Chapter 182: The First Loss, Timely Exchange

Ye Rong took off the Mind Link Connector, his eyes still a bit dizzy, and a buzzing sound rang in his head, not recovering immediately.

This was the first time he experienced being forcibly kicked out by the Light Brain instead of logging out of the game himself—it felt like being kicked hard in the mind, definitely not a comfortable experience.

“Haha, no matter what, I survived from the mouth of that Tuojiang Divine Turtle. It was really not easy!”

However, his joy did not last long; his face darkened as he thought of something.

Last update, some players encountered similar issues: while fighting a boss or being chased by others—basically at critical moments—the update suddenly happened. Some players protested, saying the game update cost them a lot, while those being chased secretly rejoiced, thinking they had escaped danger.

But when they logged in to check, they found nothing had changed. The scene before the update remained exactly the same afterward, completely unchanged.

“Shoot, was I happy for nothing? After the game update ends, will I still be chased by that Tuojiang Divine Turtle? If I don’t log in immediately and wait for two hours, I wonder what will happen. I better check the posts from the last update.”

Ye Rong logged into the Far Shore official website and found that this update would take six hours to complete.

“If a player does not log in immediately after the game update ends, the last scene will remain unchanged. In multi-player scenes, if a player logs in first, the scene will resume…”

He reviewed a large amount of data from the last update and realized that unless a kind-hearted person lured the Tuojiang Divine Turtle away, that big turtle would diligently guard his logout spot like guarding a corpse, refusing to leave easily.

“This update is so annoying! It got me all excited for nothing. After logging back in, I’ll still have to face that big turtle chasing me!”

Ye Rong went out, ordered a meal, devoured it quickly, and then took a shower.

He grabbed an alarm clock, set it for five and a half hours, and went straight to sleep.

He slept very soundly, fully recovering his lost stamina. When the alarm woke him, there were less than ten minutes left until the game update ended.

As usual, he logged into the official website to check the specific content of this game update but only found a line of large text: Please check your Player Log after logging in for detailed information.

…

The hot topics on the forum still revolved endlessly around the Yellow Emperor’s Tomb. Perhaps because everyone was idle during the game update, the number of online forum users was especially high, and the reply count was also very large.

Ye Rong discovered that he was honored to be the main subject in two topics, one big and one small. However, one was about a mysterious figure being speculated and discussed, while the other, where his identity was revealed, attracted much less attention.

They were respectively: the mysterious man and woman who snatched the altar treasure after seizing the main gate, and the Qingcheng Top Disciple defeating Misty Rain Tower’s third-in-command, Haoshou Qiongjing.

The identity of the mysterious man and woman had become one of the hottest topics on the forum, with all sorts of strange guesses emerging, making Ye Rong himself chuckle.

In contrast, the topic about him killing Haoshou Qiongjing had noticeably fewer discussion posts and attracted much less attention.

Of course, this was also related to Haoshou Qiongjing’s Heavenly Ranking not being very high; otherwise, the discussion would have been much more heated.

Certainly, if it had been Long-Legged Lady who killed Haoshou Qiongjing in public, the discussion heat would have been different. Female players always received special treatment, especially rare beauty experts as scarce as national treasure pandas.

Although many Misty Rain Tower members witnessed Long-Legged Lady killing Haoshou Qiongjing in Taihu Lake, no one spread the news to avoid tarnishing their faction’s reputation.

So until now, it remained unknown, and Graceful Dream Butterfly’s name was also rarely known.

“Hmph, that pretty boy Haoshou Qiongjing was killed twice in a row. His prestige in Misty Rain Tower must have dropped a lot; maybe he can’t even keep his position as third-in-command. Still trying to cause trouble for me? I’ll show you my power!”

Ye Rong hummed a little tune proudly while browsing the posts. Next time the Heavenly Ranking was updated, he would definitely return to the list. It was a sure thing. He had only fallen off the Heavenly Ranking before due to too few battle records.

“But Haoshou Qiongjing knows that Dream Butterfly and I are together. We killed him once more, so he knows our strength. Could he suspect that the mysterious man and woman who took the altar treasure in the Yellow Emperor’s Tomb were us?”

This was something to guard against. Even if he hadn’t made the connection, purely out of spite, he might frame them with that title, which would be troublesome.

Snatching the altar treasure right under the watchful eyes of many factions was like slapping them in the face.

