“Hello, take a look at cultivating immortality and seeking the Dao.”
People came and went on the main street. Lu Xiuyuan stood there holding a stack of flyers, and after half a day it hadn’t gone down in the slightest.
“Not interested, I don’t top up, wait, cultivating immortality and seeking the Dao?” A high school student with a backpack stopped short, took two steps back, and took a flyer.
The flyer wasn’t flashy and gaudy like a swimming or gym ad. In the misty mountain peak there seemed to be a few human figures, and on it were written the three characters Wenxin Sect. The boy felt a flash of inspiration in his head, and his brain, which had been through endless exam hell, instantly regained its clarity. He was delighted, but then he read further down—”Join the sect and receive a Heaven-grade technique for free.” That golden, glittering line instantly plunged his heart into an ice cave.
He flung the flyer to the ground.
“Garbage pay-to-win browser game, not even a dog would play it!”
Watching the boy stride away, a fox-shaped piece of paper suddenly chased after him. Using his short four paws and his tail together, he desperately slapped at the boy’s trouser leg, but it only made a faint rustling sound.
“Don’t, don’t go! How can you do this?!” The paper fox’s voice was anxious and angry. “This is the ‘immortal fate’ I condensed with the last of my spiritual power! Boy, do you know what you just missed?!”
He seemed to be venting, and also making one last plea. Unfortunately, his strength was as thin as paper. The boy didn’t notice at all and kept walking straight ahead.
Just as he was about to follow the boy across the crosswalk, suddenly he was yanked back as if by an invisible thread. He bounced back with a “whoosh” and hit Lu Xiuyuan’s chest, crumpling the paper.
Wherever a paper figure gets hurt, it cries there, wah-wah.
“Wah, wah, Sect Master! What do we do, Sect Master! If we still can’t find a disciple today, the spiritual power of the Wenxin Sect will collapse! The cultivation inheritance will be cut off, there will be no power to resist the heavenly demon seeds from beyond the sky, and Blue Star will be finished too!”
Lu Xiuyuan stared motionless at the value 【Sect Fame: 1】 on the panel. He had more or less worked out the conditions for gaining fame.
Hearing about or seeing “Wenxin Sect” did not increase fame. Only someone like him, who truly “acknowledged” from the heart that Wenxin Sect was a cultivation sect, would increase it.
He just didn’t know whether the fame gained from “acknowledging” and from “sincerely admiring it and wanting to join Wenxin Sect” would be the same.
Lu Xiuyuan lightly stroked the paper fox’s head with his finger and said helplessly, “Didn’t I tell you long ago? Times have changed; people today aren’t so easy to fool, and those little tricks you picked up from who knows where don’t work anymore.”
The paper fox lifted his crumpled paper head, wrinkled by tears. His features were smeared into a lump and truly couldn’t be called cute, but his eyes were full of pleading hope: “Sect Master! I’ll give you all my authority! Quickly save Wenxin Sect, save Blue Star, save me… wuwuwu…”
Almost at the same moment, a clear “ding” sounded in Lu Xiuyuan’s mind.
Lu Xiuyuan, with a gentle smile on his lips, reached out a fingertip and lightly stroked that damp, soft, trembling little head: “Good. A sect guardian beast only needs to be at ease being the group’s pet. Leave the rest to this Sect Master.”
Lu Xiuyuan straightened up and picked the admission brochures back up. The mild, harmless college-student air about him changed, becoming even more otherworldly and ethereal, but the next second, he threw the stack of brochures in his hand into the trash can.
“What kind of lousy flyer, does this Sect Master need to hand them out personally!”
The flyers thrown into the trash can instantly turned into a swirl of fragments and flew into the paper fox, into the body of Lu Xiuyuan beside him.
On the Wenxin Sect panel, transformed from the Sect Master Token, information that had not appeared before appeared—
【Immortal Fate Count: 1】
Not only that, besides 【Wenxin Sect Overview】, several more management pages appeared: 【Heavenly Treasures Vault】, 【Seekers of the Dao Registry】, 【Blessed Land Map】, 【Blessed Land Map】, 【Heavenly Dao Fortune Ranking】, and 【Sect Fortune】. He figured these authorities and functions would only be opened to him after he had been assessed on his contribution to the sect’s prosperity.
