Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 45 - Cleansing Resentment

Having absorbed countless grudges, the mystic sword lightly hummed. It was just a broken sword, no longer capable of containing all the grudges of the world like it did before. Now, it could only absorb such a small amount before reaching its limit.

Dugu Zhuo put on his hat again, intending to absorb the grudges into his body.

He couldn’t put the grudges back into the depths of the River Styx; the souls that had already been purified could enter the quiet waiting of the underworld.

With his soul intact and supported by the cultivation realm and vast divine consciousness from his previous life, these grudges wouldn’t cause him too much harm. As long as he focused on cultivation for a while and expended some true essence, he could naturally dissipate these grudges.

In this game world, expending true essence was roughly equivalent to consuming experience to purify grudges. Others might lose levels, but he had plenty of experience to spare, so sacrificing some experience wasn’t a big deal.

The impact of grudges would make his divine consciousness slightly uncomfortable, such as hearing meaningless screams of pain, and would also make his emotions volatile. However, with Dugu Zhuo’s current willpower, he could endure it. Additionally, the Unified Heart skill was for enduring physical pain; Dugu Zhuo was confident in suppressing the mental pain, without affecting Ye Zhou.

However, the sudden influx of grudges would inevitably distort his expression, so Dugu Zhuo put on his hat to prevent his teammates from seeing his discomfort.

Just as he was about to absorb the grudges, the system suddenly issued an announcement: “Congratulations to players Yimeng Xiaoyao, Baiyi Piaopiao,Titou Lai Jian, and Black Cat for clearing the Soul Return to the River Styx dungeon in difficult mode.”

After this announcement was issued, it seemed as though the grudges within the mystic sword were suddenly drawn away by someone, and the black, hostile sword returned to its ordinary, broken state.

Dugu Zhuo looked at the rusty mystic sword, feeling a bit puzzled. What about the grudges?

At the same time, another broken sword—the Plain Sword—inside Dugu Zhuo’s storage belt moved weakly, then lay still, as if it had exhausted its strength.

“Huh? Is that it?” Yimeng Xiaoyao exclaimed. “Quick, let’s loot the monsters! Great God, don’t move. You have bad luck. I’ve seen you receive so many system announcements, but you haven’t gotten anything good yet. Let us handle it.”

“Looting monsters” referred to touching the boss’s corpse after defeating it in a dungeon, with a chance to find some weapons or materials on the boss’s body.

Baiyi Piaopiao flipped through the pockets of the black-armored person, looking puzzled as she said, “Why doesn’t the system prompt show Dugu Zhuo? He seems to be the ‘and so on’ after Dark as Ink.”

“It must be the effect of the hat, covering his name. Wearing the hat prevents the system from displaying the name, a good item for stealth and assassination,” Yimeng Xiaoyao explained.

Baiyi Piaopiao found a pair of crescent-shaped boomerangs from the black-armored person’s pocket and sent them to everyone. “Check out the stats?”

“After looking at the level 20 weapon, usable by all six races, which is a long-distance attack weapon, but not very high in attack power, Yi Meng Xiaoyao felt a bit excited. With thick blood but slow speed, it was just right for a long-distance weapon.

The equipment distribution in “Nine Heavens” was the same as traditional keyboard-based games, determined by rolling dice, with the highest number winning.

Yi Meng Xiaoyao rolled a 63, neither high nor low, without much advantage. Fortunately, no one contested with him, and the others gave up rolling dice, so he obtained the New Moon Boomerang.

Baiyi Piaopiao flipped through and found a gemstone. After inspecting it, she realized it was a very good refining material. It was obtained by Titou Laijian through rolling dice.

The black armor on the black-armored person was excellent defense equipment. Even if no one wanted to wear it, selling it would fetch a good sum of money. Baiyi Piaopiao got the upper part, while the lower part belonged to Wuqi Mohei. Baiyi Piaopiao gave Wuqi Mohei a thousand low-grade spirit stones in exchange for the lower part, completing a full set.

After the distribution, the Red-clad Woman held a golden pearl in her hands to give to everyone, the reward for the first kill in hard mode, the Illusion Heart Pearl.

