped into the Yin Sha Deer’s domain, she felt the yin energy.

’This feels so much like the sensation I get when I’m in danger.’

The auras of the Third-stage Demon Beasts could no longer be felt.

"Crap. Don’t tell me all those Third-stage Demon Beasts are already done for?"

Song Jiulai scanned her surroundings. With her Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation and her Sea of Consciousness already open, her perception was several times stronger than others at the same rank. She quickly locked onto the Yin Sha Deer’s aura.

To put it in terms of data points, she ’saw a small speck of light’.

The Yin Sha Deer also sensed Song Jiulai’s aura. Its massive head turned, its skeletal antlers emitting a sinister black energy as its hollow eye sockets locked onto her position.

However, Song Jiulai saw more of the situation than Honghuang and the others had earlier.

She noticed a faintly glowing fissure where the Yin Sha Deer was standing. Flames were constantly erupting from the fissure, but the Yin Sha Deer was blocking the view, making it impossible to see what was inside.

The Yin Sha Deer had just been guarding this spot without leaving; otherwise, Honghuang and the others wouldn’t have been able to escape just now.

Song Jiulai had no intention of wasting time with it.

’Let’s see what you’re made of.’

A bolt of Palm Thunder struck down to test its depth!

"ROAR—!"

Song Jiulai’s Palm Thunder was visibly thicker now, and when a bolt struck the Yin Sha Deer, it even had a suppressive effect.

The Yin Sha Deer, which had looked so full of itself, was blasted by the strike and leaped into the air.

Its roar was unlike other demon beasts’—it was a deep, muffled sound, as if amplified through speakers, echoing up from an abyss.

It was deeply unsettling.

System: "Oh, it’s got a subwoofer."

Song Jiulai: "..."

It was the System’s fault she could never feel nervous during a battle.

After the Yin Sha Deer landed, a vast black fog suddenly appeared around Song Jiulai, instantly casting a shadow over her vision.

The surrounding environment changed in a flash, and the Yin Sha Deer’s position could no longer be seen.

She was startled. "Holy crap, an instant-cast AoE attack! I thought it was single-target!"

The black fog crept in, and within it seemed to hide a kind of whispering. The rustling, hissing sounds made one’s head ache just from listening.

But Song Jiulai quickly came to her senses. With the System in her mind, she wasn’t particularly susceptible to these kinds of interferences. However, the black fog also dealt physical damage, so she simply ignited her entire body, wrapping herself in flames to force her way out of the fog.

The instant she plunged into the black fog, Song Jiulai felt a bone-chilling cold that even her mantle of flames couldn’t ward off.

It was so cold her teeth were chattering.

The black fog also contained sonic interference, and some things that looked like lost souls struggled to appear.

Song Jiulai saw Jin Shu’s savage face.

Back then, she hadn’t burned Jin Shu’s corpse, which had left a loose end. The main reason was that her cultivation at the time wasn’t high enough to incinerate his body.

Now, Jin Shu’s ghostly form looked just as it had before he died. His face was contorted in agony as he stared savagely at Song Jiulai.

"You killed me! You killed me!!!"

Song Jiulai sent a Fireball flying at him.

"So what if I did? It wasn’t even out of my way!"

She felt not a shred of guilt for killing someone who had tried to harm her!