One Sword Severed the Waters, Ten Thousand Rivers Ran Dry

Blue Star, Ku Rong City, Storm Shadow Club.

"Xiao Zhen, what was going on with you today?" The crew-cut young man in a blue-and-white high-collared jacket looked at Fang Zhen as he stepped out of the virtual pod, his expression somewhat grim. "You were pale, and even during training you were distracted. You couldn't coordinate with the others."

"Don't tell me that lately..."

"You've been playing some game you shouldn't have?"

In this age of virtual game explosion, there were all kinds of virtual games. It could even be said that there was nothing you could imagine that didn't exist—only things you had never imagined.

"Captain Li, I haven't. I just stayed up too late, that's all." Seeing the crew-cut young man's unpleasant expression, Fang Zhen hurriedly explained.

Though Li Ranxing was not very old and would only turn twenty-two by the end of this year, he had been hired by Storm Shadow Club at a high price to serve as the team captain.

With Li Ranxing's arrival, the Storm Shadow team had gone from being unable to qualify for Mecha Continent's national tournament to directly reaching the national top thirty-two. In the individual competition, he had even achieved the excellent result of sixth place.

For this year's Mecha Continent National Tournament, Li Ranxing was brimming with ambition. In this year's individual tour circuit, he had won three and lost one, defeating last year's third-place finisher, Blood Flame Spear Princess Chen Ya.

So this year, Li Ranxing planned to lead the Storm Shadow team in a charge for the national top eight. During this period, they had been training like mad, from eight in the morning until six at night. Li Ranxing was even harsher on himself, training from eight in the morning until midnight. Other than sleeping, he constantly honed his mecha skills like a madman.

"Staying up late?" Li Ranxing asked, puzzled. "What were you doing in the dead of night instead of resting?"

"Doing squats and digging holes," Fang Zhen said awkwardly.

He had livestreamed High Martial Descent from seven-thirty the previous evening until three in the morning before finally obtaining the training method. After nearly another hour of fumbling around, he had learned how to log out of High Martial Descent.

Sleep!

Twilight of the Gods had come up with this method. Since death could make players leave the High Martial world, then sleep, the thing closest to death, was very likely the way to log out.

After several trials, the three of them had confirmed that both sleep and unconsciousness could let players log out. However, their bodies would not disappear after logging out and would remain behind, so they had to find a safe place before doing so. Otherwise, if the body died, the player would still be considered dead.

The High Martial world was extremely dangerous. Even within the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, there were many areas tainted by radiation. To log out safely, they could only spend Martial Hall Points to rent a resting spot in the safe zone.

"That damned Dojo Master! It was just sleeping on a rotten plank, and he actually charged me 2 points!"

Thinking about how he had died twice last night just to earn 2 points, wasted two 648s, and worked until after seven in the morning before washing up and rushing straight to the club for training, Fang Zhen felt like he had been driven to the brink.

Someone would surely ask at this point: wouldn't it be simpler just to die and resurrect the next time they logged in? But if something delayed them and they failed to resurrect within twenty-four hours, the account would be deleted. By then, they would not even be able to play if they wanted to.

"Squats? Digging holes?" Li Ranxing felt as though his brain could not keep up. He could not understand when Fang Zhen, this veteran player, had developed such a hobby. He then reminded him, "It's a good thing at your age to want to exercise, but be more careful usually. Next week is the scrimmage. If you perform poorly, it'll be hard for me to speak up for you with the coach."

"Thank you, Captain Li. I'll be more careful next time," Fang Zhen said gratefully.

In the team training room, after Fang Zhen, the veteran player, left, a new player who had only recently joined Storm Shadow walked over to Li Ranxing, his gaze full of confusion.

"Captain Li, didn't the coach say that next week's scrimmage would be Brother Fang's last match?"

"Some things are better left unknown. It's his last match either way. Leaving more easily is better than becoming a joke."

