Chapter 37
Chapter 37: Game Video Recording Access
She rested for a long time. When her qi finally returned to a steady circulation, the poison was pressed down.
Then something surged—strong and sudden—inside her.
Song Jiu Lai sat up at once and ran her cultivation method. In that instant, the surrounding qi rushed into her body like a tide breaking through a dam. The flow was clearly faster than before.
She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, four hours had passed.
Luckily, no one had come near.
A faint light shimmered around her body. Her qi felt full—almost overflowing. The arm wound that had been corroded by poison was gone completely, and a deep, unfamiliar ease settled through her limbs.
Song Jiu Lai blinked. “So that means… Qi Refining Stage mid-phase?”
She had broken through.
The speed was absurd—much faster than she’d expected.
She had thought she would need to return to the sect, recover, then come back. Instead, exhaustion became a stepping stone. She crossed the threshold in one breath.
Breakthroughs in the Qi Refining Stage were still relatively easy. Foundation Establishment Stage was the first real hurdle.
Every major realm demanded its own price.
She had only been on First Mountain for about ten days.
The System sounded almost smug. “Not every Qi Refining Stage early-phase cultivator has the nerve to kill above their rank.”
“It was luck,” Song Jiu Lai said. And it was true. Jin Shu had already been heavily injured by the devil-horned snake. Otherwise, a fox who’d survived this long wouldn’t have fallen so cleanly.
She had only decided to track him down because she’d seen he was wounded.
If he could be chased into such a state on First Mountain, she’d guessed he was out of medicine.
She looked over.
Jin Shu’s corpse had already gone cold.
She had seen dead bodies before, but a human corpse felt different from a demon beast’s. A faint discomfort still lingered in her stomach.
It didn’t stop her thinking.
Jin Shu’s body had rotted beyond recognition, the smell thick and rancid. With his death, the venomous filth slowly dissipated.
Only one thing remained clearly visible: his mustard seed pouch.
A mustard seed pouch carried a personal qi imprint. Unless you were a full realm higher, you couldn’t open it without the owner’s consent.
Song Jiu Lai didn’t know what was inside, but she remembered his techniques—everything he used was an Ice Blade Scroll style.
At the very least, he had an advanced manual on him.
She couldn’t open it now.
But sooner or later, she would.
Then there was the devil-horned snake’s corpse.
Its gallbladder was valuable—an ingredient the Medicine Sect needed.
Worth no less than earth-bell ling zhi.
Its skin could be used too, but it wasn’t as valuable as the gallbladder. Once the forehead pustules burst, the hide’s integrity was ruined, and processing it was a hassle. Most cultivators wouldn’t even buy it.
Song Jiu Lai thought about Fan Gu Zhou.
He had helped her at the critical moment.
Not many people in the sect could produce fifty spirit stones on the spot. The players had reacted quickly to her rapid-fire tasks—clearly sensing she’d run into trouble—and Fan Gu Zhou had exchanged most of what he’d earned.
Even if he’d done it for points, that action had been a lifesaver.
Because right now, points meant nothing to him.
Without that third-rank Qi Replenishing Pill, she wouldn’t have had the nerve to go blow-for-blow with Jin Shu at the end.
After a moment, she made her choice.
She would skin what she could and send the snake hide to Fan Gu Zhou.
Snow in the coal. She was the Sect Master—she couldn’t pretend she didn’t see it.
The problem was that skinning a snake was a long, messy process.
Jin Shu’s corpse didn’t make her flinch.
But the moment she started working on the devil-horned snake, she gagged and vomited.
The venom was everywhere. It was a crime against society.
Still… she had broken through to Qi Refining Stage mid-phase. She didn’t need to run back to recover anymore.
From now on, she would rely on the players to restock her medicine remotely.
—
[You have received a private gift from the Sect Master (one devil-horned snake skin). Please collect it at the spawn point.]
Fan Gu Zhou froze.
He was still down at the foot of the mountain, busy with brewing.
His plan was to rent a storefront below and open a proper brewery. The mountain itself would be used for experiments—testing whether qi-infused medicinal wine could work.
So… the Sect Master was fine?
That morning, everyone had seen the Sect Master’s string of urgent tasks. It was all spiritual medicine. There was even a task for a third-rank pill.
But the sect’s assets hadn’t been enough. No one could claim it.
Selling demon beast materials took time. A third-rank pill cost fifty low-grade spirit stones—too steep.
Fan Gu Zhou had hesitated only for seconds before exchanging most of his remaining money. Once it became spirit stones, it counted as sect assets. Then he claimed the task, bought the pill, and it went through.
Now he knew: that decision had been right.
If this game had a favorability system, he’d probably just boosted the Sect Master’s goodwill.
He felt so energized that even carrying grain seemed easier.
He pulled up the points exchange list again and noticed something he could redeem.
An idea hit.
He found Han Tian, who was just as overwhelmed. Han Tian had spent most of the day switching between logins, processing demon beast material info, busy enough to feel like he’d been set on fire.
“Big Shot Han,” Fan Gu Zhou said, “got a minute?”
Han Tian looked up. “What’s up?”
Fan Gu Zhou kept it simple. “I checked the points exchange list. There’s something I can redeem—five hundred points for one hour of game video recording permission. I know you want to stream and make content. I want to sell it to you. Interested?”
Han Tian’s eyes lit. “You’re sure?”
They didn’t have enough points to see more of what the System offered. Anything visible now mattered.
“I’m sure,” Fan Gu Zhou said.
He asked the System directly in his head. “System, can points be transferred between players?”
The answer came instantly. “No. But you can redeem an item and choose to gift it to another player.”
Fan Gu Zhou relayed that to Han Tian.
Han Tian slapped his palm once, decisive. “Fine. I won’t bullshit you. Name your price—I’ll WeChat you.”
Fan Gu Zhou hesitated. “One point for one yuan. Five hundred yuan. How about it?”
He brewed wine in the game to contribute to the sect, sure. But he also needed to live. If he could earn a little money now, why not?
Han Tian narrowed his eyes. “Brother, that’s too low. Ten-to-one. I’ll pay five thousand.”
A game video like this—if it exploded—would be worth far more. Even if points became plentiful later, the first footage would always be priceless.
Fan Gu Zhou stared, surprised by the generosity… then smiled. “Deal.”
He redeemed the recording permission and gifted it to Han Tian.
Han Tian finally had what he wanted.
He was going to upload the footage and let the people on Weibo—those who mocked him every day for losing his mind—see it with their own eyes.
The cultivation world.
What it really looked like.