“Whatever! If that pretty boy really dares to do that, don’t blame me for going to Taihu Lake and stirring up Misty Rain Tower! It’s all water terrain anyway, which I’m very familiar with. I might not be a match for your big faction head-on, but if I strike secretly from the shadows, I can definitely cause you endless headaches and no peace!”

As soon as the update time arrived, Ye Rong immediately logged into the game, nervously widening his eyes without blinking.

“Damn!”

As the screen transitioned, the moment he appeared in the game, a huge dark shadow loomed over him. Countless water mines pressed in from all directions, exploding and churning the river, causing the water to surge back.

He only had time to flip the bird at the Tuojiang Divine Turtle before the immense force tore him to pieces. His consciousness blurred, and when he regained awareness, he was already at the Qingcheng Mountain Gate.

“You big turtle, just wait! Once the Green Emperor Alliance grows, I’ll use a human wave tactic first thing, chasing and killing you every day!”

The Substitute Paper Puppet he had just exchanged for was gone, and he lost 410 Lifespan points. His current remaining Lifespan was 590 points.

So unfair! A hundred-plus Level monster using such a big move to kill a little Qingcheng Disciple like him in the forties.

But thinking from another angle, it was good that Ye Rong had exchanged for the Substitute Paper Puppet in advance. Otherwise, dying once and losing any good equipment would have been unbearable.

“Learn from this, must learn from this. Never be careless again. With my current strength, I still can’t roam freely in the Tuojiang River Basin. There are at least ten bosses who can chase me around.”

He checked his equipment and the items in his Universe Pouch, making sure nothing was missing, and then felt relieved.

Death was death—consider it accumulating karma for the good luck I’ve had lately. My luck had indeed been unusually good recently.

He opened the Player Log and began reviewing the content of this update—this was the key focus now:

1. The Life Profession officially added the Appraiser role.

2. Dao Scrolls were now ranked by power, advancement potential, and practicality, following the example of Flying Swords and Magic Treasures, divided into Ninth Rank.

3. Added thirty-seven remote islands overseas and over a thousand NPCs for players to explore.

After reading, Ye Rong suddenly felt a sense of pride and arrogance, as if this update was largely triggered by him and Long-Legged Lady.

Among these three update points, without a doubt, the Appraiser held the most important position. As for the third point, it was just filler content—no need to stop the server; it could have been updated stealthily anytime without even notifying players.

“It seems that in the future, there will be another scramble among the big factions for Appraiser players. They’ll definitely become hot commodities in everyone’s eyes. I need to remind Pecking Chicken and the others: if there’s a chance, we must recruit a couple. I don’t want to become the full-time Appraiser for the Green Emperor Alliance.”

Ye Rong thought to himself, deciding to put this matter on the Green Emperor Alliance agenda as the most important talent acquisition plan. They would offer Appraisers very high member ranks and excellent benefits. If such talent appeared among existing Green Emperor Alliance members, even greater efforts would be made to retain them.

Now that Dao Scrolls also had ranks, their power was clear at a glance—no more guessing.

He couldn’t check the Dao Scrolls he had already learned, but he still had a few Dao Scrolls he hadn’t cultivated yet, so he took them out for comparison.

Water Lotus Scripture, Water Element Dao Technique, Sixth-Rank Dao Book, eighteen pages in total. After mastery, one could travel unimpeded through rivers, lakes, and seas, becoming one with water.

Bodhi Purifying Heart Mantra, Daoist Heart Scripture, Seventh-Rank Dao Book, thirteen layers in total. A powerful mantra of supreme Bodhi that can strengthen the Dao heart and solidify the primordial spirit. Frequent recitation leads to Dao Spell completion and communication with deities.

“Huh? The Bodhi Purifying Heart Mantra has fewer layers but a higher rank than the Water Lotus Scripture. Judging a Dao Book’s quality solely by layer count is really unreliable.”

However, both Dao Scrolls were considered very good, and Ye Rong’s luck was quite fortunate.

A Sixth-Rank Dao Book was already very high-level; even the Qingcheng Qi Refining Method might not reach this rank.

And Seventh-Rank Dao Books were among the best Dao Scrolls currently in Far Shore. He never expected this casually obtained loot, the Bodhi Purifying Heart Mantra, to have such high value. He had always seen it as unimportant and never intended to learn it.

“It seems both Dao Scrolls are worth cultivating. Of course, everyone’s Experience Points are limited. If I have to choose one, it would definitely be the Bodhi Purifying Heart Mantra!”

Ye Rong secretly made up his mind: when he had more Experience Points to spare, he would consider cultivating the Bodhi Purifying Heart Mantra.