Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 5 – Tanye Temple

Dugu Zhuo was only testing out a minor move in order to see how much his health and cultivation had recovered. He had used Qingtian Sect’s Five Phases[1] Swordplay which they taught to every beginning disciple. 

There were five stages of sword cultivation. They were Mortal Sword, Sword Command, Omnipresent Sword, Null Sword, and Null Self.

These five realms were unrelated to the cultivator’s power. If a cultivator had no aptitude with the sword, then they could become an immortal and ascend while still being at the level of Mortal Sword. With outstanding aptitudes, someone could reach the state of Null Sword after just entering cultivation. 

The Five Phases Swordplay was meant to cultivate one’s sword realm. It had three stages. Firstly, one forged swords using mortal materials of the five phases, training the metal blade, wood blade, earth blade, water blade, and fire blade to perfection. In the first stage, one was controlled by their sword, unleashing the different effects of the five phases in their swordplay. This was Mortal Sword.

In the second stage, one abandoned the five phases and chose a spiritual sword, commanding it as one willed and demanding its submission. Becoming a sword’s master was Sword Command.

In the third stage, one abandoned material swords and cultivated the formless sword. Swords could be found within all the five phases of nature. This was Omnipresent Sword.

The full extent of the Five Phases Swordplay, however, was just Omnipresent Sword.

Dugu Zhuo had just employed the Omnipresent Sword. Without a sword in his hands, he could use anything around him as one. Wielding the bamboo leaves of the forest, he had slain the karmic beasts in a flurry of a thousand blades.

This was a high-level technique, but actually not very powerful. With only the spiritual essence he had regained at level 7, he could hardly sustain a technique like this and couldn’t exert much force. It mostly served as intimidation.

Yet to these two players who had experienced the Nine Heavens PC game, this intimidation tactic looked like at least a level 50 technique.

The highest level on the leaderboard was currently 15. Reportedly they were struggling to reach a sect and find a master. They couldn’t even join sects yet, so who had such a terrifying technique?

The two players thought they had stumbled onto a level 50 map. The power difference was too huge and they clearly had no way to win, so they turned tail and fled immediately, not neglecting to send messages to their friends while doing so. 

In a normal game, on PC or VR, no players would be able to read a direct message not sent to them. 

This was the same principle as secret messages given though voice transmissions in the cultivation world. Unless the difference in level was vast, someone else wouldn’t be able to hear the contents.

However, not only did Dugu Zhuo see the two, he also heard their private messages. 

With one glance at his face, they assumed he was some “level 50 boss”. Dugu Zhuo wasn’t clear what this term meant, but instinctively he felt that he couldn’t just let these two players get away. 

Seeing they were about to reach the transportation array, Dugu Zhuo tapped a foot lightly, and the explosive force was transformed into a wind blade, which slashed though two stalks of bamboo. The huge stems fell over, blocking off the players’ path. 

“He… he can even destroy the environment to block players?” the players exclaimed. “Is this a new mechanic?”

Weaving through the bamboo stalks, Dugu Zhuo arrived before the two players in a few leaps. He stood on the bamboo he had cut down, looking down at the two.

He glanced at their faces and saw their expressions held no fear, only surprise and excitement. Clearly, they weren’t afraid of him, and instead seemed to be curious as to what would happen next.

Right, since this was an illusion, the players wouldn’t really die. In the past, when he met powerful beasts in the illusory array, he wouldn’t fear them, and instead would be even more eager to challenge them.

The two players’ characters were a male and a female, one wielding a fan and the other a whip. After Dugu Zhuo had blocked off their escape path, they respectively brought out a shoddy paper fan and a leather whip, and readied themselves for battle.

It wouldn’t be embarrassing to get killed by a level 50 or higher boss. They could just say that they were testing new waters in the game.

Seeing no fear in the two, Dugu Zhuo softened his expression and leapt down from the bamboo stalks. “There’s been a misunderstanding,” he said. “I too am a player.”

“Like I believe that!” said the male player. “How would a player get access to such a terrifying skill?”

He threw his paper fan at Dugu Zhuo, which transformed in midair into steel spokes, each sharp as a blade.

Dugu Zhuo moved slightly to one side to avoid it. The female player also spoke. “Yeah, what kind of a normal player has those kinds of looks? I won’t buy it unless you send a photo of yourself!”

Judging from context, a “photo” seemed to be something like a portrait. “I cannot send a photo,” Dugu Zhuo said.

“Why do you want his photo?” said the male player. “Even if he sends one, it might be Photoshopped, no, wait, an NPC wouldn’t send a photo. How did you get me going along with your crazy ideas?”

