Translator: Henyee Translations
Editor: Henyee Translations
He remembered at the time when players just discovered that the game, ‘Heavenly Earth’, didn’t have the setting of ‘ascension,’ it triggered a rather heated discussion in the forums.
Along with everyone’s intense investigation, and combined with the NPCs’ consistent attitude of living, the players felt that this setup was quite reasonable and fair.
If one asked himself honestly, in such a big world, could people really not have any concern for it?
If cultivation’s purpose was to ascend, to finally leave this world, to give up everything, then this would’ve meant that the more powerful cultivators, perhaps, the more heartless and emotionless they truly were.
On the contrary, the cultivators in the lands of Heavenly Earth were certainly refined and extraordinary, however, if you looked at them apart from their cultivation, they were actually no different from ordinary folks.
In other words, cultivators were simply people with cultivation.
You might not believe it if you were told this, but on holidays, even the arrogant, despotic, and self-serving Demon Sect seen in the eyes of outsiders… went on vacation!
The disciples could return to their hometown and visit their parents on the holidays, especially during the Chinese New Year. All those who had a home to return to would return to their family and celebrate the Chinese New Year, while for those who were homeless, they considered Demon Sect to be their home.
This didn’t only apply to the Demon Sect, the majority of cultivation sects were actually like this.
Why it was like this—the reason was actually also really simple.
Once people set foot through the gates of cultivation, they would obtain abilities that transcended the world, this also meant that they would have a life span that exceeded the normal person.
Even if one only set foot in the first tier, the cultivator could easily live up to over one hundred years.
It seemed that mere ordinary people who didn’t have a long lifespan, were eventually bound to be unable to accompany cultivators throughout their lives. They would inevitably leave and disappear from the worlds of these cultivators.
Since not everyone could cultivate, it was quite natural that cultivators had parents and siblings who were mortals. This was actually the norm.
Parting was unavoidable.
A minority of cultivators regarded this as the foundation, they felt that ‘supreme indifference’ and ‘extinguishing emotion and character’ were the ultimate Dao!
In reality, however, the majority of the cultivators in the lands of Heavenly Earth all walked the opposite approach.
Precisely because parting was unavoidable, everything and everyone seemed more precious to them.
‘Human warmth’ and the ‘earthly atmosphere’, these two points were the main reasons that made players engrossed with ‘Heavenly Earth’.
In the eyes of many players, this was like a world that truly existed. As for the current Lu Xun, this place indeed had already become a human world that definitely existed.
So for him, he sincerely hoped that cultivators could be more like normal people. This way, he could live a more relaxing life.
Having nothing to do right now, Lu Xun sat down cross-legged and started to cultivate again.
Although the experience value given wasn’t much, a little of it was still something, not to mention, he was actually a tiny bit addicted to the feeling of cultivating!
Soon, his body began to tickle, and then dully ache.
What he received in return was… the turtle-speed rising of experience value.
After circulating a few small Heavenly Cycles, he opened his experience bar to take a look. His current experience bar was ‘100/1000’.
He could probably cultivate a large Heavenly Cycle every day, this was the equivalent of ten small Heavenly Cycles, and obtain twenty points of experience value.
Counting this way, if he were to rely only on cultivating to level up, it would only require 44.5 days. Hahahaha! Ge[1.burp]!
In reality, regarding the cultivation of the ‘Qi Devouring Formula’, it wasn’t really all that difficult. People with good aptitude didn’t need much time to cultivate all the way to perfection.
‘It seems that apart from the prestige value mission, I have to find other ways to obtain experience through different channels.’ Lu Xun thought.
…
…
At the same time, in the tavern of a small city far from the Demon Sect, a storyteller was radiating with delight while telling a story.
He looked like a middle-aged man and wore a pure white robe from head to toe, almost just like a poor and pedantic scholar who couldn’t achieve scholarly honor.
There were actually quite a lot of people like this. Those who were lucky would take a woman who was willing to provide for his studies, this was so that they could continue to study even at an old age. And those who weren’t lucky would normally go look for jobs that could support their family.
The middle-aged man stood next to a table, his left hand held a closed folding fan, but the words that came out of his mouth were the anecdotes and lost stories of cultivators.
Normal people loved to listen to these type of things. After all, the farther away things were from oneself, the more curiosity one would have.
The storyteller was highly skilled, his tone was light and unhurried, he neither talked too fast nor too slow, the details he provided were fascinating and made one imagine a vivid picture.
However, his left hand, which he held the folding fan with, slightly pointed up in the shape of orchid fingers, it appeared somewhat charming.
At the climax of the story, the storyteller stopped as he seemed to be thirsty, and so, he unhurriedly sipped a cup of tea with one hand propped on the table—a flirtatious demeanor.
The listeners below started to urge him to continue, who could endure the feeling of such cliffhangers?
As the storyteller saw that everyone was urging him, after he showed a rather refined and gentle smile, he cleared his throat and continued speaking.
After the entire story was finished, a suntanned man dressed in black clothes asked the listeners for tips with a tray.
This man had a square face, he was tall and large in stature, extremely like the most capable farmer in a village.
His smile was simple and honest. Perhaps it was because he smiled often that there were many wrinkles at the outer corner of his eyes, the wrinkles on his forehead were also quite deep, it made him look uncouth and old-fashioned.
This place was only a small town, this naturally meant that the tavern was also small. The listeners definitely couldn’t be compared to the high officials and noble people in the large taverns, however, the storyteller did indeed tell the stories well. In the end, there were quite a few generous listeners who fished their pockets and extravagantly tipped.
The listeners didn’t forget to compliment him before tipping, “You’re a really good storyteller, but it was too short!”
“It was long enough, long enough.” The storyteller smiled, he cupped his hands in an expression of gratitude to every listener who tipped.
Since he wasn’t the regular storyteller in the tavern, he only used this place to speak for two days. These tips would naturally have to be split with the tavern later, the final earnings he actually received wouldn’t be much in reality.
Today was the last day of their stay, even while the tavern keeper urged him to remain at all costs, the storyteller and the farmer-like man still left after saying a few courteous words.
Storytelling for two days, Sir had just about enough fun.
The farmer-like man had a majestic gait while the storyteller’s pace was quite small, precisely speaking… It was extremely small quick steps.
After walking out of the tavern, the suntanned man asked, “Sir, are you sure about not setting out on a journey back to the mountain?”
“Return to the mountain for what?” The poor and pedantic scholar in the white robe responded.
“Are you not going to take a look at Little Junior Brother?” The suntanned man said while walking.
“What’s there to look at? How handsome could he possibly be? Aren’t we all just two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth?” The poor and pedantic scholar straightened out his slightly wrinkled robe, and when he passed by a small vendor’s stall selling bronze mirrors, he didn’t forget to look at his reflection.
The suntanned man knew in his heart that Sir loved to shamelessly show off his looks, even though he wasn’t considered especially good looking, he just particularly loved to show off his looks.
Apart from being smug about his looks, Sir was also the envious type, he didn’t like those men who were too good-looking.
Thus, the reason why Shen Yan could sit on the seat of the Demon Sect’s Sect Master, apart from his cultivation being the highest and having the most prestige amongst his peers, it was also that he was the shortest, vicious-looking, and ugly amongst his peers, plus, he didn’t even have a single hair on his head…
…Sir was very pleased.
…