Just as I was feeling extremely frustrated, my communicator suddenly rang. I opened it to see that it was my friend Ivy Dance, someone I often hung out with on the forum, where we would mock and criticize each other. I usually enjoy reading some online novels, and when the mood strikes, I’d even put on a pseudonym and go on various sharp-tongued forums to trash this or that book, calling some the worst of the worst. Over time, I gained a bit of a reputation and made quite a few like-minded friends. Before the closed beta even started, these people had already been mingling and organized a guild before the game launched, called “The Otherworld Losers Group.”

“Qingniu! Have you arrived yet? Everyone’s leveling up at the foot of Mount Emei! Come join us!”

Ivy Dance is a rather famous girl on the forum. According to some members of the pervy group, they once asked her for a photo, and she really is quite a little beauty. I’ve never been that pervy myself, and I rarely chat endlessly with girls online, so I’m half-skeptical about this claim. However, Ivy Dance has a really fun personality, often loves to make bets with people, and always wins. She once bet on the World Cup on the forum, using forum currency, and won so much that a bunch of the pervy group members lost everything and ended up deep in debt. Ever since then, whenever anyone buys a lottery ticket, they always come to ask Ivy Dance for advice, and their chances of winning have indeed increased.

Listlessly, I said to Ivy Dance, “I’m not going to Mount Emei. I was unlucky enough to pick up a quest that’s said to be the most insane in Shushan—I have to grind out a hundred thousand merit points.”

“A hundred thousand merit points?” Ivy Dance was stunned at first, then burst out in a girlish giggle and said, “So you’re that luckiest Qingcheng player on the forum! You got Zhu Mei’s personal legacy, tsk tsk! That’s just awesome! Accumulate a hundred thousand merit points and you’ll get the Qingcheng sect’s secret technique… hahaha! Hahahaha!”

I was quite annoyed, but I couldn’t lose my temper at Ivy Dance. This quest would take at least two or three months to finish, and the reward was pitifully small. Plus, the quest had a damn time limit—if you didn’t finish in time, you’d lose ten thousand merit points.

In Shushan, if your merit points go negative enough, you’ll trigger a heavenly tribulation. Depending on how negative it is, the tribulation comes in different levels, from ordinary lightning and fire tribulations to the most insane, world-destroying 49th tribulation—everything is possible. If your power isn’t enough, you’ll be blasted into reincarnation on the spot. Of course, if you’re strong enough to withstand the tribulation, you’ll get extra rewards.

“This is just three levels of insanity!”

After cutting off the call with Ivy Dance, I forced myself to go to a few places at the foot of Qingcheng Mountain where monsters and ghosts appeared, killing monsters to level up. These unpredictable monsters and ghosts weren’t very high level, ranging from level 7 or 8 to around level 10, including Green Fang Ghosts, Red-Haired Ghosts, Lustful Ghosts, and so on.

As the saying goes, if you climb the mountain enough, you’ll eventually run into a ghost. Since I was working so hard to find one, of course I found one quickly.

Green Fang Ghost King, level 18, vicious by nature, loves to drink human blood.

“Damn! I’m only level 2, how did I suddenly run into such a terrifying monster!”

On this narrow path, when I saw it, it saw me too—there was no time to run. Faced with such a predicament, I could only shout and unleash a burst of fire, then pull out the wooden sword I’d spent all my money on, and clumsily used the Qingcheng Sword Technique.

Wooden Sword: ordinary peach wood, has the effect of warding off evil, attack speed 5–8, quality 10, sharpness 7.

Chapter Four: Qingcheng Sword Technique

The Qingcheng Sword Technique has ten moves in total.

Canglong Welcomes the Guest: can suddenly stab and injure the enemy, consumes 1 point of true energy.

White Carp Leaps the Waves: strikes from below, sudden move, consumes 1 point of true energy.

Vast Blue Waves: a sweeping slash, quite powerful, consumes 2 points of true energy.

Fierce Tiger Roars on the Hill: builds up momentum, then strikes fiercely, consumes 3 points of true energy and 5 points of mana.

Flying General of Dragon City: slashes down fiercely from the air, with tremendous force, consumes 3 points of true energy.

Ten Thousand Horses Gallop: combines with movement technique, sword moves like dust and smoke for miles, consumes 5 points of true energy.

Chaotic Clouds Fill the Sky: one sword creates several sword shadows, hard to defend against, consumes 5 points of true energy.

The Great River Flows East: a move of overwhelming force, uses up all true energy, should not be used unless necessary.

A Sword Comes from the West: leaps into the air, once unleashed there’s no turning back, consumes half of true energy and 3 points of mana.

Fire Burns the Rolling Clouds: adds fire attribute spell damage, consumes half of true energy and 15 points of mana.

The Qingcheng Sword Technique must be used together with the Qingcheng Sword Style to be effective. The technique has twenty levels; each level mastered increases true energy and mana by 50 points, sword power +30, sword speed +35.

After being burned by the fire, the Green Fang Ghost King looked rather flustered. I thought to myself, this is do or die, and used The Great River Flows East, slashing at its throat. Of course, the Green Fang Ghost King was no pushover—it opened its mouth wide and spat out a stream of black energy. But I had already made up my mind; since I was doomed anyway, I didn’t even think about dodging or blocking. I charged straight through the black energy and stabbed with my sword.

“Crack!” The wooden sword was poor quality to begin with, and since I used all my strength, it broke just as expected after stabbing the Green Fang Ghost King’s throat. Hit by the black energy it spat out, my HP instantly dropped to zero. Just before my light faded and I flew away, I managed to unleash another burst of fire in a daze. As for the result, I guess I’ll have to wait for my next life to find out.