Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 100 - Main Line Three

Dugu Zhuo asked, “You faked your death?”

Normally, their dungeon would be considered a failure, and choosing to respawn would send them back to the main city. However, Ling Zhi Wa woke up here, which meant she wasn’t really dead.

Ling Zhi Wa replied, “After I knew you’d come, I prepared and used the sect’s Turtle Breath technique to fake my death. It’s my secret weapon for passing dungeons. As long as I survive, even if the team is wiped out, there’s still hope. Unfortunately, such a useful skill can only be used once a day.”

She placed a small Ling Zhi on each teammate, eating Qi recovery pills while resurrecting them. After resurrecting Ao Tian, Qing Yue, and Black Cat, the cooldown for the Qi recovery pills hadn’t ended yet, so Ling Zhi Wa waited for her true energy to recover.

At this time, Jue Shi Shen Jiang sent a private message to Dugu Zhuo: “I’ve taken a solo job, so I’m exiting the dungeon now. A great favor is not to be thanked in words, if you need anything from me in the future, just ask. By the way, if you clear the dungeon, I’d love a strategy guide, the price is negotiable.”

Sure enough, Jue Shi Shen Jiang’s body had long since disappeared, clearly having returned to the main city to respawn.

Ling Zhi Wa rested for a moment, waited for her pill cooldown to end, and then took another Qi recovery pill to resurrect Shen Bi Xiao Ma.

When Shen Bi Xiao Ma fainted, he was a horse, but upon waking, he rolled around and transformed back into human form. He said, “Hissy… I can talk! Awesome! Thank you, Master, for saving me!”

The way he called him Master was both crisp and heartfelt, clearly indicating that he truly acknowledged Dugu Zhuo as his master.

Ao Tian, seeing Dugu Zhuo arrive, instantly regained his energy. He excitedly said, “Fatty Dudu faked his death! Does this mean we can still clear the dungeon? My god, those mirrors are so sinister! Dugu Zhuo, did you get my warning?”

Dugu Zhuo opened a voice message for private chat and set it to public: “Dugu Zhuo, you must not beep—beep—very beep—”

Ao Tian: “…”

Black Cat asked, “The system blocked our hints, did you go through the mirror maze without any hints?”

Dugu Zhuo remained silent, signaling an affirmative. He didn’t think this was something worth boasting about.

Qing Yue couldn’t help but clap, saying, “Dugu Zhuo, you’re amazing! We got screwed over by the game, but you were able to notice the trick of the mirror maze in one go!”

Ao Tian suddenly thought of something and happily said, “Jue Shi Shen Jiang logged off! Dugu Zhuo, you saved us! Fatty Dudu faked his death, does this mean we can still clear the dungeon? Dugu Zhuo, come back and lead us to victory!”

He quickly sent a team invite to Dugu Zhuo, but Dugu Zhuo declined.

“Why?” Ao Tian asked, confused.

Dugu Zhuo searched a bit more under the Buddha altar, confirming there was no seventh incense stick and that Ye Zhou’s mirror was still blank.

He had a guess in his heart and told Ao Tian and the others, “Your dungeon has already failed. You couldn’t overcome the mental obstacle on your own. Even if the dungeon fails, you can’t escape the mental block. Someone must pass the Heart Mirror Maze and light a calming incense in front of the Buddha for you. You will rely on the power contained in that incense to barely overcome the mental obstacle, but it’s not considered passing the Heart Demon Tribulation.”

“Heart Demon Tribulation?” Black Cat asked curiously.

Dugu Zhuo stood in front of Ye Zhou’s mirror and gently extended his hand. “To reach Yuan Ying stage, you must overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation. White Tiger passed it before. You indeed found the level 60 dungeon, but unfortunately, you came too early. Your levels and experience aren’t enough. Wait until level 59 and then come.”

His palm touched the mirror, and one hand actually went into it. The suction wasn’t as strong as in the Heart Mirror Maze, indicating the Heart Demon effect was strongest on the person involved.

The other teammates noticed the mirror as well. Ao Tian asked, “Is there anyone else besides us?”

