Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Player Death
The players who stayed behind in the Sect noticed some strange new quests.
The quests involved collecting all sorts of food, preferably pre-cured items that only needed a little roasting to be edible.
The Daoist’s four-person group couldn’t be bothered with anything too complicated.
Moreover, to get the system to issue these quests, not only did each quest cost a small transfer fee in points, but the Daoist and his group were also responsible for the one point paid to the players for running the errand.
The Daoist had tried to find a loophole by bundling dozens of food items into a single quest, but the system rejected it.
"..."
’This damn system.’
The players were bored, so there were always people willing to take on the various quests.
Someone even sent over a few links of the smoked sausage Zhou Xiao had developed just a couple of days ago.
Fan Guzhou also sent over a few bottles of wine.
The players who went out adventuring all discovered just how amazing the system was.
All they had to do was donate a demon beast to the Sect, and the players who stayed behind would accept the quest to sell the Demon Beast Materials. The Spirit Stones could then be transferred to the adventuring players instantly, or medicine could be bought and mailed over directly.
Of course, the system only needed to take a tiny little cut in the form of points.
The players chose to turn in a portion and spend a portion. As long as they maintained a decent pace while out hunting, they could easily hole up on First Mountain until the end of time, just like Song Jiulai.
The only catch was that they couldn’t let cultivators from other sects notice anything unusual.
After all, it was impossible for other sects to stay on First Mountain indefinitely like this.
Cultivators in the Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment stages were, at best, just getting their foot in the door. They were definitely incapable of something like tearing space to teleport.
There was a Teleportation Array in the deepest part of First Mountain, but it was for the use of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect.
Rumor had it that a single use required the energy of top-grade spirit stones—a legendary sum of money that current players had no way of even hearing about.
Han Tian’s livestream was going strong. He and his team had thought that as a group of high-level players, their demon beast hunting speed would surely be top-tier.
But they had never expected it.
Someone was basically cheating by cozying up to a powerhouse from another sect.
Lü Rongyu, a Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, had no need for First-rank Demon Beast materials. While gathering herbs, he would casually hunt some, save them to bring back to the Daoist’s group, and even dissect them as well.
As a member of the Medicine Sect, he was a natural at this sort of thing.
Not to mention, there was more to Lü Rongyu’s identity than it seemed.
After two days of observation, the Daoist was finally certain this man was probably not just an ordinary disciple of the Taohua Sect.
First, Lü Rongyu’s Jiezidai could hold dozens of demon beasts at once. He had also given the Daoist four Second-Order Spirit Pills.
This was mainly because the Daoist’s flattery had put him in a fantastic mood. That, combined with the delicious food he’d eaten over the past few days, led Lü Rongyu to hand the pills over casually, not thinking twice about it.
This indicated that to him, Second-tier Elixir Pills were nothing special.
But to the Daoist and his group, these Second-tier Elixir Pills—each worth ten low-grade spirit stones—were an absolute jackpot!
The materials from all the demon beasts they hunted over three or four days might not even sell for forty low-grade spirit stones. They would have to throw in some wild spirit materials to reach that amount.
Of course, during this time, they also had Wu Dahu pretend to stay in a safe area for a few days. He then returned with an extra Jiezidai, creating the illusion that he had gone back to resupply. Otherwise, Lü Rongyu would have become suspicious.
While the other players were getting on the right track, Song Jiulai was also on First Mountain, causing mayhem in the territory of the Second-tier Demon Beasts.
At first, she thought her Fireball Technique was quite good. After comparing herself to Lin Qian and disciples from other sects, she felt she was very talented.
Then the system informed her that Mu Qiu’s performance after arriving on First Mountain was no worse than her own.
Mu Qiu excelled at the Water Manipulation Skill and could drag demon beasts into muddy pits to suffocate them.
Furthermore, the other players were also cultivating noticeably faster than the native disciples of the Yunzhou Continent.
Clearly, the system-provided Spirit Roots and the formation of the inner core were the same for everyone.
