Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 30 – Sword flight

Ye Zhou thought there might’ve been static electricity on Dugu Zhuo’s fingers, because after being touched by him, Ye Zhou’s forehead felt tingly. Ye Zhou avoided responding to Dugu Zhuo, instead asking stubbornly, “Aren’t the Pure Lady Sect and Boundless Temple unrestricted by race? Mythics aren’t even allowed to join those two?”

The introductory NPC replied, “They are unrestricted to the five races available to the public, excluding the mythic race.”

That’s right, when players made their account, they could only choose between the five races of human, spirit, ghost, demon, and yao, and the game’s official website had also stated that mythics were special and it was based on luck whether a player could become one.

“What exactly are mythics?” Ye Zhou asked.

Dugu Zhuo answered, “It refers to any of the original races who have become associated with divine power. Because divine power resides within us, we are unable to use the methods of other sects.”

Ye Zhou quickly changed their conversation to a private message. “Divine power? Where’d that come from?”

Dugu Zhuo also replied with a voice transmission. “Some people happen to receive the teachings of a god, or accidentally merge with the relics of a divine beast of primordial times, while some merge with divine artifacts. You and I are the latter. The attributes of divine power correspond to the five phases, so since we’ve become one with divine weapons, we are classified as metal-attribute mythics.”

Ye Zhou, his thoughts tangled into a mess, shot off a series of questions. “Divine artifact? When did I merge with a divine artifact? When did you? Which one?”

Dugu Zhuo, thinking about how the Xuansu Twin Swords were weapons of creation and tied to the game’s plot, wasn’t sure whether or not to tell Ye Zhou about them.

He was a bug, and only recognized as a player due to the acknowledgement of 70% or more of the playerbase. He wasn’t certain of if the playerbase knew the truth, whether it would affect his identity.

Most importantly, he didn’t want Ye Zhou to remember his past life. It was better for all the matters of their pasts to fade to smoke, and only be remembered by him alone.

For some things, it was best Ye Zhou never knew.

Thus, Dugu Zhuo responded, “I don’t wish to deceive you, but I also cannot say.”

“What? Oh.” Ye Zhou bowed his head, looking a bit dejected.

He hadn’t known Dugu Zhuo for very long and it wasn’t his place to probe into the other’s secrets, but…

Ye Zhou surreptitiously took a glance at Dugu Zhuo. He had actually thought that Dugu Zhuo was secretly pursuing him, but now, that seemed to not be the case.

“You became a mythic due to me pouring a divine artifact’s power into your body, in order to suppress the sword qi,” Dugu Zhuo said.

Ye Zhou remembered the knife-like pains that had stabbed through his guts after he’d used the Heart Linking Technique, and said with a shudder, “So you did that to save me. Why was it so painful, then? Because you merged with a divine artifact?”

“Essentially,” Dugu Zhuo said.

Ye Zhou had mobility issues, and the environment in his home needed to be kept as sterile as possible, as the wind and dust from outside could make him seriously ill. From a young age, he had gotten used to not being able to go outside, not being curious, and not asking too many questions. Even though he still had many doubts, since he saw that Dugu Zhuo didn’t want to answer, he decided not to pry.

“Then how are we going to start our own sect? What were the requirements the system said last time, again?”

“I need to attain a title for footwork,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“How? How have you been creating your own techniques up to this point, anyway?” Ye Zhou asked.

“I was able to create the Misdirection Array after trapping and killing Black Cat with it, and the Five Phases Swordplay after killing the veiled team with it. The requirement for creating a technique is affecting a player with it.”

“But how are you supposed to hurt someone with footwork? From my understanding, footwork should be something like an evasive technique, right?” Ye Zhou asked.

Dugu Zhuo looked at him and suddenly smiled. “Would you like to try it out? Some footwork?”

“How? Are you going to use me for creating a technique?”

“Of course not. Let’s go.”

Dugu Zhuo promptly brought Ye Zhou to outside Jiuchuan City. He explained, “Jiuchuan City is a gathering place of humans which holds innumerable mortal lives, so in order to protect them from demons or ghosts, the major cultivation sects will normally set up arrays within major cities. Inside Jiuchuan City, even a Mahayana cultivator would be unable to fly. Foundation Establishment and under cultivators could brawl within the city, but the higher one’s realm, the more one’s power will be limited.”