Black Cat, being a bit smarter, quickly deduced, “You’ve only saved the six of us, but you couldn’t save this person. They shouldn’t have failed the dungeon like us. That means they got stuck in the mirror with you during the dungeon challenge. Is it Ye Zhou?”

Dugu Zhuo and Ye Zhou were inseparable, so Black Cat naturally guessed it was Ye Zhou.

Dugu Zhuo looked at Black Cat with approval and said, “This dungeon requires the entire team to pass the Heart Mirror Maze. If someone gets trapped in the mirror, the others can’t help them; they can only move forward. Otherwise, the dungeon will fail. Only when you come back next time can you rescue that person.”

“That’s too difficult, isn’t it?” Qing Yue asked.

Ao Tian replied, “Not really. The person trapped can just log off temporarily, and when the teammates come back to rescue them, it’s fine. Besides, once everyone reaches level 59, more people will be coming to attempt the dungeon. Maybe we won’t have to wait for teammates. Another group might come and light the incense to save them.”

Shen Bi Xiao Ma agreed, “That makes sense. The game made the level 40 and 60 dungeons so hard to control the players’ leveling speed. If we leveled up too fast and reached max level, we’d lose interest in the game. Actually, if Master hadn’t already cleared the Youling Huya dungeon and shared the dungeon strategy, players wouldn’t even have passed level 40 by now. That difficulty was insane.”

Ling Zhi Wa:

“Then, Dugu Zhuo, are you going to continue clearing the dungeon?”

On the left side of the Buddha altar, there was a door, clearly leading to the next stage of the dungeon. When Dugu Zhuo left the Mirror Maze, he had already gained a lot of experience, likely after clearing the first stage.

Dugu Zhuo said, “No, my level isn’t high enough, and the next stage isn’t easy. Besides, I need to find Ye Zhou.”

According to Ao Tian and the others’ descriptions, if Ye Zhou’s condition was the same as theirs, he should be able to send private messages. However, Ye Zhou had gone offline.

Dugu Zhuo believed that the AI was a part of Ye Zhou’s soul, and it wouldn’t do anything to harm him. However, the AI was just a remnant soul, without emotions or independent thought. It was merely a part of Ye Zhou that preserved memories and followed programmed actions, occasionally fulfilling minor wishes when Ye Zhou’s emotions were strong.

The AI might judge what was beneficial for Ye Zhou, but it didn’t necessarily mean it was helpful to his soul.

If the mirror truly reflected Ye Zhou’s inner demons, they must be related to his past life, Ye Zhou from the previous life.

A heart demon that confused even the top cultivators of the cultivation world was something that the incomplete soul of Ye Zhou could not bear.

Even if he could log out, even if his physical body wouldn’t be harmed in the game, what about the mental harm?

The heart demon from Ye Zhou’s past life, Night Zhou, was only a game for other players, but for Ye Zhou, it was an indelible mark on his soul, a dilemma that couldn’t be escaped in either of his lifetimes.

If Dugu Zhuo left Ye Zhou alone in the mirror and waited until tomorrow when the dungeon refreshed, could Ye Zhou really be unaffected by the heart demon?

Perhaps not, perhaps the system would make the most favorable choice for Ye Zhou, but Dugu Zhuo didn’t believe in that “perhaps.”

He had to immediately bring Ye Zhou out of the heart demon.

Seeing Dugu Zhuo’s intent to enter the mirror, Black Cat asked, “Didn’t you say that if you go back now to save the teammates, the dungeon will fail?”

“Yes, let it fail then,” Dugu Zhuo said nonchalantly.

Black Cat raised his hand, “Then can I come with you? Since your dungeon has failed, we are all in the same situation. We can form a team, right? I want to go with you to find Ye Zhou!”

Qing Yue blinked and saw the restrained care on Dugu Zhuo’s face, she secretly smiled and raised her hand, “I want to go too. More people means more strength.”

Qing Yue volunteered, and Ao Tian naturally followed. Three out of the five people wanted to accompany Dugu Zhuo. Ling Zhi Wa and Shen Bi Xiao Ma, who were in the dungeon for fun, naturally joined in.

Dugu Zhuo wasn’t sure what the heart demon of Ye Zhou was, but his concern made him flustered. It would be better to have a few people around to remind him in case he lost his way in Ye Zhou’s heart demon world, so he nodded in agreement.

