Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 3 – Blood oath

As the jade ornament shone, the blood churned in Dugu Zhuo’s body again, and the old wound on the left side of his chest which had been healed for many years hurt again as if it were freshly opened.

After he had offered his life to destroy the Pillar of Heaven, the Dugu Zhuo who was known by all as a world-destroying demon was not, in actuality, the kind of impressive figure that the cultivation world imagined. His meridians had been broken, his spiritual root destroyed, and only through one obsessive attachment had he held together his soul. He had dragged his crippled body throughout the world, searching for the remnants of Ye Zhou’s soul.

Dugu Zhuo had never held hope for meeting Ye Zhou again. He just felt that fate was too cruel, and he wanted to give Ye Zhou a peaceful next life.

After wandering every corner of the world, the Ye Zhou he had never been able to find now stood before him.

Having found its owner, the jade radiated light, and the piece of soul that had been sheltered within it shot to Ye Zhou’s forehead and entered his body.

Ye Zhou had not seen the soul return. Looking at the warm jade, he asked, “What’s your item do? It looks pretty mystical.”

Item? Dugu Zhuo put away his misgivings and forced back the wild excitement within him. It took all his effort to steady his voice as he spoke. “The Soul Locking Jade. It can forcibly trap a living person’s soul. It’s not something of the righteous path.”

“That’s such a powerful item! Is it a legendary artifact? Where did you get it?” Ye Zhou reached out and the Soul Locking Jade fell into his palm. He glanced at Dugu Zhuo and, seeing the man had no intention of taking it back, figured that either he was too generous or he was an NPC giving out free items.

“It is no more than a normal spiritual tool.” Dugu Zhuo closely watched Ye Zhou’s movements. His expression was filled with curiosity, as if he had never seen the Soul Locking Jade before in his life, while a string of words that didn’t make sense came from his mouth. Clearly he had already reincarnated and no longer remembered the past.

It was good he had forgotten. Dugu Zhuo thought back to their tragically-entwined fate and thought that such a past was nothing worth remembering at all.

His only worry was whether this Ye Zhou’s soul was complete.

Dugu Zhuo took a step forward and reached out toward Ye Zhou.

Ye Zhou thought Dugu Zhuo wanted the jade back, so obediently handed it out to him, but Dugu Zhuo didn’t even glance at it. He pressed his fingers to Ye Zhou’s wrist, like he was taking a pulse.

Ye Zhou suspected even more that Dugu Zhuo was an NPC. There were too many strange points about him, and he didn’t at all resemble a player living in the modern world. But with vivid memories of being tricked by the game, Ye Zhou didn’t dare to make assumptions. He secretly watched Dugu Zhuo, examining him carefully.

Dugu Zhuo released Ye Zhou’s wrist, his brow deeply furrowed.

He knew a bit of medicine, and from Ye Zhou’s pulse, he found there were some things seriously wrong with his body. According to his pulse, Ye Zhou’s age should be twenty-four or twenty-five, but his current body looked only fourteen or fifteen. His features were youthful and his body had not reached its full height.

Looking at his facial features, the shape didn’t match his bone structure, as if his face had been artificially changed and made to look more plain.

Dugu Zhuo had purposefully put pressure on Ye Zhou’s wrist, but Ye Zhou showed no reaction. His senses of touch and pain were far lower than normal, yet his pulse didn’t show that he had any such condition.

The stranger thing was that, from Dugu Zhuo’s analysis, Ye Zhou was missing half of his soul, and through reading his pulse, he ought to be chronically bedridden and relying on various medicines to sustain his life, yet this Ye Zhou looked perfectly healthy.

It was almost like… this was only a shell deeply connected to Ye Zhou, and Ye Zhou’s true self was elsewhere.

But if Ye Zhou wasn’t here, why would the soul fragment in the jade ornament have been absorbed by him?

With his concern winning over his joy at reuniting with Ye Zhou, Dugu Zhuo gradually cooled his head a little and began seriously analyzing his environment.

Dugu Zhuo hadn’t been entering the Canglan Mountains for no reason. Most people certainly couldn’t cross the boundary of the human realm, but with the Xuansu Twin Swords, Dugu Zhuo would be able to. This must be the other side of the Canglan Mountains, a completely unknown world.

Dugu Zhuo glanced in the direction he had come from, but what should be the mist-shrouded Canglan Mountains was now a forest. He had just emerged from the foliage and slain several beasts.

Remembering the beasts, Dugu Zhuo looked down at them but saw the corpses lying on the ground turn into dust. From the depths of the forest came a rustling sound, as two hideous beasts moved through the trees.

“They’ve respawned!” Ye Zhou tossed some medicine into his mouth. He said to Dugu Zhuo, “Whether or not you’re an NPC, if you steal my kills again, I swear I’m going to kill you!”

Seeing the new monsters, Ye Zhou ditched Dugu Zhuo, who was still figuring out the situation, and swung his sword at one of them.

