Chapter 13

Xie Mengyun expressionlessly switched off her communicator, chopped down five peach blossom branches of a handy thickness, trimmed off the smaller twigs and leaves, and fashioned them into simple wooden swords for her practice.

【System】Peach Blossom Sword: Crafted by Liushui Raoshanzhou. An unprecedentedly shoddy wooden sword. Attack power: 0–1.

—Who gave you, a lousy system, the right to make fun of me?!”

Xie Mengyun spread her arms and legs, collapsing on the ground in a starfish position: “When on earth can I get out of here—”

“Where did that newbie female player disappear to?” Black Swan Knight squatted on the ground, scratching his head so frantically he seemed on the verge of going bald. As someone who had personally seen both Yun Feiyang and Xie Mengyun, he had collaborated with the guild’s artist to create portraits of them. Afterward, he personally led teams to patrol all major supply points and entry/exit routes in Luoyang City.

A whole day had passed, and they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her shadow T_T.

Adhering to the fine tradition of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, they held no real hope of capturing Yun Feiyang themselves. Instead, they settled for the next best thing: finding someone who seemed connected to him, just to let Yanlong Xisha vent her frustration temporarily. Recalling the scene when he encountered the two, Black Swan Knight roughly guessed that Xie Mengyun and Yun Feiyang had only just met and weren’t familiar with each other.  

A newbie, with no backing, she fit the textbook definition of a soft target in every way.  

Those with a bit more experience knew that after leaving the beginner village, switching main cities via the system carriage before reaching level 25 cost at least 5 gold. So, it was highly likely that female player was still in Luoyang. Even if she left the city to grind monsters and level up, she’d eventually have to return to restock supplies and repair equipment. Based on his experience ambushing players, all he had to do was wait patiently like a farmer guarding a tree stump for rabbits to collide into it.  

—’So why hadn’t he seen even a single strand of her hair yet?’

Black Swan Knight led his team, unconsciously arriving near the southern gate. Since the Valley of the Medicine King was located north of Luoyang, the southern district was relatively more desolate. Those who chose to buy property here were all impoverished players with limited funds.

The gate of a certain courtyard along the street cracked open slightly, then quickly and quietly closed again. Black Swan Knight noticed it but paid no mind, when Great River Eastward went searching for someone, independent players unaffiliated with their guild always acted with this kind of cautious timidity.

On the other side of the wall, behind the gate, Yangfan Ji Canghai praised his own wisdom for promptly taking down the guild plaque in time: “I wonder what those people would think if they knew their target was going to be stuck in a system-isolated valley for ten days…”

Deep within the secluded Peach Blossom Valley, Xie Mengyun summoned the same determination she once used to tackle major projects, focusing intently as she practiced her sword techniques over and over again.  

A small mercy in this unfortunate situation: the ten days stipulated by Hermit Xuanqi did not include time spent offline resting. If she grew tired of playing, she could simply log off to watch a movie, take a shower, apply a face mask, eat dinner, and then return to continue.  

The white ape Cang Tuan crouched lazily on a peach tree branch, watching with mild amusement as Xie Mengyun vanished and reappeared in place.  

【Guild】 Liu Shui Rao Shan Zhou: “If I still can’t beat it by the tenth day, I’ll just log off for good and never come back. Let that damn monkey stay trapped in this valley forever. “

【Guild】 Yang Fan Ji Cang Hai: “Why are you telling us this threat?”

【Guild】Liu Shui Rao Shan Zhou: “Given the game designers’ track record, I wouldn’t put it past them to make animal NPCs understand human speech.” [shrugs]

【Guild】Yang Fan Ji Cang Hai: “…”

Seven days remaining until the abolition of her martial arts.

The clear sky gradually clouded over, and soon a light rain began to fall.  

A misty drizzle hung in the air.  

The cliffs encircling Peach Blossom Valley were exceptionally steep. Lush peach trees clung to the rocky peaks, their vibrant petals dampened by the rain, carrying a faint, chilly aura.  

Raindrops dripped from the thatched eaves, the green grass lay like a velvet carpet, lotus leaves swayed gently, and countless ripples bloomed across the pond. Occasionally, a few birdsongs could be heard. Gazing upward from here felt like peering at the sky from the bottom of a well, detached from time, untouched by the passing of years, and completely devoid of any worldly atmosphere. It was essentially a single-player game environment where you could scream at the heavens and get no damn response ==

Forced into seclusion, Xie Mengyun stood with her left hand held behind her back, balancing on a single foot atop a peach branch no thicker than a pinky finger. Her peachwood sword slanted downward and if one ignored the rather ferocious expression on her face, her silhouette might have even carried a certain air of untethered grace.

