Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 87 - Difficulties with the Other Races

**System Announcement:** “Congratulations to players Dugu Zhuo, Yi Ye Bian Zhou, and Yang Fan ￥ Yuanhang for establishing the first sect in *Nine Heavens* — Wushuang Sect. All players and NPCs can join the sect, including players from other races without a sect affiliation. Wushuang Sect has triggered the game’s team battle mode. The game will be updated from 0:00 to 8:00 tomorrow, after which the faction gameplay will be opened. We welcome all players to join the faction.

**PS:** Players wishing to learn skills should search for Wushuang Sect in the personal information section under faction gameplay, click to apply to join the sect, and once the sect master approves the application, you can teleport to Wushuang Sect via the sect introducer.”

With Dugu Zhuo receiving the notification of the sect’s establishment, all players in the game received the announcement.

Just that morning, before they had entered the dungeon, Ye Zhou had just triggered the summoning beast feature, and in the afternoon, Dugu Zhuo established a new sect.

At first, players were envious; after a few instances, they began to feel suspicious, jealous, and some extreme players even reported him. But when the number of achievements reached five or ten, their thoughts shifted again — what could they do? They would just muddle through the game.

Aside from a few extremely ambitious players, most players simply wanted to enjoy the game. After all, this game met so many of their needs. As long as there weren’t any comparable products on the market, few players would give up just because they couldn’t be number one in the game.

Moreover, most people have a tendency to admire strength. If Dugu Zhuo had only one outstanding ability while being mediocre in others, players might mock him with jealousy, but since he excelled in everything, he was almost like a trailblazer in this game, which was designed to exploit players. No matter how difficult the game’s operations were, he always found a way to solve problems, gradually gaining supporters.

Since *Nine Heavens* launched, it seemed like Dugu Zhuo was everywhere. Considering the timing of several plot points and first-clear achievements, along with more and more players claiming to have seen Dugu Zhuo, someone calculated his frequency of appearances in player discussions, the world channel, and system announcements, concluding that he was online for at least 16 hours a day and logged in every day.

Under such circumstances, Dugu Zhuo was either a professional player specializing in conquering games, a professional sent by the game company to assist players in overcoming challenges, or the account was operated by a group rather than just one person.

After arriving at this conclusion, players felt a bit more at ease. Losing to professionals or organized teams wasn’t embarrassing.

Therefore, once Dugu Zhuo triggered the conditions to establish a sect with his unique skills, it seemed only natural that the sect would be formed. Many players had been waiting for this announcement.

“I’ve been wondering when Dugu Zhuo would establish his own sect and overthrow the thirteen system sects in the game. That day has finally come.”

“What? Other race players can now become disciples? I’m hurrying to retrieve my previous account to join!”

“Thanks for the reminder. Is there any way to observe the game’s top player Dugu Zhuo up close? I’ll create a secondary account to become a disciple!”

“I’ll also become a disciple… Wait, other races? Are there really other races in this game? I thought they were a failed design due to budget constraints!”

**Other Race Player 1:** *tentatively raises hand* “Not a failed design, we just keep a low profile!”

**Other Race Player 2:** *tentatively raises hand* “Let me prove with my actual ID that the game budget is ample and quite exploitative.”

**Other Race Player 3:** *tentatively raises hand* “I was a poor little ghost from Beimen Mountain, but after becoming an other race player, I was expelled from my sect. The Ghost King said he looked down on associating with other races and even wasted my powers.”

**Other Race Player 4:** *tentatively raises hand* “I was also expelled from my sect. I wanted to delete my account and start over, or even call the game company to complain, but in the end, I held back and can only struggle to level up as a casual player.”

**Other Race Player 5:** *tentatively raises hand* “I want to curse a few words in the game’s world channel, but any message with ‘other race’ gets blocked or muted. The same goes for the forum.”

**Other Race Player 6:** *tentatively raises hand* “After Dugu Zhuo unlocked the sect gameplay, the system mentioned other race players for the first time in the announcement. We can finally express our frustrations from these past days.”

“Uh… After reading everyone’s comments, I realize there are so many other race players in this game?”

In reality, there weren’t that many other race players. *Nine Heavens* currently had tens of millions of registered IDs, with hundreds of thousands of players online at peak times. The number of other race players barely reached a few dozen, and at this moment, perhaps only about ten were active in the game, making them one in ten thousand or even one in a hundred thousand among the player base.

Yet, with just a handful of players sharing their experiences in the world channel, other players were curious and refrained from interrupting them, allowing these few to express grievances on behalf of thousands.

Through their conversations, *Nine Heavens* players finally pieced together the true nature of the other race players.

These other race players didn’t suffer bad luck, per se; they were essentially top-tier lucky players.

The reason they became other race players was due to various fortuitous encounters, where they found unique artifacts in different scenarios and subdued them, becoming their masters.

Most weapons and treasures in the game are mass-produced; for example, you use a fine steel sword, and I also use a fine steel sword. Unless players spend money to reforge their weapons later on, there won’t be any different effects or functionalities.

But artifacts are different. The game explains that artifacts are ancient relics, each one unique. Players who accidentally discover these artifacts are undoubtedly extremely lucky.

Unfortunately, the game seems to adhere strongly to the principle of cause and effect, and great luck often brings many inconveniences.

Players who have accepted an artifact as their master either cannot join a sect like Ye Zhou or have already been expelled from their sects.

The reasons for expulsion are varied; perhaps it’s because you have already obtained a supreme treasure, and your master can’t accept you anymore, so off you go. Or perhaps you’ve climbed up to this high branch of an artifact; do you still need me to teach you? Get lost!

