Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Eldest Senior Brother, We’ll Use Cheats to Carry You
[Zhou Nvzi: Tell me about it. We’re even trending now. People are saying we’re obsessed with this game, that we’ve even started spouting nonsense about it being a full-immersion game.]
[Wu Dahu: That’s normal. If I wasn’t playing it myself, I wouldn’t believe it either. Sigh, I wanted to keep playing. I just got my plot of land, but I have to sleep for work now.]
But there was something strange.
He was an office worker, after all, and even he would get physically tired after gaming for too long.
Besides, he’d been standing the whole time while playing the VR game; at the very least, his back should have been aching.
But after logging off, he didn’t feel anything wrong. In fact, his mind felt exceptionally clear and energized.
’My brain must be overexcited from the game,’ Wu Dahu thought. Worried it might be a bad sign, he replied to Zhou Xiao: [I’m going to wash up and sleep, or I’ll definitely be late tomorrow morning.]
Zhou Xiao: [Go ahead. I’m about to get back on. This lady is pulling an all-nighter, HAHAHAHA!]
She was still a student and on vacation, so she didn’t have to work.
Wu Dahu was so mad he could cry: [You animal! Karma’s gonna get you one day!]
Seeing that her login cooldown was over, Zhou Xiao gleefully logged back into the game.
Her login time was about the same as Han Tian’s, so if she was on, he would be on soon too.
And according to the time dilation between the two worlds, by the time she logged in, it was almost dawn on the Yunzhou Continent.
The morning mist rushed to greet her, and a gust of crisp air sent a shiver through Zhou Xiao, jolting her mind awake.
She suddenly felt as if her mind had never been so clear.
Zhou Xiao went to find the Sect Master to receive her mental method.
Song Jiulai had spent the latter half of the night putting on airs and was simply too tired to continue. Too lazy to keep up the pretense, she was just sitting in her main chamber in the courtyard, meditating and reading a book.
Some books for Cultivators could be read directly with the mind, while others were ordinary folk books. The one Song Jiu was reading was the latter.
On the Yunzhou Continent, the closer one got to a Major City, the fewer mortals there were.
Wang’an County, where Song Jiulai was located, was on the fringe of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect’s territory and still had mortals living among the cultivators. She had noticed that many folk books contained hidden records of strange and bizarre events.
It was even said that someone had once discovered clues to a powerful Cultivator’s tomb within a mortal’s biography.
The players could log off and pursue other hobbies to enrich their lives, but she couldn’t go anywhere on the Yunzhou Continent. Reading folk tales was her only pastime.
After coming to receive her mental method, Zhou Xiao secretly sized up Song Jiulai.
The Sect Master didn’t seem to pay her any special attention. After handing over the mental method, she just smiled and dismissed her.
’Damn, her temperament seems so good,’ she thought. ’She’s such a gentle little fairy.’
’I have to work with Lord Han and the others to make this Sect bigger and stronger!!’
After feeling the changes in her own body, she went to find A Wu. Han Tian also logged on around this time.
He was slated to test his talent right after Zhou Xiao.
This time, as Zhou Xiao came to test her talent, a crowd of players had gathered to watch.
Because as soon as Zhou Xiao touched it, the Spirit Stone finally showed a different color.
Purple!
Even A Wu was surprised. "Fourth Junior Sister, you’re amazing! It’s actually a Purple Spirit Root."
A Purple Spirit Root was excellent, and rather rare.
Only then did Zhou Xiao learn that this world categorized Spirit Root talent by color: white, blue, purple, orange, and gold. As the third talent in the middle, Zhou Xiao was already very satisfied.
The other players revealed looks of envy, jealousy, and hate.
"Holy shit, she got purple right off the bat."
"We didn’t even get a single blue earlier. The gap is too huge!"
"Sigh, some people are just blessed by the RNG gods from the start."
A Wu, however, just sighed. "What a pity, Fourth Junior Sister."