Dugu Zhuo created the team, and the others disbanded their teams and joined. A group entered the mirror.

Dugu Zhuo speculated that Ye Zhou’s heart demon might be related to the Qing Tian Sword Sect or some malevolent energy from the human world. He had made preparations, but when they entered, he saw a picturesque valley.

This place… was neither the Qing Tian Sword Sect nor any other familiar location.

“Wow! This is so much more beautiful than my mirror!” Ao Tian exclaimed. “In my mirror, I’m just hacking away at myself. Every time I stand up, I get killed.”

“Mine too,” Black Cat said.

Others raised their hands, all of them shared the same heart demon, except for Ye Zhou, which was strange.

Just as they were puzzled, a small white tiger came out of the valley, rolling and turning circles, showing its belly and acting cute towards a huge white tiger.

Everyone: “…”

“This is the heart demon of the white tiger, right?” Black Cat asked uncertainly.

No wonder it was different from theirs. The white tiger was a boss in the game, and the game must have detailed background information about him. His heart demon naturally matched the setting of the tiger, unlike the standard player heart demons.

“So, the white tiger came along with Ye Zhou?” Qing Yue said. “He looks pretty happy. What should we do?”

Dugu Zhuo, with a serious face, said, “Wake him up. A cultivator who has already passed the Yuan Ying stage should not be swayed by such a lowly heart demon. What a waste of all those years.”

“The game has only been open for a few months, though. The white tiger is still just a baby,” Ling Zhi Wa muttered.

Dugu Zhuo strode up to the white tiger, grabbed the back of its neck with one hand, and shook it up and down forcefully.

Black Cat: “…”

The scene looked so familiar, he couldn’t help but remember how Dugu Zhuo had grabbed him by the neck countless times. When a feline’s neck was grabbed, it was completely helpless, no matter how it struggled.

After a few shakes, the large white tiger began to disappear, and the small white tiger’s eyes cleared up from a dazed state.

Dugu Zhuo, with a trace of anger, said, “Where is Ye Zhou?”

“Ah!” The white tiger covered his face with his paw in embarrassment. “Let me think. I saw my father and the way I looked when I was young. I couldn’t break free from it… I slowly… Roar~”

He looked very sad, and Dugu Zhuo knew his heart demon and didn’t want to blame him. He waited for the white tiger to slowly remember.

After a while, the white tiger seemed to be recalling his soul. He said, “Ye Zhou took me through the third mirror. All the way, he kept asking you, ‘How are you?’ Your answer was always, ‘I’m fine.’”

This was something Dugu Zhuo had said when he first entered the Mirror Maze, and it was now being used by the heart demon to confuse Ye Zhou.

“Ye Zhou is very smart, avoiding several attacks. But then, a hand reached up from the ground and grabbed his foot. He was pulled into the mirror. I tried to save him, but another version of me appeared in the mirror and pulled me in too,” the white tiger continued.

After that, the white tiger was confused by the heart demon and fell into a fantasy of his father, the big white tiger, unable to escape.

“This is your heart demon?” Qing Yue asked, picking up the small white tiger. “It’s so beautiful here.”

The white tiger scratched his head. “This is the valley where I grew up when I was little. The tiger demon tribe didn’t like me and drove me out of the valley, not letting me approach the tribe. I used to sit outside the valley, imagining that my father would come and take me to the spirit tribe’s territory. I waited for hundreds of years but never saw him.”

The large white tiger was also the father that the white tiger had imagined based on his mother’s description. He had never seen his real father.

“You are a tiger with deep feelings,” Qing Yue said, rubbing the small white tiger’s head.

As they spoke, the valley began to slowly fade like sand painting, showing that the white tiger’s heart demon was dissipating.

After the valley disappeared, the surrounding environment changed drastically, and they found themselves on a towering mountain peak.

Dugu Zhuo was more familiar with this mountain than anyone else. It was the Xing Chui Peak!

At that moment, everyone heard the system notification: “Congratulations! You have triggered the main storyline 3—Heart Demon. Go and find the true heart demon of the Qing Tian Sword Sect elder Ye Zhou!”