Seeing Liu Fufeng back down, Shen Qingqing snorted coldly and then turned her gaze toward the players below.
With a gentle wave of her sleeve, a hundred streaks of light flew toward the crowd.
“This is the Tianxiang Sect’s basic cultivation technique. All the myriad spells of Tianxiang Sect stem from this method. Remember, you must practice diligently.”
【Acquired Tianxiang Sect Basic Cultivation Technique: Fragrance Intent Manual】
“Also, I am responsible for all the affairs of our sect. You may call me Shen Deputy Sect Leader, or just Shen Elder Sister.”
“Okay, Shen Elder Sister!” Several female players shouted out without hesitation.
Shen Qingqing gave them a gentle nod and smile, causing the young girls to blush and their hearts to race.
This NPC elder sister is so good…
An hour later, Chen Xiaoyan followed the Tianxiang Sect NPC disciple to her own residence.
It was a small courtyard, nestled halfway up the mountainside.
In the courtyard stood a peach blossom tree; according to the NPC disciple, nearly every courtyard had one planted.
After the NPC left, Chen Xiaoyan approached the peach blossom tree, touching and smelling it.
The scent, the texture—
These peach blossoms were identical to those in the real world, indistinguishable in any way.
Even she couldn’t help but exclaim:
“Holographic MMO forever.”
Then she wandered around the courtyard, touching and smelling everything, even deliberately tasting the soil.
Chen Xiaoyan teared up.
This was basically the real world.
So real, so vivid, it was impossible to tell if this was a game or reality.
A second world!!!
These four words instantly popped into Chen Xiaoyan’s mind.
She was certain this game would become a sensation, and not just locally but worldwide.
Maybe this game was her chance to shine.
Only…
Chen Xiaoyan glanced down at the body she was in—a body that wasn’t hers—and was stunned.
Why a female character?
She opened the game interface and searched for “customer service” for a long time, but there was no sign of it.
Damn.
No way to complain?
“Looks like I can only quit the game and complain to the company offline,” Chen Xiaoyan muttered as she began tidying up her courtyard.
After all, this was her little nest now; it needed to be spotless.
Before long, she had cleaned everything thoroughly.
Lying on a bamboo bed, Chen Xiaoyan looked at the Fragrance Intent Manual in her inventory.
Fragrance Intent Manual (Unlearned): Tianxiang Sect basic cultivation technique, increases (0+100) Fragrance Intent.
Note: ① Using skills consumes Fragrance Intent.
② Aura values and upgrading the Fragrance Intent Manual will increase Fragrance Intent.
Aura?
Chen Xiaoyan opened her character status screen.
Character ID: Unnamed
Level: 0
HP: 1000
Cultivation: Mortal (deals percentage bonus damage to lower cultivation levels) Next stage: Transcendence (requires 1000 Aura)
Aura: 0 (determines healing and damage of skills)
Fragrance Intent: 0
Technique: Fragrance Intent Manual (Unlearned)
Skills: None learned
Equipment: Tianxiang Sect Novice Outfit (no attribute bonuses)
The interface looked no different from other games.
After all, no matter how real it was, it was still a game.
First, she needed to learn the Fragrance Intent Manual and then work hard to level up.
She had to be stronger than other players to have any chance of control.
Otherwise, who would pay attention to a weakling?
In RPG games like this, only the strong had a voice.
“Come on! Chen Xiaoyan!”
Chen Xiaoyan opened her inventory and learned the Fragrance Intent Manual, instantly increasing her Fragrance Intent by 100 points.
The question now was: how to upgrade the Fragrance Intent Manual?
There was no guide in the game interface, so everything had to be figured out by trial and error.
Probably the other players were in the same boat.
After all, this was the first holographic MMO; neither she nor anyone else had played it before.
But seriously… how do you upgrade the Fragrance Intent Manual?
Chen Xiaoyan scratched her head, looking utterly confused.
Better ask the senior sister from earlier—maybe she’d know.
Without hesitation, Chen Xiaoyan got up and headed toward the mountain peak.
But before she even reached the top, she was exhausted and sat down on the steps, gasping for breath.
Going down was easy, but going up was hard.
She hadn’t expected the game to simulate stamina.
Looking up at the endless steps shrouded in mist, Chen Xiaoyan felt completely broken.
What the hell! Who made these steps for people?
Truly, it was so much better when senior sisters accompanied her downhill.
