Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 97 - Accompanying You in Growing Old

“A Qixi Festival event, how perfectly timed!” Ye Zhou sat in the square, leaning against Dugu Zhuo as they watched the fireworks.

During the half-hour fireworks display, Ye Zhou quietly said to Dugu Zhuo, “I was actually planning to buy some fireworks to set off later, but someone beat me to it.”

After finding out that the fireworks were set off by the system as a Qixi Festival event teaser, Ye Zhou added, “Don’t you think it seems like the system set off these fireworks just for us?”

Dugu Zhuo: “…”

He silently watched Ye Zhou, who was visibly thrilled, realizing that Ye Zhou genuinely hadn’t noticed that in this game, whatever he wished for would come true.

Dugu Zhuo was unsure if knowing this would affect Ye Zhou or the game, so he chose not to reveal it, deciding to let things develop naturally.

Ye Zhou tilted his head on Dugu Zhuo’s shoulder, pointing at the sky, saying, “I want to participate in the Qixi Festival event with you, but it’ll probably be a male-female pairing only.”

“We’ll definitely be able to team up.” Dugu Zhuo patted Ye Zhou’s head.

Ye Zhou said, without much hope, “I sure hope so. If we can’t team up, I just won’t participate in the event.”

“Neither will I,” Dugu Zhuo replied, holding Ye Zhou’s hand.

Ye Zhou: “Can I ask you about yourself? If you can’t answer, I’ll just guess. If I’m right, you nod; if I’m wrong, shake your head. How about it?”

Dugu Zhuo readily agreed.

Ye Zhou asked, “So, are you a game NPC who’s awakened self-awareness?”

Dugu Zhuo shook his head.

Ye Zhou: “A programmer who died suddenly at his computer?”

Dugu Zhuo: “No.”

Ye Zhou: “A cultivator from the cultivation world who arrived in the game world after breaking through the void?”

Dugu Zhuo thought for a moment, then neither nodded nor shook his head. Instead, he said, “Not through breaking the void.”

Ye Zhou: “!!! How old are you then? You look very young, but your every move is mature. Could you be in your 30s?”

Dugu Zhuo shook his head.

“Over 40?”

Dugu Zhuo still shook his head.

Ye Zhou kept guessing older and older ages. When he got to 60, he looked very sad, almost about to cry, but once he guessed over 100, his expression calmed down. Rather than thinking of Dugu Zhuo as old, he became excited and kept adding more years.

“Are you a thousand years old?” Ye Zhou asked excitedly.

Dugu Zhuo tapped Ye Zhou’s nose helplessly. “Why did you jump straight from two hundred to a thousand? Couldn’t you guess two hundred something?”

“A thousand sounds more mysterious, doesn’t it? So, you’re a bit over two hundred, almost three hundred, right?” Ye Zhou asked.

Dugu Zhuo nodded slightly and said helplessly, “The term ‘old immortal’ only has the ‘old’ part right.”

Ye Zhou immediately retorted, “What do you mean? How can you call that old when you’re not even a thousand yet?”

Dugu Zhuo looked at him and asked, “Then who was it that looked so sad when they guessed I was fifty or sixty? Is fifty or sixty old, but two hundred isn’t?”

Ye Zhou replied awkwardly, “It’s because fifty or sixty feels about the same age as my dad, but two hundred just naturally makes me think of a thousand, so it feels like you’re only in your twenties, almost like we’re the same age.”

Seeing him so enamored with youth, Dugu Zhuo couldn’t help wanting to tease him, so he said seriously, “After I reached Foundation Establishment at eighteen, my appearance hasn’t changed, and it won’t for decades to come.”

Ye Zhou: “!!!”

So that meant Dugu Zhuo would forever be eighteen, while he would gradually grow old?

He was already 24, soon to be 25, which meant he was six and a half years older than Dugu Zhuo!

Ye Zhou suddenly wanted a mirror to check if he had fine lines at the corners of his eyes. Only after turning around did he realize he was in the game, so he definitely had no wrinkles. He’d still have to check carefully once he logged out.

Seeing him so nervous, Dugu Zhuo couldn’t bear to tease him any longer and said, “When you were at the Qing Tian Sword Sect, you saw that the sect master was a middle-aged man with a beard, right?”

Ye Zhou: “Yes.”

Dugu Zhuo: “But the sect master also stopped aging after reaching Foundation Establishment. However, as the sect master, looking too young would lessen his authority in front of the lower-ranked disciples. So, most cultivators who serve as elders or sect leaders will adjust their appearance to look older. If you grow old, I’ll grow old with you.”

Ye Zhou felt at peace in his heart. Dugu Zhuo hadn’t made any grand promises, but his words and actions showed that he had thought through many future possibilities and prepared for each one.

At this moment, they had just confirmed their feelings. Too many sweet words would feel insincere. It was better to enjoy life in this game, leveling up, clearing quests, building a sect, and creating memories of their meeting.

Ye Zhou suddenly remembered something and, feeling a bit guilty, said to Dugu Zhuo, “Our relationship… we’ll need to keep it secret for now.”

“Why?” Dugu Zhuo looked at the increasingly brilliant fireworks in the sky, thinking that Ye Zhou wanted everyone in the game to know about them.

Ye Zhou: “I’m afraid that if my cousin finds out, he’ll investigate your personal information through your IP. He doesn’t oppose us; he’s just very protective.”

And his dad might even personally log into the game to meet Dugu Zhuo, which would be quite scary.

