Chapter 45: Taibai Restaurant, Chengdu

Even though it was also a Main City, Chengdu’s atmosphere and Lin’an were completely different—they were vastly different.

The number of Players in Chengdu City was one of the highest among the nine Main Cities. Even if you added together the lowest-ranked ones like Yinchuan and Northern Desert, they still wouldn’t have as many people as Chengdu alone.

Not only was this area densely populated in reality, but it also had to do with the Sichuan Region gathering many famous, righteous Sects.

Just Emei, known as the number one in Far Shore, attracted countless Players. Add to that Qingcheng and several branches of the Buddhist School, plus Wudang and Zhushan not being far away, Players had many Sects to choose from.

All these factors made Chengdu seem like it was becoming the top Main City.

This was Ye Rong’s first time in Chengdu, and the crowded, bustling streets surprised him. He guessed there were probably millions of Players here.

“Taibai Restaurant… yes, this is it.”

This restaurant was the meeting place Ye Rong and Haozi had agreed on. He sent Haozi a voice message—since they weren’t friends yet, he could only use the short-range voice chat; it wouldn’t work if they were too far apart.

“Have you arrived? Where are you?”

“Right below Taibai Restaurant, just like you said.”

“Wait there, I’ll be right out.”

Not long after, a man rushed out of Taibai Restaurant, looking around. Above his head floated the name “Haocheng,” which was Haozi’s in-game name.

“Haozi, over here!”

“A Rong?”

Neither of them had changed their appearance much; both looked about seventy to eighty percent like their real-life selves. They quickly confirmed each other’s identities and added each other as friends.

All the restaurants and eateries in Far Shore were run by the System. Rumor had it that in the future, Players might take over their management.

The various wines and delicacies tasted excellent, all made from purely natural ingredients. A table of dishes like this would cost at least tens of thousands in reality. In the game, it was just dozens of taels of silver—a sort of indirect sensory treat.

However, Taibai Restaurant didn’t have many customers at the moment. Dozens of taels of silver was still a very high cost for most Players. If Haozi hadn’t exchanged some real money for silver, he wouldn’t have been able to afford a place like this.

Taibai Restaurant was seven stories high. Besides the main hall on the first floor, the upper floors were divided into private rooms with different themes, catering to various customer needs. The private room Haozi had booked had a Jiangnan water-town ambiance, and there were already about seven or eight people seated inside.

Ye Rong didn’t know any of Haozi’s friends, so he wasn’t familiar with any of them. Haozi had to introduce them one by one. There were eight people in total—five guys and three girls, all around the same age.

Regardless of what they looked like in real life, all three girls in the game were quite attractive, each with her own unique charm.

When entering the game, Players could make minor adjustments to their figures and faces. Unless someone was hopelessly ugly or shockingly unattractive, they could turn themselves into a decent-looking beauty.

However, Ye Rong guessed that any girl who caught Haozi’s eye probably had good looks—Haozi’s standards were pretty high.

All nine people, including Haozi, wanted to join Emei, except for one called Unbreakable Egg. This guy had actually thrown a bun to a beggar back in the Starter Village and got forcibly taken as a disciple by that beggar.

Only then did he find out that the beggar was Poor God Ling Hun, founder of the Yunnan Sect.

The Yunnan Sect didn’t recruit Players on a large scale like regular Sects, nor did it take only a handful of disciples like some hidden or overseas Rogue Cultivators, who required great luck to join. The Yunnan Sect was a small Sect, and altogether it probably recruited a few hundred Players—not too many, not too few, somewhere in the middle.

Although the Sect was a bit weaker, Poor God Ling Hun was a big shot in Far Shore, a Legendary Grade NPC close to level 200.

Unbreakable Egg being directly taken as a disciple by the weird beggar meant his luck was incredibly good, almost as good as Ye Rong’s.

“In the future, I’ll be a beggar in Qingluo Valley. What’s so great about that? I still want to join Emei.”

Egg himself didn’t seem very excited. It was said his original dream was to become a disciple of the Emei Sect Leader’s wife, Xun Lanyin, who Players on the Forum called Far Shore’s number one mature beauty. Going from a charming, alluring, and graceful beauty to a weird beggar was a huge drop—no wonder he still looked unhappy.

Every time Haozi brought it up at the table, everyone teased Unbreakable Egg about it.

“Yijian, Haozi said you joined Qingcheng?”

Luoluo Qingying, the oldest of the three girls, asked Ye Rong. Her eyes were dark and bright, captivating and charming when she glanced around.

“Yes, I thought Qingcheng’s Taoist arts suited my personality best, so I chose it.”

“That’s a real shame. Even though they’re both in the Sichuan area, you gave up Emei and picked second-rate Qingcheng. Emei’s Purple Mansion Elixir Book has twenty-eight levels, but Qingcheng Qi Refining Method only has twenty. The basic cultivation methods alone have an eight-level gap, not to mention other aspects.”

The man who spoke had a sour tone, strongly putting down Qingcheng and praising Emei, which Ye Rong found amusing.

This guy didn’t have any outstanding traits; he was just an ordinary guy. Ye Rong had already forgotten the name Haozi introduced him with, so in his mind, he just called him “some guy.”

It was clear that “some guy” had a crush on Luoluo Qingying, probably pursuing her in real life too. Seeing her talk to Ye Rong, jealousy flared up, and he couldn’t help but make a few bitter remarks.

Emei did have some advantages over Qingcheng, at least in the early game, but not because of the small gap in basic cultivation methods. It was the Thirteen Left Yuan Trials and the fire trial that greatly improved the overall quality of Emei Players—something Qingcheng couldn’t match.

As for the late game, during the Closed Beta, even with ten times the experience, the highest-level Players only just reached a little over level 100, and the information they accessed was limited.

Plus, who knew if the game company had made adjustments in certain areas since the Open Beta Test.

Anyway, this guy wasn’t even a Registered Disciple of Emei yet, but he was already looking down on Qingcheng from an Emei Player’s perspective, which made Ye Rong both amused and exasperated. Emei was famous, had the most Players choosing it, and had the most top Players from the Closed Beta. The competition inside Emei was obviously fierce.

For an ordinary Player to stand out in Emei, they’d need strength far above average and a lot of luck.

But out of respect for Haozi, Ye Rong naturally wouldn’t be so rude as to argue with a random nobody like this. He just smiled lightly and didn’t take it to heart.