Seeing the Illusion Heart Pearl, Dugu Zhuo temporarily put aside the matter of the disappearing resentment and stored the Black Sword in his storage treasure.

Dugu Zhuo hadn’t competed with the others for the previous equipment, but he expressed his desire for this Illusion Heart Pearl. Naturally, his teammates handed it over to him.

Dugu Zhuo immediately used the Illusion Heart Pearl he received. He received a system prompt: [Ding, the White Tiger in the Monster Spirit Tiger Tooth Dungeon has a favorability of 75 towards you. After using the Illusion Heart Pearl, it increased by 5 points, and the current favorability is 80.]

Dugu Zhuo: “???”

He remembered that the initial favorability of the White Tiger towards him was 80. After using an Illusion Heart Pearl, it became 85. How did it return to 80 now? When did those 10 points of favorability disappear?

He searched through the system announcements for a while but couldn’t find an answer. He could only suppress his doubts and wait to ask the White Tiger about it another day.

Originally, the Red-clad Woman was supposed to give each person a Foundation Establishment Pill. However, each player could only receive one Foundation Establishment Pill, and there would be no more Foundation Establishment Pills in the second run of the dungeon. Dugu Zhuo, Yi Meng Xiaoyao, Baiyi Piaopiao, and Titou Laijian had all received Foundation Establishment Pills, leaving only the Black Cat who hadn’t cleared the 20-level dungeon. The Red-clad Woman gave him a Foundation Establishment Pill.

After being ejected from the dungeon, the group gained a lot of experience from the battle this time. The small monsters also dropped a lot of spirit stones and silver coins, so they had quite a fruitful harvest.

The Black Cat gained an extra 50,000 experience points after taking the Foundation Establishment Pill and immediately leveled up in the Eternal Night Zone. When he leveled up, he found that he had also completed the task assigned by his master to exorcise ghosts, receiving a large amount of experience and leveling up to level 22 in one go.

Yi Meng Xiaoyao and Baiyi Piaopiao, who were previously at level 21, also reached level 22.

Only Dugu Zhuo remained at level 20.

“Can’t you level up with your experience now? Shouldn’t it be enough?” Yi Meng Xiaoyao asked.

Dugu Zhuo remained silent.

Yi Meng Xiaoyao had already gotten used to Dugu Zhuo’s cold demeanor and stopped asking about his level. Instead, he asked, “Zhuo Shen, do you sell Awakening Talismans?”

“Dugu Zhuo asked, “Didn’t you already think of a strategy for the hard mode?”

“I didn’t plan to use Awakening Talismans for the hard mode. I don’t bring low-level characters to run dungeons. I want the Awakening Talismans because I think they’re useful for dispelling control effects, so I want to buy some as backup,” Yi Meng Xiaoyao said.

Dugu Zhuo, in need of silver, thought for a moment and said, “Ten thousand silver coins per talisman.”

Yi Meng Xiaoyao replied, “…Big brother, that’s too much. Ten thousand silver coins would be enough for me to stay at an inn for a hundred days. Besides, we can’t use real money to buy silver in this game. It’s all earned from tasks, dungeons, and killing monsters. I really don’t have much savings.”

Dugu Zhuo countered, “Ten thousand silver coins for two talismans.”

“Can’t you accept spirit stones instead?” Yi Meng Xiaoyao asked helplessly. “Why do you always like to buy things that are hard to obtain?”

“Four thousand silver coins per talisman. I’ll buy two,” Baiyi Piaopiao suddenly said.

“Deal,” Dugu Zhuo immediately sold his two talismans.

Yi Meng Xiaoyao had no choice but to reluctantly buy two as well. Dugu Zhuo’s small treasury finally became a bit richer, but it was still a long way from ten million silver coins.

“Zhuo Shen, do you need silver?” Wuqi Mohei rummaged through his pockets and said, “I have over six thousand silver coins here. I’ll give you six thousand, and I’ll keep the rest for some in-game delicacies.”

Black Cat was becoming more obedient. Dugu Zhuo didn’t want to take his money for nothing, so he casually gave him three talismans: Awakening, Demon Suppression, and Exorcism, at a discounted price of two thousand silver coins each.