Dugu Zhuo initially thought Ye Zhou was worried about Ye Jian’s opposition, thinking that even if Ye Jian opposed, it wouldn’t change anything. But upon hearing that Ye Jian could trace his real-world identity, Dugu Zhuo fell silent.

He likely didn’t have a real-world identity; he didn’t have a full-immersion helmet and was merely a character in the game.

As for revealing his identity to Ye Zhou’s family, Dugu Zhuo had no plans to do so for now.

“Alright,” Dugu Zhuo agreed.

Though they both agreed, the atmosphere suddenly grew somber.

Ye Zhou didn’t like this feeling, so he tried to perk up and said, “Ah, it’s so quiet today. There’s no one in the sect, and even my brother hasn’t logged in.”

“Roar!” A tiger’s roar sounded.

White Tiger: Since I told him to carve my statue earlier today, he’s been gone.

White Tiger had somehow climbed the steps, looking at Ye Zhou with a face full of grievance, wondering when his statue would be done.

“When did you get here?” Ye Zhou suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.

White Tiger glanced at Dugu Zhuo with a look full of warning and said, “Just now, roar.”

Only then did Ye Zhou relax and comfort White Tiger, “I’ll remind him to make your statue after I log out. I did promise you, after all.”

This was White Tiger’s sect, and since White Tiger had gone through the trouble of giving up the mountain gate, the statue had to be completed.

“Roar.” White Tiger happily nudged Ye Zhou with his head.

With White Tiger around, the sad atmosphere between the two of them dissipated, but their private moment was also interrupted.

Dugu Zhuo wasn’t one to display affection in front of others, so this wasn’t the right time for intimacy with Ye Zhou. It would be better to attend to the sect’s affairs.

He opened the sect list and saw that Godly Pen Xiao Ma had died.

In the game, dying was normal, so Dugu Zhuo didn’t think much of it. He skimmed past it and noticed that establishing the External Relations Hall only required land and spirit stones, making it quite feasible to establish. However, the head of the External Relations Hall couldn’t be the chief disciple, who was already responsible for various sect affairs, and adding this would be too much.

He opened the sect list and saw that Godly Pen Xiao Ma was dead.

In the game, death was normal, so Dugu Zhuo didn’t pay much attention and swiped past it. He noticed that establishing the External Relations Hall only required land and spirit stones, which made it quite feasible. However, the person in charge of the External Relations Hall couldn’t be the chief disciple, since the chief disciple had to handle all the sect’s affairs, and adding the responsibility of managing the External Relations Hall would be too much to handle.

It seemed like he would have to use Godly Pen Xiao Ma. Dugu Zhuo flipped back to the sect disciples’ status page and saw that Godly Pen Xiao Ma was still in a “dead” state.

Why hadn’t he revived yet?

Just as Dugu Zhuo was wondering, he saw that Godly Pen Xiao Ma revived, only to die again.

Dugu Zhuo watched as he died and revived four or five times and finally became curious about what he was doing.

He opened the friend list to send a message but noticed a long list of unread messages.

Earlier, Dugu Zhuo had set himself to “Do Not Disturb” so no one would interrupt him while he was with Ye Zhou. As a result, he couldn’t see any messages except for world announcements.

The top unread message was from Ao Tian. Dugu Zhuo opened it and heard Ao Tian say—

“God Zhuo, we found a level 60 dungeon, hahahahaha! We’re going to try it tonight. Even if we can’t clear it, it’s fine, we’ll treat it as a first attempt. When we reach level 59 again, we’ll try again and become the first players to reach level 60!”

“God Zhuo, this dungeon seems off. We wiped, but we weren’t teleported out.”

“God Zhuo, help! We really can’t get out! After logging out and logging back in, we’re still stuck in the dungeon. What kind of scam dungeon is this? We can’t leave until we clear it?”

“God Zhuo, did you see my message? The others are gone, I can’t find them.”

Dugu Zhuo then checked other people’s messages, including Godly Pen Xiao Ma’s, and most of them contained the same message.

After reading all the messages, he saw that the players were still able to log out, which relieved him a little. Being able to log out meant they could return to their bodies, so they wouldn’t die in real life.

“What’s going on?” Ye Zhou leaned over and asked.

Dugu Zhuo replied, “My second disciple and the External Relations Hall disciples might be in trouble. We need to go rescue them.”

“What trouble? Were they surrounded by other players?” Ye Zhou asked.

In the game, fighting wild monsters didn’t usually cause much trouble. As for dungeons, once players entered, even Dugu Zhuo couldn’t join their dungeon. In Ye Zhou’s traditional view, only players could cause trouble for other players.

Dugu Zhuo replied, “No, let me confirm.”

He messaged Ao Tian, who had the most knowledge about the game, to ask where they were and what trouble they had encountered.

Ao Tian replied, “We’re in the forbidden area behind Wuliang Temple. Once we entered the dungeon, we couldn’t get out. We’ve died and revived over and over. What do we do?”

Dugu Zhuo replied, “Didn’t Black Cat summon the Buddhist Kongo?”

Ao Tian responded, “He summoned it, but the Kongo’s attacks hit the monsters, and Black Cat died instead. What kind of reflect damage skill is this? It’s terrifying!”

“I see.” Dugu Zhuo replied calmly.

He had figured out what kind of predicament Ao Tian and the others were in.

Author’s Note: Here’s a spoiler: This isn’t a cultivation world, Dugu Zhuo isn’t stuck in it. Don’t guess wildly.