Leveling up a peerless-grade martial art was nothing like raising her previous third-tier movement skill in terms of difficulty. Fortunately, Xie Mengyun’s efforts far surpassed what she had mustered in the past. Just one hour after logging in today, she had smoothly reached the fifth level. But the proficiency required to advance from five to six instantly filled her with the urge to yank out her own network cable.

A fine rain dampened her clothes.

A single peach blossom petal drifted down and settled on Xie Mengyun’s shoulder.

The white ape was about ten meters away from her, its long arms hanging at its sides. It was still in its usual lazy, unmoving posture, and the peach tree behind it was the only one in the whole valley that actually bore fruit.

The fist-sized peaches blushed with a delicate white-to-red gradient, so plump and full of juice they seemed on the verge of tumbling from the branch at any moment.  

The desire for food gave her immense courage. Xie Mengjun swallowed her saliva, deciding to ignore her seventeen consecutive defeats over the past two days and resolutely launched her eighteenth charge. The peach branch beneath her foot dipped slightly under her weight, then sprang back—propelling her forward like a javelin, swift and fierce, straight toward the white ape.  

This was “Cold Crow Startles into Flight’, from the Master Ape Sword Style. 

This move emphasized speed above all, with the word “startles” capturing its element of surprise. Given that the crudely crafted peachwood sword had virtually no attack power, any damage dealt by this technique depended entirely on Xie Mengyun’s own skill.  

The white ape hadn’t moved at all, until the tip of her sword brushed against its fur. Then, in a flash, it shot out a hand, catching both her and her weapon in one swift motion.  

“…Eep!”  

Once again failing to break through its defense, Xie Mengyun had every reason to suspect that her opponent might have transferred from the cultivation zone next door and was a Victorious Fighting Monkey. =_=

Seeing the Salted Fish(lazy) Xie had completely lost her ability to fight back, the white ape did not press its attack. After all, its purpose was to test the player’s skill, and short of the final day, it had no intention of actually going all out to crush her.

But today’s situation was slightly different from the previous two days.

The white ape possessed immense strength, easily comparable to a certain sailor who goes berserk after eating spinach. With her weapon pinned in its grasp, it felt as immovable as if it had been set in concrete. Knowing she couldn’t hope to wrest it free by force, Xie Mengyun focused a subtle surge of energy. With a sharp crack, the peachwood sword abruptly snapped in two.

The opening lasted only an instant. Seizing the opportunity, she executed ‘Cold Crow Startles into Flight’ once more. This time, the move’s element of surprise was leveraged to its absolute limit. The broken sword, moving with lightning speed, left a faint, almost negligible scratch on the white ape’s back.

Having struck her blow, Xie Mengyun knew better than to push her luck. With a supple twist of her waist, she flowed like a serpent around to the white ape’s back and plucked a peach.

The moment the peach touched her hand, it vanished into thin air, safely stored away in her inventory. By the time the white ape realized what had happened, it threw its head back and let out a furious shriek. Shedding its previous laziness and reluctance to move, it launched into a tempestuous onslaught against the one who had harmed it. Its fist swung down toward her head with devastating speed, the wind whistling sharply with each movement.

#Are you afraid of a fist as big as a casserole?#

The white ape’s attacks were fierce, yet not a single one of the abundant fruits around them was harmed. Relying on her exceptional movement skill, Xie Mengyun nimbly dodged and weaved through the tempest of fists, equally careful not to brush against any peaches. Unfortunately, the gap in their strength was far too vast. In mere moments, she found herself in peril again and again.

Risk and reward often go hand in hand. Under the intense pressure of this battle, which pushed her potential to its limits, her experience bar was growing at a rate at least five times faster than when practicing alone.

Xie Mengyun could have chosen to flee. The white ape would cease its pursuit once she moved twenty meters away from the peach tree. But she wanted to press on, to see just how far her current abilities could take her.

The Master Ape Sword Style comprised eight techniques: ‘Cold Crow Startles into Flight’, ‘Blue Waters Flow Eastward’, ‘Clouds Gather Over the Sea’, ‘Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns’, ‘Hanging Springwater’, ‘Reaching the Peak’, ‘Green Crag Ape’s Cry’, and ‘Wind Sweeps Through Ten Thousand Valleys’.

She could only use the first five techniques; the final three remained locked and grayed out in her skill list due to insufficient cultivation.

‘Cold Crow Startles into Flight’ offered a bonus to initiation speed, ‘Blue Waters Flow Eastward’ blended offense and defense, ‘Clouds Gather Over the Sea’ emphasized unpredictability, but it was ‘Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns’ with its unique ability to stack damage nine times, that delivered her most powerful strike.

