Chapter 23

Emerald Mountain spanned 300 miles. Clouds and mist surrounded its lofty peaks. It looked exactly like a fairyland!

Eight decades ago, a powerful cultivator had descended and established the prefecture of saints, named the Courtyard of Destiny, that ruled over one side of the mountain region. During the past 80 years, it had attracted countless people who were seeking to walk the path of saints.

The innate talent of all mortals was different. Those who were untalented had no hope of attaining sainthood, but yet were unwilling to depart.

Over time, many mortals gathered under Emerald Mountain, which brought about the establishment of two small towns.

Aside from the mortals who had no hope of achieving sainthood, the families of the disciples of the Courtyard of Destiny lived in these towns. Then, of course, due to the increasing number of disciples of the Courtyard of Destiny on Emerald Mountain, the towns attracted merchants who sought to make a profit.

And who gradually prospered…

…

“Emerald Mountain!”

“Courtyard of Destiny!”

“Snivel Town!”

Lu Qingfeng stood amid the crowded town of Snivel. He was feeling a little awkward.

This place was different from what he had imagined. It didn’t feel like Emery Town at all. On the contrary, it felt more like a town that belonged to mortals, somewhat similar to Miaoyin City where Lu Qingfeng lived in reality.

The only ones he could identify as players were the seven or eight guilds that were stationed in the central square.

“There are no Pill Refining Workshops, Tool Refining Workshops, or Rune Refining Workshops!”

“This place is way too unfriendly for beginners.”

Lu Qingfeng shook his head.

He walked around Snivel Town. The experience that he’d gained in his past life in Emery Town was completely useless to him here.

“The only sect close to Snivel Town is the Courtyard of Destiny. In their recruitment, however, there are many trials that one has to go through. With my innate talent, I bet I’d get eliminated in the very first round.”

“Looks like joining a guild is my only option.”

Lu Qingfeng thought all this over and went back to the central square.

On the square stood a total of eight flags that represented the eight guilds. Lu Qingfeng saw many people wandering around the square, wanting to join a guild. But after taking their assessments, they left in frustration, which obviously meant that they had failed.

“Looks like guilds aren’t for just anybody to join either.”

Lu Qingfeng walked around in the square and learned about the recruitment standards of each major guild.

After some thought, Lu Qingfeng decided to join a guild by the name of Singularity. In their introduction, the Singularity Guild mentioned that they had two top-level Pill Refining Apprentices and a Pill Refining Master. If he could join the guild, perhaps he could acquire guidance on the problems he had in Pill Refining.

“Hello, I would like to join Singularity.”

Lu Qingfeng stood in front of Singularity’s guild flag and spoke to the member in charge of recruitment.

Lu Hongwen glanced at Lu Qingfeng lazily. He was using the Celestial Eye Technique to inspect Lu Qingfeng’s cultivation stage.

After a glance, seeing that Lu Qingfeng had no cultivation base, he pointed to the obelisk and said, “Put your hand on that stone.”

The obelisk was about three feet tall and had ten calibration marks on it.

Lu Qingfeng did as he was told and placed his right hand on the obelisk.

The obelisk lit up faintly, barely filling half of the space before the first calibration mark.

“You’re unqualified!”

Lu Hongwen waved his hands at him.

It was difficult for anyone with a Level 1 in Innate Talent to achieve anything. The Courtyard of Destiny wouldn’t accept them, and neither were the major guilds willing to put in the effort to train them.

Lu Qingfeng retracted his hand, looked at Lu Hongwen, and said, “I know how to refine pills.”

“Oh?”

After Lu Hongwen had heard what he’d said, only then did he look at Lu Qingfeng seriously and say in a probing manner, “You’re from outside?”

As he spoke, he pointed to the skies.

“Outside?”

“He must be referring to the Human Federation.”

Lu Qingfeng nodded. Although he’d logged into “Primitive” from a different world, he could still be considered as a player. Saying that he was from outside wasn’t wrong.

“You should’ve told me earlier!”

Learning that Lu Qingfeng was also a player, Lu Hongwen suddenly became enthusiastic. He glanced at the obelisk and said, “But bro, your Innate Talent Level, tsk, tsk, tsk!”

“Hah, I know, it’s embarrassing.”

Lu Qingfeng knew that his innate talent was atrocious. Hence, he didn’t mind Lu Hongwen ridiculing him.

