Am I Eating Too Much?

The quest prompt that popped up in his field of vision made Li Muyang blink.

There was a save point?

Did that mean that after he died next time, he could restart the story from here?

Li Muyang looked at the trembling innkeeper, then called out the equally trembling waiter. Under Glaze Fairy's direction, the innkeeper and waiter carried the six corpses into the rear courtyard and laid them out side by side.

The six demonic cultivators had now transformed into horrifying half-human, half-monster forms. Some were covered in black scales, while others had heads that had turned into flood-dragon heads—a complete zoo-style patchwork.

Glaze Fairy stood beside the corpses, frowning. "Ever since my master, Master Thousand Leaves, swept away the demons of the world a thousand years ago, there have been no demonic cultivation lineages anywhere in the Nine Provinces for over a millennium. Where did these six demonic cultivators come from?"

Glaze Fairy crouched down and began examining the demonic cultivators' corpses.

Li Muyang stood to one side and did not approach.

The bloody corpses looked extremely appetizing. The downside of the game's excessive realism was making itself known.

The overly lifelike flesh and corpses made Li Muyang uncomfortable, and the pungent scent of blood in the air made him frown. After herding sheep for half a month, he was practically getting PTSD from the smell of blood.

If this had been a game from his previous life, corpses and blood spurts this realistic would have at least warranted an 18+ rating.

And Glaze Fairy truly lived up to being an instance investigator. After carefully examining everything, she quickly reached a conclusion.

"They seem to be remnants of the Blood Demon Path, which was once at the height of its power a thousand years ago..."

Glaze Fairy rose with a frown and washed the filthy blood from her hands with water.

Li Muyang committed this information to memory. "The Blood Demon Path, gone for a thousand years?"

A legendary Demon King rising from the ashes a thousand years later and causing chaos during the final days of a dynasty was a pretty classic game setup.

In that case, the boss of Loushan City, this beginner tutorial, was probably a demonic cultivator from the Blood Demon Path.

Li Muyang and Glaze Fairy left the rear courtyard and returned to the inn's main hall.

Just then, the front door was pushed open, and a figure with an enormous green health bar above his head entered with several attendants.

[Guide].

This NPC actually had a health bar too. He was a gaunt middle-aged man clad in armor, with white at his temples that made him look rather advanced in years.

Upon seeing Glaze Fairy, the Guide hurried forward and bowed. "Zhao Erhu, Banner Officer of Loushan City, pays his respects to the Fairy."

Glaze Fairy gave a slight nod. "Thank you for your trouble, Lord Zhao."

Though she looked cold and aloof, this Glaze Fairy was quite polite.

The two of them seemed to know each other. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Glaze Fairy had Zhao Erhu send his attendants to deal with the seven corpses in the rear courtyard.

The three then left the inn and boarded the waiting carriage outside. To the rumble of turning wheels, the carriage headed toward Loushan City ahead.

It was a massive stronghold nestled between two mountains. Its city walls were tall and majestic, while steep cliffs soaring into the clouds rose on either side.

Though it was called a city, it resembled more of a military fortress, magnificent beyond measure.

Zhao Erhu looked at the fading afterglow of the setting sun and sighed.

"Right now, the people in the city are frightened and unsettled. Commander Wu has also ordered the city sealed, cutting off all passage in and out."

"I hear that His Majesty has issued a decree, and the Demon Suppressing Warlocks of the Imperial Observatory are already on the road. If we wait for those Demon Suppressing Warlocks to reach Loushan City, who knows how many people in this city will die in vain."

Zhao Erhu was deeply worried, clearly terrified of those so-called Demon Suppressing Warlocks.

Glaze Fairy sighed. "Lord Zhao need not worry. So long as we investigate the situation and purge the evil before the Demon Suppressing Warlocks arrive, no innocent people will suffer."

"Though the Demon Suppressing Warlocks employ ruthless methods, if slaughter can be avoided, they are willing to show mercy as well."

Glaze Fairy and Zhao Erhu began discussing the situation in the city.

