Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 36 – Money-making scheme

Ye Zhou was considering how to clear the instance with two people the next day in order to make everyone eat their mocking words when Unrivaled Divine General revived on the spot and shouted at Ye Zhou, “Who cares about competing with you? Let’s go!”

He had accepted a job to lead people through the instance, so even if he was fuming, he still needed to diligently serve his clients.

Unrivaled Divine General departed with that, without tossing out any parting words like “you just wait for me”, so it turned out he could actually accept defeat when he needed to.

Seeing the excitement was over, the surrounding crowd stopped watching Dugu Zhuo and Ye Zhou and hurried off on their own business.

Ye Zhou returned to his inn room, and after saying goodbye to Dugu Zhuo, went offline to rest.

After he departed, Dugu Zhuo left the room. Without Ye Zhou there, he didn’t find any entertainment in staring at a blank wall.

Over this period, when Ye Zhou logged off, Dugu Zhuo hadn’t remained idle. He had walked pretty much every inch of the currently open maps in Nine Heavens, trying to find the next main storyline task.

If the main storyline was as closely connected with his past as it seemed, he didn’t want Ye Zhou involved in the next part at all costs. Nine Heavens’ main storyline wouldn’t reappear after being completed, so if he finished one part alone, other people wouldn’t be aware of that portion of his past.

Unfortunately, these last couple days, he had thoroughly searched Penglai Town, the Eternal Day and Night Districts, and Jiuchuan City, and even interrogated every bandit and thug on the road from Penglai Town to Jiuchuan City, and in the end not managed to find any clues towards the main storyline.

Perhaps this was because a requirement was unfulfilled, or because many maps in the game were still not open, so the clues hadn’t been released yet.

Ye Zhou progressed rapidly in cultivation, so he would be able to learn basic techniques very quickly. The next thing he would want to do would undoubtedly be going to the level 20+ instances to level up. It couldn’t be delayed any longer.

Just as Dugu Zhuo expected, after Ye Zhou cultivated for less than a week, he had mastered the flight spell, the sword flight technique, and the Five Elements Talismans. After all their preparations were ready, he and Dugu Zhuo set off, fully equipped, to challenge the Sun-Worshipping Cult instance.

They no longer needed Foundation Establishment Pills, and the pills the Sun-Worshipping Cult instance gave out were bound to the player and could not be sold, so clearing this instance honestly didn’t hold much benefit for them, and only amounted to some experience. However, while the amount of experience points could be considered significant to players below level 20, past level 20, it would be more efficient to run around in the wilderness and find bandits to beat up.

Dugu Zhuo had verified this comparison by going to the wilderness and fighting bandits while Ye Zhou was gone.

Initially, in order to obtain information, Dugu Zhuo had left a member of an ambush alive in order to follow him back to the bandits’ mountain lair.

The lair was filled with countless pieces of silver, low-grade spirit stones, and medicinal ingredients, as any items dropped by players who got killed by the bandits would automatically appear in their storeroom.

Dugu Zhuo cleared out the lair, and on top of the experience and Righteousness Points, he had obtained a good 100,000 silver taels. Over this period of time, the room fare for him and Ye Zhou had come from here.

Thinking of the tens of millions of funds they would need to found a sect, Dugu Zhuo decided that he could raise the money by robbing bandits. If he just repeated this a couple hundred times, he would be set.

The second day, he repeated the same formula, following the one surviving bandit back to their mountain lair, only to find that the inside of the lair was bare and the bandit leader was currently boiling wild vegetables to eat.

Upon seeing Dugu Zhuo, the bandit leader fell to his knees and said, “Great hero, please spare us! Business wasn’t good today, and we didn’t manage to kill many travelers, so we’re truly penniless. My brothers are going to bed with their stomachs empty tonight!”

Dugu Zhuo: “…”

The bandits’ strategist, a man with a pinched and gaunt face, also kneeled down and said, “Great hero, how about tomorrow, after we’ve robbed some people, we’ll give you all our earnings?”

Dugu Zhuo: “…”

Waiting for these bandits to rob players would be less effective than him going out to rob players himself.

Just like that, Dugu Zhuo’s plan to get rich crumbled.

He quickly came up with a new plan, but he would only know whether or not it could be viable after beating the Sun-Worshipping Cult instance. So, he said that this instance wasn’t really worth clearing, but in actuality, even though he would accompany Ye Zhou no matter what if Ye Zhou wanted to do it, Dugu Zhuo certainly had his own reason to clear it.

