Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Game’s No-Wipe 1.001 Major Version Update
What Zhou Xiao said shocked Han Tian as well.
"There’s someone that much faster than us?"
None of the players who came in later were stronger than Jiang Tianya or Chen Miaomiao.
And they even had Xue Yao on their team now.
They basically had a monopoly on all the top players.
"It can’t be Mu Qiu, can it?"
Mu Qiu was still playing solo. If he had more points than them, Han Tian was going to lose it.
"No." Zhou Xiao shook her head. "The system said it’s a team."
Han Tian couldn’t wrap his head around it. "Our raw strength isn’t bad. Even if our combat aptitudes are different, there’s no way a player with worse innate talent than us could pull ahead by this much just through combat aptitude, right? And it’s not like we’ve been slacking off."
They basically moved to a new spot as soon as they recovered, since demon beasts moved around too.
Zhou Xiao clicked her tongue and sighed. "Who knows? I didn’t expect there to be an even bigger grinder lurking behind our backs. There’s always someone stronger out there."
Even though they all started the game together, there was definitely an unspoken rivalry between the players.
Take this team collaboration, for example.
Friends who hadn’t grouped up before were teaming up now, which probably meant they’d stick to their own cliques in future events.
Of course, everyone could still work together.
Just like Fan Guzhou, who was unwilling to join a team but still cooperated closely with Zhou Xiao.
Han Tian and the others were still discussing it.
Suddenly, they caught a foul, bloody stench.
The expressions of everyone present changed at once.
That kind of stench could only come from a demon beast.
Everyone turned to see a giant, two-meter-tall beast—an Evil Wolf.
Its maw was stretched wide open, revealing a row of fine, sharp teeth from which a greenish, pus-like saliva dripped.
Evil Wolf, a Second-rank Demon Beast. It had powerful attacks, strong defense, and high speed.
It was the only demon beast whose complete hide could be used to make practical clothing.
Its hide could generate heat, providing strong resistance against abnormally low temperatures.
Mortals on the Yunzhou Continent needed such demon beast hides to fend off the cold when extreme weather hit in winter.
This was their first time encountering a Second-rank Demon Beast.
First-rank Demon Beasts were too easy to defeat, so they had been intentionally moving closer to the territory of Second-rank ones.
If you wanted to be the top grinder, you had to grind the difficulty itself.
The moment the Evil Wolf locked eyes with them, it let out a roar without any hesitation and charged straight at them.
It was incredibly fast, like a flash of lightning in the players’ eyes.
The quickest to react was Jiang Tianya. He directly used his Spiritual Energy to forcibly restrain the Evil Wolf, slowing its attack, while Han Tian and Zhou Xiao immediately followed up with the Fireball Technique.
Controlling a living creature really consumed a terrifying amount of Spiritual Energy, and this was only a Second-rank Demon Beast.
The Evil Wolf only slowed down slightly before Jiang Tianya’s Spiritual Energy was rapidly drained. He could feel the beast’s violent resistance.
It was like a normal person trying to single-handedly lift a small car; he had to exert his absolute limit of strength.
Meanwhile, Chen Miaomiao and Liang Xueyao anticipated the Evil Wolf’s path and cast the Water Manipulation Technique, turning the ground into a mire to trap it.
Jiang Tianya immediately withdrew his power and popped a First-stage Qi Replenishing Pill into his mouth to catch his breath.
It was their first time working together. Although they were all in the Early Stage of Qi Refining, they had honed their combat skills during this period. Their coordination was seamless. The Second-rank Demon Beast was formidable, but not invincible. Their coordinated assault left it dazed right from the start.
This gave the players a rough idea of the strength of a Second-rank Demon Beast.
The strength of a Second-rank beast lay in the fact that it was impossible for a single Cultivator in the Early Stage of Qi Refining to handle one alone.
They would never have guessed that a certain Sect Master with no honor had just brute-forced a Second-rank Demon Beast to death with money.
While Han Tian’s team was coordinating seamlessly and fighting furiously, other squads were facing their own problems.
