In the dead of night, all was silent as a round moon hung in the sky, casting a hazy silver veil over the sparse woods and the Ruined Temple deep within.
The Ruined Temple had only a single room. The decaying beams were thick with cobwebs, dust clumped like cotton, and the dried husks of moths hung from the webs.
In the northwest corner, a large hole gaped in the roof, letting silver moonlight spill in.
Inside the dim temple, three people were clearly split into two groups, sitting across the campfire, drawing a clear line between them.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside the temple again—someone else was coming.
PRAY……
The battered wooden door had just been pushed halfway open when it crashed down with a bang.
“Ow!”
The three inside looked over in unison, only to see a black-clad young girl with a long blade at her waist and a torch in hand, clutching her reddened forehead with one hand.
Seeing everyone’s attention, she immediately dropped her hand and put on a stony face, pretending nothing had happened.
The wooden plank lay at her feet. Behind her stood an old woman, also with a large blade at her waist and a torch in hand.
“Sorry to intrude.”
The old woman’s raspy voice echoed in the quiet night like an owl’s call.
The firelight flickered. The three inside only watched them silently, none replying. This was the Outer Xuantian Mountains, a place rarely visited by people.
Anyone coming here now was surely here for the Xuantian Sect’s once-in-twenty-years Disciple Recruitment Grand Ceremony.
In the Mortal Realm, this was called Knocking on the Immortal Gate—knock and the gate opens, enter Xuantian, the Immortal blesses your head and grants you longevity.
With more people came a mixed crowd, so no one wanted to interact with strangers, lest trouble arise.
The old woman clearly had no intention of waiting for their response. As soon as she finished speaking, she withdrew her gaze and stepped inside.
The girl propped the fallen half of the door back up, then followed the old woman past the fire, heading straight to the innermost part of the temple.
There stood a battered offering table, empty except for a giant shadow almost touching the beam, standing silently in the dark corner to the right of the table.
The girl started, waving her torch forward, only then seeing that what stood in the corner was not a person, but a strangely shaped Great Boulder.
Why was there such a huge stone in the Ruined Temple?
Curious, the girl stepped closer to take a better look.
But as soon as she approached, the Great Boulder seemed unable to bear the heat of the torch and suddenly began to tremble in a bizarre way, countless tiny cracks spreading across its weathered surface!
The next second, with a deafening bang, the Great Boulder exploded!
“Xin’er, watch out!”
The old woman yanked the girl behind her with one hand and drew her blade with the other, blocking the flying debris.
The blast of air snuffed out the girl’s torch and made the campfire burn lower, plunging the temple into deeper darkness.
The three by the fire stood up in shock, quietly edging toward the door, clearly ready to bolt at the first sign of real danger.
Soon, the blast faded, the campfire’s flames brightened again, and the temple returned to its earlier silence. Everyone glanced around warily but saw only shattered stone littering the floor.
Suddenly! In the dimness, someone’s breath caught, sharp and tense.
“Look! Behind the offering table—isn’t there someone there?!”
Everyone’s heart skipped. Behind the dust-covered offering table, there now seemed to be a shadowy figure sitting there.
For someone to appear out of nowhere in this deserted, wild temple—this could not be good!
The timid ones pressed themselves to the door. The half-standing door collapsed again with a bang, letting in more moonlight.
“What monster dares to play tricks here?!”
The old woman took the extinguished torch from the girl’s hand. Without any visible action, the torch suddenly burst into flame.
“Granny Hua, don’t be rash.”
The girl tugged at Granny Hua, frowning as she called out to the shadow behind the offering table.
“Who are you? Are you a demon or a human?”
The figure, back to them, twitched at the sound, as if trying to stand. But her posture was twisted and awkward, and as soon as she got up, she fell back down, like someone with no bones at all.
Everyone watched as the figure tried twice, fell twice, then seemed to give up. She dropped to all fours and slowly, grotesquely crawled out from behind the offering table.
The bizarre sight made everyone’s scalp tingle and hair stand on end.
In the flickering firelight, the figure slowly raised her head. Beneath messy black hair, a pale, expressionless little face appeared, her dark eyes utterly devoid of human emotion.
“Hello.”
“Ghost!”
The man closest to the door screamed. Unable to bear the eerie atmosphere any longer, he scrambled out of the temple in terror.
The other two wanted to run as well, but it was deep night—prime time for monsters and ghosts to roam. Outside, the wilds were full of wolves and leopards.
Leaving the temple would make finding another shelter nearly impossible.
Granny Hua frowned, scrutinizing the figure, but did not act rashly.
She was old. Even though she’d been lucky enough to become a cultivator and glimpse the mysteries of cultivation, at the ninth level of Qi Refining, her lifespan was only about 150 years.
Now at 128, her life was nearly at its end, and fighting only grew harder. So she’d learned: if the enemy doesn’t move, neither does she.
The girl—Huaxin—peeked out from behind Granny Hua, warily sizing up the four-limbed creature ahead.
“Granny Hua, I think it’s a girl.”
At that moment, the figure moved again. She slowly crawled around Granny Hua and Huaxin, heading toward the two by the fire.