The white ape’s physique rivaled that of a fully grown man, but its pursuit was momentarily hindered by its conscious effort to avoid damaging the fruit. It scrambled after the player, ascending toward the treetop. Just as its snow-white head emerged from the lush green peach leaves, a fierce sword-energy descended upon it, striking squarely from above.

The peach tree served as a natural cage. For now, only the white ape’s head was free from restraint; its limbs and body were still trapped and unable to move freely. If it forced itself to block the attack, it would inevitably damage the surrounding branches and fruit. Xie Mengyun was well aware that exploiting the environment to bully a monkey was hardly honorable, but with such a severe level disparity, she couldn’t think of any other way for the time being. Her wrist twisted slightly, the broken sword thrust forward, and in an instant, she unleashed the onslaught of ‘Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns’.

Under normal circumstances, transitioning between techniques required a brief interval. Although the Master Ape Sword Style was already exceptionally swift, the gaps between moves could still be easily detected by the white ape. ‘Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns, however, allowed her to deliver nine consecutive strikes in an extremely short time. These nine strikes could target nine different locations or all converge on a single opponent.

The trade-off for this emphasis on speed was that each individual strike of ‘Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns’ dealt only three-quarters of the damage of ‘Cold Crow Startles into Flight.’

The moment felt drawn-out, but in reality, it happened faster than the blink of an eye. Xie Mengyun, with every ounce of her focus, poured all her effort into attacking the white ape. One strike, two strikes, three strikes, four—

By the fourth strike, the white ape had already reached the treetop, and her assault was abruptly cut short.

Facing the white ape head-on, Xie Mengyun had almost no room to fight back. She barely managed to evade two moves, but her dodge against the third was not quite enough. The white ape’s fist slammed into her shoulder, sending her flying backward like a kite with its string severed.

Her health bar instantly dropped to a quarter, accompanied by a stiffness debuff.

Even though she had lowered her pain sensation, Xie Mengyun felt as if that punch had jolted her internal organs clean out of their original positions. Like a shot put, she was flung helplessly through the air toward the pond, only gradually regaining control of her body. At the very last moment before hitting the water, her arms swept gently outward as her inner energy circulated, shifting her trajectory from a straight plummet into a graceful, slanting drift. She landed with serene elegance atop a lotus leaf.

This movement wasn’t ‘Forest-Treading Leaf Step’, it was ‘A Phoenix Alights’, a technique executed with such effortless grace and poise that it seemed to defy even the dust beneath her feet. It came with its own innate flair for the dramatic.

She was now well beyond the twenty-meter range from the white ape. The NPC’s aggro had reset. After hopping about in place, chittering a few annoyed squeaks, it swung down from a branch and lazily settled back into its original spot, once again the picture of idle indifference.

The rain continued to fall, droplets glistening as they rolled across the lotus leaves. Several crimson carp swam leisurely below, occasionally surfacing to gently nibble at the water.

Xie Mengyun glanced down, her gaze instantly captured by the elegant movements of the fish and she felt a sudden, intense craving for meat.

For the past two days in the valley, she had barely kept her hunger meter within a safe range by relying on two “stale flatbreads (system’s original description)” she’d scavenged from the hut. She’d just risked life and limb to steal a single peach right under the white ape’s watchful eyes. Xie Mengyun decided she could no longer go on like this, starving and desperate. Even the grass on the ground was starting to look tender, juicy, and delicious.

‘How bad could it be? This time, if I catch a fish, I’ll just grill it plain, no seasonings at all. Surely even I can’t mess that up and create another dark cuisine disaster, right?’

【Guild】 Yangfan Ji Canghai: “@Liushui Rao Shan Zhou, Xiao Qing and I went to Peach Blossom Stream but couldn’t find the valley you mentioned. It must be a special map.”

【Guild】 Yangfan Ji Canghai: “About the “eating anything out of desperation” issue, the game has dedicated counselors to help players with psychological problems caused by excessive immersion. You might wanna give it a try.”

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shanzhou: “Hm.”

【Guild】 Liushui Rao Shanzhou: “My hunger meter’s hitting the danger zone again. @Everyone, can grass fill my stomach?”

【Guild】 Bi Xuan Leng Deng: “…”

【Guild】 Sese Hong: “…I just remembered something. My high school biology textbook mentioned that environmental factors can trigger genetic mutations. Haven’t you seen those news stories about a family’s ginger cat whose greatest love in life was gnawing on cabbage stems?”

【Guild】 Wu Yue Shan Qing: “@Liushui Rao Shanzhou, why don’t you just go offline and eat some real meat first ==||”