The Sword on Ten Li Slope [New Book Please Collect!]

"Level seventy-one..."

Li Chu murmured, his long sword falling with a casual flick of his wrist.

A lantern flickering with eerie ghost fire, hovering about a yard in front of him, was instantly extinguished. It then split into two halves and hit the ground—it had been severed by that effortless, long-range strike of his sword.

It was the dead of night, yet a young Daoist priest dressed in a water-fire robe was strolling through this desolate wilderness, a scene that appeared quite bizarre.

From a distance, he looked tall and slender, his bearing elegant and refined. Up close, one could see his clear, bright features; his eyes sparkled with every glance, truly a handsome appearance untainted by the dust of the world.

As he strolled along, ghost-fire lanterns would occasionally dart out from the darkness, attempting to close in on him. It was a pity that, with every rise and fall of his sword light, not a single lantern could cross the line he had drawn.

Every time a lantern was extinguished, white specks of light—invisible to ordinary people—would rise from the lantern's remains and merge into the Daoist's body.

"Sigh—" Li Chu let out a soft sigh and muttered to himself, "As expected, as my level gets higher, the experience provided by these lantern monsters is getting lower and lower. At first, a single lantern monster was enough to level up, but this time it actually took two whole months. At this rate, who knows when the next level-up will be."

"However," he changed his tone, immediately adding, "while leveling up this way is slow, it has one advantage... it's safe!"

His gaze turned toward a distant direction, as if piercing through the endless darkness to see those vicious existences that preyed upon men.

"This world is simply too dangerous. Demons, monsters, fierce ghosts, beasts... evil things fill the entire world; one could say there is a crisis at every step! To find monsters with higher experience, I would inevitably have to take greater risks. Although I'm not sure how strong I am now, I am certainly not strong. To be safe, it's better to stay at Ten Li Slope for a while longer."

"A man must be able to endure loneliness, withstand temptation... and kill lantern monsters!"

While he was talking to himself, he had already casually slaughtered another five or six lantern monsters. His movements were so skillful and his positioning so precise that he had reached a state of perfection.

Li Chu had been in this world for nearly a year.

A year ago, he was just a graduate who had finished the college entrance exam, feeling dejected because he had made a fatal mistake and only placed second in the entire province.

On a boring afternoon, he clicked on an old Xianxia game. He never imagined that he was pushing open a door to disaster.

When he woke up, he found that he had arrived in an unfamiliar world.

Outside Yuhang Town lay Ten Li Slope, and on Ten Li Slope stood the Virtuous Cloud Temple. He had become a little Daoist priest in the Virtuous Cloud Temple.

Of course, who he was didn't 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 used to control a virtual character, had become a creature of flesh and blood that could feel pain and die!

His mental state collapsed instantly.

Behind a screen, anyone could slaughter their way through, but when a real person arrived in such a world, only one thought remained in his mind—live on with a smile.

The west side of Ten Li Slope bordered a mass grave. With the wild, withered tombs and the abundant spiritual qi, it was inevitable that some ghosts and monsters would be birthed, and the lantern monsters were the most common kind.

The power of a lantern monster was quite weak. In essence, they were just wandering souls with faint spirituality clinging to phosphor fire, manifesting in the shape of a lantern. Once a traveler got too close, their soul would be buffeted by the impact.

Against this level of ghost, any man with a bit of yang energy could disperse them. Even if one were successfully struck, it would only result in a minor illness, nothing serious.

That was why, for so many years, no cultivator had bothered to deal with them—everyone was too lazy to act. The people near Yuhang Town also knew not to pass through Ten Li Slope at night, so no one was 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 faced an unprecedented catastrophe...

Who told them to be the weakest ghosts within a hundred miles, and to be capable of regenerating endlessly? They were simply the perfect choice for leveling up.

The night was half over.

Li Chu sheathed his sword and turned back.

He understood the principle of not draining the pond to catch the fish, so he wouldn't wipe them out entirely. Every time he finished grinding the lantern monsters, he would give them three or four days to recuperate.

During these few days, he would go to the forest in the east to hunt ghost bees, to the wasteland in the south to find wine jar monsters, and to the foot of the mountain in the north to grind black hairballs.

If these miscellaneous little monsters had one thing in common, it was that they were weak...

In this dangerous world, the weak and helpless Li Chu relied on these even weaker monsters to grow stronger bit by bit.

Riding the moonlight, the mountain wind billowing his robes, the little Daoist priest with a sword on his back strode forward. Soon, he saw an old, dilapidated Daoist temple.

The outer walls of the temple clearly showed the mottled traces of time, and half the wall was covered in ivy. The gold paint on the plaque above had peeled away, leaving only the three hollow characters for "Virtuous Cloud Temple."

Li Chu pushed the door open and entered. The spacious front courtyard was paved with blue bricks, and in the center stood a large bronze tripod with three thick sticks of thousand-year incense burning inside. Crossing the front courtyard, he reached the Three Pure Ones Main Hall.

Inside the hall, the golden statues of the Three Pure Ones were enshrined on the altar. Li Chu gave a casual nod toward the altar as a greeting, then walked straight past.

As a soul from the modern era, even after arriving in a world of strange powers and chaotic spirits, he couldn't muster much reverence for these deities.

Li Chu's philosophy was simple: if believing in you could truly grant my wishes, then I would certainly believe in you. If not, then I'm sorry, we'll go our separate ways.

On his very first day here, he had wished to go home, and clearly, it hadn't come true...

The backyard was much smaller and far more cluttered, with a dirt floor, an old locust tree with lush foliage in the corner, a well sealed with a stone lid, and a stone table and stools beside it. Even in the dog days of summer, the area around the well was bone-chillingly cold, as if one were standing in front of an open refrigerator door, which was why the master and apprentice often cooled off and chatted there.

There were three small rooms in the courtyard: one for Daoist Yu, one for Li Chu, and one for the kitchen—which also counted as Li Chu's.

Li Chu tiptoed into the small courtyard and quietly returned to his bedroom, fearing he might disturb his Master.

His Master, the head of Virtuous Cloud Temple, Daoist Yu, was a true high-level expert—at least, that was what he claimed himself.

Daoist Yu claimed that in his early years, he had roamed the world, eliminating demons and defending the Dao, and had incurred much karmic debt from killing, which was why he had come to this small temple to live in seclusion, vowing never to kill again.

When the mood struck him, he would often tell Li Chu stories of his youth. Things like slaying a demon with a cup of wine in Chaoge, trampling the waves to kill a dragon in the East Sea, or opening the gates of heaven under the moon at Kunlun... the profound and magnificent scenes were too numerous to mention, leaving one breathless!

So much so that Li Chu's highest aspiration in his daily efforts to grind monsters and level up was to become a great power like his Master.

After a simple wash, he ended his exhausting yet fulfilling day, took off his outer robe, and climbed into bed, preparing to sleep. In an era without mobile phones or the internet, his sleep was actually much more peaceful.

Thinking of his weak self taking another step toward his powerful Master, a satisfied smile couldn't help but appear on Li Chu's face...