The female player gave her whip a few flicks for show, unwilling to attack Dugu Zhuo. “I just wanted to give it a shot,” she said, a bit embarrassed. “There’s a possibility, isn’t there?”

Dugu Zhuo wanted to reply, but he felt a gust approaching him from behind his back. Without even glancing back, he extended a hand and grabbed a weapon coming at him. It was the same paper fan he had just dodged.

“The dodge effects are so good,” said the male player, analyzing calmly even though his weapon had been taken. “He even caught the blade with his bare hands. After the upgrade, this game’s immersiveness has really skyrocketed. I hope this game can be streamed soon. With these kinds of visuals, I’m sure a lot of people would be willing to buy helmets.”

While speaking, he saw the “boss” before him fold the fan and arrive before him in one nimble leap.

At this distance, the player thought he would be one-shot, but that “boss” showed no intention to attack. He took the fan and made a light tap on the player’s shoulder, then tossed it to him. “Believe it or don’t. It’s your choice.”

“I believe you!” the girl player said. “If you were a boss, we’d already be dead.”

The male player took his fan and said, “Then why don’t you explain why you had such a powerful move?”

Thinking back to the words Ye Zhou had used, Dugu Zhuo answered, “A consumable item.”

“You used up something that powerful immediately?”

“I was experimenting,” Dugu Zhuo said.

Dugu Zhuo had a simple goal, just getting these two players to believe that he was a fellow player. “The beasts here are suited for level ten or lower players wanting to gather experience,” he said.

Turning around, he was about to leave in order to explore the world beyond the Karmic Forest when the female player said, “Want to be friends, good-looking?”

A phantom dialog box appeared before Dugu Zhuo, which read, [Qingyue love[2] wants to add you as a friend. Will you accept? Yes/No]

So this is what Ye Zhou had meant by becoming friends, not forming a blood oath.

When Dugu Zhuo had met Ye Zhou again, he was afraid they would be separated and have no way of finding each other, so he offered a blood oath as a way to instantly form as strong a tie as possible with Ye Zhou. After forming it, he could sense Ye Zhou’s location at all times, in order to find him no matter where he was.

After Ye Zhou logged off, though, that link was cleanly severed. Ye Zhou was no longer anywhere to be found in this world.

Dugu Zhou could not be satisfied with meeting each other in an illusory world. He needed to understand the real world Ye Zhou lived in, so the two people before him would be a good way to gather information.

Dugu Zhuo lightly pressed “yes”, and received another notification: [You’ve accepted Qingyue love’s friend request. Your current connection level is 1.]

After making friends with someone, you could see their basic information, a lot less than what you would get from a blood oath. She could only see Dugu Zhuo’s name, level, and sect, while his race and status were hidden.

Dugu Zhuo saw that the player was named Qingyue love, her sect was none, and her level was 11—one higher than Ye Zhou.

Seeing his party member add Dugu Zhuo as a friend, the male player didn’t want to be left out and also sent a friend request.

Dugu Zhuo accepted it the same way. His name was Long @ Aotian[3], sect none, level 11.

These two’s names seemed like jokes, with incomprehensible characters like “love” and “@” and silly exaggerated word choice. They were clearly not real names, but in-game pseudonyms.

“Wow, you could find a name that wasn’t taken even without adding any symbols to it?” said Long @ Aotian with envy. “It took me a lot of tries to get ‘Long Aotian’ accepted.”

“Isn’t that because there’s a lot of people with your name?” said Qingyue love. “It’s cliche.”

“And yours isn’t? It’s already 2020, so who adds English words to their name?” Long @ Aotian said, not to be outdone.

While listening to their argument and trying to dissect information from it, Dugu Zhuo used the experience he had just gained to level up to 9.

He had just used up all his spiritual essence with the Five Phases Swordplay, and usually he should need to meditate and circulate energy several times through his body before he could recover, but upon leveling up, his spiritual essence had been fully replenished, and his hair that had been cut loose by the bamboo leaf was also restored to normal.

It seemed like leveling up would restore one’s bodily condition. This was a bit like what happened when a cultivator broke through a stage.

Using his preexisting knowledge, Dugu Zhuo was slowly gaining an understanding of this new world.

Long @ Aotian lost the argument to Qingyue love, so he stopped responding and changed the subject. He said to Dugu Zhuo, “Well, since we can add you, looks like you’re really not a boss. But honestly, did you really not use money to buy a skin?”

Dugu Zhuo assumed a “skin” was something like an appearance-changing or improving spell, or a human skin mask. He shook his head. “The in-game currency exchange is not yet activated.”

This was something Ye Zhou had told him.

