Game with Fairies, Begin!

In the courtyard thick with the fragrance of food, Li Muyang sat on the threshold of the thatched hut with a huge bowl of rice in his hands, eating his dinner with pickled vegetables.

Normally, he would have been willing to stir-fry a couple of dishes to go with his rice, but now he was busy playing the game and only wanted to finish eating quickly so he could continue the beginner tutorial.

Besides, the spirit rice was fragrant. Even eaten with pickled vegetables, it was delicious beyond compare.

The lamplight from inside the house fell over him, drawing a long black shadow across the ground before Li Muyang.

A neighbor passing by the doorway was somewhat surprised by the sight. "Brother Li, you're eating this late?"

The neighbor was a wiry young man of fifteen or sixteen, dark-skinned and skinny as a monkey. He always smiled at everyone and was very easy to get along with.

Li Muyang remembered that his name was Guan Xiaoshun, a youth from a small town in the south of the Demon Refining Sect's territory. He had a little talent for cultivation, but it was not high enough, so he could only become an outer disciple.

But among the outer disciples, how many truly had great cultivation talent?

Seeing Guan Xiaoshun's beaming smile, Li Muyang also greeted him cheerfully.

Guan Xiaoshun stood by the courtyard gate and chatted with Li Muyang for a while. Looking at the enormous sea bowl in Li Muyang's hands, he sighed.

"Brother Li, your appetite's been getting bigger and bigger lately. Be careful you don't run out of spirit rice."

"I heard the stewards say that cultivators in the Qi Refining stage like us can easily suffer a decline in spiritual energy and a regression in cultivation if our supply of spirit rice is cut off."

Guan Xiaoshun gave Li Muyang a half-joking reminder.

Though Guan Xiaoshun was young, he had arrived at the Demon Refining Sect a year before Li Muyang.

Li Muyang's original body had died only a month after entering the Demon Refining Sect, after which Li Muyang had transmigrated here.

So in terms of seniority, Li Muyang was actually a newcomer in the Demon Refining Sect.

Hearing Guan Xiaoshun's reminder, Li Muyang sighed. "Can't be helped. My appetite's been getting bigger and bigger lately. If I don't eat more, I can't get full at all. In a few days, I'll have to ask the steward for another job. That's the only way I can get more spirit rice."

Li Muyang had no choice either. The growth of his appetite was not something he could control.

For a low-level cultivator like him, spirit rice was no less important than ordinary food was to mortals. He had to eat his fill, but not having any to eat would also cause problems.

Going without spirit rice would not starve him to death, but losing its nourishment would indeed have negative effects on both his body and cultivation.

For him right now, obtaining spirit rice was the most pressing matter.

If this game system had not finished loading, Li Muyang would have had to ask the steward for another menial job tomorrow.

Of course, if this game system could not help Li Muyang... it had to be able to help!

After seeing Guan Xiaoshun off, Li Muyang helped himself to rice twice more. Only after finishing an entire pot of spirit rice by himself did he finally feel full.

"This appetite is getting a little strange..."

Li Muyang rubbed his stomach. Since transmigrating, it felt as though his stomach had become a bottomless pit. Such a huge pot of rice had gone into him without even making his belly bulge. It was truly bizarre.

After dinner, he scooped a ladle of water from the vat and washed his bowl clean, then wiped his hands. The first thing he did after eating his fill was shut the door, lie back down on the hard wooden bed, and close his eyes.

Game with Fairies, begin!

This game was extraordinarily realistic and immensely satisfying to play. Even if it offered no cheat-like rewards, Li Muyang had no intention of giving it up.

In this poor and boring demonic sect, having a fully realistic holographic game to play was already his only source of amusement.

After closing his eyes and opening the system, the familiar scroll appeared in Li Muyang's field of vision. Within it was Loushan City, grim and eerie beneath the moonlight.

Li Muyang directly chose to continue the beginner tutorial, and new options appeared before his eyes.

[Please load a save]

[Opening Act—A Visitor Outside Loushan City]

[Interlude—First Meeting with the Glaze Fairy]

[Interlude—Crisis Within Loushan City]

The three images and three save files corresponded to three different story routes.

They were, respectively, the initial carriage opening, the save after killing the demonic cultivator at the inn, and the save after entering Loushan City.

Li Muyang naturally chose the third one. Then his vision went black, and it felt as though black tides had submerged his entire body.

The sensation of darkness lasted several seconds before the darkness around Li Muyang gradually receded.

He saw himself sitting in the carriage, with the Glaze Fairy and the Guide beside him, talking to each other.

The mission log in the upper-right corner of his vision updated.

[New Mission—Survive safely with the Glaze Fairy for ten minutes]

[09:59]

The countdown began again. This time, Li Muyang spoke directly to the Glaze Fairy.

"Fairy, something is wrong with the situation in the city."

As he warned the Glaze Fairy, Li Muyang shoved open the carriage door and leaped out, landing directly on the roof as he swept his gaze across the surroundings.

His previous death had come too suddenly, but Li Muyang felt that some enormous object had crashed into or crushed the carriage. That was why the three people inside had died so abruptly.

Now, standing atop the carriage and watching in all directions, Li Muyang remained alert for the coming attack, ready to activate Time Stop at any moment.

Inside the carriage, the Guide looked somewhat astonished.

"Something's wrong?" The Guide, with a green health bar over his head, lifted the carriage curtain and looked outside. "What happened out there?"

After the curtain was lifted, a faint fishy stench drifted through the air. Before them lay empty, desolate city streets.

Li Muyang stood atop the carriage with a frown, scanning the surroundings. He clearly knew that danger was about to strike, yet up until this moment, the city in his vision still appeared entirely normal.

He could not sense any danger whatsoever.

If he had to point out anything unusual, perhaps only the smell of blood in the air had grown a little stronger?

Li Muyang's gaze sharpened with vigilance.

The next second, a massive tremor suddenly struck the carriage without the slightest warning.

But this time, Li Muyang had prepared in advance. Though the attack was incomparably abrupt, he still successfully activated Time Stop the instant the tremor appeared.

In an instant, everything between heaven and earth lost its color, and all things became nothing but monotonous black and white.

Standing on the slanted roof of the carriage, Li Muyang saw in astonishment that within frozen time, some strange mist drifted through the air of Loushan City.

And within that mist, invisible to ordinary people, a huge, terrifying monster's head emerged, its gaping bloody maw blocking the path before the carriage.

Its savage mouth, filled with fangs, was at least five meters tall. It looked even larger than the carriage carrying the three of them.

The three people in the carriage now looked as if they were voluntarily delivering themselves into the monster's mouth.

The monster's two rows of incomparably sharp teeth were razor-sharp, nearly pressing against Li Muyang's face.

Seeing all this clearly, Li Muyang was so frightened by the horrifying sight that his heart nearly stopped.

—Where the hell did this monster come from? And why was it so huge?

He stared in shock at the gigantic monster that had emerged from the air, his understanding completely overturned.

This thing really came out of thin air?