Wu Dahu’s team had been having a smooth run on First Mountain by riding on a stronger player’s coattails. The only time they ran into trouble was when they encountered a Second-rank Demon Beast. Ma Xiaoben ended up scurrying away with his head in his hands, screaming for help until he managed to get Lü Rongyu, who was out collecting spiritual medicine, to come back and kill it for them.
The four of them definitely didn’t have the same combat aptitude as Han Tian’s team. They hadn’t really considered taking on Second-rank Demon Beasts, but they still practiced fighting First-rank Demon Beasts on their own.
For example, they would take turns fighting one-on-one, swapping out whenever someone couldn’t hold on any longer.
Their main strategy was a shameless war of attrition.
The selected players were all courageous, and since they were in groups, they didn’t run into any fatal problems even if they were a bit clumsy at first when encountering First-rank Demon Beasts.
All in all, First Mountain was indeed a place for new disciples to practice.
And with double points on the line, everyone was pumped up as if they were on steroids, staying on First Mountain without a break.
Through this kind of intense grinding, just as the mission issuer had predicted...
...by the last day of the event, ten players finally managed to reach the Qi Refining Middle Stage just under the wire.
This allowed Song Jiulai to let out a huge sigh of relief.
[Ding! Congratulations to player Honghuang for breaking through to the Qi Refining Middle Stage.]
[Ding! Congratulations, Sect Master, for meeting the mission requirement of having ten Qi Refining Middle Stage disciples in the Sect. The reward is being calculated. Please wait.]
Song Jiulai looked at the list and commented, "See? What’s the use of having the most points? The top-ranked player who got there by riding on someone’s coattails has no glory. Not a single person from Wu Dahu’s team even reached the Qi Refining Middle Stage."
System: "Having good luck is also a valid way to play."
Song Jiulai: "..."
’That’s true too. Damn it!’
This last one to break through, Honghuang, was in a two-person team with his partner, An Xiu.
Honghuang was even one of the newcomers from the second batch.
Although his Spirit Root aptitude wasn’t the highest, his combat aptitude was exceptionally strong.
That’s what the system said.
’This guy has probably trained in real life.’
He didn’t just rely on Spiritual Energy; he could also fight demon beasts up close. His courage was extraordinary.
As the Sect Master, Song Jiulai naturally had to think about the Sect’s long-term future. Of course she was going to play favorites, she just wouldn’t say it out loud.
For example, these first ten disciples to reach the Qi Refining Middle Stage were now on her priority watch list.
Song Jiulai checked the time. "Okay, I have to go back. I wonder if Senior Sister Su succeeded in her Foundation Establishment."
The Immortal Sacrifice Ceremony should be starting soon, too.
The most important thing was the tax issue.
The players had turned in a lot of materials recently. They had exchanged most of them for points and wouldn’t be converting them into Spirit Stones for the time being.
On top of that, Song Jiulai had been grinding like a madwoman on First Mountain, selling any wild spirit materials she found—she even took First-rank spirit grass.
The Sect’s total assets had reached an astonishing fifteen Mid-grade Spirit Stones and fifty-eight low-grade spirit stones!
It was just enough to cover the deficit from adding twenty more people.
’This is so moving! There will even be some left over after paying the tax!’
And that was after she’d bought a ton of medicine; otherwise, she would have had 20 Mid-grade ones.
With so many people in the Sect, plus her bug-like ability to grind, the speed at which she earned Spirit Stones wasn’t slow at all.
The double points event was about to end, but she estimated the players would keep grinding.
She took a deep breath and began to post a new announcement.
[The major Open Beta 1.001 version update is coming soon! The Ten Thousand Immortals Sect is about to hold the Immortal Sacrifice Ceremony. Cultivators from all over the world will gather at the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect. The prelude to the Yunzhou Continent is about to be revealed... just the tip of the iceberg...]
The system commented silently, "This 001... are you planning to update it a few hundred more times?"
Song Jiulai: "What else? If I don’t update it a few hundred times, how will I have the capacity for a full public launch? We won’t be talking about a few hundred people then, but maybe hundreds of millions. Are they going to come and take over the entire Yunzhou Continent?"
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