Building a sect from scratch.

The twelve disciples of the Soul Fiend Sect acted quickly, and in less than two hours, they had brought back a boatload of people.

The method is a bit hard to evaluate...

"You mean, you tricked all these people into coming here?!"

In a secluded jungle, on a flying boat parked among the trees, the [Soup Dumpling] who was receiving the Soul Fiend Sect disciples and their "surrender gift package" was dumbfounded.

"It can't be called deception. We gave them grain and cloth, which we bought."

Several small paper figures hopped and skipped around, huddled together, arguing. Only one of them looked human, pointing to the dilapidated flying boat not far behind him. The flying boat was crammed with sallow-faced, emaciated mortals, who looked much like the people the Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity Merchants Association had sold to Taiyin Sect players in the beginning—to put it bluntly, they were so miserable that they were almost unrecognizable.

As for these Soul Fiend Sect disciples, having lost their physical bodies and suffered damage to their souls due to the tribulation, they had no choice but to possess some lightweight objects, preferably objects that also possessed some spiritual energy.

The airship they brought back didn't have anything suitable. After Nietzsche made a request, he specially gifted them some Soul-Nourishing Grass, which allowed them to attach themselves to the paper figures and move around—at least they had hands and feet. Those who retained their cultivation well could even transform into normal human forms, but they had little strength and no five senses.

However, apart from the Soul Fiend Sect disciple who spoke up and communicated with the players earlier, the other eleven could not maintain their human form and could only simply reside in paper figures to delay the wear and dissipation of their souls.

Among them, the only Soul Fiend Sect disciple who could transform into a human form called himself Zhang Maozi. He was originally just a low-level disciple who came out to undergo tribulation this time, but he did not expect the lightning tribulation to be too powerful. The elder who brought them out ran away, and the high-level disciples were all struck and their souls were scattered. Only he was the most senior among the twelve remaining disciples, so he gritted his teeth and took over, leading everyone back.

This led to the "ghost ship" scene that initially startled all the players.

"The disciples of the sect... we really have no say in this, and given our current situation, going back would likely be fraught with danger..."

As Zhang Maozi spoke, his tone became somewhat somber and increasingly sincere: "Since you have come to destroy the Soul Fiend Sect, you must be aware of some of the sect's rules. Those of us who have lost our physical bodies can only follow the path of ghost cultivation, and we are often picked over by the elders who raise ghost banners and soul banners, becoming the prey of others... How can we dare to show our faces after such an end?"
"These ordinary people were obtained by us through the theft of resources from the sect. We simply couldn't get any more!"

Other players had no concept of these things, assuming they were just part of the game's background setting. However, Nietzsche, who knew a little about the Soul Fiend Sect, became curious: "So, all those who went out to undergo tribulations before, did they all run away?"

The reason for this question is that the success rate of tribulation transcendence for sects like the Soul Fiend Sect, which are neither entirely righteous nor entirely evil, is quite low. It is said that the success rate of tribulation transcendence for most sects in the Void Realm is no more than 30%, and for sects with somewhat unethical cultivation methods, it is even lower.

If this probability holds true, then many disciples of their Soul Fiend Sect should have failed their tribulations and been used as "nourishment" in the Soul Banner or Ghost Banner!
Zhang Maozi replied, "There should be. I've only been a disciple for about ten years, so I don't know much. But I have heard legends about flying boats that went out to undergo tribulation and never returned. But that was more than a hundred years ago. I heard that since then, the sect has arranged for elders to lead the teams, so such things don't happen again."

Upon hearing these statements, the players immediately began to imagine all sorts of scenarios and started chattering amongst themselves.

"Goodness, they even brought guards?"

"This is just too inhumane!"

"If you don't work hard at cultivating immortality, you'll just be brothers in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner? This game planner has such a catchy joke!"

"There's a bug in this setting! If that's the case, wouldn't some cultivators who want more 'materials' for their soul banners deliberately sabotage their disciples' tribulations to make them stronger?"

"Hiss... Although what you're saying is a bit too conspiratorial, it sounds quite reasonable!" The players were just joking around, but Zhang Maozi explained seriously, "That's unlikely. Although almost every elder of the Soul Fiend Sect has a Soul Banner or Ghost Banner, the tribulation is something that can't be controlled once it starts—failing the tribulation is more likely to result in the soul being scattered, and those who only lose their physical body are a minority... Out of more than a hundred disciples in our group, only twelve of us survived."

"Alright, you've done a good job! We've kept all the guarantees we made for you. You should know the Taiyin Sect's reputation; we guarantee everything!"

After speaking with Zhang Maozi and the others, [Nietzsche] turned to [Humanity Transformation] and instructed him: "Humanity Transformation, why don't you take them back to Martial King City to settle them in? We're about to start the battlefield here, and we can't spare any time!"

[Humanity Transforms into the Way] was unwilling to miss the opportunity to participate in the limited-time battlefield mission, and he knew that apart from himself, no one else probably knew what was going on—once [Nietzsche] specifically asked him to do something, it was usually very important, and he had that kind of tacit understanding.

After a moment's hesitation, he said, "It takes several hours to travel like this! How about we take them to a safe place first and teleport them in batches?"

Teleportation arrays are indeed more convenient. This place isn't far from Martial King City; strictly speaking, it's not even as far as the Taiyi Qiankun Sect. [Nietzsche] immediately nodded: "Alright! You can arrange it as you see fit. We can handle this small number of people, but we need to manage the logistics well. If we have the opportunity to recruit more people in the future, their treatment will be a golden ticket!"

lie!

These are all deliberate rhetoric used to deceive the community members and players under their command!

The real purpose is not because—

These ragged, terrified people are real, living people!
After quickly taking a few screenshots and sending them to the project team's group chat, [Nietzsche] immediately arranged for the players to prepare for the battle.

"Let's all notify each other in the group, get ready to go online! Those who need to prepare potions, prepare your potions; those who need to prepare tables, prepare your tables. The event points for this limited-time battlefield mission are synchronized with the points in the shop for exchanging house lottery tickets! If you miss it, you'll regret it for a year!"

Nietzsche's mobilization was actually very perfunctory. This was mainly because people would rush to participate in such activities without her having to mobilize them, so she was too lazy to put in the effort.

All you could hear in the team chat and on the airship was a constant stream of witty banter.

"Ugh! It's not like you're guaranteed to win, it's only a 0.5% chance!"

"That's not low! The drop rate next door is about the same!"

"But their neighbor has a guaranteed minimum!"

"What the hell are you dreaming? You think you can get a pity system when you're pulling houses? Even if you could, would it be 60 or 120 pulls? Can you grind that many points?"

"You underestimated my liver, huh?"

……

(End of this chapter)