“Oh, right,” said Long @ Aotian. He sniffed. “What’s so good about having looks? You’re still just level 9.”

“I’ve used up that consumable item, and these monsters don’t provide enough experience,” Dugu Zhuo said. He copied the other two’s way of speaking. “I’m going to take tasks outside. What about you two?”

Ye Zhou was only level 10, so Dugu Zhuo didn’t want to level up more. Instead of staying in this Karmic Forest, he might as well go out into the world and investigate the state of things.

This game world seemed to be linked in countless ways to his own world. Dugu Zhuo wanted to acclimate himself to this world, while at the same time investigating the connections between both worlds, in order to understand why he and Ye Zhou were sent here.

“I’ll take tasks with you,” said Qingyue love.

“We were going to explore this new map,” said Long @ Aotian at the same time.

Having voiced entirely opposite things, they clearly had a conflict of interests and started arguing again.

Dugu Zhuo only saw them as tools for obtaining information and had no intention of waiting until they were done with their argument. “Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves,” he said courteously.

He walked over to the transport array and was transported to the Tanye Temple.

The change in location came with a feeling of shifting space and time, and the scenery before his eyes also went from a verdant bamboo forest to a bustling temple where incense burned heartily.

Temples were supposed to be tranquil places, but this was more like a marketplace, filled with people and noise.

“Oi, oi, oi! You in the front, don’t you see all these people are lining up? The start of the line is in the back. Don’t you have common sense?”

“I thought the helmets were expensive. How come there are so many people just for the beta test?”

“It used to be that you just saw crowds in games, but now you can be part of them. Man, why did I raise my tactile sensitivity? Who stepped on my foot?”

These were the people lining up for the incense offering task.

“Hey, great master, I’ve completed the life release[4] task.”

“Amitabha[5]. Benefactor, this cat is not suitable for the life release task.”

“Why not? If planting flowers can count, then why can’t this count?”

“Don’t think of using a yao to trick this old monk, benefactor. Ho! Under the Buddha’s light, reveal yourself!”

In a flash of golden light, the black cat in that player’s arms fell to the ground and didn’t get up. The monk standing in front of the forest for release looked benevolent as always.

The black cat lay stiffly for a few moments, then revived. It gave the player who had tried to release it a scratch and started speaking like a human. “When you told me your dumb idea, I already said it wouldn’t work!”

“Don’t we have to try it out first?” the player said, backing away. “How would I know that this skinny-looking old man was so good at banishing yao? He must be at least level 40. Plus, you’re just level 1, so you won’t even lose experience when you die. What’s the problem with experimenting?”

“Experimenting, my ass! When I get off, I’m deleting this account and making a human character.” The black cat licked its paw.

“No, don’t, the black cat is so cute!” said the player. “You were so lucky to roll it. Look at that mushroom over there. It has it way harder, but it’s still doing tasks without complaining!” He pointed at the charity healing booth in front of the temple’s doors.

“Don’t you know anything?” said the cat. “That’s a lingzhi.”

A kindly-faced old monk sat at the booth that the player had indicated, currently giving free treatment to civilians without means.

On the table where he took pulses, there sat a lingzhi, and each time the old monk diagnosed a condition, he would place his palms together and bow to the lingzhi, saying, “Saving a life is a greater merit than building a seven-layered pagoda[6]. Benefactor, your great virtue in sacrificing for others will surely be rewarded well.”

He withdrew a thread of spiritual energy from the lingzhi and transferred it to that civilian’s forehead. Instantly, their sickly face looked completely recovered.

The lingzhi wriggled a little and said weakly, “Forget the thanks, just give me more experience. When I get to level 20, I can finally become human. Ahhh, being a spirit cultivator is suffering!”

Players all around were pointing to the lingzhi. “That guy’s in the number one spot on the leaderboard. Spirits really get to gain experience quickly! All they have to do is sacrifice themselves to save people.”

“Woah! He gets one level for every person he helps! He’s going to be level 20 in no time!”

“There’s no way he’s going to be allowed to do that same task forever. There has to be a limit.”

Sure enough, just as that player said, when the lingzhi reached level 16, the old monk lifted him up and said, “Benefactor, you have reached your limit for this task today. If you continue to give treatment, your life will be endangered. Please return tomorrow.”

He placed the lingzhi on the ground and took out a snow lotus from the basket at his feet. He said to it benevolently, “Saving a life is a greater merit than building a seven-layered pagoda. Benefactor, your great virtue in sacrificing for others will surely be rewarded well.”

The snow lotus shook its leaves. “Can you hurry it up?”

Dugu Zhuo: “…”

It was truly a lively and peaceful world.