The instance wasn’t actually hard, just an extreme test of a player’s control of the game. 

After subduing the Peach Tree Monsters, they needed to flee to outside the elder’s range in order to avoid his barrage of AoE attacks, and dodge his single-target attacks afterwards. As long as their movements were precise, they would be able to win by whittling away at the elder.

This stage wasn’t difficult. They had thoroughly practiced the flight spell, so they would be able to dodge the elder’s attacks easily.

The problem was the elder’s extremely high health pool and strong defense, which meant that they would have trouble causing damage to him with their weapons.

The Five Phases Swordplay and the Tiangang Steps were powerful, but they also expended too much spiritual energy. At their current levels, if they tried to use their sword and movement techniques at the same time, their spiritual energy would run out in no time. They would have no way to fight, unable to sustain even the most basic flight or sword command technique.

Plus, the Five Phases Swordplay and the Tiangang Steps had cooldown periods, and couldn’t be used again within a fifteen second timespan.

After some discussion, they decided that after one person used a sword technique, they would immediately fall back and eat pills to replenish spiritual energy, while the other person would come forward and use their movement techniques. Fighting in turns like this, they finally managed to drain the elder’s health in a few cycles.

Before dying, the elder let out a frustrated bellow. He wasn’t weak, it was just that he couldn’t fly.

The next challenge was a rather cliche riddle of truth and lies. They were faced with two doors and two guardians, one of which always told the truth, and one of which always told lies. In order to find the correct door, they could only ask one question to one gatekeeper.

If they went through the correct door, they would arrive at the main hall of the temple, but if they were mistaken, they would have to fight the divine beast of the Sun-Worshipping Cult. Only by winning could they leave and return to the correct door.

With Dugu Zhuo’s intellect, he could easily figure out which door was the true one, but upon hearing “divine beast”, he remembered that their sect still needed a guardian beast. Tempted away, he purposefully chose the incorrect door in order to see the divine beast, in case they could capture it for their sect.

Dugu Zhuo had assumed that in the Sun-Worshipping Temple, the divine beast should be a three-legged sun crow or something else related to the sun, and at the very least, it had to be an animal, surely. But on the other side of the door, he found a row of sunflowers.

The sunflowers might’ve looked ordinary, but their combat strength was terrifying.

Their natural ability to face the sun made them very sensitive to light, and from even a single ray of light, they could discern the two’s locations and spit out a barrage of sunflower seeds.

The sunflower seeds were no snack, either. Every one of them was a tiny bomb, which would penetrate into the flesh of players before exploding. Not only did they cause serious damage, but if they hit the arms or legs, they would affect attack damage or movement speed.

The volume of the attack was also extremely high, as dense as raindrops, so even Dugu Zhuo and Ye Zhou’s evasive abilities might not be able to avoid them.

Dugu Zhuo instantly thought up a countermeasure, however. He and Ye Zhou shared a glance, then Ye Zhou went forward and blocked the first wave, as Dugu Zhuo prepared a talisman.

However, just at this moment, the Sun-Worshipping Cult’s youth had to cause problems. He was designed by the devs to act as an obstacle, so every time the players faced a challenge, he would yell, “This is one of Elder’s trials, I won’t back down!” and charge right in. He could get himself killed in the blink of an eye. The players couldn’t even hold him back, and countless died because of him.

Dugu Zhuo had originally used the binding spell on him and carried him in one arm. He’d been portable and hadn’t managed to cause any trouble.

However, these sunflowers were the divine beasts of the Sun-Worshipping Cult, and their purpose was to protect the members of the Sun-Worshipping Tribe. When they entered the gates, the youth was able to borrow their power to break the binding spell, and as Dugu Zhuo focused on his talismans, charged forth while drawing a dagger, shouting, “Honored divine beasts, please test me!”

Ye Zhou had all his attention on simultaneously using Sword Flight and the Five Phases Swordplay to block the sunflower seeds. With wind swords protecting him, he hadn’t sustained any injury yet.

Seeing the youth charge in, Ye Zhou, in a pinch, sent a few of his wind swords out to protect him. A hole appeared in his defenses and one sunflower seed was able to hit him in the shoulder. It detonated, instantly taking away 20% of Ye Zhou’s health.

