Fierce sword qi scattered in all directions, stirring up the secret realm until trees toppled and mountains collapsed.
Life and death were commonplace matters in cultivation, especially so. But ever since he had entered the dao upon ascending the mountain, this was his first time facing death. He had thought that by slaughtering the demon beast that killed his senior sister, she would come back.
His black robes were soaked in blood, drops seeping out and splattering at his feet. With every step, blood trailed behind him. The young boy was gravely injured but seemed oblivious to it. The spiritual energy around him was collapsing, on the verge of dissipating along with his senior sister.
It was only when his master arrived and called out to him that he finally snapped out of his daze.
His dark pupils shifted slightly toward his master, filled with the stagnant pain of a shattered dream, no longer clear-headed.
“Master…” He clutched the spiritual energy in his arms that was on the verge of completely scattering, murmuring through sobs. “Master… Senior Sister… she won’t talk to me anymore…”
There would be no senior sister from now on.
After charging through the secret realm and returning, he quietly healed his wounds, leaving scars all over his body that he had neither the will nor the power to remove.
He repaired his senior sister’s sword and from then on carried dual swords at his waist, never parting with them.
The sundial on the desk moved with the sun, no longer bearing the boy’s hopes. It merely stood silently, recording the days and years since his senior sister had left.
–
She woke from the dream.
Li Yin opened her eyes. Moonlight bathed the room in a serene glow, faintly illuminating everything.
She patted her chest. The little demon cultivator’s heart was uneasy. Her former capture target had suddenly turned hostile, giving her quite a scare.
However, beyond the fright, she also felt a bit enlightened.
Junior Brother—Little Junior Brother—even with his senior sister on his mind, he had indeed grown into a formidable high-rank cultivator.
Through the window, the distant mountains were a blanket of darkness.
The Sword Pavilion on Hidden Sword Mountain was shrouded in the night. It was the Sword Venerable’s secluded cultivation ground, and no one knew that the Sword Venerable had just awakened from a dream where a little demon cultivator had groped him all over.
She stared fixedly at the Sword Pavilion for a while. It remained quiet.
Wasn’t he suspicious of the demon cultivator’s methods? Why hadn’t he come out to investigate?
Li Yin was a bit puzzled. The distant mountains were silent, showing no signs of activity.
Seeing no reaction from the mountain peak, it seemed Sword Venerable Yun Jian had no intention of pursuing the matter. She let out a quiet sigh of relief, then turned to pester the little golden orange beside her in annoyance.
The kitten was snoring softly. Sensing her petting, it stretched lazily and exposed its soft belly.
Li Yin rubbed the cat and thought that her capture target accepted his senior sister but not the demon cultivator.
Fortunately, she hadn’t directly formed hand seals for dual cultivation supplementation. Otherwise, her former conquest target might have drawn his sword and hacked her to death.
The night passed uneventfully. Dawn broke peacefully, with no one coming to investigate. Disciples bustled to and fro across Hidden Sword Mountain, all preparing for the opening of the Sword Tomb.
Li Yin put last night’s dream intrusion behind her and went out to meet her senior brother and senior sister.
Xia Erruo asked, “Little Junior Sister, we’re going to buy a few sword qi gourds. Want to come along?”
She nodded eagerly and followed them.
There was a market at the foot of the mountain. Recently, with so many disciples around, it was even livelier. Li Yin followed along the way, passing male and female cultivators dressed in all sorts of disciple robes.
In the game, there were eight sects in the Cultivation World that players could join. Without joining one, one’s identity would be that of a loose cultivator.
After she transmigrated, no new major sects seemed to have spawned—only some obscure minor ones.
As she looked around, her senior brother and senior sister introduced things to her.
“Sword qi gourds come in high-grade, mid-grade, and low-grade. Don’t let the mid-grade ones fool you at twenty spirit stones each—the high-grade ones cost several times more, hundreds per gourd. Who knows what the prices are like this year.”
Zheng Qian shook his head. “Prices are high, but high-grade sword qi sells easily. Hidden Sword Mountain allows disciples from all sects to train here. There’s an unwritten rule that outsider disciples’ harvested sword qi must be sold to Hidden Sword Mountain first.”
“High-grade sword qi is mostly needed by sword cultivators anyway, to hone and comprehend it, advancing their sword arts.”
Li Yin nodded as if she understood.
She didn’t need to advance any sword arts—the game panel had already handled that for her.
Xia Erruo saw her bewildered expression. “Little Junior Sister doesn’t need to overthink it. We’re not sword cultivators anyway. Just make sure to calculate properly and not lose spirit stones.”
She offered more advice: Golden Core Realm disciples only needed a few low-grade or mid-grade sword qi gourds.
The little junior sister nodded obediently.
She had no ambitions of making a fortune, but Fat Senior Brother Zheng Qian was different. True to his name, he muttered calculations of prices and profits under his breath.
