Zhishou Tower

This was a small, standalone building hidden away in an alley.

The building was not large, only two stories tall. Its front stood open, but a black curtain hung across the entrance, blocking passersby's view and making it impossible to peer inside easily.

There was no signboard on the building at all; one could not tell what business it conducted.

Lu Qingshan stood before the building, his gaze flickering slightly.

Since his newbie village in his previous life had not been in Yuanshan City, he had already searched through countless alleys to find this little building.

Familiar as he was with the plot of "Nine Heavens," he knew perfectly well that this unremarkable little building was, in truth, the greatest faction players could come into contact with in all of Yuanshan City.

Yuanshan Tower, Zhishou Tower's branch in Yuanshan City!

Zhishou Tower was the only force among humanity capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the seven great Dao sects.

Zhishou Tower was also humanity's oldest faction. It had existed even before the Great Xia Imperial Family emerged.

After the Great Xia Imperial Family united humanity, Zhishou Tower pledged allegiance to the imperial family and concealed its forces underground.

Over the twenty thousand years of Chang'an Year 20,000, Zhishou Tower's shadow had gradually faded from humanity's sight.

But Lu Qingshan knew that not only had those twenty thousand years failed to weaken Zhishou Tower, but with the Great Xia Imperial Family's full support, it had instead grown ever more powerful.

Like the Great Xia Trading Company, Zhishou Tower's branches were spread throughout every human city. The difference was that the Great Xia Trading Company operated in the open, while Zhishou Tower lurked in the shadows.

Zhishou Tower was a faction that only began to surface in the Underworld Demon Shadows version, officially opening itself to players.

Yet in his previous life, there had always been a few lucky European-emperor players who, through certain twists of fate, unlocked the Zhishou Tower faction ahead of time.

Because Zhishou Tower had little reputation and kept an extremely low profile, the players who unlocked its faction had always believed it was merely some insignificant little sect.

But who could have known that, once the Underworld Demon Shadows version arrived, Zhishou Tower would suddenly become humanity's undisputed top dog in that version.

Damn, this was a one-shot soul draw—I pulled an SSR!

Before long, some players unable to suppress their urge to show off uploaded the methods they had used to unlock the Zhishou Tower faction to the player forums.

Everyone had unlocked the Zhishou Tower faction through different means, strange and varied in every conceivable way, but they all shared one thing in common: they had become enemies of Demon Cultivators.

Because Zhishou Tower had been established specifically to suppress and eradicate the Devil Race's forces within Great Xia.

Lu Qingshan had never intended to become a Rogue Cultivator.

In the Nine Heavens, soon to descend into turmoil and chaos, choosing to be a Rogue Cultivator without the protection of a sect meant an extremely high chance of death.

Throughout the main storylines of every version, there were simply too many Rogue Cultivator NPCs who got caught in the crossfire and died for no reason due to scripted plot kills.

Whenever a major version updated and Lu Qingshan logged back in to read the version update notes, he would always find a line like this in the patch notes: Countless Rogue Cultivators became sacrifices to this disaster...

What was more, cultivators needed resources if they wanted to grow quickly.

Methods, companions, wealth, and land!

The four great essentials of cultivation.

First came methods. Advanced cultivation techniques and Sword Skills were exceedingly valuable, and teachings were not passed on lightly. More often than not, even money could not buy such things.

Thus, the techniques Rogue Cultivators practiced were generally the sort found everywhere, while the spells they studied possessed only ordinary power.

But if one could attach oneself to a powerful sect, then so long as one accumulated enough sect contribution, one could exchange it for all manner of high-grade Dao techniques needed for cultivation.

Companions did not refer solely to Cultivation Partners who cultivated together as men and women; they also included fellow disciples and masters. To study alone without friends was to remain isolated and poorly informed.

If one could join an immortal cultivation sect, one would not only have fellow disciples to cultivate alongside, but also experienced elders to guide and protect them. Naturally, their rate of growth would be beyond comparison to that of a Rogue Cultivator.