Zhou Xiao froze. "What’s a pity?"
A Wu said bluntly, "Our Sect is too poor and too remote. Even with your great talent, we can’t afford to support you."
Those with good talent are usually scouted by Major Sects when they’re young. The ones left over, with poor talent, naturally languish their whole lives away in the borderlands.
The Spiritual Energy here is poor, Spirit Stones are few, and there are no resources. Advancement is extremely slow.
For a sect like the Feique Sect, having one Golden Core cultivator is already an incredible achievement; their famous disciples are all at Foundation Establishment.
For Core Sects like the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect, disciples of this age are basically starting at the Golden Core Realm...
However, it wasn’t guaranteed that someone with good talent would be snatched away. If their talent was good but their comprehension was low, it would still be difficult for them to break through to a high Realm in this lifetime.
Zhou Xiao waved her hand. "It’s okay, Senior Brother. I don’t mind that our Sect is poor."
But then A Wu said something unexpected. "If you get the chance, Fourth Junior Sister, you should try to wait for the Major Sects to recruit in Liu Xian City and join another Sect."
Zhou Xiao’s eyes went wide. "Why? Senior Brother, isn’t that defecting from the Sect?"
But A Wu looked as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "How is that defecting? You have better talent, so of course you should seek a better place."
It was then that Zhou Xiao realized the mindset on the Yunzhou Continent was completely different from their own.
’Once you join a sect, you belong to that sect for life?’
That didn’t exist here.
That kind of loyalty was only required if you joined a Major Sect, were taken in by an Elder Level figure as a Core Disciple, and inherited their legacy.
Small sects were poor and couldn’t support talented disciples, so why would they hold someone back?
Some small sects would even proactively recommend talented disciples to Major Sects in exchange for resources, or even in the hopes that the disciple, after becoming successful, would give something back to their original sect.
This was a kind of favor. Although the law of the jungle prevailed, the world also operated on cause and effect.
Zhou Xiao exchanged a look with the other players.
Obviously, they couldn’t possibly leave the Longevity Sect.
’The whole game is based on the Longevity Sect. You think we can just leave?’
’If you could leave, then why do you think the main quest is to make the Longevity Sect bigger and stronger?’
Zhou Xiao had never considered leaving either. She looked at A Wu seriously and said, "First Senior Brother, that way of thinking is wrong! We were born people of the Longevity Sect, and we shall die as ghosts of the Longevity Sect! We were discovered by the Longevity Sect. If I left for a better place, what kind of person would that make me, Zhou Nvzi?"
The other players chimed in, "You wouldn’t be a person, you’d be a vile beast!"
Zhou Xiao: "..."
A Wu looked bewildered. "Huh? Is that way of thinking wrong?"
He was only twelve, after all; it was hard for him to understand grand principles.
He only knew that this was how everyone in the Cultivation World behaved.
A Wu said, "But I’ll never leave the Longevity Sect. I want to stay here my whole life."
He was just a Little Cultivator with poor talent and no grand ambitions. Staying in the Longevity Sect for his whole life was good enough for him.
Compared to the mortals at the foot of the mountain, A Wu, who had never known his parents, felt he was already happier than many people.
Zhou Nvzi patted her chest. "First Senior Brother, don’t worry! We guarantee we’ll develop the Longevity Sect into a Major Sect! From now on, you’re our First Senior Brother, and you’ll be our Sect’s First Senior Brother for life!"
The other players quickly chimed in, "Yeah, yeah! First Senior Brother, don’t worry, we’ll use our cheats to carry you! We guarantee we’ll carry you all the way to Ascension!"
A Wu was so moved that his eyes welled with tears. "Junior Sister, Junior Brothers... I... WAAAAH... you guys are too good to me! But... what’s a ’cheat’?!"
Han Tian suddenly appeared, cutting the conversation short.
"First Senior Brother, can we take a trip down the mountain?"
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