After Reaching Max Level

"After Reaching Max Level in a Cultivation Game" by Wen Mang [Complete, with side stories]

Synopsis:

'Pay no heed to schemes and treachery, feel nothing for the strong devouring the weak.

Simply drink a cup of tea and watch the wind and moon with a smile.'

This was a xianxia story without hostility.

This was the story of a max-level big shot who watched the mortal world with a smile and taught some students along the way.

(A xianxia story set entirely in another world, not a xianxia game. Don't be misled by the title or category. Story-focused.)

Volume One: The Forest Keeper

Chapter 1: After Reaching Max Level

Thunder rumbled low and muffled, crashing down from above the dark clouds.

The night rain was light, falling in fine, continuous strands. Looking at the willow branches beside him, new shoots dotted with green, Ye Fu couldn't help wondering how a willow could possibly be putting out shoots in September.

He stood there for a long time, his head still muddled, unable to make much sense of the situation. Though the rain wasn't heavy, it had soaked him through.

He drew a deep breath and let it out. In the lingering cold, his breath condensed into mist, then quickly dissipated. A gust of wind rustled the willow. Only then did he come to his senses. He raised a sleeve over his forehead and ran toward the dilapidated mountain god temple ahead.

His slippers slapped the ground, splashing muddy water that coated the ill-suited footwear. He was still wearing slippers.

Who would come running outside in slippers in the middle of the night, while it was raining?

Nobody, of course!

Ye Fu didn't understand why he was here, so naturally he didn't understand why he had done something so strange, either.

"Wasn't I just playing a game? Did I fall asleep and start dreaming?"

He could distinctly feel the icy rain soaking into his pores and the awkward friction of mud and sand coating his slippers. The sensations were too real, so real that this didn't feel like a dream at all. Most importantly, he was seeing everything from a first-person perspective. All of this made him realize clearly that this wasn't a dream. As everyone knew, dreams were in third person.

Sleepwalking? Kidnapping? A prank? The Truman Show? A typhoon? An earthquake? The end of the world? Abduction by aliens...

One thought after another flashed through his head.

The instant he stepped into the ruined temple, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck, scattering and vaporizing countless raindrops and lighting up the night. Ye Fu saw a damp swallow's nest collapse from a crumbling beam in the temple and smash to pieces on the ground, scattering clods of mud, dry thatch, and twigs everywhere. Several fledgling swallows chirped in panic among the scattered straw.

He paused briefly and pushed the pile of straw beneath the ruined temple's slanting, sagging door. The rain couldn't reach it there. If they weren't soaked by the rain, perhaps they still had a chance of survival.

He looked farther into the temple. It was thoroughly ruined. Several beams had collapsed at crooked angles, and the statue and incense altar were covered in damp dust. Meditation cushions lay about every which way, and an incense burner looked like carelessly discarded trash. Perhaps no one had been here for a long time, Ye Fu thought.

Cracks riddled the roof, and rain dripped through, wetting most of the interior. Ye Fu searched around and found a dry spot on the sheltered platform behind the statue.

He brushed away the dust and sat down, looking somewhat dejected, and began to think about what had happened.

His memories turned, and he recalled what had happened earlier.

"First, I put a pot of chicken soup on to simmer, and while it was cooking, I played a little cultivation game for a while. As it happened, just as I reached max level and cleared the game, my chicken soup was almost ready too. Then... what did I do after that?"

After sorting through his thoughts for a long time, Ye Fu suddenly realized that, at the very instant he had stood up from the computer, he seemed to have heard a muffled peal of thunder. After that, he had found himself here.

"Was I struck dead by lightning!?"

"No way!"

Ye Fu managed with difficulty to look himself over. There wasn't a single scorch mark on him; even his clothes and shoes were the same ones he had been wearing before. He truly found his current predicament somewhat hard to accept. It was too baffling, too absurd. He was a man who followed a peaceful way of life to his core, and he found it hard to take this farce of a situation to heart at all.

Having managed to watch a few transmigration dramas, he could only conclude that he had transmigrated.

"But isn't transmigration supposed to be for people born at the wrong time, whose talents go unrecognized, and whose lives aren't going well? My life was going well, and I wasn't lacking anything. It was ordinary and comfortable. Why should I be the one to transmigrate? I'm just a law-abiding citizen nearing thirty..."

This was nothing short of a farce!

I want to go back. That was Ye Fu's only thought. He had no desire to start a new life, nor did he want to change anything.

He stood up without thinking, and suddenly his vision went black and green. His head felt as though it had been filled with lead, and something seemed to be rushing into it without stopping. It felt just like a person with low blood sugar suddenly standing up after squatting for too long. His consciousness felt detached, and in his daze he couldn't distinguish reality.

He also thought the dizziness was caused by low blood sugar, but the sensation persisted instead of fading after a few breaths as it would with low blood sugar.

Fortunately, he was a relatively calm person. Without panicking, he sank back down against the damaged statue.

A fierce bolt of lightning flashed outside, followed by rolling, muffled thunder.

Ye Fu's vision was somewhat blurred and his consciousness a little hazy, but he could still hear.

The rain outside was growing heavier, and the wind was picking up.

Squish!

A sound like a foot stepping into a muddy puddle rang out.

Then.

Squish! Squish! Squish-

The quick, continuous sounds drew closer and closer. Ye Fu looked up, but because his vision was dim and blurry, he couldn't quite make out what was happening outside. His hearing, however, had become exceptionally sharp.

Then he heard the sound enter the temple.

Something's here! Ye Fu gripped the statue's remaining half arm. When he tightened his grip, the part he was holding crumbled to pieces. He couldn't help freezing for a moment. Is this statue really so shoddily made? Breaking the statue's arm had made a sound.

"Who's there!" a hurried, tense voice called out.