Senior Sister Xia rubbed her ears, annoyed by his chanting, and led her junior brother and junior sister a bit farther away.
Li Yin obediently followed and ended up standing near a few cultivators.
Their attire caught her eye, and she glanced sideways at them.
The female cultivator wore white robes and seemed to carry a zither on her back, exuding an elegant poise. Her two companions were dressed differently.
One male cultivator also wore white, but in scholar’s attire with a bamboo scroll case on his back. Next to him was a bald monk.
In the noisy environment, the monk murmured scriptures softly. The zither-bearing female cultivator had refined elegance, while the scholar-like male cultivator looked around, scribbling with a brush.
Xia Erruo noticed her gaze, glanced at the trio, and teased the little junior sister with a smile. “What’s up? Did you notice something?”
Li Yin recalled the game settings based on their appearances. “Sound cultivators, Confucian cultivators, and Buddhist cultivators?”
“Exactly.” Xia Erruo nodded. “Probably disciples from Spirit Void Sect and Brahma Sound Temple. Spirit Void Sect is farther from Hidden Sword Mountain but closer to our Myriad Beasts Sect, and also near Brahma Sound Temple.”
Spirit Void Sect. Brahma Sound Temple.
She didn’t notice that when she said those sect names, the little junior sister’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
Spirit Void Sect! Brahma Sound Temple!
Spirit Void Sect! Brahma Sound Temple!
Her first save file—her first capture target—was from Spirit Void Sect!
Recalling what happened in that save file, the player screamed silently inside.
In her first save file, she had drawn the identity of an outer disciple of Spirit Void Sect.
New to the game and not yet beaten down by its mechanics, the player was full of vigor and immediately fell for Spirit Void Sect’s chief disciple at first sight.
In a sense, he was the player’s first love—she remembered him clearly.
The chief was slender and graceful, radiant like moonlight, gentle as spring water, with kind brows and eyes. His long lashes veiled amber pupils pale as sun halos, and his lips always curved in a faint smile, with a natural red mole at his brow.
Rumor had it he was the Buddha Lotus Reincarnation, aloof in temperament yet not arrogant. When he lowered his gaze, he even carried a hint of compassionate mercy.
He instantly pierced the player’s heart.
The player had just entered the game and hung herself on that high mountain flower.
At first, she thought sincerity could move heaven and earth.
But unexpectedly, raising his favorability took a century—in game time, which meant she stubbornly persisted for nearly a hundred years to barely reach 99.
Then another problem arose.
Even one point shy of full favorability, the high mountain flower lived up to his name.
Forget intimate acts—even holding hands required the player to scheme a music score lesson just for their fingers to brush in “intimate contact.”
The 99 favorability felt fake. The player suddenly realized this high mountain flower was the ascetic type.
Without sorrow or joy, without desire or demand.
The moon in the sky was the moon in the water—untouchable. If she reached out to cup it, only cold water would slip through her fingers.
The “marriage” and “dual cultivation” options were stuck in her hand. Buddha Lotus Reincarnation, high mountain flower, ascetic type…
The capture target merely gazed at her with gentle eyes or shook his head lightly, saying “No,” rejecting the player without further thought.
The player had her own methods.
She invited the high mountain flower to explore a secret realm and spent real money to force-trigger some indescribable plot.
Though it was only one night of entanglement, she successfully claimed the high mountain flower’s primordial yang.
But when the player checked the panel again, the favorability had dropped to 0.
The game’s paid items were undetectable by game characters, so the issue lay with the capture target himself.
What shocked the player even more was that after returning from the secret realm, the ascetic high mountain flower flew straight to neighboring Brahma Sound Temple without looking back, cutting off contact with her.
It was as if he had achieved great enlightenment. Before the player could figure out what happened, she heard from fellow disciples that Spirit Void Sect’s chief—her capture target—seemed to have taken vows and become a monk.
Buddha Lotus Reincarnation, returning to his roots in Buddhism.
The player couldn’t go after him because, obsessed with conquering him, she had neglected her cultivation, and her lifespan was running out.
Having played this far, she naturally didn’t want to restart. Instead, she chose secluded cultivation to try advancing and extend her lifespan, then storm the temple to retrieve her capture target.
That was when the player first tasted the bitterness of the random mechanics.
The random mechanics deemed her points insufficient, breakthrough success too low. The player failed to break through, her lifespan ended, and she died full of regrets.
Bad End.
Someone calculate the area of the player’s psychological trauma—Li Yin pleaded on the spot.
Xia Erruo didn’t notice the little junior sister’s inner turmoil. Seeing her junior disciples’ limited knowledge, she continued introducing others. “No need to explain Brahma Sound Temple—it’s full of Buddhist cultivator disciples. Spirit Void Sect is more interesting, mainly sound cultivators, but also Confucian cultivators, food cultivators, and more. They have many rare cultivators and dao arts in the Cultivation World.”