Ye Zhou was just slashing out defensively, but a sword aura sliced through the air, cleaving apart several trees before him as well as the monster hiding behind them.

The combat visuals of Nine Heavens were very good. The sword aura appeared as a faint blue streak of light, and with the accompanying sound effect, it really gave you the exhilarating feeling of cutting through the air with your sword.

“It’s this strong?” Ye Zhou looked at the sword he held, perplexed. He made a casual swing at a few more monsters in the distance. The monsters he hadn’t been able to kill with so much effort earlier were now instantly cut into pieces.

Ye Zhou also received a few spirit stones and herbs. He hadn’t learned any spells yet, so he had to bend over and pick them up one by one. He patted his storage belt, which sucked all the items inside.

He had been given this belt upon creating an account. It had very little space and was nearly full by now, and he would need to be level 10 or higher to equip a better belt. He was currently at level 9 and only had a little EXP to go before reaching level 10, so he had decided to grind here for experience.

As Ye Zhou fought, Dugu Zhuo observed this unfamiliar world around him, filled with questions.

No, it wasn’t actually unfamiliar. Dugu Zhuo had seen this forest and these monsters before.

This was a Karmic Forest[1]. Buddhist disciples would often come here to speak of their troubles, and as time went on, the dark thoughts built up and became deformed monsters. The karmic beasts had no consciousness, only instinctive hatred toward all life, so they indiscriminately attacked everything living around them.

The Karmic Forests were created by Buddhist sects, but slaying the evil thoughts was the duty of all righteous sects.

Practically each major sect had a Karmic Forest nearby, and at intervals, they would set a task for Foundation Establishment or lower disciples to clear out the forest. This gave them an opportunity to train as well as the chance to receive spirit stones or herbs from their sect as rewards.

Dugu Zhuo suddenly remembered the voice he had heard as he slew those beasts. He had a jade storage pendant hanging on his belt, and when he mentally checked it, he indeed found that a few low-grade spiritual stones and some unknown jade slips had been added in.

He had to figure out the strange condition of Ye Zhou’s body. Perhaps it was related to this mysterious world.

Watching as young Ye Zhou searched in the Karmic Forest for monsters, Dugu Zhuo brought out a jade slip and mentally read it.

Jade slips were commonly used magic items in the cultivation world for storing knowledge. Spiritual jade suitable for storing thoughts was crafted into the shape of bamboo writing slips[2]. Cultivators would telepathically record information in the jade slips, which could hold a hundred or a thousand books’ worth of information.

Dugu Zhuo assumed the jade slip would contain the Reverse Sword Form which had just dropped to him, but after reading it, he found it contained a bunch of terms and symbols he didn’t understand.

Name: Dugu Zhuo

Race: Originally human, later mythic

Strength: ???

Spirit: ???

Defense: ???

Attack: ???

Health: 100/???

Level: 3/???

Identity: Locked

Background: Locked

Main Questline Objective: Locked

Dugu Zhuo understood all the words on the jade slip, but strung together, he didn’t understand half a line.

As he held the jade slip and frowned at it, Ye Zhou had already cleared a wave of monsters. He returned happily, sword in hand, and said, “This weapon has gotten so much better after you upgraded it!”

This sword was originally a starting weapon bought from the shop, made of inferior materials with very low durability. After a few slashes, its edge would be full of notches. He needed to bring a lot of whetstones along with him, and spend the downtime in between clearing monsters sharpening his weapon to increase its durability.

After being retempered, all of its stats had risen dramatically. It was now equivalent to a weapon for a level 20 or 30 character, yet it had no level restriction and he could equip it even though he hadn’t even reached level 10. If he could fully upgrade it, it would be an unparalleled weapon.

Since Dugu Zhuo had been so generous, Ye Zhou could no longer interrogate him with so much suspicion. He bluntly stuck out a hand. “Let’s be friends!”

Only players could be added as friends, so if he sent a friend request, he would know the other’s identity. If it was successful, he was a player; if it failed, he was an NPC.

And after they became friends, Ye Zhou would be able to freely send items and money to the other party. After receiving such a favor from Dugu Zhuo, a simple thank you wasn’t going to cut it.

Ye Zhou was waiting for Dugu Zhuo to agree, so he could send the friend request.

Upon hearing Ye Zhou’s offer, however, Dugu Zhuo bit into his index finger, drawing a drop of blood.

Blood oaths had existed in Nine Heavens back when it was a PC game. Both parties had to let a drop of blood from their index fingers intermingle, and from then on they would share all their fortunes. When in a party together, their critical hit rate would be tripled, and they would be able to create a linked ability based on both of their races and stats.

There were a lot of benefits to a blood oath, but there was also a high cost to undo one. If you did, both parties would be penalized 10% of their levels and randomly lose a major piece of equipment. Unless they really hated each other, no players would casually break one of these oaths.

