Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Anticipating the Impact on the Yunzhou Continent
[System: All disciples are now online. Announcing the iron laws of the Longevity Sect.]
[1. Do not carelessly offend any NPC. The game has no grace period for new players.]
[2. Do not reveal your identity as a player to any NPC.]
[3. This is a Cultivation World. As long as you prioritize the interests of the Sect, you are free to explore the Yunzhou Continent as you wish.]
[4. CRITICALLY IMPORTANT: The game revolves around Sect Master Song Jiulai. If the Sect Master falls, the game is over and the server will be shut down permanently.]
When all fifty people had arrived, a system notification sounded in their minds.
Since they were connected via their consciousness, the system’s notifications were delivered directly to their minds.
This made everyone even more aware that while the game was open-ended, there was indeed a system monitoring them.
Sect Master Song Jiulai, in particular, was the absolute highest priority.
A few players were still reeling from the shock, but the more perceptive ones had already started to react.
"Holy shit, no grace period for new players? They’re playing for keeps right from the start?"
"Doesn’t that mean if anything goes wrong, it’s all over?"
"There’s a Feique Sect on the summit. I was thinking about checking it out, but I’d better forget it now. Even if I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve seen how these things go. In a Cultivation World, Cultivators can be absolutely ruthless..."
This was the true law of the jungle; modern rules didn’t apply here.
Might makes right.
Han Tian had already formed a temporary three-person team with Wu Dahu and Zhou Xiao.
Han Tian was a veteran gamer and quickly parsed the key information. "Looks like our Sect Master is very weak. Our goal should be to help her get stronger. We need to lie low and focus on developing our strength in the early stages."
If she were powerful, none of these rules would even need to exist.
Zhou Xiao pinched her chin. "That’s true. The website said to treat her like the most important woman in our lives—isn’t that basically my mom? But what does the Sect Master look like? I wonder if she’s pretty."
Wu Dahu said, "The female lead of a game has to be hot. How else would they attract all the horndogs?"
Zhou Xiao retorted, "You think this game needs to attract horndogs?"
Wu Dahu said, "...Fair point."
Everyone else is going to go crazy when they hear about this after we log off.
As it was, no one was willing to log off.
Zhou Xiao added, "You need to have some basic respect for my mom. She’s your mom too!"
Wu Dahu: "..."
Once all fifty people were online, the system issued a notification for them to assemble in front of A Wu.
A Wu was also shocked to see the fifty newcomers. He had no idea where the Sect Master had recruited them from.
On the Yunzhou Continent, Cultivators with Spirit Roots were extremely rare. The people living at the foot of the mountain were mostly ordinary mortals.
And even when someone with a Spirit Root did appear, they would choose to join a better Sect.
Still, A Wu was delighted. The Longevity Sect used to be just him, but now he had a whole group of junior brothers and sisters to keep him company. It was wonderful.
He was so pleased that he decided to give some special treatment. He picked out five people, including Zhou Xiao, and said, "You five, follow me to learn how to identify Spiritual Medicine. The rest of you junior brothers and sisters, go chop some trees and build your own houses. I’ve already prepared the tools for you."
Wu Dahu and the others were so frustrated they could cry. "Senior Brother, are you discriminating against men?"
A Wu was just a child, and his preferences were obvious. His eyes went wide at the accusation, and he grew a little flustered. "What? No, I’m not!"
He pointed to one of the chosen five. "He’s a junior brother, too!"
Everyone looked. Well, damn. The person he was pointing at was a male player who had sculpted a beautiful, androgynous face for his character.
And when they looked at the four junior sisters, they had all been created to be exceptionally beautiful.
The male player shot them a smug look, raising an eyebrow.
The fifty minutes he’d spent in character creation sculpting this face had been totally worth it!
The others: ’Fuck!’
They all wished they had made their characters better-looking.
These days, the players willing to beta test this kind of game were still predominantly male. Including Zhou Xiao, there were only five female players in total.
The one female player who wasn’t chosen was one of those types who was all thumbs. She had just used the system’s default face when she started, tweaking only the eyebrows and mouth, leaving her character completely generic.
Right now, the look she gave A Wu was filled with melancholy.
’I’m such a fool, really.’
’If I had known the NPCs in this game were so superficial, I wouldn’t have just breezed through character creation.’
"Dammit, can’t they release a character re-customization item? I’d pay real money for it!"
"It’s an open beta, so they can release paid items, right? Release it now! I’ll whale on it like crazy!"
"It’s just money! Just take it all!"
Unfortunately, no matter how much the players complained, the deed was done.
Fortunately, even veteran players like Han Tian hadn’t been chosen by A Wu, which gave everyone a strange sense of balance.
Aside from a few unfamiliar players—who had probably signed up from other gaming groups when Zhou Xiao promoted the game—most of them knew each other.
They knew each other, more or less, and everyone knew Han Tian was the famous Jing Bao Tian.
It was a shame the game didn’t have a friends list yet, or Han Tian’s inbox would have been completely flooded with requests.
It seemed chopping trees was the main task for the day. Except for the five taken by A Wu, everyone else followed Han Tian’s lead, splitting into groups to get to work.
After all, with so many people, they would need a lot of lumber.
A Wu had already told them that the entire mountainside was the Longevity Sect’s territory. The mountain itself was called Feique Mountain, and it was massive.
The path to the Feique Sect was on the other side of the mountain, so there was no conflict with the Longevity Sect. As long as the players didn’t cross the boundary, there was plenty of forest for them to chop.
There were no dangerous beasts in the forest. It was sect territory, after all, making it quite safe.
Still, the players didn’t dare to venture too far.
The threat of a permanent account ban hanging over their heads was a severe punishment. For players who had just experienced a full-dive simulation—a journey to a completely different world—losing access was simply unacceptable.
Song Jiulai had been secretly observing the players all along.
Now that she had entered the Early Stage of Qi Refining, her body had changed significantly. Her vision extended for vast distances, allowing her to watch the players’ general movements from within the Sect grounds.
System: "If they just settle for the status quo, it will be detrimental to their advancement."
The stronger the Sect Disciples were, the stronger the Sect would be, which in turn meant Song Jiulai would be stronger.
Therefore, increasing their strength was the primary path of development.
Song Jiulai wasn’t worried. "They’ve just started playing. With death leading to a permanent ban, of course no one is going to take any risks. But it’ll be a different story once they learn how to cultivate."
System: "To break through quickly, they must take risks. You will eventually have to issue them mandatory quests."
Song Jiulai shook her head. "You don’t understand the deep-seated obsession the people of Blue Star China have with Cultivation, nor do you grasp just how competitive they can be. Even if they’re scared now, once they realize that the Yunzhou Continent is an unimaginably vast world, they won’t be content to just hide away safely inside the Sect."
They would willingly risk their one and only life for the chance to explore a new world.
Besides, they can try to get a new account later on. As long as your luck is good enough, you can always start over. What’s there to be afraid of?
Of course, they would certainly do everything in their power to protect themselves, just to be safe. Song Jiulai wasn’t worried. With fifty people, it was impossible for every single one of them to be content with the status quo.
She looked forward to seeing what kind of miracles this group of players from her old home would bring to the Yunzhou Continent.
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