Li Muyang watched the darkening sky outside in silence, waiting to enter the city.

According to his gaming experience, this sort of NPC conversation—a cutscene for explaining the setting—usually posed no danger.

Sure enough, the carriage safely passed along the empty mountain road outside Loushan City and entered the city's grand, imposing gates without incident.

But after the carriage carrying the three of them exited the gate passage and entered Loushan City's streets, the quest log in Li Muyang's field of vision updated once more.

[Accompany Glaze Fairy into Loushan City—Completed]

[Current quest progress saved]

[New Quest: Survive safely with Glaze Fairy for ten minutes]

The suddenly updated quest log made Li Muyang curl his lips. Just as expected—same old routine. Danger came the moment they entered the city.

Seeing the countdown that had appeared in the upper-right corner of his vision, Li Muyang lifted the carriage curtain and looked outside.

The empty streets were deathly silent, without a soul in sight, and looked somewhat eerie beneath the moonlight.

At that moment, the empty city beneath the moon resembled an abandoned ghost town devoid of human life. A faint smell of blood drifted through the air.

Li Muyang knew that scent all too well. He immediately turned back to look at Glaze Fairy inside the carriage.

Glaze Fairy was still speaking with Zhao Erhu and had not noticed anything strange outside.

Li Muyang spoke, interrupting them. "Fairy, something seems wrong with the situation in the city..."

Such a vast city was thick with sinister gloom. The scent of blood drifting through the air, along with the constantly ticking numerical countdown in the upper-right corner of his vision, all indicated that danger was about to descend.

Li Muyang warned Glaze Fairy. After all, in terms of cultivation and attributes, Glaze Fairy's combat strength far surpassed his own. This teammate was reliable.

But the instant Li Muyang finished speaking, before Glaze Fairy could answer, a violent jolt struck the carriage.

Li Muyang only felt his body jerk violently, and in the next second, he fell into darkness.

"Damn! I died that casually?"

Inside the thatched cottage of the Demon Refining Sect, Li Muyang abruptly sat up.

He opened his eyes in frustration. This death had come far too suddenly. He had not even had time to activate Time Stop, nor had he seen how he died.

He had only felt as though something struck the carriage, and then he was GG.

Sitting on the hard bedboard, Li Muyang closed his eyes. The eerie Loushan City CG beneath the moonlight surfaced once more in his vision.

Several large lines of text appeared on the CG image.

[Continue the beginner tutorial?]

[Yes/No]

As Li Muyang looked at the option and prepared to select [Yes], his stomach suddenly growled.

He was hungry.

Only then did the game-immersed Li Muyang open his eyes and realize that night had fallen outside at some point. Having yet to eat dinner, his stomach was now rumbling with hunger.

"Tsk... The last time I was this addicted to a game was the last time."

Li Muyang sighed.

This game really had something to it. It had been a long time since he had been this engrossed in one—so engrossed that he had even forgotten to eat.

After climbing out of bed, Li Muyang began lighting the fire and cooking. Outer disciples of the Demon Refining Sect might be called cultivators, but they were really no different from menial laborers. Ordinary disciples like Li Muyang, with neither background nor status, were at the very bottom of the heap. They had to handle even cooking and boiling water themselves.

Opening the nearly empty rice jar, Li Muyang scooped out two large ladles of spirit rice and began cooking.

Though his cooking skills were average, the spirit rice issued by the Demon Refining Sect was genuinely good stuff. It was even more fragrant than the Wuchang rice he had eaten in his previous life, and consuming it could aid cultivation.

But when he looked at the small amount of spirit rice left in the jar, Li Muyang hesitated.

"Um... have I been eating too much lately?"

Though the spirit rice really was fragrant, his appetite had indeed grown much larger than that of the original owner of this body.

It was only the middle of the month, yet the spirit rice he had just received was almost gone.

Looking at the scant spirit rice left in the jar, Li Muyang suddenly felt the same awkward panic he had felt in college when he realized he was almost out of living expenses.

"I need to find a way to get some more spirit rice!"