"Ouch!"
"..."
"Ah!"
"..."
"Shit!"
"..."
"Ack!"
Yuan spent nearly half an hour trying to cultivate while enduring the intense pain that came from it but to no avail, feeling nothing but pain and with no progress.
'Why? Why can't I cultivate when there's clearly a reaction? Every time I feel like I am close to a breakthrough, the pain immediately interrupts my breakthrough!' Yuan sighed inwardly.
'I guess I'll have to ask Xiao Hua and see if she knows something about this…'
Once Yu Rou returned to the room with dinner a few minutes later, Yuan decided to stop cultivating for the time being to eat dinner.
Sometime later, Yu Rou said to him, "Brother, you can go ahead and sleep first, I am going to surf the internet to see if there is anything we can do together tomorrow."
"Okay. Goodnight, Yu Rou." Yuan said to her.
"Goodnight, brother." After tucking Yuan into bed, Yu Rou went to her computer and began surfing the internet, and as usual, she went to look at the forums to see if there was anything new or important she should know about.
'Player Yuan made the headlines again? What did he do this time?' Yu Rou saw the posts that were marked 'hot' and quickly clicked on the link.
[Player Yuan has become the first player to learn a Heaven-rank technique!]
[Player Yuan shocks the world again with his insane progression speed!]
[Just how is Player Yuan these high-ranking techniques!? Click here to find out!]
'So Player Yuan now has a Divine-rank technique and a Heaven-rank technique, whilst the rest of us are still running around with Mortal-rank techniques…' Yu Rou shook her head.
This Player Yuan is simply too amazing and unfathomable. How is he able to achieve such results? What is he doing differently from others? Is he really even a real player? What if Player Yuan is actually an admin screwing with everybody? That seemed more plausible than Player Yuan being a cheater.
After reading all of the new forum threads about Player Yuan, Yu Rou for some reason decided to turn to look at her brother, who was already sound asleep on her bed.
"..."
After pondering for a good moment, she returned to the internet and searched for the Wealth Leaderboards.
"What! There are already so many people on the Wealth Leaderboards?!" Yu Rou exclaimed in a low but surprised voice.
It has only been a few days since the Wealth Leaderboards was unlocked by Player Yuan and there were already a thousand players from all around the world that has managed to amass over one million gold.
Obviously, these thousand people were not your regular players but some of the wealthiest players in the world who took advantage of their wealth to buy gold coins from other players through Real World Trading just so they can get onto the Wealth Leaderboards.
'Let's see if I can find my brother's name here…' Yu Rou began scrolling through the thousand names.
After all, if Yuan could easily take out 431,000 gold coins and spend it on her without batting an eyelid, he should be on the Wealth Leaderboards.
However, Yu Rou was unable to find the name 'Yu Tian' on the Wealth Leaderboards even after scrolling all the way to the very bottom of the list, which was not too surprising, as he'd spent nearly half a million already, and that could have kicked him off the Wealth Leaderboards.
'Now that I think about it, what is Brother Tian's name in Cultivation Online? I never got to ask him,' she thought to herself after this realization.
'Whatever, I'll just ask him tomorrow…' Yu Rou shrugged before returning to the forums, where she navigated to the 'Events' section.
Once she was in the 'Events' section, where players from all over the cultivation world share their experience with past and ongoing events to others for contribution points, which they can redeem for gold coins in-game.
'Let's see if there are any ongoing events near Spring City that we can attend together…' Yu Rou proceeded to type 'Spring City' in the search bar.
Literally, a second later, over 10 pages of results that mentioned Spring City was in front of her.
'Hmm… Most of these have already ended… Oh? What's this?'
[There will be a major event tomorrow at Spring City where the lord of the city— the Xuan Family— will be hosting a Disciple Recruitment Exam for the Dragon Essence Temple, a very prominent sect in the cultivation world! Only those above the 3rd level Spirit Apprentice realm can join!]
"Dragon Essence Temple? Recruiting disciples?" Yu Rou raised her eyebrows.
She then opened a new tab on her web browser and looked up the term 'Sect'.
