Players: All NPCs in the Sect Are Moles

As the brave players sacrificed themselves to lure away the Foundation Establishment Stage Evil Cultivator, the former council member, [Kabuta Giant], seized the fleeting opportunity.

Toting the Su Family’s kids, he led the other members of the Su Family and the civilians protected by the artifact in Su Wenjing’s hand, hugging the wall as he sprinted toward the Tongli Money Shop.

Along the way, he saw city guards and civilians falling one after another, the ground slick with blood. Su Wenxuan, a rat-head mask pushed to the side of his head, gripped his [Heart Guarding Pendant], his eyes bloodshot.

He wanted to rush out and help, but he knew he was too weak.

And yet, from the midst of this chaos, the big guy, [Kabuta Giant], had singled him out for a top-secret mission—one that would decide the very survival of the city!

A heroic, tragic sense of mission welled up inside him.

Su Wenxuan sniffled, lifted his chin, and looked at Kabuta Giant with the resolve of one willing to face a million foes. "Big brother... why me?"

"Is it because... you sensed my prodigious bone structure and my unyielding will to save everyone? That I am destined to forge the great destiny of the Nine Streams Sect!"

Upon hearing this, [Kabuta Giant], who was busy checking his minimap, stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face.

He looked down, giving Su Wenxuan the kind of look one gives a complete idiot, then expressionlessly shattered the boy’s delusion. "Uh, nope. I only picked you because the tunnel up ahead collapsed, plus that treasure of yours is bound to you."

"Oh, right! Where’d you even hear about the Nine Streams Sect? Don’t join it! In my last ga—anyway, I joined it before. Do you know how much the cancellation fee was? 50,000 copper coins! And not long after I quit, I got tricked into joining again! That was another 50,000 copper coins that I’d worked my ass off to save! I lost my shirt going in and out!"

"Holy shit, don’t even mention those three words to me! I get major PTSD just thinking about the Nine Streams Sect!"

Su Wenxuan stared blankly, looking confused and awkward. "Huh?"

Seeing the ruins of the money shop right ahead, [Kabuta Giant] had no more time to rant. He spoke quickly, "Alright! Stop daydreaming! Get ready to squeeze through in a second!"

"Remember! The second you’re out of the illusion formation, blow the whistle your sister gave you! As loud as you can! Oh, right! And one more crucial thing! When you see your sister, Miss Su, you absolutely! Must! Definitely! Mention to her that I, [Kabuta Giant], have sincerely repented! That I’m risking my life to save you guys!"

"Ask her to reduce my sentence! Just shorten that dismissal from my post a little! I’m begging you!"

"Go! Brave young man! You’re the hope of our entire village now!"

...

Meanwhile, after claiming their [Life Repair Potions], Zhang San and Li also began to enter the login page.

[System Prompt: Identity Verification Successful... Loading...]

While the loading bar filled, the two had already reached an agreement in their private chat:

’Anhe City? Even a dog wouldn’t want to stay there!’

For Zhang San and Li, the only two Guixi Sect disciples currently stuck in Anhe City, this mortal city had long lost its appeal.

Zhang San said, "Our Junior Sister is really something else. Instead of focusing on her Cultivation, she insists on playing SimCity in this backwater village. Setting up city guards, a council... what’s the point?"

"Exactly!" Li strongly agreed. "Aren’t Palus just for working around the clock, from dawn till dusk? But these people can’t create anything of value for us. Even their corpses count as low-quality. It’s a waste of time and energy. We’d be better off going back to the sect to farm."

Both of them agreed: the only reason Su Ling’er had the leisure to dabble in all this miscellaneous infrastructure was because it was her hometown.

"By the way, did you hear?" Zhang San’s tone suddenly grew excited. "Over at the Great Rift, after the guild leader killed the Alien Queen, a new dungeon called the [Rift Tunnel] spawned underground! I hear it’s packed with juicy mobs and the drop rates are high!"

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Li slapped his thigh. "The second we’re online, let’s bail! No more wasting time in this crappy city building obstacle courses for others. Let’s go check out that new dungeon!"

"Let’s do it!" Filled with boundless anticipation for the new dungeon, their consciousnesses instantly submerged.

...

[Pyramid Tomb Guest Room]

With a flash of light, [Zhang San] and [Li], this pair of geniuses, opened their eyes simultaneously inside the pharaoh’s tomb.

"Phew... we’re finally online. Let’s get out of here. We’ve been stuck in this place for way too long..."

Zhang San said, lifting his leg to step outside.

However, before his foot even touched the ground, an announcement window forcibly filled their vision.

[Regional Emergency Event: The Defense of Anhe City]

[Warning: Demonic Sect Invasion...]

Zhang San and Li: "???"

They exchanged a look, and each saw a flicker of anticipation in the other’s eyes.

"Holy shit? We stumbled into a siege event the moment we logged in?"

"Quick, quick! Let’s see the reward for first place! Is it an Earth Tier artifact? Or a Heaven Tier pill?"

Brimming with anticipation, the two of them scrolled to the bottom of the rewards list.

[Leaderboard Rewards]:

[Top Rank (1st Place): Reward: [Random Orthodox Cultivation Skill (Beginner’s Fragment)] x1!]

[2nd-5th Place: Reward: [Random Martial Arts Secret Manual] x1!]

The air went quiet for three seconds.

The excitement on their faces gradually froze, replaced by the disdainful look one gives to a piece of trash.

"That’s... that’s it?"

"Is the system messing with me? A beginner’s fragment? A *fragment*?!"

"If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t our Guixi Sect’s Xiao Huolong come with his own Yao Clan Cultivation Technique?"

"As expected of a Jianghu event. Even the first-place prize is this pathetic. Are they giving handouts to beggars? Let someone else do this event. We’re out!"

For "Jianghu Players," these rewards might be the divine techniques they’ve always dreamed of. But for big-spending players from a major sect like the [Guixi Sect], any random Cultivation Technique they pulled from their own Cultivation Hall’s gacha was a hundred times better than this.

"Hey, hold on."

Zhang San stroked his chin. "The rewards may be garbage, but this is our Junior Sister’s hometown, after all. As her Senior Brothers, if we just bail... that wouldn’t look too good, would it..."

Li rolled his eyes. "Spit it out."

Zhang San grinned slyly, revealing his true motive. "Killing Evil Cultivators doesn’t give you a red name!"

"We’re normally restricted and can’t just go on a killing spree, but now a bunch of demonic Evil Cultivators are delivering themselves to our doorstep to be our playthings!"

Zhang San continued, "Since these guys—who we can kill without penalty—have come knocking, shouldn’t we happily accept these free XP packs and Artifact Refining materials?"

The two of them were instantly on the same page and were about to rush out to start the slaughter.

Suddenly, as Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators of the Guixi Sect, their senses picked up on a terrifying pressure emanating from deep within the mist.

’Could it be... a Core Formation Stage expert?!’

Then Li stroked his chin and raised a technical question. "Say... if we die here... do we respawn at the Guixi Sect or in Anhe City?"