It was only that the paper fox, frightened by him like this, had put all the authority that should have been opened only as rewards into his hands in one lump.
Lu Xiuyuan glanced at the paper fox with a half-smile. The little fox instinctively wanted to stick out his tongue and lick him to curry favor, but froze abruptly, he remembered that he was now nothing but a thin piece of paper.
Lu Xiuyuan didn’t hold it against him. It was perfectly normal that the paper fox guarded against this move.
Although the Sect Master Token had already recognized its master, from the time they met until now, it was no more than eight shichen at the very most.
If the last hope of this Blue Star were carelessly entrusted to someone with crooked intentions, the consequences would truly be unimaginable.
But Lu Xiuyuan had never liked being restrained by others. Since he had been made Sect Master, then from now on the sect, high and low, would need only one voice, his.
Lu Xiuyuan raised a fingertip and tapped the floating screen of light before him—【Wenxin Sect Overview】.
【Sect Master: Lu Xiuyuan】
【Sect Rank: ?? Immortal (fallen to Mortal Rank, Grade 1)】
【Sect Fortune: 0】
【Sect Guardian Beast: Celestial Fox (remnant soul)】
【Mountain Guardian Formation: Damaged】
【Fame: 1/100 (Unknown)】
【Spirit Veins: 0/???】
【Secret Realms: 0/???】
【Spiritual Qi Density: 1/100 (On the Verge of Collapse)】
【Prosperity: 0】
【Buildings: 0/???】
One could tell that Wenxin Sect had once been an extremely powerful existence. It was a pity that the Wenxin Sect that had fallen into Lu Xiuyuan’s hands had nothing but those few techniques, and was otherwise just an empty shell.
Lu Xiuyuan did not open the other interfaces, but looked carefully at the Sect Master entry.
【Name: Lu Xiuyuan】
【Realm: Qi Refining Layer 1】
【Dao Name: None】
【Cultivation: (1/100)】
【Technique: ??? (???)】
【Spiritual Root: Five-element root (Grade 9, Low)】
【Bone Structure: 3 (Extremely Low Potential)】
【Comprehension: 100】
Lu Xiuyuan looked at the Bone Structure 3 entry for a long time, then lightly curled up the corner of his lips.
The paper fox didn’t understand why the Sect Master’s smile, which was so good-looking, made him want to bristle for no reason, although he had no fur right now.
“If I begin cultivating now, how long will it take to break through Qi Refining Layer 1?”
The paper fox glanced at Lu Xiuyuan’s expression and said carefully, “Fi-five hundred, no no no, Sect Master, with your comprehension this high, four hundred and ninety-nine days will do!” Although the Sect Master was good-looking, that talent and bone structure… truly made a fox worry.
The Sect Master Token had bound someone with such poor, ordinary talent. What would their Wenxin Sect do a hundred years from now!
The paper fox’s expression was too easy to read. Lu Xiuyuan deliberately reminded him, “You said the inheritance secret realm of Wenxin Sect is about to collapse, and that if we can’t recruit disciples to increase the sect’s fortune within today, Wenxin Sect will be completely finished. Does this ‘within today’ end at 23:59:59?”
The paper fox looked terrified: “Sh-should be the fourth quarter of the Zi hour?” Great, he wouldn’t have to wait a hundred years; in three shichen they would be finished!
Communicating with an illiterate who had never received a modern education was exhausting. Lu Xiuyuan looked it up online, and the time the paper fox gave was roughly 00:45–1:00 in the early morning.
Very good, there were still seven hours, plenty of time.
Lu Xiuyuan’s smile gave no hint of emotion as he asked again, “Then how much spiritual power can this immortal fate be turned into?”
The paper fox had no brain right now, and his mouth opened and closed and spat it out: “About 9999, but that trade is really not worth it, immortal fate is—”
Two slender fingers picked up the paper fox, and Lu Xiuyuan’s eyes curved: “The hour has come. Let’s go meet my disciple.”