By now, it was almost dawn, one o’clock in the morning. The teammates couldn’t hold on any longer and went offline to sleep, while Dugu Zhuo found a secluded, spiritually rich, and brightly lit place to refine the pill furnace.

Naturally, the place that met these conditions was the Sun Worshipper Sect dungeon.

After midnight, the dungeon would reset, and the Sun Worshipper Sect youths wouldn’t remember who Dugu Zhuo was anymore.

As usual, Dugu Zhuo flew over the peach forest, tied up the youth, and threw him next to the sleeping elder. Then, he took out the bronze cauldron.

To turn the bronze cauldron into a pill furnace, it needed to be melted down and reformed. However, the bronze cauldron could withstand the alchemy fire of the Yuanying stage. With Dugu Zhuo’s current strength, it was difficult to reform it.

But it didn’t matter. This was the Sun Worshipper Sect dungeon, the Eternal Day Zone, the strongest place for the true sunfire.

Dugu Zhuo used the “Heavenly Marshal Steps” to draw the true sunfire. Normally, the true sunfire could turn everything into ashes. If Dugu Zhuo really ignited the true sunfire, the bronze cauldron wouldn’t need to be remade; it would simply disappear.

Fortunately, Dugu Zhuo’s power was not high enough. The true sunfire he summoned was not pure, just a wisp of true sunfire mixed with countless miscellaneous Samadhi true fires and some mundane fires. Such flames were perfect for forging the bronze cauldron.

Dugu Zhuo stepped on the position of the Sun Star Official, summoning a large fireball. He reluctantly controlled the fireball into the bronze cauldron, which slowly melted.

Dugu Zhuo immediately pinched a spiritual seal, countless strands of true qi struck, transforming the bronze cauldron into the shape he wanted.

After nearly two hours of smelting, the rapeseed fields of the Sun Worshipper Sect dungeon were completely burned, and finally, it was time for the dungeon to end. Dugu Zhuo threw himself and the newly refined pill furnace out of the dungeon.

Dugu Zhuo had originally wanted to test the new pill furnace in the Sun Worshipper Sect dungeon, but he didn’t expect it to take so long.”

He doesn’t have a dojo, and the alchemy process takes a long time. The formation in the inn is simply not enough to sustain the spiritual energy needed for alchemy. Where else could be a good place for alchemy?

Dugu Zhuo wandered around Penglai Town at night. Since the separation of the Eternal Night and Eternal Day zones, the curse on Penglai Town had been lifted. The night was no longer filled with demons, and the people lived peacefully. Players who could only act during the day would also come to level up in the Eternal Day zone at night.

As he walked, Dugu Zhuo unconsciously arrived at the gate of the Tan Ye Temple.

At night, the gates of Tan Ye Temple were closed. Dugu Zhuo had not entered this temple since the update. He didn’t know if he could still sneak in as before or enter through a side gate.

Deciding to give it a try, Dugu Zhuo leaped and surprisingly jumped in.

Both the main hall and the side halls of Tan Ye Temple were filled with spiritual energy, and regardless of day or night, there were no players to disturb. This was indeed a good place for alchemy!

While Dugu Zhuo was planning to occupy a room in Tan Ye Temple, Ye Zhou was experiencing a nightmare.

Since practicing with Dugu Zhuo, he couldn’t help but use the breathing and meditation techniques Dugu Zhuo taught him before going to bed every night. His sleep quality improved day by day, and he rarely had dreams anymore.

But today, he suddenly dreamed of countless resentful spirits enveloping him, emitting various screams that disturbed his soul.

Even in his dream, Ye Zhou could feel his restless mood, harboring a desire deep inside to destroy the entire world.

He kept murmuring in his sleep, even waking up the nanny and the nurse. They rushed into Ye Zhou’s bedroom and saw him trapped in a nightmare, trying to wake him up, but no matter how they called out to him, they couldn’t rouse him.

Just as the butler was about to call a doctor to inject a sedative into Ye Zhou, a silver-white sword suddenly appeared in Ye Zhou’s dream.

The sword slashed through the air, dispersing the resentful spirits surrounding Ye Zhou. The spirits slowly dissipated into the air, and Ye Zhou weakly woke up.