Ding! The system notified me that I had completed the task. I picked up the wooden talisman, and the system displayed: "Beginner Fire Talisman, magic item, can be equipped, able to launch blazing fire to burn enemies, damage 15~20, consumes 5 mana points."

"Nice! I finally have a way to attack, even though my current mana is only... huh! After taking down that fox, I even leveled up. Now I have 15 mana points, so I can fire the fire talisman three times."

"This world really is as lonely as fireworks!" I laughed heartily and logged off.

I had already played for two hours, and my stomach was starting to get a bit hungry. Most importantly, I still had something very important to do today. For some reason, my dear mother thought her precious son was too honest and might not be able to find a wife, so as soon as I graduated, she arranged the grand event of a blind date for me.

"Well... some people might say, don't I already have a girlfriend? Well... having a girlfriend doesn't stop me from going on blind dates! They're two completely different things."

Having just graduated, of course I was living alone. I had just rented a studio apartment, rather simple, with nothing but a bed, a table, a light computer, and a few changes of clothes. There was nothing else in the room. Sure, I'm a guy, but that doesn't mean my room has to be full of trash. My little place is actually kept pretty clean. Of course, I won't claim I'm a perfect housekeeper—after all, I do have a girlfriend, right?

Tomorrow, I can go to Mount Emei to become an apprentice! Just imagine: "Riding a sword through the sky, coming and going in the blue, chasing clouds and the moon, soaring ten thousand miles in a single leap..." What wonderful days await! They're about to begin.

According to the plan, these wonderful days will only last two months at most. The job my parents found for me will start soon, and before that, I have to take care of some things I can't tell anyone about.

It's really not right to hide my relationship with Lillian Clark from my parents, and I do feel guilty about always going on blind dates. Having a girlfriend doesn't mean I can't look at other pretty girls, but looking at other pretty girls doesn't mean I have to cheat. In short, men in this world... are all trash, but that doesn't stop girls from recycling and reusing them.

Chapter Three: Qingcheng Sect

"Why am I so unlucky? Tell me, why did I have bad luck twice in a row?"

Looking at the green Daoist robe on me, and repeatedly checking the system message "Congratulations, you have become a Qingcheng disciple," I was full of complaints, fuming with anger, and regretting it so much I couldn't even speak.

The blind date my mother arranged for me said at the last minute that she couldn't come because of something important. As for hoping for another chance next time and all that, it was just being polite. Maybe she already had a boyfriend and didn't want to meet a stranger like me at all.

When I realized there was no hope of dating a beautiful girl, I turned down my mother's invitation to go home for dinner, ran back to my little place, and continued my adventures in Shushan. Who would've thought! Who would've thought! I happened to see a short beggar by the roadside and felt a bit of pity... Actually, I thought maybe this NPC would give me a hidden quest or something.

And sure enough, just as I hoped, the quest was indeed a bit unique. After carrying him for a while, for some inexplicable reason, this damn shorty took a liking to me, saw me as having excellent potential and an immortal root, and then took me in as his disciple.

That's right, my luck turned upside down, and I ran into one of the two most damnable shorties in Shushan, "Short Elder Julia Bennett." This dignified head of the Qingcheng Sect was pretending to be a down-and-out beggar at the foot of the mountain! And according to the forum, the chance of this shorty appearing is even lower than me winning ten lotteries in a row.

As a disciple personally accepted by the head of the Qingcheng Sect, I got an extra quest compared to players who joined the sect through the system: accumulating good deeds. According to the system, once Julia Bennett has cultivated enough, he will ascend, but the good deeds he promised to do haven't reached the required number, and the old man is too impatient to keep doing them, so he dumped the responsibility on me, his direct disciple.

As for the reward... aside from the legendary flying sword Julia Bennett uses to subdue demons, there's nothing else. As a loyal fan of "The Legend of the Swordsmen of Shushan," I've never heard of this old pauper's flying sword being anything special. If it were the Ziying Sword, Qingsuo Sword, or Seven Cultivation Sword... that would be something.

After accepting this quest, I automatically became a Qingcheng disciple, and my dream of becoming an apprentice at Emei was shattered. The punishment for betraying the sect is just too severe: a deduction of 2,000 merit points, and I would never be able to join a righteous sect again. All I could do was silently endure it, and since the system can't read minds, I cursed Julia Bennett and his ancestors up and down, but since the old man doesn't seem to have any real relatives, it was all for nothing.

After joining the Qingcheng Sect, I received the introductory Daoist manual from the system, which contains several basic Qingcheng techniques. After equipping the Qingcheng introductory manual, the system gave me a choice: "How much of your experience do you want to allocate to the skills you are cultivating?" I casually selected twenty percent and went off to level up, feeling rather dejected.