Chapter 229: Stay
Liu Bo felt like he was flying at breakneck speed.
He could faintly hear angry roars.
"You despicable thing!"
"It must be one of those Demon Cultivators..."
The fierce wind scraped against his face.
Even for Liu Bo, who had just had his Spirit Root Opened, it was a stinging pain.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he felt himself being thrown to the ground.
The Demon Cultivator who had captured him exclaimed excitedly, "Come quick! I caught a person and brought him back!"
Liu Bo opened his eyes and was stunned by his surroundings.
It looked like a vast, natural underground cavern.
Stalactites hung within the cave, and it was covered with pale blue roots that emitted a soft, shimmering light, illuminating the cavern as if it were day.
Fireflies danced among them, making the natural grotto seem like a fantastical dream.
It reminded Liu Bo of the fantasy maps he had seen in computer games.
But now, he was personally standing in such an exquisitely beautiful place.
The beauty was so intoxicating.
’This scenery is just too beautiful!’
’This game is seriously incredible.’
Liu Bo, who had been marveling nonstop since he first arrived, was still filled with amazement.
"Who’s there? Ali, are you insane? How dare you bring a member of the Human Clan back here?"
A woman’s crisp voice suddenly rang out. Liu Bo followed the sound and saw that a young woman had appeared in the cavern at some point.
However, this woman had two horns growing from her head and a pair of orange eyes, making it clear she was a Demon Cultivator.
A Demon Cultivator had to reach at least the Late-stage Foundation Establishment to completely shed their demon beast features.
And to be able to maintain a human form, she had to be at the Foundation Establishment Stage at a minimum.
The woman’s original form was easy to guess; those were deer antlers.
She was probably a Deer Demon.
The woman’s gaze fell on Liu Bo. Unlike the simple-minded one called Ali, her eyes were far more vigilant.
Ali chuckled and pointed at Liu Bo. "I had a reason for bringing him back! Look how ugly he is. You can tell he’s been ostracized by the Human Clan. He has a Spirit Root, but he hasn’t even started cultivating yet."
Liu Bo was speechless.
’Damn it, didn’t you grab me right after I logged on?’
’I haven’t even had time to practice the Soul Cultivation Heart Method!’
New players needed a stable mental method to enter the Early Stage of Qi Refining.
The Soul Cultivation Heart Method was meant for them.
In other words, Liu Bo currently looked like someone with a Spirit Root who had not yet formally begun to cultivate.
For Liu Bo to have dared to choose Taixue Sect as his starting point, his courage was certainly not ordinary.
He wasn’t panicking in this situation, merely pondering if there was a chance to survive.
He had no points right now, so the system couldn’t save him at all. He had to save himself.
’I just didn’t expect my luck to be this bad.’
’I saw those other players having a blast in the Feique Sect without ever running into a Demon Cultivator. How did I get caught the second I arrived?’
The woman slowly looked over.
When she saw Liu Bo’s face, she did purse her lips as a flash of surprise crossed her features.
Even their own demon transformations into human form weren’t this ugly.
The system was quite ashamed. "This can’t be blamed on you."
His creator just had terrible craftsmanship.
It wasn’t that Song Jiulai was truly bad at sculpting them; she had just been too hasty.
It was like the joke about how Nüwa painstakingly crafted the first batch of humans, while the rest were just flicked-off specks of mud.
At first, sculpting the puppets was novel, but later on, it became a chore just to complete the task.
’Besides, if players could customize their own faces, why should she put in so much effort?’
It wasn’t that Liu Bo’s face was monstrously deformed, but when she had sculpted it, she had made the eyes a bit uneven, the nose too pointy, and the mouth too small.
It just looked odd.
Liu Bo was speechless.
But the woman was still uneasy. "Even so, you can’t just bring him back here. Do you have any idea what this place is?"
Ali glanced at Liu Bo, his face hesitant. "But... I already brought him back..."
Even Liu Bo could tell that this Demon Cultivator was a bit dim-witted.
As expected, the woman sighed.
Ali added, "Just let him stay and play with me. I’m the ugliest one in the clan when I transform, so no one plays with me. It was so hard to find a human who’s even uglier than I am."
Liu Bo was speechless.
’You little monster!’
’If I’d known, I would have put more effort into customizing my face!’
"But he’s from the Human Clan, after all. If the elders find out, they won’t let you off!"
In the end, the woman relented. The main reason was that the current Liu Bo only had a Spirit Root and wasn’t even a Cultivator yet. He posed no threat, so naturally, she wasn’t afraid.
She walked over, looked down at Liu Bo, and asked condescendingly, "Where are you from? And why were you wandering around Taixue Sect’s territory?"
Liu Bo knew that he had no choice but to make up a story.
In a flash of inspiration, he channeled his inner actor and put on a look of dazed confusion. "I... I don’t know. I don’t remember anything..."
As he spoke, he even deliberately drooled a little.
He made a SLURPING sound, then raised his hand to wipe his mouth, looking at the woman with ’innocent’ eyes.
The woman’s eyes showed surprise.
The main thing was, in this day and age, any normal mortal should be able to tell that they were Demon Cultivators.
And the Human Clan’s reaction to Demon Cultivators was either extreme disgust or, for mortals, extreme fear.
In any case, they would never be this ’peaceful’.
Yet the Liu Bo before her showed no signs of fear. Moreover, from his appearance, he seemed to have a rather rare condition for a human.
The woman narrowed her eyes and suddenly leaned in close. "You don’t know who we are?"
Liu Bo shook his head.
Although the woman wasn’t completely convinced, it was an ironclad fact that Liu Bo was this old and hadn’t even started cultivating.
She seemed to have a realization. "So he’s an idiot. No wonder..."
’He doesn’t even recognize Demon Cultivators.’
System: "..."
It spoke, grief-stricken, "Liu Bo, you’ve sacrificed so much to survive!"
’If word of this gets out, your reputation will be ruined eight hundred times over.’
Liu Bo was speechless.
’Players all say this game’s system is ridiculously flexible, but this is a little *too* flexible.’
’Could you please not butt in at a time like this!’
Ali was even happier now. "Sister Hualu, no wonder he hasn’t cultivated, he’s an idiot! This is even better! He’s ugly and stupid, so no one would want him if we let him go. Let’s let him stay."
The Female Demon Cultivator named Hua Lu glanced at Ali, then at Liu Bo.
Finally, Hua Lu sighed. "Fine."
She knew why Ali had captured someone and brought them back.
Ali’s own cultivation was weak, his human form wasn’t good-looking, and he was ostracized by his own people.
Seeing such an ugly thing, he probably just wanted to find someone to play with him.
Hua Lu continued, "But I have to go explain this to the elders. Otherwise, when the others discover this human, he won’t survive."
Ali clapped his hands happily. "Okay, okay, okay."
Liu Bo was sizing things up internally.
’We new players still don’t know much about Demon Cultivators. After all, according to Han Tian’s guide website, they hadn’t encountered any themselves.’
’It’s just that on the Yunzhou Continent, Demon Cultivators are rumored to be terrifying.’
’It seems now that some of those stories were just baseless rumors. At least the Demon Cultivators in front of me seem ’normal’.’
’They also live in groups, just like the Human Clan.’
’I just don’t know where this is. Listening to them, it sounds like this is actually within the Taixue Sect’s territory?’
’There are Demon Cultivators here, and the Taixue Sect doesn’t do anything about it?’
For a moment, Liu Bo was filled with countless questions.