Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 42 - Mystical Sword Emerges

Yimeng Xueyao: “Hey hey hey? Why are you so excited? Don’t touch that candle, don’t touch!”

Yimeng Xueyao is high defense, high HP, but low speed. He couldn’t stop Black Cat with his speed.

Flowing in White and Head-in-hand also rushed forward to stop Black Cat. They weren’t bound by physical constraints, and their speed wasn’t slow either. Flowing in White even had the ability to possess others. She tried to possess Black Cat but was repelled by a burst of Buddha light, and ended up injured instead.

With one swipe of its claw, the Red-Clothed Woman’s face bore four scars shining with Buddha light, and the candle was extinguished.

“Alas!” The Willow Tree Monster sighed heavily. “It’s over. We’ll be left to be gnawed by evil spirits and become withered trees and unconscious cats.”

“The Soul-Lamp is extinguished.” The Red-Clothed Woman’s eyes were empty and lifeless. With a slight exertion of her fingers, the candle in her hand melted into a pool of black blood-like liquid.

She turned to look at the River Styx, kneeling with both knees on the ground, her hands clasped at her lips, softly chanting a distant and serene song.

Head-in-hand bumped its head against Black Cat, shedding “oil” tears as it said, “It’s over, let me tell you, this Red-Clothed Woman is a guide, responsible for guarding the River Styx and preventing resentment from invading the reverse side of the River Styx. The candle in her hand is the Soul-Lamp, used to appease the souls contaminated on the reverse side of the River Styx. Now that you’ve extinguished the Soul-Lamp, we’ll soon witness the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.”

Flowing in White said, “Shouldn’t we just exit the instance now? It’s really too difficult.”

The Willow Tree Monster said, “Soon the resentful souls will gather and gnaw you into a bald cat. You won’t need to be tonsured; just become a monk directly.”

Black Cat, never one to apologize or regret, even after being trapped and killed multiple times by Dugu Zhuo, still wouldn’t bow down to Dugu Zhuo.

He lifted his head proudly and said, “Isn’t the point to play on hard mode? What’s wrong with me activating hard mode?”

“At least wait until after the mob of resentful souls has been dealt with before extinguishing it!” Experienced Willow Tree Monster said, “Have you ever seen what it’s like to be surrounded by hundreds of resentful souls? It’s terrifying.”

Flowing in White explained, “You see, at the beginning, the candle wasn’t so easily extinguished. Even blowing forcefully wouldn’t put it out. We suspect the candle is related to the hard mode, but it definitely isn’t used in the first stage, but rather in the choice checkpoint before facing the final boss.”

Returning Souls to the River Styx is when the Red-Clothed Woman leads players along the River Styx, searching for the source of pollution in the River Styx.

Similar to the Temple of Sun Worship, there are three battles, with one choice.

The first battle is where translucent souls will hold onto players, preventing them from moving forward. Here the souls are relatively gentle, only trying to push players into the River Styx. Falling in will result in being removed from the instance. During this time, the Red-Clothed Woman will also be pushed, but she remains quiet and doesn’t rush into the pile of souls, much stronger than the suicidal youth in the Temple of Sun Worship.

The second battle is with the Underworld Beasts. After breaking free from the souls’ restraints, players will encounter three Underworld Beasts, actually one entity divided into three avatars. At this point, the Red-Clothed Woman will inform everyone that the Underworld Beasts are monsters from the Netherworld and shouldn’t be inside the River Styx. Someone must have let them in.

After defeating the Underworld Beast, players will face two choices. In front of them are two paths, one black and one white. In the middle of one of the paths stands a bronze cauldron with boiling oil inside, the infamous oil pot where sinful spirits are tortured in the underworld legend.

The woman in red is the ferrywoman of the River Styx. When she sees the oil pot, she weeps and says, “It’s all my fault. I didn’t guard the River Styx well, letting these resentful spirits suffer.”

After saying this, she hugs a candle and throws herself into the oil pot, releasing the tortured souls inside the cauldron. The souls immediately surround the player, and currently, no one can pass this stage.

The correct path is not distinguished by black or white, but by the expression of the woman in red. When choosing the path with the oil pot, if the woman in red, who has been expressionless all along, smiles devoutly, the player should immediately choose the opposite path. This will lead to the simpler route, where a small boat awaits to ferry across the River Styx, leading to the final battle with the mastermind.

The woman in white floats and says, “There are only twenty-something tortured souls in the bronze cauldron. Although they are all fierce, there is still hope of getting through. But now… see for yourself.”

Countless souls emanating black aura rush towards the player from the gray traces on the silver river.

Ti Toulai solemnly opens the control interface and says, “Should we just log out? If we log back in, we’ll be ejected from the instance.”

Black Cat steps back, stubbornly looks at Dugu Zhuo, the fur on its back standing up, and says with effort, “I… I… I just… I’m just too worried about Huanyi and Xiao Bao… Am I wrong?”

“It’s okay,” Dugu Zhuo bends down and reaches out, gently patting Black Cat’s head. His voice is not as cold as before but rather gentle. “I’m not angry.”

“Then how about logging out and trying again tomorrow?” Black Cat, seeing that Dugu Zhuo isn’t really angry, suggests after letting out a sigh of relief.

“No need.” A gust of wind lifts Dugu Zhuo, and he throws away the fine steel sword in his hand, facing the tortured souls as he walks past them.

“Do you think he can really defeat so many resentful spirits in one go?” The woman in white is astonished. “I admit he’s very powerful, and I’ve witnessed the power of the ‘Heavenly Strength Steps’, but to defeat these resentful spirits, I think you need to be at least level 60.”

Despite Dugu Zhuo’s prowess, the level difference is too great.

And he even threw away his weapon, taking out a rusty broken sword from his storage belt. How is he going to fight this battle?

