Chapter 23: Chapter 23: The Sprouting of Everything
Su Huanli had gone out for training, so now the only person in the Feique Sect she could contact was Senior Sister Shui Ping.
After two days in the game, she had finished part of *A Comprehensive Guide to the Minerals of Yunzhou*. She had just started to slack off when the System spoke up.
"In your fighting years, how can you rest to read novels?"
Song Jiulai: "...Even a workhorse needs a rest, right?"
She didn’t need to sleep at all anymore; as long as she kept her Spiritual Energy circulating slowly, she could maintain a clear head.
Ever since arriving on the Yunzhou Continent and awakening her Spirit Root, she hadn’t taken a single break.
It was either reading or cultivating. Even a real workhorse couldn’t take this kind of abuse.
System: "You can rest, but not for too long. Three minutes should be enough, right?"
Song Jiulai: "..."
’You’re some kind of slave-driving system,’ she thought.
"Sect Master!"
A Wu’s voice suddenly called from outside. Song Jiulai pulled her legs down from the table, stood up straight, and walked out the door. "What is it, A Wu?"
A Wu sounded a bit puzzled. "Just now, when I was harvesting Spirit Grass, I saw a Stealing Spirit Mouse heading toward the juniors’ Spirit Fields. This time, they didn’t bite the Spirit Grass. Instead, they took a couple of bites out of the junior brothers. I chased them away, but the Stealing Spirit Mice have started attacking people. Should I report this to the Feique Sect?"
Song Jiulai’s heart skipped a beat.
The Stealing Spirit Mouse was a First-rank Demon Beast. It lacked intelligence and lived by gnawing on Spirit Grass.
However, they were timid by nature. They could usually find wild Spirit Grass in nooks and crannies and would only occasionally bother the ones planted by Cultivators.
Though they were a nuisance, they were incredibly fast. Ordinary disciples in the Qi Refinement Realm couldn’t catch them, so they usually just focused on shooing them away.
But a Stealing Spirit Mouse injuring someone?
That had never happened before.
There were a number of First-rank Demon Beasts on this mountain. The Feique Sect hadn’t dealt with them because everything has its own ecosystem. The existence of these demon beasts ensured a certain degree of Spiritual Energy circulation. Only demon beasts that harmed people would be eliminated.
A Stealing Spirit Mouse attacking her disciples?
Song Jiulai quickly put two and two together.
These players were all made of puppets, and the raw material for the puppets was medicine powder made from Spirit Grass. In the eyes of a Stealing Spirit Mouse, they were giant, glowing balls of food. It would be weirder if they *didn’t* take a bite.
But the people of the Feique Sect didn’t know that.
If someone discovered that the players’ bodies were actually made of puppets, there would be no way to explain such a heaven-defying matter.
Song Jiulai immediately asked, "Are their injuries serious?"
A Wu pondered for a moment. "Not really. One of the junior brothers just got licked, but he screamed bloody murder. I think he’s afraid of mice, so he was just grossed out."
To be honest, the Stealing Spirit Mouse wasn’t ugly. Its appearance was at least on par with a squirrel’s, so it was actually quite cute.
"Then it’s fine," Song Jiulai said with a wave of her hand. "The Stealing Spirit Mice are naturally timid. Just tell the junior brothers to be careful and shoo them away."
"Oh."
A Wu took two steps, then suddenly turned back. "So, can we raise them?"
Song Jiulai was stunned for a second. "Raise who? You mean the Stealing Spirit Mice?"
A Wu mumbled a quiet, "Mhm."
"Was this the junior brothers’ and sisters’ idea?"
A Wu would never have come up with something like this on his own.
A Wu was a traditional local Cultivator. In his mind, a demon beast was a demon beast. No matter how cute a Stealing Spirit Mouse was, it was still a demon beast.
Besides, Stealing Spirit Mice ate Spirit Grass. Apart from the Beast Taming Sect, which had special methods for rearing them, no ordinary Cultivator with nothing better to do would raise an unintelligent demon beast.
They only eat, don’t work, have no intelligence, and when a fight breaks out, they run faster than you.
Their main feature was being useless.
Only a player could have come up with such a terrible idea.
A Wu said sheepishly, "Sect Master, I also think it’s inappropriate, but the junior brothers kept pestering me..."
