Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Choice of Development
"I..."
Liang Xueyao’s lips trembled. He subconsciously wiped away his tears. "No, it’s not that. I’m just... overwhelmed."
He had forgotten how long it had been since he’d last felt both his feet planted firmly on the ground.
He was once a proud, high-spirited chosen one with lofty ideals and noble goals.
But after an accident, his entire world came crashing down.
He never regretted that he had done it to save someone.
But after losing his legs, everything he had pursued became empty talk. The drastic shift in his life before and after was not something an ordinary person could bear.
He once thought he would never be able to stand again in his life.
"Is this... is this a game?"
He mumbled, his lips barely moving, still unable to believe what he was seeing.
All because he had put on a VR headset.
"It’s a game, alright." Zhou Xiao blinked. The puppet was indistinguishable from a real person; the Zhou Xiao before him was a living, breathing girl. "My name is Zhou Nvzi. What’s your ID?"
Liang Xueyao answered slowly, "Xue Yao..."
He looked at his surroundings, stunned and dazed, wondering if the immense stress had finally caused him to hallucinate.
He pinched his thigh.
’Good, there’s no pain.’
’It feels fake.’
But the sensation of touch was real.
He could even smell the fragrance of grass and flowers in the air.
"Oh, don’t worry. We’re in the game right now. There’s just no pain, but all your other senses work. You can even eat! By the way, from now on, I’m your Senior Sister."
Zhou Xiao was thrilled.
She didn’t have any siblings in real life, so she never thought she’d get the chance to be someone’s Senior Sister.
"I’m one of the earlier players. I accepted a mission from the Sect Master to lead you new recruits in the reclamation work at the foot of the mountain."
Zhou Xiao clapped Liang Xueyao on the shoulder. "Come on, let me hear you call me Senior Sister. I’m ranked fourth in the Sect!"
That’s what A Wu said, anyway, but few of the other players actually bought it.
’A bunch of rebels!’
Liang Xueyao was, after all, a newbie in the game. He obediently said, "Senior Sister."
"Oh my god!"
Zhou Xiao was bursting with joy. "Yes, yes, good! From now on, your Senior Sister will definitely carry you! Right, let me show you around. Although this is also a branch of the Sect, our headquarters is on the mountain. We’ve set you guys up down here mainly because we ran out of space up there."
"Once all twenty of you newbies have arrived, the Sect Master will come to perform the Opening Spiritual Root ceremony and pass on the mental method. For now, I’ll help you get familiar with the environment and the daily missions."
Liang Xueyao nodded blankly.
Still reeling from the shock, he followed Zhou Xiao to look around.
The location chosen at the foot of the mountain was adjacent to a forest. The houses were built with their backs to a cliff. If you were unlucky, wild First-rank Demon Beasts might appear on the mountain—the same kind of harmful demon beasts that Song Jiulai had killed.
This was meant to be a training ground for the players.
If a First-rank Demon Beast appeared, even if all twenty-odd players were only in the Qi Refinement Realm, one Fireball from each of them would be enough to blast it to death several times over.
An environment that was too safe could sometimes cause them to lower their guard.
At the very least, they needed to know that this was truly a Cultivation Continent, with dangers lurking everywhere.
This mountain wasn’t as tall as Feique Mountain, just an ordinary small peak where a few Spirit Fields could be cultivated.
The main area was still at the foot of the mountain.
Twenty wooden cabins stood in a neat row. Because they were all temporarily built with wood, they had a very old-fashioned look.
"This is it for now. If you want the house to look nicer, you’ll have to modify it yourself over time. Anyway, with Spiritual Energy, tearing down a house is a piece of cake."
"Our daily mission is basically just farming the Spirit Fields. If you think that’s a dead end, there are currently two other paths. One is to follow me or Fan Guzhou and do some small-scale business. The other is to go out on your own to train, fight demon beasts, or gather materials."
"It’s commonly known as ’jungling.’ There are a lot of materials in the wild. Even though they’re just things like First-rank spirit grass or wood, at least there’s a lot of it. If you’re diligent about gathering, you can earn one Mid-grade Spirit Stone in a month."
This was Zhou Xiao and the others’ own estimate.
"Of course, if you’re a bit braver, you can go out and kill demon beasts for training. But think it through: this game has no respawn mechanism. If you die, your account is banned. It’s basically wiped, and you’ll have to try to get a new account later on."
"Once you’ve earned some money, you can start considering whether to pursue Alchemy, Artifact Refining, or the Beast Taming route. These are the main development paths for a Cultivator. When I say Alchemy, I mean refining medicine. It’s very profitable, but it also burns through money, and it’s quite difficult. Artifact Refining is about as difficult as Alchemy, and it covers all sorts of items used by Cultivators on the Yunzhou Continent in their daily lives."
"For example, Cultivators’ weapons and Magic Treasures, as well as things like the Jiezidai for storage, and all sorts of other miscellaneous items."
"Beast Taming is even simpler. It’s just catching demon beasts or raising your own spiritual beasts. Spiritual beasts are hard to buy—they’re basically not for sale. Most people just catch and tame demon beasts themselves."
"If you don’t want to do any of that, it’s even simpler: just slack off and focus on Cultivation. It’s fine to be a ’life skills’ player. It’s a game, after all. The choice is yours."
Zhou Xiao explained everything very clearly, and Liang Xueyao basically understood.
This game... it was so magical.
Every blade of grass and every tree here had its own principles; they definitely weren’t the repeating, textured props you’d find in a typical game.
No wonder his cousin had been so excited.
No wonder his cousin said this game would change him.
Standing here felt no different from standing on real ground.
It was as if... he was alive again...
Liang Xueyao took a deep breath. "I understand. Thank you, Senior Sister."
As for what to do specifically, he planned to wait for his cousin to come online.
He was quite curious and excited about the Opening Spiritual Root ceremony. "When will the Sect Master arrive?"
The Sect Master of this game was the only character who had been featured on the official website, but her appearance was still a mystery.
"She’ll come over once everyone is here. Normally, if you need something, you don’t have to look for the Sect Master. Just ask the system. She doesn’t usually show up."
Just like for the past half-month, the players basically hadn’t seen Song Jiulai since the first day.
They had no idea that their Sect Master had been out grinding in the wild for half a month, that she’d even offed a Cultivator, and was now a noble Qi Refining Middle Stage Cultivator.
She was no longer the Sect Master from the Early Stage of Qi Refining.
However, there was another matter currently weighing on Song Jiulai’s mind: the tax collection by the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect.
Based on the timing of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect’s Immortal Sacrifice Ceremony, she had one in-game month at most before the taxes were due.
Adding to that the requirement for ten players to reach the Qi Refining Mid-stage, the road ahead looked bleak.
Song Jiulai, who had originally planned to stall for time, remembered this and decided she had to give the players a push.
She’d dangle a carrot in front of them; there was no way they wouldn’t work hard.
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