Song Jiulai fell silent.
A strong sense of crisis washed over her. For the past few days, she had been recklessly challenging Second-tier Demon Beasts.
’Thank goodness I reached the Qi Refining Middle Stage first!’
Having already killed a Second-rank Demon Horned Snake, Song Jiulai now had experience. Today, she set her sights on a flock of Desolate Ant Cranes.
The Desolate Ant Crane was a very strange type of demon beast.
It essentially had the body of a crane, but it was completely infested with a species of highly venomous parasitic ants. This made the entire bird look pitch-black, which wasn’t so bad from a distance.
Up close, however, the sight of writhing ants forming the shape of a crane was enough to give anyone nightmares.
Furthermore, Desolate Ant Cranes were social demon beasts that lived in flocks.
Their abilities were relatively simple, and they were exceptionally vulnerable to fire.
They were fast and could rapidly disintegrate into a swarm of ants. If these ants crawled onto a cultivator in large enough numbers, they could drain the cultivator’s Spiritual Energy and infest their body in an instant.
Song Jiulai had to kill the Desolate Ant Cranes because a patch of Second-stage Spiritual Grass was growing right where this flock lived.
And it was all growing in the wild.
Based on their appearance, they were growing even better than the ones cultivated back at the Sect.
’Free stuff is always the best.’
Several Desolate Ant Cranes were strolling about leisurely. If one could ignore their constantly rotating and writhing bodies, which resembled mosquito coils, the scene would have been quite serene.
Song Jiulai confirmed from a distance that there were only five of them. She had already defeated a mighty Demon Horned Snake; now that she was at the Qi Refining Middle Stage, dealing with five Desolate Ant Cranes shouldn’t be hard.
Besides, her fighting style was anything but traditional.
Locking onto the Desolate Ant Cranes’ position, Song Jiulai immediately cast the Water Manipulation Technique to saturate the ground beneath their feet.
Three of the Desolate Ant Cranes immediately sank into the muddy ground.
Sensing the danger, the cranes immediately disintegrated into ants, but their speed was hampered by the muddy water.
The remaining two rapidly disintegrated into swarms of ants and charged toward Song Jiulai.
After the crane disintegrated, all that remained was a strange, fluorescent skeleton.
This skeleton was also a marketable material, though a common one.
Seeing the swarms rushing toward her, Song Jiulai immediately cast Fireball.
She unleashed a rapid-fire volley of five Fireballs without hesitation, burning the ants and eliciting a high-pitched shriek that sounded like a chorus of screaming children.
Song Jiulai spammed Fireballs as if they cost nothing, launching them in every direction to ensure not a single ant could get near her.
One shot after another burned and disoriented the ants. Just as her Spiritual Energy was about to run out, she unscrupulously popped a Second-order Qi Replenishing Pill.
Once her Spiritual Energy was full, she resumed bombarding them with Fireballs.
This clearly showed that, for now, Song Jiulai’s fighting style lacked any real finesse.
—She was simply throwing money at the problem.
Were other cultivators unable to fight this way? Of course not.
But resupplying was a huge hassle for them, so how could they possibly afford to fight as extravagantly as Song Jiulai?
Besides, ordinary cultivators certainly didn’t have the power to pull off such a brute-force approach.
All five Desolate Ant Cranes were burned to a crisp. To be safe, she popped another Second-order Qi Replenishing Pill to keep her Spiritual Energy at a reasonable level.
"These dozen or so stalks of Second-stage Spiritual Grass are all mine!" Song Jiulai chirped.
Even though she had used two Second-order Qi Replenishing Pills, she still came out with a net profit.
It just wasn’t a huge one.
But as long as she could stay on First Mountain, she would earn Spirit Stones at a rate other cultivators could only dream of.
[Ding! Player ’Zhen Weida’ has fallen into a bottomless abyss. Body pulverized. Death confirmed. Account has been suspended.]
Song Jiulai: "?"
Huh?!
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