Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 66 - Zi Gua Zhou

 Ye Zhou’s private message notification kept ringing. When he saw that the message was from Ye Jian, he glanced at the first line, “You’re not really going to talk to him, are you…”, and then decisively turned off the notification sound, pretending he hadn’t heard it.

Young Dugu Zhuo, only ten years old, still had a serious expression and precise movements. While this demeanor held authority when displayed by an adult, it had a cute contrast when seen on a child. Ye Zhou secretly referred to this version of Dugu Zhuo as “Xiao Dugu.”

He reached out and took Xiao Dugu’s hand, saying, “Let’s take a walk around Xingchui Peak. This will be our territory from now on.”

Xiao Dugu’s lips curved slightly, but he seemed to remember his missing front tooth and quieted his smile. He nodded and said, “We won’t need to go to Tanye Temple to refine pills anymore. That old monk always took 10% of my pills as a toll.”

“Refining pills… Ye Zhou is the Elder, so there should be a pill chamber on Xingchui Peak, right? Let’s go look for it!” Ye Zhou excitedly led Xiao Dugu to explore the rooms on Xingchui Peak.

Xingchui Peak was the residence of past Sujian Sword Masters. The buildings were constructed from high-quality cultivation materials, ensuring they wouldn’t be eroded by the elements even after millions of years.

There were no walls here, just dozens of houses arranged neatly on the flat top of the mountain.

They first entered the largest building, which was the main hall of Xingchui Peak. The hall was empty and somewhat cold, with only portraits of past Sujian Sword Masters and a stick of incense that seemed to never burn out.

“It seems a bit empty,” Ye Zhou said after a quick look around. “This place is boring. Let’s check out other rooms.”

Boring? Dugu Zhuo glanced at the main hall. He remembered that Ye Zhou rarely came to this room except to worship the ancestors on important days.

There was only one time Dugu Zhuo remembered clearly: that night of the sect competition when he was injured by a demonic cultivator. Ye Zhou had brought him back to Xingchui Peak and quietly watched over him all night. When Dugu Zhuo’s condition improved a bit, Ye Zhou had disappeared.

At that time, Dugu Zhuo vaguely felt that Ye Zhou’s departing figure was somewhat lonely. He had struggled to get up and searched for Ye Zhou on Xingchui Peak, eventually finding him quietly kneeling in the center of the main hall, staring up at the portraits of the ancestors for three whole days.

What had Ye Zhou been thinking at that time?

Xiao Dugu asked, “If it were you, when would you come to this main hall to worship?”

Ye Zhou turned to look at the main hall and imagined himself as Elder Ye Zhou. He immediately answered, “When feeling guilty, I suppose. When you really want something, but it goes against what your elders expect, and you still want it. At such times, I would probably come here secretly to speak my heart to the elders.”

Xiao Dugu stared at Ye Zhou, stunned.

Thinking he didn’t understand, Ye Zhou further explained, “For example, if I really want to go online and play with you at night, but my parents and doctor disagree. I secretly hide the game helmet, play all night with you, and then have to confess the next day. If I had such a hall, I might kneel before the ancestors and tell them I was wrong, but I still wanted to, hahaha!”

Ye Zhou instinctively disliked the main hall. He pulled Xiao Dugu to leave, but unexpectedly, Xiao Dugu, though small in stature, had great strength and pulled Ye Zhou back.

Ye Zhou was stopped and bent down to look at him, his long hair falling beside Xiao Dugu’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Ye Zhou asked.

His tone was light and his gaze was clear and sincere, lacking the previous life’s gloom and restraint. Where Ye Zhou’s white robes in his past life were like ice and snow, in this life, his white robes were like cotton candy—soft and sweet, making one’s heart feel warm.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go see the other rooms,” Xiao Dugu said, grabbing a strand of Ye Zhou’s hair and wrapping it around his finger, then watching it fall gently.

Unaware, Ye Zhou continued to walk towards the other rooms, but Xiao Dugu couldn’t help but look back at the somewhat cold main hall.

Leaving here felt really good.

The rooms around the main hall were all side halls, furnished similarly with tables, chairs, and storage racks. The rooms were clean but lacked any sign of life.

Ye Zhou found it uninteresting and went straight to the back side hall, which contained Ye Zhou’s living quarters and special training rooms.

The bedroom had only a bed, a straw mat, and a hard porcelain pillow. Ye Zhou lay down on the mat and remarked, “The pillow is so hard. Can one sleep well on this?”

Xiao Dugu said, “Cultivators don’t need sleep; they mostly meditate and adjust their breathing. An hour of stillness is more effective than four hours of sleep.”

“But sometimes people do want to lie down and rest, right?” Ye Zhou said. “It always feels like being on alert without any time to relax.”

Xiao Dugu’s finger swept across the crude straw mat, recalling his own room. When he first arrived at Xingchui Peak, Ye Zhou had the steward’s disciples deliver his luggage. The steward’s hall was meticulous and sent an excellent bedding set, but the porcelain pillow was too hard. Ye Zhou directly threw the porcelain pillow away, and the steward’s hall quickly provided a soft buckwheat pillow.

That night, Xiao Dugu lay in the fragrant bed, filled with anger. Not only did he not feel Ye Zhou’s care, but he also worried about being mistreated by his father’s new partner.

“I missed out on so much back then,” Xiao Dugu sighed deeply.

Ye Zhou didn’t hear his words but instead pointed to the bedroom and said, “Should we buy some new bedding, something softer? Even though resting in the game doesn’t really do much, having a cozy setup in the bedroom might make us feel more at ease.”

“Alright, let’s renovate Xingchui Peak with your comfort in mind,” Xiao Dugu agreed.

