Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 69 She said we were fake.

"Everything should be done in moderation; too much of anything is as bad as too little. Do you understand?"

Zhu Xian spoke earnestly, his tone full of fatherly concern.

The golden-haired bamboo rat translated, "It means that if you water it again, it will die."

Bai Chenxue was so frightened that she quickly picked up the bamboo tube: "I'm so sorry, I don't know anything about this..."

Zhu Xian coughed lightly, ignoring the golden-haired bamboo fox that was always trying to sabotage her, and said, "It's alright. What I mean is, have you drunk too much spiritual spring water? I think there's something wrong with your meridians."

Bai Chenxue replied shyly, "I was just curious... so I took a bite..."

Bamboo Fairy's branches swayed, the leaves at the top rustling violently as they rubbed together. Her tone, no longer calm and collected, became excited as she exclaimed, "She took a sip! One sip! You unlucky kid, you're lucky you didn't die! Didn't your master tell you not to drink the spiritual spring water by the roadside?!"

Even the golden-haired bamboo fox showed a rare hint of anxiety: "What if her meridians are all ruined?"

"Hmm... let me see... thankfully, he's not ruined yet, but he'll need to be cared for for several more months. This unlucky kid! Really! How can he be so clueless!?"

Bai Chenxue looked blankly at Zhu Xian and the golden-haired bamboo fox, feeling that the plot of this mission seemed a bit strange.

As expected of an AI-driven, self-actualized character, it can even adjust the plot and dialogue based on her behavior! So sophisticated!
"In the future, if you come across any spiritual spring water or rare treasures, don't just put everything in your mouth! Your body can't handle that stuff, you'll die!"

Zhu Xian said seriously, "Furthermore, the more barren a place is, the more dangerous it is! Even if a glow appears, you must not approach it unless there are living creatures around!"

The golden bamboo rat added, "Don't venture too far into areas where there are few birds or insects chirping. If you hear the voices of elderly people or children in the wild, far from villages or towns, don't be curious; run away immediately!"

"A woman's voice is not acceptable either!"

"Isn't she a woman?"

"That man's voice isn't good either?"

"..."

"Seniors, seniors," Bai Chenxue hesitated for a moment, then said, "Actually, it's alright if I die, I can be resurrected!"

Bamboo Fairy was shocked: "Wait a minute, resurrection? This is your avatar? No way! What cultivator who has created an avatar is so stupid as to not understand anything at all!?"

The golden-haired bamboo rat sniffed the air and said, "It seems... she really has no soul inside her..."

The bamboo fairy's voice turned shrill with terror: "You—you you you! What kind of monster are you?!"

The golden-haired bamboo fox showed no fear: "Wake up, we're the monsters."

"Well, actually, I'm from outside this world. Someone there designed a virtual world, a fake, non-existent world, which is this place. And through the internet—uh, the internet is... sigh! I don't know how to describe it! Anyway, it's through the internet that we come to this world to play. Our physical bodies are just a bunch of data, so if we die, we just need to copy a data, and of course we can be resurrected!"

Bai Chenxue didn't know what she was thinking, but she inexplicably blurted out words that were destined to be blocked or incomprehensible to NPCs.

The golden-haired bamboo fox and the bamboo fairy exchanged a glance and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"She said we're fake, that we don't exist!"

"Could this child be mentally challenged?"

Seeing that her words hadn't been blocked, and that the two NPCs in front of her even understood but didn't believe her, Bai Chenxue became anxious. Then, she went to great lengths to explain what a game was and what virtual reality meant.

"Let me sort this out. A puppet without a soul, controlled by some unknown thing, is telling us that we are fake, that we don't exist, and that she is real... Hmm... This isn't even a question of whether it's absurd or not. Maybe we should get the child's brain checked?"

The golden-haired bamboo fox pondered for a moment and asked, "You mean that you and your people live in another world, and then use some means to control these puppets to enter our world? So when the puppets are destroyed, you can still control new puppets, which is why they are 'resurrected'?"

"Uh..." Bai Chenxue really didn't expect her words to be interpreted that way, but after thinking about it carefully, it didn't seem wrong, so she said, "You could interpret it that way too..."