“Aren’t these settings all new?” Ye Zhou asked. “How do you know them?”

Dugu Zhuo smiled slightly and didn’t reply. He drew the “Refined Steel Sword” which the game had gifted him, put an arm around Ye Zhou’s waist, and said quietly, “Hold on to me.”

Ye Zhou didn’t know what Dugu Zhuo was planning, and being suddenly held made him want to back away. However, looking into those incomparably gentle eyes, Ye Zhou ended up obeying and putting his hands around Dugu Zhuo’s waist.

When Ye Zhou was holding him securely, Dugu Zhuo released him out of courtesy and formed several hand seals, softly calling out, “Rise!”

That level 20 steel sword really did rise into the air and begin flying. Holding onto Ye Zhou, Dugu Zhuo leapt onto the sword’s body.

With a swish, the sword charged toward the clouds, flying in the direction of Penglai Town.

“God!” The wind whistled in Ye Zhou’s ears, causing him to close his eyes in shock. He was originally a bit awkward holding on to Dugu Zhuo, but now he clung to his waist, burying his face in his back.

Dugu Zhuo’s waist looked slim, but it was firm and filled with strength, and Ye Zhou felt very secure clinging to him.

“There’s no need to fear,” Dugu Zhuo said, his voice gentle and warm. “With spiritual energy protecting you, you won’t fall.”

Only then did Ye Zhou open his eyes and carefully look downward. He saw Dugu Zhuo was standing upon the sword as if it were flat ground. His feet were wider than the blade, but he never lost his balance.

Ye Zhou also stood on the blade. He was instantly so scared his legs shook, but realized that his feet were planted very firmly, and it didn’t at all feel like he was standing on just the surface of a slim sword.

Even though he knew that this was only a game and nothing would happen to him, when he saw the mountains and forests grow smaller and smaller through the gaps in the clouds, Ye Zhou still felt dizzy, his legs going weak and an empty feeling in his chest, as if he was drifting away.

These were symptoms of acrophobia. Ye Zhou had never been somewhere high before, so he’d never known he had a fear of heights.

Dugu Zhuo placed a hand around Ye Zhou’s wrist and felt his pulse was unsteady. Seeing that Ye Zhou really was terrified, he turned around and placed both his hands on Ye Zhou’s temples, rubbing them lightly.

Dugu Zhuo still remembered that when he had traveled to Star Draping Peak with Ye Zhou for the first time, he’d felt the same way. The previous few times he had flown, he was unconscious, so this was the first time he had been alert. They flew extremely high as well, and he was terrified out of his mind.

Back then, he had really disliked Ye Zhou and even hated that aloof man a little. He wasn’t willing to cling to Ye Zhou’s clothes, so stood on the sword with his face pale and his mouth tightly shut, not uttering a sound.

At the time, Dugu Zhuo had thought that he would surely die, that even if Ye Zhou didn’t push him, he would lose his balance and fall, his body getting smashed to pieces on that mountain peak.

Right when Dugu Zhuo thought his heart would burst through his chest, Ye Zhou raised a hand and Dugu Zhuo found himself enveloped by an expanse of white. He could no longer feel the fierce winds raised by their speed and no longer see the scenery under his feet. It also felt as if he was being embraced, and he instantly was no longer afraid.

When he was able to see again, he found that they were already at Star Draping Peak, his feet planted on blessedly solid ground.

Only later did he realize that back then, it was Ye Zhou’s white robe which was draped over him, a renowned magic item in the cultivation world which could block the full force of a Mahayana cultivator.

“Don’t be afraid,” Dugu Zhuo said softly. “I’m right here.”

He didn’t have a magic robe, so this was the best he could do to help Ye Zhou alleviate his fear.

At the same time, Dugu Zhuo commanded the sword to descend and slow down. Feeling Dugu Zhuo trying to reassure him, as well as hearing the noise by his ears die down, Ye Zhou gradually opened his eyes and found they were now standing three meters in the air, while under their feet were a couple of bandits who had gathered around but were powerless to do anything to them.

“Y—you can stop rubbing my head,” Ye Zhou said. “I’m alright. I never realized before how much of a coward I was.”

Dugu Zhuo lowered his hands. “I started off too fast, and didn’t give you time to prepare.”