Not only do they get expelled, but they also face the fate mentioned by the previous players in the world channel: all their cultivation abilities are revoked.

With no combat skills left, they are left with only their innate talents. Surely they can still use the artifacts for battle, right?

Not at all.

The moment you acquire the artifact, the artifact becomes your master.

Without sufficient cultivation, one cannot use the artifacts. If one encounters a malevolent artifact, it may even demand offerings, which can take on various strange forms — in short, it requires spending money.

Unable to afford maintenance, unable to sell it, with all powers obliterated, and the sect refusing to accept them, players who acquire these heavenly artifacts find themselves in a pitiful state.

Some players protest to the game company, which responds that they can surrender the artifact, and the company will restore the player’s original skills and sect affiliation, as well as potentially provide some equipment and high-grade spirit stones as compensation, but the artifact will be reclaimed and reintroduced into the game, waiting for its destined master.

How many players would be willing to turn in an artifact after learning about its effects?

Some players are more clever; they create a new account and use their main account to help level up their other race account gradually. Others might do as Ye Jian did and seek someone to help them level up.

In short, everyone is using their own tricks to ensure they don’t give up their other race identity.

Of course, some want to protest but are silenced by the game company. Moreover, these players, to some extent, harbor a sense of guilt for having received something good; they prefer to hide it until they can fully wield its true power.

The world channel has devolved into a gathering for other race players to express their grievances, and Dugu Zhuo has received the first application to join the sect.

A player named Shen Bi Xiao Ma has applied; the name sounds familiar. Dugu Zhuo recalls that this is the player who became famous in the game for purchasing a magical brush in Qiyuan Street.

As the sect master, Dugu Zhuo can view player information and discovers that this player is a rare level 39 other race player, and reaching this level must have taken considerable effort.

He shows this player’s information to Ye Zhou and asks, “This is the first applicant to join the sect. Should we accept them?”

Ye Zhou is extremely excited and says, “Someone is really willing to join our sect? And it’s a celebrity! Accept, accept, accept!”

Just as Dugu Zhuo is about to click accept, both of them receive a message from Ye Jian’s team: “Did you establish the sect while I was away? Forget it, that’s not important; what matters is that we need to interview all applicants!”

Dugu Zhuo and Ye Zhou: “…”

To establish the sect, the three of them didn’t disband their team. In *Nine Heavens*, even if players are far apart, they can still be in the same team; however, if they exceed a certain distance, teammates can no longer gain experience together.

Ye Zhou says, “Cousin has a point; we can’t accept just anyone, right?”

While discussing, Dugu Zhuo continues to hear applications to join the sect. He opens the list and, where there was only Shen Bi Xiao Ma before, now there is a long list of players that seems to stretch on endlessly, easily numbering in the hundreds.

Having experienced great ups and downs, Dugu Zhuo’s youthful ambition in his early life was to make a name for himself, thinking he was worthy of Ye Zhou. By the latter half of his life, he became a legendary figure in the world of cultivation, well-known to all, but after experiencing so much, he just wanted to be with Ye Zhou.

He established the sect primarily because Ye Zhou was unhappy about not being able to join one, and he wanted to have a small place to be with Ye Zhou. He never intended to expand the sect. If it weren’t for the system’s requirements, he wouldn’t have wanted Ye Jian and Bai Hu to join either.

The more he wished to be low-key, the more the system insisted on sending out announcements to the entire server.

He originally just wanted a small place to interact, but he didn’t expect the sect to be so large. Just the space alone could easily accommodate tens of thousands of disciples.

Who can he blame?

The announcements were made by a system that seemed to be the other half of Ye Zhou’s soul; it was impossible to fault them. If he had to blame someone, it could only be Bai Hu. After all, it was just a cave to reside in; did it really need to be this big? Seventeen peaks in total!

Dugu Zhuo looked at the list, which was still growing, feeling a headache coming on. Some of these players were likely newly created accounts just trying to join the excitement without any real intention of joining the sect. He directly clicked the “reject all” option, intending to refuse everyone at once, including Shen Bi Xiao Ma.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ye Zhou, as a sect elder, can also see the sect operations. He sensed Dugu Zhuo’s intention and quickly stopped him, “You don’t need to worry about this; just leave it to my cousin. Didn’t he say he would conduct interviews? He has experience with this.”

Only then did Dugu Zhuo release his hand and nod, saying, “After all, as the chief disciple, it’s my duty to help the elders of the sect.”

The chief disciple doesn’t even know he’s been demoted in status, Ye Zhou thought to himself with a guilty conscience.

After the sect was established, the sect introducer naturally had a teleportation array for Wushuang Sect, allowing teleportation to the position of the outer disciples located between the third and second layer arrays. As for the internal arrays, Dugu Zhuo would need to set them up one by one.

Since they were in the startup phase of their sect, everything had to be done piece by piece.

Ye Jian, thinking that Dugu Zhuo would be buried under spirit stones for at least a day and lacking patience, went to a tavern to drink tea and listen to music, enjoying life like an ancient playboy.

After receiving the announcement of the sect’s establishment, he hurried to the sect’s teleportation person to return to the sect. While running, he checked his sect information and then saw that shocking line of text —

**Sect Name:** Wushuang Sect

**Sect Master:** Dugu Zhuo

**Elder:** Yi Ye Bian Zhou

**Guardian Beast:** Bai Hu

**Chief Disciple:** Yang Fan ￥ Yuanhang

Ye Jian: “…”

He was going to find these two people to settle the score!