Chapter 21: Chongxu True Scripture

The roars in his ears were getting closer, and the Mountain Ghosts’ hurried footsteps were just behind him. Ye Rong’s hands kept moving. The Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit still had over 50 Health Points left.

-37, -33!

Two damage numbers popped up. Two Mountain Ghosts had already reached his back, and their osmanthus branches struck his back hard.

Ye Rong ignored it, swallowed a Blood Restoration Pill, and focused on swinging his Peach Wood Sword fiercely.

Smack, smack, smack! Ye Rong’s body was whipped until flesh and blood splattered. Even though he had set the pain simulation to the lowest level, sharp pains still shot through his head. Some people said that to truly immerse yourself in the game and experience its essence, you should set the pain simulation to the highest level.

Ye Rong always scoffed at that idea. He was here to play the game, not to be tortured by it.

In just a short while, more than ten Mountain Ghosts had gathered behind Ye Rong. Luckily, the rock wall was somewhat concave, so only three Mountain Ghosts could attack him at once. Otherwise, he would have been killed instantly.

Swallowing his last Blood Restoration Pill, Ye Rong ignored his steadily decreasing Health Points and stared intently at the Mountain Ghost Ancestral Spirit.

Its fierce ghost face now looked weak and pale. As Ye Rong thrust his sword down with all his might, it finally made a sound like a bursting balloon and scattered with a pop.

Ye Rong reached out and grabbed the Dao Scrolls. At the same time, he took out the yellowed page, the Small Teleportation Cloud Talisman, that he had obtained from Murong Dashan and chose to use it.

Whoosh!

Ye Rong’s figure suddenly vanished from the spot. Several osmanthus branches struck down, hitting only the hard rock wall and air, sending a few small stones flying.

Twenty meters away, the light blurred, and Ye Rong’s figure gradually appeared. He staggered, stuffed the Dao Scrolls into his Universe Pouch, and ran forward desperately.

The group of Mountain Ghosts behind him only then realized that the villain who had killed their Ancestral Spirit had suddenly changed position. Their simple minds couldn’t understand how, but that didn’t stop them from waving their osmanthus branches and continuing to chase Ye Rong after a furious roar.

Ye Rong ran frantically for a bit, then ducked and crawled into a cave, scrambling awkwardly on his hands and feet.

He took a quick look back and saw that the Mountain Ghosts were surprisingly fast. They also shrank their bodies and squeezed into the cave, and they seemed even more agile than Ye Rong.

The teleportation location for the Small Teleportation Cloud Talisman had to be within his line of sight, or the teleportation would fail. Ye Rong gritted his teeth and used the talisman again, teleporting to the end of the bend. Although the Small Teleportation Cloud Talisman was precious, its true value lay in its ability to teleport a five-person team at once. Using it alone was a big waste, but Ye Rong couldn’t worry about that now.

This teleportation only moved him forward about ten meters, but crawling in the low cave was extremely difficult, so it created enough distance between him and the Mountain Ghosts.

After tumbling and bumping his way through, Ye Rong finally rushed out of the cave. He glanced at his Health Points—only 14 Qi and Blood remained.

If he had been just 0.1 seconds slower back at the rock wall or hesitated for a moment when using the Small Teleportation Cloud Talisman, he would have died there and never escaped.

“Bye!”

Ye Rong turned and waved at the Mountain Ghosts in the cave, then jogged away from Shadow Slope. He ran all the way back to the Starter Village, found a bamboo pavilion, and plopped down.

After using the Small Teleportation Cloud Talisman twice, it now showed 1/3 uses remaining.

Thinking about the close call, his heart was still racing. It had been a narrow escape—a tiny misstep would have cost him his life.

“Let’s see what kind of Dao Scrolls I got at such a great cost.”

There were three Dao Scrolls in total from the rock wall, all part of a set. They were Chongxu True Scripture, Qian Volume First Scroll, Qian Volume Second Scroll, and Qian Volume Fifth Scroll.

Chongxu True Scripture had two volumes, Qian and Kun, with twelve scrolls in total. It was a secret Daoist tradition, and mastering it granted the power to move mountains and fill seas, melt metal and dissolve iron, making nothing able to withstand it.

“This Dao Scroll is split into twelve parts? Who knows when I’ll be able to collect them all. The description is so vague too—no specific stats, so I don’t even know how powerful it really is.”

Ye Rong stared at the Chongxu True Scripture in his hand, feeling frustrated. He had no idea what tier of Dao Scroll he had obtained.

It wasn’t always better to learn more Dao Scrolls. Knowing ten techniques at level one or two was far worse than mastering one technique to level five. However, this Chongxu True Scripture, whose origins and uses were unknown, required the corresponding Dao Scroll for each level to practice, which was quite rare. From this alone, it probably wasn’t some common, low-tier item.

Ye Rong stopped overthinking it. He directly picked up the Chongxu True Scripture, Qian Volume First Scroll, and smacked it. The Dao Scroll turned into a white light and entered his body.

His character stats panel immediately displayed a new line of information—

Chongxu True Scripture Level 1. Required Experience Points to master: 100,000. Level 1 increases Sword Flight attack power by 10% and comes with the Dao Spell Chongxu Sword Qi. Chongxu Sword Qi condenses Qi into a finger sword, with an attack range of 150 meters, attack power 180–220, a chance to ignore defensive spells, cooldown ten minutes.

Awesome! So awesome! This is a huge win!

Ye Rong’s mind was filled with excitement. Even his breathing became rapid. Even though he didn’t know much about Dao Scrolls, he could tell that having an attached Dao Spell at Level 1 meant it was no ordinary item.

Take the Qingcheng Qi Refining Method, for example. The official website only stated that each level increased Qi and Blood and True Qi slightly. Only after reaching certain levels would derived spells appear.

Chongxu Sword Qi’s attack power wasn’t that strong, but its range was huge, and it didn’t consume any True Qi. Overall, it was a pretty good Dao Spell.

But when Ye Rong saw the 100,000 Experience Points needed to master the Chongxu True Scripture, all his excitement vanished.

100,000—that was 100,000 Experience Points! That was twice the amount he needed to level up right now!

The amount of Experience Points allocated to Dao Scroll cultivation was decided by the Player himself. For example, Ye Rong’s current default Experience Distribution was 99:1—99 for his own Level and 1 for the Dao Scroll. Before Level 50, a Player could only cultivate one Dao Scroll. After Level 50, they could cultivate two simultaneously, and after Level 100, three, and so on.

Ye Rong frustratingly realized that even though he had obtained the Chongxu True Scripture and this Dao Spell was very powerful, it wouldn’t help his leveling plans in the short term. He could only sigh regretfully.

Time to go back to hunting Mountain Ghosts honestly. His hopes of leveling up in a leap were dashed; he could only make up for it through hard work.