Ye Zhou had just wanted to add the other as a friend, and had never considered building such a close connection with someone he had just met.

But the one who had suggested being friends was him, and it was also he who had obtained a high-level weapon, so if he just flat-out refused, it would seem rather rude.

This… Ye Zhou hesitated, looking at Dugu Zhuo. Fresh blood dripped from Dugu Zhuo’s fingertip to the ground. A VR game wasn’t like a PC game; the realism was too strong. You couldn’t emotionlessly reject someone like you would if they were separated by a screen.

Finally, under Dugu Zhuo’s gaze that seemed slightly hurt, Ye Zhou bit his fingertip with much hesitance and let his blood mix with Dugu Zhuo’s.

[Ding! You have formed a blood oath with Dugu Zhuo. Should the system assign a personal relationship based on both parties’ data? Yes/No]

“A personal relationship?” Ye Zhou asked. “There didn’t use to be this prompt. Did it change in the new edition of the game?”

Originally, after swearing a blood oath, players would all be assigned as sworn brothers regardless of gender, but now that it was undecided, it felt kind of interesting, like he was opening a mystery box.

“Select yes!” Ye Zhou told Dugu Zhuo. “Let’s see what roles the new oath system has.”

Dugu Zhuo had also received the prompt, as well as a dialogue box that popped up with Yes and No choices. When hearing Ye Zhou’s command, he didn’t bat an eyelid, and they both hit Yes at the same time.

A streak of black light and a streak of white light shot out of their mingled drop of blood, swirling around them in the shape of the Taiji[3], before transforming into a jade slip that recorded their relationship with one another.

According to the jade slip, the system had recognized their relationship as “master and disciple”, with Ye Zhou as the master and Dugu Zhuo as the disciple. Their linked ability was “Harmony of Twin Swords”, and could only be used at level 80 or above.

“Master and disciple? Why did it make us master and disciple?” Ye Zhou said in shock. “Right now, everyone is low-level new players and the disciple system hasn’t even been activated. How is a level 9 player qualified to become someone’s master?”

Dugu Zhuo looked at the words “master and disciple” on the jade slip and felt this was the best outcome he could’ve wished for.

“Could it be because this account is bound to the PC version of Nine Heavens?” Ye Zhou mused. “Is your account bound? You can get a lot of returning player gifts if you do.”

“This one…” After some consideration, Dugu Zhuo copied Ye Zhou’s manner of speech. “I don’t have an ‘account’ and have not used the ‘PC version’.”

“Then perhaps I’m assigned your master because I have a PC version account,” Ye Zhou said, earnestly thinking it over.

From the soul knowledge received when forming the blood oath, Dugu Zhuo saw the other’s name. “Ye Zhou[4]?”

It was similar to his previous life’s name, yet different.

“Huh? You can see the real name that I registered with though making a blood oath? My username is clearly ‘Yi Ye Pian Zhou[5]‘. By doing this, isn’t the game company exposing customers’ private info? But isn’t your name still your username, Dugu Zhuo?” Ye Zhou said, confused. Dugu Zhuo didn’t feel like an ordinary name used in modern society, so he figured it was an online handle.

Hearing Ye Zhou frequently mention “game”, Dugu Zhuo felt something was off and replied carefully, “I skipped over two of the characters.”

“Oh, I see. Then that’s my bad for accidentally revealing my real name.” Ye Zhou knocked himself on the head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

After swearing an oath, they could now check a few of each other’s stats. Ye Zhou could see Dugu Zhuo’s level, race, and other info, but didn’t see those hidden attributes which were all filled with question marks.

“You really are a player,” he said curiously. “Yet you’re just level 3 and you haven’t picked a profession. How did you make my sword so strong?”

Dugu Zhuo felt that this world had many similarities to the cultivation world he knew, though it had a few diverging points. After some consideration, he spoke. “Humans indeed must be at Foundation Establishment stage or higher before they can refine elixirs or magic tools, but mythics are different.”

“Oh, right, mythic was a new race added with the new version,” Ye Zhou said. “Since you haven’t played the PC version, I guess you wouldn’t know. In the original game, mythic was a race for only bosses and NPCs. It was only made available in the current version, but you can’t select it in character creation. The company explained that players could find rare opportunities in the game in order to become mythics. Did something interesting happen to you to allow you to switch races?”

“I obtained a certain sword, and from then on was no longer human,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“That would be the broken sword in your bag, right? You’re pretty lucky! So, have there been any changes since you became a mythic? Does the fact that your blood can strengthen weapons also have to do with this?”

Ye Zhou weighed the sword in his hand, and then sighed. “No way, this isn’t good luck at all. If other players knew about the special effect of your blood, wouldn’t they chase you down to draw your blood and strengthen their weapons? How can the game devs be so unfair? You actually managed to become a special race, yet you might have it worse than the yao and spirit races!”

He tried to imagine this scenario. Wouldn’t it become a bloodbath?