“Sigh, keep going.” After a short rest, Chen Xiaoyan stood up and continued climbing.
It’s just climbing a mountain, she told herself.
She had done it before.
One hour… two hours passed… finally, Chen Xiaoyan saw the summit.
The moment she stepped onto the square, she felt utterly drained and collapsed onto the ground.
“I’m done for. This almost killed me.”
Especially with this chest, it was an enormous burden.
“What’s your name?”
“Hm?”
Chen Xiaoyan heard the familiar voice and realized someone was beside her.
Looking up, she saw Deputy Sect Leader Shen Qingqing.
Hurriedly, she got up and wanted to bow but didn’t know how, so she awkwardly just stood there.
“Deputy Sect Leader Shen.”
“Mm.” Shen Qingqing replied softly and asked again, “What is your name?”
“My name is… my name is…”
What name? The intro just finished, and she hadn’t picked one yet.
“Hm?” Shen Qingqing looked at this disciple before her with some confusion.
“Deputy Sect Leader, my name is Chen Xiaoyan.”
Too lazy to think of a name, she just blurted out her real one.
“Chen Xiaoyan? Hmm, that’s a good name.” After saying this, Shen Qingqing vanished from sight.
Chen Xiaoyan was stunned.
Did she just teleport?
“I knew it—there’s Aura already, so this can’t be a wuxia world,” Chen Xiaoyan muttered in her heart.
“Oh right, Xiaoyan, you came all the way to the inner sect mountaintop in such a hurry. Is there something urgent?”
Shen Qingqing’s voice suddenly sounded behind her again.
“Yes.”
Chen Xiaoyan twitched her mouth, feeling a little freaked out.
Is this a ghost? So mysterious.
“Speak.”
“Deputy Sect Leader, do you know how to upgrade the Fragrance Intent Manual?”
Chen Xiaoyan asked, turning around.
“Use Aura to exchange for the second level of the Fragrance Intent Manual in the book pavilion to upgrade.”
“How many levels does the Fragrance Intent Manual have?”
“Ten levels.”
Ten levels, meaning level ten. The Aura seemed to be the game’s universal currency.
“Deputy Sect Leader, how do I obtain Aura?”
“There are three ways to get Aura: First, cultivation—you can gain one Aura point daily, though this varies depending on the technique’s quality.”
“Second, accept daily sect tasks from me to earn Aura rewards.”
“Third, plunder.”
“Plunder?”
Chen Xiaoyan was puzzled.
“Yes, plunder. Killing other cultivators grants you Aura, but how much depends on your luck.”
“Thank you for the information, Deputy Sect Leader.”
Chen Xiaoyan cupped her hands in thanks.
Not knowing the proper etiquette, she just did what felt right.
“Just call me Shen Elder Sister.”
Chen Xiaoyan looked at Shen Qingqing’s gentle smile and nodded subconsciously.
“Shen Elder Sister.”
Hearing these three words, Shen Qingqing smiled even more beautifully and lightly flicked Chen Xiaoyan’s forehead with her jade finger.
“I’m beginning to like you, Xiaoyan.”
“Oh, oh.”
Chen Xiaoyan dumbly replied, still stunned by the flick.
Oh my, I think I’m in love.
This NPC is too flirtatious. I really can’t hold back.
“Deputy… Shen Elder Sister, how do I level up my cultivation level?”
“By killing monsters.”
“Where are the monsters?”
“Monsters are found in the Demon Suppression Tower or the Endless Demon Domain, among other places. However, with your current level and strength, you cannot enter the Endless Demon Domain yet. You can only go to the Demon Suppression Tower to improve yourself. Each sect has a Demon Suppression Tower that holds low-level monsters for disciple training; Tianxiang Sect is no exception.”
Demon Suppression Tower and Endless Demon Domain.
Chen Xiaoyan’s lips curved up.
She seemed to know where the game dungeons were.
No surprise, the Endless Demon Domain was the big dungeon.
“Shen Elder Sister, can I train now?”
Chen Xiaoyan asked excitedly.
Shen Qingqing shook her head.
“Not yet. No matter how weak the monsters are, you can’t handle them unless your Aura reaches 100 and you have learned a skill. Then you can try.”
Chen Xiaoyan felt a bit disappointed.
If she could farm monsters early, she would surely get ahead of others by a lot.
