"Level Seventy-one..."
Li Chu murmured, casually swinging down his longsword.
A lantern flickering with eerie ghostfire some ten feet before him went out in an instant, then split in two and fell to the ground. His casual stroke had severed it from afar!
It was deep in the night, yet a young Daoist priest clad in a Water-Fire Robe was wandering through this desolate wilderness. The scene was rather eerie.
From afar, he looked tall and slender, with an elegance that set him apart from the mortal world. Closer up, one could make out his clear, handsome features. His eyes shone brilliantly with every glance, and he possessed a face untouched by worldly dust.
As he strolled along at ease, ghostfire lanterns would occasionally dart out from the darkness, seeking to draw near him. Unfortunately for them, as sword light rose and fell, not a single lantern could cross the line of thunder.
Each time he extinguished a lantern, white motes of light invisible to ordinary people rose from its remnants and flowed into the Daoist priest's body.
"Alas—" Li Chu sighed softly and muttered, "Sure enough, as my level gets higher and higher, the experience Lantern Monsters give is getting less and less. At first, one Lantern Monster was enough to raise me a level. This time, it actually took a full two months. If this keeps up, who knows when the next level-up will come."
"But," he abruptly changed tack, "though leveling this way is slow, its advantage is... safety!"
His gaze turned toward some distant direction, as though it had pierced the endless darkness and glimpsed those savage beings that chose people to devour.
"This world is simply too dangerous. Demons, devil lords, Fierce Ghosts, monsters... Evil Things fill heaven and earth. It can be said that danger lurks at every step! To find monsters that give more experience, I'd inevitably have to take greater risks. Though I don't know how strong I am right now, I'm definitely not strong. To be safe, I should stay on Ten Li Slope a while longer."
"A man must be able to endure loneliness, withstand temptation... and kill Lantern Monsters!"
While he was talking to himself, he casually slew another five or six Lantern Monsters. The smoothness of his movements and the precision of his positioning had already reached perfection.
Li Chu had been in this world for nearly a year.
A year ago, he had still been a graduate who had just finished the college entrance exams. He had been deeply upset because of a fatal mistake: he had only placed second in the entire province.
One boring afternoon, he had opened an ancient Xianxia game. Little had he known that he was pushing open a door to evil.
When he woke from his sleep, he found that he had already arrived in an unfamiliar world.
Outside Yuhang Town lay Ten Li Slope, and atop Ten Li Slope stood Virtuous Cloud Temple. He had become a Little Daoist Priest at Virtuous Cloud Temple.
Of course, who he was did not matter.
What mattered was that in this world, Immortal Dao Magic, Demons and Monsters... all those settings from the game had become real! And Li Chu, who had once controlled a virtual character, had become flesh and blood that could feel pain and die!
His mentality collapsed at once.
Anyone could massacre enemies in all directions through a screen, but when a real person came to a world like this, only one thought remained in his mind—live on with a smile.
To the west of Ten Li Slope was a mass graveyard. With barren wilderness, withered tombs, and abundant Spiritual Qi, it was inevitable that some ghosts and monsters would arise. Lantern Monsters were the most common among them.
Lantern Monsters were quite weak. Their essence was merely Wandering Souls with faint spirituality attached to Phosphor Fire, taking on the shape of lanterns. Once a traveler drew near, their soul would be struck.
Ghosts and monsters of this level could be dispersed in turn by any man with even slightly stronger Yang Energy. Even if one were successfully struck by them, it would only mean a brief illness, nothing serious.
Thus, for all these years, no cultivator had come to deal with them—because no one could be bothered. The people around Yuhang Town also knew not to pass through Ten Li Slope at night, so no one had been harmed.
Until Li Chu appeared.
When he discovered that he could gain experience by killing monsters to improve his strength, the Lantern Monsters of Ten Li Slope were met with an unprecedented calamity...
After all, they were the weakest ghosts and monsters within a hundred miles, and they could endlessly spawn. They were simply the perfect choice for leveling up.
The night was half gone.
Li Chu put away his sword and turned back.
He understood that one could not drain the pond to catch all the fish, so he never wiped them out completely. Each time he finished grinding Lantern Monsters, he gave them three or four days to recuperate.
During those days, he would hunt Ghost Bees in the woods to the east, look for Wine Jar Monsters in the wasteland to the south, and grind Black Hairballs at the foot of the northern mountain.
If these motley little ghosts and monsters had anything in common, it was that they were weak...
In this dangerous world, weak and helpless Li Chu relied on these even weaker ghosts and monsters to build himself up bit by bit.
Under the moonlight, Mountain Wind billowed his robes as the Little Daoist Priest with a sword on his back strode forward. Before long, he saw an old Daoist temple.
The temple's outer walls bore clear traces of time's weathering, with half a wall covered in climbing ivy. The gold paint on the plaque above had peeled away, leaving only the hollow traces of the three characters, "Virtuous Cloud Temple."
Li Chu pushed open the gate and entered. The spacious front courtyard was paved with gray bricks, and in its center stood a large bronze cauldron, filled with three thick sticks of millennium incense. Beyond the front courtyard was the Three Pure Ones Main Hall.
On the altar within stood golden statues of the Three Pure Ones. Li Chu casually nodded toward the altar as a greeting, then walked straight through.
As a soul from the modern age, even after coming to a world of bizarre powers and supernatural chaos, he could not muster much reverence for these gods.
Li Chu's way of thinking was simple. If believing in you could truly make my wish come true, then I would definitely believe in you. If not, then sorry—we each go our separate ways.
On his very first day here, he had made a wish to return home. Clearly, it had not come true...
The backyard was much smaller and much messier. Its ground was yellow earth, and in one corner stood an old locust tree with lush branches and leaves. Beneath it was a well sealed with a stone cover, with a stone table and stools beside it. Even in the scorching heat of midsummer, the area around the well was icy to the bone. Sitting there felt like facing the open door of a refrigerator, so master and disciple often came here to escape the heat and chat.
There were three small rooms in the yard. One belonged to Yu Qi'an, one belonged to Li Chu, and the last was the kitchen—which also counted as Li Chu's.
Li Chu crept into the small yard on tiptoe and quietly returned to his bedroom, afraid of disturbing his master.
His master, Yu Qi'an, the master of Virtuous Cloud Temple, was a true enlightened master—at least, that was what he claimed.
Daoist Yu claimed that in his early years, he had roamed the jianghu as a hero, vanquishing demons and defending the Dao. He had incurred much karmic slaughter, which was why he had come to this little Daoist temple to live in seclusion, swearing never to kill again.
Whenever the mood struck him, he would tell Li Chu stories from his youth. Slaying devil lords over wine in Chaoge, killing Flood Dragons while treading the waves of the East Sea, opening the gates of heaven beneath the moon in Kunlun... there were too many profoundly mysterious grand scenes to count, leaving one in awe!
So much so that Li Chu's greatest hope as he diligently ground monsters and leveled up each day was to become a mighty being like his master.
After washing up simply, he ended another weary yet fulfilling day. He removed his clothes, climbed into bed, and prepared to sleep. In an age without phones or the internet, his sleep was instead far more peaceful.
Thinking that weak as he was, he had taken another step closer to his powerful master, a satisfied smile could not help appearing on Li Chu's face...
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