But a few other players had gotten ideas after seeing how cute the Stealing Spirit Mice were.
’We’ve come to the Cultivation Continent. Artifact Refining, Alchemy, Beast Taming—don’t you have to try them all?’
’We can’t afford the high-end stuff, so we’ll start with the low-end route!’
A Wu was young, after all. He was called the senior brother, but he didn’t have the senior brother’s presence. A bunch of sly old hands had goaded a child into asking.
Song Jiulai put on a stern face. "A Wu, tell them this: if they want to raise them, they can. However, Stealing Spirit Mice eat a lot, and they sometimes damage the Spirit Grass Fields. If they can’t handle that, then they shouldn’t raise them. They’ll also be responsible for any losses."
A Wu: "Then I’ll go back and tell them."
After A Wu left, Song Jiulai still had the System issue a warning to the players.
[DING: Players must first inquire with the System regarding any new undertakings. You may only proceed after receiving the System’s approval.]
The System was bound to everyone, but it didn’t monitor them 24/7, as that also consumed energy.
The System would only appear if their actions triggered an alert or if they summoned it themselves.
Hearing this warning, the online players immediately understood.
"See? I told you we should have asked ourselves."
"Exactly. It’s just raising a pet, and we made a kid go ask for us."
"He’s the senior brother, for crying out loud! We can’t bully him!"
...
A Wu came down from the Sect Master’s courtyard, full of excitement, and quickly shouted to them, "The Sect Master said we can raise them!"
At the same time, a System notification came through.
[DING. Regarding the issue of rearing demon beasts.]
[Players may rear demon beasts they have captured. Before the beast is fully tamed, the player will be held solely responsible for any and all losses caused by the beast within the Sect. The player must also bear all costs for the demon beast’s food.]
With this notification, everyone knew where they stood.
The player who had been licked by the Stealing Spirit Mouse jumped to his feet.
"You guys still want to raise rats?"
Ma Xiaoniao’s brother, Ma Xiaoben, curled his lip and replied, "What do you mean, ’rats’? I saw them. They look almost like squirrels, they’re so cute. Even the Sect Master said we could raise them."
Chen Miaomiao, who had been studying the Blood Pearl Grass that had been bitten by a Stealing Spirit Mouse, stood up. "The Sect Master also said you can raise them *if* you capture them. They’re so fast, you’ll never catch one. Besides, A Wu said a Stealing Spirit Mouse eats at least one stalk of Spirit Grass a day. Who among you can afford that right now?"
Even if they wanted to raise one, now was not the time.
Hearing her explanation, the other players finally gave up on the idea.
Just then, two players were whispering secretively in a corner.
"I’m no good at farming, so I can only do the basic Sect missions. I want to do something else. I looked up some info—Lord Han and the others said they went to the foot of the mountain. The standard of living for the people there is basically at the level of ancient technology from our world. They can’t use things made for Cultivators. Why don’t we start some big development projects down there? Like, build some workshops or something?"
The other player was a bit baffled. "You want to start an industrial revolution? Didn’t we come here to play an Immortal Cultivation Game?"
"Don’t be dense. The Sect has no money and no Spirit Stones right now. Our cultivation is about as effective as just absorbing the essence of the sun and moon. We have to get resources from somewhere else! Forget everything else for a second. If you managed to create a video game console, do you think those mortals would be interested? Some Cultivators might even be interested! We need to earn Spirit Stones first!"
"You think you can actually make a video game console?"
"It was just an analogy! The first step is always the hardest."
"That sounds like a huge project. Is it just going to be the two of us? And we don’t have any money!"
"We’ll definitely need to recruit more people. There must be others who don’t like farming, just like me. I’ll go find a few to join us and draw up a plan."
"Well... all right."
Diary of a Native Yunzhou Continent Cultivator, Entry 1.
[When I started my Cultivation as a child, the Yunzhou Continent was still quite normal. That was until I flew into mortal airspace on my sword and was hit with a one-year flying ban. I was furious and even wanted to file a complaint, but then I discovered that the head of security at the mortal-built airport was, at minimum, at the Golden Core Stage. I’ve been well-behaved ever since. I just don’t get it. I really don’t.]
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