“My name is Lu Hongwen. I’m a few years older than you. You can just call me Luwey. What’s your name?” Lu Hongwen’s attitude toward players was completely different, which kind of surprised Lu Qingfeng.

“My name is Lu Qingfeng, Brother Luwey.”

Lu Qingfeng could tell that Lu Hongwen was an easygoing person who was happy to make friends.

“Qingfeng!”

“All right, fill out this form first.”

Lu Hongwen took a dark tablet from his storage bag and threw it to Lu Qingfeng. Lu Qingfeng took a peep and saw the word Singularity engraved on the front of the tablet. At its back were the carvings of a landscape.

After Lu Qingfeng took it, a screen like the Attribute Panel popped up in front of him. There was a form on it.

The information he had to fill in included his name, age, cultivation stage, innate talent level, specialties, and so on. There was nothing that involved his privacy.

Lu Qingfeng quickly filled it in and returned the tablet to Lu Hongwen.

In fact, this was also one of the tests.

This was a unique tablet. Only players could see the virtual form and fill in the tablet. If it happened to be aboriginals who were pretending to be players, as they wouldn’t be able to figure out what was happening, they could be discerned easily.

Seeing that there was no doubt about Lu Qingfeng’s identity as a player, Lu Hongwen became even more enthusiastic as he introduced his guild to Lu Qingfeng: “Singularity is among the eight major guilds in Snivel Town and the 19 guilds under the Courtyard of Destiny. Although our combat prowess isn’t the strongest, our overall strength is ranked in the top three.”

“Our guild leader, Mu Yuanyi, is not only a powerhouse in the Foundation Building Stage, but he is also a Pill Refining Master himself. He is the one who established Singularity.”

“Aside from him, we have another two top-level Pill Refining Apprentices in our guild. The guild leader is usually busy. If you have any questions regarding Pill Refining, you can ask the two apprentices.”

…

Lu Hongwen kept Lu Qingfeng busy, talking to him for quite some time. One could tell that being here in charge of recruiting new people had simply bored him to death.

But Lu Qingfeng wasn’t in a hurry either.

From Lu Hongwen, he’d gained a general impression of this world that he’d reincarnated into.

This world he was in was called the Luminous Spirit Realm.

It was said that tens of thousands of years ago, a great one from the upper realm had ventured past the Luminous Spirit Realm, which was still in its primitive state, and remained for a century to preach Dharma and the principium of Dao.

The way of the saints began to flourish in this realm, and more and more cultivators came into existence.

The taboo name of the great one was unknown. He only left his name, Bin Lin Kong [1], stating that he was a True Deity of the Celestial Court of the upper realm that overlooked the three mountains.

Hence, this realm was named the Luminous Spirit Realm.

The Luminous Spirit Ream was different from the Tenko Realm.

The Tenko Realm was the first realm developed by players of the Federation and existed for thousands of years. Many powerful cultivators in the Mahayana Stage had already been born in that world. Even the player and the aborigines have been integrated, leaving no distinction between them.

It had a more complete system, like having beginner towns such as Emery Town.

In “Primitive”, excluding the Four Great Continents, Four Seas, the nine layers of heaven above, and the nine layers of nether below, there were countless other worlds large and small. Although there were hundreds of billions of players from the federation, only a rare portion were ever placed in these worlds.

Most of the novice players entering “Primitive” would appear in a world with a complete set of rules like the Tenko Realm.

Only a few would appear in a world with few or no players.

For instance, the Luminous Spirit Realm.

The first player in the Luminous Spirit Realm arrived 70 years ago. At present, the realm’s total number of players was less than 3,000 and was ranked at No. 396884 in the “Primitive’s Ranking of Worlds”, which meant that the world was still in its pioneering phase.

The Luminous Spirit Realm was divided into two continents: east and west.

The place where Lu Qingfeng found himself was called Dongsheng Continent. To the east was the place where Bin Lin Kong descended to preach Dharma and the principium of Dao, called the Xianlin Continent.

Between the two continents, there was a riotous sea of stars splitting them apart.

On the Dongsheng Continent lay the three nations of Gan, Yue, and Jin. To the north was a massive glacier, while the west and south were completely barren lands. To the east, adjacent to the riotous sea of stars, was the realm of cultivation.

The Courtyard of Density and Snivel Town were located at the southern border of the Yue Nation, with the Gan Nation to the west.

******

[1] Bin Lin translates into Luminous Spirit.