The golden-haired bamboo fox rolled its eyes at the bamboo fairy and said, "Look, what it means is that it came from another grotto-heaven world, and its true body is gone, so it can be resurrected!"

Zhu Xian was still bothered by it: "But she said we were fake!" "Maybe it was just a dialect."

"?"

The golden-haired bamboo fox nodded and said, "So, it's perfectly reasonable that he would drink a big mouthful of spiritual spring water and not understand any cultivation common sense such as wisdom awakening and spiritual enlightenment because he is unfamiliar with this world!"

"..."

"Come on, since you've run into us today, let me teach you some common sense, so you won't do something as foolish as drinking a big gulp of spiritual spring water again! Hmm, where should I begin? Let me think..."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xian hurriedly interjected, "Let me tell you, let me tell you!"

It swayed its body and began to slowly speak: "The Void divides into Heaven and Earth, and Heaven and Earth transform into purity and turbidity. Natural creation and the nurturing of the universe are called purity, while being covered in fur and horns, born from moisture and hatched from eggs, is called turbidity. Between purity and turbidity, there is chaos. Chaos is born from the Void and also dies in the Void. Chaos gives birth to spiritual energy, and spiritual energy nurtures the eight directions. Above the eight directions are the nine wildernesses, and beyond the nine wildernesses, all things are illusory..."

"Um……"

Bai Chenxue hesitated for a moment, then asked timidly, "Senior, could you... explain it in simpler, more straightforward terms?"

The golden-haired bamboo fox said, "It's alright, just pretend you didn't hear what it just said, it doesn't really matter."

The bamboo fairy grew anxious, shaking its leaves as it argued, "How is it meaningless! I used to listen to these things to awaken my intelligence!"

The golden-haired bamboo fox ignored the bamboo fairy and crawled out of the cave, explaining to Bai Chenxue, "This awakening of intelligence should be called 'enlightenment' and 'spiritual awakening,' and there are different methods for it."

Zhu Xian coughed a few times, then interrupted, saying, "Cough! Cough cough! The human race, the dragon race, and the Quanxian race are blessed by heaven and possess intelligence. The fox race of Chiyuan Cave, the fox race of Qingqiu Kingdom, and the Xuanyan race of Wuyan Kingdom are protected by the gods and are born with intelligence; they only need to awaken their spirit. 'Awakening the spirit' is called 'guiding qi.' Once qi is guided into the body, that is considered awakening the spirit, which is what you humans often call 'qi refining.'"

"The many animals, insects, fish, plants and trees in the world are born from the chaotic and turbid air. If they want to cultivate, they need to open their wisdom and awaken their spirit to have any hope. If they are creatures created by heaven and earth, those that have complete intelligence are born immortals or gods, and they are different from them."

Bai Chenxue listened in a daze, feeling as if she were in a Chinese reading comprehension class. She only grasped the general idea and asked, "So, as long as the cabbage is awakened, it can cultivate like me?"

Zhu Xian said, "That's not wrong. However, for ordinary animals like this to cultivate, they need to awaken their spirit and gain intelligence. Awakening the spirit is easy, but gaining intelligence is difficult. Of course, your dog was probably born into the human race, so it is quite intelligent and gaining intelligence is not difficult for it."

Bai Chenxue was already somewhat immersed in the game's "story," and she eagerly asked, "How do I unlock my intelligence?"

"Let it listen to my teachings every day for forty-nine days. Perhaps it will gain wisdom. If it does not, then it is not destined for such a thing."

"Ah...it will take more than a month!"

"Don't listen to its nonsense. I became enlightened after listening to it for a day."

"But your nephew didn't react at all after listening for six months."

"That's because he's stupid."

That's your nephew!

"I have over three hundred nephews!"

"There are only two who aren't stupid, tsk."

"You haven't found a single bamboo shoot in the entire forest that has been enlightened!"

"I am sugarcane."

"..."

Just as Zhu Xian and the golden-haired bamboo fox were bickering, Bai Chenxue excitedly told Jia Xiaoren about the possibility of her pet cabbage cultivating.

"Master! Master! I've completed a storyline, and it seems to be related to pets. I heard that even cabbages can cultivate immortality! Does that mean I can play as a beast tamer in the future?!"

"?"

(End of this chapter)