Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 330 The Malnourished Girl

As everyone was chatting, a female voice suddenly came from Wu Ke's microphone—

"Who are you people! What are you doing here!?"

Wu Ke looked in the direction of the sound and was startled, almost crying out.

The speaker was a pale-faced girl with light brown hair that looked like a bird's nest, tangled up in a messy ball and stuffed into a tattered fur hat, with many loose, dry, and frizzy strands hanging out. Her body was also extremely thin, like a stick, and the thin leather coat she wore only accentuated her malnutrition.

"Who are you?"

Wu Ke flew high in the sky and asked a question in return.

He looked at the girl, who cautiously didn't land on the ground. After hesitating for a moment, he kindly reminded her, "There are a lot of bugs around where you were standing. You...you should be careful!"

"Insects? You mean them?"

As the girl spoke, she made a strange buzzing sound, and then those creepy insects crawled out from the cracks in the rocks and from under the soil once again!

Wu Ke swallowed hard, his voice hoarse and strained: "You, you're not afraid?"

The girl looked puzzled: "Why should I be afraid? This is a black-colored golden tortoise shell! Doesn't your tribe raise them?"

Wu Ke was bewildered and utterly shocked: "No, why keep this thing?!"

"They eat red soil!" the girl answered matter-of-factly. "They eat red soil, and what they excrete is clean soil, which can then be used to grow things!"

As she spoke, she looked at Wu Ke warily: "Wait, where are you from? I know all the cultivators in the nearby tribes who can fly, how come I've never seen you before?"

"I...I am..."

Before Wu Ke could finish speaking, the girl suddenly widened her eyes and interrupted him in shock: "You're not speaking Tiangui dialect! Huh!? I can actually understand it!?"

The players who listened to the entire conversation between the two were laughing uncontrollably. Renxin Huadao couldn't help but say directly in the group voice chat, "I'm dying of laughter, is this girl a natural airhead? She only just realized it, hahaha!"

Guantangbao burst out laughing: "Hahaha, this is so funny! But this girl is probably the first living person we've encountered since entering Tiangui Mountain?"

"I am not from Liuzhou, I am a disciple of the Taiyin Sect of Zhongzhou,"

Fortunately, although Wu Ke usually indulged in the thrill of combat, he still remembered the basics. He answered seriously, "We came to Tiangui Mountain to find the Sword Sect!"

"Sword Sect? The Sword Sect is long gone!"

Upon hearing the name, the girl's expression became complex, a mixture of disgust and sadness. However, this look only lasted a moment before she turned angry and retorted in a louder voice, "How is that possible! No one can come here! Which tribe are you from? I'm going to talk to your chieftain!"

"I really am from Middle-earth, and I speak Middle-earth language!" Wu Ke was getting impatient and started complaining in front of the girl: "What the hell is this quest! Why can't I trigger the keywords!?"

Nietzsche and the others were fine, only mocking Wu Ke's impatience. But the Jade Emperor, who knew the inside story, was secretly anxious. As he flew, he patted his lightness talisman on himself and shouted loudly in the group chat, "It's here! It's flying over there! Wait for me, I'll go talk to her... let's get to the plot! My god, how did you get so far away without a sound!"

In the microphone, the girl was still chattering away: "Hmph! Are you trying to steal our tribe's Black-Colored Golden Tortoise Shell?! You're coming with me to see our chieftain! I want to see which tribe is so shameless!"

Wu Ke irritably rubbed his bald head: "Ugh! I can't reason with you! Women are such a hassle!"

The girl also became agitated: "You! You are extremely rude! Which tribe do you belong to?!"

"I've already told you I'm a disciple of the Central Continent Taiyin Sect! You just don't believe me! What can I do about it!"

"Are you kidding me?! Tiangui Mountain is so remote that even immortals and gods can't leave! How could any outsider possibly get in? You can't possibly be more powerful than... more powerful than the Sword God!"

"I'm not affected by the Soul Devouring Rift, so why can't I get in!"

"Why are you unaffected?!"

"I can't fucking explain this to you! I give up!"

As the two were arguing, the Jade Emperor finally arrived, rushing over. He slammed on the brakes and almost fell to the ground, but his fear of the insects made him circle around in the sky, turn around, and stand next to Wu Ke.

He took a couple of breaths, then pulled Wu Ke behind him before bowing to the thin girl and saying, "Please forgive me, fellow Daoist. My junior brother isn't very bright and speaks bluntly. Please don't take it to heart! However, we are indeed from the Central Continent. We crossed the Soul-Devouring Rift using puppet bodies! I wonder if your tribe has any elders? We have many questions we would like to ask!"

Compared to Wu Ke's rough appearance and volatile temperament, the girl's eyes lit up the moment the Jade Emperor appeared.

While players must customize their characters' appearance and body shape within the limits set by the game system, most players still aim for an aesthetically pleasing result. Even if aesthetic preferences differ, it's merely a matter of different styles or simply not liking certain popular looks. You can't just hold your nose and say that popular aesthetics are too ugly.

Although the Jade Emperor's character creation is considered average among players, comparisons are inevitable. Compared to Wu Ke next to him, whose eyebrows look like caterpillars and whose head looks like a light bulb, the Jade Emperor suddenly goes from being just good-looking to being incredibly handsome!
In addition, the Jade Emperor's attitude was very kind, and his voice was gentle and pleasant, so the girl stammered when she answered: "You, you...you really came in from outside?"

The Jade Emperor nodded earnestly: "Absolutely true! If there are any highly skilled cultivators in your tribe, they can even tell that we are all puppets!"

The girl excitedly asked, "Then, does that mean if we possess puppets like you, we can also get out?"

The Jade Emperor felt a slight lump in his throat. He thought carefully for a moment and replied, "This...this probably won't work. We are not puppets possessed by souls, but by divine consciousness...Even if you could possess someone with your divine consciousness and successfully leave Tiangui Mountain, it wouldn't be a true escape. Your souls would still be trapped here..."

"Ugh……"

The girl sighed sadly, but then hope rekindled in her eyes: "But even if our souls can't leave, it means we can still see what the outside world looks like, right?"

The girl's eyes reddened, and her voice became nasal: "I... I've never seen what the outside world looks like..."