Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 89 - Sealing the Back Mountain

Long before the incident with the painting, Dugu Zhuo had a feeling that there was some connection between the world of cultivation and the game world, where they seemed to intermittently interact.

This interaction centered around Dugu Zhuo, who bore the Twin Swords of Creation.

From the fact that he could bring Master Tan Ji into this world in the form of a dream, to the evil cultivators from the God of War Hall attempting to summon him using secret methods, and then to the back mountain of the newly established sect being able to lead directly to the cultivation realm—this connection between the two worlds seemed to be deepening little by little.

But he didn’t know the reason for this deepening.

Dugu Zhuo could think of two possible reasons: one was that he originally did not belong to the game world, and the longer he stayed, the more severe the integration of the two worlds would become; the other was that as his level continued to rise, the scope of the integration he could bring about would widen.

When he was initially below level 10, he could only bring Master Tan Ji; after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he could bring his teammates into the cultivation world in the form of paintings; after reaching the Golden Core stage, he was able to bring the entire sect over.

Of course, these were merely Dugu Zhuo’s speculations and had not been confirmed, and he could verify them gradually in the future.

Suppressing the shock and panic in his heart, Dugu Zhuo left the cave entrance and took a few steps outside. He suddenly realized that he was actually within the sect’s formation. The outermost layer of the back mountain was the sect’s third layer of formation, which concealed the existence of the sect and possessed a certain degree of defensive power.

He arrived at a point where spirit stones were buried in the ground, probed a trace of true energy, and discovered that there were hundreds of low-grade spirit stones beneath him, precisely the ones he had buried underground at the sect.

Could it be that what followed him into this world was not just himself, but the entire sect?

Dugu Zhuo glanced at the formation. This formation could not be seen from the outside, but the inside could see the outside landscape.

At this moment, outside the mountain was no longer the desolate land behind Tiger Roar Mountain, but a winding river, with fishermen occasionally paddling their boats across the lakes, all appearing to be ordinary people.

Dugu Zhuo scrutinized the river closely and remembered that this was a river located a hundred miles away from the Canglan Mountain Range.

He had spent more than ten years searching for Ye Zhou’s soul in the cultivation world and was very familiar with the terrain of the mortal realm; he could roughly recognize the landscape and would not be mistaken.

For a moment, Dugu Zhuo felt a little dazed. He did not know whether it was the cave that had brought him back to the cultivation world or if it was because he entered the cave that the entire sect was also brought over.

Suddenly, Dugu Zhuo remembered that the White Tiger was also on the mountain. He wondered if it had come along as well.

He flew to the peak ahead on his sword. The notion that flying was prohibited within the sect was only for the lower-ranking disciples; it would be ridiculous if the one who set up the formation were also restricted.

The White Tiger should be sleeping on the peak designated as the guardian beast of the mountain. Although it had already transformed, this big cat still retained some of its original habits, spending seventy percent of the day asleep—either returning to its original form to roll around on the mountain or shrinking down to use its paws to hook onto Ye Jian’s clothes and sleep in the sleeves, which Dugu Zhuo found very unseemly.

He arrived at Tiger Roar Peak, searching around for where the old tiger might be sleeping, but he found no trace of it.

Dugu Zhuo was cautious in his actions, so he went to other peaks to search again, still finding no sign of the tiger. It seemed that only the mountain gate and he himself had come to this world.

Dugu Zhuo then went to the main peak. The stairs he had hewn during the day were still there, but the building materials that Ye Jian had bought and placed on the main peak plaza had not followed.

In other words, only the mountain body itself had come with Dugu Zhuo to the cultivation world, while the other things from the game had not.

If one were to distinguish between the two, the mountain body was the basic model of the game; it wouldn’t be destroyed and was unlikely to refresh—it was a fixed item. In contrast, building materials and weapons, as well as spirit medicines, were merely copied and pasted items that could be replaced if lost.

As for the White Tiger, it bore the title of a dungeon boss. Different players could simultaneously enter a dungeon. Before reuniting with Dugu Zhuo, the White Tiger was also a copy-paste dungeon boss.

Players were different. Previously, Qingyue and the others could come here through painting.

Dugu Zhuo had heard Ye Jian say that the greatest feature of “Nine Heavens” was that when creating an account, the game would scan the player’s facial features and randomly generate a character that closely resembled the player. Of course, the world was full of unpredictable changes; there were different manifestations of what “close” meant. The same player might scan two different accounts at different times, resulting in different appearances, but still resembling the player.

Thus, the player’s game character was unique and could not be refreshed after an account was deleted.

Dugu Zhuo glanced at the items in his storage belt. The materials that could be copied had also come along. The items in his bag were equivalent to the player’s inherent items and could also be transported together.

According to this speculation, the White Tiger, when alone, could not return to the cultivation world. However, if it were with Ye Jian, as a spirit contract summoning beast, it could come.

After circling around the mountain, confirming his guesses, Dugu Zhuo returned to the back mountain.

He had been in this world for over an hour, yet the cave entrance showed no signs of change; it appeared as though it wouldn’t disappear with the passage of time.

Dugu Zhuo wanted to leave the guardian formation to check outside but worried that if he left the formation and turned back, the mountain gate would vanish, separating him and Ye Jian into two worlds again.

Out of this concern, Dugu Zhuo did not leave the mountain gate but instead returned to the cave entrance.

Initially, when Qingyue mistakenly entered the painting, Aotian, the Black Cat, and others followed in a series of events, which made Dugu Zhuo very worried. He feared that they might encounter danger in the cultivation world. However, when several players around level thirty beat that Golden Core stage evil cultivator, and the Black Cat died yet could revive under the skills of the Lingzhi Doll, it left Dugu Zhuo in deep confusion.

