Guan Xiaoshun’s gaze was earnest as he specially came to inform Li Muyang of this important news.
However, Li Muyang indeed did not know that the Refinement Demon Sect was going to open its mountain gate.
Mainly because he lived too far away, isolated from others. Not descending the mountain, he had no understanding of sect news and was completely a fringe figure.
The sect opened its mountain gate once a year, which was a big event within the sect—particularly important for their group of outer sect disciples.
Outer sect disciples were not allowed to leave the sect at will, and most of their time had to be spent in closed cultivation (or doing grunt work) within the sect.
Only during the once-a-year period when the mountain gate opened wide did the Refinement Demon Sect allow outer sect disciples to descend the mountain.
This time would last approximately one month, during which many outer sect disciples would take advantage of the opportunity to return to their hometowns to visit relatives, or simply to roam freely outside the mountain.
Of course, someone like Guan Xiaoshun, who was a top worker, would take the opportunity to sell various things he had accumulated throughout the year outside, exchange them for more silver coins, and miss no chance to make money or improve himself.
And it was also during the time the mountain gate was open that the Refinement Demon Sect would recruit most of its new disciples each year.
Li Muyang’s would-be little sister was probably going to arrive during these few days.
Upon hearing Guan Xiaoshun’s suggestion, Li Muyang hesitated for a moment.
The first thing he thought of was to take his high-quality Spirit Rice to sell outside.
High-quality Spirit Rice appearing in the outer sect market would be very conspicuous, but if taken to Yunxiao City outside the mountain, it would not be considered very rare.
The Yunxiao City outside the Refinement Demon Sect’s main grounds was the biggest city within the sect’s territory.
If the Refinement Demon Sect were considered a dynasty ruling over a region, then Yunxiao City would be its imperial capital.
Yunxiao City was bustling, and if Li Muyang took his high-quality Spirit Rice there to sell, he was certain to make a hefty profit.
But after some hesitation and consideration, Li Muyang still shook his head.
“No, I won’t be descending the mountain tomorrow, thank you Xiaoshun for going out of your way to tell me about this.”
“But I’ve spent all my savings on renting these two spirit fields and buying water buckets.”
Li Muyang smiled helplessly, “I won’t be going down this time.”
Although selling the high-quality Spirit Rice would certainly earn a big sum of money, Li Muyang currently did not have a strong need for silver coins.
Going to Yunxiao City to sell Spirit Rice might have low risk, but there was still risk—what if he attracted unwanted attention?
He had the system and an endless supply of Spirit Rice; his future prospects were limitless. There was absolutely no need to risk things for a small gain.
At the current stage of the fourth level in the Qi Refining realm, what was most important for him was to lie low and grow in stealth.
Reality was not a game; in a game, one could act recklessly and wildly, and simply reload if they failed.
In reality, one had only one life—without it, everything was lost.
Li Muyang decided to be cautious in his actions and not take any risks, so he came up with an excuse and refused Guan Xiaoshun’s invitation to travel together.
However, watching Guan Xiaoshun’s retreating figure, Li Muyang couldn’t help but feel moved.
This youth from the border city might be excessively diligent, but he was very down-to-earth.
Their friendship wasn’t deep, but the fact that he was willing to come all this way to inform him was already a gesture of camaraderie.
Unfortunately, Li Muyang was now only interested in clearing the game to quickly claim the rewards.
Five stages, five rewards! If he could obtain them all, Li Muyang might be able to reach Foundation Establishment by the end of the year!
After seeing off Guan Xiaoshun, Li Muyang locked his door, lay down on his hard wooden bed, and immediately closed his eyes.
“The Game with the Fairies,” activate!
Under the clear morning sunlight, the Stilted Building was surrounded by a faint presence of drifting dust.
The little girl, with a somewhat pale complexion and a slightly weak expression, looked up and revealed a friendly smile.
“Big brother…”
Li Muyang glanced at the affection meter in the upper right corner of his field of view.
[Little Wild Grass: 25]
Li Muyang had been immersed in the game for the past few days, but half a year had passed in the game, and the affection meter of Little Wild Grass remained unchanged.
This made Li Muyang start to doubt himself.
At first, a few words had easily increased the affection meter to 25, but now, with half a year gone in the game, and after spending so much time playing with the little girl, the meter hadn’t budged.
Was he going to have to wait for another crisis to increase the affection meter?
But half a year had passed in the game, and life in the stronghold was unsettlingly peaceful; no second crisis had arisen.
Apart from cooking meals for the little girl, playing with her, and teaching her to read and write, Jiang Xiaoyu’s character in the game had nothing else to do.
Taking the little girl to Mr. Wu to have her blood drawn every ten days was Jiang Xiaoyu’s character’s most important task.
Seeing the affection meter that refused to rise, Li Muyang tried to take the little girl away from the stronghold, wondering if leaving would trigger a new plot line.
But Little Wild Grass was unwilling to leave.
She felt that it was quite nice to stay in the stronghold; there was no guarantee they’d be able to escape if they left.
And things turned out just as she had said; no sooner had Li Muyang tried to escape with her from the stronghold, than they were caught by people from the stronghold within less than three days, and “Jiang Xiaoyu” was executed publicly…
After repeatedly loading from saved games and failing to escape from the stronghold several times, Li Muyang had to admit that Little Wild Grass was right.
They truly didn’t have the ability to leave the stronghold and could only continue their day-to-day living within it.
In the game, Jiang Xiaoyu and Little Wild Grass lived a carefree and happy life in the stronghold.
Li Muyang, too, could only carry on mechanically, making a few simple dialogue choices every day, watching the days in the game fly by quickly.
According to Li Muyang’s gamer intuition, the game had progressed to a stage where it would probably take some time.
Since it was a nurturing game, logically, the growth of affection and the affection meter would definitely take time.
Unless there was some sort of life-and-death situation that triggered the so-called “suspension bridge effect,” it was hard for one to build up a high level of affection in a short period of time.
So even though Little Wild Grass’s affection meter hadn’t moved, Li Muyang wasn’t worried.
After all, time in the game moved very quickly; a few days in reality was like half a year in the game.
Li Muyang comfortably stayed in this little house halfway up the hill, tending to his Spirit Rice field and gaming away, even when the gates of the Refinement Demon Sect were wide open and Outer Sect Disciples were descending the mountain in droves to revel, Li Muyang didn’t join in the fun.
He stayed alone on the mountain, distanced from the crowd, focused on developing his character, waiting for the moment he would soar to the skies.
However, on the fourth day after the gates of the Refinement Demon Sect opened, an unexpected visitor disrupted Li Muyang’s quiet domestic life.
“Bro! Why didn’t you come to pick me up?”
The girl, laden with large and small bags, appeared beside the Spirit Rice field on the mountainside, indignantly glaring at Li Muyang, who was “asleep” under the old tree by the field ridge.
As Li Muyang, engrossed in the game, heard the commotion outside, he immediately quit the game.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw a familiar, pouting face staring at him.
The twilight sun bathed the two of them in light, and as Li Muyang opened his eyes, he was momentarily stunned and couldn’t recognize who it was.
“Uh… who are you?”
Li Muyang asked the soul-searching question.