Chapter 20: Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit

Ye Rong logged off and ordered a bowl of scallion beef noodles to fill his stomach. He practiced a set of fist techniques to restore his body to its best condition.

Using the Light Brain for a long time, even though there were subtle electric currents stimulating his muscle cells, over time his body would still weaken. Many professional players had frail bodies and weak arms, paying a great price for the game.

Ye Rong did not want to ruin his health, so he insisted on practicing fist techniques every morning and evening. This was enough to maintain a strong physique and didn’t take much time.

In the 22nd century, after technological development hit a bottleneck, humans began pursuing individual strength again. Various forms of combat and martial arts became popular worldwide, and dojos and martial arts schools could often be seen on the streets.

During his university years, Ye Rong was quite passionate about this and had not let his skills decline much over the years.

His set of Five Forms Fist was not enough to make him a master, but he could handle two or three ordinary strong men with effort.

He logged into the game. On the Shadow Slope summit were several ancient trees with trunks over ten feet around, their dense, overlapping branches blocking out the sky. Some moonlight spilled through the leaves, dotting the hard soil of the slope and illuminating the steep rocks.

It was silent, except for the rustling of leaves when the mountain wind blew, making the atmosphere eerie and mysterious.

In Far Shore, there was no warehouse. The game company explained that it didn’t fit the xianxia world setting—only after entering a Main City and buying a property to store items, or after joining a Sect, would players have personal housing to store whatever they wanted.

Even property or Sect housing wasn’t completely safe. If a Player broke into your property or attacked your Sect, your items could be stolen. However, the Main City had many guards above level 100 who weren’t just for show; trespassing into someone’s home was considered a violation and would result in immediate execution. As for attacking a Sect, not to mention the hundreds of levels of NPC experts, just the countless Restrictions and Dao Spells outside the Sect could kill any Player with such ideas. It was unknown if anyone would see Players capturing a Sect in three to five years of the game’s operation.

Ye Rong carefully avoided the wandering Mountain Ghosts. On the Shadow Slope summit, there was actually a cave, only about half a person’s height and pitch-black inside.

Should he go in or not?

After only a moment of hesitation, Ye Rong bent down and crawled into the cave.

Playing a game while being overly cautious and hesitant wouldn’t lead to success. Moreover, his experience and skills couldn’t compare to Closed Beta veterans, and he had no guild backing him. If he followed a safe, step-by-step leveling approach, standing out would be too difficult.

Bent over and crawling on hands and feet, he moved forward awkwardly for about seven or eight steps. Then the cave widened and brightened, and the ceiling was no longer so low. It could now accommodate Shen Fan walking normally without crouching, and three or four people could stand side by side.

The winding paths almost made Ye Rong dizzy, and he nearly forgot the way he came.

He walked all the way to the end without encountering a single monster, which surprised him. Could the designers have placed this cave here just for fun?

At the end was a stone wall, smooth as a mirror, reflecting his image. Ye Rong stood in front of it and saw his own reflection.

He ran his fingers over it, not missing even the corners, still unwilling to give up, hoping to find some hidden secret.

“Huh? There’s a mechanism here!”

Perseverance paid off. Ye Rong actually found a slightly raised odd spot. He pushed the stone hard, and it had a slight wobble. After trying four or five times to pull it out, he finally succeeded in removing the stone slab.

Behind the stone wall, it was hollow. Among the jagged rocks were several Dao Scrolls, though the writing on them was unclear.

Ye Rong’s heart beat fast. These were Dao Scrolls! Before joining a Sect, Players had no legitimate way to obtain them. Once he learned from the Dao Scrolls, he would gain incredible powers ahead of others, and leveling up quickly would no longer be an impossible dream.

A high-quality Dao Scroll was even more valuable than many high-level Flying Swords or Magic Treasures, as it directly affected a Player’s core strength.

Even after joining a Sect, players only received basic heart techniques and Sword Art Forms, which had limited power. Unless they made great contributions to the Sect, it was hard to obtain advanced techniques.

A top-tier technique, besides boosting high attributes and having many layers to cultivate, needed to include highly practical Derived Dao Arts. More importantly, it had to suit the player personally, allowing them to unleash its full potential in combination.

Shen Fan reached for the Dao Scrolls but was bounced back with a thud. A gray barrier appeared between him and the scrolls.

It was an elastic membrane that only became visible after Ye Rong bumped into it, and with a “wah” sound, it formed a fierce ghost face.

“Damn, that’s seriously scary!”

Ye Rong’s heart jumped. The game designers had such a twisted sense of humor, playing tricks on players even in places like this.

The ghost face membrane blocked him from the Dao Scrolls. Without destroying it, he couldn’t get the scrolls. Regardless of what unpredictable consequences breaking the gray membrane might bring, Ye Rong raised his Peach Wood Sword and stabbed at it.

Sizzle!

It sounded like a red-hot iron rod being plunged into cold water, bubbling and hissing. The fierce ghost face showed an expression of pain.

System Notification: You have attacked the Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit. Mountain Ghosts within a ten-mile radius will hunt you down relentlessly until you leave the Shadow Slope area.

Ye Rong faintly heard waves of furious roars, probably from the Mountain Ghosts outside the cave rushing toward him.

On the gray membrane, a line of text appeared, giving a rare hint—

Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit, special living-type Restriction, Health Points 198/200.

Countless Mountain Ghosts were swarming outside. Though nervous, Ye Rong kept his hands steady, repeatedly stabbing the Peach Wood Sword into the Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit.

This strange thing had unknown defense; each stab only dealt one point of damage. Fortunately, a light gray “-1” damage number floated up each time, thanks to the Peach Wood Sword’s +1 damage against evil spirits and ghosts.

Originally, it would take two hundred stabs to kill the Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit, and even trying his hardest, he wouldn’t get the Dao Scrolls before the Mountain Ghosts broke in. But with the Peach Wood Sword, his efficiency doubled; he only needed a hundred stabs. Taking the risk, there was still a slim chance of success.

As for how to escape the cave surrounded by hundreds of Mountain Ghosts even if he got the Dao Scrolls, Ye Rong had no time to think about that now.

All he thought about and did was to make his sword move faster, even faster!