Players like Yimeng Xiaoyao shake their heads.

That broken sword is naturally the broken Xuanjian.

Before level 20, Dugu Zhuo always carried the Xuanjian and the Sujian wrapped in cloth on his back. After reaching level 20, with the cultivation base, he had enough strength to store the broken sword in the storage magic treasure. The Xuanjian and Sujian had been stuffed by Dugu Zhuo to the bottom of the item pile and had never been taken out.

After hearing the words of the woman in red, understanding why Jiuyuyuan targeted himself and his mother, after the initial shock, Dugu Zhuo surprisingly became unusually calm.

He didn’t need to feel sadness or rage; after all, even before destroying the Heavenly Pillar, when the White Tiger fell and the Night Boat’s soul scattered, Dugu Zhuo understood that the divine sword was not the ultimate glory but a weight that ordinary people could hardly bear.

Whether the heavenly dao was fair or fate was unpredictable, these had nothing to do with Dugu Zhuo anymore. At this moment, he wasn’t in the broken cultivation world but in the holographic online game “Nine Heavens,” where there was Ye Zhou and players who would get angry for Xiao Bao and Huanyi.

Black Cat’s claw gave Dugu Zhuo a feeling of satisfaction. In his previous life, everyone told him, “You bear the divine sword; it is your destiny.” But here was different; this was a world where one could act recklessly.

Evil demons entangled in karma could have clear eyes; resentful ghosts full of grievances just wanted to turn into mosaics to scare people; demons could become monks and chant “Amitabha”; spirits would sacrifice their spiritual energy to heal humans, and humans could even take names like “Proud Heaven”…

Surrounded by thousands of resentful spirits, Dugu Zhuo said, “It seems I shouldn’t suppress myself too much.”

The broken sword trembled slightly, and the “Ceng Ceng” sword whistled, surpassing the soft chanting of the woman in red.

“Will the resentment of Jiuyuyuan eventually be absorbed by the Xuanjian?” Dugu Zhuo said, “Then does your resentment belong to the Xuanjian?”

Dugu Zhuo cut his index finger with the broken sword, and the blood seeped into the sword.

He let go, using blood as a guide and qi as a sword, awakening the sword that only had a trace of divine power left.

All the gray resentment in the River Styx rushed towards Dugu Zhuo. The originally gray mist turned black with the increasing resentment, and his teammates on the shore couldn’t see Dugu Zhuo at all.

“Dropped 1% of health,” White Robe said, analyzing the situation by checking the team’s information. “This should only be the beginning; soon his health will drop drastically, and he’ll instantly die and exit the instance.”

“Should we wait for him to die before logging out of the instance?” Dreaming Wanderer suggested.

“Okay, let’s wait a bit longer.” Head Up Boy closed the exit interface.

Black Cat knew Dugu Zhuo couldn’t win, but deep down, there was still a glimmer of hope. What if he won?

“Come on!” he whispered softly.

“Weird, the black mist is getting bigger and bigger, but Dugu Zhuo’s health has only dropped by 1%. How has he endured for so long?” White Robe raised her head. “There’s no moon or stars at the bottom of the River Styx, so he can’t summon the Big Moon using the ‘Heavenly Strength Steps’ here, right?”

Everyone followed suit and checked the status of their teammates. They saw that Dugu Zhuo’s health was not decreasing, and suddenly, a very fast-moving black light appeared in the black mist.

Black doesn’t reflect light, so the reason they could see this moving black light was that it was darker and denser than the color of the black mist. It was the purest black.

“What is this…” The woman in red stopped chanting, staring at the black mist for a while, then bowed deeply.

“What is it? What did you see?” Black Cat heard the woman in red’s words and anxiously turned around to look at her.

Just then, the black light sped up, moving through the black mist at a speed difficult to capture with the naked eye. After a sharp howl from a resentful spirit, the black mist dispersed with a “bang,” leaving Dugu Zhuo unharmed standing on the surface of the River Styx, a black sword floating beside him.

The black resentful spirits that had trapped Dugu Zhuo turned into silver-white dots of light, scattering around him like starlight.

“Go back.” Dugu Zhuo gripped the black long sword, not even sure who he was speaking to.

As he spoke, the souls purified into light particles circled around Dugu Zhuo once before quietly drifting into the silver river.

Like falling stars, beautiful yet sorrowful.

Dugu Zhuo walked to the shore, removed his hat, and his handsome face appeared unexpectedly gentle under the reflection of the silver river. It formed a sharp contrast with the terrifying aura emanating from the sword in his hand, as if they were not from the same world.

Dugu Zhuo said to the woman in red, “Lead the way while I’m still in good condition.”

“Yes.” The woman in red lowered her head in fear.

She pointed her finger at the surface of the river, and a small boat floated up. The woman in red said, “Honorable heroes, please board the boat.”

“Huh? Didn’t we walk through the passage before?” the tree demon asked. “Aren’t you treating us differently now?”

The woman in red replied, “I am the ferrywoman, so naturally, I have a boat. It’s just that there are resentful spirits in the river, so the boat cannot float.”

Everyone boarded the boat and drifted downstream, but Dugu Zhuo did not ride the boat. He stepped on the black sword and flew alongside everyone.

When they encountered the three Underworld Beasts on the way, before the beasts could approach, Dugu Zhuo controlled the sword from a distance and pierced through the three beasts with one sword.

“When we encounter a place with a bronze cauldron, fetch the cauldron for me,” Dugu Zhuo ordered.

“Yes.” The woman in red lowered her head, not daring to disobey.

Author’s note: 

Tree Demon: Wasn’t there no boat?

Woman in Red: There is, there is.

White Robe: Wasn’t he supposed to jump into the oil pot?

Woman in Red: Dare not, dare not.