Chapter 216: Zhang Sheng Fights the Luomei Sect
"Feique Sect—"
Fang Shuiguan turned his head and saw Zhang Sheng slowly step out from Han Tian’s group.
Fang Shuiguan looked at Han Tian and smiled. "Your Feique Sect hasn’t been seen at a competition for three years, and you’re sending in four people on your first day back?"
Han Tian just offered a faint smile and said nothing.
In reality, he was in their discussion group, asking Honghuang for information about Zhang Sheng.
[Han Tian: @Honghuang This guy came with you, right? How come I haven’t seen him say a word?]
From the very beginning, Zhang Sheng had only nodded at Han Tian when they first met. He hadn’t spoken a single word.
Han Tian found the player rather odd.
Just as Honghuang had thought earlier, Han Tian also felt this guy was acting way too aloof for someone just playing a game.
[Honghuang: He’s mute in real life. He only just learned to talk in the game, so he’s still not great at pronouncing things.]
[Han Tian: ...]
At last, someone else could feel the awkwardness Honghuang had felt back then.
People on the live stream chat were also asking if Zhang Sheng was from Han Tian’s sect, and why they’d never seen him speak.
He was either way too aloof for someone just playing a game, or he was pretending to be some kind of master.
So, Han Tian typed a brief explanation for his viewers.
"He’s mute in real life, and he isn’t used to speaking yet."
The moment he sent that message, something clicked in Han Tian’s mind.
He had just realized a critical point.
And his viewers, apparently, had realized it too.
[WTF? A mute person can talk in the game?]
[Yeah! I’ve been wondering about that too. What if you have a disability in real life? Can you be able-bodied in the game?]
[You get an able body in the game... a mute person can talk... so can a blind person see again?]
[That’s ridiculous. If you’re blind, you can’t even see the game screen. How would you log in?]
[Didn’t the streamer say the system guides you through the whole login process? So... maybe blind people really can play?]
[That’s insane. If a blind person can see again in a game, what kind of god-tier black tech is this?]
[What’s so surprising? You’d think by now people would realize this isn’t a normal game.]
[When’s the next wave of accounts being released?! My mom has been blind for years, I have to get an account for her!!]
[...A mute person can speak in the game. It’s not just our country that’s going to blow up over this; the rest of the world is going to go nuts.]
...
The viewers who followed Han Tian’s stream had mostly fallen into a routine, treating it like a daily drama series. But the discovery that a mute person could speak again in the game changed everything. This wasn’t so simple anymore.
There are many disabled people in Huaxia.
They just don’t often go out in public.
The blind wish to see, the deaf wish to hear, and those who have lost their legs wish to stand again.
What about those with cerebellar atrophy, or people suffering from all kinds of illnesses?
It may just be a game, but if you could become a "whole and healthy person" inside it, who wouldn’t want that?
Almost everyone knows a friend or family member who suffers from such debilitating conditions.
A clip of this part of the stream was quickly shared, and the sentence Han Tian had typed caused another firestorm online, shooting straight to the top of Weibo’s trending topics.
Most of the players seen so far had been able-bodied. And while Xue Yao was disabled, they would never have revealed it.
Zhang Sheng, however, was the first one to openly prove to the player base that disabled people could truly be healed by playing this game.
Even though it was still the dead of night, the viewer count in Han Tian’s stream began to skyrocket again.
They wanted to see for themselves. Was Zhang Sheng really mute in real life?
Was this all for publicity, or was he lying?
Meanwhile, the match between Zhang Sheng and Xue Xihe of the Luomei Sect had already begun.
The two of them entered the megalith, but this time, it wasn’t a forest environment like the previous match.
Instead, they found themselves in a vast desert.
Gale-force winds tore across the dunes, whipping up clouds of sand that obscured their vision.
It seemed the environment itself could be a factor in these duels.
Zhang Sheng had only ever fought demon beasts before; this was his first time dueling another person.
Not knowing the extent of his opponent’s strength, Zhang Sheng wasn’t about to be careless. He immediately led with an opening shot.
It was the Fireball Technique, a mandatory skill for all new players.
Just one of the Basic Skills.
When the Fireball shot out, Xue Xihe’s expression didn’t even flicker. He effortlessly dodged it before raising a hand and making a gesture.
In an instant, several plum blossom trees sprouted from the sand around Zhang Sheng, completely encircling him.
The fragrance of plum blossoms filled the air, but in the middle of a vast desert, the sight was indescribably bizarre.
At the same time, Xue Xihe’s figure vanished.
Zhang Sheng eyed the plum blossom trees that had trapped him, his vigilance at its peak.
Outside, Fang Shuiguan dutifully provided commentary. "A shame. This desert environment is extremely disadvantageous for our Plum Blossom Formation technique."
Plum blossoms thrive in the cold; this environment somewhat countered the techniques of their Luomei Sect.
Han Tian seized the opportunity. "Is this Plum Blossom Formation the signature technique of your sect?"
Fang Shuiguan shot him a look. "What do you think?"
The disciple from the Fierce Eagle Sect started jeering again. "How can you be so clueless? Are all the disciples from the Feique Sect this ignorant?"
This time, Han Tian just rolled his eyes.
This was the first time Zhang Sheng had faced such a tactic, and feeling a bit out of his depth, he immediately summoned his Magic Treasure.
The White Scroll.
A rather perfunctory name for a Xuan-grade Magical Treasure.
This was the first time Zhang Sheng was using it since he’d bought it from the True Treasure Pavilion.
With a wave of his hand, the scroll appeared and instantly enveloped the area around him.
It trapped all of the plum blossom trees Xue Xihe had summoned.
In a flash, the summoned trees appeared upon the scroll’s surface.
They stained the blank scroll with vibrant color, each plum blossom tree now a painted image.
It was, admittedly, quite a beautiful sight.
When the others saw the Magic Treasure Zhang Sheng had produced, their eyes filled with astonishment.
Generally speaking, for an Artifact Refining Sect, conventional Magic Treasures are the easiest to craft.
For example, offensive types like swords, sabers, and spears, or defensive ones like the common Soft Armor Turtle Shell Bell.
The more esoteric a Magic Treasure is, the more likely it is to contain special spirit materials, making it significantly more expensive.
That’s not something a disciple from a small sect could typically afford.
However, since Zhang Sheng and his group were representing the Feique Sect, it was unlikely they were poor. Pooling the Sect’s resources to buy a Xuan-grade Magical Treasure for one of their contestants wouldn’t be difficult.
But this kind of support-type Magic Treasure was still an unusual choice for the average disciple.
If they truly had the money, they would almost certainly pick something more practical.
Unless... this Magic Treasure was crafted by the Feique Sect itself.
But if they crafted it and immediately gave it to a disciple, what kind of status did Zhang Sheng hold within the Sect?
Zhang Sheng, for his part, was not having an easy time.
Xue Xihe had reached the Late Stage of Qi Refinement many years before him.
His foundation of Spiritual Energy was on a completely different level.
Xue Xihe was hidden among the plum blossom trees. By trapping the trees, Zhang Sheng had trapped Xue Xihe as well, but his own Spiritual Energy was being drained at a furious rate.
Xue Xihe quickly realized what was happening and began to struggle fiercely.
He unleashed a surge of Spiritual Energy, causing the scroll in the sky to churn violently. The man who had just been trapped within was already beginning to break free.
The plum blossom trees began to leap off the 2D surface of the painting, turning 3D as they emerged.