Since she couldn’t farm monsters yet, she would just take on sect tasks for now.
“Shen Elder Sister, I want to accept sect tasks.”
“Fine.”
Shen Qingqing lightly tapped Chen Xiaoyan’s forehead with her jade finger.
【Sect Daily Tasks Released】
【① Learn one sect skill, Reward: Aura ×50】
【② Clean the Tianxiang Pavilion, Reward: Aura ×20】
【③ Clear out one wild beast from the back mountain, Reward: Aura ×30】
Three tasks, with rewards totaling exactly 100 Aura points. Was that a coincidence?
Chen Xiaoyan glanced at Shen Qingqing with mixed feelings.
She always felt this NPC was not just a line of code, but almost human.
Besides, no other players were at the mountaintop—she was all alone.
Looks like I’ll quietly grow strong, then astonish everyone.
(Endless Demon Domain: Legend says it is the origin of demons. A thousand years ago, it suddenly appeared in the East Sea. Countless demons escaped, turning the entire East Sea into a forbidden zone.)
Demons differ from monsters; the former are stronger and possess considerable intelligence.
Monsters are just beasts mutated by demonic energy.
(Tianxiang Sect: The only female lineage sect in the Immortal Realm Alliance, entirely composed of women, specializing in healing and support, in other words, the healers.)
Due to constant battles against monsters and demons, injuries are unavoidable, so Tianxiang Sect is highly valued throughout the alliance.
The alliance has a saying:
Better to venture once into the Endless Demon Domain than to provoke the Tianxiang Sect.
Because going into the Endless Demon Domain might get you killed, but offending Tianxiang Sect will definitely get you killed.
Every Tianxiang disciple is a treasured gem of the alliance and will be defended by all.
The reason is that Tianxiang Sect disciples are scarce.
“So our Tianxiang Sect actually holds such a high status.”
On the way back to the Tianxiang Pavilion, Chen Xiaoyan recalled Shen Qingqing’s words and couldn’t help but smile secretly.
She didn’t know what luck she had to get such a rare profession.
Aside from the gender, she was very satisfied with everything else.
Tianxiang Sect’s high status in the Immortal Realm Alliance was said to have been earned with the lives of many predecessors.
Because Tianxiang Sect had a sect motto:
“Save the dying and heal the wounded, never abandon.”
If any disciple deliberately abandoned an ally, they would lose their cultivation and be expelled from the sect.
Because of this, the Immortal Realm Alliance gave Tianxiang Sect the highest respect.
However, Chen Xiaoyan scoffed at this.
If someone in the alliance wants to court death, does she have to die with them?
What a joke.
If you want the crown, you must bear its weight—the fate of a Tianxiang disciple.
She also wondered if this game allowed switching professions.
It’d be better if she could change; she really couldn’t stand her current identity.
Clearly a man in real life, yet trapped in a female character, and why were the breasts so exaggerated?
Looking down, she couldn’t even see her feet. Was this some glitch from the system scanning reality?
Honestly, with her real-life scrawny figure, no chest at all, just a flat chest of steel.
This crappy game probably scanned the wrong data.
Damn!
***
Tianxiang Pavilion was the place where the sect elders convened—a huge round building.
Chen Xiaoyan held a broom and carefully cleaned every corner of the pavilion, leaving not a speck of dust.
If you do something, do it well or not at all.
That’s always been her motto… what a lie.
【② Cleaning Tianxiang Pavilion completed, reward: Aura ×20】
Chen Xiaoyan tossed aside the broom, sat down cross-legged on the floor without care for her image, and waved her hands, trying to cool herself.
“Mom, I’m dead tired.”
She had thought this game task would be a casual sweep, but after trying several times with no effect, only when she cleaned thoroughly and spotless did it count.
This game did not tolerate cutting corners.
Also, the game was so real it was like reality; after sweeping so long, her calves were aching badly, and sweat had soaked her bangs.
That aching sensation was exactly like real life.
The second task was done; now it was time to go to the book pavilion to complete the first task.
Learning a skill, then hunting some low-level wild monsters.
The book pavilion was like the sect’s scripture repository—a place where all disciples learned skills.
Learning skills was free, but upgrading them required Aura.
The pavilion looked like a tower with three floors.
The first floor was for low-level skills, available to levels 0–15.
The second floor was the intermediate skills area, levels 15–30.
The third floor was for advanced skills, level 30 and above.