Struck by great shock followed by great joy, the paper fox almost couldn’t even maintain his paper-fox form: “Sect Master! You must be the reincarnation of a true immortal! You are the savior of our Wenxin Sect!” He even forgot to ask when Lu Xiuyuan, who had been with him the whole time, had found time to take a disciple behind his back.
Author’s note:
Pre-order, please add to your favorites~ “Playing a Tyrant Achievement in a Dating Game”
Luo Yi was drawn into the game by a promo video with dazzling effects, but just after downloading the game, he died suddenly in the game pod and was reincarnated into a world of swords and magic.
System: Welcome to “Heartbeat: Everyone’s Crush Romance Guide”. Currently available route 1 【Obsessive Royal Brother’s Forced Love】. Please pursue the main-line character 【Cecil】.
You and 【Cecil】 are brothers by different fathers and different mothers. Compared with the elegant and powerful Crown Prince Cecil, you, unremarkable and timid, can only gaze at him from afar, but sickly as you are, you soon reach the end of your life.
When you wake up again, you find you have been locked in the “Elemental Rift”. It has no concept of space or time, and certainly no food or water. As it takes you away from the god of death, your world is left with only Cecil. In order to live, you choose—
1. Kneel on the ground, bare your tender, fair neck, expose your weakness before Cecil without reservation, and say to him: Brother, please love me forever. (Ending reached: 【Love Blooms】)
2. Try every means to escape but be caught again and again, look at him with pain and love, and murmur in despair: Where have you hidden my brother? (Ending reached: 【Bones Bloom】)
Luo Yi said nothing and simply kept grinding levels and killing monsters.
System: You have killed all the elemental beings of the Elemental Rift. The rules of magic have been shaken, and you have broken through the level cap.
System: You killed your father and murdered your brother. Even after ascending the throne, no one submits to you.
System: You killed all the nobles who opposed you and ascended the throne. Achievement obtained: 【Power Usurper】.
System: Route 1 【Obsessive Royal Brother’s Forced Love】 completed. Starting route 2 【Domineering Demon King’s Captive Love】. Please pursue the character 【Zephyr】.
You and the Abyssal demons have a mortal feud of sworn enmity. The Demon King 【Zephyr】 has captured you and taken you back, making you atone for the dead demons. You choose—
1. Silently endure all the humiliation and torture to atone for your sins, and at the end of your life tell Zephyr that you love him. (Ending reached: 【Missed Love】)
2. Look at him sadly and, at the cost of your life, silently bring the Abyss back to life. Zephyr is moved by you, and just as he wants to tell you his true feelings, you have already become nourishment for the Abyss, and he painfully spends the rest of his life longing for you. (Ending reached: 【Moonlight】)
Luo Yi: Die? Who?
System: You killed the Chosen of the God of Death and were struck with divine punishment by the angry god. Achievement obtained: 【Blasphemer】.
System: You are wanted by all the gods. All the people in your kingdom are rejected by the gods because of your disrespect toward the gods. Achievement obtained: 【Usurper】.
System: You have been marked as a target of vengeance by all believers.
Luo Yi touched the divine punishment beneath his eye: This new skin looks pretty cool! Is this a skin you can get without spending any money?!
System: Route 2 【Domineering Demon King’s Captive Love】 completed. Starting route 3 【Lofty Saint’s Favoritism】. Please pursue the character 【Hiro】.
On the Day of Divine Cleansing you fall in love at first sight with the Saint of Light 【Hiro】. To change Hiro’s disgust toward you, you choose—
1. Slit your throat before the statue of the god and repent of your sins. (Ending reached: 【God’s Tolerance】)
2. Slit your throat with the holy sword before the statue of the god and repent of your sins. (Ending reached: 【God’s Forgiveness】)
Luo Yi: Picking up a divinity, family!
System: You have obtained the achievement 【God Slayer】.
System: Your subjects are implicated by you and no longer favored by the gods. Achievement obtained: 【Tyrant】.
System: Route 3 【Lofty Saint’s Favoritism】 completed. Starting route %￥$^$*&%
The gods: System, stop opening more, the divine realm is a river of blood!