The damage was nothing, but Ye Zhou had adjusted his pain sensitivity to the highest setting. The pain disrupted his concentration. He was unable to maintain the wind swords, and countless sunflower seeds flew toward him.

Through the Heart Linking Technique, Dugu Zhuo also felt the pain in his shoulder. In the past, he had perpetually been in pain, so his pain threshold and endurance were high.

As Ye Zhou faced the omnidirectional threat, Dugu Zhuo appeared in front of him in the moment before impact, and tossed an illumination talisman into the air.

The entire room was instantly lit up as the talisman let out blinding rays. All the sunflowers couldn’t help but look up toward the talisman, causing all the seeds to shoot in its direction, temporarily taking the two out of the line of fire.

Dugu Zhuo immediately tossed out a flame talisman in succession. It started a raging inferno, which Dugu Zhuo took advantage of to use the Five Phases Swordplay’s fire swords.

The sunflowers had nowhere to hide from the intense blaze, and all were incinerated.

This battle had been rather costly for them. Their spiritual energy was depleted, and Ye Zhou had also been injured.

Fortunately, it would take the sunflowers five minutes to revive, so they had some time to recuperate.

They had no healing abilities between them. Dugu Zhuo pulled open Ye Zhou’s clothes, used qi to force out the splintered pieces of sunflower seed in Ye Zhou’s arm, then applied healing medicine to the area as well as giving him pills. Healing medicine took effect instantaneously in the game, so Ye Zhou recovered at once.

“Argh, it hurts like hell!” Ye Zhou said, clutching his shoulder.

Dugu Zhuo blamed himself for it all. If he hadn’t been so determined to catch a divine beast for his sect, Ye Zhou wouldn’t have been hurt.

Before he could even get out any words of apology, though, Ye Zhou raised a hand and poked Dugu Zhuo in the cheek, saying with a smile, “Why are you feeling bad about it? Isn’t choosing to fight the wrong door a normal way to play?

“When I played games in the past, I would also take on some hidden challenges when I got bored. It’s another way to have fun. Even if you took the wrong door on purpose, I also would’ve wanted to see the divine beast of the Sun-Worshipping Cult.

“I took a screenshot just now too. When I log off, I’m going to post it on the forums. The other players are going to love the true identity of this instance’s divine beasts!”

With his unconcerned attitude, he managed to resolve Dugu Zhuo’s feelings of guilt.

Seeing that Dugu Zhuo was staring at his shoulder, Ye Zhou quickly put his clothes back on, standing up as if nothing had been going on. “Maybe you should draw a few more talismans right now. After we pass through the next door, we’ll be onto the final boss, so preparing a little more couldn’t hurt.”

Gazing at Ye Zhou, Dugu Zhuo said, “Next time you log on, make sure to set the pain sensitivity to zero.”

Even though Ye Zhou had already used the Heart Linking Technique and would be able to feel Dugu Zhuo’s pain through it, if he adjusted his setting to zero, he could at least not feel pain when he himself got injured.

“Yeah, I will,” Ye Zhou said casually. “Get to your talismans.”

Dugu Zhuo turned away to draw, while Ye Zhou, holding his hands behind his back, whistled guiltily.

Ye Zhou knew full well it was dangerous to set the pain sensitivity very high, but the game had pain and touch sensitivity linked. If he set his pain to zero, then in the future, when Dugu Zhuo patted him, poked him, or held his hand, he wouldn’t be able to feel it, and he wouldn’t even be able to feel Dugu Zhuo’s breathing when they stood very close to each other.

Of course, through the Heart Linking Technique, he could feel Dugu Zhuo’s sensations, but those were Dugu Zhuo’s, not his own.

He simply wouldn’t adjust it, Ye Zhou thought with his back to Dugu Zhuo, having flat-out deceived him.

In order to prevent injuries in the boss fight as much as possible, Dugu Zhuo drew a lot of talismans. He also used physical methods (a rope) to wrap the Sun-Worshipping youth into a bundle. Finally, they left the room, now selecting the correct gate, into the worship hall of the Sun-Worshipping Temple.

The current elder of the Sun-Worshipping Temple saw them and smiled unkindly. “After so many trials, do you still not understand?”

This line was directed at the Sun-Worshipping youth. Ye Zhou had a bad feeling. Maybe that stumbling block kid had another trap in place for the players.