“That won’t do; it also has to be something you like,” Ye Zhou replied. “However, we’re going to establish our own sect in the future. Xingchui Peak is still the domain of the Qing Tian Sword Sect. Spending too much now might be a waste.”

Xiao Dugu said, “Xingchui Peak is yours. Even if there are other places outside, can’t there be a private residence here?”

“Does that mean having a villa isn’t excessive? I like that idea,” Ye Zhou said with raised eyebrows, taking out paper and a pen to make a list of things to buy.

“This room is yours. I remember you like colors like deep blue and black, which are quite dignified, but black bedding feels too oppressive. How about switching to lake blue instead?”

“Let’s add a kitchen. What if we want to experience cooking on Xingchui Peak?”

“And we need some soft mats suitable for lounging in the training rooms…”

“Also, outdoor sun loungers and hammocks…”

Whenever Ye Zhou entered a room, he was naturally inclined to think of what to add. He could make decisions instantly, as if he had considered these things countless times before but never implemented them.

“There are so many alchemy furnaces!” When they reached the alchemy room, Ye Zhou saw a dozen alchemy furnaces in the spacious room.

The reason for so many furnaces was that Dugu Zhuo had repeatedly mishandled them, causing many to explode. He had gone to the steward’s hall multiple times to collect new furnaces. Ye Zhou, annoyed by the constant comings and goings, used his powerful magic to bring up many furnaces in one go and told Dugu Zhuo that if he exploded all of them, he should stop refining pills.

After that, Dugu Zhuo had learned to refine pills properly without destroying the furnaces. The remaining furnaces had been left in the alchemy room.

Satisfied with the alchemy room, they moved on to the study, where there were paper, pens, jade slips, and freshly ground ink.

Ye Zhou saw a piece of paper spread out on the desk and picked up a pen to write the character “卓”. Although he had never practiced calligraphy, the character looked unexpectedly good, with sharp strokes.

“Does this game come with automatic calligraphy improvement?” Ye Zhou said, “Come here and write something.”

Xiao Dugu sat in the chair and took the pen from Ye Zhou. Although Dugu Zhuo’s handwriting was usually very beautiful, at this moment he struggled to control the child’s body and wrote a crooked “舟”.

“You can’t even recognize my name? Come, I’ll guide you,” Ye Zhou said, holding Xiao Dugu’s hand to steady the pen and, seeing that there was still plenty of space above the “舟” character, moved the paper down and wrote the neat “孤” character.

Ye Zhou wrote each stroke carefully, but his long hair fell uncontrollably when he looked down, brushing against Xiao Dugu’s neck and causing a slight tickle.

The characters “孤” and “舟” together formed “孤舟” (Lonely Boat).

Ye Zhou had casually written Dugu Zhuo’s game name but hadn’t expected that combining their names would evoke a sense of loneliness. It was supposed to be a heart-fluttering match but now felt somewhat forlorn.

Seeing his slightly sad expression, Xiao Dugu quickly erased the radical “子” from “孤”, leaving just “瓜舟” (Melon Boat), which looked a bit more endearing.

The paper was now a mess, but Ye Zhou liked it very much and rolled it up, placing it in his storage belt.

“This place is really nice,” Ye Zhou said, jumping onto an old tree and sitting on the trunk, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. “The air is fresh, the scenery is pleasant, and there are few players.”

Xiao Dugu remembered that Ye Zhou had previously told Ye Jian that Xingchui Peak was high and cold, and lonely, and asked for someone to come and keep him company.

He tried to climb the tree too but found he had no power in this child’s body. It seemed that maintaining Xiao Dugu’s appearance meant losing his cultivation strength.

Seeing that he couldn’t climb up, Ye Zhou flew down, wrapped his arms around Xiao Dugu’s waist, and lifted him onto the tree.

They sat side by side on the tree trunk, watching the sun rise to the center of the sky.

“It’s past the third quarter of noon,” Xiao Dugu said, looking at the sun.

The third quarter of noon was 11:45, and Ye Zhou would be logging off at 12. He was nearing his log-off time.

At that moment, Ye Zhou was reluctant to log off despite being with Xiao Dugu.

“Let’s buy things in the afternoon to decorate Xingchui Peak, and then… let’s just cultivate here tonight. I can go AFK and level up faster. At least I won’t fall behind others,” Ye Zhou said.

Previously, the inn was too small with only one bed, and Ye Zhou didn’t want to leave his body in the inn while going AFK. Since Xingchui Peak had a great environment and rooms were single occupancy, he felt it would be suitable for AFK training.

“Okay,” Xiao Dugu replied softly.

“Well, I’ll log off then?” Ye Zhou said, leaning against Xiao Dugu’s shoulder reluctantly.

“I’ll wait for you,” Xiao Dugu said.

Hearing this, Ye Zhou’s empty feeling was somewhat eased. He opened the system interface, glanced at Xiao Dugu, and then reluctantly logged off.

As soon as he logged off, the housekeeper appeared and said apologetically, “Mr. Ye Jian has called you over a dozen times, asking you to call him back after you log off.”

Ye Zhou picked up his phone and saw countless missed calls and voice messages, each with unread notifications. Seeing these red dots, Ye Zhou couldn’t help but make a face.

After leaving the game, Dugu Zhuo looked at the blue sky over Xingchui Peak, reflecting on the change in Ye Zhou’s perception of the place.

From “high and cold, boring alone” to “fresh air, pleasant scenery, few players,” what had changed to make Ye Zhou’s feelings flip so drastically?

It seemed that there was no significant change; it was just from being alone to having Xiao Dugu with him.