Wealth referred to the various cultivation resources and materials cultivators needed: Spirit Pills, Spirit Artifacts, spirit stones, and so on.

Rogue Cultivators spent most of their time running all over the place in pursuit of cultivation resources, leaving them no ample time to practice techniques or delve into spells.

Cultivation sects, on the other hand, distributed a certain amount of cultivation resources to their disciples at regular intervals in order to nurture them.

Moreover, sect disciples could obtain many precious pills and artifacts at exceptionally favorable prices.

These gaps in resources were often swiftly converted into gaps in strength.

Land referred to the cultivation grounds of the Dao. Sects were built atop Spirit Veins, where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was far denser than elsewhere—a blessed land of geomantic fortune for cultivation.

Cultivating in such places for one day was as effective as cultivating in ordinary places for two days, or even more.

Rogue Cultivators, however, made the four seas their home. In the cultivation world as it had developed to the present day, how many places suitable for cultivation could possibly have remained undiscovered?

Forget finding a blessed land for cultivation—many Rogue Cultivators were discovered during secluded cultivation, then robbed and murdered. Within a sect, however, one would never need to worry about such problems.

In the cultivation world, ninety-nine percent of those standing at the pinnacle came from renowned sects and great schools. Powerful cultivators of Rogue Cultivator origin were truly few and far between; the importance of a sect was plain to see.

Though Lu Qingshan had tremendous confidence that he could rise to prominence, great chaos was imminent. Alone and without support, he would inevitably be in grave danger amid troubled times.

He needed the protection of a major faction.

Zhishou Tower was not the major faction he had set his sights on, but it possessed one advantage.

Zhishou Tower was not a sect, but something akin to an official organization, so it placed few restrictions on its members' freedom.

Members of Zhishou Tower could still join other sects without violating Zhishou Tower's rules.

Without question, Zhishou Tower was an excellent second faction.

Lu Qingshan lifted the black curtain at the entrance and entered the small building.

The first floor was a hall. Several wooden load-bearing pillars divided the space into sections. The windows were tightly shut, and the building stood deep within a dark alley, making the entire interior exceptionally dim.

"Who goes there? What is your business?" A somewhat deep male voice rang out.

Lu Qingshan looked inside. A hollow staircase crafted from brown sandalwood led directly to the second floor, and beside the stairs stood a counter.

Behind the counter sat a middle-aged male cultivator with disheveled hair and a face full of stubble, looking thoroughly unkempt.

It was this middle-aged male cultivator who had just questioned him.

"I wish to see the master of Yuanshan Tower."

A glint flashed through the middle-aged male cultivator's eyes.

Lu Qingshan faintly felt as if something were watching him.

Lu Qingshan knew that the middle-aged cultivator was sweeping him with his Spiritual Sense.

"A minor cultivator at the Qi Refining Second Layer? The tower master is not someone you can see merely because you wish to."

"Underworld." Lu Qingshan offered no further explanation, slowly uttering two words.

The middle-aged male cultivator's pupils contracted. "What did you discover?!"

"I can only tell the tower master about this."

After a brief silence.

The middle-aged male cultivator's deep voice sounded again. "Fine. Wait here."

Lu Qingshan nodded.

The middle-aged male cultivator left the counter and headed straight upstairs.

Not long after.

"Come upstairs." A pleasant female voice drifted down from above.

Unexpectedly, the master of Yuanshan Tower was a female cultivator.

Lu Qingshan found it rather interesting.

Without hesitation, Lu Qingshan quickly ascended the stairs.

At the end of the staircase lay an exceedingly long corridor, with separate rooms lining both sides.

"The room at the very end."

Only her voice could be heard; her person remained unseen.

Lu Qingshan walked unhurriedly to the end of the corridor and pushed open the door.

Lu Qingshan's eyes immediately lit up.

Unlike the darkness elsewhere in the small building, the room was brilliantly lit and suffused with a pleasant yet faint fragrance. And inside the room was a... very beautiful woman.