Free Web NovelChapter 207: Chapter 200: Ashen Heaven Group’s "Graylist
A bustling crowd gathered before the Transmission Hall.
Ye Longtao and Dong Changsheng’s faces were a mix of black and blue, their features swollen and distorted.
Although their junior brothers had treated them, there had been little time for them to recover.
Standing in the crowd, the two of them were a conspicuous sight.
Ye Longtao stared at the stone slab at his feet as he accepted a jade slip from the task elder.
He could feel the gazes of those who were once outer-sect handyman disciples at Qingxu Temple.
Their crossing glances seemed to carry a silent mockery.
It was as if they were whispering in his ear:
"Look, there’s the prodigy from the inner sect."
"Remember how he used to mock us back at Qingxu Temple?"
"Now that he’s here, isn’t he just like us? Sweeping floors, carrying water?"
"What’s he got to be so proud of? He came to this demonic sect, and he still has to do menial chores!"
A hot surge rose from his stomach to his throat, making his chest tighten with a burning sensation.
His fingertip slid across the jade slip. The words "Sweep the sect’s fallen leaves," "Carry water to fill the nine cisterns on the back mountain," and a few more tasks came into view.
There were clearly other, better-looking tasks available, but under his senior brother’s watchful eye, he didn’t dare choose any of them.
Finally, he took the jade slip, swiped his finger across it, and accepted the tasks.
...
The wind howled.
A screen of light hovered in the air before Lin Qingfeng.
Characters on the screen continuously refreshed.
[Sect Contribution +1]
[Sect Contribution +1]
[Sect Contribution +1]
[Sect Contribution +...
Meanwhile, within the sect, disciples whose Cultivation was only at the third or fourth level of Qi Refining were running between various task locations.
They swept the ground stroke by stroke with brooms in hand;
they carried water step by step, balancing carrying poles on their shoulders.
Aside from having better stamina than mortals, the way they worked was no different from any common laborer.
Li Chunfeng, however, was working entirely like a mortal.
As he swung his broom, sweat quickly soaked the back of his robes.
Dong Changsheng and Wang Xiedi had a slightly easier time.
They formed hand seals for their Techniques, and a gentle breeze would swirl the fallen leaves away, while orbs of water flew automatically into the cisterns. It was the nascent form of a cultivator’s abilities.
But high up in the sky, it was another scene entirely.
Two streaks of light darted back and forth across the sect.
Su Ling’er and Ye Longtao were on their swords, using Sword Flight to complete their tasks at high speed.
Su Ling’er formed a hand seal for a Technique, and the ground of a courtyard was instantly swept clean;
with another wave of her hand, a water dragon descended from the sky, filling dozens of cisterns.
She looked at the complex tasks that had once terrified her, feeling nothing but resignation now.
’Sigh, it’s not like I haven’t done this before,’ she thought. ’And Senior Brother said we only have to endure it for today.’
However, when she saw Ye Longtao in the distance, that sense of resignation transformed into a source of motivation.
Ye Longtao felt her gaze on him like a thorn in his back, and the humiliation and resentment in his heart continued to build.
’I’m a great inner sect prodigy, a Foundation Establishment cultivator with a dual Spirit Root! And I have to be here, doing these lowly chores with a bunch of trash?!’
’And while I’m stuck running around doing these trivial things, I have no chance to investigate the truth about this demonic sect!’
Dong Changsheng was equally frustrated.
He had tried several times to find Ye Longtao in private to hint that he had important intelligence to send back to Qingxu Temple, but he could never find an opportunity.
’I’m still waiting to repay the Sect Leader’s great kindness, and then I need to find my old master to thank him for teaching me the Way!’
Meanwhile, Lin Qingfeng leisurely looked down from above.
He was very pleased with the rapidly increasing contribution points on the sect panel.
’At this rate, I’ll definitely max out the contribution points today!’
...
「An Nan Dynasty.」
The National Preceptor’s residence was magnificent and splendid.
Zhou Wenqiang lounged on a throne draped in tiger skin.
"ACHOO—!"
Zhou Wenqiang suddenly let out another sneeze for no reason.
’It can’t be, can it?’
He had a bad feeling.
His thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to the day he had to start over.
...
South of the border monuments of the Daqian Dynasty lay the An Nan Dynasty.
The towns of An Nan were filled with low-slung, mud-brick houses and temples dedicated to unknown gods and spirits.
The common people here toiled in the fields and burned incense in the temples. They would kowtow before the idols from time to time, praying for favorable weather and for a few extra bushels of grain in the next harvest.
Zhou Wenqiang stood on this land and took a deep breath.
He could see the restless hearts buried beneath this desolate land.
He had shaken off that "wicked disciple" Dong Changsheng, the one with the [Strong Luck] trait, and along with him, everything he had in the Daqian Dynasty.
Dong Changsheng had indeed learned his skills, and in turn, helped his own [Bewitching] talent trait evolve to the level of [Deceiving the Masses].
But at the same time, Dong Changsheng had caused him to lose everything he had painstakingly accumulated in the game.
But he didn’t want it to end just like that, and he especially didn’t want to delete his character and start over.
After all, in reality, within the [New Soul Sanctuary] he had personally founded, he was worshipped by countless followers, an existence even addressed as "Venerable One."
On his isolated island, he was a being who stood above tens of thousands.
Real-world wealth had long been just a number to him.
The offerings of his followers had already filled his coffers to the brim.
Those who stumbled upon the truth and tried to resist were, through his covert manipulations, either met with "accidental" deaths or beaten to death by other fanatical followers who saw them as Heart Demons.
He knew very well that these followers under his command could no longer live without him, their spiritual pillar.
They had dedicated everything to him, to that ethereal promise called "success."
Perhaps some of them, in a fleeting moment while waking from a midnight dream, realized they had been deceived.
But there was no turning back for them.
Admitting they had been duped would be tantamount to admitting the foolishness and failure of the first half of their lives.
The sunk cost was already too high for them to bear.
They were unwilling to wake up—or rather, they didn’t dare to.
So, Zhou Wenqiang did not lack for money.
But he lacked one thing—time.
He was old.
His body was irreversibly decaying.
He could deceive everyone, but he couldn’t deceive himself.
Until one day, he learned a piece of news from an overseas follower.
News that was enough to drive him mad.
The parent company of the game "Ashen Heaven," the Ashen Heaven Group, had a subsidiary called "Nirvana" Biotech that was developing the first-generation "Life Seed" restoration potion!
And they had truly made a major breakthrough in enhancing physical fitness and slightly extending lifespan.
The only condition for obtaining it was directly tied to the cumulative online time in the game "Ashen Heaven"!
Immortality!
He could almost see it—the future of the "living god" his deceived followers spoke of seemed to be truly beckoning to him!
If he deleted his character and started over, his game time would be reset to zero. The subsequent second and third-generation potions, and the true "eternal life" of the future, would likely be forever out of his reach!
However, when he tried to log into the game, a strange problem occurred...
It seemed... he had been put on some kind of "graylist" by the Ashen Heaven Group?