"Let's see… Sects are an organization dedicated to the practice of cultivation and martial arts. Disciples from a Sect can receive training from the Sect Elders and may even obtain valuable rewards from the Sect to further assist their cultivation."
"My! So they are basically schools for Cultivators!"
Yu Rou then turned to look at Yuan again, thinking to herself, 'If I recall correctly, brother has always expressed his desire to experience school life. Even though he cannot do that in this world, he can definitely do it in the cultivation world! Albeit it'll be different from our schools, it's better than nothing at all!'
'Good! It's decided! We'll try to join this sect together and do our best as Cultivators!' Yu Rou nodded to herself with a resolute expression on her face.
After looking around the internet for a few more minutes Yu Rou also went to bed, but since Yuan cannot feel his body and his body itself is quite fragile, she must make sure to keep a safe distance from him and even place some padding between him to make a small wall, as it would be disastrous if she accidentally rolled into him and injure his body.
Once she closed her eyes, Yu Rou fell asleep rather quickly.
—
Yu Rou woke up early in the morning, as usual, to clean herself before preparing herself for her piano lessons.
Once her morning lessons were done, Yu Rou went to prepare breakfast for Yuan.
"Good morning, Yu Rou," Yuan greeted her when she returned to the room with food in her hands.
"Good morning, brother. It feels weird to be greeting you in my own room," she chuckled.
After washing Yuan's face and brushing his teeth, Yu Rou fed him chicken soup.
"Brother, I think I know what we should do next," she said to him as she fed him.
"What do you want to do?"
"You have always wanted to experience school, right? Well, there are these places known as 'Sects' within Cultivation Online, and they are basically schools for Cultivators. I know they're not the same, but it's the only way for you to experience school right now."
"Sects? What a coincidence! I was also about to ask if you wanted to join one with me!" Yuan said in a surprised voice.
"Really? Then should we join one?" she asked.
"Of course!"
"Great! Then we should participate in the event in Spring City today!" Yu Rou said to him.
"Event? What event?"
"There's an event in Spring City where the lord of the city, the Xuan Family, will be recruiting disciples for the Dragon Essence Temple! If we pass this exam, we should be able to join this sect!"
"The Xuan Family and the Dragon Essence Temple?" If Yuan could see right now, he would be staring at Yu Rou with wide eyes filled with surprise.
What a coincidence! Not only did he plan on joining the Dragon Essence Temple in the future but he also knew the Xuan Family!
"Okay, that sounds good," Yuan said.
"Then it's decided!"
"Ah, one more thing, brother. Your room is still being cleaned by the maids, so you'll play beside me today," she said to him.
"Oh… I forgot… Your gaming helmet was also submerged in that black gunk and was tossed in the trash last night, so we'll have to get you a new one."
"What?! They threw away my gaming helmet?! What about my account? Don't tell me I'll have to create a new account! You must retrieve that helmet no matter how bad it smells!" Yuan cried out loud, his voice filled with panic. He cannot imagine what he'll do if he really has to create a new account because of this! What will happen to Xiao Hua, who is still inside the necklace? Would she remain there forever? That's terrifying to even think about!
"There's no need to panic, brother. Did you forget? You can only have one account and one character, and it doesn't matter how many times you change the gaming helmet, you'll still be able to play your character."
"Oh… right… I indeed forgot about that." Yuan said in a low voice before sighing in relief.
"Anyway, I'll go tell someone to buy one right now."
Yu Rou left the room to tell a maid to buy another console for Yuan.
About an hour later, the maid returned to Yu Rou with a brand new gaming helmet.
Once everything was prepared, Yu Rou and Yuan both laid on the same bed with the gaming helmet on their heads.
"I'll see you inside, brother." Yu Rou said to Yuan before pressing the power button on his helmet, sending him into the game first before going inside herself.
"Welcome back, Brother Yu— Tian…" Xiao Hua left the necklace a second after he logged on.
"Xiao Hua… Thank god you won't be trapped inside that necklace forever…" he sighed again after seeing her cute face.
"???" However, Xiao Hua merely looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. Why would she be trapped inside the necklace forever?