Building a sect from scratch.

The thick awkwardness that filled the air instantly made all the players try to pretend they were very busy.

"Cough, my mana is almost gone. Do you have any mana-restoring pills?"

"You didn't bring it?"

"I brought it, I brought it, let me look for it... uh, it's here!"

"Then you still ask me?"

"Well, it's just that we're used to asking people for it!"

"..."

Seeing the clumsy attempt to cover up by these unhelpful members, Nietzsche couldn't help but twitch his lips, and forced himself to speak again: "Fellow Daoist, we truly have no ill intentions, and we are indeed here to find the Sword Sect..."

The female cultivator glanced at the players, whose expressions were practically overflowing with embarrassment, and said calmly, "Then you won't be able to find them!"

The Jade Emperor pressed on, asking, "Hey, fellow Daoist, what makes you say that?"

The female cultivator remained expressionless: "Are you really unaware? This Sword Sect was trapped on Tiangui Island by the Soul Devouring Rift many years ago. Even if it existed before, so many years have passed, it's probably long gone! How are you going to find it?"

When Renxin Huadao heard that the name was completely different from the one in the mission description, he was a little confused and whispered to Guantangbao next to him, "Tiangui Island? Isn't it Arctic Flow Continent?"

Unexpectedly, the female cultivator explained seriously: "Beiji Liuzhou is probably the name used by people outside Liuzhou. The Sword Sect is located in the Tiangui Mountain area, so most of the entire Tiangui Mountain was cut off together, and everyone simply called that island 'Tiangui Island'!"

"Ah, hehe, I see," the Jade Emperor replied somewhat awkwardly, and asked, "Is there really no way to cross the 'Soul-Devouring Rift'?"

The female cultivator replied, "Whether they've passed through or not is hard to say. Anyway, from what I've heard, those who have passed through never come back. It's probably no different from being dead!"

The Jade Emperor then asked, "Is the 'Soul-Devouring Rift Valley' far from here?"

"It's about a hundred miles or so. Look from here and there. That mountain is Tiangui Mountain, and at its foot lies the Soul-Devouring Rift!"

As the female cultivator spoke, she pointed to a faintly visible white snow-capped mountain to the north. The mountain was not very high, but it stretched endlessly, occupying the entire northern view. Clouds surrounded the mountaintop, making the sky appear exceptionally blue.

"Thank you, fellow Taoist!"

The Jade Emperor gratefully bowed and greeted him, and the others followed suit awkwardly, but very few of them did it correctly.

The female cultivator didn't mind, returned the greeting, and then instructed, "If you go directly, remember to go around to the west. This side is our Hu Buyu clan, and the east side is the Sushen clan. Compared to the other side, the Quanrong clan in the west is easier to talk to. If you tell them, they will probably allow you to pass!"

"Thank you, fellow Daoist," the Jade Emperor said sincerely again, and then introduced himself: "I am the Jade Emperor, a disciple of the Taiyin Sect of Zhongzhou. They are all my fellow disciples. This is Nietzsche, and there are also Guantangbao, Renxin Huadao, Huangzhucao, and Wu Ke."

After reciting everyone's IDs, he finally asked, "May I ask your name, fellow Daoist?"

"Your names are really strange," the female cultivator muttered before replying, "I am Hu Buyu, surname Lie, my given name is Chakota. You can just call me Chakota!" Renxin Huadao couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow! This NPC's name is even stranger!"

Meanwhile, the Jade Emperor typed in the team channel: "I'd like to make contact with this 'Hu Buyu Clan' to see if I can use the name of trade to find out more details about Liuzhou. What do you think?"

Guantangbao was the first to respond: "I think it's a good idea! Anyway, the game has a lot of freedom in its missions. Maybe if we do it carefully, we can trigger some hidden storylines and get even better rewards!"

The players finally realized that they could use the team chat channel to chat, so the NPCs wouldn't be able to hear them!
Huangzhucao typed, "Good grief, why were we so stupid as to chat in the game just now?!"

Renxin Huadao stubbornly retorted, "Don't get involved! I was just chirping unconsciously; I'm not afraid of the NPCs hearing me at all!"

"Then why are you pretending to be looking for a elixir of immortality?"

"I'm out of mana! So what!?"

"It's so fake!"

Nietzsche quickly typed to stop everyone's verbal sparring: "Stop arguing! Your Majesty, I think you're quite good at diplomacy. Just do what you think is right. Maybe, like Guantangbao said, you can actually create some hidden plot twists!"

"All right!"

Upon receiving confirmation, the Jade Emperor's eyes lit up, and he confidently continued the conversation with Chakota: "Fellow Daoist Chakota, it's like this, this is our first time in Liuzhou, and we're not very familiar with it. We wonder if your Hu Buyu clan has any business needs? We can exchange ideas, as we have quite a few specialties from Zhongzhou on us!"

"We lack medicine, all kinds of pills, and if you have any spiritual herbs or plants, we'll take them too," Chakota said, his expression unchanged, though his tone became a little more serious. "However, please offer incense and prayers to the Three Star Gods of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity first."

Upon hearing that there was hope, the Jade Emperor immediately agreed, "No problem, no problem!"

If we're talking about other things, people might not be able to contribute much, but there are so many pills and various spiritual herbs that the entire community has filled several warehouses! The former are essential supplies that everyone has stockpiled specifically for land reclamation, while the latter are the profits from land reclamation—communities like Haoqi Changcun, which specialize in land reclamation, have produced countless spiritual materials from the land reclamation in the Hundred Thousand Mountains these past few days!
After exchanging a few more polite words, the group, led by Chakota, landed at the village entrance.

The entire village was indeed excessively simple, with most houses consisting of stone foundations and mud walls. The foundations extended half a meter above the ground, and there were no windows. The houses were all quite large, at least twice the size of those of the people of Zhongzhou!

As for the roof, it was made of wooden planks. Some roofs were not fully constructed, with large sections exposed, and if you stood on higher ground, you could even see inside the house.

There were few people in the village. Occasionally someone would greet you, but the greetings were in a language that was hard to understand. Through the game system's translation, it was only a few very short words, mostly polite phrases like "Have you eaten?" or "It's getting cool."

"It's early winter, and everyone is still hunting for food, so there aren't many people around right now. In another two weeks, we won't be able to go out at all!"

As Chakota walked, he explained, adding a casual reminder: "Be careful, it's slippery."

The thick snow was swept to both sides of the road, mostly piled up in the corners of walls and next to houses, mixed with brown soil, making it look dirty and gray. Most of it had obviously been refrozen multiple times, turning into huge lumps of ice.

The road was covered with ice and snow that had been repeatedly trampled and frozen solid. Although it was uneven, it was noticeably slippery underfoot.

The soup dumpling carefully tiptoed, navigating the small, uneven ice craters with practiced ease, and asked curiously, "Why can't we go out? Aren't you cultivators?" (End of Chapter)