Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 153: Abundant Martial Arts
"You...are you really human?"

Coral fell into deep self-doubt.

The two players at the next table kept making sarcastic remarks:

"The bag belongs to the person!"

"If all else fails, we can even be dehumanized!"

"Go away, go away! Don't drag me into this if you're not human! I haven't had enough of being human yet!"

One of the players, while bickering with his companion, excitedly pulled a huge pair of scissors from his backpack and said, "Fellow Daoist, I just heard you say you wanted a knife? How about scissors? What about nail clippers? I also want some local specialties from the sea!"

My companion rolled his eyes, his tone utterly disgusted: "You might as well have grabbed a kitchen knife! What's with the scissors? Nail clippers? You have no shame!"

"What's wrong with nail clippers? Why do you look down on them? Do you know how important the technology behind nail clippers is? Do you know what we've sacrificed for them? You don't know! All you care about is your roasted chicken wings! Pah!"

"Nail clippers have no technology whatsoever! You're so dramatic, did you graduate from the Central Academy of Drama? And you still dare to spit on me? Duel! Let's duel if you dare!"

"Fine, let's settle this! Don't be a coward, dog! Boss, don't clear the table! We'll come back and continue eating later!"

"Say that again! I'll beat you to a pulp today!"

……

Amidst the nonchalant expressions of everyone around the barbecue stall, two players started arguing briefly, then began banging on tables and chairs, before pulling and tugging at each other towards an open space in the distance. This night market street, actually located outside the entrance to Chang'an City, wasn't officially part of the city according to the system map; however, players had long been accustomed to being under Chang'an's jurisdiction and accepted its management. Between this night market and the dungeon [Cold Pool Cave] lay a large, cleared area, stripped of all trees and grass, which had become a PvP "arena" for players. It was common to see novice players fiercely battling it out in this area, creating extremely brutal scenes.

This practice of "dueling" at the slightest disagreement is a unique PVP gameplay mechanic devised by players.

In this game, attacking teammates is prohibited, and there's no concept of friendly fire immunity. This often leads to players misfiring, casting spells and skills, causing minor collisions and resulting in being mistakenly flagged as a red name (indicating a player's negative reputation). There's no appeal process for these misjudgments; players have to frantically work to improve their reputation. Many clumsy players have suffered greatly from this. In *Ten Continents Chronicles*, any player who claims they've never been mistakenly flagged as a red name is almost embarrassed to call themselves a veteran player!
This clearly unreasonable mechanism, which the authorities refuse to change, has even spawned a studio industry that provides a long-term supply of "good karma points," with a market price of 5 RMB per point. The studio's slogan is: "If you can't aim your skills, your wallet will be in tears."

However, this mechanism is not entirely unsolvable; otherwise, whether it's dungeons or the previous timed battlefields, everyone would have been red-named long ago!

The only way to avoid being mistakenly flagged as a red name is to team up. While teammates attacking each other will not grant damage immunity, it will not be considered a malicious attack and will not result in a deduction of public virtue points.

Therefore, this PVP gameplay, in which teams fight each other until one side dies and is locked in a dark room while waiting for the resurrection cooldown, has quietly become popular among players.

After all, compared to public virtue points and RMB, the 10-minute resurrection cooldown is the only cost players need in PVP gameplay, making it the cheapest option.

While the two players were arguing about going to duel, Coral was multitasking, exchanging information with her older sister. "Sister, all the humans here at the Taiyin Sect seem a bit strange. They're actually living with demon cultivators, and not in the way of enslaving them, but treating them like humans! This is so weird!"

"I feel like all of them are a bit stupid, not smart at all, unlike the cunning cultivators of the Fulu Shou Merchant Guild. Like the Fusang Fruit and Xuye business I just told you about, it was all their idea. They even wanted to help our Quanxian Clan make money!"

"Hmm...their emotions seem a bit unstable. They speak very bluntly and love to argue, which is completely different from the humans we've seen before who always have fake smiles on their faces!"
"Their strength is very weak. The strongest one is only at the Golden Core stage, and it seems that they are not from the Taiyin Sect, but from some other sect. If they are from the Taiyin Sect, they seem to be Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"They were all very enthusiastic."

"Oh, right, they seem to have a lot of martial spirit, and they're ready to 'duel' at the slightest disagreement! Shouldn't that be a very serious matter? Why are they all grinning like that? How can they have no respect for death...?"

Although Chang'an City is nearly a thousand miles (500 kilometers) away from Longshan Port, it is still within the range of the Quanxian Clan's spiritual communication. Therefore, from the moment she stepped out of the teleportation array, Coral had been communicating with her sister.

"With such a large number of humans, it's normal for sects to act in different ways. There's no need to be so ignorant!"

Coral's older sister, Silver Frost, is nearly a hundred years older than Coral. She has a steady and generous personality and is very interested in the "Fusang Fruit and Xuye Business" that she just heard from Coral.

“I think what they said makes a lot of sense. That island area is our territory, and we're even registered in the royal city! Like they said, if we take good care of the Fusang fruit and Xuye, it's definitely a good business! It's just that I don't know how to plant trees, little brother, do you?”

Coral was somewhat speechless at Silverfrost's whimsical idea: "What do you think?"

Silver Frost immediately deflated: "Alas! What a pity! It was really a good business opportunity!"

"It's not like there's no other way. We can ask the human race to plant it! Since they like it so much, they'll definitely plant it!"

"Is this... okay?"

"I'll ask and see!"

Bai Chenxue had no idea that the seemingly simple Quan Xian was actually a wolf in sheep's clothing, and was still enthusiastically explaining, "We are genuine humans! However, we do behave differently from the humans of the Guixu Realm—after all, we are from the Blue Star Realm!"

Bai Chenxue had already told Shanhu about the "Guixu Realm" and the "Blue Star Realm" on the way. His explanation included a lot of terms he couldn't understand, like "games" and "virtual reality," so he only grasped the general idea. For example, almost all the disciples of the Taiyin Sect were from the Blue Star Realm, and they appeared in the Guixu Realm through some special means. Furthermore, the Blue Star Realm lacked spiritual energy and cultivation was impossible there…

Although Coral couldn't imagine how one could survive in a world without spiritual energy, this still explained why the disciples of the Taiyin Sect had such poor cultivation levels—they hadn't cultivated before! Having just arrived in the Guixu Realm and just begun their cultivation journey, their limited progress was understandable!

However, it is a miracle that the disciples of a prestigious cultivation sect, whose members are almost all below the Foundation Establishment stage, can still live a prosperous life and not be swallowed up by other forces!
The reason is simply a mystery!
(End of this chapter)