“No, no, no, I… I still really like flying.” As he thought back to what had just happened, Ye Zhou’s fear gradually faded, and his eyes started to brighten.

Dugu Zhuo watched him serenely.

Ye Zhou shifted his weight on the sword, moving one of his feet out and stepping on the air near the blade. He found that it was also solid.

“Why is it like that?” he asked.

“This is sword flight,” Dugu Zhuo responded. “One infuses their own spiritual essence into a magic artifact, creating an invisible barrier of spiritual energy around the sword’s body, and thus allowing themselves to fly freely through the air. However, the spiritual energy barrier will decrease the speed of flight, so at higher levels, there are even faster methods which can cross vast distances in a flash. I’m not certain whether this qualifies as footwork, but if it doesn’t, there are also various fast movement techniques.”

“Can… can we take another flight?” Ye Zhou asked. “Accelerate more slowly this time, little by little.”

“Okay.” Dugu Zhuo lifted a finger, and the sword slowly began to fly, but not too high, and at the speed of an ordinary person running.

Seeing that Ye Zhou didn’t look uncomfortable, Dugu Zhuo gradually increased the speed, as well as creating a barrier around Ye Zhou with his spiritual essence in order to muffle the sound of the wind.

Ye Zhou slowly grew accustomed to it, and from time to time, urged Dugu Zhuo to go faster. After flying freely in the skies for a short while, they arrived at Penglai Town.

“It took us that long to make the journey walking, but the return trip only took… ten minutes?” Ye Zhou said, looking at the time. “What’s the fastest we can go?”

“If a cultivator reaches Mahayana and becomes one with heaven and earth, they can travel thousands of li in the blink of an eye,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“No wonder there wasn’t a transport array between these two maps. They want players to learn how to fly on their own!” Ye Zhou said excitedly.

This was completely different from the slow flight on mounts in the PC game, and allowed players to personally experience the sensations of flying. Brave people could experience it with their full senses, while someone less brave could decrease their sensory input, and still enjoy watching the scenery.

“This is so fun!” Ye Zhou was exuberant for a short while, until he finally remembered that they were going to create a footwork technique. “Has the system prompted you to submit a technique?”

“No,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“What? Are we actually going to have to kill a player, then?” Ye Zhou said. “If there was no reason for it, I’d feel bad.”

“I’ll take a look around the Eternal Night District,” Dugu Zhuo said. “You wait in town for me.”

“Wait…” Ye Zhou felt a bit worried. In the middle of the day, if a player who appeared to be a human walked into the Eternal Night District, wouldn’t they get mobbed by the ghosts and demons?

Dugu Zhuo said nothing. He brought Ye Zhou to a restaurant, and after saying “wait for me,” left.

If Ye Zhou didn’t want him to proactively attack players, then he might as well get players to attack him.

Walking up to the black boulder, Dugu Zhuo pushed back his sleeve and politely knocked on it three times.

Even though the Eternal Night District was the spawn point of demons and ghosts, human players weren’t actually restricted from entry, a direct contradiction to the Eternal Night Realm in the Netherworld that Grandmaster Tanji had spoken of, which forbade humans entry. In the game, any player could go sightseeing inside. Just as long as you weren’t afraid of death, you could experience for yourself what a procession of a hundred ghosts looked like.

The entrance to the Eternal Night District opened, and Dugu Zhuo calmly walked in. The moment he entered, he saw a lump of mosaic sitting near his feet.

Dugu Zhuo frowned slightly. “What is this?”

The mosaic was red-colored. A young ghost maiden in white robes drifted up, pushed aside her hair, and said to Dugu Zhuo, “That guy made himself too terrifying, so it didn’t pass system approval and he got mosaic’d.”

“Here we are in the Eternal Night District, where you can experience yourself an invasion of ghosts and demons, but they won’t allow red blood, they won’t allow bodies that are damaged too badly, they won’t allow you to take off your skullcap, they won’t allow you to extend long tongues and scare people. There’s no life in the Eternal Night District like this!” The mosaic had a crisp male voice.

“Stop talking. If you go on, I’m going to delete this account and create a human character!” the white-robed maiden said, covering her ears and looking frightened.

The ghosts had even managed to scare themselves. Dugu Zhuo found these two players intriguing and held no enmity towards them, so decided to leave them alone. He glanced over the other players, trying to find one who would be likely to get into a fight.