The two, terrified, dashed out of the temple, only to remember their bags were left behind and stop, torn.
Luckily, the strange figure didn’t follow. She just tilted her head, letting her messy hair slide aside, and her once-dull black eyes now sparkled with life.
Her gaze landed on the Male NPC.
“Hello.”
The Male NPC said nothing. So the figure turned to the Tall Thin NPC.
“Hello.”
The Tall Thin NPC also said nothing. Receiving no response, the figure lost interest, turned, and crawled back. The two outside let out a sigh of relief—only to see her heading for their bags!
***
‘Epic Full-immersion Cultivation Masterpiece Wen Dao Three Thousand is now in blazing hot open beta!’
‘Sexy master, online tutoring. Gentle senior brother, online sparring. Pure junior brother, online hot dance…!’
‘If you’re bold, come slash me in Wen Dao!’
Entering the full-immersion game lobby for the first time, Yun Miao looked around curiously, even finding the floating pop-up ads overhead fascinating.
Only then did she start downloading the recent smash hit, Wen Dao Three Thousand.
The Full-immersion Helmet was expensive, and she’d never been willing to buy one. Yet, not long ago, she’d won one in a lucky draw on the Wen Dao Three Thousand Official Website.
Because of this fateful encounter, she felt quite fond of the game.
Soon, a translucent System panel appeared in front of her. On the panel, a massive Bronze Armillary Sphere spun rapidly—this was the game’s System randomly generating the player’s character talent.
Three whole minutes passed—long enough that Yun Miao wondered if her connection had frozen—before the spinning Bronze Armillary Sphere finally vanished, revealing her character panel.
Player Name: Yun Miao
Gender: Female
Character Age: Fifteen
Realm: Mortal Realm
Root Bone: 10
Five Spiritual Roots Potential: 10
Constitution: 80
Comprehension: 100+
Family Background: 0
Luck: ???
Wealth: 0
Evaluation: Your body is very healthy, and your comprehension is off the charts. Sensing the Dao is as easy as breathing for you, but your talent is only a little better than a mortal with no spiritual roots.
As an orphan who sprang from a crack in a stone, you have no family and can’t receive any help from parents or clan.
“Character created and cannot be changed. Would you like to enter the game?”
“Yes.”
As Yun Miao replied, the ethereal game lobby darkened at once, and she closed her eyes.
A few seconds later, System: “Player has successfully logged in. Have fun!”
Yun Miao opened her eyes at the System’s cue, but before she could see where she was, a loud explosion sounded in her ear.
At the same time, her body shot into the air, tracing a comical arc over the woods before plummeting down.
Yun Miao, who took off the moment she entered the game: ???
Bang!
When Yun Miao came to, she found herself sitting on the ground.
The just-logged-in player was dizzy, staring blankly at the dust and pebbles on her clothes, then pulling up the System panel to check the evaluation again.
Evaluation: As an orphan who sprang from a crack in a stone, you have no family and can’t receive any help from parents or clan.
Yun Miao was dumbfounded. She thought it was just a figure of speech—turns out it was literal?
What a bizarre login animation. Thumbs down!
Because the System panel blocked her view, Yun Miao carefully pressed save at Wen Dao Three Thousand’s only save slot, then closed the System panel.
Only then did she finally have a moment to listen to the voices behind her.
“Granny Hua, I think it’s a girl.”
Crawling.
An NPC?
Yun Miao instinctively wanted to approach and talk to the NPC, but as soon as she moved, she realized something was off with her body.
She was healthy and strong, but… her limbs just didn’t seem to obey her.
So Yun Miao ended up putting on a rare show of a modern human trying to tame her own limbs—and, failing miserably, contorted in place.
Still, undaunted, she cheerfully greeted the old and the young NPCs, hoping to trigger a newbie quest. “Hello.”
But the two NPCs didn’t respond at all. Instead, a distant NPC screamed “Ghost!” and ran off.
A ghost? Where?
Yun Miao glanced around warily, thinking she’d have to fight monsters right after logging in. Luckily, there were no red-named mobs nearby.
So she crawled toward the other two NPCs by the fire, but still got no response or quest.
This left Yun Miao confused. In her years of gaming, the first scene always had a Newbie Guide NPC to give out starting quests.
Worst case, weren’t full-immersion game NPCs supposed to be smart and able to chat freely? Why were all these ones just a bunch of rude, mute NPCs?
Fine, if the NPCs wouldn’t interact, she’d explore the map first. There seemed to be three small bundles by the fire—she’d try picking them up.
Yun Miao sat down and started unpacking the bundles.
Right now, she was just a newbie in plain clothes, without even an inventory, so she could only stuff useful gear into her arms and toss aside what she didn’t need.
As her gaze lingered on each item for three seconds, a prompt box floated above each one.
【Men’s Clothing】
【Unwashed Stinky Boots】
【Belt】
【Fire Striker】
【Hemp Rope】
【Steamed Bun】
【Flatbread】
【Yuan Yang Dudou】
“Hm?”
Yun Miao kicked the stinky boots far away, then curiously looked at the Yuan Yang Dudou, and then at the two male NPCs outside the door.
How strange. Take another look.