Chapter 46
Chapter 46: Welcome Event, Player Training
Song Jiu Lai did want to post about it.
But what would that accomplish now? The players were already here. For them, it was basically transmigration too.
Sooner or later, someone would start posting online, scamming clout out of thin air.
This batch of twenty new players, added to the fifty veterans, swelled the sect again in the blink of an eye.
In sheer headcount, they weren’t far behind Flying Sparrow Sect anymore.
Only the quality was… rough.
But Flying Sparrow Sect had history—centuries, maybe more. Longevity Sect was a newborn with its umbilical cord still attached.
No comparison.
Song Jiu Lai was already sketching a grand plan in her head.
If she wanted to claim territory, she couldn’t just squat on a patch of mountain and call it a day. She needed connections. Roads. Control.
One Wangan County was still too small.
It took two full days to reach First Mountain.
Better to build a road.
If only there were a subway. A Qi Refining Stage player could reach First Mountain in a few hours…
A subway in a cultivation world.
Just imagining it made her grin like an idiot.
Of course, it was a dream. For now.
Still—Yun Zhou really was perfect. No official authority pressing down from above. Flying Sparrow Sect didn’t meddle in mortal affairs.
It left room. Too much room.
For someone like her to grow bigger and stronger without anyone noticing—until it was too late.
Cultivators chased ascension, sure, but the System’s missions made it crystal clear: she was meant to expand the sect.
She couldn’t just lock herself in a cave and cultivate. A sect was like a company. If you never grew outward, where did the spirit stones come from?
To get rich, build roads first.
It was a truth older than dust.
It made life easier for mortals—and it made everything easier for cultivators too.
Her real goal was to advance in the opposite direction of First Mountain, toward Liu Xian City.
But that target was too obvious. Liu Xian City had a major sect with a Nascent Soul Stage expert stationed there. She couldn’t afford to poke that hornet nest yet.
So she’d start with First Mountain.
Players could hunt demon beasts and train while she laid groundwork.
The System sounded almost amused.
“No wonder you’re from China.”
Song Jiu Lai arched a brow. “A Tong, why the sudden sigh?”
“Mid Qi Refining cultivators don’t usually have your kind of nerve,” the System said. “You even dare to eye a major sect guarded by a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.”
Song Jiu Lai scoffed. “What kind of talk is that? This is called free development.”
She ticked the points off in her head, faster as she spoke.
“The number of players is only going to keep increasing. If I don’t expand territory, where am I supposed to put them?”
“And I’m not trying to attack a major sect. But let’s be real—if we grow big enough, we’ll clash sooner or later. Who knows how it ends? My life was picked up off the ground anyway.”
She shook her head hard, as if physically tossing off the thought.
“If it doesn’t work, I’ll just lie low longer. As long as I don’t cross the line, I can make as much noise as I want in Wangan County and nobody will care.”
The new players were all in place. She had the System send out the mission she’d drafted.
2. The first ten players to reach Mid Qi Refining Stage will receive additional points.
The moment the event dropped, players who’d been slacking jolted awake like someone had slapped them.
“Damn—hunt demon beasts? Like the ones Sect Master had us sell before?”
“So she was grinding in the wild earlier… now the sect is broke, so she’s making us grind too.”
“Wait, there’s still no respawn guarantee?”
“Normal. This game doesn’t have a respawn system.”
“…Shit. So if you die, that’s it. I don’t really want to go.”
“Scared of what? You’re playing a cultivation game—what, you want to be a life player forever?”
The crowd immediately began forming teams.
The event didn’t restrict solo versus party play. But if you had a brain, you grouped up. More people meant more eyes, more hands, more chances to survive.
And honestly, plenty of players wanted to go.
By now, they’d learned a lot about Yun Zhou Continent by talking to locals. Too much for it to feel like a normal game.
First Mountain also had disciples from other sects stationed nearby. If something went sideways, screaming for help usually worked.
As long as you played carefully and stayed in a big enough group, even a Second Rank demon beast wasn’t necessarily out of reach.
Zhou Xiao had even asked around through her connections—Flying Sparrow Sect disciples went out to train once a year. They fought more like guerrillas, not like Song Jiu Lai, who could lob poison from a distance and camp on First Mountain without ever needing to retreat.
And even they barely died.
If they could do it, there was no reason players, moving in groups, would be more at risk.
Unless that dog game designer decided to be cruel and spawn a swarm of demon beasts on purpose.
But after half a month, the “feel” of the world was hard to deny. The game didn’t seem like something a human designer was micromanaging. It felt like a world that ran on its own rules.
Maybe some terrifyingly advanced AI was calculating everything in the background.
Even Chen Miao Miao—who lived and breathed spirit herb research—was going.
And the three of them locked in a team immediately.
Han Tian, Chen Miao Miao, and Zhou Xiao formed a party of three.
Han Tian wanted to bring Jiang Ya too, but Jiang Ya said his cousin had just entered the game. He was teaming with him.
For safety, Han Tian told him to bring his cousin along anyway. Five people was better than two.
Only then did Zhou Xiao realize the average-looking guy who’d started crying the moment he arrived was Jiang Ya’s cousin—and his talent wasn’t low either.
“This is a double-points event,” Han Tian said. “We can’t waste it.”
He sounded calm, but his eyes were bright—sharp with the kind of hunger that only came from seeing a ladder appear.
“If we miss this, we might never get another chance. First Rank demon beasts are easy to kill. For the next half month we camp at First Mountain. Once you get addicted to your cultivation rising, you’ll go train even without an event.”
He’d basically read Song Jiu Lai’s mind.
If it weren’t for the Mid Qi Refining Stage objective hanging there like bait, she probably wouldn’t have bothered with double points at all.
But there was still one problem.
“When we log off,” someone pointed out, “our bodies stay here. If we leave them on the mountain, isn’t that dangerous?”
“So we rotate,” Han Tian said without missing a beat. “No logging off together. Two people at most at the same time. We plan the schedule.”
Zhou Xiao groaned. “I never stay up late for games. Now I have to pull all-nighters just to play?”
She rubbed her eyes, then shrugged.
“Still… it’s fine. Every time I log off lately, my body feels light. This game doesn’t make me tired. Honestly, I feel more awake.”
If she weren’t worried about long-term side effects, she could’ve lived in the game twenty-four hours a day.
Chen Miao Miao frowned. “Then should I skip this event? I’ve been busy. I only squeeze time to log in. I’m worried someone will call me off anytime.”