Chapter 19: Black Dog Nail, Emei’s Top Disciple

Ye Rong put on all the new equipment he had just acquired. His True Qi value had already reached 270 points.

Now everything was ready, and he could head to the Shadow Slope where the Mountain Ghosts were at any time.

Mountain Ghost, a Level 10 monster, female form, blue face, holding a cassia branch.

Possessed the spell Mountain Strength Smash. For the next three attacks, it increased Strength by 8 points and Damage by 6/10 points, Strength by 8 points and Damage by 8/12 points, and Strength by 10 points and Damage by 10 points respectively.

Ye Rong only targeted lone Mountain Ghosts at the edge of the Shadow Slope. If three or four Mountain Ghosts surrounded him, he worried he wouldn’t even have time to restore his health.

The Mountain Strength Smash spell was too fierce. For low-level players, Ye Rong’s innate Strength attribute was considered decent, reaching 18 points. But when hit by a Mountain Ghost using Mountain Strength Smash, he would stagger backward, his palms going numb, and he could barely hold his Peach Wood Sword.

If a player with a lower innate Strength attribute came, one hit could make them drop their weapon.

However, such basic spells that simply boosted Strength and Damage existed in every Sect. They were the lowest-level spells you could learn as soon as you joined a Sect and were nothing special.

Qingcheng’s Five Peaks spells had similar effects, offering temporary boosts corresponding to different attributes.

Lone Mountain Ghosts were hard to find. Even at the edges, they often gathered in groups of two or three. Ye Rong also had to consider that fighting might attract nearby Mountain Ghosts, so he had to make sure there were no other Mountain Ghosts within a certain range nearby.

Ye Rong finally found a Mountain Ghost that met his requirements. He slapped the Black Dog Nail and pinned it onto the Mountain Ghost.

-20, -20, -20. Continuous, steady damage numbers floated above the Mountain Ghost’s head. Ye Rong grinned like a blooming flower and made a light leap, dodging the Mountain Ghost’s attack. The thin cassia branch struck the ground, leaving shallow pits and raising dust.

But that was all. The Mountain Ghost had very limited health and couldn’t last ten seconds under the Black Dog Nail. Ye Rong didn’t need to use any other methods.

System: Killed Level 10 Mountain Ghost. Gained 420 Experience Points.

Ye Rong glanced at his True Qi; he still had about 180 points. After killing two more Mountain Ghosts, he would need to meditate to restore his True Qi value.

With the Blue Field Pearl, he could greatly shorten this step.

With ideal equipment and the right leveling plan, gaining Experience Points was that simple and fast. Ye Rong spent the entire morning on the Shadow Slope. Except for one time when he was careless and surrounded by four Mountain Ghosts, forcing him to use one Blood Restoration Pill, everything else went smoothly.

However, the highly valuable Mountain Goblin Token only dropped twice in half a day. It truly was a rare item with a drop rate of less than one in a thousand.

Ye Rong’s drop rate was actually quite lucky. Some unlucky players might not see a single Mountain Goblin Token all day.

Far Shore now had nearly 30 million players. On average, each Starter Village only had about 3,000 players, and not all of them were online at the same time. There weren’t many players bold enough to challenge high-level monsters like Mountain Ghosts. Even organized teams preferred to deal with Black Wind Leopards of the same level—Black Wind Leopards had better overall attributes but no spells, making them much easier to handle.

Ye Rong’s leveling speed was almost like a rocket. By evening, close to dinner time, he was already at Level 12 with 74% Experience.

This leveling speed, if posted on the Forum, would definitely make other players call him “cheater” or “hacker.” But in his own view, there was still much room for improvement. As his level increased, if he kept killing monsters like Mountain Ghosts, he definitely wouldn’t maintain his current efficiency.

An hour earlier, the System had announced worldwide three times that Xuan Yuan Tianxia had successfully joined Emei, becoming the first player in all of Far Shore to become a Formal Disciple of a Sect. This news was extremely shocking. Ye Rong immediately logged onto the Forum to see if there was any insider information.

Xuan Yuan Tianxia was already Level 14 yesterday, so reaching Level 15 now was normal. But the fact that he could join Emei in such a short time shocked everyone, especially those who had participated in the Closed Beta. They truly understood what it meant to become a Sect disciple in such a short time.

Ye Rong browsed over 200 related posts on the Forum and finally found one that was truly valuable.

This post included more than ten players with Closed Beta experience, all expressing their disbelief at how quickly Xuan Yuan Tianxia managed to join Emei. Joining a Sect was by no means simple or ordinary; it couldn’t be achieved overnight. The difficult and lengthy Trial Mission was enough to eliminate a large number of unqualified players. It was like that during the Closed Beta, and even more so during the Open Beta Test. At most, only one-tenth of players could become Sect disciples in a short time.

Moreover, although Xuan Yuan Tianxia was the boss of the Xuan Yuan Studio, he wasn’t considered a top-tier force in the professional player circle and only performed average during the Closed Beta. Now, at the start of the Open Beta Test, he became the game’s top player. It could only be described as incredibly lucky.

Emei could almost be considered the top Sect in Far Shore—even though Shengfeng Company always claimed the game was fair and all Sects had the same development potential. In reality, based on Closed Beta experience, Emei had the most players, and both the number and proportion of top players it produced far exceeded those of other Sects.

Not to mention the powerful attributes of the Purple Mansion Divine Thunder, a derivative spell of Emei’s Qi Refining Art, just the Thirteen Left Yuan Trials and the Right Yuan Fire Abode were treasure troves with endless potential for internal development, allowing Emei disciples to grow quickly through the rewards obtained from them.

In the official website poll, over 40% of players chose to hope to join Emei.

Putting aside that incredibly lucky guy Xuan Yuan Tianxia, Ye Rong’s thoughts returned to himself. Without any special circumstances, it would take him at least another day and a half to reach Level 15. As for the quest to hunt the Great Water Turtle, he could take it or leave it, since he already had the Earth God Soil in hand.

In Ye Rong’s eyes, the Mountain Ghosts on the Shadow Slope had all turned into bright, shiny Experience Points. He wished he had a mass-destruction spell to wipe out all the monsters at once; that would probably level him up directly.

The Black Dog Nail was indeed very useful, but for Ye Rong with his high demands, killing Mountain Ghosts one by one was still too slow.

Without realizing it, Ye Rong’s Mountain Ghost hunting spot had moved from the edge to the mountainside of the Shadow Slope.

He looked up toward the top of the Shadow Slope, where a few straight tree trunks stood faintly visible. Ye Rong took a deep breath and decided to take a risk, climbing to the highest point to take a look—this was actually a very bold decision. Besides the Magic Treasures and equipment on him, the Third-Grade Immortal Weapon Taixuan Ice Soul Sword was also in his Universe Pouch.

If he died, there was a risk that items would drop and be lost.