Chapter 231: Joining the Taohua Sect
Ali nudged Liu Bo’s arm. "Hurry up and thank Uncle Nian."
Liu Bo, reacting a beat too slow, said, "Th-thank you, Uncle Nian."
He reached out and took the mental method manual. A few words were written on it.
[Phoenix Jade Heart Method First Stage]
Although the characters were from the Yunzhou Continent, the system thoughtfully provided a translation.
Liu Bo recognized it at a glance.
It didn’t matter that he didn’t know what kind of mental method it was.
As long as it was a mental method, he could cultivate with it. He could also continue to cultivate his Soul Cultivation Heart Method.
This was much better than what Liu Bo had previously imagined.
’As I recall, very few people in the Longevity Sect have an extra mental method, right?’
’Did I just stumble upon a legendary fortuitous encounter?’
Liu Bo’s heart raced, but Duan Wunian just waved his hand, directly integrating the mental method into the space between Liu Bo’s eyebrows.
In an instant, a wealth of information appeared in Liu Bo’s mind.
Whether he could fully comprehend it was now up to him.
After all, many people ran into problems when they failed to fully grasp a Cultivation Heart Method.
’Let alone a fool?’
Duan Wunian wasn’t concerned.
Wanting to send them off, he said, "Go on, now. And Ali, don’t wander around for a while. These are troubled times. Both the Demon Cultivators and the Human Clan are searching for the ’people from beyond the heavens.’ If the Human Clan comes across someone like you, they’ll just kill you to be done with it."
Ali grunted in acknowledgment. "Then I won’t go out. Are those ’people from beyond the heavens’ from a place outside the Yunzhou Continent?"
Duan Wunian stroked his beard again. Seeing that Ali wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he elaborated, "It’s still unknown. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Until their tracks are found, you Demon Cultivators must keep a low profile."
Ali mumbled, "We never go out looking for trouble."
Liu Bo didn’t dare to speak, afraid that a single word would expose the fact that he wasn’t a fool.
Duan Wunian nodded. "Go on, go on."
Ali happily led Liu Bo away.
As they walked, he asked Liu Bo, "My name is Ali. What’s your name?"
Liu Bo was about to give a fake name, but before he could speak, Ali cut in, "I forgot, you’re a bit of a fool and can’t remember. How about this? From now on, your name can be ’Big Fool,’ okay?"
Liu Bo: ...
Damn it!!
’If I had a stick, I would have definitely bashed Ali over the head a few times.’
Ali was quite cheerful. "Let’s go, Big Fool."
Realizing there was now someone in the clan uglier than him, meaning he was no longer the ugliest, the very air seemed filled with his joyful aura.
When it rains, it pours.
Just then, someone suddenly sent him a private message.
Zhen Weida: [I only saw your message saying you got a spot after I logged off. You’re in the game, right? I already found your name.]
Zhen Weida: [Where are you now? If you’re in the Longevity Sect area, I can still help you out. Once you finish your quests and get some points, remember to message me back, Liu Bo!]
Liu Bo looked at Zhen Weida’s messages, his face a mask of anguish.
Having no points was one thing.
’I could say I’m now with the Demon Clan, but what if that exposes the fact I’m pretending to be a fool to stay alive?’
’How would that be any different from someone seeing my browser history?’
Liu Bo was Zhen Weida’s college buddy, a second-generation rich kid from a moderately wealthy family.
It was only when Zhen Weida, bored after returning to his village, was chatting with their friends that Liu Bo found out his buddy had already secured a spot in the hottest game of the moment.
Liu Bo had seen plenty of news about it and had long been captivated by the game.
Fortunately, his hard work paid off. He got a spot and entered the game.
In pursuit of a thrill, he went straight to the Taixue Sect and chose the highest difficulty.
It just wasn’t quite what he had imagined.
Setting aside Liu Bo’s story for the moment, the few players who went to the Taixue Sect and Sea View Sect had yet to make a move.
This was because among Qing Guo’s batch of players, two had appeared with Metal Spirit Roots.
It was a lengthy process, and they hadn’t even begun.
Liu Bo had the worst talent but was by far the boldest.
Meanwhile, the players who chose the Liuyun Sect and Taohua Sect had much more going on.
After a batch of Spirit Root awakenings that happened around the same time, most of them chose to enter the game.
First off, the Taohua Sect is a Medicine Sect, so the players who chose it were more or less aiming to pursue Alchemy.
In other words, they were primarily life-skill-oriented players.
A group of new players spawned around the two Sects. Since the areas were teeming with demon beasts, they found safe locations to awaken their Spirit Roots before beginning to cultivate a Soul Cultivation Technique.
Without having officially entered the Early Stage of Qi Refining, they headed to the Taohua Sect’s entrance first.
The Taohua Sect was different from the Feique Sect. The Feique Sect was on a mountain, while the Taohua Sect was in a valley, and the entire valley was filled with peach blossom trees.
It was very fitting.
The scenery was beautiful, too.
They were naturally accepting new disciples. The handful of new players were quite clever; they waited for a while to gather a group and came up with a shared excuse.
They claimed they had lived together in a remote mountain forest and had never entered a Sect before.
Later, their village was attacked by demon beasts, and they fled together.
They then met a master who gave them directions, telling them about a Taohua Sect here and advising them to come and join the Sect.
Although they possessed Spirit Roots, they had never received proper guidance from a Sect. Now, they barely knew how to circulate Spiritual Energy.
This batch of players had all customized their characters’ faces. Having more or less watched Han Tian’s livestreams together, regardless of their face-customization skills, their creations at least had individual style and quality compared to the perfunctory work of the first batch of players, so they weren’t easily confused with one another.
The Outer Sect Steward of the Taohua Sect in charge of guiding new disciples was a bit bewildered, but he didn’t find their story entirely unbelievable.
In any case, once they joined the Sect, they would be responsible for making money for it.
A batch of people with Spirit Roots who hadn’t been discovered before wasn’t unheard of.
After all, some Cultivators went into seclusion after getting married, and there were plenty of Loose Cultivators who had no desire to join a Sect.
Everyone had their own way of life.
The Spirit Roots of players who gathered around the same time were bound to be similar. When tested, they were basically all ordinary White Spirit Roots.
The batch with the worst talent.
The Taohua Sect considered it for a moment. Plus, with the news of what happened to the Spirit Fox Sect having already spread far and wide, they did indeed need to recruit new members.
So, they accepted this entire batch of players.
An older player in the Taohua Sect who sold spirit materials to the Longevity Sect saw this and sent a message to the world channel, advising new players to come up with an excuse when trying to join a Sect.
At least, it shouldn’t be too ridiculous.
The players entering the Liuyun Sect followed a similar process.
Aside from Loose Cultivators, disciples of a Sect generally didn’t visit the territory of other Sects very often, except for important trades. With a good excuse, they wouldn’t be so easily exposed in the short term.
And Loose Cultivators couldn’t know the internal affairs of a Sect anyway.
For example, Wang’an County was completely under the Longevity Sect’s surveillance. Except for the disciples of the Feique Sect, to whom they turned a blind eye, disciples from other Sects knew very little about the Longevity Sect’s affairs. The only impression they might have was the idea that it was a subordinate sect of the Feique Sect.
Newly accepted disciples all had to start by cultivating a mental method. Since the Taohua Sect was an alchemy sect, the first step was naturally to learn to identify Spirit Grass, followed by tending the Spirit Fields.
After handing over the mental methods from the Taohua Sect, the Outer Sect Steward, his attitude quite decent, spoke to the group of eager players before him.
"Welcome to the Taohua Sect."