If someone from the cultivation realm accidentally came from the cave into this world, even if they were a Great Ascension stage cultivator, Dugu Zhuo was uncertain about what benefits he could gain in the game.

Killing players would result in their revival.

Killing NPCs would allow them to respawn.

Dugu Zhuo wanted to engage in some underhanded activities, but the game had a censorship mechanism that would turn it into a mass of pixels.

If things got out of hand and players reported it, the game administrators would come to clean up the cheats using the most powerful game accounts. It was said that administrator accounts could obliterate anything with infinite attack and defense power, rendering all control skills ineffective—who could say who would win or lose?

Players could respawn upon death, losing only experience points and some randomly dropped items. But what about cultivators… could they come back to life?

Dugu Zhuo was unsure; he had never died before and didn’t dare to die.

With the two worlds merging, it was unclear who would suffer—game players or those from the cultivation world. This was a question that lingered in his mind.

After careful consideration, Dugu Zhuo felt that, for the moment, this couldn’t be considered a major issue.

However, since they were ultimately two different worlds, it would be best to avoid interactions whenever possible.

Dugu Zhuo entered the cave, setting up a formation at the entrance to seal it off. Even if someone broke the formation, he would be able to sense it immediately.

Once he confirmed that the cave entrance was sealed, Dugu Zhuo walked back, going through three turns within the cave, and once again reached the entrance. Stepping outside, he found it was indeed dark, and he should have returned to the game world.

However, the sealing formation he had just set up for the cave had disappeared. He wondered if this was due to the two worlds—once sealed on one side, it needed to be sealed again on the other.

Dugu Zhuo sealed the cave again according to the law, repeatedly confirming several times to ensure no one could enter, before turning to leave the back mountain.

After walking for a while, Dugu Zhuo felt something was amiss again. He rummaged through his storage belt and saw he still had thousands of low-grade spirit stones. He decided to take these stones and bury them around the back mountain, setting up a taboo formation that strictly prohibited entry and exit.

With this in place, he felt a bit more at ease.

Dugu Zhuo thought for a moment and decided to chisel out a stone tablet from a cliff face over a hundred meters high. Using his sword, he carved the warning “Forbidden Area of the Back Mountain, No Entry” on it. At first, he intended to use traditional characters, but after searching through the system chat records for a long time, he finally found the correct simplified version of the characters. He then wrote these eight characters in beautiful regular script.

The characters were very large, so as long as disciples approached within a hundred meters of the back mountain, they would see this eye-catching stone tablet and surely leave upon seeing this warning.

Dugu Zhuo sighed as he looked at the back mountain; perhaps every sect had its own forbidden area.

After finishing all of this, Dugu Zhuo flew to the main peak to take a look. The building materials they had purchased at great expense were still there. Many materials could not be bought with spirit stones and could only be obtained using silver.

After buying the land deed for the mountain gate, only ten million taels of silver remained in their account. The game’s economy had inflated severely; everything in Jiu Chuan City cost several thousand to tens of thousands of taels, but purchasing materials for the main peak’s construction had cost eight million taels. Dugu Zhuo and Ye Jian’s building materials for the peak were only half of what was needed. The remaining items, such as the statue of the White Tiger, the disciples’ residences, and the rockery scenery Ye Jian wanted, were all yet to be settled.

The building materials for the main peak were extremely valuable and could not be lost.

After checking the main peak, Dugu Zhuo went to Tiger Roar Peak to find the White Tiger. Upon reaching the top of the mountain, he saw a White Tiger about ten meters long sleeping under the moonlight. The moonlight cast a faint silver glow on the White Tiger, who was practicing the Moon Worship Technique even while asleep.

Great, both the materials and the White Tiger were present. Dugu Zhuo nodded to himself.

The White Tiger was sleeping soundly, but its wild instinct for vigilance was still intact. As soon as Dugu Zhuo stepped onto Tiger Roar Peak, the White Tiger sensed him.

Opening one eye in displeasure, the White Tiger let out a snort, seeming annoyed that Dugu Zhuo was disturbing its sleep.

Dugu Zhuo still needed to confirm a few things with the White Tiger. He walked over and asked, “Did anything unusual happen in the sect during the last hour?”

The White Tiger lazily stretched its front paws and turned over, saying, “What could possibly change? It’s not like the game updates affect me.”

Dugu Zhuo felt a bit relieved. The White Tiger, as the guardian beast of the mountain, would sense any disturbances in the sect.

“By the way, where did you go just now?” the White Tiger suddenly asked. “I felt your presence disappear from the back mountain for about an hour. Did you leave the sect? Were you going to buy my statue’s spirit jade?”

Since he hadn’t been in the sect, but the White Tiger had, Dugu Zhuo wondered what kind of connection the mountain gate had between the two worlds. Was there one gate on each side, or did they share a single mountain gate where the White Tiger couldn’t see him in the cultivation world, and he couldn’t sense the White Tiger’s existence in the game world?

There were too many questions, and Dugu Zhuo could not find answers for now. He could only keep them in his heart and wait for the day he could find out.

As for the White Tiger’s question…

Dugu Zhuo replied nonchalantly, “Right now, we can’t find a sufficiently large piece of spirit jade. You don’t want to use small pieces glued together for your statue, so we can only wait a bit longer. When we come across one, I’ll buy it for you.”

“Make sure you do!” The White Tiger, reassured by Dugu Zhuo’s promise, fell back asleep.