"Oh. Then, Captain Li, will your match against Chen Ya be affected?"

"You brat haven't had any matches lately. Are you too idle? You're staying with me for extra training until twelve tonight!"

Fang Zhen's livestream began punctually at seven-thirty.

"Why are there so many people?" Fang Zhen rubbed his eyes as he looked at the number of viewers in the backend.

265876 people!

This viewer count was absolutely the peak of Fang Zhen's entire livestreaming career, more than ten times his usual numbers. His popularity had shot straight to first place on the game rankings.

"Brother Zhen, you finally made it. My big blade has been waiting so long it's about to lose patience."

"Brother Zhen! Ever since watching your stream yesterday, I finally realized that my hobby is watching people do squats and dig holes."

"Damn! The guy above has some heavy tastes. Am I really the only one who came to see the goddess?"

"Oh my god! When I saw Wu Shang yesterday, I could hardly believe my eyes. She's one of Pilgrimage's Ten Great Sword Saints—Luo Wu Shang, whose one sword severs the waters and leaves ten thousand rivers dry. Her real appearance is even more beautiful than in Pilgrimage. I even washed my eyes before coming today. Streamer, you understand."

The viewers in the livestream completely erupted upon seeing Fang Zhen go live.

"So this was the celebrity effect?"

Looking at the discussions among the livestream viewers, Fang Zhen did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Pilgrimage's status in the virtual gaming world needed no explanation. Mecha Continent could not compare at all. And Sword Saint was one of Pilgrimage's highest titles. Ordinary players could never even meet such peerless experts, and those experts disdained livestreaming. After all, simply joining any first-rate Pilgrimage guild would grant them treatment that even top professional players could only dream of.

Now that Luo Wu Shang of Pilgrimage, a living breathing person, could appear in the livestream, it was only natural that many players who admired her would flock over from Pilgrimage.

"Fine, I'll fulfill everyone's wish today."

Fang Zhen did not waste any more time. He directly tapped High Martial Descent and entered the game.

City of Light Chasing, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

"Dojo Master, is there something you need?" Fang Zhen rose to his feet and looked in surprise at Lin Qi standing outside the door with a small notebook in hand. Lin Qi's gaze made him seem as though he had spotted a fat sheep.

"Nothing. I just came to see whether you were training." Lin Qi carefully examined Fang Zhen, then looked at his notebook again, his heart filled with doubt. Did I record it wrong before?

Player Fang Zhen, age 29. Tested physical attributes: strength 77.4 kilograms, speed 7.4 meters per second.

Though the increase was slight, Fang Zhen's strength had risen by 1.4 kilograms, and his speed had also increased by 0.1 meters per second.

"Could inhaling poisonous gas also help one grow?"

Watching Fang Zhen get up to dig holes, Lin Qi could not help analyzing what Fang Zhen had done differently from the other two yesterday.

When Twilight of the Gods and Wu Shang logged in today, their physical data had not changed at all. But Fang Zhen was different, clearly differing from the data Lin Qi had previously recorded in his notebook.

Though the numerical increase was small, if it kept rising at this rate, Fang Zhen would not need many days to advance from kindergarten to elementary school.

If outsiders learned of such progress, they would probably capture Fang Zhen for research—the kind with a very expensive research fee. After all, rising from the kindergarten group to elementary school in just a few days was something countless parents in City of Light Chasing wished for.

And the greatest difference between Fang Zhen and the other two was that he had inhaled far more poisonous gas.

Yesterday, Twilight of the Gods and Wu Shang had each only been poisoned to death once. Only Fang Zhen had been poisoned to death four times. He had even inhaled it with great enthusiasm, remaining in high-intensity motion almost nonstop.

However, just as Lin Qi was planning to have Fang Zhen inhale some more, a system notification suddenly sounded in his ear.

System: Congratulations. The number of reservations for the Martial Transmission System has exceeded ten thousand. Reward: Level 1 Merit-Based Admission Privilege.